Aside from LUEL, other panel members included representatives from the museum itself, Public Rail Now (PRN), Sustainable Earth Council (SEC) and Movement for People’s Democracy (MPD). The event was also streamed live online, bringing the total number of participants both online and in person to about 20 people.

The event started off with a performance of a well-known gospel song “This Train,” then each panelist delivered a speech about the importance of nationalizing railroads from the perspective of their organization’s mission. Participants were able to ask questions and share their thoughts for the last segment.

Representing Public Rail Now was Adam Barrington, expressing how dire the conditions of railroads in the US are, from the implementation of the disastrous Precision Scheduled Railroading to the major decline in recruiting and retaining railroad workers. Adam also emphasized the necessity of rail workers taking the lead to properly handle freight and passenger lines and how crucial their role is in nationalizing the rail industry.

Other panelists showed solidarity with the cause and spoke on why their organization supports PRN. Movement for People’s Democracy is a coalition of various mass movements, including climate activists such as those from SEC or labor organizers such as members of LUEL. According to MPD representative Larry, “this is about more than just trains. This is about democracy,” where workers can have a safe, stable and well-paying job, and families can enjoy affordable, eco-friendly transportation.

Sustainable Earth Council speaker Shruti elaborated on how damaging the current rail system is to the environment due to train derailments which spill tons of toxic chemicals and general inefficiency of the freight lines. SEC advocates for a future where nationalizing the railroads will lead to safer working conditions and adequate staff to prevent derailments, as well as a reliable, efficient travel option for people all over the country.

Labor United Educational League showed their support to the rail workers, who receive no concessions from the rail companies in their contract and risk their health and safety on the job. LUEL speaker Tim mentioned it was the 80^th anniversary of the World Federation of Train Unions (WFTU), an organization dedicated to uniting workers all over the world, including rail workers. “It is time we went on the offensive. It is up to us today to learn from the past and to build a fighting coalition which can draw support from everyone who sees the utility in a railroad system that serves the American people,” according to Tim.

In summary, the event was quite a success and helped further cement these organizations in the cause for Public Rail Now. As the movement gains momentum, hopefully in the future events such as this one become common and heavily attended, further gaining followers and supporters for a Campaign for Public Rail Now.

Panel sobre Public Rail Now en el Museo del Trabajo

El pasado fin de semana, 4 de octubre, la Labor United Educational League (LUEL) organizó una mesa redonda en apoyo a la campaña “Public Rail Now”. El evento se celebró en el Museo Americano del Trabajo en Haledon, Nueva Jersey. Este sitio histórico fue el punto de encuentro de la Huelga de la Seda de Paterson de 1913.

Además de LUEL, otros panelistas incluyeron representantes del propio museo, de Public Rail Now (PRN), del Consejo de la Tierra Sostenible (SEC) y del Movimiento por la Democracia Popular (MPD). El evento también se transmitió en vivo en línea, lo que elevó el número total de participantes, tanto en línea como presencialmente, a aproximadamente 20 personas.

El evento comenzó con la interpretación de la conocida canción gospel “This Train” (Este Tren), y luego cada panelista pronunció un discurso sobre la importancia de nacionalizar los ferrocarriles desde la perspectiva de la misión de su organización. Los participantes pudieron hacer preguntas y compartir sus ideas para el último segmento.

En representación de Public Rail Now, Adam Barrington expresó la grave situación de los ferrocarriles en Estados Unidos, desde la implementación del desastroso sistema ferroviario de precisión (Precision Scheduled Railroading) hasta la drástica disminución en la contratación y retención de trabajadores ferroviarios. Adam también enfatizó la necesidad de que los trabajadores ferroviarios tomen la iniciativa para gestionar adecuadamente las líneas de carga y pasajeros, y la crucial importancia de su papel en la nacionalización de la industria ferroviaria.

Otros panelistas se solidarizaron con la causa y explicaron por qué su organización apoya a PRN. El Movimiento por la Democracia Popular es una coalición de diversos movimientos de masas, incluyendo activistas climáticos como los de la SEC o organizadores sindicales como los miembros de LUEL. Según Larry, representante del MPD, “esto va más allá de los trenes. Se trata de democracia”, donde los trabajadores puedan tener un trabajo seguro, estable y bien remunerado, y sus familias puedan disfrutar de un transporte asequible y ecológico.

