M a r k D i l l e y

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Link fest @ The labor blogging week that was | The Bellman, while I repost the content here:

"This week's featured post is from Future of the Union. The post I've chosen is just one of a number of important entries they've put up over the last week. I picked it because I've sometimes struggled to figure out what they were up to over there, and this post reads like a manifesto for their site.

Todd M. Jordan wrote:
Future of the Union started in August 2004 soon after the United Auto Workers leaders bargained for two-tier wages for the rank-n-file members. Its sole purpose is not just to educate and inform rank-n-file auto workers about their union activities, but a means to build real solidarity at the bottom. There are thousands of workers across the country represented by the UAW that would not normally have access to the resources and communication that Future of the Union provides. We are not simply just a resource and news center though. We are a movement for serious and immediate change in our union. We often expose and take a hard line stance on the decisions that our leadership make. |link|
Some other recent posts from the site:

* The Last Labor Stronghold
* Staggering Blow to the UAW
* Delphi Bankruptcy, a union without a levy
* Timeline of Delphi's decline

Elsewhere:

* First up, because I misfiled the link last week, is And your little dog too with a great post about the history of race baiting under capitalism.
* There's a growing unionization movement among religious workers around the world. Oread Daily has the details.
* Kevin Drum takes a sympathetic look at Thomas Geoghegan's argument that the U.S. has so many lawsuits partly because it has weak unions and inadequate corporate regulations.
* Bush's guest worker program catches the eye of Latina Lista, who has a better idea: Follow the blueprint provided by the AFL-CIO's Farm Labor Organizing Committee instead.
* Jordan Barab has the skinny on Harriet Miers' union busting past.
* At Unbossed, Shirah has some hard questions for the Change to Win coalition but isn't getting any answers.
* Tim Nesbitt, blogging for Oregon AFL-CIO, takes a more optimistic attitude and continues to look for common ground.
* Blogging from the future, Your Political Friend deconstructs the rationale for California's Prop 75.
* At House of Labor, Nathan Newman cites Joss Whedon's $50 million budget for Serenity to show 'why union labor beats out non-union labor in many cases.'
* The AFL-CIO has tried to recoup some of the dues lost through the split by raising the per caps paid by Central Labor Councils. Jonathan Tasini has his eye on the books.
* At NET-Workers, Misha takes a look at an attempt to unionize Wal-Mart in Korea.
* Parker, of These Imposible Days, reports that Wal-Mart workers are taking a different approach in Florida.
* Andy Stern spoke to a group of employees from San Jose State University on Friday night. Steve Sloan blogged it.
* Speaking of Andy Stern, he showed up at The Huffington Post this week to promote SEIU's Since Sliced Bread contest.
* And speaking of SEIU, Sutter Strikers Blog continues to provide picketting reports.
* There's a not very encouraging account of a new employee's first union meeting posted at Aghast from the Past.
* The recently ended CBC lockout is still getting a lot of attention. Rob Cottingham has a provocative post-mortem, writing that 'we may well recognize this as the very first Web 2.0 labour communications campaign.' More concretely and less enthusiastically, Eric Eggerston takes note of CBC's demand that strike-bloggers take down anti-CBC content now that the lockout has ended.
* Elsewhere in Canada, a massive teacher's strike began last week in British Columbia. Endsville Flask and Another Green World are the tip of the strike blogging iceberg.
* Back in the U.S., a significant teacher strike may have been averted in NYC. A tentative agreement has been reached between UFT and the city, but some teachers -- ably represented in the labor blogosphere by the likes of reality-based educator, Jane Young, and Random Ramblings -- don't think the proposed contract is up to snuff. Edwize, the semi-official blog of UFT, is making the case for ratification.
* Lastly, rollingearth.org is a new blog that Matt Noyes is using to write, publish, and revise a book: Popular Education for Union Democracy."