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Unions

Major Strike Activity Increased By 280% In 2023

March 4, 2024 Margaret Poydock and Jennifer Sherer, Economic Policy Institute. , , ,
Last year saw a resurgence in collective action among workers. More than 16.2 million workers were represented by unions in 2023, an increase of 191,000 from 2022. Workers filed petitions for union elections in record numbers and captured significant wage gains through work stoppages and contract negotiations. Further, organizing efforts continued in a variety of sectors—including health care, nonprofits, higher education, museums, retail, and manufacturing (Shierholz et al. 2024). Strikes were among the more prominent forms of collective action in 2023. A strike is when workers withhold their labor from their employer during a labor dispute.

Has The Global Healthcare Workforce Crisis Finally Reached A Tipping Point?

March 3, 2024 Veronica Nilsson, Equal Times. , , ,
There is a global healthcare workforce crisis. That healthcare workers are underpaid, overworked and physically and emotionally stressed is widely recognised in many countries. The wider crisis across many nations is well-documented by unions and international organisations. This week, a decision was made which promises concerted action to end the crisis. Health ministers and ministries from almost 50 countries signed up to a commitment to “address health workforce shortages by concerted action to train, retain, and improve the working conditions of health and care workers”.

How Workers Brought Starbucks To The Bargaining Table

March 1, 2024 Natascha Elena Uhlmann, In These Times. , , ,
After a grueling and innovative organizing campaign characterized by stonewalling, fear mongering and retaliation, Starbucks workers are closer than ever to a first contract. Days after Starbucks Workers United announced the largest single-day union drive in the company’s history, the union declared it had reached ​“a constructive path forward … on the future of organizing and collective bargaining at Starbucks.” According to the statement, Starbucks will no longer deny benefits and credit card tipping to union members, and will work towards a ​“foundational framework” for collective bargaining agreements.

Johns Hopkins Graduate Student-Workers Picket, Negotiations Stall

February 28, 2024 Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network. , , , , ,
One year ago, graduate student-workers at Johns Hopkins University overwhelmingly voted to unionize under the banner of Teachers and Researchers United (TRU-UE), which is affiliated with United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers. While workers had much to celebrate with their historic union election victory, bargaining a first contract with the university administration has been another story. On February 20, fed up with what workers say have been disrespectful and insufficient offers from the university administration, TRU-UE members held practice pickets on campus to show the administration what’s in store if more progress is not made at the bargaining table soon.

Prisoners, Unions Sue Alabama, Alleging ‘Modern-Day Slavery’

February 27, 2024 Mansa Musa, The Real News Network. , , , , , ,
A group of current and former prisoners have sued the state of Alabama with the support of two unions who have signed on as co-plaintiffs, the Union of Southern Service Workers, and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. The lawsuit claims that Alabama’s system of prison labor amounts to a “modern-day form of slavery” that generates massive profits for private businesses and revenues for the state by forcing incarcerated people to work for little or no pay. Jacob Morrison and Adam Keller join Rattling the Bars to discuss the lawsuit and the importance of the fight for prisoners’ rights to the overall labor movement.

Combatting The Housing Crisis With The Crown Heights Tenants Union

February 26, 2024 Mel Buer, The Real News Network. , , ,
Some 34% of available housing stock in the US is rented by tenants, who number over 114 million people. Among tenants, more than 40% pay over 35% of their monthly income towards rent alone. As wages stagnate and rents rise, the fight against landlords, evictions, and developers becomes more urgent to the class struggle day by day. The Real News speaks with Esteban Girón from the Crown Heights Tenants Union on the housing crisis roiling America and how tenants can fight back.

America’s Richest Men Ask The Courts To Make Unions Illegal

February 25, 2024 Harold Meyerson, The American Prospect. , , , , , , , , , ,
Fourscore and seven years ago—1937, to be exact—our fathers on the Supreme Court (well, five of them, which was just enough) brought forth a new nation: New Deal America. In that year, the justices ruled that the most fundamental legislative works of Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency—Social Security and the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)—were constitutional. So said the Court; so said, in the NLRA case, Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, the decision’s author, who had been the Republican candidate for president in 1916.

The 2023 UAW Strike: A Turning Point In Labor History?

February 23, 2024 Nelson Lichtenstein, New Labor Forum. , , , , , ,
How transformative was the strike that the United Auto Workers concluded in November 2023, when it shut down factories at Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis, which now incorporates Chrysler? The UAW has been in existence for nearly 90 years, during which three contests with capital have defined the character of the union and–because of its vanguard role–the expectations and standards for millions of other workers. Should we add last Fall’s brilliantly led and highly successful “stand-up” strike to that list? The great sit-down strikes of 1937 founded the UAW and ensured that, for more than a decade, shop militancy and leftwing politics would define a union representing upwards of a million workers in America’s most important industry.

