Labor

Thousands Of Teachers And Staff On Strike Across Oklahoma And Kentucky, Arizona Might Be Next

April 4, 2018 By Ashley Curtin, Nationofchange.org Resist! Arizona, Class Struggle, Kentucky, Labor, Oklahoma, Strikes, Teachers, Unions

Schools shut down on Monday as thousands of teachers and staff in Oklahoma walked out to protest the low wages, benefit cuts and lack of school funding. Leading up to the planned strike, Oklahoma educators gave lawmakers an opportunity to pass a bill that met their demands, but could only come up with a $447 million compromise to the $3.3 billion requested by the teachers, Vox reported. The bill, which would have given teachers a $6,100 raise, support staff a $1,250 raise and $50 million in education funding, was going to come in part from raising taxes on oil production, diesel fuel and cigarettes, but the deal was rejected by the Oklahoma Education Associate, the group negotiating on the educators behalf.

Purple Bullying, Ten Years Later: SEIU Trustees Trample Membership Rights

April 4, 2018 By Steve Early, Mronline.org Resist! Class Struggle, Labor, SEIU, Strikes, Unions

In Chicago this coming weekend, 2,500 rank-and-file activists, from the U.S. and abroad, will be meeting under the banner of Labor Notes to celebrate the revival of union militancy, including recent strike victories like the West Virginia teachers’ walk-out. This conference—nineteenth of its sort since 1981—will be the largest gathering ever hosted by the now Brooklyn-based labor education project. Labor Notes staff train shop stewards and local officers, promote cross-union networks, and publish books and newsletters about union democracy and reform. As Labor Notes co-founder, socialist Kim Moody explained to Jacobin readers several years ago, “the emphasis has always been on building power in the workplace” and “undermining the conservative consciousness produced by bureaucratic unionism”

Wildcat Sickouts Hit Kentucky As Teachers’ Struggle Spreads

April 3, 2018 Will Morrow, Wsws.org Resist! Class Struggle, Education, Labor, Teachers, Unions

Thousands of teachers in Kentucky staged wildcat sickouts Friday, closing schools in 29 counties. The protests were in opposition to a bill passed by state legislators Thursday night that includes a sweeping assault on teachers’ pensions. The eruption in Kentucky is part of an expanding wave of strikes and protests by educators across the United States and internationally. Oklahoma teachers will hold a statewide strike this Monday to demand wage and school funding increases, while teachers in Arizona are calling for walkouts in the wake of the nine-day February-March strike by 30,000 West Virginia teachers and school employees. The struggles by teachers are developing in opposition to the trade unions, which have suppressed the class struggle and enforced funding cuts by both parties for three decades.

First Fight For $15, Then West Virginia Teachers: Can New Playbook Rescue Labor Movement?

April 2, 2018 Max Zahn, Inthesetimes.com Strategize! Fight for 15, Labor, Labor Movement, Teachers, West Virginia

Shannon Johnson grew up with a birth defect in her throat that required multiple surgeries. Stuck in the hospital, she found solace in Disney movies. “I could get so immersed in the characters,” she said, recalling how she drew them on the walls of her bedroom. “It looked like a princess’ castle.” Johnson, 40, now works in food service at Disneyland Resort, a set of hotels next to the theme park, in Anaheim, California. She said her hourly wage is $11, the state minimum. When she leads a shift, it’s $12, she said. Her hours vary significantly from one week to the next, as does her paycheck. She eats one meal per day, often consisting of a can of tuna and celery sticks. She and her approximately 30,000 coworkers are asking for a raise, but not from Disneyland Resort. They’re counting on the residents of Anaheim. After contract negotiations with Disneyland Resort stalled, a coalition of unions submitted a city ballot measure this month that would require the resort and other large employers to pay an $18 minimum wage.

Germany’s 28-Hour Workweek

March 28, 2018 Loren Balhorn, Jacobinmag.com Create! Exploitation, Germany, Labor, New Economy, Workers Rights and Jobs

German metalworkers’ union IG Metall made international headlines last month after a twenty-four-hour “warning strike” compelled employers to sign a deal with the union giving its members the right to a twenty-eight-hour workweek. The deal — which covers 900,000 workers in the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg — is seen as a landmark in European labor relations, granting workers who want to reduce their working hours the right to do so for a two-year period. It came after 15,000 workers in eighty companies downed tools as part of a campaign for a better work-life balance and also included a substantial pay raise. But is it too good be true? Jacobin’s Loren Balhorn sat down with German labor sociologist Klaus Dörre to find out more about the strike, what the workers really gained, and what it might say about the German labor movement’s future.

