Labor unions

The intersection of Fort Street and Oakwood Boulevard in southwest Detroit today functions mostly as a thoroughfare for trucks and commuters. However, as you sit idling at the stoplight waiting to cross the bridge over the Rouge River, you might glance to the side and see something unexpected in this heavily industrialized area: A sculpture of weathered steel reaches toward the sky alongside a spray of flowers and waves of grasses and people fishing. This inconspicuous corner, now the home of the Fort Street Bridge Park, has several stories to tell: of a river, a region, a historic conflict and an ongoing struggle. If you pull over, you’ll enter a place that attempts to pull together threads of history, environment and sustainable redevelopment. Signs explain why this sculpture and park are here: to honor the memory of protesters who met on this very spot on March 7, 1932, before marching up Miller Road to the massive Ford Rouge River Complex located in the adjacent c...

Ballot counting is underway in a runoff election to decide who will lead the powerful United Auto Workers union as its president. But the historic election is already transforming the union’s leadership in ways that could bring an end to decades of declining blue-collar compensation in this key sector of the economy. This was the first direct leadership election in the UAW’s 88-year history, following a series of corruption scandals that sent two former presidents to prison. With most of the other leadership races already determined, it’s clear that the union’s leadership will be closely divided between the old guard and the challengers. This transformation of how the UAW is governed sets up what is widely expected to be a more adversarial relationship between the union and the Big Three domestic car producers. Regardless of who wins the presidency, a more combative stance with automakers is likely to result in more strikes, higher car prices and also gre...