Labor

COLUMBUS, Ohio—Coming on the heels of organizing victories in Cincinnati and Houston, some 1,200 janitors here, organizing with SEIU, won contracts with nine of the city’s largest employers last month.

NUEVA YORK — Una manifestación de mil hicieron sentir su apoyo a los escritores de televisión en huelga ya hace cuatro semanas. La manifestación del 27 de noviembre en el Parque Washington Square contó con la participación de miembros del Gremio de Escritores de América.

El presidente Nicolás Sarkozy creyó que era fácil implementar las políticas neoliberales en Francia. Pero no, el país está convulsionado. Primeramente fueron los universitarios que se oponen a la ley de Pecresse — por el nombre del ministro de Educación — y que mantiene en pie de lucha al estamento estudiantil. A última hora se han sumado al movimiento los estudiantes de bachillerato.

Organized labor is flexing its muscles, showing that it is tired of taking it on the chin. If the unions have their way, between now and Election Day 2008, even the ultra-right lock on the White House and Congress could be broken.

PARIS — During France’s powerful public workers’ strikes of November-December 1995, the political waters were somewhat muddy. On the one hand, President Jacques Chirac had based his recent election campaign on the theme of opposing “social fracture” and disharmony. On the other, newly appointed Prime Minister Alain Juppé had just launched a violent attack on welfare and on public workers’ pay and retirement benefits.

If your Oreo didn’t have the sugary white middle, wouldn’t you notice? If, over time, your car tire middles collapsed, you would notice. So why for so long has our country’s middle been allowed to disappear without notice or correction?

ASHTABULA, Ohio — Health Care for All was the topic at the Town Hall meeting here Nov. 10 at People’s Missionary Baptist Church. The meeting, endorsed by the NAACP and the Ashtabula AFL-CIO and Retiree Council, featured an impressive panel of public officials and community leaders who presented strong arguments for repairing our broken health care system

CLEVELAND — A spirited crowd of Working America, Jobs with Justice and local unions’ members picketed the federal building here Nov. 19 to protest a new raft of anti-labor decisions by the National Labor Relations Board.

PITTSBURGH — “The collapse of MSHA began when Bush appointed David Lauriski in 2001,” says mine safety expert Jack Spadaro. “That set in motion all the processes and disasters in coal mining making headlines now.”

NEW YORK — A thousand striking writers and their backers rallied in Washington Square Park here Nov. 27 to kick off the fourth week of a strike by the Writers Guild of America against an array of U.S. media conglomerates.