The biggest strike in four years came to an end on Monday, but the conflict between Verizon and its unionized workers is far from being resolved. The case epitomizes the challenges for union workers in the US, who often are employed by businesses that are majority non-union. Labor journalist and organizer Steve Early talks about how workers should and can fight back in an era where open shops are becoming the norm.

Last Friday, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed into law a bill that strips the state's public workers of most of their collective bargaining rights, following almost a month of mass demonstrations. Where did the protests come from and who sustained them--the national leadership of unions or rank and file members? Labor journalist Steve Early discusses organizing in a time of austerity. And he considers the trajectory of a generation of Sixties activists into the leadership of unions that have gone to war with each other over the last several years.

It's a time of crisis -- for capitalism, for workers as a whole, and for some pivotal trade unions. Labor journalist Steve Early discusses the state of unorganized and organized labor, the stillbirth of the Employee Free Choice Act, and tries to shed some light on the battles raging between SEIU and the National Union of Healthcare Workers and UNITE-HERE.

When Barack Obama was elected, many labor activists had great hopes for a turnaround for the union movement, which has been shrinking alarmingly over the past several decades. But nearly a year into Obama's presidency, things don't look so bright. Longtime labor organizer and journalist Steve Early talks about the state of unions in the midst of economic upheaval, as well as the legacy of sixties radicals in the labor movement today, union democracy, and conflicts within the movement itself.