Above Photo: Non-profit employees, such as these workers at Capital Roots, are increasingly looking for union representation. Makayla Wahaus / Cody Bloomfield. Makayla Wahaus and her co-workers are part of a trend in the union movement. Employees at nonprofits including human service agencies, museums, think tanks and other such organizations are starting to look to traditional labor unions as a way of improving their finances and, they say, democratizing their workplaces. Makayla Wahaus’ journey to union activism started at Rensselaear Polytechnic Institute where she was a physics major. A course on food systems sparked an interest in social problems like food […]
Workers
268 posts
Above Photo: A separate AFSCME Local 2822 workers protest 2020. Minneapolis, Minnesota – On June 22 union leaders from AFSCME Local 2822, representing 1300 clerical workers at Hennepin County, crashed the State of the County Address demanding, “Stop retaliation against union activists now! End racism, sexism, ageism at work!” While managers patted each other on the back and reconnected after two years of hiding at home, union leaders confronted public officials with signs and informational flyers. Workers are demanding the bosses stop targeting union stewards and activists. Bosses began targeting three union leaders in January 2022. The first was Irish Gauna, […]
Above photo: Picket by RMT Network Rail Signallers outside Carlisle Power Box – Network Rail North West and Central Region. Via RMT. And anti-worker policies. Rail workers across the UK are unhappy with the rail authorities’ insensitivity towards their demand for an increase in wages, as well as plans to implement austerity measures that will lead to forced redundancies. As working class sections and low income households in the UK are suffering from the ongoing cost of living crisis, rail workers are organizing a massive mobilization against proposed austerity measures and job cuts. Over 50,000 rail workers of 13 train operating […]
Valentín, the man next to us in line as we made our way across the international border, asked what we had been doing in Tijuana. We had been at the Workers Summit of the Americas, organized as an alternative to Biden’s Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles. Our summit was as a place where countries besieged by and barred from the US could participate and was held in cooperation with a kindred counter-summit in Los Angeles. Valentín, who had been born in Mexico and spent most of his working life in the United States, had seen the border from both perspectives. He […]
Above Photo: Participants in the Workers’ Summit of the Americas. We, representatives of Trade Union, Peasant, Political and Social organizations, gathered in Tijuana – Mexico, June 10-12, 2022, on the occasion of the realization of the Summit of the Americas of the Working Men and Women Workers, in immediate response to the exclusion of Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua imposed by the Government of the United States. There is a systemic and structural crisis of capitalism in its imperialist phase. It is in itself a civilizational crisis. The capitalist economic model and its political arm neoliberalism, as well as its modern cultural […]
Above Photo: The president of the AFSCME, Lee Saunders, said Colorado county workers now have ‘the freedom to negotiate to improve their lives and strengthen the public services they provide’. Bonnie Cash / UPI/Rex/Shutterstock. ‘Workers are winning.’ Thousands of municipal workers have won the right to form unions but law stops short of allowing them to strike. Labor unions have been fighting to secure the right to unionize and collectively bargain for more than 250,000 public sector workers at cities, schools, colleges and counties in Colorado. Today, 24 US states, including Colorado, prohibit or limit collective bargaining rights for public sector workers, resulting in […]
Above Photo: Rail workers at London King’s Cross station (WSWS) “We Need To Unite Across All The Rail Companies. The Union Is Not Fighting For Us.” Rail workers across London spoke to campaign teams from the World Socialist Web Site ahead of the largest national rail strike since 1989. 50,000 members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union will strike on June 21, 23 and 25, against wage, job and pension cuts. The government is planning an historic attack on the industry under its “Great British Railways” scheme. RMT and Unite members on the London Underground and train drivers represented […]
Above Photo: UAW members who manufacture Case and New Holland equipment say they were inspired by last year’s strike at John Deere. UAW Region 4. Eleven hundred workers who manufacture agricultural and construction equipment for CNH Industrial in Burlington, Iowa, and Racine, Wisconsin, have been on strike since May 2. At the core of the strike is the company’s three-tier pay system. Workers hired before 1996 make $6 to $8 more per hour than those hired after 2004; those hired between 1996 and 2004 earn somewhere in between. Workers want to see at least the bottom tier abolished. Workers are also […]
Above Photo: United Electrical Workers. Wharton, New Jersey – 240 workers at a Refresco bottling plant in Wharton, New Jersey won their election for union recognition May 21. After two years of intense struggle and against all of the dirty tricks the boss could muster, these workers have made it clear that they won’t back down until they get what’s right. Workers at the Wharton plant began organizing in February 2020. They had faced years of abusive supervisors, poor safety conditions, low wages, and an unforgiving attendance and scheduling system. Anthony Sanchez, an employee at the plant for 15 years, said he […]
Above Photo: Raise Up / Fight for $15 and a Union. Employees of the national chain are protesting for better pay and protections on the job. Dollar General workers from across the country will be rallying at Peay Park on May 25 near its headquarters in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, during the company’s 2022 annual shareholders’ meeting. After years of being ignored, Dollar General workers are making their voices heard—by the retail chain’s executives, shareholders, and the public. Mary Gundel, thirty-three, started working as a store manager at a Dollar General store in Albany, Georgia, in February 2019. After working there for a year, […]
Above Photo: Workers in Twin Cities hospitals are preparing to strike. Fight Back! News / staff. Minneapolis, Minnesota – On Tuesday May 24, over 500 mental health workers will walk off the jobs at three hospitals in the Minneapolis metro area. The striking groups include mental health coordinators and psych techs, along with other job classes that perform mental health work. All three of the groups have organized and joined SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa (SEIU HCMNIA) in the last eight months and are fighting for their first contract. They work at Allina Health’s Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, Allina Health’s […]
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION. The Workers Summit of the Americas meeting, in Tijuana, Mexico, offers a space to join with all the peoples of “Our Americas.” We will counteract the OAS Summit of the Americas organized by the U.S. Department of State in Los Angeles. The countries of the continent besieged by the USA (Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, among others) will not participate in the OAS farce. The Workers’ Summit gives us the opportunity to invite our comrades in struggle from North America who want to participate. Tijuana is a meeting place with the progressive forces of the South and the […]
Above photo: Southern Workers Assembly School, April 29-May 1, Durham, North Carolina. SWA. Under the slogan “Build the Workers Assembly Movement! Organize the South!” nearly 80 workers from eight Southern states gathered in Durham, North Carolina, for a Southern Workers Assembly Organizing School over the weekend of April 29 to May 1. Workers came to the School from Atlanta; New Orleans; Charleston, South Carolina; Richmond and Tidewater, Virginia; Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham, Asheville and Eastern North Carolina; northern Kentucky; and elsewhere. Over the last year, the network of areas building Workers Assemblies across the South has grown substantially to include nine different […]
