Articles tagged: labor
‘The Penal System Today is Slavery’: Lawmakers Finally Start to Talk About Unpaid Labor in Texas Prisons
The 13th Amendment left a loophole for prisoners to be forced to work without pay. Texas remains one of five states that exploits the carveout for state profit.
Inmates in Texas make license plates, grow crops, tend to cattle, make soap and clothing, refurbish buses and computers, build furniture and more. They’re req...Read More
Texas Republicans’ War on Workers Roars Back to Life in the House
One of the GOP’s top priorities — banning local labor protections like mandatory paid sick leave — stalled for much of the session. Now, Republicans are putting their foot on the gas.
The Texas GOP has finally returned its attention to its perpetual war on workers. After unexpected delays and with less than a month left in session, Republican...Read More
New Documentary Reveals the Deadly Cost of Texas’ Anti-Worker Agenda
As the Legislature ponders yet another crackdown on labor, Building the American Dream explores the stakes of labor policy in the country’s largest red state.
Roendy Granillo, 25, was installing hardwood flooring in a house near Dallas when the heat started getting to him. It was July 2015, and the temperature had hit...Read More
Are Silicon Valley Giants Responsible for a Mysterious New Texas Labor Rule?
The state’s workforce commission quietly advanced a rule that exempts a new class of workers from unemployment insurance coverage.
The state’s workforce commission quietly advanced a rule that exempts a new class of workers from unemployment insurance coverage. * by Justin Miller January ...Read More
In East Texas, Chicken Plants are Polluting Rivers and Lakes with Oxygen-Sucking Contaminants
A report released by the Environmental Integrity Project identified Pilgrim’s Pride and Tyson as major dischargers of wastewater containing high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus.
The Gulf of Mexico’s “dead zone” — a Connecticut-sized stretch of saltwater where chemical runoff from farms in the Mississippi River watershed feeds ox...Read More
Dolores Huerta is Still Knocking on Doors and Registering Voters at 88
The iconic labor activist talks about the Latino vote, Howard Zinn and the ‘year of the woman.’
At 88, Dolores Huerta is still making you look bad. In 1962, Huerta and César Chávez co-founded the organization that would become the United Farm Workers, th...Read More
Heartland is an Honest, Poetic Meditation on Class in America
Journalist Sarah Smarsh’s book encapsulates what it’s like to grow up in the forgotten farm fields of America, artfully mixing anecdote with political context and societal commentary.
Having fun during a Kansas winter, as Sarah Smarsh writes in her new memoir, Heartland, requires creativity: “Lots of snow, no hills.” In one memora...Read More
‘Landmark’ Wage Theft Conviction Overturned by Texas Appeals Court
The first conviction obtained under a 2011 state wage theft law has vanished. An El Paso construction worker won’t see a dime of what he’s owed.
Esteban Rangel just wanted justice. A 45-year-old from Ciudad Juárez, Rangel has worked construction in El Paso since he was 17. In that time, he’s seen scor...Read More
Climate Change is Making Texas Summers Worse. Here’s Who That Hurts the Most.
Outdoor workers and the most vulnerable Texans — the poor, disabled and elderly — are feeling the brunt of this summer’s punishing heat.
Climate Change is Making Texas Summers Worse. Here’s Who That Hurts the Most. Outdoor workers and the most vulnerable Texans — the poor, disabled and elderl...Read More