And Why I'm Here, Specifically

So today (or tomorrow, depending on the timestamp and what timezone this is read from), the Senate will consider S. 1041, the Employee Free Choice Act. Without hyperbole, this is the most important piece of labor legislation to be considered by the full Senate in the past sixty years.

The most important part of the legislation would allow workers to decide how they want to decide whether or not they get union representation, choosing between the current flawed, ripe for intimidation and illegal manipulation "secret ballot" vote, or what the bill would put in place: the ability for a group of workers to gain representation by getting over 50% of the workforce to sign a union card. In labor circles, this is known as card check, and it is absolutely crucial to maintaining and growing worker rights, given that nearly 60 million people indicate they would join unions if the option was made available to them.

Whether or not this will survive a Republican filibuster (my money is on not), this is a huge, huge deal. Having worked its ass off in 2006 to help Democrats take back Congress, labor is getting the vote it deserves. I figured this would be huge news to the progressive and populist community. So, being a big blog reader already, I went out in search of labor blogs, to read more about this. AFL-CIO's Now Blog (which is excellent, by the way), along with the once-daily updated Working Life were the only real labor blogs I could find.

With 10 million members, sixty million prospective members and an entire Democratic party that counts on unions to fund, organize and win elections, that is absolutely... I'd say ridiculous, but it's just more strange and bizarre. There needs to be a blog, outside of the AFL-CIO's, that follows and advocates for worker issues, along with following the politics that so affect them. There needs to be an online community that works in this way, similar to the greater netroots us progressives are so proud of. I'm going to try to fill that void. I'll be working hard, and learning a lot along the way. It's an exciting time for labor, and I hope to create a place on the internets to discuss, analyze and promote it all.