Strike

NYPD Cops Encouraged To ‘Strike’ On July 4

June 19, 2020 Craig McCarthy and Tina Moore, NY Post. Resist! Fourth of July, New York City (NYC), Police, Strike

A labor strike is brewing in the NYPD. A pair of flyers making the rounds among NYPD officers are encouraging them to call out sick July 4 — as retribution for police reform and a perceived anti-cop climate following the outrage over high-profile police killings of unarmed black men across the country, multiple cops told The Post. One message calls for the strike to kick off at 3 p.m. July 4. “NYPD cops will strike on July 4th to let the city have their independence without cops,” the message, which is being passed among cops via text, according to sources. “Cops that say we can’t strike because of the Taylor Law,” the message reads, referencing a law that makes public worker stoppages punishable with fines and jail time.

Pitchfork Union On Strike Over Racist Power Structures

June 18, 2020 Pitchfork Union, Popular Resistance. Resist! Labor Union, Media, Racism, Strike, Worker Rights and Jobs

Today, the Pitchfork Union is engaging in a half-day work stoppage. From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. EST, union members will not publish or promote any new content on the website in protest of a blatant act of union-busting by Condé Nast and Pitchfork management. On May 13, Condé Nast engaged in company-wide layoffs. The only person in our union targeted was our Unit Chair and only Senior Editor of color, Stacey Anderson, illustrating the larger pattern of employees of color being targeted throughout the company. We categorically opposed her layoff. We immediately began looking into alternatives, like those implemented at BuzzFeed News and The Los Angeles Times.

ILWU To Shut Down Ports For Juneteenth

June 13, 2020 NBC San Diego. Resist! Dock Workers, Juneteenth, Rebellion2020, Strike

On June 19, union members who work at the Port of San Diego will stop operations for eight hours in honor of Juneteenth, the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation being first enforced in Texas. The members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union at 29 ports from San Diego to Washington State will halt work from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. On June 19, 1865, Black slaves in Texas -- the most isolated rebel state in the South during the Civil War -- were told about their emancipation from slavery two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln, which was immediately changed the legal status of enslaved Blacks in the slave-holding states from slave to free.

NOLA Garbage Workers Form Union To Fightback

May 30, 2020 Mike Elk, Payday Report. Organize! Labor Unions, New Orleans, Strike, Worker Rights and Jobs

“We are digging in for a long fight,” says New Orleans striking sanitation worker Jonathan Edwards late on Thursday night about being fired in early May by People Ready, a contractor of New Orleans’ Metro Services. Nearly a month ago, People Ready fired Edwards and 13 other coworkers who went on strike. Forced to work in one of the world’s worst hotbeds of COVID, garbage pickers like Edwards, employed through the temp firm People Ready and contracted by Metro Services, were only paid $10.25 an hour without benefits. On May 6th, workers went on strike demanding $15 an hour, hazard pay, protective equipment, and health insurance. However, the workers were fired two days later on May 8th. Instead of re-hiring them, Metro Services replaced them with prison labor.

Payday Report: Strikes Spread And Union Organizing Grows

May 17, 2020 Mike Elk, Payday Report. Resist! COVID-19, Labor Unions, Recession, Strike, Worker Rights and Jobs

The strikes in the Yakima Valley of Washington State continue to grow. Workers are already on strike at 7 major sites, and now they’re expected to strike on at least 6 more major sites this weekend. The Yakima Herald has the story: Hundreds of strike supporters showed up Thursday morning, traveling on foot or by vehicle between plants in a pack that workers started calling “the caravan.” They had painted their vehicle windows with messages of support in Spanish. They honked and waved as they drove by. Strikers waved back, held their protest signs higher, and quietly said “Thank you” to each passing vehicle. Rosalina Gonzales was one of those strikers. She’s worked at Columbia Reach Pack for 19 years. She does the physically demanding work each day to provide for her children and family, she said. Gonzales, who held a neon poster board sign lettered with “Social Distancing — 6 feet” in bold Sharpie strokes, admitted to being nervous about speaking up. She said she and many other workers normally don’t talk to the press.