Shruti, portavoz del Consejo de la Tierra Sostenible, explicó los daños que el sistema ferroviario actual causa al medio ambiente debido a los descarrilamientos de trenes, que derraman toneladas de sustancias químicas tóxicas, y a la ineficiencia general de las líneas de carga. La SEC aboga por un futuro donde la nacionalización de los ferrocarriles genere condiciones laborales más seguras y personal suficiente para prevenir descarrilamientos, así como una opción de transporte confiable y eficiente para personas de todo el país.

La Liga Educativa Unida del Trabajo (LUEL) mostró su apoyo a los trabajadores ferroviarios, quienes no reciben ninguna concesión de las compañías ferroviarias en su contrato y arriesgan su salud y seguridad en el trabajo. El orador de LUEL, Tim, mencionó que era el 80.º aniversario de la Federación Mundial de Sindicatos Ferroviarios (FSM), una organización dedicada a unir a los trabajadores de todo el mundo, incluidos los ferroviarios. “Es hora de pasar a la ofensiva. Nos corresponde hoy aprender del pasado y construir una coalición de lucha que pueda obtener el apoyo de todos los que ven la utilidad de un sistema ferroviario que sirve al pueblo estadounidense”, según Tim.

En resumen, el evento fue todo un éxito y ayudó a consolidar aún más la causa de estas organizaciones por el Public Rail Now. A medida que el movimiento gane impulso, esperamos que en el futuro eventos como este se vuelvan comunes y con gran asistencia, ganando más seguidores y simpatizantes para la Campaña por el Public Rail Now.

The post Public Rail Now Panel Held at Labor Museum first appeared on Labor Today.

Labor, and in particular, a class-oriented trade union movement, has a crucial role to play within this Anti-Monopoly Coalition. Labor is to be the heart of this coalition. While the coalition is to unify all progressive and democratic forces (such as workers, students, urban professionals, farmers, small-business owners, etc.), the working class is the force that has the power, if leveraged correctly, to bring the economy to a halt until its demands are met. The workers control the production, the shipment, and even the commerce of goods. The bosses and monopolies that dictate policies to society are the ones who rely on the working class the most.

For labor to play the leading role in the Anti-Monopoly Coalition, it first has to work tirelessly to bring unity to the trade union movement. Concretely, this effort will have the following immediate goals:

1. Ending any prejudices within the unions, such as racism, sexism, and anti-immigrant sentiments, breaks up solidarity and even prevents entry to the organized labor movement by key sections of labor.
2. Organizing the unorganized to bring unity between unionized and non-unionized labor.
3. Pushing for a nationwide right to organize and against any attempts at systematic opening of shops, such as so-called “right to work” laws.
4. Amalgamating small craft unions into unions on industrial lines.
5. Pushing to overturn laws, such as the Taft-Hartley Act, which restrict solidarity strikes.
6. Forming caucuses within unions that struggle for trade union democracy, as the Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) is working on.

As the Anti-Monopoly Coalition emerges, organized and militant labor must be ready to take leadership. To ensure success, labor has to work on the above goals. In working on these goals, militant labor leaders will inevitably clash with the bosses’ agents and reactionary trade union leaders within the unions that obstruct the independent political action of labor.

To learn more, join the Harry Bridges School of Labor class on July 2, 2025, called Labor and the Anti-Monopoly Coalition.

The post Labor Must Take the Lead in Building an Anti-Monopoly Coalition first appeared on Labor Today.

President Trump launched an unprovoked bombing attack on Iran this past weekend in violation of the U.S. constitution, which requires acts of war to be authorized by Congress unless there is a threat of imminent attack, which nobody has even pretended was the case. This is not only a further undermining of democracy in our country, it also is built on a set of lies for political and financial gain, just like the disastrous Iraq war 23 years ago, and will only serve to make the world, and the people of the U.S., both less safe and less economically secure.

The president ran for office pledging that he was the right person to keep the U.S. out of further military entanglements overseas, and there is strong support by the American people for that position. But faced with declining poll numbers, a trap laid by the Israeli government, and a willingness to pad the profits of both oil companies and the military industrial complex, Trump fell into the same pattern as president after president of both parties: start a shooting war and hope that the populace falls in behind you.

