By Joe Maniscalco

Vermont AFL-CIO leader David Van Deusen is sitting outside a tavern in Montpelier about to grab a beer when he starts talking about how important independent journalism is to the American Labor Movement.

By Joe Maniscalco

Frank Emspak has been making trouble for powerful elites his whole life. Sometimes as a pugnacious member of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers [UE], other times as executive producer of Workers Independent News (WINS). Now approaching 80, Frank Emspak is still mixing it up and making trouble — and he’s urging today’s generation of workers to do the same.

By Steve Wishnia

U.S. labor law is supposed to protect workers’ right to organize — but employers regularly evade it by exploiting the slow-moving system and its weak or nonexistent penalties for violations, leading labor lawyers say.

By Joe Maniscalco

Sacha Alvarez was barely six months into her new job driving the BX40 bus route in The Bronx for MTA New York City Transit when a crazed man swinging a foot-long tree branch burst onto her vehicle and started clubbing her on the head. The February attack understandably left her dubious about her future behind the wheel — but she’s not alone. Cities across the country are discovering hardly anyone wants to drive a bus anymore.