Opinion Pieces

Nelson Lichtenstein, "Class Unconsciousness: stop using 'middle class' to depict the labor movement"

George Orwell thought the precise and purposeful deployment of
our language was the key to the kind of politics we hoped to advance. By that
standard, virtually everyone—from the center to the left, from Barack Obama to
Richard Trumka to the activists of Occupy Wall Street—has made a hash of the
way we name the most crucial features of our society.

Read the full piece here.

Eileen Boris in an op-ed for the Sacramento Bee

Viewpoints: Ghost of Hiram Johnson is looking over Brown's shoulder

In 1913, California's Progressive and Republican governor, Hiram Johnson, cried out for "the necessity" of providing thousands of women workers "a living wage." With social reform at flood tide, Johnson signed one of the nation's first labor standards laws, establishing a state Industrial Welfare Commission with powers to investigate and establish proper working conditions for women and children.

Read the full article here.

Eileen Boris & Jennifer Klien in a New York Times op-ed

Fairness for Home Care Workers

NOT long after announcing his candidacy in 2007, Barack Obama spent a day working alongside Pauline Beck, a home health care aide in Oakland, Calif. Together, they cooked breakfast and lunch, cleaned house and did the laundry. Last December, the president mentioned his day with Ms. Beck when he proposed placing most home-care employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act, from which many of them have long been excluded.
Mr. Obama proposed revising a Labor Department rule so that it would give home attendants and aides the protections, like overtime pay, that most American workers take for granted. The department opened an extended comment period and received some 26,000 statements, two-thirds of them positive. It is now deliberating on a final rule.

With a work force of about 2.5 million, two-thirds of whom would be affected by the proposed rule, home health and personal care is the second-fastest-growing job category in the country, projected to double by 2018. As women, immigrants and service workers have become the new face of labor, what happens to home care matters for the shape of our economy, the fate of unionism and the establishment of a decent standard of living for all.
Read the full article here.

Nelson Lichtenstein in a Democratic Socialists of America op-ed

Can the Unions Survive? Can the Left Have a Voice?

President Obama will win this November. Despite levels of unemployment and anemic economic growth that would normally doom an incumbent, America's first African-American president is going to occupy the White House for another four years. And he will do so not because he fulfilled his most resonant campaign promise of 2008 – to end partisan gridlock and red/blue antagonism – but because that very polarization now works just enough in Obama's favor to keep him in office. Given the radicalism of the Republican Right, the intense political divisions have generated an electorate that is largely frozen in place, but with enough on the Obama side to enable the president to squeak home.

Read the full piece here.

Nelson Lichtenstein in an Los Angeles Times op-ed

The National, Non-Union, Conventions

Thousands of unionists are on their way to the Democratic National Convention that begins Tuesday in Charlotte, N.C. Of the 609 delegates from California, more than a third are labor people.
A Labor Day parade jump-starts the entire conclave, with out-of-state Democrats swelling the ranks of spectators and marchers alike. There will be dozens of union-delegate caucuses, pro-labor shout-outs from prominent politicians and adoption of a platform that endorses collective bargaining, both in the public sector as well as the private.
Read the full article here.

Alice O'Connor in a Salon Op-Ed

How to make Occupy catch on
Were history a guide to today's politics, progressives would be redoubling their efforts to turn the still-unraveling crisis of capitalism into an opportunity for system-changing reform. Certainly they would be doing everything within their power to combat the logic of austerity and entitlement-slashing that has crystalized into a new Washington "consensus," and instead to shape the debate around issues of employment, inequality, the erosion of the safety net, and the unprecedented concentrations of wealth and economic power that have survived the Great Recession intact. But they would also move to engage the debate at a deeper level: in terms of what a just, equitable and socially as well as financially productive economy looks like and what roles the state and the market should play in bringing it about.

Nelson Lichtenstein in a New York Times Op-Ed

Wal-Mart’s Authoritarian Culture

The Supreme Court decision to block a class-action sex-discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart was a huge setback for workers with consequences that range far beyond sex discrimination.

Nelson Lichtenstein on NPR

Labor's Image Problem

Pro-union forces are still turning out in Wisconsin, but is this a a classic labor dispute?

Listen to Lichtenstein's comments on the image and meaning of this important collective protest.

Eileen Boris

Bringing Rights for Domestic Workers Out of the Closet

Boris explores how household workers get the shaft -- and why they are fighting back.

Ezra Klein in the Wahinton Post

Read Klein's interview with Nelson Lichtenstein

Lichtenstein :"A governor like Walker is completely correct that it’s in his self-interest to ignore public opinion."

Nelson Lichtenstein

The Long History of Labor Bashing

Wisconsin state leader has leveraged the budget crisis to strike a body blow at the public-sector unions.

Is Wisconsin a Victory for Unions?

Wisconsin is moving ahead on bill stripping public unions of collective bargaining rights.

Why Everyone Needs Unions

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has proposed a bill to eliminate collective bargaining rights for state workers.

Why Unions Need Intellectuals

Today union leaders and intellectuals are more entangled than at any other time since the 1940s.

Obama's First Year: Why He Deserves a More Enthusiastic Endorsement from the Left

Obama is not finished, but the shelling from the opposition will continue to be intense and the liberal-left casualties

heavy.

Misunderstanding the Anti-Union Narrative

Labor-law reform is stalled in congress.

SEIU's Civil War

American workers need a labor movement grounded in social justice, not fractured, fighting unions.

Time for Another Reuther Plan

The crisis in the American auto industry marks a decisive turning point for the nation's manufacturing economy.

Lemon Socialism or Lemonade

The government and labor unions have control of Chrysler and GM.

Why Wal-Mart Workers Need the Employee Free Choice Act

Opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act reaches a fever pitch.

Chicago Factory Sit-in Fits Nation's Mood

Chicago sit-in echoes the one that built the UAW

Squaring Off Over Labor's Future
Andy Stern Has an Ambitious Plan; Not Everyone is On Board

A Little Knowledge
The Hollywood writers strike proves that the "knowledge workers" of the 21st century still have to fight old battles.
Taking unions out of the workplace
The AFL-CIO's unconventional strategy to make American labor politically powerful again.
Strike Out
The U.S. auto industry and a once great union are now absent without leave in the fight for fair wages and health care benefits
Cleaning Up in Aisle 1
The grocery workers may benefit from a political shift to support labor
Labor and the New Congress: A Strategy for Winning
Democrats in Congress need to rekindle the spirit of the Depression-era LaFollette Committee
The Roots of May Day
The 2006 immigrant marches reminds us of labor's glorious past and possible future