For decades, the telecommunications industry has provided technicians, customer service agents, operators, and others with job security, opportunities to advance and gain new skills, and sustainable wages and benefits. Yet since Verizon was formed in 2000, it has shirked its responsibilities as a public utility, pursuing a race-to-the-bottom, low-road business model that is detrimental to both employees and customers.

Our new report, Broken Promises, reveals how Verizon uses this model to interfere with its employees’ rights to form unions, putting good jobs and quality service at risk.

» Download the report (PDF)
» Read the press release

Exposing the harmful impact of Wal-Mart's low-cost, low-price business model is the subject of the recently released report "Wal-Mart's Sustainability Initiative: A Civil Society Critique."  Twenty-three organizations, including American Rights at Work, reveal how the big box retailer's business model undermines the environment, communities, and workers.

» View a press release
» Check out our contribution to the report (PDF)
» Download the whole report (PDF)

The 2007 Labor Day List features partnerships between successful employers and their employees’ unions that both meet the needs and rights of workers and fulfill business objectives. The practices of the employers we profile buck the current “race to the bottom” trend and eschew hostile labor-management relations. These innovative employers demonstrate there are alternative models which fulfill the needs of their shareholders, employees, and valued customers.

» Check out the 2007 list.

Neither Free Nor Fair: The Subversion of Democracy Under NLRB Elections contrasts what NLRB elections look like in the real world with what happens in elections for public office.  

» Full Report (PDF: 72 pages, 733 KB)
» Executive Summary
» Read the related press release  

Erin Johansson examines the labor standards at Wal-Mart, including the poor compensation, difficult working conditions, and most importantly, the company’s ability to remain union-free, which is primarily the result of a companywide strategy to prevent and quash union efforts.  Checking Out illustrates the devastating toll on workers and their communities as wages and benefits are slashed and once secure jobs are lost; the retail giant threatens to wipe out middle-class jobs and the American dream as we know it.

» Download the report