Category Archives: Labor/Economics

GEO Bargaining: “The University Works When We Do”

Posted on 10/06/2025 by Kathleen McGowan

The research assistants (RAs) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have officially joined GEO, the Graduate Educators Organization (GEO Local 6300 IFT/AFT AFL-CIO) at UIUC. The organization now represents teaching assistants (TAs), graduate assistants (GAs), pre-professional graduate assistants (PGAs), and … Continue reading →

472 total views, 2 views today

Posted in labor, Labor/Economics, union soldarity, University of Illinois, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Tagged campus labor, GEO, labor organizing, UIUC, union solidarity | Comments Off

Unions and Immigrants: The Past and the Present

Posted on 08/20/2025 by Pat Simpson

This article is the first of a two-part analysis of the relation between unions and immigrant workers. In an upcoming issue, the focus will be on campus unions at UIUC and their efforts to protect international students and undocumented workers. … Continue reading →

579 total views, 1 views today

Posted in Immigrants, Immigration, labor, labor history, Labor/Economics, Racism, Section, union soldarity, Xenophobia | Tagged Immigrants, Labor, labor history, racism, union solidarity | Comments Off

Belden’s Work in the Union of Professional Employees and Campus Faculty Association

Posted on 06/30/2025 by Al Kagan

I worked closely with Belden in the Union of Professional Employees (UPE) and later in the Campus Faculty Association (CFA). UPE voted to change its name to CFA in 2007. This article is an attempt to reconstruct Belden’s work in … Continue reading →

513 total views, 1 views today

Posted in Academy on Capitalism and Limited Government, In Memoriam, labor, Labor/Economics, Section, union soldarity, University of Illinois, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Tagged Belden Fields, Campus organizing, CFA, In Memoriam, labor organizing, UPE | Comments Off

Is the Strike Back?

Posted on 07/29/2024 by Jim Barrett

This article has been adapted by the author from his talk at the Strike School event at the IMC on May 5. For almost two centuries the strike has been the characteristic and most important form of protest for working-class … Continue reading →

707 total views, 2 views today

Posted in Economy, Inequality, labor, Labor militancy, Labor/Economics, Section, union soldarity | Tagged economy, inequality, labor militancy, labor organizing, strikes, union solidarity | Comments Off

Coalition of Labor Union Women for Champaign County

Posted on 05/02/2024 by Stephanie Fortado

On the evening of March 27 more than 30 people representing about a dozen labor unions and community groups gathered at the Plumbers Local 149 Union Hall in Savoy to launch a chapter of the Coalition of Labor Union Women … Continue reading →

907 total views, 1 views today

Posted in Feminism, Labor, Labor/Economics, Section, union soldarity, Voices, Women, Women | Tagged feminism, Labor, organizing, unions, women in labor | Comments Off

The Case for Reparations: Champaign County

Posted on 04/01/2024 by Jeff Trask

According to the Descendants Truth and Reconciliation Foundation, Black people in America own 10 cents of wealth for every dollar a white person owns, have lower life expectancies and higher unemployment, will earn $1 million less during their lifetimes, are … Continue reading →

1,289 total views, 2 views today

Posted in African American history, African Americans, African Americans, Inequality, Labor/Economics, Racism, Section, Voices, Voices of Color | Tagged African American history, discrimination, inequality, racism, reparations, Slavery, wealth gap | Comments Off

Who is Un-American?

Posted on 02/11/2024 by Aimee Rickman

This article, commissioned for the Public i, appeared first in a longer version in Monthly Review on November 29, 2023, under the title “Gender, Labor, Democracy, and Americanism: U.S. History in the (Un)Making”; reprinted with permission. In the early hours of Monday, May 15, … Continue reading →

1,621 total views, 1 views today

Posted in Feminism, labor, Labor militancy, Labor/Economics, Section, Voices, Women, Women, wonen's rights | Tagged feminist history, labor history, Memory, monuments, women | Comments Off

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Posted on 08/27/2023 by Pat Simpson

For whom does the bell toll? These days it tolls for our children, gunned down in our streets and schools because of gun violence. And as if this were not enough, there are the child laborers among us and the … Continue reading →

1,628 total views, 1 views today

Posted in children, labor, Labor/Economics, Section, union soldarity, Worker Health and Safety | Tagged child labor, labor protections, solidarity, Whistleblowers, workers' health and safety, workers' rights | Comments Off

UIUC GEO Wins a Progressive Contract

Posted on 07/18/2023 by Essam A. B. Elkorghli

Graduate workers across the US have been hard-hit by the skyrocketing inflation induced by federal mismanagement of monetary policy that is being felt by all too many working-class people. The laughable wage increases that were “handed” to many low-paid workers … Continue reading →

Posted in labor, Labor/Economics, Public Universities, Section, Students, union soldarity, University of Illinois, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Voices | Tagged bargaining, campus labor, Campus organizing, GEO, UIUC, union solidarity, unions | Comments Off

