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Labor Movement

Unmoved By Tariff Threats, Mexican GM Workers Win Wage Hike

April 18, 2025 Natascha Elena Uhlmann, Labor Notes. , , , ,
Mexican General Motors workers in the Silao, Guanajuato, factory complex clinched record raises after staring down company scaremongering about tariff threats. “They said, well, we’re offering 6 percent,” said Norma Leticia Cabrera Vasquez about management’s offer at bargaining. “We knew they were going to show up with that, but we said, ‘We still have weeks to negotiate, so we won’t let that intimidate us,’” said Cabrera Vasquez, who worked at the plant for 15 years, and now serves as a leader of the union’s Women’s Department. In spite of the company's efforts to stoke uncertainty, auto workers stood their ground, garnering wage increases of 10 percent on average.

How The Black South And Labor Can Unite To Create Good Jobs

April 17, 2025 Deborah Scott, Portside. , , ,
In far too many places, the struggles for racial and economic justice have become disconnected. Back in 2020, David Leonhardt of The New York Times wrote that the Black-White wage gap nationwide was roughly the same as it was back in 1950. One reason for this outcome is the decline of unions. In other words, just as Black workers got stable union jobs, those stable union jobs started to disappear. The need to integrate racial and economic justice and pursue both objectives together is not a new idea. Speaking at the AFL-CIO’s Fourth Constitutional Convention in 1961, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. noted, “Our needs are identical with labor’s needs: decent wages, fair working conditions, livable housing, old age security, health and welfare measures, conditions in which families can grow, have education for their children and respect in the community.”

Argentinian Unions Hold General Strike After Retirees Protest

April 12, 2025 Orinoco Tribune. , , , , ,
On Thursday, the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), Argentina’s largest labor union federation, called for a 24-hour general strike to protest President Javier Milei’s austerity policies. The strike, supported by the Argentinian Workers’ Central Union (CTA) and 50 nationally significant unions, demands better wage conditions in response to the ongoing economic crisis. The wave of protests began on Wednesday, with several unions joining a demonstration led by retirees who have been protesting weekly for years in front of Congress, demanding improved conditions.

Unions Stand Up To Halt Deportation Of Two Hundred Workers

April 11, 2025 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. , , , , ,
Two hundred union workers, out of 5,700 who assemble dishwashers, refrigerators, washers, and dryers for GE Appliances-Haier at Appliance Park in Louisville, Kentucky, received notice this month that the Trump administration is revoking their work authorizations. The immigrant workers from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Venezuela have received a mixed reaction to their imminent deportation—hostility from some co-workers and an outpouring of support from their union and the local labor movement. They’re part of the Communications Workers’ industrial division, IUE-CWA Local 83761.

What Would A General Strike In The US Actually Look Like?

April 11, 2025 Jeremy Brecher, Waging Nonviolence. , , ,
Something is in the air: A perception that American democracy and livable conditions for working people may only be saved by the kind of large-scale nonviolent direct action variously called “general strikes,” “political strikes,” or, as I will refer to all of them, “social strikes.” Calls for mass disruptive action are coming from unlikely places, like Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU, an organization normally associated with legal action through the courts. When Romero was asked in a recent interview what would happen if the Trump administration systematically defied court orders, he replied, “Then we’ve got to take to the streets in a different way. We’ve got to shut down this country.”

Labor Demands An End To The Assault On The Right To Organize

April 8, 2025 Various Unions, Portside. , , , ,
The labor movement holds one value above all others: solidarity. Labor demands an end to the Trump administration’s assaults on immigrant workers, freedom of speech, the right to organize and bargain, and federal government workers, their unions, and the services they provide. We will not stand by as President Donald Trump terrorizes immigrant workers with abduction, detention, and confinement without due process in unmarked facilities, far-flung detention centers, and a notorious prison in El Salvador. The attacks are ramping up, and we need to act fast.

Colorado Unions Rally To Demand Passage Of The Worker Protection Act

March 22, 2025 Fight Back! News. , , , ,
Denver, CO – On March 19, Colorado Worker Rights United, a coalition of labor unions, gathered at the Colorado State Capitol to rally for the Worker Protection Act, which is currently under consideration by Colorado lawmakers. Around 150 union workers gathered on the steps raising signs and showing support for measure has passed the senate and is on the way to the house and governor. Several elected officials made speeches that called for the passage of this act, which would eliminate the need for a second union election to start the collective bargaining process.

How Rank-And-File Democracy Transformed The Teamsters And UAW

March 3, 2025 Michael J. Goldberg, Power At Work. , , , , , , ,
It’s well known in labor circles that the 2020’s opened with a tremendous resurgence of rank-and-file activism in the workplace. Beginning with 2021’s “Striketober” and sparked initially by the hardships of the pandemic and emboldened by the labor shortages that followed, that upsurge targeted union and nonunion workplaces alike. Among the collective bargaining breakthroughs in already unionized workplaces, two of the most important involved the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) and the United Auto Workers (UAW). In 2023, the IBT won a historic contract with its largest employer, UPS, without having to follow through on its threat to strike.

