Public Employee Press

Labor on the web: important resources for activists


There's a great deal of lively and pro-union news and commentary on the web to keep us up-to-date and analyze where our movement needs to go. Here, I'll focus on websites that specialize in labor and unions.

I'll start closest to home. The DC 37 website (dc37.net) and Facebook page have added more current DC 37 news and you can add your opinions. The website has a list of local newsletters as well as archives of the DC 37 radio, TV shows and our newspaper, Public Employee Press.

On the citywide level, check out the NYC Central Labor Council site (nycclc.org), the New York State federation's (nysaflcio.org) and the independent Chiefleader.com which has comprehensive civil service coverage and a lively letters to the editor page.

On the national scene, four of the leading sites for labor news and analysis are the AFL-CIO Blog, Portside Labor, Working In These Times and Labor Notes. You can google the websites.

These four sites cover legal, political and current union developments. Labor Notes is especially focused on trade union activity from a rank-and-file perspective. A look at recent posts gives you an idea of their wide-ranging reporting.

Some recent Labor Portside posts are "A Radical Plan for an Economy that Makes Black Lives Matter," "What Comes After the Sanders Campaign? - Three Views," and "Brooklyn Women Day Laborers are Tired of Waiting for Work and Justice."

At Working in These Times, recent posts were "CUNY Workers Overwhelmingly Approve New Contract with 94% Voting Yes" and ˜The Strike at Trump's Atlantic City Casino is a Flashpoint++ for the Entire Labor Movement." And Labor Notes also has "Busting the Myths of a Workerless Future," "Three Recent Wins Prove Old-Fashioned Union Power Isn't Dead Yet," and "Police Violence Is a Labor Issue Too."

And the AFL-CIO has "Zara Workers in New York Vote to Join Retail Workers Union" and "Now Is the Time: An Economic Agenda for Working Women and Our Families"

In addition there's "Labourstart" for international news, the National Employment Law project (NELP), and Campaign for America's Future and the Economic Policy Institute bring us economic and political analyses. Also check out my radio show on WBAI archived at buildingbridgesradio.org and our PEP's Sr. Associate Editor Greg Heires' blog, thenewcrossroads.com.

While these sites bring you key union and political news and analysis in the fight for workers' rights, they also focus on the need - as Labor Notes so aptly says it - to "put the movement back into the labor movement" by grassroots organizing and forming coalitions with Black Lives Matter, immigrant workers, the LGBTQ Community, environment groups and the women's movement.

It's all about joining with other movements to make fundamental change and hold the politicians, corporations and the 1 percent accountable to people's power. Happy Labor Day!

— Ken Nash
Retired Librarian,
DC 37 Education Fund Library
Room 211