Chad Newcome confided little to his wife over the years about the failing pension fund that threatened their dreams, wanting to spare her the anxiety that haunted him day and night. But two years ago, after congressional Democrats passed legislation saving dozens of multiemployer pension plans at risk of collapse,...
He was known to be aggressive and argumentative, the kind of patron who made others at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh branch uneasy. But one day last year, the man walked into the building in a much darker mood, harassed a librarian and threatened to kill...
Dominick Sapien’s patient threw up during cardiac arrest several months ago, and he instinctively grabbed a suction tool to clear the man’s airway. The device failed to turn on, so Sapien picked up another. When it also failed, he reached for a third. When that one...
Gregory Washington joined the Marines at 18 and fought in the Gulf War, only to return—traumatized, unemployed, adrift—to an America that seemed as unfamiliar and daunting to him as the places he encountered overseas. It took Washington years to find a family-sustaining job, secure his disability...
Among the handful of neurologically impaired patients in Judy Danella’s care one day last week were three so ill that they struggled just to swallow. She fed each of them in turn, delivering spoonful after spoonful of pureed food, patiently nourishing them toward better health even...
The United Steelworkers (USW) mounted tireless battles for fair trade and other lifelines that helped to keep McLouth Steel open during the 1980s, enabling Jay McMurran and thousands of other Michigan workers to raise families and build pensions amid one of the nation’s worst economic crises. Recognizing that...
Hundreds of Boston school bus drivers stood to lose their jobs when COVID-19 closed the city’s schools in 2020. But instead of giving up on drivers, André François and other leaders of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 8751 collaborated with with Marty Walsh, then the mayor of...
Brad Greve said he and other expedition leaders repeatedly told the group of Boy Scouts to watch out for a section of stream where the water picked up speed and swept over rapids into the lake below. But two of the boys forgot the warnings and...
Mark Glyptis and dozens of other union leaders went into contract negotiations with Cleveland-Cliffs last year determined not only to win wage and benefit enhancements for their co-workers but to protect thousands of family-sustaining steel mill jobs for years to come. The United Steelworkers (USW) negotiating...
Cliff Carlton was the 10th of 11 children and one of three still living at home when his father, a coal miner, died unexpectedly at 67. Only his dad’s Social Security benefits, along with vegetables from the family’s small farm in southwestern Virginia, kept the household...