In 2015, countries participating in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change rallied around preventing the rise in average global temperatures beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius. With an average rise of 1.5–2.0 degrees, scientists predict 70–90% loss of coral reefs globally, an explosion of natural disaster–related deaths, and displacement of up to 1.2 billion people by 2050. We already stand at an increase in average global temperatures of 1.2 degrees Celsius since the Industrial Revolution and, according to the World Meteorological Organization, there is now a 40% chance that the world will see average global temperatures increase to 1.5 degrees in […]
Above Photo: Construction workers wearing masks work on a road in SoHo on May 28, 2020 in New York City. Alexi Rosenfeld / Getty Images. They’re Required To Work As A Condition Of Release From Prison. Then The Construction Industry Targets Them For Exploitation. Bernard Callegari, a member of the Construction and Building Laborers’ Local 79 union in New York City, argues that every laborer in his craft jurisdiction deserves to work safely, with dignity and a fair wage. This is why he knew the union needed to take action when its members began to notice that a particular kind of worker was being taken advantage […]
Starbucks workers in Eugene, Oregon have gone on strike against union busting and the unlawful firing of three union organizers. Starbucks workers at a location in Eugene, Oregon went on strike on Tuesday to protest the union busting at their location and the unlawful firing of three organizers. The workers at this Starbucks store voted 17-0 in favor of unionizing. They are part of the massive Starbucks unionization wave, with 70 other stores nationwide winning union elections and over 250 stores filing to unionize. . Starbucks, however, is doing everything it can to stop this wave. As Starbucks Workers United described in a […]
Apple workers took us inside their drive to unionize at the richest company in the world. Towson, Maryland – Apple Store workers in Maryland are attempting to form the company’s first U.S. union. They join two other stores, one in Atlanta and one in NYC, in their efforts to unionize. We spoke to the Apple retail workers leading the drive to unionize the Towson Mall store. Below is a full transcript of the video: Kevin Gallagher: We talk about this country as like a place where democracy thrives, but we work 80% of our lives in an environment where we have […]
Above Photo: Derek Gee / Buffalo News. Starbucks workers in Buffalo, New York went on strike to call out the company’s union busting tactics. Let’s make this happen at every Starbucks in the country. Buffalo, New York – On Thursday, workers at a downtown Starbucks in Buffalo, New York went on strike after the company announced it was planning to withhold proposed wage increases and benefits from employees at newly unionized stores. The one-day strike, which shut down the entire store, was a direct response to the announcement by CEO Howard Schultz that proposed raises and benefit increases at corporate-owned Starbucks […]
Above photo: Digital Trends. One of Germany’s biggest trade unions has called strikes at seven branches of online retailer Amazon. Germany is Amazon’s second-biggest market behind the United States, where the company is headquartered. The German trade union Verdi on Monday launched strikes at seven Amazon locations across the country, with up to 2,500 workers demanding higher wages and better protection of their personal data. A Verdi spokesman said strikes were underway at the two distribution centers in Bad Hersfeld as well as in Koblenz, Leipzig, Rheinberg, Graben and Werne. Some strikes would last several days, he said. Amazon has 17 distribution sites […]
Most young people in South Africa do not have a job and are, under current circumstances, unlikely to ever have one. For years, deindustrialization and the collapse of mining laid waste to unionized jobs. Now state austerity is hacking away at the public sector. Many of the few new jobs that are being created are poorly paid, precarious and not well unionized. Some of this can be ascribed to powerful global forces that are difficult for any state to resist. And the deep structural features of our society were built by colonialism and are so entrenched that they cannot easily be […]
Undeterred, Smalls wants all American workers to have access to the organizing strategies that resulted in his union’s historic win. The improbable April 1 victory of Amazon workers in Staten Island, who fought for over two years to establish the very first union at the retail behemoth, is inspiring other Amazon employees around the country and highlighting a new path forward for the labor movement. It may also reignite labor organizing at Walmart, where workers seeking to form unions have been thwarted for decades. More than two years after Amazon employee Christian Smalls led a small walkout at JFK8, the company’s sprawling […]
Above Photo: Amazon workers and labor supporters rallied in front the LDJ5 Staten Island warehouse ahead of a union vote, April 24, 2022. Ben Fractenberg / The City. Out of nearly 1,000 ballots cast at the LDJ5 warehouse, just 380 supported joining the Amazon Labor Union. ALU made history last month with a scrappy campaign that defeated the e-commerce giant at a neighboring warehouse. Amazon workers at a Staten Island distribution center who sought to join a union fell short of the needed votes — failing to repeat the history-making win of colleagues at a facility across the street, in a setback for […]
This past weekend, workers around the world celebrated May Day, also called Labor Day and International Workers Day. May Day marks the accomplishments and contributions of workers and reminds them of their rights. Clearing the FOG spoke with Stephanie Basile and Brittany Carloni of News Guild, part of the Communications Workers of America, about the many victories they have had in organizing media outlets over the past five years. They use a model that can be replicated everywhere of training member organizers and connecting them with other shops across the country to build a powerful labor movement that is democratic. Stephanie […]
Above photo: Demolition drive by Chandigarh administration in progress at Colony No. 4, Industrial Area, Chandigarh on Sunday. Jasbir Malhi. Large Scale Slum Demolitions in Chandigarh. On May 1, in the presence of heavy police force, demolition squads of Chandigarh swooped on huts and houses of colony number 4, Industrial Area Phase 1. The homes and hearths of nearly 5000 people, all of them from the poorest sections of one of the most affluent cities of India, were destroyed within a few hours. Many of those removed have been living in this 40 year old colony for decades and have never […]
Above Photo: California’s Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act would hold corporate franchisers legally liable for their franchisees—and create a type of workers’ council to set industry-wide policy. Jeffrey Greenberg / Universal Images Group Via Getty Images. Less Than 3 Percent Of Fast Food Workers And Less Than 1 Percent Of Nail Salon Workers Are Unionized. Workers’ Councils Could Give Them A Seat At The Table. Folsom, California - After a pharmacist tells Maria Bernal in January she probably has Covid-19, Bernal goes to the Jack in the Box fast food restaurant where she works with a fever and chills. She can […]
Above photo: Phakamile Hlubi-Majola on Twitter. After a year of ongoing crisis, Peoples Dispatch looks back on some of the most important labor struggles of this past year. Working people across the globe are gearing up celebrate International Worker’s Day this May 1. Workers have been participating in monumental struggles since the previous year’s May Day, making this year’s celebration well-deserved. Peoples Dispatch looks back on some of the most important labor struggles of this past year: In Colombia, the National Strike Committee (CNP), which brought together diverse groups of social movements, organizations and trade unions, presented ten bills in Congress, which included […]