As rank-and-file delegates to the 78th UE Convention in 2023 declared, “The U.S. military budget — at over $877 billion, larger than those of the next ten nations combined — continues to soar out of control with bipartisan support. Threats or use of military force are still a regular feature of U.S. foreign policy, under presidents of both major parties. All of this is done at the expense of the needs of working people in the U.S. and throughout the world.” The only thing that has changed since that statement is that the upcoming military budget is expected to top $1 trillion for the first time.

The lie that was used to justify the mobilization of the U.S. military is that Iran was within weeks or months of building a nuclear weapon. That line has been trotted out by Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly over the last 20 years, every time that he wants to justify dragging the U.S. into conflict there. Yet even the U.S. intelligence forces said that Iran was not working on constructing a nuclear weapon, and we had a deal a decade ago ensuring that they could not build one. But the first Trump administration tore up that deal in subservience to the Netanyahu government and in order to parade as tough on the world stage. 

Trump had actually returned to the bargaining table with Iran in recent weeks and announced that a new deal was very close. It was at that moment that Israel started bombing Iran – arguably not because Iran wouldn’t negotiate but instead because it looked like a deal would be achieved. It is an open secret that Netanyahu is trying to maintain a constant state of war for his country so that his current stint in office, extended indefinitely due to the war footing, doesn’t end and with it his protection from likely jail time on a massive corruption case. He has already pulverized Gaza back to the stone ages, bombed Lebanon into submission, and occupied parts of Syria – he’s happy to have a new target, especially one that drags the U.S. into the conflict. So once the Israeli bombing campaign was well underway, he announced that only the U.S. could finish the job, with our more-powerful ordinance. Trump had a choice to make, tell Israel to cease and desist, especially given that Israel relies heavily on U.S. financing and arms, or throw the U.S. into yet another intractable conflict in the Mideast putting our people into harm’s way for someone else’s fight, a fight with no shining knights on any side. Trump made the wrong choice.

And what does this leave us with? Iran, to save face at home and abroad, felt no choice but to retaliate. While it may be contained at this point, we will all live on a knife’s edge as we see whether we end up with either open or covert warfare spinning out of control. Forty thousand U.S. troops on the ground in the Mideast are put at risk. If we and the Israelis have been actually bombing sites loaded with nuclear material, we have risked dispersing it into the atmosphere, potentially poisoning people throughout the planet, as occurred during open air nuclear testing in the 1950’s. And the message we are sending to countries is not to avoid building nuclear weapons, but instead to do it quickly since it is only nuclear-armed nations that seem to be safe from possible U.S. attack.

We also face the likelihood of increased gas prices as the conflict potentially chokes off a sizable chunk of the world oil supply. Trump’s friends in the oil industry will laugh all the way to the bank as they benefit from the higher gas prices just as his military contractor friends will benefit from the demand for more weapons and ammunition.

To top it all off, Trump is now openly floating the idea of supporting regime change in Iran, the exact policy he correctly attacked previous administrations for getting embroiled in next door in Iraq, and one certain to be just as much a quagmire, if not more so, than that one, which cost the U.S. the lives of over 4000 service people and several trillion dollars in taxpayer money. And opening up the subject just hardens the position of Iran’s leaders, figuring that their days are numbered unless they fight and win.

Lastly, the lack of political leadership from both parties is shameful. Only a small number of Democrats and very few Republicans spoke out against U.S. intervention in the run up to the bombing campaign, preferring to acquiesce to the Israeli and military industry lobbying machines. And there is nowhere near the majority needed in Congress to seize control of war-making out of the hands of the presidency and back into the control of Congress where it belongs. The founders of the U.S. knew well that going to war is too important a decision to leave in the hands of one person. It must require the consent of the 535 members of Congress, each one of whom has to go home to their constituencies and tell them why they are sending their sons and daughters into harm’s way.

No more war in the Mideast. Congress must act.

Carl Rosen
General President

Andrew Dinkelaker
Secretary-Treasurer

Mark Meinster
Director of Organization

The post UE: No More Mideast Wars first appeared on Labor Today.

