Within the span of a few years, hundreds of thousands of workers staged some of the largest strikes of the twentieth century, such as the Teamsters in Minneapolis and the West Coast Longshoremen … Published by at October 25, 2020. It’s hard to see the revival of the labor movement taking place based on organizing and bargaining shop-by-shop. From Minneapolis, Minnesota. As a former local union president involved in strike solidarity, Burns supported many of the key strikes of the last several decades. He is the author of the forthcoming book Reviving the Strike: How Working People Can Regain Power and Transform America (IG Publishing, 2011) and can be reached at joe.burns2@gmail.com Joseph M. Burns graduated from Loyola University School of Law. Review of Strike Back: Using the Militant Tactics of Labor’s Past to Reignite Public Sector Unionism Today, by Joe Burns (IG Publishing, 2019). Debunking commonly held assumptions about labor’s inevitable decline and extinction, Burns, a veteran union lawyer, argues clearly and persuasively that worker power is still possible — but will require a dramatic shift in thinking and strategy. A veteran union negotiator and labor lawyer, he has negotiated contracts in the airline and health care industries. The American labor movement needs a jolt and Joe Burns’ new book, Reviving the Strike, delivers just the right shock treatment. IW: You write that the outlawing of solidarity “began” with the National Labor Relations Act in 1935, became “explicit” with the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, and was “furthered along” by many [U.S.] Supreme Court decisions. IW: In your book you write about the limited successes of “minority unionism” at Starbucks. He’s a former public employee and union president. ... work-life balance issues and discrimination in the labor market. Kearney, R. 2009. Joe Burns is a veteran union negotiator and labor lawyer, and a former local union president. JB: Solidarity is the heart and soul of trade unionism. In April 2020, Cricket Australia awarded Burns with a central contract ahead of the 2020–21 season. 06.14.2019 There Is No Strike Wave in the Private Sector Despite massive expenditures of resources (including over $1.5 billion by the Service Employees International Unions since 1995), the percent of private sector workers organized into unions has dropped from 10 percent in 1995 to about 7 percent today. That is why we need an effective strike. Tweet. If it's your first time on the site, or you're looking for something specific, it can be difficult to know where to start. Joe Burns, a former local union president active in strike solidarity, is a labor negotiator and attorney. Whether one advocates majority or minority unionism, the question is the same: how to build worker organizations capable of confronting capital and improving workers lives. Click here for the guide. IW: Finally, give us your sense of what needs to happen for labor to break free of the system of labor control in the United States. Industrial Worker interview with Joe Burns, author of Reviving the Strike, Joe Burns: What The Labor Movement Needs A Current Longshore Battle Shows that the NLRB Is Not a Friend of Organized Labor Joe Burns March 11, 2016 (Aaron Parecki / Flickr) Share. Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, governments have supported Australians get through this crisis. Joe Burns is a veteran union negotiator and labor lawyer and the author of Strike Back and Reviving the Strike. In fact they like it. Works at Communications Workers of America Lives in Washington, District of Columbia. Burns shows how the strike has been reduced to near death by the constant hostility of the courts, the union busting tactics of management, and the incompetence and cowardice of union leaders. Too many public employee unions have forgotten their own history and/or kept their own members in the dark about it. IW: You write that with fewer strikes, union membership has declined, and that there has been a failure to find alternatives to striking. “Joe Burns has written an important book, stressing through a series of examples the importance of the strike to the past and future of the labor movement. Joe has 2 jobs listed on their profile. The question for our movement is how to start causing the corporate elite to feel some of the pain. If you don't have permissions to post content yet, just request it here. The great strikes of labor history involved tens or hundreds of thousands of workers striking regional or national industries at once. They don’t care if people don’t get government services. Joshua Solomon Burns (born 6 February 1987) is an Australian politician. Located in Los Angeles, Joe Burns is a young actor from Atlanta who’s always ready to work and leave his mark on the industry. JB: The concepts of minority unionism and solidarity unionism are extremely important. All good stuff, but what we need is a workplace-centered grassroots movement capable of interrupting the sale of human labor. Joe Burns, a former local union president active in strike solidarity, is a labor negotiator and attorney. He recovered, and was recalled in the home Test series against New Zealand in December, 2019. Joe’s grandfather, Charles Burns, was an Executive Board Member of ATU Local 308 and a trustee on the CTA–ATU pension plan in 1947. He then went to Monash University, where he studied politics. His paternal grandfather was born in London and came to Australia via Israel, while his paternal grandmother was born in Scotland. For the past decade, he has negotiated labor contracts in the airline and health care industries. joe burns labor. Labor author Joe Burns is set to speak about the recent wave of strikes and the revival of the labor movement. Hundreds of thousands of educators in red states across the country walked off their jobs to demand better school funding and better pay. His maternal grandmother came to Australia as a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany. Email: [email protected] First Page Full Text References Reference. This article originally appeared in the October, 2011, issue of the Industrial Worker newspaper. ... Labor Studies Journal ISSN: 0160-449X Online ISSN: 1538-9758. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. But if there’s something you cant find here, please call my office on (03) 9534 8126 or send me an email – josh.burns.mp@aph.gov.au. 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