Labor Movement

Talking Socialism On The Job

January 7, 2024 Garrett Brown, Against the Current. Strategize! History, Labor Movement, Socialism, Worker Rights and Jobs

With a new generation of socialist activists entering the workforce to build unions and the socialist movement, experiences from 45 years ago may provide lessons about what works and what does not work when talking socialism on the job. I joined the Young Socialist Alliance in 1971 and the Socialist Workers Party in 1973, resigning from the party in December 1983. I was a student activist in California, Massachusetts, and Illinois, before becoming the labor reporter for The Daily Calumet newspaper in southeast Chicago in 1976. While a journalist at The Daily Calumet I covered the United Steel Workers of America (USWA) and Ed Sadlowski’s campaign for union president in 1976-77.

Direct Elections For Labor Leaders Make For More Militant Unions

January 6, 2024 Chris Bohner, Labor Notes. Educate! Elections, Labor Movement, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

The labor movement is rightfully celebrating recent contract victories by the United Auto Workers, Teamsters, SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America, which together cover nearly 650,000 workers. An essential thread uniting the campaigns is that the top union officers were all directly elected by the members, a basic democratic right denied to many union members in the United States. As other unions seek to learn lessons from these historic contract fights, a key takeaway is that a vibrant democratic process—“one member, one vote”—is crucial to a revitalized labor movement.

Labor For A Permanent Ceasefire Now!

January 5, 2024 Virginia Rodino and Kathy Black, Coalition of Labor Union Women. Resist! Anti-War, Israel, Labor Movement, Palestine, Unions, Women

The Coalition of Labor Union Women president Elise Bryant and Executive Director Virginia Rodino recently spoke at a press conference for a Permanent Ceasefire. President Bryant told the crowd in front of the White House, "When armed conflict erupts, it is women and girls who pay the highest price. "We in CLUW and the entire labor movement are relieved to see Israeli civilian hostages and Palestinian political prisoners returning home to their families. We are fighting for a world in which all families can be together. The only way to actually achieve that—to stop this violence—is through a permanent ceasefire now.

Union Democracy Stands Up

January 5, 2024 Barry Eidlin, Dollars & Sense. Organize! Democracy, Labor Movement, Rank and File, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

The First Weekend of November, 2023, Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) held its annual convention at a hotel near O’Hare Airport outside of Chicago. It was the 48th convention since the rank-and-file union reform movement’s founding in 1976. The mood was confident and upbeat, with organizers announcing an attendance of 500 Teamster members from across the country. It was the largest TDU convention since 1997. The Friday dinner banquet speaker was Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien, who took stock of what his administration had accomplished since taking office in March 2022.

2023 Was The Year Of The Strike; What Can We Expect In 2024?

December 31, 2023 Jenny Brown, In These Times. Resist! Labor Movement, Strikes, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Strikes and threats of strikes extracted contracts ranging from good to excellent from employers across the country this year. Half a million U.S. workers walked out — machinists, teachers, baristas, nurses, hotel housekeepers and autoworkers — with much of the motion coming from unions led by reformers. The year started out with a squeaker of an election victory that turned out to be momentous. In late 2022, the Members United slate swept most top offices at the United Auto Workers (UAW) on a platform of “No Concessions, No Corruption, No Tiers.” March saw a presidential runoff pitting the old guard incumbent against an obscure Kokomo, Indiana, electrician and union rep named Shawn Fain.

Toronto Picketers At Military Contractor Pratt And Whitney

December 22, 2023 Labour Against The Arms Trade and World Beyond War, Socialist Project. Resist! Anti-War, Canada, Genocide, Israel, Labor Movement, Military Industrial Complex, Palestine

On Tuesday morning of December 12, more than two hundred workers and union members from across the Toronto area picketed the Mississauga manufacturing plant of defence contractor Pratt & Whitney Canada. As Israel pursues its deadly assault on Gaza for a third month, the picket lines interrupted business as usual at an aerospace giant that makes engines for aircrafts that the Israeli military is using to carry out its bombing campaign against Palestinian lives and infrastructure. Encountering banners that read “Stop Arming Apartheid” and “Arms Embargo on Israel Now” as they arrived for morning shift, cars were turned away from the entrance to the factory.

Largest Health Workers Union In United States Calls For Ceasefire

December 16, 2023 People's Dispatch. Resist! Anti-War, Ceasefire, Gaza, Genocide, Israel, Labor Movement, Palestine, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Unions

The largest health workers’ union in the United States, Service Employees International Union Local 1199, just joined the global movement for a ceasefire. Representing over 450,000 working and retired healthcare industry workers, SEIU 1199 is now the second largest union in the US to call for a ceasefire, behind the United Auto Workers. “We reject the notion that Israel’s attacks on hospitals filled with patients, apartment blocks filled with families, and the deaths of 11,000+ Palestinian women and children are acceptable collateral damage,” reads 1199’s statement. “We urge an immediate ceasefire.” With this statement, the local builds on an anti-war legacy.

Harry Bridges And The ILWU; Then And Now

December 1, 2023 Peter Olney, The Stansbury Forum. Strategize! History, ILWU, Labor Movement, Worker Rights and Jobs

Soon after I finished writing my review for Social Policy magazine of the new Robert Cherny biography of Harry Bridges, I read in an October 1 memo to all International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) members that the union had gone into court on September 30 and filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11. A ten-day trial in Portland Oregon in 2019 determined that the ILWU had engaged in illegal tactics that operationally disrupted ICTSI and the Port of Portland. The jury awarded a Philippine owned stevedoring company, International Container Services Inc. (ICTSI), $93.6 million in damages. The union challenged that amount and in March of 2020, a judge determined the maximum amount owed by the union was just over $19 million.

