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Unions

Colorado Unions Rally To Demand Passage Of The Worker Protection Act

Denver, CO – On March 19, Colorado Worker Rights United, a coalition of labor unions, gathered at the Colorado State Capitol to rally for the Worker Protection Act, which is currently under consideration by Colorado lawmakers. Around 150 union workers gathered on the steps raising signs and showing support for measure has passed the senate and is on the way to the house and governor. Several elected officials made speeches that called for the passage of this act, which would eliminate the need for a second union election to start the collective bargaining process.

United Airlines Flight Attendants Pressure Management Worldwide

United flight attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants, demonstrated at nearly 20 airports worldwide, March 19. As recent aviation incidents have shown, flight attendants perform lifesaving work every day to ensure the safety and health of the passengers in their care. Management has dragged out negotiations while United flight attendants’ pay falls further behind competitors. With record profits of $3.1 billion in 2024 alone, the airline has more than enough to negotiate an industry leading agreement with the flight attendants.

Florida’s Union-Busting Regime: A Report From The Front Lines

Organizing in the South has always been challenging, and Florida’s latest union-busting legislation has only made it harder. Public sector unions had successfully fought off these attacks for years, but the tide turned in May 2023. The new law imposed severe restrictions: requiring public sector unions to maintain 60 percent membership, banning payroll dues deductions, and mandating a cumbersome four-page membership form. Notably, police, fire, and corrections unions were exempt. We left the State Capitol before the ink was dry and returned home to start organizing.

United Airlines Flight Attendants’ Day Of Action Held In Denver

Denver, CO – On March 19 at the Denver International Airport, the United Airlines union, the Association of Flight Attendants, held a day of action. About 50 picketers gathered outside the airport to show support for a new contract for United Airlines flight attendants. Attendees included United flight attendants, United pilots, flight attendants from other airlines, family members and community members from the Teamsters union. There were even travelers who were passing by through the airport who stopped and joined in to support.

Union President Responds To Repression

Last week, I was expelled from Columbia University for protesting the U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza. As president of Student Workers of Columbia, Columbia’s student workers union, I was also fired from my job. The Trump administration is pushing their narrative. Here’s the real story. Thousands of students across the country have been exercising our First Amendment rights to oppose genocide. Standing against genocide is not just a moral imperative—it is an act of anti-racism and solidarity. Columbia’s response? Expulsions, suspensions, and retaliation.

Landless Workers’ Movement Pressures Government With Occupations

A series of actions on Thursday led by women from Brazil’s Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST, in Portuguese) increased the pressure on the Lula government (Workers’ Party) to push agrarian reform policies forward. The mobilization occurred in 24 Brazilian states where there are MST activities and was part of the Landless Women’s Day of Struggle,previous to the MST’s Red April, massive actions to demand agrarian reform in the country. Landless families occupied areas in the states of Bahia and Ceará that did not comply with the social function provided for in the Brazilian Constitution.

Unionizing United Healthcare

There were 122 National Labor Relations Board representation elections run in February 2025, and ten involved units of 250 or more eligible voters. Those ten elections, however, involved 74 percent of all eligible voters that month. The highest-profile election was the loss at the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Garner, North Carolina, which my colleague Jonathan Rosenblum covers well here. Jonathan and I offer some more in-depth thoughts on what recent news in the world of Amazon organizing means in a recent article in these pages, but in brief: it’s going to be very difficult to make much headway with this company with traditional site-by-site organizing methods.

Is Social Media The New Union Battleground?

Airplanes with standing sections. An extra fee for boarding charged at airport terminals. Even smaller carry-on luggage allowances. These are a few of the features offered by Unfair Canada. Since December, satirical ads for the fictional airline have popped up on Facebook and Instagram alongside anonymous, first-hand accounts of flight attendants stuck on planes for hours without pay. The posts are part of the Air Canada flight attendants’ union’s campaign to put a spotlight on the hours of unpaid work expected of flight attendants as their union negotiates a new contract.