Prison Labor Replaces Striking Garbage Workers In New Orleans

May 10, 2020 Mike Elk, Payday Report. Resist! COVID-19, PPE, Strike, Worker Rights

On Wednesday, dozens of garbage workers, employed by the temp service People Ready, went on strike, demanding proper safety equipment. The workers, who make only $10.25 an hour are also demanding hazard pay and paid sick leave. “$10.25 to pick up trash – come on now. It’s contaminated now with coronavirus,” strike leader Gregory Woods told Payday Report this week. After striking, the workers were fired en-masse earlier this week However, many workers had hoped that the city would find a resolution to hire the back. Now, the city has found new workers to replace the striking workers, prison labor from nearby Livingston Parish.

Striking Bus Drivers Steer The Way To A Better World

May 9, 2020 Mindy Isser, In These Times. Resist! Bus Driver, COVID-19, PPE, Strike

All eyes are on essential workers during the coronavirus pandemic, as individuals, companies and even the federal government make a point to thank them for their heroic action: working. Frontline workers have received plenty of symbolic accolades, but many are working without proper personal protective equipment (PPE) and hazard pay, and are scared for their health and safety. Public transit workers, who shuttle other essential workers to and from work, have been sounding the alarm about poor safety standards at their jobs since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), which represents 200,000 workers in the United States and Canada, told In These Times that nearly 1,000 of its members have been infected with coronavirus, and almost 40 have died.

Immigrants Making PPE Strike After Co-Worker Dies Of COVID

May 3, 2020 Mike Elk, Payday Report. Resist! COVID-19, Immigrant Rights, PPE, Strike

Today, Mexican immigrants making personal protective equipment LSL Healthcare in the suburbs of Chicago walked off the job, shutting down production as the workers demand paid time off to go into quarantine. The walk-off came off after a co-worker died of COVID. “The bosses didn’t inform the workers that there are sick people. They figured it out on their own,” says Maritere Gomez, an organizer with the worker center Arise Chicago, which is helping the workers organize. “If it were up to the bosses, the workers still wouldn’t know. They would put anyone live at risk cuz of profits,” says Gomez. The workers delivered a letter to management demanding paid time off, safer conditions, and better testing. “The company should call us when the Covid-19 crisis is over according to the Illinois government, and/or when the company is ready to resume safe operations in compliance with Governor JB Pritzker’s Executive Order."

‘Protect Amazon Workers’ Mural Painted In Front Of CEO Jeff Bezos’ Home

April 29, 2020 Shut Down DC, Popular Resistance Resist! Amazon, Jeff Bezos, Strike, Workers

On April 29, 2020, a team of activists with La ColectiVA and ShutDownDC painted a mural on the street in front of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ DC home. The mural read “PROTECT AMAZON WORKERS” in massive letters stretching from curb to curb. The mural action was taken in solidarity with Amazon workers across the country who are being forced to endanger their health during the COVID-19 crisis. Advocates for healthy and safe working conditions in Amazon warehouses participated in an online town hall in which they called on Bezos to provide paid time off for illness, adequately clean warehouses, and end attacks on worker organizing. They were joined by environmental justice and racial justice activists. “Whether it’s harming our environment or enabling ICE and police surveillance, corporations like Amazon are complicit in profiteering from practices that put us all, especially Black and brown communities, at risk...”

Nursing Home Workers Authorize May 8 Strike At 40 Facilities

April 29, 2020 Robert McCoppin, Chicago Tribune. Resist! COVID-19, Nursing Homes, PPE, Strike, Workers

Workers at 40 nursing homes in Illinois, nearly all in the Chicago area, said Monday they have set a strike date for May 8, as contract negotiations come to a head while coronavirus cases are hitting a peak. SEIU Healthcare Illinois stated that it represents more than 10,000 workers at 100 nursing homes. The workers do not include doctors or nurses, but encompass certified nursing assistants and other support staff. They are negotiating with the Illinois Association of Healthcare Facilities on a new contract to succeed the current one, which expires April 30. The list of 40 homes targeted by workers could increase in the coming days, officials said. Many of the workers are making little more than Chicago’s minimum wage of $13 an hour for “backbreaking,” essential work taking care of society’s most vulnerable members, said Shaba Andrich, vice president for nursing homes.