Above photo: Luigi Morris. Despite being illegally terminated, Starbucks workers from Memphis, Tennessee and other cities across the country are fighting to unionize and win back their jobs. On Friday afternoon two fired Starbucks workers, Beto Sanchez and Lakota McGlawn, joined activists for a rally and press conference in front of the posh Greenwich Village penthouse of Starbucks CEO and founder Howard Schultz. The speakers — who were fired in February for attempting to organize their Starbucks store in Memphis, Tennessee — are demanding that they and their fellow workers immediately be reinstated, and that Starbucks end its union busting tactics. […]
Above Photo: Indiana University graduate student Pat Wall leads chants Thursday, April 14, 2021, with the crowd gathered at the Sample Gates during a demonstration in support of the graduate student workers’ strike. Bloomington, Indiana – As the graduate worker strike at Indiana University extends into finals week, some faculty members and students plan to take bold measures against the administration to show their solidarity. On Tuesday, graduate students who are part of the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition voted to extend the graduate student workers’ strike through May 3. The extension was supported by 867 votes, a 95.7% majority. Since the strike’s beginning on April 13, graduate […]
Above Photo: Miguel Candela / SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images From Activision To Amazon, Historic Union Elections Are Changing The Way That Americans Think About Work. Now, Apple Is The Next Tech Giant To Reckon With An Employee-Driven Labor Movement. New York City, New York – From Activision to Amazon, historic union elections are changing the way that Americans think about work. Now, Apple is the next tech giant to reckon with an employee-driven labor movement. Calling themselves the Fruit Stand Workers United (FSWU), employees at Apple’s Grand Central Terminal retail location launched a website designed to educate their fellow workers about why they want to unionize […]
Above Photo: The Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition said they’ll strike for at least a week, but could extend it if a majority of the union vote in favor. Justin Hicks / IPB News. Bloomington, Indiana – Around 1,000 graduate student workers at Indiana University’s Bloomington campus are on strike to demand the school recognize them as a union. But the school said it has no intention of bargaining with the group – and no legal obligation to do so. The Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition-United Electrical Workers began the week-long strike on Wednesday. The strike includes in-person picket lines and labor education events […]
Above Photo: Shutterstock. When Women Who Sew Clothes For Famous Brands Are Harassed, There Is A New Place For Them To Turn. Maseru, Lesotho - When Nthabiseng Moshoeshoe’s supervisor told her he loved her, they were alone in a room where they both worked at a blue jeans factory in Maseru, the capital of Lesotho, she says. It was early 2021. She was emptying the garbage. He said she was beautiful, that he wanted to be with her, says Moshoeshoe, who is going by a pseudonym to protect her safety and job security. “Let’s keep this professional,” she remembers telling him back. “I pushed him away gently.” But […]
Above Photo: Luigi Morris Luxury building workers and doormen from at least 3,000 buildings in New York City rallied on Wednesday and authorized a strike if they do not reach a deal on a new collective bargaining agreement. Thousands of porters, doorpersons, superintendents, concierges, and handypersons with SEIU Local 32BJ gathered on Park Avenue in Manhattan on Wednesday for a rally to demand a fair contract. These essential residential workers are currently in contract negotiations with the Real Estate Advisory Board and are demanding wage increases and fully employer-paid health insurance for their families. The workers also raised the slogan of […]
Above Photo: Amazon employees on strike outside a warehouse in Saran, France, last month. Mourad Guichard / Reuters Fighting for wage increases that at least keep pace with inflation, workers at Amazon in France are expanding their strike across the country. A strike by Amazon workers in France resumed in earnest on Tuesday, April 5, and extended to all Amazon sites across the country. “Management offered us a 3 percent increase, but we want at least 5 percent,” Antoine Delorme of the CGT Amazon trade union at Châlons-sur-Saône told Révolution Permanente. This is happening in the context of compulsory annual negotiations (NAO) […]
In a clear signal to the workers of Europe, railroad workers in Greece managed to block a shipment of U.S. tanks to Ukraine for more than two weeks. Workers at TrainOSE, a Greek railroad company, have been refusing to transport U.S. tanks destined for Ukraine from Alexandroupoli, a port in the northern part of the country. After workers there refused, bosses tried to force railroad workers from elsewhere to take on the work. “For about two weeks now,” the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) said in a statement, “there has been pressure on the employees of the engine room in Thessaloniki to […]
Above Photo: Amazon Labor Union worker-organizers celebrated their 2,654-2,131 win today. Eduardo Munoz Alvarez / AP Photo. It’s the magical stuff of Disney movies. But yesterday, the improbable became the most probable when the scrappy band of workers who make up the Amazon Labor Union took the lead in a union election at a warehouse in Staten Island, New York, putting within reach a historic labor win at the corporate behemoth. Before the vote count most reporters had dismissed the independent union’s chances, treating the organizing as a curiosity at best. “I think we have been overlooked,” said ALU Treasurer Madeline Wesley Thursday […]
Above Photo: Amazon workers celebrate following the April 1, 2022, vote for the unionization of the Amazon Staten Island warehouse in New York. Andrea Renault / AFP Via Getty Images. Workers Flipped The Script On The E-Commerce Giant By Turning Anti-Union Tactics Into Organizing Opportunities. Amazon workers in Staten Island, N.Y., astonished the world last week when they voted to form the first-ever U.S. union at the e‑commerce behemoth, which is known for ferociously opposing its workers’ efforts to organize. The Amazon Labor Union (ALU), which won the effort at the JFK8 fulfillment center, had been targeted by such anti-union efforts, and […]
Above Photo: Members of the National Union of Mineworkers and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa rally Nov. 17, 2018, against government plans to close five coal-fired power stations and offer contracts for privatized renewable energy. IndustriALL. Can South Africa Transition From A Reliance On Coal To Clean Power While Maintaining Jobs? The Energy Workers Fighting For A Just Transition Think So. The lights went out around Johannesburg on a Monday morning in November 2021, not to flicker back on until early that Friday in some areas. It marked the last rolling blackout of a year troubled by more outages than any in recent […]
Health workers in major public hospitals in Haiti continue to strike over bad working conditions. Others join them to protest a hike in gang violence and kidnappings. Health workers in major public hospitals in Haiti have reasserted their intention to continue striking on 28 March, citing lack of action by the Ministry of Health (MoH) on their earlier demands. Nurses, physicians, lab workers and other health professionals at the Haitian State University Hospital and Justinien Hospital among other places, began to strike near the end of February. They intend to continue the action until demands are met. The workers are asking […]
Above Photo: Dock workers mobilize in the Genoa port. (USB). Working class formations in Italy have mobilized on numerous occasions to block the transit of arms through Italian ports and airstrips and protest the complicity of the Italian government in imperialist wars. On March 31, dock workers of the Italian port of Genoa observed a 24-hour strike protesting the usage of the port for the transit of arms which are likely to be used in deadly imperialist wars going across the world. The call of the strike was given by USB Italia trade union. Activists from various left, anti-war groups including Potere al Popolo participated […]
