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Unions

1934 And Now: History Lives!

November 28, 2024 Peter Rachleff, Portside. , , , , ,
Over the first three decades of the 20th century, Minneapolis was the most notorious “open shop” city in the country. An employers’ organization (the “Citizens’ Alliance”) leveraged the power of banks, manufacturers, and local government to resist workers’ attempts to unionize. In February 1934 the city’s truck drivers and coal yard workers organized and struck their industry, winning union recognition in a week. Their success inspired other truckers and warehouse workers to organize and strike twice, in the spring and summer of 1934, facing down the power of police and private “deputies.”

You’re Already On Strike; How to Turn Up the Heat

November 28, 2024 Keith Brower Brown and Jane Slaughter, Labor Notes. , , , , ,
Teamsters at Marathon Petroleum in Detroit have been on the picket line since September 4, their first strike in 30 years. Tankers filled with gasoline regularly exit the massive, belching refinery on a main Detroit artery, as Marathon continues production with supervisors brought in from other facilities. Workers have handbilled gas stations, as well as sometimes following Marathon trucks and picketing them when they make deliveries. They’ve gotten support from the Detroit City Council and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, as well as other unions like the UAW who have joined their picket lines.

Workers On The Picket Line

November 26, 2024 Marie Kelly, Workers World. , , , ,
Union workers at CVS stores in California asserted their rights by holding a three-day Unfair Labor Practice strike at seven CVS store locations in Los Angeles and Orange counties. The workers are members of the United Food and Commercial Workers union. Not one CVS union member crossed the picket line, which represents 7,000 CVS workers in southern California. The strike came after UFCW filed ULP charges against CVS with the National Labor Relations Board, citing unlawful surveillance of workers, retaliation against union supporters and prohibiting workers from engaging in union activity.

Union-Owned Vegas Hotel Is Hiring Scabs To Break A Strike

November 25, 2024 Natascha Elena Uhlmann, Labor Notes. , , , , ,
In her 17 years as a guest room attendant, Isabel Gonzalez has scarcely had a moment’s rest. Gonzalez is responsible for cleaning 15 hotel rooms per day—stripping dirty linens, taking out the trash, making beds, cleaning toilets, sweeping, mopping, and dusting—all in the span of 30 to 45 minutes per room. Sometimes she can fill a garbage bag from one room alone, with liquor and juice bottles, bottle caps, and half-eaten food from the floor. When pets stay in the rooms, she must find the time to vacuum twice and carefully sponge fur from the suede chairs. Often, she says, workers fall behind schedule and forgo their lunch breaks to catch up.

Anti-Union Captive Meetings Are Now Illegal

November 24, 2024 Bob Funk, Portside. , , , ,
On Tuesday of last week, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that mandatory meetings in which employees are forced to listen to employer diatribes concerning their labor rights are unlawful. The mandatory meetings are often referred to as “captive audience meetings.” Designed to halt union organizing momentum and scare workers into voting against unions, such meetings are a key tactic in bosses’ anti-union playbook and devastating for organizing workers trying to better their lives. In 2022, NLRB general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo issued a memo in which she announced that she would ask the NLRB to find captive audience meetings unlawful.

Wall Street Took Over A Vital Sign Language Service

November 24, 2024 Sarah Lazare, In These Times. , , , , , ,
“Do no harm” is the guiding principle of American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters’ professional code of conduct. But when Joe Klug, 28, worked as a Video Relay Service (VRS) interpreter for a Twin Cities metro area office of Purple Communications, he says this principle was routinely violated. The VRS field, which allows Deaf and Hard of Hearing people to make phone calls by video interfacing with interpreters, is difficult and fast-paced work. While some calls are social, others can be serious: medical emergencies, job interviews, jargon-heavy discussions with lawyers or sensitive conversations with doctors.

Indian Farmers And Workers Unite Again For National Mobilization

November 23, 2024 Abdul Rahman, People's Dispatch. , , , ,
India’s major farmers and workers unions are coming together to launch a nationwide mobilization on Tuesday, November 26, to demand the government address the distress faced by the majority of the country’s population of farmers and workers. A call for nationwide protests was given by the united farmers front, Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) and a joint platform of the Central Trade Unions earlier this month. Left-affiliated farmer’s organizations All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), All India Agricultural Workers Union (ALAWU), and Center for Indian Trade Unions (CITU), one of India’s largest trade union federations, are part of the call to mobilize.

Kentucky Battery Plant Workers Launch Union Drive With UAW

November 23, 2024 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. , , ,
A majority of the 1,000 auto workers at the car battery park Blue Oval in Glendale, Kentucky, have signed union cards to join the United Auto Workers. The battery park, a joint venture between Ford and South Korea’s SK On, is expected to ramp up hiring to 5,000 hourly workers by 2030. It has twin battery plants. But the second one is on hold due low demand for electric vehicles. At the first plant, workers are testing battery module packs from facilities in Georgia, as the plant prepares to become fully operational next year. Since he started last year, Chad Johnson has seen co-workers suffer mild heart attacks and respiratory problems, apparently from exposure to chemicals.

