Unions

Lack Of Worker Input Creates Bumps In The Road For EV Buses

August 7, 2024 Audrey Elberger, Labor Notes. Educate! California, Electric Buses, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Electric buses are rolling out nationally, and promise to help clean up city air. California is leading the way, with more than 650 active vehicles in 2022, and has mandated a completely electric or hydrogen fleet by 2040. But what happens when managers pick buses that can’t drive up the hills? Drivers and mechanics say bosses picked buses without regard for the requirements of the routes. Safety is also an issue. School bus drivers in San Francisco say their new EV buses have a fiberglass frame that puts a blinding glare in the rear view mirror. They also worry the bus frame, widened to fit large batteries, now barely fits in the road lane, which might cause accidents.

Schools For Struggle: For A Workers’ Education Movement

August 6, 2024 Daniel Judt, Portside. Organize! Education, History, Labor Movement, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

In December of 1936, a day into their historic sit-down strike at a General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan, autoworkers set up a school. Surrounded by idle machines, freed from the foreman's gaze, they took classes in public speaking and labor journalism, in political economy, in the history of the labor movement. This was not a spontaneous idea. Some of the key players in the strikes—the nascent United Auto Workers (UAW) union's education director and several rank-and-file organizers, as well as its future president, Walter Reuther, and his brother, Roy—had spent time at Brookwood Labor College, a small independent school for workers who wanted to radicalize the labor movement.

New Contract Equalizes Protections Across University Of Maryland

August 5, 2024 Bri Hatch, WYPR. Organize! Education, Maryland, Unions, Victory, Worker Rights and Jobs

Workers at nine of 12 schools in the University System of Maryland are now protected under the first-ever system-wide union contract. The new agreement raises wages, establishes health and safety protections, and guarantees permanent salaried positions for contractual employees after two years of service. The changes affect around 5,700 employees, from Frostburg to the Eastern Shore. Members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union and university leaders gathered at a signing ceremony Friday to mark the official start of the standardized protections.

New ‘Battery Belt’ Opens Organizing Front In The South

August 3, 2024 Ben Carroll, Labor Notes. Organize! Electric Vehicles, Labor Movement, The South, Unions

Towering cranes pierce the sky, contrasting with the rural surroundings. It’s an early morning in June, the air already gauzy and thick, and construction is humming at the Toyota Battery mega-site in Liberty, North Carolina. Trucks and other heavy machines dart in and out of the complex. A line of food trucks is tucked around the corner, alongside a dozen tour buses used to move workers. Production is slated to begin in 2025. By 2030, when the 7 million-square-foot complex is fully operational, it will have 14 production lines—10 dedicated to batteries for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electrics, and four for hybrid electric vehicles—operated by 5,100 workers. The total population of Liberty is 2,655.

Workers Rally Against Racism In Federal Public Service

August 3, 2024 By Gabriela Calugay-Casuga, Rabble.CA. Resist! Canada, Federal Workers, Racism, Unions

Workers marched from the Human Rights monument to the Privy Council Office (PCO) in Ottawa demanding an end to anti-Black racism in the federal public service on Thursday. The demonstration was hosted by the Black Class Action Secretariat and various public sector unions to mark Emancipation Day, which commemorates when enslaved Indigenous and Black Peoples in the British Empire were liberated in 1834. The rally comes after the secretariat along with its allies in the Coalition Against Workplace Discrimination revealed findings from an internal report from the Privy Council Office. It showed evidence of widespread discrimination within the office, which manages the public service.

Leadership In AFSCME DC 37 Is Stifling Rank And File Engagement

August 2, 2024 Duncan Freeman, Labor Notes. Resist! Labor Movement, New York City (NYC), Rank and File, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Members of District Council 37's Local 3005 in New York City say that attempts to mobilize their coworkers over the last two years have been stonewalled and met with apathy by union leadership. Current and former members say that since the pandemic, they have presented proposals to create a membership committee, speak out about city budget cuts, fight for telework rights and other efforts and that all were slow-walked or shot down by the union’s president Jeff Oshins. Most recently, some members have wanted to introduce motions calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and for the New York City Employees' Retirement System to divest from Israeli bonds and securities.

Debt Is Wage Theft, Debt Steals Leisure Time, Debt Can Suppress Strikes

August 2, 2024 Jason Wozniak, Sara Nelson, Brittany Alston, Olivia Schwob, Jackson Potter and Teresa Romero, In These Times. Strategize! Debt, Labor Movement, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Debt is fundamentally a labor issue. When labor is weak and unionization low, workers are forced to take on debt to offset costs for necessities like healthcare, housing and food. The more debt we have, the more we are compelled to work under the bosses’ conditions — rather than fighting for our own. Interest-heavy loans act as a regressive kind of pay cut, reaching deep into workers’ take-home earnings. Just to keep up with debt payments and interest, workers take on more hours and multiple low-paying jobs. And data shows debt can make workers more unlikely to strike.

The Union Co-Ops Council: Seventeen Years Of Forging Worker Alliances

August 2, 2024 Dylan Hatch, Grassroots Economic Organizing. Strategize! Cooperatives, New Economy, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

As the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives (USFWC) celebrates its twentieth anniversary in 2024, July marks seventeen years since the founding of its oldest member council – the Union Co-ops Council. Established to bridge worker cooperatives and organized labor, the Council has become a crucial player in both movements, fueled by the resurgence of unions and worker co-ops throughout the beginning of the 21st century. Just as the USFWC concludes its first twenty years with renewed energy, ambition, and capacity, the Union Co-op Council also reflects on its successes and sets a clear path forward to advance worker ownership and power.