Faculty and Staff Strike at Eastern Illinois University

Posted on 05/01/2023 by Public i

Eastern Illinois University University Professionals of Illinois (EIU UPI, IFT Local 4100) members went on strike on April 6, after more than a year of fruitless bargaining, which forced faculty and staff to work without a contract since September, 2022. … Continue reading →

1,119 total views

Posted in Labor, Labor/Economics, Section, union soldarity | Tagged campus labor, public university labor relations, unions, workers' strike | Comments Off

Growing Up “Unlucky”: Putting a Human Face on Bureau of Labor Statistics

Posted on 05/01/2023 by C. Owen

Numerous options for employment abound in our small metropolitan area nestled amid the farmland of eastern central Illinois. From warehouses to food establishments to car repair shops, job seekers have many a choice for offering their time and effort. Yet, … Continue reading →

1,438 total views, 1 views today

Posted in African American history, African Americans, Economics, Labor, Labor/Economics, Racism, Section | Tagged economic racism, economics, inequality, Labor, unemployment | Comments Off

Graduate Employees Go Wild—For Unionization

Posted on 02/10/2023 by Pat Simpson

Workers are on the move across America. Strikes rose by an astounding 50 percent between 2021 and 2022, and the pace of organization was equally impressive, with new fields of organizing opening in the service sector, the art world, and … Continue reading →

973 total views

Posted in Education, Education, labor, Labor militancy, Labor/Economics, Public Universities, Section, union soldarity | Tagged campus labor, graduate employees, higher education, unionization | Comments Off

GEO at UIUC 10 Months into Contract Negotiations

Posted on 02/10/2023 by Karen Medina

As I write this, the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) Local 6300 is 10 months into the contract negotiating process with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign administration. So far there have been 19 bargaining sessions. The GEO presented its proposal … Continue reading →

1,459 total views, 1 views today

Posted in labor, Labor/Economics, Section, University of Illinois, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Tagged Campus organizing, GEO, graduate students, Labor, UIUC, unions | Comments Off

Labor Abuse as Product Placement at the World Cup

Posted on 12/31/2022 by Janice Jayes

The 2022 soccer World Cup began its takeover of global sports channels on November 20, transmitting endless images of cosmopolitan crowds enjoying the sparkling new stadiums of Qatar to audiences around the world. The country that hosts the World Cup … Continue reading →

1,308 total views, 1 views today

Posted in International, International, labor, Labor/Economics, Middle East, Section, Sports | Tagged ballwashing, exploitation, human rights, migrant labor, Qatar, World Cup | Comments Off

A Time of Monsters: The New Nadir and the Crisis of the Black Worker

Posted on 09/18/2022 by Gus Wood

We currently reside in what Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci called “A Time of Monsters.” Exacerbated by the catastrophic COVID-19 pandemic, the Black working classes continue to struggle under what Black Studies scholar Sundiata Cha-Jua has dubbed “the New Nadir.” For … Continue reading →

1,060 total views, 1 views today

Posted in African Americans, African Americans, Economy, labor, Labor/Economics, Politics | Tagged Black workers, economic inequality, economic racism, new nadir, underemployment | Comments Off

The Value of Transaction Taxes on Financial Instruments

Posted on 06/24/2022 by Paul Mueth

Financial transaction taxes (FTT) are an innovative system whose time has come again. There has been a narrow FTT in the UK since 1694, which raised $4.9 billion in 2020, and it hasn’t prevented the City of London from being … Continue reading →

1,226 total views

Posted in Corporations, Economy, Labor/Economics, Tax policy | Tagged Corporations, economics, finance, taxes | Comments Off

It’s Not a Labor Shortage, It’s a Workers’ Rights Shortage

Posted on 11/15/2021 by Pat Simpson

The Great Uprising, the Great Resignation, even the unofficial General Strike: analysts and pundits—left, right and center—speak of mounting worker unrest in the US in awestruck terms. What these labels certainly do capture is the expansive scale of this unrest … Continue reading →

1,800 total views

Posted in labor, Labor militancy, Labor/Economics | Comments Off

Anarchism and the American Labor Movement

Posted on 05/26/2021 by Jeff Stein

Anarchists, proponents of “anti-authoritarian socialism,” seek to abolish the state and capitalism. Anarchism replaces authoritarian governance and private ownership of resources with federations of self-managed industries and communities in which those affected by decisions participate in making them directly in … Continue reading →

Posted in Anarchism, Anarcho-syndicalism, Labor, Labor/Economics, union solidarity | Comments Off

What Can we Learn from The Amazon Union Vote in Bessemer, Alabama?

Posted on 05/26/2021 by Stephanie Fortado

During the past year, as the pandemic reshaped our daily lives, the media has paid more attention to work and workers than it has in a long time. The pandemic has shone a spotlight on the deep inequalities that persist … Continue reading →

Posted in Labor, Labor/Economics | Comments Off