Fresh audio product: the UPS–Teamster deal, Cold War liberalism
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): September 7, 2023 Sam Gindin, writer and activist on labor issues, on the shortcomings of the UPS–Teamster deal (original article here, follow-up here) • Samuel Moyn, author of Liberalism Against Itself, on how the Cold War crushed the tendency’s emancipatory side
Fresh audio product: Israel moves further right, Iran’s tripartite structure, Ontario labor upsurge
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): November 10, 2022 Joel Schalit on the return of Bibi Netanyahu in Israel, now in coalition with the religious right • Mohammad Salemy on the tripartite structure of the Islamic Republic of Iran • Megan Kinch, about a labor upsurge in Ontario
Striketober wasn’t
As marvelous as it would be to see a revival of labor militancy, people got a little ahead of things calling last month “Striketober.” According to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) stats, it was a blip by historical standards. Here’s a graph of the number of workers involved in strikes or lockouts (the BLS counts them together) since 2000. There were 57 months with higher numbers of workers off the job. At the high point of this graph, May 2018, there were over fourteen times as many workers on strike as there… Read More
Strikes plumb the depths
Although there have been plenty of reports of rising labor militancy in the US—teachers’ strikes, tech and delivery app organizing—it’s sadly not showing up in the strike data. In its annual release, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that there were just 7 major “work stoppages” (which include lockouts as well as strikes) in 2020, tied with 2017 for the second-lowest number since 1947, and beaten only by 2009’s 5. What strike action there was, says the BLS, was mainly against state and local government employers (5 of them), not private… Read More
Fresh audio product
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): January 7, 2021 Vijoo Krishnan on the Indian farmer strikes • Yannet Lathrop, author of this report, on state and local minimum wage increases • Alex Peterson on the Alphabet Workers Union
Fresh audio product
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): June 4, 2020 Alex Vitale, author of The End of Policing, on why cops are being so brutal and what should be done with them • Ben Tarnoff, co-founder of Logic magazine, on tech worker organizing (essay here)
Fresh audio product
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): April 2, 2020 Dania Rajendra of Athena on the walkouts at Amazon • Lauren Kaori Gurley on the walkouts at Whole Foods and Instacart • J.W. Mason on the World War II economic mobilization as a model for a Green New Deal
Fresh audio product
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): March 22, 2018 Jennifer Berkshire, host of Have You Heard?, on teachers’ strikes, WV and beyond • Stan Collender on fiscal follies in DC
Smaller strikes also in decline
Several readers responded to the recent post on strikes by asking if the BLS stats, which cover stoppages involving 1,000 or more workers, are missing smaller-scale actions. (And I should say that I’m being imprecise by calling all stoppages “strikes,” since the figures also include lockouts.) Alas, no. The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service publishes data on all work stoppages, regardless of the number of workers involved. The numbers from 1984 through 2016 are graphed below. Smaller strikes peaked at 1,142 in 1985, which looks big by recent standards. If the trajectory… Read More
Fresh audio product
Just posted to my radio archives: May 9, 2013 Corey Robin, political scientist at Brooklyn College and author of The Reactionary Mind, on how the right thinks (with additional discussion of this essay on Nietzsche, Hayek, etc.) May 2, 2013 Mark Blyth, author of Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea, on just that April 25, 2013 Alex Vitale on the militarization of police forces • Josh Eidelson on spreading worker actions against Walmart and fast food
Strike wave!
There are many ways to measure the death of organized labor as a social force in the U.S. Here’s what might be the most objective one: the virtual disappearance of labor’s ultimate weapon, the strike. The graph above shows the annual number of major strikes, as tallied by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (The front page for all their strike/lockout stats is here: Work Stoppages Home Page.) The figure for 2010 annualizes what we’ve experienced so far this year. The little uptick, from a total of 5 in 2009 to 20 in 2010,… Read More
LBO News from Doug Henwood 
Posted on January 19, 2009 by Doug Henwood
Radio commentary, December 11, 2008
How long a recession? Summers talks nonsense. A rebirth of worker militance?