I’m at the beach, monitoring a bunch of 18-year old girls (including my daughter), with only intermittant internet access, so don’t have time to write a full piece this week. But I do have time to update some previous pieces. Setback For Mine Agency Nominee My first piece, three weeks ago, was a plea to [...]

A recent article in The Forward told an all-too-common story of immigrant workers in a meatpacking plant in Iowa: One of those workers — a woman who agreed to be identified by the pseudonym Juana — came to this rural corner of Iowa a year ago from Guatemala. Since then, she has worked 10-to-12-hour night [...]

An article in today’s New York Times about the Teamsters’ campaign to organize Federal Express describes a typical example of how difficult it is to organize a union these days: Not long after 21 of the 23 drivers in Northborough petitioned last fall for an election to join the Teamsters, FedEx dismissed five union supporters [...]

  (Jordan Barab is a blogger at Confined Space: News and Commentary on Workplace Safety, Labor and Politics. He is a former OSHA official and spent 18 years working for labor unions.  His column will run here regularly on Tuesdays at 6pm PT/9/m ET — JH)   It’s no secret to anyone with a ticking [...]