Labor Movement

A Tale Of Two Labor Candidates

April 26, 2024 Steve Early, Popular Resistance. Educate! California, Elections, Labor Movement, Socialism

In late October, 2018, East Bay DSA members and other progressives organized a pre-election rally at a Berkeley High School auditorium. A wildly-cheering crowd of several thousand came to hear Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Barbara Lee. Welcoming everyone to the event was 34-year old Jesse Arreguin, who was backed by Sanders when he ran for mayor of Berkeley two years before. On the platform with them was Jovanka Beckles, a former Richmond City Council member then running—with backing from DSA, Sanders, and Lee—for a State Assembly seat against a corporate Democrat named Buffy Wicks.

Red Baiters Go Big To Distort And Disarm Workers’ Growing Anger

April 11, 2024 Ed Grystar, Portside. Strategize! CIO, Communism, History, Labor Movement, Worker Rights and Jobs

The main focus of the interview is looking back on the CIO in the 1930s and advocating a “Go Big” approach to labor today. One would expect to find historical examples explaining the strategies of the class struggle organizations which helped to bring about America’s most tumultuous and successful labor upsurge – the formation and struggles of the CIO. Loomis gives an overview of the particular circumstances leading to the creation of the CIO, notably the depression, FDR, and the particular interests of John L Lewis – but chooses to gloss over the years of on-the-ground organizing by left-wing radicals within the labor movement, particularly communists.

Can Grocery Workers Take Back Their Union?

April 10, 2024 Hamilton Nolan, In These Times. Strategize! Grocery Stores, Labor Movement, UFCW, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

On a gray October evening, half a dozen insurgents huddle around a table in an upscale diner across the street from Sea-Tac airport, considering their battle plans. “I don’t want to get shot in New Jersey or New York, and those guys will fucking murder us,” says the consigliere. “Yeah,” the boss muses. “They will hella murder us.” “I’m more afraid of some people who have threatened to shoot us out here than those people out there,” says one of the generals. “The chances of us getting shot,” concludes the ringleader, “are fairly high.”/

Southern Auto Workers Are Rising

April 6, 2024 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. Organize! Auto Workers, Labor Movement, The South, UAW, Worker Rights and Jobs

Auto workers are gearing up to smash through anti-union bulwarks in Alabama and Tennessee. In Chattanooga, Tennessee, at the only Volkswagen factory in the world without a union, votes will be counted April 19 as 4,300 workers who make the Atlas SUV and the ID.4 electric vehicle decide whether to join the United Auto Workers. “We didn’t think things would happen so fast,” said VW worker Victor Vaughn. Momentum spurred them forward. The organizing committee recruited 300 co-workers as election captains. “We have well over 90 percent coverage within the plant, every position, every line,” said Vaughn.

Please Launch Workers United Against Mass Layoffs

April 4, 2024 Les Leopold, Scheer Post. Organize! Labor Movement, Solidarity, UAW, Unemployment, United Auto Workers (UAW), Worker Rights and Jobs

It’s time for a new organization to protect working people from the plague of mass layoffs. Let’s call it, for now, Workers United Against Mass Layoffs. Given the United Autoworkers’ growing prestige, this seems like the ideal moment for the union to lead the fight against needless mass layoffs everywhere and for everyone. The United Autoworkers know all about mass layoffs. Currently, GM is laying off 1,314 workers across two plants in Michigan, and another 322 UAW members are losing their jobs at Missouri Central School Bus. They are not alone.

Putting Members First: Ron Carey’s Lessons For Labor Movement Reform

April 2, 2024 Steve Early and Rand Wilson, Popular Resistance. Strategize! Book Review, Labor Movement, Teamsters, UPS, Worker Rights

Books about union presidents are usually penned by professional writers -- either academic historians, labor journalists, or paid flacks. Past accounts of the life and work of labor organization chiefs like John L. Lewis, Walter Reuther, Jimmy Hoffa, or Cesar Chavez have run the gamut from hagiographic to constructively critical. Few have had a biographer whose view of their leadership role is rooted in first-hand experience as a blue-collar worker in the same industry and union. Ken Reiman’s personal connection to the subject matter of Ron Carey and the Teamsters (Monthly Review Press, 2024) resulted from his own career as a UPS driver and activist in the local union that Carey led before becoming president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in the 1990s.

UE Demand For Ceasefire Built On Decades Of Education And Debate

March 24, 2024 Carl Rosen, Labor Notes. Organize! Ceasefire, Gaza, Labor Movement, Palestine, Solidarity, UE Union, Worker Rights

Unions representing more than half of the U.S. labor movement have now called for a ceasefire in Gaza, as has the AFL-CIO and some 70 city councils—the result of actions by many local and international unions and rank-and-file activists. Our union, the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE), was able to mobilize quickly on this critical issue because we have a strong tradition of international solidarity and taking a critical view of U.S. foreign policy. When Israel launched its brutal assault on the people of Palestine in the wake of the unconscionable Hamas attack of October 7, the UE leadership recognized that this was an issue that the labor movement had to take action on.

