Author Archive
Rebecca Burns
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YMCA Childcare Workers Just Went On Strike. Here’s Why.
When Vivian Clark got a job with a Chicago-area Head Start program 15 years ago, it seemed like the “stepping stone” her family had been waiting for. Her son, then aged 9, had... MORE
Working · March 5, 2018
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Landlords, Your Lease Is Up: A New Movement for Rent Control Is Spreading Across the U.S.
Tenant activists, local unions, community organizations and socialists are leading campaigns to regulate rents and weaken the market's grip on housing. MORE
Features · March 5, 2018
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INVESTIGATION: The Troubled History of the Fund Tapped for Rahm’s Controversial Cop Academy
$20 million in West Side TIF money for job creation has sat unspent, and another $36 million was "ported" to other districts. Now more than $10 million is being used for a police academy that will create only 100 temporary jobs. MORE
Features · February 20, 2018
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Socialism, Coming to a State Fair Near You
Give us funnel cake, but give us roses too. MORE
Act Locally · September 15, 2017
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A New Deal for Wall Street
Trump's plans for mass privatization are a colossal giveaway to the 1%—and Democrats helped pave the way. MORE
Features · July 20, 2017
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A New Deal for Wall Street: Trump’s Plans for Mass Privatization Are a Colossal Giveaway to the 1%
Trump wants to sell off our infrastructure—and Democrats helped pave the way. MORE
Features · July 20, 2017
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Chicago Charter School Teachers May Strike This Week
When the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) struck in 2012, then-CEO of the United Neighborhood Organization (UNO) Juan Rangel took the opportunity to sing the praises of the city’s charter schools, which remained... MORE
Working · October 17, 2016
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Sim City and the Worst Ways to End Homelessness
The neoliberal mindset doesn't compute with ethical public policy. MORE
Culture · July 19, 2016
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The Laquan McDonald Email Dump Shows Rahm Emanuel’s Administration in Crisis Mode
A guide to the documents released by City Hall in the aftermath of the Chicago police shooting. MORE
Features · January 5, 2016
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Adjunct Faculty Around the Country Join Fight for 15 Protests
After speaking to an adjunct instructor participating in yesterday’s massive low-wage worker protests, I thanked her for her time and walked away. Another adjunct, who had been listening on the sidelines... MORE
Working · April 16, 2015
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Under Rahm Emanuel, Chicago Opens the Door to Privatizing Half its Public Housing
Residents fear that a new redevelopment initiative will usher in another wave of displacement. MORE
Features · March 31, 2015
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‘Uber is a rip-off for its drivers and the public’: Cab Drivers Protest Rideshares in Chicago
If you’ve taken an Uber recently, you probably forked over an extra dollar for a “Safe Ride Fee,” a recently-added cost that the tech giant says will help ensure... MORE
Working · February 19, 2015
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Striking Oil Workers Say They’re Fighting Deadly Working Conditions
MARTINEZ, CALIFORNIA—During the nearly four decades he’s worked at the Golden Eagle refinery here, Howard Jones has seen four changes in the facility’s ownership and three major... MORE
Working · February 11, 2015
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Community College in the Crosshairs
Even as Obama is calling for free community college, California's landmark system is under attack by accreditors allied with ALEC and for-profit schools. MORE
Act Locally · January 21, 2015
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Obamacare Counselor: “On the Surface, People Have Choices. But It’s a Complete Farce”
For three years in the early 1970s, journalist Studs Terkel gathered stories from a variety of American workers. He then compiled them into Working, an oral-history collection that went on to become... MORE
Working · December 18, 2014
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The Sharing Economy’s ‘First Strike’: Uber Drivers Turn Off the App
Silicon Valley types often wax lyrical about the way that the app-based “sharing economy” disrupts existing business models and create new forms of social relations. When tech magnates extol “disruption,... MORE
Working · October 22, 2014
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Adjunct Instructor: ‘I Was Practically Giving My Work Away. It Was Charity.’
For three years in the early 1970s, journalist Studs Terkel gathered stories from a variety of American workers. He then compiled them into Working, an oral-history collection that went on to become... MORE
Working · October 15, 2014
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The Tamale Underground
Street vendors must skirt the law to make a living. MORE
Features · September 8, 2014
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A RAD-ical Housing Experiment
Baltimore public housing tenants will serve as guinea pigs for a new national privatization plan. MORE
Act Locally · July 30, 2014
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Worker-Owners Cheer Creation of $1.2 Million Co-op Development Fund in NYC
In a victory for new economy advocates, the New York City Council passed a budget last week that will create a $1.2 million fund for the growth of worker-owned cooperative businesses. The investment is... MORE
Working · July 2, 2014
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Why Can’t College Be Free?