International Solidarity Is The Union Answer To Tariffs And Deportations

February 25, 2025 Jeffrey Hermanson, Labor Notes. , , , ,
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain has recently expressed the UAW’s readiness to “work with Trump on trade.” Teamsters President Sean O’Brien spoke on a podcast against “illegal immigrants that come into our country to commit crimes and steal jobs.” But based on my experience, in the long run, international solidarity is the only way we can build working-class power. Demagogues like Trump have often exploited the protectionist and anti-immigrant sentiments that have been widespread in American labor for generations. A working class that is divided, both within the U.S. and across North America, is easier to exploit. Corporations have greatly profited from our divisions over the three decades since NAFTA was enacted.

Utah’s Anti-Union Bill Sparks Outcry As Labor Movement Fights Back

February 15, 2025 Devin B. Martinez, People's Dispatch. , , , , ,
A controversial bill in the US state of Utah, HB 267, is making its way through the state legislature, sparking intense debate and widespread opposition.  If signed into law, the bill would make it illegal for any federal agency in Utah to recognize labor unions or engage in collective bargaining with their employees. This sweeping measure would impact thousands of workers, including teachers, health care workers, emergency responders, and a variety of other workers employed by federal agencies. Many federal employees rely on unions to fight for fair wages, benefits, and working conditions.

It’s Time For A United Front To Take On Billionaire Rule

February 13, 2025 Luis Feliz Leon, In These Times. , , , , ,
President Donald Trump relishes deploying the ​“weave,” his vulgar stream-of-consciousness spiels in which his vengeful fantasies and antipathy towards a cast of enemies become punchlines in an insult-comic routine. His far-right former adviser Steve Bannon has termed the Trump administration’s psychological warfare approach ​“flooding the zone.” ​“Every day we hit them with three things,” Bannon told PBS’s Frontline in 2019. ​“They’ll bite on one, and we’ll get all of our stuff done. Bang, bang, bang. These guys will never — will never be able to recover. But we’ve got to start with muzzle velocity.”

How Black Workers Overcome Historic Obstacles To Labor Organizing

February 13, 2025 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. , , , , , , ,
The struggle between Black organized labor and the political establishment has been historically waged with particular fierceness in the US South—a region with the highest proportion of Black workers but with the most hostile laws against workplace organizing. States in the US South have some of the lowest rates of union coverage in the country—meaning that they have a lower share of workers who are organized in a union. The national union coverage rate stood at 11.2% as of 2023, while the rate was as low as 3% in South Carolina, 3.3% in North Carolina, 5.2% in Louisiana, and 5.4% in Georgia.

Unionized Grocery Workers Are A Sleeping Giant

February 10, 2025 Isaac Soto, Caitlyn Clark, and Jacob Eshom, Portside. , , , , ,
In the first six months of 2025, grocery contracts covering over 130,000 union workers are set to expire. The contracts span five states, a dozen local unions, and several employers — namely the grocery giants Kroger and Albertsons. Kroger’s last, best, and final offer included abysmal wage increases, with thousands of workers offered $0.25 or less in the first year of the contract. It failed to address worker concerns over understaffing, low wages, two-tier discrimination, shorter wage steps, and protections from automation. Grocery giants Kroger and Albertsons’ $24.6 billion mega-merger was blocked in court after a coalition of UFCW and Teamster locals, including UFCW Locals 7, 324, 770, and 3000, organized a powerful “Stop the Merger” campaign.

Labor Fights Back Against Attacks On Federal Workers

February 9, 2025 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. , , , , , ,
Following a legal response by organized labor, one of Trump’s early attacks against the US federal workforce have been temporarily halted. On Thursday, February 6, Trump’s deadline to furlough millions of federal workers if they did not accept a buyout offer was paused following an injunction by a federal judge in Boston. This pause came less than 11 hours before the deadline for workers to accept the buyout offer, which 65,000 federal workers did—agreeing to leave their jobs in exchange for eight months of pay and benefits through September.

From Gripe Sessions To Grievance Tracking

February 7, 2025 Bonny Hulberg, Labor Notes. , , ,
When I joined my local union, I dove in headfirst and became a steward. I was excited to see how things were run and where I might fall in the grand scheme of things. It wasn’t quite what I expected; then again, I had never been in a union before. So I sat back and watched our organizer run our steward meetings, listened to the other attendees—and realized our meetings were gripe sessions, lacking structure and focus. Stewards and members alike were expressing frustrations, but there was little tangible action to address these issues, as far as I could tell.
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