More than 5,800 warehouse workers at the Bessemer, Ala., Amazon facility are voting this month on whether to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. Supporters are protesting in solidarity with those workers. Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Construction workers are on the job in Simi Valley, Calif., earlier this week. Nationally, hiring resumed in January although the labor market still has a big hole to climb out of. Mark J. Terrill/AP hide caption
Tekiah Elzey is using Coworker.org to petition for hazard pay to be restored at the New Seasons Market where she works in Portland, Ore. Chloe Meeske hide caption
An employee of Tokyo Electric Power Co. works at Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant to decontaminate the area after the 2011 nuclear meltdown. A Vietnamese laborer in Japan on a training program says he was also put to work cleaning up the site, but with inadequate gear. Christopher Furlong/Getty Images hide caption
South Korea's parliament has shortened the maximum workweek amid the country's low birth and productivity rates. Workers are seen here at a factory in Ansan, South Korea, in 2015. Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters hide caption
Cesar Chavez, the head of the United Farm Workers Union, calls for the resignation of Walter Kintz, the first legal counsel for the state Agriculture Labor Relations Board, in Sacramento, Calif., on Sept. 16, 1975. Chavez's efforts in California culminated in landmark legislation that protected the rights of the state's farmworkers and created the ALRB. AP hide caption
People demonstrate in Le Havre, in northwestern France, on Thursday. A series of protests and strikes have been held over the past few months, to oppose a government plan to change France's labor law. Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Graduate workers rally in 2014 at Columbia University for the ability to unionize. Tiffany Yee-Vo/Graduate Workers of Columbia-UAW hide caption
Florida tomato pickers' fight for fair wages and better working conditions became a topic at Wednesday night's Democratic debate in Miami between Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. Joe Raedle/Getty Images hide caption
Supporters cheer during a meeting Monday when the Seattle City Council voted to approve a measure that would allow ride-sharing drivers for Uber and other ride services to unionize. Matt Mills McKnight/Reuters/Landov hide caption
Los Angeles is a sprawling metropolis, and it was poised to become a manufacturing giant because of its unique geography. John Francis Peters for NPR & Shereen Marisol Meraji/NPR hide caption
Hillary Clinton addresses the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME, during its National Leadership Conference in 2007. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images hide caption