By Shamus Cooke The Great Recession and its possible continuance has brought the issue of privatization to the forefront of American politics. But most Americans aren’t even aware that this debate is happening, because the media and politicians aren’t using the word “privatization”. Instead, less threatening substitutes are used to ram through a corporate…
Story and photos by Pete Shaw “Protecting a competitive race to the lowest wages is crucial,” said Tom Chamberlain, President of the Oregon AFL-CIO. After a confused pause, Chamberlain restated himself, replacing “protecting” with “preventing.” It was a slightly awkward moment at this strange gathering billed as a “Listening Session on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)”.…
Story and Photos by Pete Shaw Jeff Locke spent years in the Metro parks system and was by most standards an excellent worker. He was a volunteer roving naturalist at Oxbow Park for five seasons, restored and maintained natural areas in Metro’s Open Space Program for two, and went on to Blue Lake Park for…
By Shamus Cooke The U.S. heat wave is slowly shaking the foundations of American politics. It may take years for the deep rumble to evolve into an above ground, institution-shattering earthquake, but U.S. society has changed for good. The heat wave has helped convince tens of millions of Americans that climate change is real, overpowering…
Rallies to Demand an End to US Postal Service Cuts Story and photos by Pete Shaw Imagine you run a small business, or even a large one. Now imagine a law is passed that requires you to prepay the health care of your employees for the next 75 years. Your company, should sales be up…
By Eric Gee We had started on a Saturday night, only a handful of us talking back and forth on email, and it went on well into the dark hours of Sunday morning–type email address, copy, paste, send, type email address, copy, paste, send, again and again until my fingers were sore. I was one…
by Shamus Cooke All working people should pay attention to the egregious assault on union democracy happening in the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of the Carpenters Union, covering all Carpenter’s Locals in Oregon, Idaho, Washington, Wyoming, and Montana. The United Brotherhood of Carpenters has a proud history and should take immediate action to overturn a…
By Pete Shaw Labor unions and environmentalists have sometimes been at each other’s throats. A workshop on jobs and the climate held June 20 at Musician’s Union Hall in Northeast Portland was about building common ground and strategies for the two groups to work together for some shared goals, as they did when their cooperation…
This story is from the Occupied News Wire. It originally appeared in the Occupied Wall Street Journal. YOUR WEEKLY ROUNDUP OF OCCUPY MOVEMENT NEWS By Jennifer Sacks This week in Occupy, the Cruz family was rebuffed by PNC Bank, Rio + 20 was mic-checked and #occupied, Egyptians took to the streets to demand an election and…
by Shamus Cooke The labor movement had better do some deep soul searching, and fast. Although the defeat in Wisconsin is the horrible end to a local drama, the corporate winners hope to turn their victory into the beginning chapter of a national novel. The opening sentence was perhaps written recently in San Diego and…