What Happens To A One-Industry Town When The One Industry Is The Military?

March 28, 2018 By Dahr Jamail, Truth-out.org Educate! Cities, Labor, Military

According to that report, NAS Whidbey contributed $726 million to the economy of Island County in 2011, in addition to other ways the military base benefited the community where it is located, such as bringing in funding to local schools and retirement and disability payments to the local economy. However, a large number of residents from the community surrounding NAS Whidbey -- -- both civilians and people with military backgrounds -- have complained about the negative impacts of the Naval base for years. They've cited issues ranging from extreme jet noise to environmental and economic concerns. Because of these concerns, in 2016 they hired Michael Shuman, a nationally recognized expert on local economies, to investigate whether the Naval base was really bringing economic advantages to the community -- and what burdens the base was placing on taxpayer-supported services and infrastructure.

‘The Gig Economy’ Is The New Term For Serfdom

March 28, 2018 By Chris Hedges, Truthdig.com Educate! Class Struggle, Economics, Labor, Uber

A 65-year-old New York City cab driver from Queens, Nicanor Ochisor, hanged himself in his garage March 16, saying in a note he left behind that the ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft had made it impossible for him to make a living. It was the fourth suicide by a cab driver in New York in the last four months, including one Feb. 5 in which livery driver Douglas Schifter, 61, killed himself with a shotgun outside City Hall. “Due to the huge numbers of cars available with desperate drivers trying to feed their families,” wrote Schifter, “they squeeze rates to below operating costs and force professionals like me out of business. They count their money and we are driven down into the streets we drive becoming homeless and hungry. I will not be a slave working for chump change. I would rather be dead.” He said he had been working 100 to 120 hours a week for the past 14 years.

Tipped Workers Win With Spending Bill

March 28, 2018 By Negin Owliaei, Inequality.org Create! Class Struggle, Labor, Workers Rights and Jobs

President Trump signed a massive omnibus spending bill on Friday, ensuring that the lights will stay on in the federal government for another six months. But the bill does more than just allocate funds. Tucked 2,000 pages into the text is a provision that will protect tipped workers from getting their gratuities skimmed by their employers. The provision is a response to a proposed rule from the Department of Labor, which would have undone years of precedent that gave workers the tips they earned. The controversial proposal would have let employers take ownership of the tips paid to workers who made a full minimum wage (as opposed to the tipped minimum wage). Supporters said the rule was meant to allow for tip pooling to reduce inequality between restaurant workers in the line of service and those in the back of the house.

Florida Teachers On Edge As New Law Threatens Their Unions

March 23, 2018 Jeffrey S. Solock, Tampabay.com Educate! Class Struggle, Florida, Labor, Teachers, Unions

Life without union representation is not a distant fear for Russell Baggett. Until two years ago, the Calhoun County school district in northern Florida had no collective bargaining unit to support teachers. "We had no contract," said Baggett, president of the two-year-old Association of Calhoun Educators. "They would say, yes, there is money for a raise or, no, there isn’t. Whatever they decided, went." The passage of new collective bargaining rules into law this month has Baggett and teachers across Florida on edge, with fears that they could be headed back to the "bad old days" without a voice. At issue is a new law requiring local unions to prove they represent a majority of the teachers in their districts. The measuring stick: Having at least half of all employees eligible to be in the union paying dues.

French Civil Servants And Rail Workers Strike In Test For Macron

March 23, 2018 Staff, France24.com Resist! Class Struggle, France, Labor, Reform, Strikes, Transportation, Workers

Tens of thousands of protesters rallied in the streets of France on Thursday and strikes caused travel misery for millions in a showdown between trade unions and President Emmanuel Macron that could be decisive for his reform efforts. Seven unions representing staff in the public sector had called for strikes and protests on Thursday, while a third of railway workers walked out to join the demonstrations against 40-year-old Macron's bid to shake up the French state. The strikes meant that less than half of the country's high-speed TGV trains were running, while flights, schools, daycare centres, libraries and other public services such as garbage collection were disturbed to varying degrees. Police fired teargas and water cannon in central Paris during sporadic clashes between security forces and groups of students which appeared to have been infiltrated by far-left anarchists.

