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McDonald’s Workers Go On Strike Over Unsafe Conditions, Lost Hours, Pay Cuts

St. Louis, MO - Some McDonald's workers in St. Louis, Tampa and Memphis have gone on strike to protest unsafe working conditions, pay cuts and lost hours. More than 100 workers across the three cities have walked off the job or waged stay-at-home strikes, according to a news release. While McDonald's U.S. locations have closed their dining areas, the stores are still serving customers via drive-thru, take-out and the company's McDelivery service. Some McDonald's workers in Tampa kicked off the strike on Tuesday, alleging the company would not allow them to wear face masks. The walkout was reported on Twitter by Fight for $15, a global movement that advocates for workers' rights and a $15 minimum wage. The group has created a petition demanding that McDonald's provide paid sick leave for all workers, among other COVID-19 related demands.

Amazon, Instacart Workers Strike Amid Coronavirus Pandemic

As much of the country is under “shelter in place” orders to help flatten the curve, Amazon, Instacart and Whole Foods’ employees’ safety is in jeopardy. And many of them walked off the job yesterday to pressure the companies to step-up protections and pay. While online shopping and grocery delivery is at an all-time high amid the coronavirus pandemic, the protests come as some employees are testing positive for the virus and neither Instacart nor Amazon are doing enough to keep employees safe. “The richest man in the world can’t even provide basic protection for his workers during this pandemic crisis because it hurts his bottom line,” Ron T. Kim, New York Assembly member, tweeted about Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos. “I stand in solidarity with Amazon workers.”

The Struggle For A COLA At Berkeley University

California - On March 5, in the midst of a campus-wide march and rally, a student protester at UC Berkeley walked into the bustling Free Speech Movement Café, a study spot that borrows its name from Cal’s legendary 1960s anti-war protests. “Fellow students!” she shouted, climbing on top of the counter. “Today, you will witness the largest protest you have seen during your time at UC Berkeley. We are shutting down the campus in solidarity with the grad students at UC Santa Cruz who were fired while striking for a cost of living adjustment. Please join us in demanding a COLA for all!” The room full of students was uncomfortably silent. During the midterm week at Berkeley, many are studying for difficult courses that prepare them for cut-throat professions.

Rikers Prisoners Strike: ‘Free ‘Em All, Shut Down Prisons’

Journalist Kim Kelly broke the news on March 22 that two dorms at Rikers Island are on strike. Their statement reads: “Two dorms of 45 inmates at Rikers are refusing to leave our dorms for work duties or for meals. We must take these actions in protest of the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and cleaning supplies provided to inmates, the crowded living conditions imposed on us prior to the pandemic and made worse by the daily addition of new inmates from other facilities, some of whom are highly likely to have been exposed to the COVID-19 virus, and the arbitrary disconnection of our phones for three hours on the morning of March 22. “We demand the same calls issued by the Board of Corrections. That all inmates: over 50 with parole violations, at high risk due to health conditions, with less than a year of sentenced time BE IMMEDIATELY RELEASED.

Update: Statement From Striking Truthdig Workers

On Wednesday night, amid reports that much of the country was going into quarantine indefinitely, Truthdig's staff received an email with the subject line "Re: Truthdig." The email was to inform us that Truthdig LLC was being dissolved and that our positions at the publication had been terminated. Chris Hedges, the site's most widely read columnist, was among those fired, despite the fact that he raised grant money to cover his own salary. "Thank you for all you've done at Truthdig," an attached form letter read. "We really appreciate your contributions. We did great work together. We wish you the best in your future endeavors. Be well and stay safe." Two weeks prior, we had begun a work stoppage at the website to protest unfair labor conditions, promising to return to work if Truthdig's publisher, Zuade Kaufman, committed to negotiate with us in good faith.

We Desperately Need A Mass Strike Against The Billionaire Class

The Democratic presidential primary is becoming a pitched battle between the interests of workers and billionaires—the type of fight that Jane McAlevey knows well. The author of A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy, McAlevey has focused her career as a labor organizer, writer and educator on how to build power—and how to win. In light of the current class struggle shaping up inside (and outside) the primary, her thoughts on how to make strategic interventions are a breath of fresh air. McAlevey’s book argues that workers must once again wield their most powerful tool: the strike. She believes the strike can empower workers not just in the workplace, but could tip the balance of political power back into the hands of the working class.

New Wave Of Protests Sweeping Across Chile

Chile has witnessed a week of renewed protests demanding the resignation of billionaire President Sebastián Piñera and calling for a Peoples’ Convention to scrap former dictator Augusto Pinochet’s 1980 neoliberal laws, replacing them with a new Constitution. On March 8 — International Working Women’s Day — more than a million people demonstrated in Santiago and elsewhere. Reporter Alisha Lubben in the  March 8 Chile Today News described the massive event in Santiago: “The streets were electric with the voices of over one million women. Along the metro ride to Santa Lucia, cheers and chants permeated into the stations and grew louder and more enthusiastic with each stop. “Exiting the metro station, reaching the march was nearly impossible as even side streets and alleyways were brimming with women and children.

