Jenna S. Alton, Illinois I am a tipped worker at a restaurant, so according to Illinois law I only have to be paid 60 percent of...
Governor Jerry Brown signed into law Thursday the “Governor’s Economic Development Initiative,” which radically overhauls California’s troubled Enterprise Zone program. The signing took place in San...
In my post last week, after the announcement that the employer mandate would not be enforced for a year, I wrote that it was vital that...
You’ve probably heard it from a colleague, or maybe from a friend or family member: “Kids these days… they’re just too ambivalent to care about labor...
Helicopters hover like hellish hogs of Armageddon: an infra-red shakedown. We are the enemy, the face on the radio; burnt petals cluttering the sidewalk. We are...
Tomorrow the fate of Chinatown residents and small businesses will be decided by the Superior Court. For the past 18 months, Chinatown residents and community activists...
Judy West is a founding member and current president of Local 741 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union (AFSCME). She also...
You get the basics in high school. The federal government is divided into three branches (executive, legislative, judicial). Locally you’ve got the mayor and the city...
An old friend I’m back in touch with thanks to Facebook loves to rail against Facebook — on Facebook. When our electronic bond progressed to a...
(Spoiler Alert: The last paragraph of this review of Timothy Sheard’s novel, A Bitter Pill, reveals plot endings.) When a business-oriented company takes over the management...
While a new labor contract is still being negotiated, SEIU 1021 and ATU 1555 have already won the 2013 BART strike. Prior to last week, both...
A basic economic principle is government ought to tax what we want to discourage, and not tax what we want to encourage. For example, if we...
I recently had the privilege of attending a banquet recognizing Walmart workers who have dedicated themselves to winning policy changes that affect the way they are...
(The following post originally appeared on the blog for Next City, “a non-profit media organization dedicated to connecting cities and informing the people who work to...
The upcoming Major League Baseball All-Star Game will be the first hosted by the New York Mets since 1964, reminding me that following the All-Star break...
Where will this century’s jobs come from? What can we do about youth unemployment and underemployment? How can today’s developed countries maintain their labor standards and...
While the 2013 BART [Bay Area Rapid Transit] strike involves current disputes over wages, pensions and worker safety, its roots go back decades. BART management and...
As the number of American public- and private-sector workers belonging to a labor union reached an all-time low this past year, many of us sat on...
The surprise announcement from the Obama administration that it will delay for one year penalizing employers that do not offer health coverage to their workers is...
The New York Times recently characterized the economic recovery that officially began in 2009 as a “golden era for corporate profits.” Indeed, corporate profits doubled between...