The Labor Movement’s History Of Backing Israel

November 29, 2023 Jeff Schuhrke, In These Times. Educate! Ceasefire, History, Israel, Labor Movement, Palestine, Wars and Militarism

As the Israeli government carries out what experts describe as a potential genocide in Gaza — with full political, financial, and military backing from the United States — millions of people around the world are mobilizing to demand an immediate cease-fire and a free Palestine. Workers in the United States, including numerous rank-and-file unionists and local union representatives, are similarly speaking out against the ongoing siege and bombardment of Gaza and pledging their solidarity with Palestinian trade unions, which have called on organized labor to refuse to manufacture or transport weapons destined for Israel.

Next On UAW’s To-Do List: Adding Members At Nonunion Factories

November 29, 2023 Marick Masters and Raymond Gibney, Jr., Scheer Post. Organize! Auto Workers, Elon Musk, Labor Movement, Tesla, United Auto Workers (UAW), Worker Rights and Jobs

Having negotiated “record contracts” with the Big Three – and seen the bulk of its rank-and-file members approve them – the United Auto Workers says its work isn’t done. The union intends to try once more to persuade the rest of the U.S. auto industry’s workers to join the union. “We’re going to organize like we’ve never organized before,” said UAW President Shawn Fain. As labor scholars who have studied union finances, we believe this is a formidable objective. On top of the intense corporate resistance from the likes of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, there’s the high cost of waging expensive campaigns in states like Tennessee and Alabama, which have “right-to-work” laws designed to discourage labor organizing.

Argentina is Not For Sale: Unions Respond to Privatization

November 25, 2023 Trade Unions for Energy Democracy. Resist! Argentina, Labor Movement, Privatization, Solidarity, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Argentines weary of annual inflation soaring above 140% and a poverty rate that reached 40% have elected right-wing libertarian economist Javier Milei. On Sunday, November 19, 2023, Milei defeated Economy Minister Sergio Massa by a wide margin, 55.7% to 44.3%, winning all but three of the nation’s 24 provinces. He had campaigned on the promise to privatise state-owned enterprises, slash government spending, dollarise the economy, eliminate the Central Bank, and close key ministries, among them health and education. Milei is making the privatisation of the Argentine state-run oil company, YPF, a top priority. “The first thing to do is to restructure it so that YPF can be “sold in a very favourable way for the Argentinians.”

Ceasefire Now: Workplace Organizing For Palestine

November 18, 2023 Lisa Xu, Labor Notes. Resistance Report Israel, Labor Movement, Palestine, Solidarity, Worker Rights and Jobs

On November 15, Labor Notes hosted a Zoom call to hear reports from workers who are organizing to stop an escalating genocide in Palestine. Many are also fighting against the repression of workers who are speaking up for a ceasefire and against Israel’s occupation. We heard speakers from unions in education, health care, construction, and others who have organized their co-workers into action. Registration is open for the Labor Notes conference on April 19-21, 2024, for which we plan to develop programming on the labor movement and Palestine.

A General Strike In 2028 Is A Uniquely Plausible Dream

November 12, 2023 Hamilton Nolan, In These Times. Organize! General Strike, Labor Movement, Unions, United Auto Workers (UAW), Worker Rights and Jobs

The labor movement is a capricious friend — it hands out heartbreak as much as it hands out joy. But every once in a while, it is able to wave a triumphant flag and give us all a glimmer of what its potential could truly be. The recently concluded UAW strike offered just such a moment. It wasn’t just the contract agreements themselves, which were a material success, but also the union’s public call for movement-wide coordination to build the possibility of mass action around the May 1, 2028 expiration of the next auto contracts. “We invite unions around the country to align your contract expirations with our own so that together we can begin to flex our collective muscles,” the UAW declared on October 29.

Despite Intimidation, Union Voices Get Louder For Ceasefire In Gaza

November 3, 2023 Keith Brower Brown and Caitlyn Clark, Labor Notes. Resist! Labor Movement, Palestine, Retaliation, Solidarity

In the U.S. and across the world, hundreds of thousands of people have taken the streets to protest Israel’s assault on Gaza, which has killed at least 8,300 Palestinians, including 3,300 children, since October 7. On October 27, the United Nations called for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce.” In the U.S., those protesting Israel’s attacks have faced a wave of repression by employers. Management retaliation has struck journalists and academics. Michael Eisen, editor-in-chief of the open-access science journal eLife, was fired after sharing a satirical article from The Onion that criticized media responses to the loss of Palestinian life. Jackson Frank, a sports writer for PhillyVoice, was fired after criticizing a pro-Israel post by the Philadelphia 76ers.

Organising Against Apartheid: Union Solidarity With Palestine Matters

November 2, 2023 Taj Ali, Tribune Magazine. Organize! Apartheid, Israel, Labor Movement, Palestine, Solidarity, Unions

The rich tradition of international solidarity and anti-imperialism within the British trade union movement extends beyond the anti-apartheid movement. In 2003, two Motherwell-based train drivers refused to move a freight train carrying ammunition believed to be destined for British forces deployed in the Gulf. Railway managers cancelled the Ministry of Defence service after the crewmen, described as ‘conscientious objectors’ by a supporter, said they opposed Tony Blair’s threat to attack Iraq. And just ten miles away, in the 1970s, shop stewards at an East Kilbride Rolls Royce factory refused to carry out repairs on warplanes belonging to Chile’s air force.

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