Mexican Women Plan Historic Strike Against Femicides

On 10 February, two Mexican newspapers published leaked photos of the mutilated body of Ingrid Escamilla, a 25-year-old woman who was murdered and skinned from head to toe by her boyfriend. Five days later, on 15 February, the body of a seven-year-old girl named Fátima, who had been reported missing, was found in a plastic bag. She had been kidnapped, raped, tortured and had her organs removed. In Mexico, where an average of ten women are murdered each day, many are growing restless – and angry at this level of violence. Tens of thousands are expected to take to the streets on Sunday 8 March, as part of protests happening around the world for International Women’s Day. But recent news of gruesome femicides – murders with suspected or confirmed gender-related motives – and the government’s perceived indifference have driven women to also organise a nationwide strike the next day, 9 March, under the banner #UnDíaSinNosotras (#ADayWithoutUs).

Why Should You Care About The UCSC Strike?

Last December, hundreds of graduate students at the University of California-Santa Cruz (UCSC) voted to go on strike. Their sole demand was a cost of living adjustment (COLA) to their monthly stipend. Santa Cruz, a tech hub near Silicon Valley and San Jose, gets more expensive every year. The current base stipend—which comes out to roughly $21,906 per year—is not nearly enough to live on. A 2017 survey found that a grad student in the Santa Cruz area would need at least $32,000 to make it through the year on a barebones budget.

Macron Facing The “December 5th Wall”

Tuesday, November 19. Dinner at the Elysée. The President brings together the close circle of ministers and parliamentarians. No more hesitation: the pension reform will be implemented. Everyone must be on a war footing. There's no way we're going to be impressed. We had to give in, back off in front of the yellow vests, drop a little bit on the hospital. For the students, we'll wait. This time, it passes or breaks. It has to pass. The next day the offensive was launched: parliamentarians, ministers and the First in the lead, attacked the media.

More Than 15,000 Indiana Teachers Walk Off Job

More than 15,000 Indiana teachers rallied Tuesday at the Indianapolis State Capitol building against low pay and the bipartisan attacks on public education. Teachers and educators walked off the job in defiance of state laws preventing them from going on strike, which forced more than half of the state’s 300 school districts to close. The mass demonstration of teachers in Indiana—formerly governed by current US Vice President Mike Pence—joins the growing global revolt of teachers against attacks on public education, social inequality and the social crisis educators confront daily in their classrooms. Teachers across virtually every continent have struck or carried out mass demonstrations in the last two years. Earlier this month, Dutch teachers facing high burnout rates carried out a one-day strike action and shut down 4,000 schools in defiance of their own unions.

Taiwanese Flight Attendant Strike Cancels 2,250 Flights

Flight attendants at EVA Air have concluded the largest and longest strike in the history of Taiwan’s airline industry, from June 20 through July 10. Strikers notched a partial victory against a notoriously anti-union company. Now they will have to consolidate their gains and fend off repression. The strikers were all women—EVA does not hire male flight attendants, though it announced in the middle of the strike that it plans to. According to the Taoyuan Flight Attendants Union (TFAU), 2,949 of the airline’s 4,600 cabin crew members participated. Flight attendants set up a giant tent and rallied for 17 straight days outside EVA’s headquarters in the working-class city of Taoyuan, home to Taiwan’s main international airport.

How Big Strike 30 Years Ago Aided Fight For Single Payer

Thirty years ago this summer, 60,000 telephone workers walked off the job in New York and New England — and stayed out for seventeen weeks. Their struggle against NYNEX, a telecom giant, became one of labor’s few big strike victories, during a decade that began with the disastrous defeat of PATCO, the national air traffic controllers union. Within the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), the model of membership mobilization and workplace militancy developed in 1989 has been used, to varying degrees, in every regional contract campaign they’ve conducted since then.

Labor Strikes Back: How Workers Can Win

In mid-June, the Washington DC chapter of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) hosted a panel discussion, "Labor Strikes Back!", to answer these questions. The discussion was moderated by Gabriel Acevero, union organizer and Member of the Maryland House of Delegates, and featured comments by Andrea Molina, educator and organizer at the Mundo Verde Charter School in Washington, DC; Eric Blanc, former teacher and author of Red State Revolt; and Sara Nelson, President of the Association of Flight Attendants. Given that the most consequential strikes of 2018 and 2019 have been by teachers, it was enlightening to have current and former teacher-activists on the panel along with other labor organizers.

Largest Private Sector Strike In Years – At Supermarkets Across Northeast

More than 30,000 grocery store employees in the northeastern US are refusing to return to work for the second day in a row. Cashiers and deli workers at Stop & Shop supermarkets walked off the job Thursday afternoon at 240 stores in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, saying the supermarket chain is trying to slash their pay by hiking health insurance premiums and lowering pension benefits for new employees. The workers have been negotiating new jobs contracts with the company since January, according to their labor unions, which are part of the United Food & Commercial Workers Union International.
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