Labor

French Labor Leaders Size Up Yellow Vests

May 21, 2019 By Léa Bouchoucha, Consortiumnews.com Strategize! France, Labor, Yellow Vest

Several weeks ago Emmanuelle Cheron, 43, was out on the Place de La République in Paris, along with other members of a new collective of professional child minders. They wore pink vests, held balloons and had set up a large pink-and-white banner that said “Maternal assistants are angry. No to the unemployment reform.” Later that Saturday, on March 30, the Yellow Vest protesters were going to be on the streets as usual.But Cheron and her allies wanted to stage their own, single-issue demonstration.

Labor In Algeria’s Revolt

May 17, 2019 Rachid Malaoui, Jacobinmag.com Educate! Africa, Algeria, Class Struggle, Labor, Regime Change, Workers

Algeria is in the midst of a historic popular uprising. Protests began in February of this year, as Algerians revolted against President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s plans for a fifth term in office. Coming to power in 1999, Bouteflika suffered a debilitating stroke in 2013, after which he made few public appearances and was widely understood to be the puppet of a clique of high-ranking military figures. Protests intensified over the course of February and March, drawing millions to the streets of the capital Algiers and elsewhere, calling on Bouteflika to stand down before presidential elections originally slated for April 18.

On May 8, Uber Workers Are Planning A Nationwide Strike

May 7, 2019 Staff, Boingboing.net Resist! Labor, Lyft, Strikes, Uber, Workers

Shona from Gig Workers Rising clarifies: "Gig Workers Rising isn't organizing the national day of action. Drivers in each of the 6 cities taking action are coordinating the day of action together. Drivers in LA with Rideshare Drivers United Los Angeles called a strike and asked other cities to take action on the same day. Gig Workers Rising supports and educates drivers who are organizing across the state. We are not organizing drivers."

A Four-Day Working Week Is Within Our Grasp

March 18, 2019 Eleanor Penny, Redpepper.org.uk Create! Labor, New Economy, Reform

Whenever the government fumbles around desperately for the story they can sell as success, they often reach for the following statistic: that since the Conservatives took power in 2010, unemployment has dropped, and more people than ever are in work. But this simple story conceals a much more worrying truth – that work simply doesn’t guarantee a decent standard of living any more. Official statistics gloss over the effects of semi-employment, self-employment, self-unemployment, zero-hours contracts and a shrinking in real wages, leaving four million people in in-work poverty.

Black Women’s Labor Market History Reveals Deep-Seated Race And Gender Discrimination

February 26, 2019 By Nina Banks, Epi.org Educate! Black Women, History, Labor, Racism, Sexism

The black woman’s experience in America provides arguably the most overwhelming evidence of the persistent and ongoing drag from gender and race discrimination on the economic fate of workers and families. Black women’s labor market position is the result of employer practices and government policies that disadvantaged black women relative to white women and men. Negative representations of black womanhood have reinforced these discriminatory practices and policies. Since the era of slavery, the dominant view of black women has been that they should be workers, a view that contributed to their devaluation as mothers with caregiving needs at home.

Unions See An Opening In The Wake Of A Ruling That Was Supposed To Finish Them Off

February 15, 2019 By Rachel M. Cohen, Theintercept.com Organize! Class Struggle, Labor, Supreme Court, Unions

THE LAST YEAR has been a whirlwind for the labor movement. There have been unexpectedly positive developments, like the forceful rise in teacher activism across the country, and negative ones, like the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Janus v. AFSCME, which found that unions could no longer collect agency fees for bargaining from workers who do not pay membership dues. The labor movement had been grinding its teeth over that possibility for several years, bracing for its already strained coffers to further deplete.

Self Employment: An Effective Path For War Tax Refusal

February 11, 2019 Staff, Nwtrcc.org Resist! Employment, Labor, Taxes

This publication is one of a series of “practicals” that offer ideas, tips, and information for individuals who want to cut off their financial support for the U.S. war machine or are currently practicing war tax resistance. The full list of the “Practical Series” appears at the end of the text along with other relevant resources. Since the 1940s, the U.S. government and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have effectively enrolled employers in the tax collection system through payroll withholding, mandatory reporting, and salary levies. While the U.S. tax system is called “voluntary,” each year it seems more difficult to prevent assessment and collection of taxes, particularly for people who work for wages and salaries.

Thousands Of Striking Matamoros, Mexico Workers March To Border To Appeal To US Workers

January 23, 2019 Alex Gonzalez, Wsws.org Resist! Class Struggle, Labor, March, Workers

The strike by 70,000 “maquiladora” workers in Matamoros, Mexico has entered its second week and continues to intensify each day. Yesterday, workers held a protest titled “A Day Without Workers” to demonstrate that it is the working class—not the unions or the bosses—that generates all of society’s wealth. Photos circulating on social media showed deserted factories and union bureaucrats struggling to keep production lines operating after workers put down their tools en masse. Over 50 factories have now stopped production as a result of the strike, costing corporations an estimated $100 million over the course of one week.

