A Wider Labor World

Regular readers of this newspaper in recent weeks may have noticed coverage of private-sector unions that not that long ago rarely were featured in these pages. The change may seem particularly noticeable in this week’s edition, which contains front-page articles on the plight of taxi workers and their union and a battle between a construction-laborers union and the Federal Government over whether secondary pickets of an employer are protected by the First Amendment.

The rationale for expanding our coverage, even as we continue to bill ourselves as “the civil employees weekly,” pivots on the common ground often occupied by private- and public-sector workers. It could be seen in a recent story about an ASPCA Special Agent who died of a cancer she contracted working in the vicinity of the World Trade Center site, and her son’s benefitting from the same Victim Compensation Fund that has helped many public employees and their families.