Twenty-Five US Universities Face Calls To Cancel Starbucks Contracts

February 22, 2024 Michael Sainato, Portside. , , , ,
Student organizers, faculty and workers at 25 university campuses across the US are calling for their institutions to cancel their contracts with Starbucks in protest against the company’s response to union organizing efforts. The “Starbucks gets an F” actions will take place on Thursday at campuses including the University of Chicago, the University of South Florida, UW-Madison, New York University, Georgetown and Rutgers. Hundreds of college campuses have Starbucks locations on them, either through licensing agreements or through contracts with third-party vendors. Student organizers are circulating petitions pushing their universities to cut contracts with Starbucks on their campuses and raise public awareness about their efforts to hold the company accountable and support workers’ unionizing efforts at Starbucks.

How Four Black Women Changed Homecare Organizing Forever

February 20, 2024 Keith Kelleher, Portside. , , ,
Forty years ago, Irma Sherman and the over 150 homecare workers employed by “McMaid” (Yes, McMaid really was the name of the company) decided they’d had enough of low wages and no benefits and began to organize their union with United Labor Unions (ULU) Local 880, a small, independent union founded by ACORN, the national community organization. While McMaid advertised itself as one of Chicago’s premier “maid services,” with a green and white logo depicting a scantily clad white “maid” happily dancing around with feather duster in hand, in reality, the workers at McMaid were mostly Black and Brown middle-aged women who were not happy about their conditions.

Indian Port Workers Refuse To Handle Military Cargo Bound For Israel

February 19, 2024 Tanupriya Singh, People's Dispatch. , , , , , , , , ,
The Water Transport Workers Federation of India, which represents 3,500 workers in 11 major ports across the country, has declared its refusal to load or unload any “weaponized cargoes” intended for use in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. This includes any cargo coming from Israel “or any other country which could handle military equipment and its allied cargo for war in Palestine”. “The recent attack of Israel on Gaza plunging thousands of Palestinians into immense suffering and loss. Women and children have been blown to pieces in the war. Parents were unable to recognize their children killed in bombings which were exploding everywhere,” the union said in a statement dated February 14.

Unions Added 139,000 Members In 2023, But Density Remains Stubbornly Low

February 16, 2024 Elizabeth Donald, Portside. , , , ,
Unions added 139,000 more workers in historic gains in 2023, but union density remains stubbornly low, with only 10 percent of American workers represented by a union as of the end of the year, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. This is an all-time low and a big surprise to many, given the historic strikes by auto workers, Hollywood creatives and Kaiser healthcare workers, according to a Washington Post analysis. Union density vs. union membership is a frustrating comparison. Even with the historic membership growth, the country added 2.7 million jobs in 2023, many of them non-union, meaning the membership growth couldn’t keep up with the overall jobs numbers.

Forget Elections; Build Your Union

February 15, 2024 Hamilton Nolan, In These Times. , , ,
It’s a presidential election year. Are you happy? Excited? Ha. Of course not. Election years in America are fueled far more by fear and loathing than by any sense of genuine inspiration. For many of us, political news inspires a vague sense of disgust and a desire to tune it all out. The more politically engaged you are, the more you understand the awful stakes if the other side wins, and the more you fill with dread. Most of the time, the majestic American democratic project is an exercise in manipulative rhetoric, fearmongering, and, at best, a choice of Lesser Evils. Much of this is hardwired into our inflexible two-party system. Left (and right) wingers are forced into power struggles against hostile party establishments.

Pilots Got Their Payday; Now Flight Attendants Push For Higher Wages

February 15, 2024 Leslie Josephs, Portside. , , , , ,
Airline pilots won pay raises worth billions of dollars in new labor deals last year. Flight attendants are now pushing for similar improvements. Flight attendants from United Airlines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines and others picketed Tuesday at dozens of airports around the U.S., demanding higher wages and a better quality of life. “We have been in a period of austerity for 20 years, and it’s time the industry paid up,” said Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, which represents cabin crews at United, Spirit, Frontier and others. The demonstrations mark the first mass pickets jointly held by the labor unions, which represent more than 100,000 flight attendants at U.S. airlines between them.

Contract Faculty Wrest Neutrality From New York University

February 14, 2024 Jeff Schuhrke, Labor Notes. , , ,
Contingent professors scored a victory January 3 when they got New York University to agree to a union election this semester, and to remain neutral during the process. The election is scheduled for February 27 and 28. If they vote yes, Contract Faculty United (CFU)-UAW Local 7902 will become the largest union in the country of full-time, non-tenure-track faculty at a private university, with 950 members. Nationwide, two-thirds of faculty positions are contingent—meaning they lack the possibility of tenure. Many are adjunct instructors, who are hired on a course-by-course, semester-by-semester basis and typically make low wages and lack benefits. But there is another, lesser-known category of contingent faculty: those who work full-time on long-term contracts. The number of such full-time, non-tenure-track faculty in the US has almost tripled since 1987.
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