President Trump signaled his hostility to workers’ rights within his first weeks of office, taking the unprecedented step of firing a sitting member of the National Labor Relations Board, Gwynne Wilcox. This left the board without a quorum, and therefore unable to issue decisions. The UE NEWS pointed out at the time that this means that “Employers who break the law, or who simply refuse to bargain with their unions, will now be able to appeal any decisions against them to a board that cannot make a ruling.” (Wilcox sued, arguing that under long-established legal precedent, the President does not have the authority to remove employees at independent agencies like the NLRB. While two lower courts ruled in her favor, her case is currently at the Supreme Court, where the Trump-appointed anti-worker majority is likely to rule against her.)

This was just a taste of things to come. In March, Trump issued an executive order which effectively shut down the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, and later that month began issuing executive orders which seek to cancel collective bargaining agreements covering over one million federal workers. Although justified with reference to “national security,” the executive orders target workers across the federal government, in agencies as disparate as Veterans Affairs, the Treasury and Energy Departments, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Health and Human Services.

The executive orders seek to not only overturn existing union contracts, but strip workers’ right to be represented by a union at all. They also instruct government agencies to stop deducting union dues from members’ paychecks. Since Trump was inaugurated, the largest federal government workers’ union, the American Federation of Government Employees, had seen its membership surge by tens of thousands of members — but was then decimated by the repeal of payroll deduction, much as anti-union legislation passed in Iowa in 2017 led to a severe loss of membership for UE’s public-sector locals there.

On April 3, an anti-union trade association asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to “invalidate fifteen NLRB cases that were decided during the Biden administration.” As analyst Matt Bruenig wrote at NLRB Edge:

This sort of thing has never happened before. The NLRB is an independent agency and the AG has no statutory role in how it operates. Such a move by the AG would be illegal under prevailing understandings of administrative law, but of course Trump and the conservative legal movement are seeking to have the Supreme Court invalidate a large swath of administrative law on the theory that it unconstitutionally restricts the power of the president.

An even more disturbing and bizarre attack on the ability of the NLRB to protect workers’ rights was revealed in mid-April when a whistleblower from the NLRB’s information technology department revealed to Congress and NPR that operatives from the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), likely removed around 10 gigabytes of sensitive information from the Board’s case management system.

In addition to obvious concerns about the breach of privacy (NLRB case data includes sensitive personal information such as Social Security numbers and home addresses, as well as proprietary corporate information), if employers got ahold of this data, it would make it easier for them to fire — and blacklist — active union members.

Of particular concern is that DOGE was at the time headed by billionaire Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX has been the subject of NLRB complaints filed by its workers, and who has shown himself to be rabidly anti-union.

Wreaking Havoc on the Federal Government

Beyond stealing sensitive data from the NLRB, DOGE has been wreaking havoc on the federal government’s ability to serve the American people. Through a combination of DOGE activities and executive orders, Musk and Trump have cut or threatened to cut federal funding to services and programs from healthcare and education to scientific research and environmental protection. They have also carried out mass firings of federal workers who do everything from administering Social Security to taking care of veterans, and have announced plans to privatize the postal service.

While some of these cuts and firings have been stopped, at least temporarily, by the courts, they have created widespread uncertainty, including among tens of thousands of UE members who depend on federal funding for their jobs in higher education, scientific research, and social services. Cuts to federal agencies and federally-funded programs hit the working class with a one-two punch: direct job loss as workers are laid off, and loss of the services that working people — and especially the unemployed — depend on.

While DOGE’s activities have created widespread chaos, they have done little to achieve their stated aim of cutting government spending. Musk claimed he would cut $1 trillion; according to a study by PolitiFact, DOGE’s “wall of receipts” amounted to savings of only $8.6 billion — less than one percent of its stated goals. And federal spending continues to rise, with total federal spending amounting to $594 billion in April 2025 — $27 billion more than the same time last year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

In late May, the House of Representatives passed a budget reconciliation bill by one vote. The “big, beautiful bill,” as Trump has styled it, makes clear what Trump’s and the Republicans’ priorities are — cutting services to the American people in order to pay for tax cuts for themselves and their rich friends. Alongside cuts to Medicaid, education, and other services, the bill also includes massive increases to the military budget, to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and to military aid to Israel, to assist with their brutal assault on the Palestinian people.