Above Photo: Amazon Labor Union organizers are celebrating tonight. It looks like they are on their way to the country’s first-ever Amazon warehouse union election victory. Luis Feliz Leon. While Bessemer Re-Vote Is Too Close To Call. IT’S OFFICIAL! Workers at Amazon’s Staten Island JFK8 facility form the first Amazon union in the U.S.! Solidarity with Amazon workers. Every worker deserves a union! ✊🏾@amazonlabor #ALUfortheWin pic.twitter.com/dT469KuMdj — Left Voice (@left_voice) April 1, 2022 In initial vote tallies today, Amazon warehouse workers in New York are ahead by hundreds of votes in favor of forming a union, while in Alabama the election […]
Above Photo: The Amazon Labor Union projected a message on the wall of the warehouse. Reaching 8,000 co-workers to make the case for the union and counter Amazon’s union-busting messages is a tall order for the grassroots organizing committee. New York City (Staten Island), New York – As the country cheers on Starbucks workers organizing, the votes will be counted this week in two big union drives at Amazon warehouses—one in Alabama and one in New York. Voting concluded March 25 in Bessemer, Alabama, after mail-in ballots were sent in early February to more than 6,100 workers who are deciding whether […]
Above Photo: Nurse Tiia Virta works in the intensive care unit of Oulu University Hospital, one of the hospitals that will go on strike as of April 1. Paulus Markkula / Yle. Worker’s unions in Finland’s social and health care services demand immediate staff recruitments and pay increase. Finland – 25,000 health care workers from six hospital districts represented by the Finnish Union of Practical Nurses (SuPer) and the Union of Health and Social Care Professionals (TEHY) are all set to go on strike starting on April 1. Unions are demanding immediate staff recruitments to solve an acute staff shortage in […]
At Chicago’s Public Broadcasting Station (PBS) affiliate, WTTW (Window to the World), two dozen broadcast technicians have been on strike since March 16 in a battle to preserve their jobs and safeguard quality media production. The walkout marks the first work stoppage in the station’s 67-year history. The strikers — members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 1220 — include camera operators, editors, graphic artists, lighting technicians and audio professionals who do the behind-the-scenes work producing local news and documentary programs for WTTW, including the nightly news broadcast Chicago Tonight. The union and management have been in contract negotiations since May of last year. “While the world got to work […]
Above Photo: Demonstrators support the nationwide two-day strike in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, March 29, 2022. (AP Photo / Altaf Qadri). Tens of millions of workers across India participated in a two-day general strike Monday and Tuesday against the class-war, “pro-investor” policies of the far-right, Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. Many workers did so in the face of government and management threats of disciplinary action, even firing. The strike impacted all parts of India, from Assam in the northeast and Punjab in the northwest, to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in the south, as millions of workers in road transport, […]
Above Photo: Mindy Schauer. (Orange County Register / SCNG). Tens of thousands of workers at grocery stores in Southern California have voted to authorize walkouts if their demands for higher wages are not met. Over 47,000 grocery store workers in Southern California have voted to Authorize Walkouts after contract negotiations have stalled. Despite reaping huge profits during the pandemic, the supermarket executives are refusing to meet workers’ demands for increased wages, higher minimum hours for part-time workers, and health and safety committees at stores. A strike would include workers at over 500 Krogers, Ralphs, Albertsons, Vons, and Pavilions supermarkets. These workers currently make […]
The Minneapolis Teachers’ Strike Isn’t Over Until The Workers Decide It’s Over By Tatiana Cozzarelli, Left Voice. March 26, 2022 The Minneapolis Teachers’ Strike Isn’t Over Until The Workers Decide It’s Over2022-03-262022-03-26https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.pngPopularResistance.Orghttps://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2022/03/20220326-4.jpg200px200px Above Photo: Luigi Morris, 2022. The Minneapolis Public School District reached a tentative agreement with the teachers’ union and only a few hours later, called families and teachers to say the strike is over. But teachers have the right to read the proposed agreement, discuss and decide. The strike isn’t over until rank and file teachers say it is. As Minneapolis teachers are nearing the end of the third […]
Bessemer Alabama Amazon Workers Continue Struggle to Unionize By Saladin Muhammad, Black Agenda Report. March 25, 2022 Bessemer Alabama Amazon Workers Continue Struggle to Unionize2022-03-252022-03-25https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.pngPopularResistance.Orghttps://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2022/03/20220325-5.jpg200px200px Above Photo: Amazon union supporter in Bessemer, Alabama, 2021 (William Thornton / al.com). Amazon union supporter in Bessemer, Alabama, 2021 (Photo: William Thornton/al.com) The mostly Black labor force at an Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama will have a second opportunity to vote for unionization. Bessemer, Alabama – The second Bessemer Alabama Amazon workers and Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) labor board union vote will be counted starting on March 28th. It comes as […]
Chevron Workers Strike To Demand Higher Wages, Shorter Work Hours March 22, 2022 Chevron Workers Strike To Demand Higher Wages, Shorter Work Hours2022-03-222022-03-22https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.pngPopularResistance.Orghttps://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2022/03/20220322.png200px200px Above Photo: Richmond Chevron workers. USW Local 5 Facebook page. Nearly 600 oil workers at Chevron’s Richmond, California refinery walked out on strike early Monday morning after rejecting two local contract proposals pushed by the United Steelworkers (USW) union. The refinery workers are demanding higher wages, shorter work hours and better health and safety protections after laboring up to 70 hours a week and risking their lives as “essential workers” throughout the pandemic. The strike by the Chevron […]
Overland Park Starbucks Workers Walk Out On Strike Saturday March 20, 2022 Overland Park Starbucks Workers Walk Out On Strike Saturday2022-03-202022-03-20https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.pngPopularResistance.Orghttps://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2022/03/20220320.jpg200px200px Above Photo: Pro-union pins sit on a table during a watch party for Starbucks’ employees union election, Dec. 9, 2021, in Buffalo, N.Y. Starbucks has fired seven employees who were leading an effort to unionize a Memphis, Tennessee, store. The Seattle coffee giant said Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022 that the employees violated company policy by reopening a store after closing time and inviting non-employees to come inside and move throughout the store, including behind the counter and in back rooms. […]
Italian Airport Workers Stop Arms Shipment To Ukraine By Simon Zinnstein, Left Voice. March 20, 2022 Italian Airport Workers Stop Arms Shipment To Ukraine2022-03-202022-03-20https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.pngPopularResistance.Orghttps://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2022/03/20220320-4.jpg200px200px Under Guise Of “Humanitarian Aid”. In Italy, workers discovered that weapons were being shipped to Ukraine under the pretense of sending “humanitarian aid” and have refused to hand them over. Their example should serve as a model for all workers on how to take action against the war. The war in Ukraine is causing more and more saber-rattling in the U.S. and Europe. As many countries massively ramp up their own military budgets, many more still are […]
Excluded Workers Shut Down Brooklyn And Manhattan Bridges…Again! By Angeles Solis, Make The Road NY. March 16, 2022 Excluded Workers Shut Down Brooklyn And Manhattan Bridges…Again!2022-03-162022-03-16https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.pngPopularResistance.Orghttps://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2022/03/220316-2.jpg200px200px New York City – This, hundreds of excluded workers, elected officials, and allies took over the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. They raised the heat on the demands for an additional $3 billion for the Excluded Workers Fund in the state budget and the first ever “Excluded Worker Unemployment Program” in the country which would provide compensation to workers who have lost a job or income and are ineligible for unemployment insurance. More than 130,000 people […]
