A proposed poultry inspection privatization plan isn't good for workers or consumers, advocates say. (USDAgov / Flickr / Creative Commons)   With Thanksgiving Day nearly upon us, government officials are moving forward with plans to privatize some poultry inspections at chicken and turkey slaughter plants in a manner that could compromise worker and consumer safety. The poultry privatization plan ...

Boeing has threatened to move the production of the 777X airliner, a hotly anticipated variant of the 777, out of Washington state. (Boeing Dreamscape / Wikimedia Commons)   For much of the last few years, Boeing has been soaring. In 2012, the aircraft-manufacturing corporation raked in $3.9 billion in net income; it’s projected to earn at least $4.2 billion this year. And thanks to the $95 billio...

The union representing 22,000 service workers across the University of California system went out on a one-day unfair labor practices strike this Wednesday, joined by 15,000 graduate student employees. The action was particularly notable because of its use of a rare sympathy strike and the sight of academic workers standing in solidarity with service workers, as I reported last week. Alongside the...

Communications Workers of America President Larry Cohen, pictured here at an October march for immigrant rights, has been fighting for filibuster reform for four years. ( CWA )   Since 2009, Communications Workers of America President Larry Cohen has been pushing to eliminate the filibuster in Congress. Earlier this year, Cohen’s union, CWA, worked with the Sierra Club, NAACP and Greenpeace to con...

'Though the government has plenty of measures in place to oversee corporate finances, Hira points out, there’s almost nothing being done to prevent employers’ questionable treatment of workers.'   (DennisM2/Flickr/Creative Commons) In 2005, Suraj Kamath began working for Bosch Engineering in India as an automotive engineer. In March of 2009, Bosch moved him to its test facility in Santa Barbara, C...

Migrants laboring in Qatar. Most are underpaid and face torture or abuse. (Photo by WBUR/ Flickr)   The big controversies surrounding Qatar as the site of the 2022 World Cup have been the shady bidding process and fears that the desert heat will ruin the soccer games. But in the past few days, the spotlight has finally begun to move to longstanding concerns over the treatment of the migrant worker...

A landscape in Odessa, TX transformed by hydraulic fracturing.   (ddimick/Flickr/Creative Commons) BALTIMORE—The continuing drama of organized labor's conflict with the environmental movement, especially notable in the controversy surrounding the Keystone XL pipeline project , is readying for another round as a coalition of green groups launches a campaign to stop the proposed construction of a Ma...

“We are on strike today to have respect and dignity at work,” says Walter Melendez, one of approximately 40 Los Angeles port truck drivers who walked off the job at 5a.m. morning in protest of alleged unfair labor practices. The strikes featured the rolling “ambulatory pickets” that the truckers have excelled at—chasing down trucks as they leave the port and setting up picket lines in front of the...

"We’ve got a lot of associates to make good solid, middle-class income,”  said  Wal-Mart Corporate CEO and President Bill Simon in a September 11 presentation at the Goldman Sachs Annual Global Retail Conference. Simon buttressed his argument with a slide from his  presentation  showing that in 2012, 475,000 associates earned more than $25,000. But  critics  were quick to point out the flip side o...

The Registered Nurse Response Network sends its first team to the Philippines on November 14 from San Francisco International Airport. (NNU / Flickr / Creative Commons)   When Typhoon Haiyan made landfall in the Philippines a week ago, the destruction was swift, total and unsparing—showing the disproportionate impact of disasters on poverty-stricken communities of the Global South. The internation...

A young child farm worker hard at work in a cotton field.(Louise Boyle / Flickr / Creative Commons)   Last year, the Obama administration ditched a proposal for new workplace safety rules that would have protected children from doing some of the most hazardous agricultural jobs. In an article for The Nation , Mariya Strauss reports on the child farmworkers who have died since that rule was abandon...

A photo of Matt Patterson from the Competitive Enterprise Institute website. Volkswagen donated to the right-wing group's gala in June. (Photo from Competitive Enterprise Institute)   Earlier this week, Working In These Times reported on a negative media blitz by anti-union consultant Matt Patterson aimed at countering a United Auto Workers (UAW) organizing drive at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga, Tenn....

Rachel Slocum was, until recently, not the kind of high-profile academic who typically turns up in news articles. As an assistant professor of geography at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, her solid career path of teaching and research on urban food systems had a progressive bent that did not stand out too much in the relatively liberal climate of the University of Wisconsin system. And then...

Blogger Joe Bertoni, a retired Fairfax County firefighter and member of the Fairfax County Professional Firefighters & Paramedics was honored by the International Association of Fire Fighters 2013 Media Awards. His blog post " Six Ways to Keep Active Retired Members Engaged " was awarded in the Best Blog Post category. Joe is a contributor to the IAFF Frontline Blog. The blog post provided gre...

Fairfax County Firefighters were on hand to support women battling cancer. The event was held at the proposed Athlete's Village for the 2015 World Police & Fire Games - the Reston Town Center.   Both firefighters and law enforcement officers joined the national Guardians of the Ribbon, Pink Heals Tour and the local chapter right here in Virginia. The Pink Heals is a national nonprofit wit...