WOW!!! For two straight years in a row, membership in unions has increased. This after over 25 years of steady declines. This is especially surprising given the heavy job losses sustained in 2008. Though the percentages of growth are small (.1% in 2007 and .3% in 2008), and an even smaller percentage of that growth is the result of newly organized workplaces, this is an important milestone as it is further evidence of the growing support for organized labor among the U.S. working class. Here is the AFL-CIO's press release... For Second Straight Year, Union Membership Increased in 2008, According to New Govt. Stats AFL-CIO President John Sweeney: "Shows American workers are choosing to join unions in larger numbers" (Washington, January 28) – Union membership in the United States increased by 428,000 to 16.1 million in 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The percentage of the workforce that has a union also increased from 12.1 percent to 12.4 percent l...

Over a thousand people gathered today in Downtown Chicago to protest the closing of 20 more schools under the ongoing REN2010 plan (a plan to privatize 10% of Chicago's public schools). Here are some photos from today's rally... http://s207.photobucket.com/albums/bb5/kronstadt2/Anti-REN2010%20Rally%20Jan%2009/

I am shedding a tear over the fact that the economic crisis is spoiling the neo-liberals party at Davos this year. I assume the "Rock Star" they are referring to is Bono, best friend of the World Bank and George Bush. The more important question is why, this year of all years, aren't there massive counter protests?... "A More Somber World Economic Forum At Davos"... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/28/AR2009012801416.html

I realize that I am posting this a bit late as hostilities in Gaza seem to have ceased (at least for the moment) but I just received this and thought it important to post, if for no other reason than to demonstrate the many ways in which UE represents the best of the U.S. labor movement... http://www.ueunion.org/ueactionupdates.html?news=451 UE General Executive Board Calls for End to Bloodshed in Gaza 16 January, 2009 Meeting in Pittsburgh January 15 and 16, UE’s General Executive Board adopted a statement condemning the current war in the Gaza Strip. The union’s national leadership body reiterated the position adopted by delegates to UE’s 70th Convention in 2007, which called for "replacing the lopsided pro-Israel policy of the U.S. with a good faith, even-handed effort to achieve lasting peace between Israel and Palestine based on full justice and mutual respect." The GEB called on the incoming Obama administration to move quickly to initiate such a new policy. Statement o...

On tonight's episode of Labor Express Radio I will air an interview I conducted with Bill Fletcher Jr., co-author (along with Fernando Gapasin) of the recently released book Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path toward Social Justice. I consider the book mandatory reading for any serious labor activist in the United States. It is an excellent campanion to last year's book by Kim Moody, U.S. Labor in Trouble and Transition , which I reviewed last year on Labor Express and here on pilsenprole. To order a copy from Amazon.com, click here... http://www.amazon.com/Solidarity-Divided-Crisis-Organized-Justice/dp/0520255259 For more on the book see the publisher's website... http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/11121.php Bill Fletcher Jr. is the former President of the TransAfrica Forum. He also served for a number of years in the mid to late 1990’s as the Education Director and Assistant to the President of the AFL-CIO. Fletcher is currently the Executive ...

The news from UE Local 1110 and Republic Windows and Doors just keeps getting better. It now looks like the union has helped find a buyer that will re-open the plant. I talked with Mark Meintster, UE International Rep. by phone yesterday about the situation. It looks like nothing will be confirmed till late next week, but as the information becomes available I will post it here. Here is the lastest UE press release... FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: California company ready to purchase assets of Republic Windows and put employees back to work Chicago, IL, January 14, 2009 - UE Local 1110 is pleased to announce that the leading company in the green window business, Sunnyvale, CA-based Serious Materials, is in the final stages of working out a purchase agreement of Republic Windows and Doors assets. Employees at the Goose Island factory staged a sit-in last month to win severance, health benefits and earned vacation pay. Though some details still need to be finalized, the union is told that ...

I helped write the following article for Against the Current on the Republic Windows & Doors occupation last month, shortly after writing the Labor Notes & Industrial Worker articles. It was published in the January edition and can be found online here... http://www.solidarity-us.org/node/2027 The tone is similar to the Industrial Worker article with an added emphasize on the role played by immigrant workers, member education and initial signs of the effect of the action on other workers.

Hooray, I am so glad to see this. I was really upset by the announcement of Obama’s selection of Sanjay Gupta as the next Surgeon General. My impression of Gupta from his reports on CNN is that he is somewhat hostile to the idea of single payer, non-profit, universal health care… http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/08/conyers-to-obama-do-not-n_n_156298.html http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/the-trouble-with-sanjay-gupta/

2008 turned out to be a year of crisis for working people in the United States and around the world. By the end of the year we found ourselves in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression – skyrocketing unemployment, foreclosed homes, lifetime savings wiped out, industries on the verge of collapse. But we have all heard by now the old adage that with crisis comes opportunity. We have witnessed the collapse of the reigning economic ideology of the last 30+ years, neo-liberalism and free market fundamentalism. In its wake, calls for radical economic and social transformation are entering the mainstream political discourse in this country for the first time in many decades. This crisis offers the labor movement the best opportunity it has had since the New Deal to make its case to the working people of the nation of the need for organization and a mass movement for economic justice. Here at Labor Express we have sought to examine in depth the financial crisis that erupte...