Long live the fourth estate! A free and independent news media is indispensable.

The Higgins Labor Program relies on the paid and volunteer work of the many reporters, columnists, bloggers, academics, and advocates who publish breaking news, sage opinions, and analytical research on “the labor question” in all its manifestations — strikes, lockouts, and union-management relations; the contested cultures and customs of the paid and unpaid workplace; the evolution of the employment contract in law, policy, and practice; and the complicated, contingent relationships of class to race, gender, sexuality, religion, ethnicity, and place.

While traditional newspapers such as The New York Times and opinion journals like The Nation still play a fundamental role in disseminating labor news, the “labor beat” assignment at daily U.S. newspapers and weekly magazines has declined precipitously in tandem with the decline of organized labor over the past forty years. Consequently, the following web-based resources have become increasingly important to the project of informing and educating the general public on the ever-changing world of work, workers, and workplaces.

The Higgins labor program’s top five web-based labor news sources:

On Labor: Workers, Unions, and Politics is a blog founded by Benjamin Sachs and Jack Goldsmith featuring a daily digest of American labor news culled from mainstream news sources such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, as well as commentary provided by a team of close to twenty contributors.

Politico’s Morning Shift offers a daily news briefing on American labor politics and employment policy. Billed as “[y]our daily speed read on labor and employment policy,” it provides a full digest of the day’s labor news with links to original sources, usually national newspapers and magazines.

Working In These Times is a blog project of the venerable Chicago-based democratic socialist magazine In These Times. It provides independent coverage of the labor movement as well as the concerns of working people more generally. With fifteen contributors, Working In These Times offers stories and perspectives missing from the mainstream media.

Occasional Links and Commentary is the blog of the prolific David Ruccio, award-winning author and professor of economics at the University of Notre Dame. Ruccio’s focus is economics in theory and practice, with a particular concern on problems of labor, class, inequality, and power.

The Onion, billing itself as “America’s Finest News Source,” is actually the country’s finest satirical website. Sharp and spot-on in their takedowns of mainstream media, electoral and office politics, consumer and management cultures, and the contemporary workplace, The Onion‘s fake news stories speak truth to power via laughter.