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Unions

How The Teamsters Tested Amazon

New York City — At 6 a.m., a few days before Christmas, in the postindustrial neighborhood of Maspeth, 47 workers kick off a nationwide Teamsters strike against Amazon. Maspeth, a corner of Queens that two centuries ago boasted lumberyards, linoleum manufacturers and rope factories, is still a bastion of union pride. ​“The people are working-class and they respect the unions and belong to them, especially the uniform ones, like the firemen, cops and sanitation workers,” said a retired construction worker at a local pub in 2020’s The Queens Nobody Knows. But today, the uniforms increasingly seen around Maspeth sport Amazon’s signature ​“smiley swoosh” icon.

UPS Cuts Back On Amazon Deliveries, Announces Building Closures

Chicago, IL – On Thursday January 30, UPS announced a major cutback in Amazon package deliveries, with the goal of dropping over 50% of the volume from the company’s largest customer by June 2026. In conjunction, UPS is looking to permanently shutter 10% of buildings, shrink their fleet of vehicles and lay off workers. The plan to close more buildings comes on the heels of the hard fought 2023 Teamsters contract, which resulted in major wage gains for part-timers and the end of the 2-tier system among package car drivers. The credible threat of a strike forced UPS to concede to the union’s demands in contract negotiations and look elsewhere for cost savings.

How Philly Whole Foods Workers Beat Bezos

Can labor sustain its forward momentum under Trump? The first big test came last Monday, when Whole Foods workers in Philadelphia voted on whether to unionize with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW). Many in the labor movement were expecting a loss, since MAGA is now in office and since management — headed by Trump’s new billionaire buddy Jeff Bezos — went scorched earth against the nascent union effort. But a multiracial crew of young, self-organized, left-leaning workers proved the skeptics wrong, as so often has been the case since 2021.

REI Workers Look To Shake Up Co-Op’s Board

Since March 2022, over 600 workers have voted to unionize at 11 REI stores. The campaign is growing, with workers in Greensboro, NC, voting to become the eleventh union store just last week. Workers at these stores are affiliated with either the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) or the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). To date, management recalcitrance has stymied workers’ efforts to win a first contract, so the REI Union is trying a new tactic: Running candidates for the board of the 24-million-member outdoor equipment retailer, the nation’s largest cooperative.

Months After Indefinite Strike, Samsung Workers Register Their Union

Hundreds of workers at Samsung India’s Chennai plant celebrated the registration of their union after months of struggle. Following the official notification of the registration on Monday, January 27, they held a victory rally to mark the occasion. Samsung India Workers Union (SIWU) is Samsung’s first workers’ union in India. It is only the second such union in a Samsung plant anywhere in the world. The first was National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU), which only recently formed in South Korea in 2021, despite the company’s over 55 years of operation.

Public Service Unions File Lawsuit Challenging Trump Administration

Today, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), represented by Democracy Forward and Bredhoff and Kaiser PLLC, filed suit against the Trump administration challenging efforts to politicize the civil service through illegal executive orders. The lawsuit asserts that President Trump illegally exceeded his authority in attempting to unilaterally roll back a regulation that protects the rights of civil servants. The suit also names the Office of Personnel Management for its role in failing to adhere to the Administrative Procedure Act in its attempts to roll back this same regulation.

Closures In Quebec Show Amazon Is Scared Of Workers Organizing

The workers at a Whole Foods location in Center City, Philadelphia, voted to form the grocery chain’s first-ever union on Monday, marking an incredible victory for workers who have been organizing at the store for over a year. Whole Foods was bought by Amazon in 2017, and since then benefits, staffing levels, and working conditions have gotten worse. 130 workers voted in favor of unionizing with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), while 100 voted against. Through the union, workers are demanding a living wage (the starting salary is currently only $16/hour), better benefits, and more protections.

