Support the fact-based journalism you rely on with a donation to Marketplace today. Give Now!

Longshoremen strike for better pay and to stop automation

Oct 2, 2024
About a hundred striking longshoremen marched by one of the terminals in the port of Baltimore. Some carried signs that say “machines don’t feed families.”
Longshoremen on strike at the Port of Baltimore on Oct. 1, 2024.
Stephanie Hughes for Marketplace

Why some college athletes want to unionize

Feb 7, 2024
A regional director of the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that Dartmouth's men's basketball players are employees who can form a union.
Players on the Dartmouth Big Green basketball team filed a petition to unionize in the fall. Above, the Dartmouth Big Green basketball team in 2021.
Mitchell Layton/Getty Images

Will labor unions maintain their momentum in 2024?

Dec 28, 2023
Unions are more visible and vocal than they've been in decades. If the labor market remains tight, they'll have negotiating leverage.
A United Auto Workers union hall in Chicago. The UAW's coordinated work stoppages made headlines and produced results in 2023.
Scott Olson/Getty Images

AI is a major concern for striking writers

Among other things, Hollywood writers are concerned about the potential of artificial intelligence to displace workers.
Writers have been on strike for over twenty days. Streaming and AI big topics of contention between writers and major studios.
Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

Businesses that serve TV and film productions brace for effects of the writers strike

May 3, 2023
If it's anything like the last writers strike, it could halt production for 100 days.
Writers have been on strike for over twenty days. Streaming and AI big topics of contention between writers and major studios.
Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

Workers are staging more labor actions, thanks in part to the strong job market

Feb 23, 2023
The number of labor actions has increased, as has the number of workers involved.
Nurses from Mount Sinai Hospital in New York strike outside the hospital. Labor action jumped by more than half in 2022 compared to 2021, according to recent data.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Unionized Starbucks workers at more than 100 stores strike

Nov 17, 2022
Striking workers are taking advantage of a holiday promotion to protest the company’s approach to union negotiations.
Workers on strike outside of a San Francisco Starbucks on Nov. 17. Employees at more than 100 unionized Starbucks locations walked off the job Thursday.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

Railroad worker contract negotiations stall over lack of paid sick days

Oct 31, 2022
Unions have been pushing for as many as 15 sick days for rail workers, who currently have none.
Railway workers walk through Union Station in Washington, DC.
Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

On "Severance": Why you should balance work and life instead of separating them entirely

The hit Apple TV+ series "Severance" offers searing commentary on corporate values, organized labor and finding purpose at work.
From left to right, actors John Turturro, Britt Lower, Christopher Walken and Adam Scott in “Severance,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
Apple TV+

Amazon union showcases the power of grassroots labor organizing, professor says

Apr 4, 2022
Local union organizers "robbed Amazon of one of its best anti-union arguments," says Adam Seth Litwin of Cornell.
Union organizer Christian Smalls speaks following the April 1, 2022, vote for the unionization of the Amazon Staten Island warehouse in New York.
Andrea Renault/AFP via Getty Images