Labor Day gets treated as a Monday when the bank is closed. The unofficial end of summer. A mattress sale. The last decent weekend to
Category: Labor
Sit down a minute. September third means something. Nineteen sixteen. Four brotherhoods — engineers, firemen, conductors, trainmen — around four hundred thousand men voted to
Name’s Wright. Mister Wright if you’re clocked in. I’m writing this in the days between two anniversaries. Behind me, August 25, 1925, a hall in
In one week this August, three American companies had to answer the same question: what do you owe people before you end their livelihoods? Each
Labor History: August 13, 1892 — Tracy City, Tennessee Two crews worked that coal. One of them could go home. On August 13, 1892, free
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The Corpus Is the Field
Earlier I published The Long Work of Getting Better, which made a gentle case that human progress runs on shared knowledge and that we may
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The Long Work of Getting Better
My grandmother saved seed. Not because she had a theory about agriculture, but because that’s what you did — you kept back the best of
My father kept a small notebook in his porter’s jacket. Names, mostly. Men he’d worked the cars with who didn’t come back to the line
The Man Who Had to Be His Own Steward I was sitting with the editor the other day. He’d called me up to talk about
Sit down a minute. Get some water first — I mean that. It’s July, and July doesn’t negotiate. I’ve been watching the thermometer and the
A young fella asked me the question last week. Good worker, honest hands, no malice in him. He said, “Mr. Wright, why does labor need
My father was a porter. Rode the rails for the Pullman Company, and I’ll tell you something about that job — the whole country set
The Battle of Homestead, 1892 — and what it still asks of working people Pull up a crate. I want to walk you through a
Name’s Wright. Mister Wright if you’re on the clock. There’s an old commandment about not taking a name in vain. I keep one right beside
Why health care belongs in one pool — and on the same list as the power grid Strip away the forms and the jargon and
The boss would rather buy your medicine than watch you carry it out the door. Pull up a stool, Jack. Mind the grease. My old
Scrap the Cap: Everyone Should Retire Healthy and Wealthy A column on the first step toward universal income — fixing the insurance we already own.
You Built the Robot. You Just Didn’t Know It. There is a conversation this country never had. It should have. It would have been uncomfortable,
A Labor History Museum Belongs in Johnstown Johnstown has a flood museum, an immigration exhibit at the Heritage Discovery Center, an inclined plane with a
Shop Talk with Mr. Wright: On Noblesse Oblige There’s a phrase been making the rounds lately. Noblesse oblige. French. Old. Sounds fancy. It means this:
The Wright Way: We Made Work Shameful, and Now We Wonder Why Nothing Works Walk around any working town for an afternoon. Any afternoon. Pick
Let me tell you something they hope you never figure out. That man cannot tie his own boat to a dock. He cannot pump his
Saw a thing going around the other day. Maybe you saw it too. “You air-drop a billionaire into a third-world country with five dollars in
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Usufruct
The Dead Hand: A Capitalist Case for Generational Reset Thomas Jefferson, writing to James Madison from Paris in September of 1789, set down a sentence
You Can’t Afford the Man. You Can Only Pay for His Work. Name’s Philip Randolph Wright.Mister Wright if we are doing business. The first thing
We Will Not Beg for Bread Name’s Philip Randolph Wright. Mister Wright if we are doing business. I hear it everywhere I go. I hear
Donald Trump is President again because he had something to sell. Andrew Yang shook the 2020 Democratic primary from a standing start — no political
Name’s Philip Randolph Wright. Mister Wright if we’re doing business. And the first thing a working person needs to understand about labor is this: the
Let me ask you something. You ever notice how much energy goes into fighting for rules that should just be common decency? Overtime pay. Rest
Name’s Philip Randolph Wright.Mister Wright if we are doing business.And before anybody asks me what’s wrong with the labor movement these days, let me save
Name’s Philip Randolph Wright.Mister Wright if we are doing business.And if we’re talking about work—real work, the kind that feeds families and builds a country—then
Title 5 Was Written to Keep Veterans Whole — Not to Start Them Over There is a tendency in modern administration to treat laws as
Name’s Philip Randolph Wright.Mister Wright if we are doing business. I spent a good part of my life teaching young men how to march, how
Name’s Philip Randolph Wright.Mister Wright if we are doing business.And if we’re talking about organizing, then we are most certainly doing business. Let me tell
Business Logic- Alignment- Metrics- Efficiency B.L.A.M.E. is a comprehensive, integrated management methodology designed to streamline operational performance, enhance cross-functional alignment, optimize resource utilization, and— No.
Name’s Philip Randolph Wright.Mister Wright if we are doing business. I noticed something the other day. Folks were busy adding community notes to a piece
Name’s Philip Randolph Wright.Mister Wright if we are doing business. There’s a little phrase some folks treat like nostalgia now — like it belongs on
Name’s Philip Randolph Wright.Mister Wright if we are doing business. And I want to talk about something nobody likes to say out loud. Most inventions
WHY WE FILE EVERY GRIEVANCE Name’s Philip Randolph Wright.Mister Wright if we are doing business. Let me tell you something most folks learn too late.
Name is Philip Randolph Wright. Mr. Wright if we are doing business. Let’s get something straight before we go any further. Work is not a
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Miss O and the Manufacturing Renaissance:
Why America Needs to Move Beyond the Tip Economy We’ve all had that moment where we look down at a receipt and wonder how something
The Culture of Separation When people ask why working folks feel so tired now, I tell them it’s because we don’t just sell our labor
What Was Quietly Sold Off Before It Came Gen X grew up inside systems that worked. They weren’t glamorous.They weren’t innovative in the modern sense.
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The Quiet Collapse of Maintenance
My name is Philip Randolph Wright. Mr. Wright if we are doing business. Right now we have something we need to talk about. Not an
SOLIDARITY Solidarity ain’t a slogan. It ain’t a chant. And it sure isn’t something you put on when it’s convenient and hang up when it
And That Means Everyone Name’s Philip Randolph Wright. Mister Wright if we are doing buisiness. This country owes the working class. That’s not politics. That’s
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Open Source the Future: Why Food, Water, and Healthcare Knowledge Must Belong to Everyone
Open the Knowledge or Admit the System Is a Lie Capitalism, regulated trade, markets—fine.I’m not here to argue against exchange or incentive. Capitalism is very
My name’s Phil Wright. Mister Wright if we are doing business. I’ve been around a long time. Long enough to hear every trick word folks
Name’s Phil Wright.Mister Wright, if you’re on the clock. I once had a young fella on a jobsite who worked like his life depended on
The name is PR Wright, Mr Wright if we are doing business. Folks like to treat the world of work as if it’s a set
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What Happens When We Stop Starving Our Artists
A Long-Form Thought Experiment About AI, Creativity, and the Case for Universal Basic Income There’s a moment every artist knows, whether they say it out
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Three Views on Wealth
An Editorial Conversation from The Blue Ribbon Team Every so often the internet kicks up a little dust that tells a much bigger story than
You ever notice how a building starts talking to you long before it collapses? A beam bends a little.A floor sags a half-inch.A pipe starts
The Wright Way My name is Phil Wright, named after Philip Randolph. You can call me Mr. Wright if we are doing business. I’m not
A Tale of Two Letters Somewhere in the shuffle of bureaucracy and ceremony, two envelopes crossed paths.One carried a lapel pin and a pre-printed thank