As Steelworkers at the Granite City Works outside St. Louis finally got back to work after a long idle, management surprised them with a new drug-test policy that's wreaked havoc.

When I told friends I was on my way to the Labor Campaign for Single-Payer conference, held last weekend, they all said, “I bet that’ll be a bunch of long faces.” I predicted not—these were people who’d always known the health care reform debate in Congress would come up short. Yet the 124 delegates to the March 5-7 conference in Washington were upbeat.

Under the guise of concern for employees’ safety and health, employers demand the right to conduct drug and alcohol testing. Most use it as just another hammer to hold over workers’ heads. Employers often try to divide the membership on this issue, but we can turn this around and fight. What are the union’s rights? What are the best policies to fight for?

Bus drivers at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa won a first contract after they were locked out last week following a one-day strike. The deal secures a $1.50 an hour raise and employment security, key sticking points that led to the strike. The drivers endured nine months of bargaining where their employer—a contractor—demanded at-will employment and frozen wages.

As health insurance lobbyists holed up in the Ritz-Carlton behind dozens of police in riot gear, thousands of health care activists surrounded the downtown D.C. hotel in a peaceful but pointed demonstration of anger and support for health care reform.

International Women's Day often gets short shrift in the United States, its places of birth, but in San Antonio, women's groups are raising its profile—and a little hell—while bolstering a hotel organizing drive.

Picking up on more March 4 creativity: 75 students from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, organized a funeral for public education March 4 in concert with the massive protests in California schools and on other campuses around the country. After the wake, they proceeded into the Capitol building, interrupting the Senate with a protest song to the tune of Amazing Grace (the lyrics are below).

Seventy-five students from Washington state’s Evergreen State College organized a funeral for public education March 4 before caravanning to the Capitol, where they interrupted the Senate with song. Photo: Griffin Buell.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein's decision to close at least 19 schools in the city has not been well received. An unprecedented number of schools were slated for “phase-out” in late 2009 by the Department of Education—a gradual closing that takes several years while a school stops accepting new students. Thousands of teachers, parents and students throughout the city have responded by turning anger into action.

Students and teachers came out in force to fight the latest round of school closings in New York City this year. The "rubber-stamp" Board of Education approved Mayor Bloomberg's recommendation to shutter 19 schools anyway, but the decision has pushed organizing among education activists to a new level. Photo: Grassroots Education Movement—New York.

Walkouts, student strikes, and marches shook every level of California’s embattled public education system on March 4. College students and campus workers joined forces with K-12 teachers and students for the day of action.

“You’re the ringleader—the main problem.” That’s what Frank Buonvicino said managers told him as they fired him Monday. Buonvicino and 13 other union supporters at a Staten Island call center that handles complaints and inquiries for the E-Z Pass toll system were called in one by one and fired. He and his union are calling on you to help.

Sights are set on a March 4 Strike and Day of Action to resist business as usual: layoffs, fee hikes, and program cuts in a call for expanded federal education funding, open admissions, and democratic schools.

It is true what they say: no words or photos can describe the enormity of what we saw in Haiti. Nine of us nurses, eight from Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, just spent 10 days here volunteering at the public hospital in Port au Prince, working the night shifts.

The student-worker movement that’s emerged in California over the past five months is gearing up for a strike and day of action. On March 4 students all over the state will strike, march, and occupy buildings to keep education accessible to all—and ensure sustainable jobs for those working in education.

As budget-butchering legislators and executives slash away at public services and public workers, they’re reaching for a familiar tactic: privatization. Bus drivers at UC Berkeley have led the push back, scoring a victory against outsourcing in late February.

Says Evan Greer: "The first action I ever went to was a projectionist strike in Somerville, Massachusetts, on May Day. I was probably about 16. I wrote the chorus to Picketline Song to sing while we walked the line, and dealt with repeated attacks by police."

Reform forces from across Service Employees Local 1021 swept out appointed leaders in the local’s first-ever elections. The reform slate took 26 of 28 positions, including the top seven spots, in an important test of SEIU's "megalocal" model.

Get ready for a really big show—the 2010 Labor Notes Conference is on track to be the biggest ever! It’s got to be a sign that more and more people are fed up with strategies that don’t work. Come find out what it feels like to be together with more than 1,000 other troublemakers who are searching, like you, for a way to light some fires.

Copper miners occupying pits in northern Mexico are bracing for an invasion by federal troops after refusing to give up their two-and-a-half year strike. In Southern California, borate miners are locked out, insisting that the good union jobs don't become “junk jobs.” And in Ontario, nickel miners are in the same fight, holding strong after six months on pickets. Show your solidarity today.

The owner of a New York boutique chain accused of shorting workers by $1.5 million was taken away in handcuffs Tuesday. The charges grew from a union-backed drive to remake retail by attacking its worst employers.