In Solidarity With Haitian Workers And Migrants By Black Alliance for Peace. March 16, 2022 In Solidarity With Haitian Workers And Migrants2022-03-162022-03-16https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.pngPopularResistance.Orghttps://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2022/03/220316-1.png200px200px Above Photo: Haitian garment workers protesting in Port-au-Prince (Reuters). Statement Of The Black Alliance For Peace Haiti/Americas Committee. The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) declares its support for garment workers in Haiti and stands with the Haitian people who, migrating from the country for economic or political reasons, have faced racism, hostility, and terror abroad. We also condemn the neo-colonial political economic policies of the U.S. government, its international allies, and the multinational corporations who have created Haiti’s imperial […]
Congress Screws American Workers To Escalate War On Russia By Max Blumenthal, The Grayzone. March 13, 2022 Congress Screws American Workers To Escalate War On Russia2022-03-132022-03-13https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.pngPopularResistance.Orghttps://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2022/03/220313-7.jpg200px200px As Gas Prices And Inflation Surge, Max Blumenthal Questions Members Of Congress On The Economic Toll American Workers Face From Escalating Sanctions On Russia, And On Their Support For Escalating The War In Ukraine. On March 8, as the Russian military operation inside Ukraine expanded, President Joseph Biden announced a total ban on Russian oil to the United States, sending oil prices to record highs. “Today I am announcing that the United States is […]
Wexner Center For The Arts Workers Want To Unionize By Sheridan Hendrix, Portside. March 10, 2022 Wexner Center For The Arts Workers Want To Unionize2022-03-102022-03-10https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.pngPopularResistance.Orghttps://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2022/03/220309-10.jpg200px200px Above Photo: Museum staff announced their intent to unionize in a letter to the Wexner Center for the Arts and Ohio State leaders on Friday. Chris Burden. As Union Membership Hits Historic Low. Staff at the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University have announced plans to form a union with the hope of making the museum an “equitable, transparent and sustainable workplace.” Wex Workers United sent a letter to Wexner Center and university leaders Friday asking them to recognize their new […]
Pew Survey: Workers Who Quit A Job In 2021 By Kim Parker And Juliana Menasce Horowitz, Pew Research Center. March 10, 2022 Pew Survey: Workers Who Quit A Job In 20212022-03-102022-03-10https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.pngPopularResistance.Orghttps://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2022/03/220310.jpg200px200px Above Photo: Getty Images. The Majority Cite Low Pay, No Opportunities For Advancement, Feeling Disrespected. The COVID-19 Pandemic Set Off Nearly Unprecedented Churn In The U.S. Labor Market. Widespread Job Losses In The Early Months Of The Pandemic Gave Way To Tight Labor Markets In 2021, Driven In Part By What’s Come To Be Known As The Great Resignation. The Nation’s “Quit Rate” Reached A 20-Year High Last November. A New Pew Research Center Survey Finds That […]
US Sanctions: An Act Of War Against Workers By G. Dunkel, Workers World. March 10, 2022 US Sanctions: An Act Of War Against Workers2022-03-102022-03-10https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.pngPopularResistance.Orghttps://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2022/03/220310-3.jpg200px200px Above Photo: An exterior view shows Russia’s Central Bank headquarters in Moscow, Russia March 29, 2021. Maxim Shemetov / Reuters. Mass media in the United States and throughout the countries of Western Europe are exhaustively and intensely depicting the suffering of the Ukrainian people as Ukraine confronts the Russian army. It is the U.S. and its NATO proxy who have now broadened the war being fought in Ukraine. What the media is not covering is the impact […]
Minnesota Workers United Organizes Support For Upcoming Teachers’ Strike March 7, 2022 Minnesota Workers United Organizes Support For Upcoming Teachers’ Strike2022-03-072022-03-07https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.pngPopularResistance.Orghttps://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2022/03/220307-4.jpg200px200px Above Photo: Minnesota Workers United holds a press conference in support of the upcoming teachers’ strike. Fight Back! News / staff. Minneapolis, MN – On Saturday March 5 rank-and-file union members along with parents, teachers and students held a press conference in support of the teachers, education support professionals (ESPs) and education assistants who will begin a strike Tuesday in Minneapolis and Saint Paul public schools. More than 93% of the Minneapolis educators voted to authorize the upcoming open-ended strike, […]
Workers Say They Breathe Polluted Air At ‘Green’ Insulation Facility By Mindy Isser, In These Times. March 6, 2022 Workers Say They Breathe Polluted Air At ‘Green’ Insulation Facility2022-03-062022-03-06https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.pngPopularResistance.Orghttps://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2022/03/220306-2.jpg200px200px Above Photo: Kingspan welder, Lucas Hernandez, addresses a rally to “clean up Kingspan” in front of the Delhi community center in Santa Ana, Calif., on Nov. 10, 2021. Leo Blain. Kingspan Employees In Santa Ana, California Are Demanding Improved Health Protections—And A Fair Process To Organize. As the acceptance of climate change becomes increasingly commonplace, more and more companies will be created or adapted to “fight” or “solve” it — or, at the very least, […]
More than 100 retail workers at the national outdoor gear chain Recreational Equipment, Inc. will decide whether to form a union during an in-person vote on March 2, paving the way for what could become the company’s first unionized store. The workers are campaigning to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union in order to help workers address issues related to wages, paid-time off scheduling, training and workplace safety concerns, organizers said. Union organizers announced the vote Wednesday night and records from the National Labor Relations Board confirmed the election will be held throughout the day in the breakroom of […]
Above Photo: Illustrations By Matt Rota. Maquiladora Workers In The Border City Of Mexicali Strike Against Working Conditions. Workers in the Mexican border city of Mexicali, many of them young migrant women, were fighting for their lives. It was the deadliest point of the pandemic in 2020 in one of the hardest-hit states in Mexico, Baja California. By May 2020, a local news outlet reported that 432 of the 519 Covid-19 fatalities to date had been workers in maquiladoras—assembly plants on the border that mostly supply the United States. On April 8, 2020, the Mexicali workers forced two maquiladoras of Gulfstream — a U.S. aerospace company with several active contracts with the Department of Defense— to shutter for […]
Above Photo: A US giant Amazon employee passes by its logo on the opening day of the new distribution center in Augny, eastern France, on September 23, 2021. Sebastien Bozon / AFP/ Getty Images. Three Three Union Organizers, Including Amazon Union President Chris Smalls, Were Arrested For “Trespassing.” The Biden administration has recently made proposals to strengthen unions–one suggestion includes limiting “barriers to union organizers being able to talk with employees on federal property about the benefits of organizing a union.” However, there’s the issue of what can happen on private property. Amazon has taken a firm anti-union stance and continues that streak with a new development. According […]
