Guestworkers who come to the United States are routinely cheated out of wages; forced to mortgage their futures to obtain low-wage, temporary jobs; held virtually captive by employers who seize their documents; forced to live in squalid conditions; and denied medical benefits for injuries, according to a new report released by the Southern Poverty Law Center today.

A recent study conducted by the Joint Center for Political Economics Studies contends that African Americans will be the leading beneficiaries of the new federal minimum wage increase, which will raise the federal minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to $7.25 in three increments by 2009.

At the high-rise Beijing headquarters of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) I asked Ms Guo Chen from their Grass-Roots Organisation and Capacity Building Department to go through the steps which resulted in unionising Wal-Mart stores in China.?

In a statement released this past week, the AFL-CIO, the country's largest trade union federation, called for ending US military involvement in Iraq.

No U.S. foreign policy can be sustained without the informed consent of the American people. Last November, the people spoke clearly, calling on the president and Congress to change course in Iraq.

The nation is once again focused on the crisis in health care and the American people are looking for a comprehensive solution, instead of the inaction and incredibly ineffective piecemeal approach of the past 10 years.

When we think of 20th century U.S. women’s movements, the events that come to mind are the feminist battles of the 1960s and before that, the suffragettes of the early 20th century.

The House of Representatives this week passed the bipartisan Employee Free Choice Act by a vote of 241-185. The law would strengthen legal protections of workers against employer punishment and harassment when trying to organize a union.

The Employee Free Choice Act is one of the most important pieces of legislation being considered by the new Congress, yet many people have probably never heard of it.

Passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) has been organized labor's first priority as the new Congress convened. For those still making up their minds it should be helpful to consider how the forces are lining up.

Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi described the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800) as "a top priority" for House Democrats. Speaking at a news conference as part of a series of nation-wide events sponsored by the AFL-CIO, Pelosi said, "It’s time to restore the right of American workers to join a union without harassment from employers."

George Springer came to the United States as an immigrant from Panama. He came here to attend college in New Britain, Connecticut. In 1951 he wrote an insightful paper about the labor and anti-racist equality struggles of the Panamanian working class.

By 1951, 23 NLC chapters were established in major cities across the country. The NLC launched a national campaign to have a "model FEPC clause" inserted into union contracts. The FEPC clause took its name from the Fair Employment Practices Committee established during the Roosevelt presidency.

Linda Merfeld is a nurse, and a union activist. And in a way, she’s lucky: She hasn’t been fired yet. The Employee Free Choice Act could protect her, and others like her, from that fate.

The largest class-action lawsuit in U.S. history filed against Wal-Mart will go forward to trial. A lawsuit filed on behalf of current and former Wal-Mart employees that claims the company systematically discriminated against women workers won a major victory in federal court earlier this week.

Unionists and their allies, led by U.S. Labor Against The War, joined other anti-war activists in lobbying lawmakers on Jan. 29 against GOP President George W. Bush’s war in Iraq, and his latest escalation.

Of all the supporters of corporate immigration reform, Homeland Secretary Michael Chertoff is the most honest. The day of the notorious raids at the Swift and Company meatpacking plants, he told the media the raids would show Congress the need for "stronger border security, effective interior enforcement and a temporary-worker program."

The World Federation of Trade Unions W.F.T.U. is expressing full solidarity and support to the 5.500 workers who are working in the largest pork slaughterhouse in the world, in Tar Heel city, North Carolina.

On Wednesday (1-24), in addition to voting against a clean minimum wage raise bill, they voted for an amendment to repeal the federal minimum wage, currently bogged down at $5.15 per hour.

"Smithfield has a history of using threats of arrest by immigration authorities to intimidate workers and this is a continuation of that pattern", says Gene Bruskin head of the Smithfield Justice Campaign.