Teacher’s Unions Intensify Efforts To Suppress Growing Class Struggle In The US

March 22, 2018 By Jerry White, Wsws.org Strategize! Class Struggle, Labor, Teachers, Unions

On Sunday night, the National Education Association (NEA) shut down the strike by 4,000 teachers and support staff in Jersey City, the second-largest school district in the state of New Jersey. The NEA ordered educators to return to their classrooms without providing any details on the tentative deal, let alone allowing workers to vote on it. Presuming that an agreement actually exists, it will do nothing to address teachers’ demands to end soaring health care costs. The one-day strike is the latest in a growing wave of protests and calls for strikes that have spread from West Virginia to Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arizona, Tennessee, Colorado and other states, plus the US territory of Puerto Rico, where teachers struck against school privatization yesterday.

Inspired By West Virginia, Teachers Spread Red For Ed Movement Across Arizona

March 20, 2018 By Rebecca Garelli, Labornotes.org Organize! Arizona, Education, Labor, Strikes, Teachers

This all got started two Fridays ago, March 2. I had become friends with Jay O’Neal from West Virginia, who helped start the teachers and public employees Facebook group there, and he let me into their group. I’d been hanging out, just watching things, thinking, “Why is nobody in Arizona doing this?” So my Chicago blood got boiling, and I said, “I’m just going to spark the fire, I’ll be the catalyst.” I had been communicating with some folks on the Arizona BATS page—Bad Ass Teachers. I had been posting some things coming out of West Virginia, and others would get fired up too, so we started a dialogue. And then one of the admins of that page said, “Anybody else think Arizona should do something like that?” I said, “Yess!!!” I and another teacher started a Facebook group that day: Arizona Teachers United. There was no mention of striking, no mention of action.

Teachers In Jersey City Begin Strike As Demands For Walkouts Expand Across The US

March 19, 2018 Staff, Wsws.org Resist! Labor, New Jersey (NJ), Strikes, Teachers

Approximately 4,000 public school workers in Jersey City, the second largest school district in the US state of New Jersey, walked off the job on Friday afternoon. It is the first strike at the city’s school system since 1998. In addition to teachers, school staff such as nurses, paraprofessionals, guidance counselors, administrative assistants and others joined the picket line. The strike is part of a growing wave of working-class opposition in the US and internationally, following the shutdown of the West Virginia teachers strike earlier this month. The teachers’ unions ended the West Virginia strike based on a rotten agreement that fails to address rising health care costs and pays for inadequate pay increases through cuts in social programs. However, the struggle in West Virginia, which temporarily broke out of the straightjacket of the unions, has inspired teachers throughout the country.

Radical Labor: Aligning Unions With The Streets

March 15, 2018 Gino Canella, Roarmag.org Resist! Class Struggle, Labor, SEIU, Unions

Since the 1970s organized labor in the United States has seen a steep decline in its membership and political influence due to capital flight, “right to work” laws in southern states, automation and technological innovation. But recently, millions of US workers have rallied behind organized labor campaigns demanding fairer working conditions and higher wages — often based in union membership — for employees. Radical Labor profiles a local chapter of Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Local 105 to understand how the labor movement can collaborate with allied community activists, build a multi-racial coalition of working people for social justice, and realize more equitable workplaces and communities. SEIU Local 105’s organizing is grounded in what President Ron Ruggiero called “whole person unionism,” which is a fundamental understanding that workers “don’t just exist at work.”

The West Virginia Option

March 12, 2018 Joe Burns, Portside.org Organize! Labor, Strikes, Teachers, Unions, West Virginia, Workers Rights and Jobs

The ongoing teachers’ strike in West Virginia is remarkable in many ways. Thousands of public workers are engaged in a grassroots rebellion, defying restrictions on their right to strike. They’ve forced the state’s Republican governor to grant concessions, carrying on despite an announced deal by union officials. They’ve inspired other workers to think anew about militant action, both in West Virginia and outside the state. All of this is fitting at a time when anti-union forces are trying to turn back the clock on collective bargaining rights. The modern public employee union movement was born of struggle — the product of a great strike wave in the 1960s and 1970s. The school personnel strike in West Virginia represents a return to those militant days.

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