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A new report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) documents that while unionization rates have continued to decline, “union workers have seen less job loss than non-union workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.” As the EPI analysis outlines: “Where workers have been able to act collectively and bargain through their union, they have been able to [...]

After four years of neglect and/or outright hostility toward American higher education, the Biden Administration promises to reverse this trend by delivering a surge of aid to American colleges and universities hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent economic crisis.  Billions of dollars of aid have been included in the $1.9 trillion relief package [...]

Last spring, the forecast for the California budget was gloomy to apocalyptic.  With the pandemic raging seemingly endlessly, state budgets crumbling in the face of the crisis, and no significant help on the way from the Federal government for states and municipalities, there was little reason for hope.  Indeed, with the Republicans actively arguing against [...]

The COVID-19 crisis and subsequent economic collapse along with the national uprising against police brutality and systemic racism have cast a glaring light on the nature of American inequality on the healthcare, criminal justice, and economic fronts.  It has never been clearer that as most Americans struggle, the elite thrive.  As a Forbes piece put [...]

Whereas, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the wealth inequality that has existed in the State of California by not only forcing millions of Californians into the unemployment line, but also allowing the ultra-wealthy to collect pandemic profits in the stock market rebound; and Whereas, 14.9% of Californians are currently unemployed, with a majority of job [...]

This weekend we celebrate Labor Day, but how many of us have any idea where the holiday came from or what it celebrates?  The first Labor Day was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5th, 1882 in New York City and was proposed by the Central Labor Union (CLU) at a time when American workers were struggling [...]

What should post COVID-19 crisis America look like? This summer your national union, the American Federation of Teachers, was thinking big at its biennial convention in late July.  Clearly, the activist spirit sweeping the country was in the (virtual) air.  Building on some of the work we have done here in San Diego along with [...]

In the immediate aftermath of the George Floyd murder, we shared the National AFT and CFT statements of outrage and solidarity with the protests against police brutality.  We are pleased that the statewide body of which we are a part has clearly stood with the Black Lives Matter movement and is committed to not just [...]

The battle is on in earnest. Recently, Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell said it out loud: drop dead blue states—and public sector workers in particularly.  More specifically, McConnell took a strong stand against providing any more financial relief to devastated states and local governments in the midst of a pandemic that has caused the biggest [...]

At present, it seems like there is no leadership in America.  Indeed, as we watch the Trump Administration ignoring their own guidelines as White House aides get sick and the national response slides into a chaotic patchwork quilt of ineffective policies, one might just conclude that we are dealing with a tragic case of national [...]