Across Industries, Workers Are Harnessing Their Collective Power

March 24, 2024 Amie Stager, In These Times. Strategize! Labor Movement, Minnesota, Solidarity, Worker's Rights

Minneapolis - Collective power is rising in Minnesota. Thousands of union members and a broad coalition of community groups banded together to demand better contracts, quality schools, housing and a livable planet. Unions in Minnesota have been aligning with community groups for more than a decade, participating in actions to build solidarity and worker power. On Tuesday, March 5, around 1,000 nursing home workers filled the Minnesota Capitol grounds to picket for better wages and working conditions in what was the industry’s largest strike in the history of the state.

Mineworkers Union Joins Fight Against Landfill

March 22, 2024 Shawn Street, United Mineworkers of America. Resist! Environment, Labor Movement, Landfill, Mineworkers

In recent months opponents of a proposed privately owned landfill have appeared at various government meetings wearing camouflage shirts. The shirts are designed similarly to those worn by union coal miners and their supporters during the 1989 strike against Pittston Coal Company. Last week the symbolic link between the two efforts became literal as the United Mine Workers of America announced their opposition to Russell County Reclamation’s proposed landfill that would be placed at the old Moss 3 site.

It’s Not Apathy; You’re Not Listening

March 21, 2024 Dr. Wilmer J. Leon, III, Popular Resistance. Educate! Black America, Elections, Finance and the Economy, Joe Biden, Labor Movement

One of the popular narratives that was disseminated in mainstream America media to explain Hilary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign loss to Donald Trump was post-Obama voter apathy in the African American community. According to the Washington Post, “In 2016, a seven-point drop in black voter turnout was perceived to have cost Clinton the election. Political commentators often cite black voters’ “enthusiasm gap” as the primary reason for low turnout. This short-sighted perspective fails to consider that Mrs. Clinton ran a terrible campaign. She took the African American vote for granted and failed to craft a message that spoke to the needs and interests of the Community.

Number Of Victims And Illegal Profits From Forced Labor Has Increased

March 21, 2024 People's Dispatch. Educate! Forced Labor, Human Trafficking, Labor Movement, Worker Rights and Jobs

A new study conducted by the International Labour Organization (ILO) claims that both the number of people engaged in some kind of forced labor and illegal profits incurred from that have increased dramatically in the last decade. ILO claims that forced labor in the private economy generates over $236 billion annually in illegal profits which is USD 64 billion (37%) more than USD 172 billion a decade ago. Forced labor is defined as all kinds of “work that is both involuntary and under penalty or menace of penalty (coercion)” extracted by an individual, private player or a state. It is also closely linked to human trafficking across international borders and is called “modern day slavery” by the ILO.

Steward’s Corner: ‘There Aren’t Enough Of Us’

March 21, 2024 Ellen David Friedman, Labor Notes. Organize! Labor Movement, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

It’s a common situation: there’s too much union work to do, and not enough people doing it. And the ill effects are serious. Carrying too much work puts a lot of pressure on you, and you’re liable to burn out. You may find yourself overwhelmed with tasks, unable to prioritize, dissatisfied with the results—and possibly making poor decisions, because you’re too busy to solicit and include ideas from others. Most important, this arrangement squanders the intelligence, creativity, and energy that your fellow members could bring. Unfortunately, the most common “solutions” rarely work.

Long Beach Hotel Workers To Earn Highest Minimum Wage

March 20, 2024 Mark Kreidler, Portside. Organize! California, Hotel workers, Labor Movement, Strikes, Wages, Worker Rights and Jobs

Part of the Los Angeles region’s “hot labor summer” of 2023 was a growing recognition that the runaway cost of living was squeezing workers and families. It was perhaps the primary driver of the rolling strikes by unionized workers at 60 area hotels during contract negotiations, with many of those negotiations ongoing. But bargaining-table pressure and picket lines are not the only mechanisms for addressing this issue. And voters in Long Beach have likely just approved another path. Measure RW, on which Long Beach residents voted during last week’s primary, significantly raises the minimum wage for workers at Long Beach hotels with more than 100 rooms.

Teaching Each Other To Strike

March 17, 2024 Barbara Madeloni, Labor Notes. Organize! Education, Labor Movement, Massachusetts, Strikes, Worker Rights and Jobs

Recently I heard members of the Newton Teachers Association recount the path to their 11-day January strike. The audience at the Massachusetts Teachers Association winter skills conference gave them a standing ovation. In the past 20 months, seven MTA locals have voted to strike and six have walked out. They’ve won significant raises for the lowest-paid workers, paid family and medical leave, more social workers, and educator control over planning time. All the strikes were illegal, and the courts issued fines in most cases. Newton teachers were fined $625,000, for example.

Dan Osborn Challenges Nebraska’s Political Establishment

March 16, 2024 Steve Early, Barn Raiser Media. Organize! Elections, Labor Movement, Nebraska, Working Class

Recent studies of lawmakers in the United States have found that less than 2% of those serving on Capitol Hill held blue-collar jobs before they were elected. That percentage drops even further among the nearly 7,300 state legislators across all 50 states, according to researchers at Duke University and Loyola University Chicago, who found that only 81 of those legislators were previously employed in working-class jobs. Dan Osborn, a 48-year-old building trades worker, is a rare example of a candidate working to increase those numbers.

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