City University Of New York Union Votes To Divest From Israel

Thursday night, delegates of the Professional Staff Congress (PSC-CUNY), the union representing faculty, graduate assistants, and many staff titles at the City University of New York (CUNY), voted 73-70 in favor of a resolution for the union to divest from Israeli companies and government bonds, identify other potential investments for divestment, and recommend that the Teachers Retirement System (TRS) pension plan also divest its $100 million invested in Israeli companies and bonds. This is an important victory for CUNY workers and the movement for Palestine, setting an example for the broader labor movement.

What Could Workers Win In A New NAFTA?

In his nine years in the auto industry, Ben Hinsey has seen a lot of misplaced blame. The threat of job cuts is always looming. In fact, Hinsey transferred into his current job at the Stellantis Jeep factory in Toledo, Ohio, when his previous one at the Chrysler Toledo Machining Plant evaporated in a 2017 wave of layoffs. He now installs instrument panels and serves as a float, moving from job to job to cover absences. Hundreds of thousands of auto jobs have disappeared from the U.S. since the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994 and its successor, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), often known as NAFTA 2.0.

After Gaza Ceasefire, Labor Movement Isn’t Done Fighting For Palestine

A fragile cease-fire is finally in place in Gaza after Israel carried out a 15-month, U.S.-backed genocide that killed at least 47,107 Palestinians (though the true number is likely far higher) and reduced much of the coastal enclave to rubble. In the days following the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, anti-Palestinian hysteria swept the U.S. political and media establishments. As Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) encouraged Israel to ​“level” Gaza, then-Biden White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that calls for a cease-fire were ​“repugnant” and ​“disgraceful,” while top officials at the State Department instructed staffers not to publicly use terms like ​“de-escalation” and ​“cease-fire.”

Make Sure Union Meetings Don’t Resemble The Work Meetings You Hate

Too often at school, we educators feel unappreciated and disrespected. In committee and faculty meetings, we share our knowledge and insights only to be ignored. If we don’t stop to reflect and think critically about these experiences, we may end up adopting the same hierarchical and oppressive practices as the administration, and our union meetings start to resemble the work meetings that we hate. But your union is yours to shape. You can make your local union meetings a space where members are heard and can make a difference.

Striking Workers At Virgin Hotels Las Vegas Ratify Contract

The longest strike in decades by Culinary Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165 is coming to an end after 69 days. A vote today among workers to ratify a five-year contract with Virgin Hotels Las Vegas was unanimous, according to a social media post from the Culinary Union. The post did not provide details about the new contract. Union officials had repeatedly said they were seeking a contract similar to recent multi-year extensions agreed to with Strip resorts. Those deals called for wage and benefit increases, enhanced safety protection for workers, and workload reduction.

Trump Administration Sued Over Order For Firing Federal Workers

One day after Donald Trump returned to office, a leading government labor union filed a lawsuit against his administration’s reclassification of thousands of federal workers as political hires. An executive order signed by the president – making public sector workers easier to fire – amounts to a “dangerous step backward”, according to the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents federal government employees across 37 agencies and departments. The move, one of several actions announced by Trump in the hours after his inauguration on Monday, was swiftly criticized as an attack on workers.

Thousands Of Resident Physicians In Philadelphia Voted To Unionize

Eight in 10 doctors-in-training in Philadelphia are now represented by unions, following a wave of labor organizing across major health systems in the region. Doctors at three Philadelphia health systems and Delaware's largest health provider voted to join the Committee of Interns and Residents, a division of the Service Employees International Union. The move follows a national trend of physicians unionizing around the country, as doctors increasingly look for solutions to burnout in a field now dominated by large health system employers.

Trump, Allies Sued Over DOGE Plans In Union-Backed Lawsuits

The largest federal employee union and a national teachers union are among the first to file lawsuits challenging President Donald Trump‘s planned government efficiency organization effort. The groups seek to rein in the Department of Government Efficiency, an effort to cut government spending that will be led by billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk. DOGE will advise Trump on spending cuts and regulatory reform. Leading up to his inauguration, Trump promised to fire federal workers who don’t report to the office and drastically reshape the civilian public workforce of 2 million people.
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