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Sep 5, 2024 | 
epi.org | Dave Kamper |Sebastian Martinez Hickey |Daniel Perez |Daniel Pérez
Summary: Instead of punishing workers for wanting to serve in public schools, states should follow Minnesota’s lead by providing school support staff—who are disproportionately Black and brown, women, and older workers—with unemployment insurance benefits during the summer.
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Jul 25, 2024 | 
tennessean.com | Dave Kamper
Dave Kamper is senior state policy strategist for the Economic Policy Institute. President Ronald Reagan loved to say that the nine most terrible words in the English language were, “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”The American Rescue Plan Act, enacted three years ago in March, proves Reagan wrong: Government action − when timely, targeted, and sufficient in size − can make all the difference for people across the country. It’s a model we’d do well to follow in future crises.
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May 22, 2024 | 
epi.org | Dave Kamper
Last week, more than 4,500 workers at Mercedes-Benz’s plant in Vance, Alabama, voted on whether to organize with the United Auto Workers (UAW). After Mercedes and Republican elected leaders in Alabama waged a vicious anti-union campaign, the workers narrowly voted against the union. While this result shows the power of corporations and state governments to smother worker efforts to unionize, even in defeat the UAW helped Mercedes workers win substantial improvements in pay and benefits.
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May 8, 2024 | 
epi.org | Dave Kamper
State and local governments have until December 31, 2024, to “obligate” the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) they received as part of 2021’s American Rescue Plan Act. Community partners and other stakeholders are concerned that some recipient governments will not obligate their full allotment of funds, perhaps through misunderstandings of the rules.
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Mar 12, 2024 | 
forgeorganizing.org | Andrew Willis Garces |Gabrielle M. Rejouis |Dave Kamper |Keith Kelleher
The Craft of Campaigns podcast, by Training for Change, highlights stories and lessons from issue-based action campaigns. In each episode, we interview organizers about how a campaign unfolded, strategy decisions, and lessons for our current moment. Read the writeup below and find full episodes here, including on your favorite podcast platform.
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Feb 27, 2024 | 
forgeorganizing.org | Dave Kamper |Keith Kelleher |Daniel Judt
Two and a half years in, Starbucks workers have made a breakthrough. Buried in the stilted prose of the announcement is a historic victory.
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Feb 27, 2024 | 
forgeorganizing.org | Keith Kelleher |Dave Kamper |Daniel Judt |Arlene Inouye
40 years ago in Chicago, McMaid workers sparked a movement. Forty years ago, Irma Sherman and the over 150 homecare workers employed by “McMaid” (Yes, McMaid really was the name of the company) decided they’d had enough of low wages and no benefits and began to organize their union with United Labor Unions (ULU) Local 880, a small, independent union founded by ACORN, the national community organization.
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Feb 13, 2024 | 
forgeorganizing.org | Keith Kelleher |Dave Kamper |Daniel Judt |Arlene Inouye
40 years ago in Chicago, McMaid workers sparked a movement. Forty years ago, Irma Sherman and the over 150 homecare workers employed by “McMaid” (Yes, McMaid really was the name of the company) decided they’d had enough of low wages and no benefits and began to organize their union with United Labor Unions (ULU) Local 880, a small, independent union founded by ACORN, the national community organization.
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Jan 31, 2024 | 
jacobin.com | Dave Kamper
Chris Bohner’s recent essay in these pages, “Direct Elections for Labor Leaders Make for More Militant Unions,” lays out an argument that at one level is so uncontroversial that it should be a platitude — unions should be democratic. No one who believes in organized labor in the United States (or anywhere in the world) can disagree with the sentiment. Nevertheless, Bohner is right to say it, because even seemingly obvious truths bear repeating.
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Jan 30, 2024 | 
forgeorganizing.org | Dave Kamper |Daniel Judt |Arlene Inouye |Jennifer Johnson
We are United Smith Student Workers, a new union of undergraduate student dining-services workers at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. Our process of forming one of the first unions for undergraduates has been long and complex and involved a lot of learning along the way. Most of us are first-time union members, and undergraduate unionism itself is still a relatively new frontier. But our experience is part of a much wider movement of student organizing.
