Required Reading: American Labor at a Crossroads

"Over the past 15 years, no American unionist has organized as many workers, or won them raises as substantial, as (David) Rolf. Which makes it all the more telling that Rolf believes the American labor movement, as we know it, is on its deathbed, and that labor should focus its remaining energies on bequeathing its resources to start-up projects that may find more effective ways to advance workers’ interests than today’s embattled unions can," writes Harold Meyerson, in The Seeds of a New Labor Movement, one of a series of articles The American Prospect published this week in connection with yesterday's "American Labor at a Crossroads: New Thinking, New Organizing, New Strategies," conference, co-sponsored by the Prospect, the Albert Shanker Institute and The Sidney Hillman Foundation.

Other articles: 
Minimum Wage Fights More Easily Won Than Representation; Harold Meyerson
How We Know We Haven't Yet Found the Right Model for the Worker Organizations; Sejal Parikh
Time to Experiment; Karen Nussbaum  
In Defense of Members-Only Unionism; Catherine Fisk
Can Broadened Civil Rights Law Offer Workers a True Right to Organize? Richard D. Kahlenberg and Moshe Z. Marvit
photo: Activists at an April demonstration demanding a $15-per-hour minimum wage in Seattle; photo by 15 Now/Seattle

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