Above Photo: Striking Teamsters temporarily block the “Blew Crew”— out-of-staters brought to replace them—outside a Republic Services sanitation facility in Chula Vista, Calif., on Jan. 7. With Community Support. “This Contract Isn’t Everything We Believe We Deserve, But It’s Enough To Go Back To Work And Go Back To Taking Care Of Our Communities.” Chula Vista, Calif. – “Who are we?” Teamsters! “What do we want?” Contract! “When do we want it?” Now! The sanitation workers of Teamsters Local 542 were still in good voice three weeks into their strike, which began Dec. 17, 2021, even as Republic Services started bringing in nonunion out-of-staters as garbage piled up. Republic had […]
Above Photo: Close up of a group of workers working in a warehouse. Marko Geber Via Getty Images. In An Industry Plagued With Poverty Pay, Job Insecurity And Deceptive Recruitment Practices, Temp Workers Have Scant Protections. A stunning 24% of workers in the temp industry say they have had their wages stolen from them by their employers, according to a survey, released Feb. 3, that examines cycles of poverty and precarity for the industry’s disproportionately Black and Brown workers. The findings are based on surveys carried out by seven worker advocacy groups, including the National Employment Law Project (NELP) and Temp Worker Justice, across the […]
Starbucks workers are leading an electrifying drive to organize the major coffee chain, with one or often several stores announcing they’re joining this growing movement each day. Amazon workers from coast to coast are organizing to build power at one of the world’s largest and most powerful corporations. Workers in Staten Island recently filed to hold union elections at 2 warehouses. The majority Black Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama are engaged in their second union campaign, after the results of the first were tossed out based on Amazon’s egregious union busting campaign – which they continue in earnest in Bessemer, Staten Island, […]
Above Photo: “Today I believe we as workers are more united than ever,” said Alejandra Morales, SINTTIA’s principal officer, who has worked at the plant for 11 years. “Not only in Silao, but in all of Mexico.” The independent union’s landslide victory at the plant is a major breakthrough for workers seeking to break the vice grip of the employer-friendly unions that have long dominated Mexico’s labor movement. (Casa Obrera del Bajio). In A Landslide Victory Auto workers at a General Motors plant in central Mexico delivered a landslide victory to an independent union in a vote held February 1-2. It’s […]
Above Photo: Richard Bensinger (left), who is advising unionization efforts, along with baristas Casey Moore (right), Brian Murray (second from left), and Jaz Brisack (second from right), discuss their efforts to unionize three Buffalo-area stores, inside the movement’s headquarters on Oct. 28, 2021 in Buffalo, N.Y. The National Labor Relations Board is scheduled to count ballots Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021, from union elections held at three separate Starbucks stores in the Buffalo area. Two Philadelphia stores took a key step in forming a union last Friday. AP Photo / Carolyn Thompson. Workers at two Starbucks stores in Philadelphia have petitioned for […]
Above Photo: King Soopers grocery store workers strike in Highlands Ranch, Colorado in January 2022. (Hyoung Chang / MediaNews Group / the Denver Post via Getty Images) Workers at the Kroger-owned supermarket chain King Soopers were recently on strike — a public relations nightmare. The solution? Enlist Beltway spin doctors to talk about how wonderfully the company treats its employees, actually. In recent weeks, Kroger has faced a rash of negative news reports about its employees’ working and living conditions, drawn new scrutiny from lawmakers, and seen thousands of workers go on strike in Colorado — all as the company lobbies on union […]
Above Photo: A demonstrator holds a sign during a Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU)–held protest outside the Amazon BHM1 Fulfillment Center in Bessemer, Alabama, on February 6, 2021. (Elijah Nouvelage / Bloomberg via Getty Images) A year ago, all eyes were on the unionization election at Amazon’s warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, where illegal union suppression tactics by Amazon helped sink the drive. Thanks to a court order, that vote is about to be rerun. It’s a moment of increased bargaining power for the US working class. Workers on the order of millions are quitting their jobs and finding new ones that […]
Above Photo: Last September, a crane overturned onto a truck at the Valley Proteins plant in Fayetteville, North Carolina, crushing the cab and injuring the driver. The incident came weeks after two workers were killed at the same facility. Chris Hollis. Valley Proteins, the Virginia-based rendering company at the center of an ongoing union organizing effort and a large class action lawsuit over alleged wage theft, has been sold. On Dec. 28, sustainable food processing multinational Darling Ingredients, headquartered in Texas, announced it was acquiring the privately owned Valley Proteins in a $1.1 billion deal. But current and former Valley Proteins employees are […]
Above photo: The U.S. Supreme Court is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, Saturday, July 10, 2021. AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana. The Supreme Court, in a predictable 6-3 decision, blocked OSHA’s Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) that required employees in businesses with 100 or more employees to either be vaccinated or regularly tested and masked. Dissenting were the three Justices appointed by Democratic Presidents: Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan. The majority stated that the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHAct) “plainly” does not authorize the vaccine or masking requirements. Calling the OSHA standard no “everyday exercise of federal power” they labeled it “instead a significant […]
CounterSpin interview with Barbara Briggs on workplace disasters. The January 7, 2022, episode of CounterSpin included an archival interview with Barbara Briggs that originally aired June 5, 2015. This is a lightly edited transcript. Janine Jackson: If the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory had had its appropriate response, there never would have been a Rana Plaza. But it didn’t, and there was. More than 1,100 people, mainly women, lost their lives in a factory collapse in Bangladesh—which might sound like a long way away, but they were making clothes that you might have on your back right now. We talked about that with worker rights advocate Barbara […]
Above photo: King Soopers employee Susan Hester, who has worked for the grocery chain for 18 years, walks the picket line during a strike on January 12, 2022 in Glendale, Colorado. Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images. The strike began a day after a report showed 14% of Kroger workers have experienced homelessness in the past year. On the heels of a new report showing significant financial insecurity, including homelessness, among workers at Kroger grocery stores, more than 8,000 of the chain’s employees in Colorado went on strike Wednesday to demand fair wages and better healthcare benefits. Amid a recent wave of successful strikes at […]
Above Photo: Jeremy Chiu / Teen Vogue. After more than two months on strike, the Student Workers of Columbia reached a tentative agreement for their union’s first contract with Columbia University. In the late hours of January 6, after more than two months on strike, the Student Workers of Columbia (SWC-UAW) reached a tentative agreement for their union’s first contract with Columbia University. Contract wins include significant raises for workers, bringing annual compensation for those on 9-month appointments to just over $40,000 and raising the minimum wage for hourly workers from $15 to $21. SWC members also won dental insurance, childcare stipends, […]
Above Photo: Comic Book Workers United The Vote Comes After Image Comics Has Gone Months Without Voluntarily Recognizing Comic Book Workers United. After formally announcing the formation of Comic Book Workers United late last year—the first specific union to support workers within comics publishing—workers at Image Comics have voted to officially certify their union in the results of a secret ballot. The vote’s results—7-2 in favor of organizing—were announced today in a move that officially certifies CBWU, which was formed with assistance from the Communications Workers of America. The successful vote entitles CBWU to recognition from Image Comics, which would allow the […]
