Fighting for CoLA: the Roar of the North vs. the Whimper of the South - Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Cyprus

In a recent article, we showcased how after years of negotiating and lukewarm general strikes, our social partners (state, employers, unions) in the south reached an agreement on the Cost of Living Adjustment (CoLA); a much-delayed compromise that leaves much to be desired, in an effort to restore a right that should have never been

The Disillusioned College Grads Turning to the Labor Movement

At workplaces from Starbucks to Apple, highly educated downwardly mobile young people are organizing for better conditions.

Amazon Will Be This Century’s Biggest Labor Battle

With its vast logistics empire deploying robotics, surveillance, and AI to block worker power at every turn, Amazon now sits atop the throne of American capitalism. Organizing it will define the future of the labor movement.

Peering into the docks: a conversation with the Wharfies Mural - Overland literary journal

People are deeply curious about the docks. The port is right there, the cranes are giant shapes looming, so often visible, stretches of landscape inviting reflection and curiosity. But the docks are also completely inaccessible. They are non-spaces really, to most people. Exclusion zones.

Lack of Democracy in United Farm Workers Gave Chavez Immunity

In 2011 Frank Bardacke published an 800-page history of the Farm Workers union: Trampling Out the Vintage: Cesar Chavez and the Two Souls of the United Farm Workers. It opened many eyes to the reasons the UFW became a shadow of its former self. Bardacke starts the book with an epigraph, a quote from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: “O what a fall was there, my countrymen! Then I, and you, and all of us fell down...” Bardacke was a farmworker in the fields of the Salinas Valley for six seasons in the 1970s.

Backroom Bargaining: Racketeering and Rebellion in New York City’s Labor Unions – New York Labor History Association