Strike

Showdown Building Between US Railroaders And Biden Administration

September 10, 2022 Tom Hall, WSWS. Resist! Joe Biden, Railroads, Strike, Worker Rights and Jobs

With less than one week to go before the September 16 deadline when a national railway strike can legally begin, a conflict is brewing between US railroad workers, on the one hand, and the major corporations, Washington and the trade union apparatus, on the other. The sentiment for a strike among 100,000 railroaders is overwhelming. In July, engineers voted to authorize a strike by 99.5 percent. But it is not simply a question of what they want. They have no other choice. It is impossible for them to continue to work 80 hours or even 100 hours a week, on call 24/7. The brutal work regime in the railroad industry, which is more profitable than any other, renders workers strangers to their families and leaves them even without time to schedule doctor’s appointments.

6,000 Seattle Teachers And Support Staff Strike

September 8, 2022 David Fitzgerald and Bryan Dyne, WSWS. Resist! Education, Seattle, Strike, Teachers, Unions

Six thousand teachers and support staff in Seattle, Washington began a strike this morning, cancelling the first day of classes for 50,000 students in the state’s largest school district. The walkout followed a 95 percent vote by teachers, paraprofessionals and office workers to authorize strike action. The Seattle Education Association (SEA) did everything it could to reach a last-minute deal but was unable to prevent a strike. Union officials have pledged to continue talks to reach an agreement to bring teachers “back to the classrooms as fast as possible.” The union also dropped its initial opposition to the district’s demands for the intervention of a mediator.

Bus Workers Are Driving The Fight For Fair Pay

September 8, 2022 Taj Ali, Tribune Magazine. Resist! Bus Driver, Strike, Unions, United Kingdom (UK), Worker Rights

Workers in Britain have experienced the longest period of wage stagnation since the 1800s, and now face further real-terms pay cuts amid the worst squeeze on living standards since the 1950s. Two-thirds of adults in poverty are now in a working household. For Arriva bus drivers like Dan*, from Hertfordshire, things have never been this bad. ‘The cost of fuel has doubled. You have to do extra shifts just to break even. We are working to live,’ he says, explaining how the cost of living crisis coupled with low wages are causing him and his family significant hardship. ‘I used to be able to give my kids a bit of money here and there. Not anymore. I’ve had to cut back on trying to give them a leg up. Everything is going up.’ Everything, that is, except wages. It’s a familiar story among many low-paid workers in Britain, and the Arriva bus strikes taking place in bus depots across Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Hertfordshire are the latest in a wave of industrial action being taken by desperate workers struggling to make ends meet.

Kaiser Mental Health Strike Enters Day Three With Picket Line Moving To Maui

September 6, 2022 Wendy Osher, Portside. Resist! Health Care, Kaiser Permanente, Strike, Worker Rights and Jobs

The mental health strike at Kaiser moves to Maui today as the open-ended event enters Day 3. Clinicians with the National Union of Healthcare Workers will hold a picket today, Aug. 31, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Kaiser Maui Lani Medical Office, located at 55 Maui Lani Parkway in Wailuku. Across the state, Kaiser Permanente mental health care workers, represented by the NUHW union began the strike Monday with picket lines in Honolulu and other locations on Oʻahu. After today’s Maui picket, the strike line will move to the Hawaiʻi Island on Thursday before returning to Oʻahu during the Labor Day weekend. Kaiser’s mental health care workers in California also have been on strike over the same issues since Aug. 15.

Rail Workers Reject Contract Recommendations, Ready to Strike

September 2, 2022 Joe Demanuelle-Hall, Labor Notes. Resist! Railroads, Strike, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Railroad unions continue their slow creep along the path to a settlement—or strike—in contract negotiations covering 115,000 workers. On August 16, the Presidential Emergency Board convened by President Biden issued its recommendations for a settlement. Many rail workers say they fall short and are prepared to strike to win more. The PEB recommended 22 percent raises over the course of the five-year contract (dating back to 2020), which would be the highest wage increases rail unions have seen in decades. But they are offset by increases in health care costs—and come in the midst of high inflation.

