More than half a million workers in the US went on strike this year, winning gains not only for themselves but for nonunion workers too. While there’s much more work to be done, 2023 was a year when the working class punched back at the capitalist class.
While some US unions and many labor activists are calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, most union officials are keeping silent. They're forgetting the old labor adage: “an injury to one is an injury to all.”
Even as union density has declined, unions have spent little on organizing while amassing vast war chests. But the UAW and Workers United are showing that spending big on strikes and organizing pays off.
New York City is often thought of as a stronghold of organized labor. But the city’s unions look worryingly passive as their strength erodes.
Crunching the numbers on the class war.
When and where organized labor’s been on the move.
In the United States and Canada, we’ve seen an increase in labor militancy. This upsurge is a chance to inject working-class politics into the political arena, which has so far been mostly unresponsive to workers’ demands.
With its ongoing strike against the Big Three, the UAW is attempting to recapture the fighting spirit of its heroic early days. The union’s militant approach marks a sharp break with the recent past — and could spark more insurgency across the labor movement.
New numbers show that the number of strikes and the number of workers on strike both went up last year. Labor is still incredibly weak, but more workers walking off the job is a very good thing.
Labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein on why today’s union activists should look to the example of North Carolina black and white tobacco workers, who organized a union and went on strike in the teeth of the Jim Crow South.
A wage hike is desperately needed for the American working class, but higher wages can’t pay the bills if you want full-time hours and can’t get them. Legislation mandating a right to full-time work could fix this.
A new report confirms that insecure and precarious work is widespread across the economy. To respond meaningfully to the needs of workers, the labor movement must grapple with the harmful impacts of precarity.
Krystal Ball, Vivek Chibber, and Matt Karp discuss how class politics stalled after the Bernie Sanders campaigns — and why a new political opening is finally emerging.
The 1930s saw the biggest labor upsurge in US history. Just like today, there was economic discontent and a general pro-labor atmosphere. But labor didn’t just passively benefit. Instead, it saw its opportunity to act, building unions for the long haul.
Michigan’s repeal of its “right-to-work” law could be a huge boon to labor — not because of the technicalities of the law itself, but because the entire country is hearing the message that the state will not tolerate flagrant union busting.
Right-wing billionaire Richard DeVos, who died at ninety-two last week, tried to cover up his life’s record — pioneering the cruel pyramid scheme Amway, attacking organized labor, fighting LGBTQ equality — with philanthropy. But he should be remembered as a bigoted con artist.
The PRO Act contains some of the most significant changes to labor law in decades. But with genuine shortcomings, including no “card check,” the legislation should be seen as an important part of a broader suite of pro-labor reforms.
At a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and a Mercedes factory in Vance, Alabama, the United Auto Workers have filed for union elections. If the UAW wins, it would be a major victory against anti-union bulwarks.
As a longtime labor organizer, scholar, and writer, Jane McAlevey has repeatedly articulated how mass numbers of workers can organize, negotiate, strike, and change the world. In an extended interview with Jacobin, McAlevey reflects on her life and work.
Zohran Mamdani is now mayor of New York City, and the Left’s old ways of relating to elected officials won’t cut it. We need a “mass governance” approach.