On a bone-chilling November day as rain fell, a member of UE Local 234 stood on the picket line during a strike against Fairbanks Scales to demand better wages and affordable health insurance. Saint Johnsbury—in Vermont's economically depressed Northeast Kingdom—has been more or less a company town for more than a century. With jobs scarce, and union jobs even scarcer, the risk of striking was significant and the eventual agreement hard-won.
During the civil war that razed El Salvador in the 1980, militant labor formed an critical part of the resistance against US-backed military and death squads. There, membership in a union carried risks that included kidnapping and assassination.