Reform Caucus Wins Amazon Labor Union Officer Elections

July 31, 2024 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. Organize! Amazon, Elections, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Amazon workers at the JFK8 fulfillment center on Staten Island, New York, voted to elect reform officers in the first-ever leadership election. “We are extremely excited to announce that every candidate on our reform caucus slate won decisively in our union’s leadership elections,” said Connor Spence, co-founder of the Amazon Labor Union and former treasurer, who won the presidency. “After more than two years of fighting to reform our union to make it more democratic, transparent, and militant, we are relieved to finally be able to turn our full attention toward bringing Amazon to the table and winning an incredible contract.

Letter Carriers Convention Shapes Up To Be Open Bargaining Showdown

July 30, 2024 Tim Bash, Labor Notes. Strategize! Collective bargaining, Transparency, Unions, US Postal Workers

City letter carriers have been working without a contract for more than 400 days, and leaders of the Letter Carriers (NALC) still refuse to provide any substantive updates from bargaining. As rank-and-file anger boils over, a new group called Build a Fighting NALC (BFN) is building momentum to demand a stronger and more transparent contract fight next time. We’re bringing an “Open Bargaining” resolution to the national convention, August 5-9 in Boston. As of this writing, two NALC state associations and 44 branches across the country have passed the resolution to show their support. There was a time when the NALC, under the leadership of President Vince Sombrotto (1978-2002), used to engage in contract campaigns, hold rallies, make its demands public, and keep members informed of contract progress.

First US Unionized Apple Retail Store Workers Reach Historic Tentative Agreement With Tech Giant

July 29, 2024 IAMAW. Organize! Apple, Maryland, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Towson, MD – The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers’ (IAM) Coalition of Organized Retail Employees (IAM CORE) has reached a tentative agreement with Apple that improves work-life balance, raises pay and helps protect job security. Workers at the Towson, Md., Apple retail store, the first in the country to unionize, will vote on the tentative agreement on Aug. 6. “From the beginning, IAM CORE’s mission has been to improve Apple for our employees, customers and communities,” said the IAM CORE Negotiating Committee. “By reaching a tentative agreement with Apple, we are giving our members a voice in their futures and a strong first step toward further gains.

World Of Warcraft Developers Form Blizzard’s Largest, Most Inclusive Union

July 27, 2024 Ash Parrish, The Verge. Organize! Big Tech, Blizzard, Games, Microsoft, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

More than 500 developers at Blizzard Entertainment who work on World of Warcraft have voted to form a union. The World of Warcraft GameMakers Guild, formed with the assistance of the Communication Workers of America (CWA), is composed of employees across every department, including designers, engineers, artists, producers, and more. Together, they have formed the largest wall-to-wall union — or a union inclusive of multiple departments and disciplines — at Microsoft. This news comes less than a week after the formation of the Bethesda Game Studios union, which, at the time of the announcement, was itself the largest wall-to-wall Microsoft union.

The Future Of Housing Organizing: Tenant Unions

July 25, 2024 Rose Lenehan, In These Times. Organize! Affordable Housing, Housing, Tenant Unions, Unions

Daniel Tyson had 15 days to find a place he could afford. For several years, Tyson lived at a hotel in St. Petersburg, Fla., where he paid $125 weekly. His rent would have been slightly less if he paid monthly, but the full-time warehouse shipping clerk couldn’t save enough. Then, developers decided to kick everyone out to demolish the building and expand a luxury hotel. It was October, and the snowbirds were beginning their trips south, a migration that makes the rental market even tighter. Daniel had nowhere to go. Celia Williams had lived in her building in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago for a little under a year when she began to see bed bugs.

Unions Demand An End To All US Military Aid To Israel

July 24, 2024 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. Resist! Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, Palestine, Unions

Seven national unions representing 6 million workers in the United States called on President Joe Biden today to end all military aid to Israel. The news came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a wanted war criminal, came to Washington to speak to Congress tomorrow. It’s an unprecedented demand, coordinated across some of the nation’s biggest unions. The unions that signed the letter are the Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA), Postal Workers (APWU), Painters (IUPAT), National Education Association, Service Employees (SEIU), the Auto Workers (UAW), and the Electrical Workers (UE). Delegates at the APWU’s national convention last week passed a resolution calling on the government to halt all military aid to Israel and “stop using our tax dollars for more war.”

New York City Teacher Retirees Save Their Medicare

July 23, 2024 Jenny Brown, Labor Notes. Resist! Health Care, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, New York City (NYC), Retirees, Unions, Victory

The dissident Retiree Advocate caucus in the giant New York City teachers union won a decisive victory over the incumbents in the retiree chapter election June 14, winning 63 percent of the 27,000 votes cast. Turnout jumped compared to previous elections. In addition to running the 70,000-member Retired Teachers Chapter, they will send 300 delegates to the union’s delegate assembly. The leadership of the union got the message and abruptly dropped its support for Medicare Advantage, after three years of vigorously campaigning to impose a for-profit plan on 250,000 city retirees to save money for city officials.

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