Above Photo: People shop in a Walmart store during Black Friday on Nov. 26, 2021, in Houston. (Brandon Bell / Getty Images) Confronted With The Holiday Rush, Understaffing, And Omicron. The week before Christmas, Indianapolis Target employee Andrew Stacy was spreading the word about a unionizing effort at their store. The busy holiday season—and new anxieties raised by the recently emerged Omicron variant of COVID-19—was no reason for them to wait until the New Year. The conditions at the store had become so dire around the holidays that organizing seemed even more urgent. “I’ve had to go into superspeed, escalating everything that I’m […]
Above Photo: The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach moved the equivalent of 10 million 20-foot containers in the first half of 2021—a record high. (Daniel Melling / The Emmett Institute, CC BY-NC 2.0.). If you ordered a teddy bear or a designer picture frame as a holiday gift, you know that it likely took a lot longer to get here than in past years. There have been problems getting things from point A to point B since the pandemic started. At one point in October, 77 percent of the world’s ports were experiencing long delays. More than most Americans, Longshore Union […]
Above Photo: Choongky / Shutterstock. This holiday weekend, as many New Yorkers once again hunker down at home during the latest surge of Covid cases, the city’s intense reliance on delivery apps for essential goods is highlighting advocates’ call for better protections for the delivery workers who have toiled without a safety net. A slate of city laws for delivery workers is set to kick in the new year and will roll out in stages, commencing in January with more oversight of the delivery apps and increased transparency for the more than 65,000 delivery workers in New York City. Starting next month, delivery apps must […]
Above Photo: Graduate assistants during the occupation of UNM’s Scholes Hall December 7th. They worked from the administration building to demonstrate their labor to university President Garnett Stokes and others. (Samantha Cooney). UNM Still Challenging Labor Board’s Decisions In Court. It’s official: graduate student workers at the University of New Mexico have the right to demand school officials come to the bargaining table. New Mexico’s statewide labor board counted 887 cards signed by UNM graduate students expressing their wishes to join United Graduate Workers (UGW-UE). That represents 57.3% of the 1,547 graduate workers in the bargaining unit. That total is also […]
Above photo: Patrick Pleul/Picture Alliance via Getty Images. Capping Off a Year of Labor Action at Amazon. For the first time, Amazon is experiencing a multi-site U.S. work stoppage. It comes at the end of a year marked by union organizing and labor militancy at the retail giant. On Wednesday morning, several dozen Amazon workers at two separate Chicago-area delivery stations staged a walkout to demand raises and safer working conditions, making it the first time the tech giant has seen a multi-site work stoppage in the United States. Coming just three days before Christmas to ensure maximum impact, the action caps a year of intense organizing […]
Above photo: weather.com. The weekend of December 10-11, 2021, saw a reported 30 tornadoes hitting several states from Arkansas to Illinois; as of this writing, 74 people are confirmed dead and several buildings severely damaged or totally demolished. All the cases of death and destruction are devastating; however, the most telling and unconscionable are the deaths of eight people at a candle-making factory in Mayfield, Kentucky, and six in an Amazon facility in Edwardsville, Illinois. What makes these two cases significant is that they most likely could have been avoided, but once again capitalism’s insatiable greed is significantly responsible for these […]
Above Photo: CVS sign (Creative Commons) “They’re Literally Making Us Sick”. Retail pharmacy workers conducted a nationwide walkout on Monday in the US, organized on social media, to protest worsening work conditions at large retail chains such as CVS, Walgreens and Walmart. As the hyper-infectious Omicron variant continues to spread throughout the country, this much overlooked section of the health care industry is making its own demands for better working conditions, including patient safety, and an overdue increase in wages. One pharmacist who requested to remain anonymous told the WSWS, “We work 12 hour shifts without technicians, we have no breaks […]
Above Photo: For decades, work in the public sector has been a gateway to a middle-class life. But that’s changing. Joe Brusky / Flickr. In the New Book, The Privatization Of Everything, Cohen And Mikaelian, Describe And Debunk The Vast Array Of Privatization Schemes That Now Litter The Landscape. From Private Prisons And Charter Schools To For-Profit Water Treatment And Trash Collection. Several years ago, Don Cohen, a former central labor council staffer from San Diego, appeared on a panel discussing the privatization threats faced by union members across the country. He and other speakers were addressing a conference of state, […]
They’re good for communities and for democracy. High unionization levels are associated with positive outcomes across multiple indicators of economic, personal, and democratic well-being. We know that unions promote economic equality and build worker power, helping workers to win increases in pay, better benefits, and safer working conditions. But that’s not all unions do. Unions also have powerful effects on workers’ lives outside of work. In this report, we document the correlation between higher levels of unionization in states and a range of economic, personal, and democratic well-being measures. In the same way unions give workers a voice at work, with […]
‘No One’s Life Is Worth A Package’ In the aftermath of a deadly tornado, hundreds of Amazon warehouse workers are demanding their employer allow them to keep their phones with them at work. Hundreds of Amazon employees at warehouses across the mid-Atlantic are organizing to push the company to allow workers to keep their phones with them throughout their shifts and adopt an inclement weather policy in the aftermath of the collapse of the Amazon warehouse in Illinois that killed six workers. The Amazon workers are demanding that Amazon pay workers for shifts cancelled due to inclement weather. And during school closures, they […]
Above Photo: (Orange County Employees Association, Facebook). In coastal Orange County, south of Los Angeles, 400 sanitation workers went on strike on December 9 against Republic Services, the second-largest waste management firm in the US. The workers, members of International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) Local 396, had voted by a large majority in favor of a strike on November 23. Following a declaration of a trash emergency by the city of Huntington Beach, one of the two hubs of the strike (along with the city of Anaheim), Teamsters Local 396 and Republic Services announced a tentative agreement on December 16, for […]
Above Photo: The UC system recognized Student Researchers United, a union representing student researchers employed by the UC system. Kyle Garcia Takata / Staff. California – The university agreed Wednesday to recognize Student Researchers United, or SRU, a union representing 17,000 student researchers employed by the UC system. The decision came after nearly 11,000 student researchers across the state voted Nov. 19 to authorize a strike. Out of the members who voted, 97.5% voted in favor of a strike, according to a press release from United Auto Workers, the parent union that SRU is joining. “This is the single biggest new […]
Above Photo: Home care workers and community members protest outside the United Jewish Council home care agency on December 16, 2021. Monica Cruz. Workers rallied to demand unpaid wages from the United Jewish Council home care agency and an end to the 24-hour workday. Workers employed with the United Jewish Council (UJC) home care agency rallied to end the 24-hour work day and demand their stolen wages on the morning of December 16. While home care workers in New York are being forced to work 24-hour shifts for poverty wages, 11 hours worth of that pay is stolen by their employers. […]
