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Why some college athletes want to unionize

Feb 7, 2024
A regional director of the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that Dartmouth's men's basketball players are employees who can form a union.
Players on the Dartmouth Big Green basketball team filed a petition to unionize in the fall. Above, the Dartmouth Big Green basketball team in 2021.
Mitchell Layton/Getty Images

Will labor unions maintain their momentum in 2024?

Dec 28, 2023
Unions are more visible and vocal than they've been in decades. If the labor market remains tight, they'll have negotiating leverage.
A United Auto Workers union hall in Chicago. The UAW's coordinated work stoppages made headlines and produced results in 2023.
Scott Olson/Getty Images

How important is a "ratification vote" in union contracts?

Nov 13, 2023
Union members from the auto industry to Hollywood actors are currently taking the votes. They are more than a rubber-stamping process.
Picket signs for a United Auto Workers rally in October. The UAW is among major unions to reach tentative contracts with employers.
Scott Olson/Getty Images

In California, child care providers unionized for better pay and retirement benefits

Oct 31, 2023
California is one of 11 states that allows in-home child care providers to bargain collectively. This year, the union that represents 40,000 of these workers in that state won big in their fight for better pay and benefits. 
Patricia Moran plays with two children at her child care facility in San Jose on Oct. 2.
Beth LaBerge/KQED

More workers move to create unions — but that doesn't always mean more members

Oct 16, 2023
Petitioning for union representation is just the first step in forming a union, and not all efforts make it to the finish line.
The National Labor Relations Board has seen an uptick in petitions but is being strained by the larger workload, said the agency’s general counsel.
Jim Vondruska/Getty Images

Former Yellow drivers have trouble finding jobs in right-to-work Tennessee

Oct 3, 2023
Nashville's Yellow Freight — one of the only union shops in trucking — shut down operations in August, leaving 30,000 people without work.
In the months before Yellow’s closure, the company's relationship with the Teamsters union had already soured, a former Yellow driver says.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Autoworkers union pushes for 32 hour workweek

Aug 28, 2023
It may be a strategy to cope with the electric vehicle transition.
UAW President Shawn Fain speaks to members at an event in Warren, Michigan. The UAW's contract with the Big Three automakers is set to expire in just a few weeks.
Jeff Kowalski/AFP via Getty Images

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Why so many workers are going on strike these days

Jun 28, 2023
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show the number of workers who went on strike increased almost 50% last year, compared to 2021.
Above, striking Starbucks workers in November. Data show that the number of workers who went on strike increased by nearly 50% in 2022.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Film and TV choreographers are organizing their own union

May 31, 2023
They want the residuals and better working conditions other guilds have obtained for members.
Up until this spring, commercial choreographers — those working in film, television, music and on digital platforms — didn't have a union they could join.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Businesses that serve TV and film productions brace for effects of the writers strike

May 3, 2023
If it's anything like the last writers strike, it could halt production for 100 days.
Writers have been on strike for over twenty days. Streaming and AI big topics of contention between writers and major studios.
Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images