Attacks on Free Speech and Due Process

Trump, Musk and the Republicans realize that their program of taking from the working class to give to the rich and the military is unpopular with the American people, and so they are also launching attacks on the right to protest and organize.

The Trump administration has been detaining and deporting immigrants who are in the country legally without a shred of due process. The right to due process, which is guaranteed to all persons by the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, is like the right to just cause in union contracts. It means that the government cannot “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property” without providing evidence and a fair hearing.

The administration is especially targeting international students and workers who have questioned U.S. support for Israel. (See the statement from the UE officers, “Attacks on Campus Protest a Grave Threat to Civil Liberties and Worker Rights.”) On March 25, six masked officers abducted Rümeysa Öztürk, a graduate student, university worker and union member, off the streets near her home in Massachusetts. The only justification offered for her imprisonment — which lasted until a federal judge freed her in May — was the fact that she signed an op-ed in the local newspaper.

Perhaps even more frightening, the administration has deported over 200 Venezuelans to a brutal prison in El Salvador which can only be described as a concentration camp. One of those imprisoned there — until he was returned to the U.S. in early June — was Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a member of the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers union. While the administration has claimed that Abrego Garcia and other deportees are members of a violent Venezuelan gang, they have produced no real evidence to back up their claims.

Efforts to deport critics of the government, and union organizers, are not new. In the 1950s, the federal government tried to deport UE’s founding Director of Organization, James Matles, an effort that was only stopped by the Supreme Court, after agitation and mobilization by UE members and allies.

UE Locals Fight Back

UE locals have fought back. Beginning in February, UE’s higher education locals joined rallies and other actions demanding that Congress reverse the DOGE cuts to funding for scientific research. Speaking at a national press conference in Washington, DC organized by Labor for Higher Education on February 25, UE General President Carl Rosen said, “Cuts to research funding are a direct theft from working people for the benefit of the billionaires who are now running the federal government.

“It’s a theft from working people because thousands and thousands will lose their jobs. But it is also stealing a better future from all working people. A future where the research of today results in health care breakthroughs that can cure the illnesses that so many Americans are afflicted with. A future where the research of today can fix the poisoned environment that so many of us are forced to live in. A future where the research of today can help address mental health issues, drug abuse, and other problems that end lives too early in this country.”

UE locals have also joined actions denouncing the administration’s attacks on immigrants and demanding that their employers take action to protect workers. When Öztürk was abducted in March, Local 256 (MIT-GSU) mobilized their members to join an emergency rally denouncing the abduction and demanding her freedom. Later that month, after a member of Local 1105 (GLU-UMN) was detained, delegates to the Western Region council meeting held an emergency rally at the federal building in Minneapolis, and on March 31 Local 1105 co-organized a rally with AFSCME Local 3800 “to speak out against the university administration’s inaction in the face of a broad range of threats from the federal government against workers, students, and faculty.” 

In mid-April, UE’s new Graduate Worker Conference Board issued a statement urging colleges and universities to form a “Mutual Academic Defense Compact” to respond to the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on higher education. The locals also urged higher education institutions to establish a common fund to support international workers, who are particularly vulnerable to attacks by the Trump administration.

UE locals and members have also joined national days of action, including rallies against the dismantling of the postal service in March, “Hands Off!” rallies against cuts to federal services on April 5, and May Day mobilizations. Meeting at the end of May, UE’s General Executive Board endorsed the “No Kings” mobilizations scheduled for June 14, and as the UE NEWS goes to press, UE members and locals were making plans to join the more than 1,400 events planned across the country.

The post UE Locals Resist Trump Administration Attacks on Union Rights, Higher Ed, and Freedom of Speech first appeared on Labor Today.

The Trump administration’s decision to mobilize and deploy 4,000 members of the National Guard and 700 Marines to Los Angeles is disturbing and absolutely unjustified. It is an attempt to stifle dissent through military force — something which has no place in a democracy — and a signal that if we wish to preserve our democratic freedoms, working people will have to be prepared to defend them through action in the streets, in our workplaces, and at the ballot box. Furthermore, it is clear that the administration is seeking to create physical conflict during immigration raids in order to justify a military response.

