Wayne State University Labor Studies Center People at Labor Day Parade

 
Tools &
Information
You Can Use

WSU Labor Studies Center staff greet students

Article of the Month

Taking Unions Out of the Workplace

The AFL-CIO established the new community affiliate, Working America, as a a way for millions of workers who are currently not in a union to be involved in the labor movement. As the 2008 elections approach Working America has become a signficant grassroots force. Read Nelson Lichtenstein's article here.

Archive of Past Articles

A Comeback for the UAW?

This Business Week insight piece argues that an aging workforce at U.S.-based Japanese plants and a resentful new generation in Detroit could bring the union roaring back to life. Download here.

Worker Solidarity Doesn’t Have to Stop at the Rio Grande

This New York Times editorial pointing to how building trans-border unions can redefine the imigration debate. Download here.

Hardly a Union Hotbed, Toyota’s Kentucky Plant Is a Test forOrganizers

This New York Times article explores recent U.S. worker unrest at Toyota. Download here.

The Poverty Business

Inside U.S. companies' audacious drive to extract more profits from the nation's working poor. Article from Business Week.

Global Union for Boeing Workers

Boeing Co. workers around the world now have a new and stronger voice to deal with the multinational aerospace giant with the formation last week of the Global Union Alliance. Click here for a pdf file of the article by Mike Hall.

Building Labor Power in the American South

The Building Regional Power Research Project's two new case studies show how the labor movement and its allies are building power in the anti-union South. Read about North Carolina and Atlanta at powerbuilding.wayne.edu.

The New War on Unions

A new outfit, The Center for Union Facts, had entered the anti-union business. Esther Kaplan looks at who these people are and why the right-wing is increasingly concerned with fighting unions. Download pdf file.

 

Finding a Place for Immigrant Workers in Today’s Labor Movement

On May Day, close to a million immigrants engaged in the largest political strike since the movement at the close of the 19th century for the eight-hour day. How can these workers become part of the labor movement? Janice Fine argues that the labor movement needs to embrace new forms of organization

Live Up to the Living Wage

This joint report between the center and the Sugar Law Center looks at the impact of the 16 living wage laws enacted in Michigan.

Paradigm Shift

David Moberg details labor's success by eschewing NLRB elections in favor of employer neutrality and card checks in this article from In These Times.

The Decline in African-American Representation in Unions and Auto Manufacturing, 1979-2004.

The sharp decline in the auto manufacturing sector in the last 20 years has hit African Americans particularly hard. By John Sschmitt and Ben Zipperer of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. www.cepr.net. Click here if the above link does not work.

Destroying Jobs in Order to Save Them

Wayne State Law Professor Ellen Dannen shows how the current drive for privatization makes no sense financially, but does hurt the public and unionized workers. Click on the above link to download a two-page pdf file.

For Blacks, A Dream in Decline

Just as the black community benefited especially by the union gains of the 1960s and 1970s, so have African Americans been particularly hard hit by union decline.

Hard Labour

Struggling under tough conditions Iraqi workers build a democratic trade union movement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    People raising hands in solidarity
Bottom bar Bottom bar Back to top of page