Going to work should not be a death sentence. For workers at Amazon and a candle factory in Mayfield, Kentucky, going to work was a death sentence. Workers must fight for the right to a safe workplace. On Friday night, at a candle factory in Mayfield, Kentucky, an alarm sounded with a tornado warning. One employee, Elijah Johnson, approached his manager. “I asked to leave and they told me I’d be fired.” “‘Even with the weather like this, you’re still going to fire me?’” he asked the manager. The manager replied, “Yes.” Workers who took shelter in hallways and bathrooms were […]
Above Photo: First responders surround an Amazon Fulfillment Center in Edwardsville, Illinois, on December 10, 2021, after it was hit by a tornado. (Tim Vizer / AFP / Getty Images) Grief, Anger, And Demands For Answers After Tornadoes Kill At Least 14 U.S. Workers. In the aftermath of a rare string of December tornadoes last Friday night that left 80 people dead across six states, labor activists are questioning why employees at two large worksites in the path of destruction were left exposed to danger. A candle factory in Mayfield, Kentucky was totally destroyed after sustaining a direct tornado hit with 110 workers inside. At least eight people […]
Above Photo: Picketing at Columbia University. WSWS Media. Begin Seventh Week On Strike. Last week saw a sharp escalation of the strike by 3,000 student workers at Columbia University in New York City, which continues in the face of strikebreaking threats by the administration. In an effort to shut down the walkout before finals, the university warned striking student workers that it might replace them in the Spring semester if they remained on strike beyond Friday, December 10. Columbia workers rejected this attempt at economic blackmail and held out on the picket line. A poll conducted by the Student Workers of […]
Above Photo: Warren General Hospital. Workers at Allegheny Health Network affiliate Warren General Hospital voted Saturday to strike, straining already fragile medical resources in rural northwest Pennsylvania. The 114 nurses and health care workers, who are members of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, issued a 10-day strike notice at the 87-bed hospital — the only acute care facility in the county. The labor agreement with workers expired in September, and negotiations were scheduled to continue Monday, hospital CEO Rick Allen said. The hospital has offered pay increases of 4.2% to over 16%, plus enhanced contributions to employees’ […]
Above Photo: Deliveroo food delivery rider/cycle courier waiting at traffic lights on New Oxford Street on Nov. 22, 2021, in London, United Kingdom. Deliveroo is an online food delivery company founded by William Shu in 2013 in London, England. (Mike Kemp / In Pictures via Getty Images) Firms like Uber and Deliveroo systematically deny their workers basic rights by falsely treating them as self-employed contractors. Now Europe is finally passing legislation to recognize them as employees—and the UK should do the same. Sometimes change comes from the most unlikely of places. The European Commission—the unelected body of technocrats that designs European […]
Workers at video gaming company Activision Blizzard entered a five-day work stoppage and are making moves to unionize. This worker action could have powerful effects for the industry. On Friday, workers at video gaming company Activision Blizzard entered their fifth day of a work stoppage in response to layoffs at one of the company’s subsidiaries. The stoppage comes on the heels of revelations of sexual harassment and descrimination at Activision Blizzard and amid fierce resistance to staff unionization efforts. The work stoppage began on Monday when quality assurance (QA) workers at Raven Software, one of the main developers behind the hit Call of […]
Above photo: Auto worker activists for direct democracy leafleted at plants across the country to promote a yes vote on the referendum. UAWD. This article was originally published on December 1, but is being updated as results come in. The members of the United Auto Workers have voted overwhelmingly to move to a direct voting system for choosing their union leadership—“one member, one vote.” With all votes counted as of December 2, direct elections had the support of 63.6 percent of voters. It’s a historic win for reformers in one of the nation’s most important unions, where members have pushed for […]
Columbia University’s administration has denounced the “violence” at this week’s completely peaceful picket by student workers. Do not be fooled: the real violence is the university denying student workers healthcare, a living wage, and neutral third-party arbitration. New York City – On Wednesday, November 8, Columbia student workers (UAW Local 2110) held one of the largest pickets yet of their six-week strike to demand increased wages to meet costs of living, neutral third-party arbitration, and comprehensive healthcare benefits. Workers from unions throughout New York City such as the CUNY’s Professional Staff Congress (PSC), the Graduate Student Organizing Committee (GSOC) at NYU, the […]
The decision, which authorizes the eviction of residents of the Marielle Vive camp in Valinhos, Brazil, contradicts a ruling from earlier this year which suspended forced removals during the COVID-19 pandemic until December 31. The camp was created on April 14, 2018 and named after Rio de Janeiro socialist city councilwoman Marielle Franco who was murdered a month before. Since then, the residents have transformed the abandoned land into a thriving community that provides housing for the residents, a school, a community kitchen, and produces agroecological products and handicrafts. They now face eviction after a court ruling that clearly favors real […]
After nine weeks on strike, workers at four Kellogg plants have rejected a temporary agreement that doesn’t meet their demands. They’ll continue to fight the bosses — and need the entire U.S. labor movement to join their struggle. The strike that began at four Kellogg Company plants on October 5 will continue. This morning, the 1,400 striking workers rejected a temporary agreement (TA) that had been negotiated by their union, the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco, and Grain Milling Workers International Union. The strike had encompassed workers at plants in Omaha, Nebraska, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Memphis, Tennessee, and the company’s flagship facility in Battle Creek, Michigan. […]
Strike enters third month. Striking workers to be replaced with ‘permanent replacement employees’, company says. Hundreds of striking union workers at four Kellogg’s cereal plants in the US have overwhelmingly voted to reject a tentative agreement on a five-year contract negotiated between the union and the company, extending a strike that started in early October. Roughly 1,400 members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union “have spoken”, union president Anthony Shelton said in a statement on 7 December. “The strike continues.” The union is “grateful for the outpouring of fraternal support we received from across the labor […]
Today we look at the UCU strike across 58 UK universities over pay and conditions, the re-imposition of the Remain in Mexico migrant policy by the US, and more In today’s episode of the Daily Round-up we look at the 3-day UCU strike by Higher Education workers across 58 universities in the UK to demand fair wages and job security; the re-imposition of the Migrant Protection Protocols by the U.S. and its implications for asylum seekers currently in Mexico and at the border; a report on rising hunger in the Latin America and the Caribbean region during the pandemic; and a […]
Above Photo: El Milagro worker Guillermo Romero speaks at the vigil in Little Village, Chicago. Arise Chicago. Gathered Outside Chicago’s Flagship El Milagro Taqueria, Workers Remembered Those Who Died From Covid-19. And Celebrated A Victory That Granted Them Sundays Off. Chicago — Food production workers at El Milagro, one of Chicago’s most popular tortilla companies, join with community allies for a Day of the Dead vigil Nov. 2, 2021, in honor of five coworkers who died after contracting Covid-19 on the job. With candles and sugar skulls outside the company’s flagship taqueria in the Little Village neighborhood on the city’s Southwest Side, workers and supporters spoke […]