Three proposals to reclaim the promise of higher education. MORE
Act Locally · June 13, 2014
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Eviction by ‘Rent-a-Cop’
An Illinois bill could 'privatize' evictions and pave the way for Wall Street abuses. MORE
Features · May 29, 2014
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Pittsburgh’s Nonprofit Pirates
A hospital behemoth dominates the city, pays no taxes and does little for its lowest-paid workers. MORE
Act Locally · April 28, 2014
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Kaplan Teachers Win Contract, Proving For-Profit Ed Can Be Unionized
Teachers at three Manhattan-based English language schools run by Kaplan, Inc. have won their first union contract with the corporation, breaking new ground in efforts to organize the booming for-profit education sector. In 2012,... MORE
Working · April 17, 2014
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More Than 20 Striking Students Arrested, Belying University of California’s Era of ‘Labor Peace’
A system-wide strike by graduate assistants at the University of California commenced yesterday with what their union calls an ugly irony. The work stoppage, staged in protest of past alleged attempts by UC... MORE
Working · April 3, 2014
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Keystone by the Bay
Labor and environmental groups clash in Maryland over fracking. MORE
Act Locally · February 26, 2014
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UIC Faculty Rekindle Fight for Public Education With Historic Strike
As a tenured professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC), Josh Radinsky never expected to participate in a strike—or to see so many of his colleagues ready to do the same. ... MORE
Working · February 19, 2014
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The Unbearable Whiteness of Legalization
Who benefits from marijuana law reform? MORE
Act Locally · February 19, 2014
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The ‘Sharing’ Hype
Do companies like Lyft and Airbnb help democratize the economy? MORE
Act Locally · January 27, 2014
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The Adjunct’s Lament
Even in the ivory tower, work is often solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short. MORE
Features · December 19, 2013
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UIC Faculty Union Flexes Muscles in Showdown Over Adjunct Pay
The teaching force at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), which unionized in 2011, has been at the bargaining table fighting for changes that include improved compensation for non-tenure-track professors and shared governance... MORE
Working · December 12, 2013
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The Problem with ‘Brogrammers’
Why is Silicon Valley so stubbornly white and male? MORE
Act Locally · November 27, 2013
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UC Berkeley Professor Sends Heartfelt Anti-Union E-mail To Students on Eve of Strike
The union representing 22,000 service workers across the University of California system went out on a one-day unfair labor practices strike this Wednesday, joined by 15,000 graduate student employees. The action was particularly notable because... MORE
Working · November 22, 2013
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A ‘Historic Moment’ for Campus Solidarity
University of California grad students will join service workers on the picket lines in a rare sympathy strike. MORE
Features · November 15, 2013
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Schoolyard Syndicalists
From the Chicago public school closings, some students emerge radicalized. MORE
Act Locally · October 23, 2013
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Could Grad Students Regain Union Rights? Some Hopeful Signs
In one iteration of an ongoing joke in The Simpsons about the lot of graduate students, Lisa throws bread on the ground to feed a group of ducks, only to have a crowd... MORE
Working · October 15, 2013
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A Free-Speech Victory at the ‘University of Nike’
The “University of Nike” sounds like an institution straight out of a dystopian novel. But that moniker has actually been embraced by the University of Oregon, where Nike founder and chairman... MORE
Working · September 20, 2013
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A Company Town Becomes Our Town
How a town shadowed by Chevron built a vibrant movement to challenge corporate power. MORE
Features · September 18, 2013
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University Tries to Nip Professors’ Union in the Bud
A cautionary letter--and the rumored retention of a notorious union-buster--show Northeastern is nervous about adjunct faculty organizing. MORE
Features · August 29, 2013
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The Devil’s in the Details
If the Senate's bill is so good, why are immigrant rights groups so unhappy? MORE
Act Locally · August 14, 2013
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Indebted Students Expose ALEC’s Assault on Higher Education
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) could hardly hope to hold its 40th annual conference in Chicago, a city on the brink of the largest mass school closings in U.S. history, without... MORE
Uprising · August 9, 2013
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Undocumented Immigrants Win Access to Organ Transplant Waitlists, and a Shot at Life
14 Chicago patients in critical need of transplants went on a hunger strike to change hospital policy. MORE
Features · August 8, 2013
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Is Higher Ed the Next Target of Corporate ‘Reformers’?
The proposed shuttering of City College of San Francisco bears unsettling parallels to K-12 school closings. MORE
Features · July 18, 2013
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A Fracktious Debate
Greens are divided on whether to regulate fracking or hold out for a ban. MORE
Act Locally · July 10, 2013
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Food Fight: Feminists and Femivores
Is slow food about politics, privilege, or oppression? MORE
Act Locally · June 26, 2013
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Photojournalists Fight Replacement by iPhones
Since the Chicago Sun-Times laid off its entire photography department last week, the media group has sought to replace photojournalists with reporters trained in “iPhone photography basics.” Neither group is too... MORE
Uprising · June 6, 2013
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Mad Professors
The adjuncts are at the barricades. MORE
Act Locally · June 5, 2013
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Out of the Pen and Unrepentant
Environmentalist Tim DeChristopher on the future of climate activism. MORE
Features · June 4, 2013
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Where Unions Went Wrong on ‘Right to Work’
Labor activists retool their tactics against the bosses. MORE
Act Locally · June 3, 2013
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It’s Not Easy Being Blue and Green
Labor and environmentalists face off over the Keystone XL pipeline. MORE
Features · May 22, 2013
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