Columbia Student Workers Rally Against Expulsions And Arrests

It’s been an intense and infuriating couple of weeks at Columbia University. Students expelled. Visas revoked. $400 million in funding held hostage by the federal government. An escalation, when Mahmoud Khalil was told his green card was suspended before being arrested by government agents from the lobby of his apartment building in the middle of the night. And most recently, Thursday night, the announcement that 22 students and recent graduates had been suspended, expelled, or had their diplomas revoked. One of the expelled students is Grant Miner, the president of the Student Workers of Columbia.

Columbia University Expels Student Protesters, Fires Union President

On Thursday, Columbia University issued suspensions, expulsions, and temporary degree revocations to a number of students connected to the April 2024 occupation of the school’s Hamilton Hall. The announcement from the University Judicial Board came on the same day as a campus ICE raid, with Department of Homeland Security agents executing search warrants on two Columbia University residences. “I am writing heartbroken to inform you that we had federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security (D.H.S.) in two university residences tonight,” Interim President Dr. Katrina Armstrong told students and staff in an email.

Plan 2028: Bringing Labor And Social Movements Together

The Trump Administration has come in with brute force, attacking working people and institutions from all angles. Their “flood the zone” strategy has left many feeling confused and powerless. But MAGA forces are not unstoppable. Strong coalitions among labor and social movement organizations offer one of the best hopes for blocking the rise of white Christian nationalist forces, and for countering authoritarianism with progressive power. In Fall 2023, United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain called for unions around America to align their contracts with a May 1, 2028 expiration date, in order to align with the UAW’s next round of bargaining with the Big Three: Ford, General Motors (GM), and Chrysler (now Stellantis).

Santa Clara Valley Transit Workers Begin Strike

San Jose, CA – On Monday, March 10, around 1500 bus and light rail operators and mechanics for Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), walked off the job. The workers are represented by Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 265. This is the first strike at the VTA since its founding in 1973. Around 9 a.m. upwards of 70 ATU rank-and-file members could be seen picketing in front of the VTA headquarters as the strike began. Pickets were held at four other light rail and bus yards beginning at 4 a.m. VTA and ATU have been in contract negotiations since August.

Mexico City’s Trolleybus Workers Took On Austerity And Won

The 1,970 rail, trolleybus, and cable car workers who make Mexico City run could go out on strike as soon as March 13. Their union, the Tram Workers Alliance of Mexico (Alianza de Tranviarios de México, ATM), secured vital investments in green transportation and saved hundreds of jobs in a 2016 “Save the Trolleybus” campaign that brought public transit users into their funding fight. Now workers want the uniforms and safety equipment that they’re owed under their contract but haven’t received in three years, as well as the tools they need to do their jobs: hydraulic jacks, pliers, and wrenches.

DHS Moves To End Collective Bargaining For TSA Officers

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is moving to end collective bargaining for tens of thousands of Transportation Security Administration airport screeners, less than a year after TSA’s workforce inked a landmark labor agreement. The Department of Homeland Security announced plans “ending collective bargaining” for TSA’s transportation screening officers in a press release today. The DHS public affairs office cast the move as increasing efficiency, safety and “organizational agility.” It charged that a “select few poor performers” are taking advantage of the agreement’s family and sick leave policy.

REI Board Blocks Labor-Backed Candidates From Ballot

Unionized REI employees are calling on members of the outdoor retail co-op to vote no in this year’s board of director elections after the company excluded two union-backed candidates from the ballot.  The two were Tefere Gebre, chief program officer at the international environmental advocacy group Greenpeace USA, and Shemona Moreno, a Seattle climate activist who leads the nonprofit 350 Seattle.  Anyone who has an active REI membership can vote in its board elections. Members can also nominate themselves to run for a board seat, but bylaw changes in the early 2000s gave the existing board final say over who gets on the ballot. 
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