An Evolving Update

I have been away from my blog for over a week because the actual demands of being a labor lawyer have drained my interest - momentarily - the rest of the labor movement. But there's an interesting article on the cover of the New York Times Week in review on the decline of black membership in labor unions. Various causes for the decline are cited, including loss in auto manufacturing jobs, and the increase in Latino workers in the service industry. Both the AFL-CIO and Change to Win have declined to target African-Americans specifically in their new organizing plans.

SEIU, along with 400 organizations, has unveiled Wal-Mart Watch, to "scrutinize" and "reform" Wal-Mart.

There is a very long but interesting debate on union democracy over at The Working Life. Usually debates on that topic are navel-gazing affairs conducted by folks who are not in leadership or not even in a union, but this debate seems to be broader, including folks actually involved in their union leadership, and others willing to take the reformists and leaders to task for the failure of the debate to deal with democracy in the context of new organizing.

Over the course of the day, I will be updating this post with other news. Please check back later.