Labor Abuse as Product Placement at the World Cup
The 2022 soccer World Cup began its takeover of global sports channels on November 20, transmitting endless images of cosmopolitan crowds enjoying the sparkling new stadiums of Qatar to audiences...
View ArticleGEO at UIUC 10 Months into Contract Negotiations
As I write this, the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) Local 6300 is 10 months into the contract negotiating process with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign administration. So far there...
View ArticleGraduate Employees Go Wild—For Unionization
Workers are on the move across America. Strikes rose by an astounding 50 percent between 2021 and 2022, and the pace of organization was equally impressive, with new fields of organizing opening in the...
View ArticleGrowing Up “Unlucky”: Putting a Human Face on Bureau of Labor Statistics
Numerous options for employment abound in our small metropolitan area nestled amid the farmland of eastern central Illinois. From warehouses to food establishments to car repair shops, job seekers have...
View ArticleFaculty and Staff Strike at Eastern Illinois University
Eastern Illinois University University Professionals of Illinois (EIU UPI, IFT Local 4100) members went on strike on April 6, after more than a year of fruitless bargaining, which forced faculty and...
View ArticleUIUC GEO Wins a Progressive Contract
Graduate workers across the US have been hard-hit by the skyrocketing inflation induced by federal mismanagement of monetary policy that is being felt by all too many working-class people. The...
View ArticleFor Whom the Bell Tolls
For whom does the bell toll? These days it tolls for our children, gunned down in our streets and schools because of gun violence. And as if this were not enough, there are the child laborers among us...
View ArticleWho is Un-American?
This article, commissioned for the Public i, appeared first in a longer version in Monthly Review on November 29, 2023, under the title “Gender, Labor, Democracy, and Americanism: U.S. History in the...
View ArticleThe Case for Reparations: Champaign County
According to the Descendants Truth and Reconciliation Foundation, Black people in America own 10 cents of wealth for every dollar a white person owns, have lower life expectancies and higher...
View ArticleCoalition of Labor Union Women for Champaign County
On the evening of March 27 more than 30 people representing about a dozen labor unions and community groups gathered at the Plumbers Local 149 Union Hall in Savoy to launch a chapter of the Coalition...
View ArticleIs the Strike Back?
This article has been adapted by the author from his talk at the Strike School event at the IMC on May 5. For almost two centuries the strike has been the characteristic and most important form of...
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