Bob Master, Author at New Labor Forum

The Strike: Snatching Victory from the Jaws of Defeat

September 2023 Bob Master 0 Comments collective bargaining, CWA, Labor, labor history, mobile picketing, NYNEX strike, organizing, PATCO, strikes, trade unions

At 11 a.m. on Monday, August 3, 1981, President Ronald Reagan strode to a podium in the White House Rose

U.S. Politics & Society

Bernie Sanders, Labor, Ideology and the Future of American Politics

June 2016June 2018 Bob Master Bernie Sanders, CWA, elections, Spring 2016

The Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, contrary to all expectation, has become the most important left insurgency in the United States in nearly half a century. A year ago, even his most optimistic supporters might have hoped that Sanders would enliven the presidential debates by challenging Hillary Clinton on issues of Wall Street power and big money corruption, and perhaps garner a quarter to a third of the primary vote. Instead, Sanders won

On the Contrary

Are The Democrats The Right Choice?

November 2010June 2019 Adolph Reed and Bob Master Adolph Reed, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Democrats, Fall 2010, Left, poverty, race, Republican, Right

The question whether an Obama-era Democratic party may offer opportunities for labor and left-of-center political interests presumes that Obama’s Democratic Party offers potential for significant departure from the rightward tacking we’ve seen since Bill Clinton’s presidency. There is little in anything Obama’s said or done to warrant such a presumption.

Engaging with Democrats

November 2010August 2015 Bob Master benefits, Bob Master, Corzine, crisis, Democrats, Labor, legislative, Obama, progressive, Republican, Steve Sweeney, union, Winter 2010, workers

Disillusionment with Democrats is one of the oldest—and most familiar—sentiments of labor progressives. Sadly, the first twenty-one months of the Obama era haven’t done much to alter those feelings. Without question, there has been progress on a number of critical issues—economic stimulus, health care reform, financial reform, key appointments at OSHA and the National Mediation Board (which oversees railway and airline labor relations)—which would have been unimaginable in a Republican presidency.