Labor Movement

How Reformers Doubled Vermont AFL-CIO Membership

May 23, 2024 Gordon Simmons, Labor Notes. Organize! AFL-CIO, Book Review, Labor Movement, Unions, Vermont, Worker Rights and Jobs

Transforming an existing union into a more democratic and member-run organization has often proven to be a daunting—though possible—task. The pressing need to revitalize organized labor in the U.S., however, depends on such movements. Beginning in 2017, a slate of reform-minded union activists won leadership offices in the Vermont state federation of labor, reinvigorating that organization. Within just a few years, the federation’s membership doubled. Insurgent Labor: The Vermont AFL-CIO, 2017-2023 is two-term president David Van Deusen’s participant-retelling of the emergence of the UNITED reform group.

The Role Of The Labor Movement In Solidarity Economy

May 21, 2024 CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies, Grassroots Economic Organizing. Create! Labor Movement, Solidarity Economy, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Enjoy this panel discussion on the role of the labor movement in solidarity economy hosted by the Solidarity Economy Club at CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies from Friday, May 10 , 2024. Solidarity Economy is an internationalist framework that seeks to unify diverse community-based initiatives toward a values-centered alternative to capitalism. Some of these initiatives include cooperatives, community gardens, land trusts, tenant’s unions, care networks & more. There has been increasing attention on the role of the labor movement in solidarity economy as union leaders seek new ways to fight back against the increasing precarity caused by neoliberalism, automation and AI.

Reformers Win Rerun Election In Rail Machinists

May 18, 2024 Joe DeManuelle-Hall, Labor Notes. Organize! Democracy, Elections, Labor Movement, Railroads, Unions, Worker Rights

Reformers in the Machinists rail union have ousted incumbents in a Department of Labor-supervised election. According to the results posted on the union’s website, challenger Reece Murtagh won the presidential election in District 19 of the IAM, 820 to 748, while his slate-mate Marty Rosato won 787 to 774 for secretary-treasurer. Both Murtagh and Rosato are full-time railroad workers. Murtagh is a roadway mechanic for CSX and the president of his local lodge in Richmond, Virginia; Rosato works at CSX in Selkirk, New York. They will take office June 3. Murtagh received the news while he was finishing up his shift at work. In his shop, his co-workers celebrated victory by playing the “Rocky” theme from their phones.

Good News: The ‘American Lessons’ From The Labor Notes Conference 2024

May 17, 2024 Salvo Leonardi, The Stansbury Forum. Strategize! Labor Movement, Labor Notes, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

On Friday PM April 19 I was scheduled to chair a Labor Notes workshop on “Organizing in the Construction Industry” I entered the designated hotel meeting room and approached the table in front to begin set up. I heard a vibrant Italian speaker and engaged with him. Turned out it was Salvatore Leonardi from the Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro – CGIL. He had been a panelist for a discussion of international trade union solidarity. Later I met up with him in the lobby of the O’Hare Hyatt as he headed to Chicago to explore labor history and blues clubs. His solid knowledge of both genres really impressed me.

We Need To Strike For Palestine: Why UAW 4811 Matters

May 1, 2024 Mary Jirmanus Saba, Mondoweiss. Strategize! Israel, Labor Movement, Palestine, Palestine Solidarity, United Auto Workers (UAW)

Workers across the U.S. labor movement, including the United Auto Workers (UAW), are mobilizing for Palestine. From the strong resolutions passed at Ford UAW Local 551 (representing workers at Ford’s Chicago Assembly Plant), to UAW 4811 at UC Berkeley’s resolution to commit union resources to make Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) a bargaining demand, to the historic vote from the UAW International Executive Board (IEB) last November to investigate the union’s ties to Israel’s apartheid regime, workers in the U.S. are advancing the demands of their Palestinian allies.

May Day 2028 Could Transform The Labor Movement And The World

May 1, 2024 Shawn Fain, In These Times. Strategize! Autoworkers, General Strike, Labor Movement, May Day, Unions, United Auto Workers (UAW), Worker Rights and Jobs

Members of the United Auto Workers courageously fought corporate greed at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis last fall during the historic six-week Stand-Up Strike. Because of their determination and commitment, we won record contracts with the Big Three automakers. After decades of falling behind, UAW autoworkers are finally moving forward again. We made a lot of ambitious demands at the bargaining table. One in particular may not have gotten the same attention as the reinstatement of cost-of-living adjustments or the reopening of the Stellantis assembly plant in Belvidere, Ill. — but it could also prove transformational: We aligned our contracts to expire at midnight on April 30, 2028.

In Relay Race To Organize The South, Baton Passes To Mercedes Workers

May 1, 2024 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. Organize! Auto Workers, Labor Movement, Mercedes, The South, UAW, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Michael Göbel, president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, stepped down from his post today, according to a video message that workers were shown. Göbel had groused in an April captive-audience meeting about a worker’s claim that Mercedes had come for the “Alabama discount”: low wages. His departure is another win for Mercedes-Benz workers, who already scored pay bumps and an end to wage tiers—and they haven’t even voted on the union yet. The company and Alabama politicians are ramping up their anti-union campaign as an election draws near. The 5,200 Mercedes workers at a factory complex and electric battery plant outside Tuscaloosa will vote May 13-16 on whether to join the United Auto Workers.

Report: Death On The Job; The Toll Of Neglect

April 28, 2024 AFL-CIO. Educate! Labor Movement, Unions, Worker Rights, Workplace Safety

This 2024 edition of “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect” marks the 33rd year the AFL-CIO has produced a report on the state of safety and health protections for America’s workers. The Occupational Safety and Health Act, promising every worker the right to a safe job, has been in effect for more than 50 years, and nearly 690,000 workers now can say their lives have been saved since the passage of the OSH Act. Over the last 50 years, there has been significant progress toward improving working conditions and protecting workers from job injuries, illnesses and deaths.

Pulsing With Life: 2024 Labor Notes Conference

April 27, 2024 Alexandra Bradbury, Labor Notes. Organize! Labor Movement, Strikes, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

The 2024 Labor Notes Conference pulsed with life—with a record turnout of 4,700 people, and a rising note of optimism because of the many breakthroughs won and new campaigns launched. Since we last gathered, Starbucks baristas have forced their employer into national bargaining. UPS workers won a big raise and wiped out driver two-tier with a strike threat. Graduate workers are organizing by the tens of thousands. Independent unions are spreading in retail and tech. Inspired by the Auto Workers and the Teamsters, demands for more democratic unions are spreading too.

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.

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