Protests against raids by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), including the mass protests in Los Angeles over the past several days, have been overwhelmingly peaceful, especially considering the deliberatively provocative behavior of ICE agents. At a protest in Chicago last week, according to an eyewitness, “When [federal law enforcement] came on the scene, they gave no orders. They didn’t ask anybody to disperse. They didn’t give any instructions. They just immediately began using their batons to push.”

According to the lawsuit filed by the State of California against Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hesgeth, ICE agents in Los Angeles “engaged in military-style operations” which included “sealing off entire streets around targeted buildings and using unmarked armored vehicles equipped with paramilitary gear.” The Los Angeles Police Department was also deliberately provocative, showing up to the peaceful protests in riot gear and paramilitary equipment, shooting journalists with rubber bullets, and arresting David Huerta, the president of SEIU California.

The recent ICE raids in Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere have targeted workplaces, reinforcing the reality that although Trump tries to portray all immigrants as criminals and terrorists, the overwhelming majority are workers. As our union and the rest of the labor movement have learned over the past half-century, the real purpose of immigration enforcement is to maintain a permanent underclass of workers afraid to stand up for their rights — which drags down wages and working conditions for all workers.

Deliberately provoking violence and then using the response to justify massive military crackdowns on civilian protest is one of the ways that democracies slide into authoritarianism. We know from the experience of other countries where the working class has defeated authoritarian governments that the labor movement, with our power to stop work, has an important role to play alongside mass mobilizations in the streets. If we prize our liberties and wish to maintain our rights, the labor movement and working people more broadly must denounce the unconscionable use of the U.S. military against our own people and prepare to engage in widespread nonviolent resistance if it continues.

Carl Rosen
General President

Andrew Dinkelaker
Secretary-Treasurer

Mark Meinster
Director of Organization

By UE Officers | Photo Courtesy of ueunion.org | UE News Reuse Policy

The post UE: Military Response to Immigration Protests a Step Towards Authoritarianism first appeared on Labor Today.

We are inspired by the courage of the people of Los Angeles and join in their call for Brother Huerta’s release, and the release of all those who have been persecuted in the Trump Administration’s vicious and hateful raids.

Make no mistake – Brother Huerta’s arrest and the ongoing violence directed at our immigrant communities constitute an attack on the entire working class. We must stand together and fight for our sisters and brothers who are being harassed, arrested, detained, and deported. An injury to one is an injury to all.

In Solidarity,
Public Rail Now

The post Public Rail Now Condemns the Arrest of David Huerta and Stands in Solidarity with Immigrant Communities first appeared on Labor Today.

Every league structures their cap differently, but the logic is effectively the same: limit total spending on players, then penalize teams who go “over the cap.” What this creates is a hard ceiling on labor costs while revenue and team valuations soar. Billionaire owners protect their profit margins, while players compete for a shrinking slice of the pie.

But it’s not just “stars vs. the fringe.” The biggest victims of this system are the middle-tier veterans. The players good enough to contribute to a team, but not great enough for max contracts. In a salary cap world, it becomes more cost-effective for teams and the savviest General Managers to cut aging veterans and replace them with younger players on cheap rookie deals. This is most obvious in the NFL, where rookie contracts are essential to cap management. A good quarterback making $1 million a year on his rookie deal is huge bargain for teams. A solid linebacker entering his first open market negotiations? A “cap liability.”

Fans tend to call it “Salary Cap gymnastics” when their teams GM’s start cutting or trading players, restructuring contracts, and bringing in rookies to replace players who are coming up on their first big payday. This is what leads to major roster turnover to the point fans aren’t connected to players the same way they used to be able to develop relationships for years with whole teams. because of managements crude negotiations tactics players have to often fend for themselves and use any means to secure their living which often leads fans to blame players for giving up on the team when in reality it’s the management turning everything into a labor battleground.

These middle strata of players form the backbone of team culture, locker room cohesion, and union membership, but under this systems logic of efficiency, they become expendable labor. Their logic is clear: use the cap to pit the young against the old, the stars against the rest, and keep the workforce fragmented and replaceable. So next time you hear that “teams need the cap to compete,” ask: compete for what? Not championships. It’s a competition to control labor, and the ones losing the most are the rank and file and the fans.

