Right now, corporations can secretly hire firms designed to destroy union efforts. A proposed rule change would expose such anti-union expenses — the last thing the union busters themselves want.
Across the US, a more militant mood among workers is beginning to make itself felt. An uptick in private-sector strikes and record numbers of workers quitting their jobs are just two signs that the pandemic has changed workers’ willingness to accept a bad deal.
Last year the Teamsters and the UAW both won historic contract victories. Those wins were made possible by government anti-corruption efforts and, more importantly, by decades of organizing by members to make their unions more militant and democratic.
Mega-companies like Amazon and Walmart are already using large-scale central planning. We can wield that tool for good. Socialists need to renew our embrace of democratic planning and fight for a real alternative to capitalism.
The Los Angeles teachers strike showed that bottom-up organizing can overcome extraordinary odds. We can do the same throughout the health and education sectors — and at Amazon.
In recent upsurges of working-class organizing among teachers, nurses, Starbucks baristas, and Amazon workers, college-educated workers have played central roles. That won’t change anytime soon.
Recent socialist electoral campaigns have been essential to the rebirth of the US left. Now the Left needs to commit to rebuilding the labor movement from the bottom up. If we don’t, major reforms — not to mention socialism — will remain off the agenda.
Teamsters leader James Hoffa has ratified a UPS contract despite a member vote that rejected it. This sabotage is not only a catastrophe for UPS Teamsters — it is a gift to anti-union forces.
The Biden administration has proposed a desperately needed new heat standard to protect workers from scorching temperatures. Expect business groups to oppose it.
Even when they’re flush with cash, companies like UPS still attack workers’ standards. Workers have to force their bosses to back off.
With the victory of a coalition of reformers in the Teamsters, the union has enormous potential to organize Amazon, rebuild strength at shop floors throughout North America, and perhaps even go on strike against UPS.
The Fed has embarked on an anti-inflation policy designed to destroy jobs and keep wages low. But a new report shows just how exorbitantly CEOs are profiting from the price hikes.
Union approval is at historic highs, yet density keeps falling. The problem isn’t messaging but the lack of strategy that can turn popularity into power.
Without them, the factories would stop, the cities would empty, and civilization itself would collapse. An appreciation of sanitation workers — our whole lives depend on them.
The largest NLRB union election win in February was at the primary care group Optum Care, a subsidiary of UnitedHealthcare. The vertical integration of health care has brought frustrating consequences for health workers, who are now organizing in response.
Amazon, Meta, and OpenAI wield tremendous influence over our politics, but does this mean we are entering an era of technofeudalism? In a wide-ranging discussion, Evgeny Morozov and Cedric Durand ask how we ought to understand contemporary capitalism.
How much do black lives matter to America’s leading corporations? Not enough to put any real money on the table for their workers.
US labor union density is at historic lows, and multinational corporations seem more powerful than ever. But by organizing to take advantage of strategic vulnerabilities in supply chains, workers can still score major victories.
Director, musician, and organizer Boots Riley puts class struggle front and center in all his work. He spoke with Jacobin about this year’s entertainment industry strikes, Israel’s war on Gaza, and how to jam radical politics through the Hollywood pipeline.
The successful UAW strike was the latest sign that the union movement is having a moment. Amid so much gloom in the world, US labor has emerged as an unlikely bright spot with genuine dynamism.