15,000 Nurses To Strike As They Fight To Put Patients Before Profits

September 1, 2022 Sam Fettig and Lauren Nielsen, Minnesota Nurses Association. Resist! Health Care, Minnesota, Nurses, Strike, Worker Rights and Jobs

St. Paul and Duluth, Minnesota – This morning, nurses with the Minnesota Nurses Association announced that 15,000 nurses throughout the state plan to strike for three days beginning September 12, 2022, as they fight for fair contracts to put patients before profits. The strike is believed to be the largest private-sector nurses’ strike in U.S. history, and it comes as nurses have negotiated with hospital executives for more than five months and have worked without contracts for the last several months. The strike will be the first that Twin Cities and Twin Ports nurses have taken together in contract negotiations.

How Intermodal Yard Workers Doubled Their Pay

August 31, 2022 Caitlyn Clark, Labor Notes. Organize! Port, Strike, Tacoma, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Like many of his co-workers, Levi Kamel was nearly ready to quit. But before he did, he decided to try one thing: win a union. Kamel was making $18 an hour doing backbreaking work repairing container chassis—the trailers that attach to containers so they can be pulled down the road by semi-trucks—at the Port of Tacoma in Washington. He was a mechanic at P&B Intermodal, a logistics maintenance company that operates at intermodal yards across the country. The job was a revolving door. In February 2021, Kamel had been there more than a year, but most workers lasted less than three months. And no wonder: “We didn’t have very good health care,” Kamel said. “We were treated really badly.”

Teachers Union In Ohio Went On Strike For Students—And Won

August 31, 2022 Kenny Stancil, Common Dreams. Resist! Education, Ohio, Strike, Teachers, Victory

Columbus, Ohio - Students, teachers, and support staff in Ohio's largest school district returned to the classroom on Monday after the Columbus Education Association won a new contract and ended its weeklong strike. Gathered at the local minor league ballpark on Sunday, CEA members voted 71% to 29% to approve a three-year contract with Columbus City Schools that satisfies most of the union's demands, which revolved around improving students' learning environments and opportunities. "We are so excited to get back to where we belong—our classrooms—doing what we do best: educating our students and shaping the future of our great city," CEA spokesperson Regina Fuentes said at a press conference.

American University Students Walk Out To Support Staff

August 27, 2022 Sarah Y. Kim, DCist. Resist! American University, Strike, Student Activism, Washington D.C., Worker Rights and Jobs

American University administrators resumed negotiations Friday morning with staff who were on strike this week demanding higher wages and equitable pay. It was the first bargaining session administrators held with the staff’s union since contract negotiations failed last week due to disputes over raises. The bargaining session comes at the end of a nearly week long strike which began Monday and coincided with move-in week for undergraduates. The strike officially ended 3 p.m. Friday, as planned. It is unclear when the current round of negotiations will end. The strike kicked off at the Washington College of Law on Monday, and the union has spent much of the following days marching and chanting on the university’s main campus near residence halls.

First Columbus Teachers Strike In Almost 50 Years

August 25, 2022 Emma Lee, Left Voice. Resist! Education, Ohio, Strike, Worker Rights and Jobs

At 7 o’clock Monday morning, teachers and education workers of the Columbus Education Association union in Ohio went on strike, marking the first time teachers have gone on strike in the city since 1975. Columbus City Schools is the largest school district in the state of Ohio and the school year was originally scheduled to begin today. The 4,500-member union — representing teachers, librarians, nurses, counselors, psychologists and other education professionals — met for more than three hours to vote on Sunday. Over 94 percent of members voted to reject the Columbus City school board’s latest “final” offer and in favor of going on strike. The school district has hired 600 substitute teachers to cover for the 4,500 education workers who are currently on strike. The district is telling the parents and guardians of the nearly 47,000 students in the district to log in virtually for synchronous and asynchronous learning for the first day of classes or risk truancy — putting families at risk. In other words, the school district is trying to coerce Columbus families to cross the virtual picket line.