Whole Foods Workers File for First-Ever Union, Defying Amazon

November 23, 2024 Kim Kelly, In These Times. , , , , ,
With a rich history stretching back to 1682, Philadelphia boasts the nation’s first library, its first hospital, its first daily newspaper, even its first zoo. Now, a tenacious group of grocery store workers wants to earn the City of Brotherly Love another accomplishment: the nation’s first unionized Whole Foods Market. On November 22, Whole Foods Workers United officially declared its intention to unionize with the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) Local 1776 and filed papers with the National Labor Relations Board. Since Amazon bought the company in 2017, Whole Foods has undergone a litany of changes — many, workers say, for the worse.

General Strike Brings Greece To A Standstill

November 22, 2024 Ana Vračar, People's Dispatch. , , , ,
Greece was brought to a halt on Wednesday, November 20, as a 24-hour general strike brought workers from across sectors—including education, logistics, construction, public transportation, and health—to the streets of dozens of cities. The mass mobilization, which began early in the morning, followed a media strike on Tuesday that included both public and private outlets. The striking workers demanded the repeal of anti-worker laws, including measures that extended working hours, and called for wage restoration. Over the past decade, successive governments, most recently led by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, have implemented austerity policies under pressure from the European Union and international financial institutions.

Michigan Nurses Win The Largest Union Election In Years

November 22, 2024 Kari Thompson, Labor Notes. , , , , ,
It is the largest successful union election in recent memory: 10,000 nurses will be joining the Teamsters. They work for hospital conglomerate Corewell Health at eight hospitals and one outpatient facility, all in southeast Michigan. “We’re so excited we can hardly stand it,” said Katherine Wallace, a nurse at the hospital in Troy, who has been a core part of the campaign since October 2023. The union won the November election with 63 percent, with more than 85 percent voting. The union committee is Nurses for Nurses, part of Teamsters Joint Council 43.

Will International Solidarity Turn The Tables For Striking Gaming Workers?

November 20, 2024 Simon Rosenblum-Larson and Andrew Tillett-Saks, Labor Notes. , , , , ,
Four thousand workers at the online gaming company Evolution in Tbilisi, Georgia, walked off the job in July protesting low wages, dangerous working conditions, and harassment. Four months in, their strike is one of the largest and longest that this Eastern European country has ever seen. In August, some strikers sewed their mouths shut with a needle and thread in a hunger strike that resulted in multiple hospitalizations. A union victory would represent not only a sea change in the Georgian labor movement, but also a major breakthrough in beating back employers who scour the globe for cheap, non-union labor. Companies outsource expecting that workers won’t fight back.

College Park MOM’s Workers Reject Effort To Oust Union

November 20, 2024 UFCW Local 400. , , , ,
College Park, MD - United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 400 Union announced workers at the MOM’s Organic Market in College Park, Md. have resoundingly voted down an effort to decertify the union at the store. The attempt to oust the union was backed by the National Right to Work Committee, an anti-union organization based in Northern Virginia. Workers resoundingly rejected the effort and voted 22–9 in favor of remaining unionized with UFCW Local 400. “We know MOM’s can be a better place to work and the best way to make that happen is to stand together and collectively demand the change we need.

Teachers Union Staff Faced An Unexpected Labor Adversary

November 20, 2024 Mel Buer, In These Times. , , , , ,
In July, the National Education Association Staff Organization (NEASO) was locked out of their jobs without pay by NEA management after an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike over compensation and working conditions. The NEA is the largest union in the country, representing over 3 million educators in the United States with a union staff of 350. The lockout lasted for six weeks, ending eventually in a contract agreement between NEASO and NEA management. In this episode, two NEASO members talk about the impacts of the lockout on NEASO staff and the larger consequences for the teachers’ unions the NEA represents across the country.

Organizing To Strike: How 20,000 California Workers Got Ready

November 19, 2024 Barbara Madeloni, Labor Notes. , , , ,
Michael McGlenn is a clinical psychologist at the University of California-San Diego. Three years ago, feeling the pinch of dues, he looked into dropping the union. He felt that “the best I could do was see the person in front of me and care for them,” he said, and as far as he could see, the union had nothing to do with what happened in his office. That was until a member organizer went to see him. They talked about how his ability to care for his patients was related to turnover and understaffing that could only be fixed through collective action. That conversation not only kept McGlenn in the University Professional and Technical Employees—years later, he is a leader on his campus.
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