India General Strike 2019

January 16, 2019 By Jamie Woodcock, Notesfrombelow.org Resist! Class Struggle, General Strike, India, Labor, Strikes, Workers

In Bangalore the strike was strong, shutting down transportation across the city. On the 8th of January, the unions called for a demonstration outside the town hall. There was the visible presence of transport workers (mainly bus drivers), factory workers (particularly aerospace), and bank workers, who joined a lively picket from across the road. While the weather reached around 30 celsius, the demo grew more and more packed. Police officers in tan uniforms, equipped with helmets and large batons, kept their distance at the edge of the demo.

Are We Prepared To Pay The Price For Farmworker Justice?

January 14, 2019 Olivia Heffernan, Pendemocracy.net Create! Class Struggle, Farmworkers, Labor

Wearing a flannel shirt, Wrangler jeans and worn-in beige boots, Juan Antonio Zuniga has the look of a farmer but not the entitlements that come with owning an actual farm. Fleeing violence in El Salvador, Zuniga came to the US in 1991 and has been a farmworker in New York ever since. Today, he lives and works on a farm in Mattituck, Long Island, where he picks grains and grows vegetables. According to the National Farmworker Ministry, the annual average income of crop workers is between $10,000 and $12,499 for individuals and $15,000 to $17,499 for a family, an offensively noticeable difference from the $5 billion-plus that New York’s agricultural industry brought in last year.

LA Teachers’ Strike: Dispatch #1

January 9, 2019 Glenn Sacks, Counterpunch.org Resist! Class Struggle, Education, Labor, Los Angeles, Strikes, Teachers

Absent a dramatic change in the Los Angeles Unified School District’s bargaining position, over 30,000 Los Angeles teachers will strike on Thursday, January 10. With nearly half a million students at over 1,000 schools, LAUSD is America’s second largest school district. LAUSD and United Teachers of Los Angeles have been negotiating since April, 2017 and are still far apart, and teachers have been working without a contract for 18 months. California’s Public Employment Relations Board issued its factfinding report in mid-December—the last step before UTLA could legally strike—and the neutral factfinder affirmed many key UTLA positions. On December 15 over 50,000 parents, students, and teachers rallied in downtown LA in support of UTLA.

The Eight Most Important Labor Stories Of 2018

December 23, 2018 Rebecca Burns, In These Times Educate! Janus, Labor, Wages, Worker Rights

In June, the Supreme Court issued its long-awaited ruling in Janus v. AFSCME—and it was just as bad as everyone feared. In a 5-to-4 decision, the court found that public-sector unions violated the First Amendment by collecting so-called fair-share fees from workers who aren’t union members but benefit from collective bargaining regardless. A report by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute estimated that the resulting “free-rider” problem could eventually lead to the loss of 726,000 public-sector union members nationwide. This diminished strength could result, in turn, in a 3.6 percent decline in public-sector wages.

Real Roots Of Inequality Is Neoliberal Capitalism, Not Trade & Technology

December 17, 2018 By Jayati Ghosh, Project-syndicate.org Educate! Capitalism, Class Struggle, Inequality, Labor, Wages

New findings from the International Labor Organization show that workers across many advanced and emerging economies continued to miss out on the gains from growth in 2017. Rather than trotting out the usual suspects – trade and technology – it is time for policymakers to place the blame where it belongs. NEW DELHI – It’s now official: workers around the world are falling behind. The International Labor Organization’s (ILO) latest Global Wage Report finds that, excluding China, real (inflation-adjusted) wages grew at an annual rate of just 1.1% in 2017, down from 1.8% in 2016. That is the slowest pace since 2008.

Forget Elections—Labor Needs To Get Back to Its Roots

November 22, 2018 By Tom Lewandowski, Inthesetimes.com Strategize! Class Struggle, Electoral Politics, History, Labor

With the midterms behind us, we have Nov. 4, 2020, to look forward to—labor’s next morning after. On Nov. 5, 2008, we were euphoric and full of delusional hope over the imminent passage of the Employee Free Choice Act and the restoration of labor. On Nov. 9, 2016, we were paralyzed by despair and denial. At this point, betting our future on the next brutal mating ritual of Republicans and Democrats is not a bet most workers are willing to take. Since the 1950s, union membership decline has been a straight line downward, regardless of which political party is in power. Only 10.7 percent of workers are unionized; an enormous 89.3 percent are not. That’s too low to make much difference for most people in most places—more molecular level Brownian motion than labor movement.

A Different WWI Anniversary

November 11, 2018 By Robert Ovetz, Portside Educate! Labor, Strikes, Workers Rights and Jobs

More than a decade before the New Deal, a wildcat strike wave during WWI brought about extensive concessions including right to organize, mandatory arbitration for employers, higher wages, and shorter work weeks. As we approach the anniversary of the end of WWI the history of this little-known period of class conflict has many critical lessons for us today. Above all, the lesson is that class conflict drives reform not the other way around as is commonly argued.

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 »

Daily movement news and resources