Minnesota Nurses’ Strike Vote Puts Safety And Conditions In Spotlight

August 24, 2022 Michael Sainato, The Guardian. Resist! Health Care, Minnesota, Nurses, Strike

Minnesota - Throughout the Covid pandemic, nurses around the US have faced deteriorating working conditions and challenges, from safety concerns to increasing workloads that have stemmed from understaffing as nurses have quit their jobs or retired early. Those nurses who are still on the job at many hospitals say they have been expected to do more with fewer resources, an issue that nurses say is causing retention crises and jeopardizing patient safety and care. Now nurses at 15 hospitals in the Twin Cities area (Minneapolis-St Paul) and Duluth, Minnesota, that are negotiating new union contracts with their respective hospitals have overwhelmingly Voted to authorize a strike. A date for the work stoppage has not been set yet by the union, the Minnesota Nurses Association, which represents about 15,000 nurses who voted on the strike authorization, but a 10-day notice must be given ahead of any strike.

Columbus Teachers Strike On First Day Back To School

August 24, 2022 Samantha Hendrickson, KIRO 7. Resist! Education, Ohio, Strike, Worker Rights and Jobs

Columbus, Ohio - A strike by teachers in Ohio's largest school district entered its third day Wednesday — the first day of school for some 47,000 students, with some of those students and their parents rallying to their sides. Parents, students, teachers and other employees gathered at schools across the Columbus School District with plans to picket for hours, advocating for safer buildings, better heating and air conditioning, smaller class sizes, and a more well-rounded curriculum that includes art, music and physical education. It’s the union’s first strike in the district since 1975. Picketers blasted music on the sidewalks outside Whetstone High School in Columbus and waved to honking drivers. Some held up signs reading, “Columbus schools deserve working air,” “a history lesson in progress" and “my feet hurt but I'll walk as long as it takes.”

Teachers Picket Outside Columbus School Buildings On First Day Of Strike

August 23, 2022 10 WBNS. Resist! Education, Ohio, Strike, Teachers, Worker Rights and Jobs

In March 2019, following numerous community pleas to curb graft among local police that had fallen upon deaf ears, residents of Kyere, Uganda tricked a notoriously corrupt police officer into a bribery arrangement. They caught him red-handed. Emerging from their hiding places in a community market, they seized the officer and arrested him—a man who had often used the same power of arrest to extort from them! This effective sting operation occurred without any of the usual police brutality toward activists. As democracy erodes at an Increasing Pace, slipping our species toward the normalization of authoritarianism, protesters are understandably exploring how they can stay safe. But reducing the risks of our nonviolent actions can also come at a cost—the cost of our power.

Minneapolis: Recently Unionized Starbucks Workers On Two-day Strike

August 20, 2022 Ellie Zimmerman, Unicorn Riot. Resist! Minneapolis, Minnesota, Starbucks, Strike, Worker Rights and Jobs

Minneapolis, Minnesota – The corner of 47th Street and Cedar Avenue in Minneapolis was quiet for the first time after spirited drumming and chants of, “What’s disgusting? Union busting!” filled the air from July 31-August 1. Employees of the Cedar Avenue Starbucks had returned to work after a two-day strike in protest of the company’s refusal to bargain with the newly formed union, as well as what the workers say are backhanded attempts to undermine union efforts. Baristas and shift supervisors united to raise grievances against the manager of the location and Starbucks corporate for difficult working conditions and low pay. In a letter posted on the front door of the store, workers addressed their manager: Direction only from the top is an unjust system we refuse to participate in. You are complicit in that system.

Port Workers’ Strike Threatens To Bring UK Economy To A Standstill

August 18, 2022 Robert Stevens, WSWS. Resist! Ports, Strike, United Kingdom (UK), Worker Rights and Jobs

Nearly 2,000 Unite union members voted to strike at the end of July by a 92 percent majority on an 81 percent turnout, rejecting a below-inflation pay offer of just 5 percent. At the time of the ballot result the RPI measure of inflation was at 11.8 percent. It is now 12.1 percent and predicted to rise to over 17 percent this year. Pay has been held down for years with dockers receiving another below-inflation deal, 1.4 percent, in 2021. Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company is owned by Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holding Ltd, one of the largest foreign investors in Britain. It is one of the world’s foremost container terminal operators and a global leader in port services, holding interests in 52 ports in 26 countries. It’s operation at Felixstowe reported £61 million in pre-tax profits in 2020, lavishing millions in dividends payments on its shareholders.

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