Amazon Workers Walk Out Over COVID-19 Outbreak

April 26, 2020 Atwood Center, Facebook. Resist! Amazon, COVID-19, health, Strike, Worker Rights

Breaking: 50+ workers WALKED OUT at the Shakopee Amazon warehouse overnight after management revealed two more cases of COVID-19 and unjustly fired another worker leader. Faiza Osman has been a dedicated worker at Amazon for nearly three years, and was terminated for staying home with her two children during the pandemic. Amazon leadership had informed workers to stay home if they felt that they needed the time off, yet they fired Osman evidently for doing what she was allowed to do. This followed the firing of multiple Amazon leaders at the Shakopee warehouse. Workers believe that Amazon is using its six-foot social distancing policy to retaliate against workers. Amazon recently announced it would take away unlimited unpaid time off effective May 1st.

Students Across The Country Are Going On Strike

April 25, 2020 Mary Retta, The Nation. Resist! COVID-19, Higher Education, Strike, Students

Since campuses began shutting down across the country in early March, college students have been speaking out about the economic uncertainty, lack of food, and housing insecurity the nationwide upheaval has brought on. Despite this, many colleges have been reluctant to take measures to ensure student safety and comfort—most schools have not changed their grading policies, for example, and many campuses have not provided alternative resources after forcing students to evacuate dorms or cancel meal plans, prompting further uncertainty and stress. In response, college students across the country are going on strike. Striking students at the University of Chicago, Pomona College, The New School, Vassar College, and more are putting pressure on their school administration by refusing to go to classes or pay tuition payments or rent, saying its response to the coronavirus pandemic has been inadequately meeting the needs of the students paying to attend.

Essential Workers Of The World Unite!

April 19, 2020 By Santiago Leyva del Río and Kaveri Medappa, ROAR Magazine. Organize! Essential worker, International Solidarity, Strike, Working Class

Ironically, the global pandemic which threatens our lives has put a spotlight on the infrastructures that sustain them. The workers who have always been saving lives, caring for the ill, cleaning and sorting waste, producing goods and providing services essential for the uninterrupted running of lives have been made “heroes.” The same capitalist actors who considered these workers easily replaceable and often dismissed their work as “unskilled” are now cynically hailing them as “warriors.” The classification of certain workers as “essential” has created conditions, which allow for disparate groups of workers to think about themselves as part of a collective. The nature of this crisis has made the infrastructural labor that sustains everyday life evident. On the one hand, this conjuncture has revealed, and will exacerbate the shared vulnerabilities of “essential workers.”

COVID-19 Strike Wave Interactive Map

April 19, 2020 Pay Day Report. Resist! COVID-19, health, Strike, Workers Rights and Jobs

So far, we’ve identified over 100 wildcat strikes that happened since the beginning of March. (Several larger strikes like at Instacart and Whole Foods happened in multiple cities). We suspect many strikes aren’t reporting at all for a variety of reasons and that the numbers are higher than we can track. The map will be updated regularly. Send updates on new strikes to melk@paydayreport.com In some places, workers are simply calling out sick en mass and refusing to show up so bosses shut dow their plants. Many areas have no reporters with connections to the labor movement so many strikes are going completely uncovered. In other places, workers have protested for an hour or two before bosses have agreed to workers’ demands. Also, some union leaders are hesitant to get the media involved out of fear of retaliation

Dozens Of Strikes Say, ‘No Safety, No Work!’

April 16, 2020 Martha Grevatt, Workers World. Resist! COVID-19, health, Strike, Workers

As the death toll climbs, workers deemed “essential” have staged at least 75 separate job actions since the Chipotle walkout. Walkouts, sickouts, sit-ins and, most recently, car and social-distance pickets have involved people from a wide range of occupations. In addition to many fast food workers, those protesting include workers in health care, construction, manufacturing, meat and poultry processing, retail, warehouses, public transit, bars and restaurants, water and sewage, beverage bottling, nursing home care and more. Common demands of the walkouts are for employer-provided personal protective equipment such as masks, gloves and hand sanitizer, social distancing, hazard pay and the right of sick workers to stay home with pay. Payday Report lists almost 30 work stoppages that have occurred since April 1.

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