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British Petroleum Gulf Disaster

New Orleans This is not a public relations disaster for British Petroleum to try and manage from the Exxon Valdez playbook, but an environmental cataclysm of epic “worst-in-class” proportions that needs an immediate and stepped up response so that we do not have a Katrina II catastrophe sweeping not only Louisiana but [...]

The 1199 and California Factors

New Orleans I was intrigued by a bill in the Louisiana legislature to allow congregants to carry guns in church to “protect the children” proponents claimed, because I had not realized that we needed to be really worried about “church invasions,” but I found myself rereading several times a piece that Steve [...]

First Living Wage Victory in Canada

New Orleans After several campaigns almost yielded victories around Canada, ACORN Canada in British Columbia broke through in New Westminster with a stunning, unanimous vote to win the first living wage policy for any governmental jurisdiction in the country. Perhaps as remarkable was the adoption of a top tier wage and [...]

Preventing the ACORN Tragedy

Chicago First in a session with Kim Bobo and her talented staff at Interfaith Worker Justice and then with the great immigration rights organizers, Josh Hoyt and Lawrence Benito and some of their staff at Illinois Council of Immigrant and Refugee Rights, it was only a matter of time that we stopped [...]

Assault on Home Care Workers

Detroit There were several excellent discussions I enjoyed at the Labor Notes Conference that focused on the challenges and lessons learned in organizing home health and home day care workers. In Citizen Wealth and anywhere else I have argued that the one indisputable success in the last generation of labor organizing [...]

Arizona: Immigration Alamo or Selma?

Detroit Mark Brenner of Labor Notes hit the nail on the head in talking with me: they were doing great, he said, but the labor movement was doing terribly. The point is worth more thought and discussion, but it also made me think about other movements that are at [...]

Mary Kay Henry Surprise SEIU Leader

Detroit For a week I had been hearing that Mary Kay Henry, an old friend and currently one of several SEIU Executive Vice Presidents, was a dark horse candidate as the new SEIU International President to succeed the suddenly resigned Andy Stern. Certainly, Mary Kay would be [...]

Eviction Assistance Confusion

Columbus I thought I remembered the Neighborhood House from 30 years ago, but that was a couple of story, white building…must have been something else because now the operation presided over by Allen Huff for the last dozen years was huge with an auditorium, gymnasium, multiple buildings, and god knows what else, [...]

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