Labor Movement

The Labor Voices Opposing US Military Support For Gaza Siege

October 14, 2023 Jeff Schuhrke and Sarah Lazare, In These Times. Resist! Israel, Labor Movement, Palestine, Solidarity, Wars and Militarism

As the Israeli military relentlessly bombards 2.4 million Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip and a ground invasion appears imminent, one storied, national union — the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) — is opposing U.S. military aid for the state of Israel whose assault on the besieged strip has already taken the lives of at least 1,800 Palestinians (a number that is quickly rising) and displaced more than 420,000 others. The Israeli government’s overwhelming violence comes on the heels of a surprise attack by Hamas militants on October 7 when 150 were taken hostage and more than 1,300 people, almost entirely Israelis, were killed.

Chipping Away At The Right To Strike

October 9, 2023 Veena Dubal, Dissent Magazine. Educate! Labor Movement, Strikes, Supreme Court, Worker Rights

On June 1, the Supreme Court issued a significant decision against the labor movement in Glacier Northwest v. Teamsters Local Union No. 174. In an 8–1 split, the Court found that the National Labor Relations Act does not protect striking cement truck drivers from being sued by their employer, who alleges damages for lost cement caused by their work stoppage. The decision, perhaps by design, has received little public outcry. Some in labor, who had anticipated a worse outcome, even expressed relief. On June 1, SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry tweeted, “We are pleased that today’s decision . . . doesn’t change labor law and leaves the right to strike intact.”

With No Reform Caucus, Auto Workers Would Not Be On Strike

October 1, 2023 Jane Slaughter, Labor Notes. Organize! Auto Workers, Labor Movement, Reform Caucus, Strikes, Unions, United Auto Workers (UAW), Worker Rights and Jobs

One lesson is that member power does not have to start from a supermajority; that’s unlikely. UAW members are on strike today, with inspiring levels of rank-and-file energy, because four years ago a small group of activists founded a new reform caucus. That caucus, Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD), boldly took advantage of an unexpected opportunity, organized like crazy, and won elections. Its candidates are now leading the union. If UAWD had not existed and organized hard, this current fight that has potential to change the stakes for the entire labor movement would not be happening.

White Supremacy Is At The Center Of The ‘Class Over Race’ Debate

September 22, 2023 Jon Jeter, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Class Struggle, Labor Movement, Racism, White Supremacy

With its swath of shuttered shops, empty cafes, dwindling crowds and shimmering seaside vistas, San Francisco’s Embarcadero resembles an abandoned amusement park in the post-pandemic era, but a century ago this tourist attraction was known as the “slave market,” where dozens of longshoremen would gather each weekday hoping to land a job loading and unloading the freighters docked in the bay. Seldom were there enough jobs to go around, however, and the hiring boss who was assigned by the shipping companies to choose the daily work crews would often go about the task with the same contemptuous air that an overseer might display while inspecting chattel slaves at auction, sneering as he rejected some longshoremen while doling out preferential treatment to others, many of whom had agreed to kick back a portion of their wages to him.

Bakehouse Workers In Chicago Fight For Independent Union

September 19, 2023 Jennifer Lenz, The Real News. Organize! Chicago, Labor Movement, Unions, Worker Rights

Despite the Biden administration’s decision to terminate the national Public Health Emergency Declaration on May 11, COVID-19 has continued to spread and mutate, leaving millions dead around the world and millions of others chronically ill, permanently disabled, and/or immunocompromised. The pandemic itself, and the botched responses to it by powerful state and market actors (including, and especially, the United States), have inflicted irreversible damage upon our societies, and that damage has been disproportionately felt by marginalized, poor, and working-class people. But the many injustices working people have had to endure during the pandemic, and the many sacrifices we have had to make, have also played a direct role in galvanizing the emerging wave of worker organizing and the renewed labor militancy we are currently witnessing.

How A Strip Mall Became The Center Of The Modern-Day Labor Movement

September 13, 2023 Diti Kohli, Portside. Organize! Labor Movement, Massachusetts, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Hadley, Massachusetts - Picture a sprawling suburban strip mall, and Route 9 in this Western Massachusetts town may come to mind. The busy commercial corridor is dotted with curb strips and parking lots, with neatly painted lines and weeds pushing through cracks in the asphalt. National brands fill the low-lying storefronts one after another: Home Depot, Whole Foods, Marshalls, ULTA. But a half-mile stretch of the roadway between Amherst and Northampton is unusual for one reason: It has become a hotbed for labor activism. Starting last year, workers at three big-box stores — Trader Joe’s, Barnes & Noble, and Michaels — formed unions in and around the Mountain Farms mall.

Flight Attendants Prepare To Fight

September 6, 2023 Joe Piette, Workers World. Resist! Airlines, Labor Movement, Strikes, Worker Rights and Jobs

Following the announcement that 99.47% of American Airlines (AA) flight attendants across the U.S. voted to authorize a strike if company officials fail to agree to a 35% wage increase, workers outside Philadelphia Airport’s Terminal A West on Aug. 30, jumped up and yelled in unison, raising and waving their picket signs that said it all: “Ready to Strike!” Members of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, who haven’t had a wage increase since 2019, also picketed in front of over nine airport terminals from Los Angeles’ LAX to Boston’s BOS on the same day. The vote and widespread picketing “made it clear to American management that we are fired up, unified, and standing together for a contract with significant improvements to compensation, retirement, scheduling flexibility, and more.