The post The Illusion of “Parity”: How the Salary Cap and Luxury Tax Hurt Veteran Players first appeared on Labor Today.

Thankfully, there were no fatal crashes in these incidents, but it is a matter of life-safety and a matter of time before an accident occurs. Airplanes rely on air traffic control for coordination in takeoff and landing as well as flight tracking. These incidents highlight the challenge for air traffic controllers to do their jobs and safely coordinate air traffic.

Several issues are at the root cause of the outages. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) has warned for decades that equipment in air traffic control towers is out-of-date and in many cases obsolete and not manufactured anymore. Infrastructure in the nation’s airports is outdated with some projections of modernization costing upwards of 18 billion USD. The need to rebuild and modernize air traffic systems was also echoed by Sara Nelson, the President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) in a statement issued on May 2, 2025.

Air Traffic Control Towers are also chronically understaffed and the workers that are there usually work long hours in order to ensure coverage. The recent outages though have seen workers either leave the job or go on trauma leave which has exacerbated the working conditions. Training for Air Traffic Control takes a minimal of 8 weeks, and the attrition rate due to stress on the job compounds staffing issues.

For the moment, air traffic in and out of Newark has been cut by 25% to accommodate the short staff and equipment issues. However, this is just a temporary fix on a much larger issue. Our airports are a critical public space for transportation and infrastructure to the nation. Workers should have full staffing levels and modernized equipment to ensure the safety of air passengers and safe working conditions.

We can’t forget that over 40 years ago, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO)warned us of the growing safety issues when they went on strike in 1981. Then President Reagan responded to this strike in fascistic fashion by firing all Air Traffic Controllers. The outdated infrastructure in our airports mirrors the out-of-date infrastructure of many of the systems that power the nation.

The post We Were Warned By PATCO Strike, Out-of-Date Air Traffic Control Towers Leads to Nationwide Blackouts first appeared on Labor Today.

The post RWU: Spring 2025 Issue of The Highball first appeared on Labor Today.

In typical libertarian fashion, Sen. Paul feigns sympathy for the “freedom of choice” for the workers to carry out his work for the monopolies and cartels in the U.S. If Sen. Paul cared about the freedom of the American working class, he instead would back the repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 aimed at restricting the power of organized labor.

Taft-Hartley was monopoly capital’s response to the wave of successful industrial organizing led by the Congress of Industrial Organizations (C.I.O.) and it decimated the U.S. labor movement. Taft-Hartley set forth the banning of most strikes, ending the closed shop and allowing states to introduce “right-to-work” laws. Most notably, aimed at “rooting out Communism” within the labor movement Taft-Hartley included a provision forcing labor leaders to sign anti-Communist affidavits which was used to root out all militant and class-oriented trade unionists from American unions. Although the anti-Communist provisions were ruled “unenforceable” in 1965, the damage had already been done as Taft-Hartley had allowed the reactionary business unionists to consolidate power.

Since Taft-Harley was passed, 26 states have passed “right-to-work” laws with at least one more pending. Union membership in the U.S. peaked in 1945 at 33.4% holding union cards; under the guidance of business unionist leadership union membership in the U.S. has decreased to an all-time low of 9.9%. This “right-to-work” has been a major factor in this decrease as the unionization rate in private industry has dropped to an even lower 5.6%. This should make it clear that the American labor movement needs a change of direction.

The time is now for all militant, class-oriented trade unionists to take the lead in organizing a rank-and-file movement to take back the American labor movement. Without a vastly organized rank-and-file, we will be at the mercy of monopoly capital. It is time to get out on the shop floor and work to build the class consciousness of your fellow workers. It is time for the heart of the labor movement to stand up and fight back. It is time to organize the anti-monopoly coalition led by a class-oriented trade union movement. This is the time to bring workers together to build a real rank-and-file and collectively led Labor Party in the U.S. Only then can we effectively push back the monopolists, as our class-oriented forebears in the C.I.O. did, and build an America of the people, by the people and for the people.

The post EDITORIAL: Class-Oriented Trade Unionism is Necessary to Permanently Defeat Monopolists as National “Right-to-Work” Bill is Reintroduced first appeared on Labor Today.