With a U.S. dockworkers strike looming, a history of labor mobilizing in Liverpool

Jan 7, 2025
One of Britain's longest running industrial disputes took place in northwest England in the 1990s. What's it's legacy?
A strong sense of solidarity at the Port of Liverpool, pictured above, led to a yearslong walkout in 1995.
Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images

Why Dartmouth basketball players are dropping their unionization efforts

Jan 3, 2025
Dartmouth basketball players may have been hesitant to set a precedent under a Trump-controlled NLRB — one that may not be friendly to unionization attempts.
Scott Eisen/Getty Images

Why the union push at a San Bernardino, California Amazon hub is an especially big deal

Dec 13, 2024
More than 1,000 Amazon workers in San Bernardino say they've formed a union with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
Workers at an Amazon hub in San Bernardino, California, have demanded that Amazon agree to union contract bargaining dates by Sunday.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

After a judge paused the University of California strike, questions about "no strike" provisions remain

Jun 14, 2024
The UC system argues that the strikes violated the union contract's "no strike" provision. But workers may have the right to violate no strike agreements in certain cases.
Above, UAW-represented academic workers at UCLA strike on May 28. A judge has temporarily halted the strike.
Mario Tama/Getty Images

UAW to be put to the test this week in Alabama Mercedes-Benz union vote

May 13, 2024
Starting Monday, around 5,200 workers at a Mercedes-Benz assembly-and-battery complex near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, will begin voting on whether to join the UAW.
Above, people celebrate at a United Auto Workers vote watch party on April 19, in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images

Salvadoran janitors fight for better wages, supporting families here and abroad

Apr 22, 2024
Immigrants from El Salvador clustered in major cities often work demanding, low-paying jobs that are hard to fill — like janitors.
Nuria Gomez de Gonzalez from El Salvador marches in downtown Houston for better wages and hours for local janitors like her.
Elizabeth Trovall/Marketplace

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

For public good, not for profit.

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

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