Waves Of Strikes Rippling Across The US Seem Big

September 5, 2023 Judith Stepan-Norris and Jasmine Kerrissey, Scheer Post. Educate! History, Labor Movement, Strikes, Worker Rights and Jobs

More than 323,000 workers – including nurses, actors, screenwriters, hotel cleaners and restaurant servers – walked off their jobs during the first eight months of 2023. Hundreds of thousands of the employees of delivery giant UPS would have gone on strike, too, had they not reached a last-minute agreement. And nearly 150,000 autoworkers may go on a strike of historic proportions in mid-September if the United Autoworkers Union and General Motors, Ford and Stellantis – the company that includes Chrysler – don’t agree on a new contract soon. This crescendo of labor actions follows a relative lull in U.S. strikes and a decline in union membership that began in the 1970s.

Canadian Workers, The Social-Ecological Crisis and Alternatives

September 5, 2023 Socialist Project. Strategize! Canada, Labor Movement, Socialism, Worker Rights and Jobs, Working Class

As workers, we are today confronted with the challenge of defending what we have and making gains in the face of an ever-expanding and relentless employer offensive. The employers’ drive to increase productivity and profits – central to capitalism everywhere – demands that we accept job loss and insecurity, concessions, new forms of speedup, and expanded management control in the workplace. More of us are forced to work in precarious forms of employment, making ourselves ‘flexible’ without access to unemployment and other social benefits or hope of a decent pension.

Attacks On Abortion Rights Are Attacks On All Workers

September 5, 2023 Natascha Elena Uhlmann, In These Times. Strategize! Abortion, Abortion Rights, Labor Movement, Solidarity, Worker Rights and Jobs

Over the past year, workers have seen our lives irrevocably changed. The Supreme Court’s landmark Dobbs decision gutted a fundamental right to bodily autonomy and plunged millions into crisis and uncertainty. Almost immediately, a litany of horror stories emerged. Doctors denying life saving care for fear of retribution; women trapped with their abusers or killed for accessing abortion care; children — already subjected to unspeakable violence — forced to seek the procedure in the shadows, lest they bear children of their own. Since the ruling, 14 states have implemented full abortion bans, and several others are working tirelessly to restrict access.

Lessons From Lively Picket Lines

September 1, 2023 Luis Feliz Leon and Alexandra Bradbury, Labor Notes. Strategize! Labor Movement, Pickets, Strikes, Unions

The heat was scorching in Louisville, Kentucky, last Thursday. But what the windless day lacked in gusts, it made up in guts. The union-made placards read: “United for a Strong Contract.” That resonated with auto workers at Ford who hadn’t been part of a contract rally for as long as anyone can remember. And the picket line came alive when they broke away from the tedious repetition of “Who’s got the power? We’ve got the power!” and used their own chants. “We ready, we ready, we ready for a strike…” An auto worker led a syncopated chorus, breaking the monotony of the boring chants printed on the back of their placards.

This Is How The Next Great American General Strike Happens

September 1, 2023 Joe Maniscalco, Work-Bites. Strategize! COVID-19, General Strike, Labor Movement, Worker Rights and Jobs

The next great general strike to captivate the United States will not be organized — it’ll be organic. And it could be the most transformative general strike this country has ever seen. Right now, the head of the Transport Workers Union of America is threatening to shut down the second-largest commuter railroad in the nation; striking SAG-AFTRA and WGA members want to break up Hollywood; and militants within the UAW are still keen on bringing the Big Three automakers to their knees. Add to that mix, increasingly-fed up Starbucks baristas and Amazon warehouse workers unable to organize or get a union contract.

Can Boycotts Help Workers Win?

August 27, 2023 Eric Blanc, Labor Politics. Strategize! Boycotts, Labor Movement, union busting, Worker Rights and Jobs

The recent uptick in labor organizing has prompted not only a rise in strikes, but also the return of an old labor weapon: the boycott. While boycott campaigns generally have a mixed record at best, this tactic was used successfully in the recent unionization and first contract victories at Burgerville in Oregon as well as Spot Coffee in upstate New York — a campaign that set the stage for the subsequent Starbucks upsurge. Raising the slogan, “No Contract, No Field Trips,” unionizing workers at Medieval Times in New Jersey and California are now linking up with K-12 teachers to boycott the company until it stops its alleged union-busting.

Revitalized Union Power Helped Crush Attempts To Rig The System In Ohio

August 24, 2023 Bob Hennelly, Portside. Organize! Labor Movement, Ohio, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

It is said that history is written by the winners. But when it comes to big wins by organized labor, the corporate news media, itself fighting unionization at all costs, tends to ignore unions even when they are shaping history. Missing from much of the coverage about Ohio voters’ rejection of the Republican legislature’s attempt to raise the threshold for voter approval needed to amend the state constitution from a simple majority to 60 percent — was the central role organized labor played in mobilizing and helping to defeat the scheme. In the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe vs. Wade, the Republican legislature pushed through some of the nation’s most draconian restrictions on abortion.

SEIU And The Carpenters: ‘Changing To Win’ Or Changing The Wrong Way?

August 23, 2023 Steve Early, Popular Resistance. Organize! Democracy, Labor Movement, SEIU, Unions

In a recent conversation with an otherwise well-informed young labor activist, I made a passing reference to Change to Win, a national labor federation formed in 2005 by defectors from the AFL-CIO. “Change to what?” she asked. “Never heard of it.” Her response was not surprising, given the short shelf life of the organizational brand in question. Launched with much media fanfare, Change to Win initially represented 5.5 million workers, about one-fifth of the AFL’s total membership. Its founders—the Service Employees, Teamsters, Carpenters, Laborers, United Farm Workers, Food and Commercial Workers, and UNITE-HERE—saw themselves as the second coming of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)

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