Two labor negotiation experts explain how a 2015 dispute that seemed intractable got resolved, with important lessons for the partial government shutdown.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the picket line at the Scripto plant in Atlanta, Ga., December, 1964.
AP
Most people think of Martin Luther King Jr. as a civil rights leader who led the nation in addressing the evils of systemic racism. What many don't know is that he also championed labor unionism.
Salvadoran immigrants were pivotal in the Justice for Janitors campaign in Los Angeles in 1990. It earned wage increases for custodial staff nationwide and inspired today’s $15 minimum wage campaign.
AP Photo/Chris Pizzello
Central Americans who came to the US in the 1980s fleeing civil war drew on their background fighting for social justice back home to help unionize farmworkers, janitors and poultry packers in the US.
How the Morrison government’s grand tactical plan to overshadow Labor’s national conference went awry.
Kelly Barnes/AAP
McCormack must live in a parallel universe if he ever thought Broad's account of flying off on an overseas date, followed by an apparent move to extract money from him, was just "a personal matter".
Labor deputy leader Tanya Plibersek told The Conversation the ALP wants voters to see the party as "responsible and progressive".
The area of greater uncertainty under Labor is a very different one –
that is, how much of the unions’ agenda a Shorten government would be willing to embrace.
Daniel Pockett/AAP
In the lead up to next week's ALP national conference, which Shorten
needs to run smoothly, the government has been trying to exploit what
it sees as a Labor weak point – border protection.
Much has changed since the Rana Plaza disaster but a compensation scheme still to be brought in.
Sk Hasan Ali/Shutterstock
Government remains the major funder of universities. But it hasn't met its obligations even though many institutions face serious infrastructure decay.
Trade Minister Simon Birmingham has said Labor MPs disproportionately come from unions.
ABC
Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said "you can’t reflect society if 90% of your members of parliament were chosen from trade unions and worked in trade unions". Let's take a look at the numbers.
Google employees protest outside the company’s Mountain View, California, headquarters.
AP Photo/Noah Berger
The walkout by thousands of Google employees around the world was historic, both because of who was protesting and what their demands were. It may even mark the start of something new.
Workers’ falling share of national income is helping to fuel the trade union campaign to ‘change the rules’.
Dan Himbrechts/AAP
While government payments and programs go some way to reducing inequality, the transformation of the labour market and its institutions has cut workers' share of the pie to historic lows.
Demonstrators at one of many ‘Change the Rules’ rallies in October, this one outside parliament house in Adelaide.
Kelly Barnes/AAP
As political and legal fights over casual work crank up, it's worth busting some myths, such as the idea that it is becoming more common.
McManus says the present industrial relations system has “excessive, unnecessary and sometimes confusing rules” that hamper parties reaching agreement.
Julian Smith/AAP
There are 750,000 fewer workers under enterprise agreements now than when the Coalition was elected, McManus says in her speech to the John Curtin Research Centre.
The UK desperately needs a more robust system to lift standards in low paid sectors and protect workers.
Interviewed on 2GB Morrison seized on an offensive Father’s Day tweet from John Setka, Victorian state secretary of CFMMEU’s construction and general division.
Joe Castro/AAp
The Liberals have for years sought to make Shorten’s union background and associations work for them. They haven’t so far had anything like the success they hoped. The question is, can Morrison?
Fighting for a $15 an hour wage in Pittsburgh.
AP Photo/Keith Srakocic