Skip to content

Unions

Red Cup Rebellion Redux: An Interview With Starbucks Workers United

November 30, 2023 Bella DeVaan, Inequality.org. , , ,
The Starbucks Workers United are here to stay. After Buffalo-area stores organized in 2021, unionization caught on like wildfire at franchise locations across the nation. (That year, the median Starbucks employee made under $13,000 while the company’s then-CEO Kevin Johnson took home $20.4 million) Since then, the organizing workers haven’t let up, roasting former CEO Howard Schultz in a high-profile Senate hearing and escalating their campaign. President Biden’s National Labor Relations Board has issued landmark rulings in the union’s favor against the company’s cruel union busting. Now, over 9,000 workers constitute SBWU’s ranks at over 300 stores across America.

Laney Graduate Students Vote To Unionize

November 30, 2023 Ilah Ross, Portside. , , , , ,
Laney Graduate School students have voted to unionize after years of advocacy, making Emory University the first private university to have a graduate-worker union in Georgia and the second in the South. EmoryUnite! is now officially recognized as a union under the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), meaning Emory administration is required to enter negotiations with graduate students. EmoryUnite! announced the results in a Nov. 28 Instagram post. In total, 909 students (92.6%) voted in favor of unionization while 73 students (7.4%) voted against unionization during the election on Oct. 17 and 18, according to the post. Of the approximately 1,700 Laney Ph.D. students eligible to vote in the election, 982 (57.8%) participated.

Argentina is Not For Sale: Unions Respond to Privatization

November 25, 2023 Trade Unions for Energy Democracy. , , , , ,
Argentines weary of annual inflation soaring above 140% and a poverty rate that reached 40% have elected right-wing libertarian economist Javier Milei. On Sunday, November 19, 2023, Milei defeated Economy Minister Sergio Massa by a wide margin, 55.7% to 44.3%, winning all but three of the nation’s 24 provinces. He had campaigned on the promise to privatise state-owned enterprises, slash government spending, dollarise the economy, eliminate the Central Bank, and close key ministries, among them health and education. Milei is making the privatisation of the Argentine state-run oil company, YPF, a top priority.  “The first thing to do is to restructure it so that YPF can be “sold in a very favourable way for the Argentinians.”

Wells Fargo Workers At Two Branches Move To Unionize

November 22, 2023 Niket Nishant and Reuters, Portside. , , , , ,
Wells Fargo employees at two of the bank’s branches filed for union elections on Monday, laying the groundwork for potential unionization in an industry that has largely been immune to such labor campaigns. In a petition to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), bankers and tellers at Wells Fargo branches in Albuquerque, New Mexico and Bethel, Alaska declared their intent to join the Communications Workers of America’s Wells Fargo Workers United (WFWU). Labor action in the United States has picked up pace this year, with unions confronting companies across industries like automotive, entertainment and aerospace.

Tesla Union Pressure Increases In Sweden As Dockworkers Escalate Strike

November 18, 2023 Marie Mannes, Portside. , , , ,
Dockworkers in Sweden pledged on Friday to refuse to offload Tesla (TSLA.O) cars at any of the country's ports as they expanded their industrial action in sympathy with Tesla workers' demands for collective bargaining agreements. Tesla, co-founded by billionaire Elon Musk, does not manufacture in Sweden, but its electric cars are serviced by more than 120 mechanics affiliated with Swedish union IF Metall, which began a strike on Oct. 27. Dockworkers joined the strike by mechanics on Nov. 7, blocking Sweden's four largest ports to Tesla cars. That was expanded to all ports on Friday at 12 a.m. (1100 GMT)

Building Cleaners Rally For Fair Wages And Life-Saving Benefits

November 17, 2023 Bella DeVaan, Inequality.org. , , ,
Just this year, we’ve seen UPS Teamsters secure a historic $30 billion new contract that abolishes tiers and substantially raises wages. We’ve seen the UAW successfully strike for contracts that boost pay, protect benefits, and crystallize the prospect of a green auto industry. Now, building cleaners across the country are next up to negotiate equitable deals and notch new victories for a labor movement confronting an uncertain future. On the line? Their ability to keep living and working in their home cities with ease and dignity. All told, contracts covering more than 134,000 SEIU cleaners nationwide are up for renegotiation over the next year with different SEIU locals, over half of whom belong to 32BJ SEIU locals on the east coast.

New Law Protects Pregnant And Nursing Workers

November 17, 2023 Kari Thompson, Labor Notes. , , ,
Judy approached Chief Steward Amy over lunch one day with big news: she was three months pregnant! Amy congratulated her. Then Judy said, “Amy, I’m a little worried about telling our boss. My doctor said there’s a new law that gives me permission to carry a water bottle at work and ask for extra bathroom breaks, but I know Bob doesn’t like to give any extra breaks. Do you know anything about this law? Can the union help me?” On the other side of the country, Eliana, a department steward, dropped off a meal for her colleague Tisha, who was at home with her eight-week-old newborn.

Film And TV Production Assistants Are Unionizing

November 16, 2023 Mel Buer, The Real News. , , ,
We won’t grasp all the repercussions of 2023’s ‘Hot Labor Summer’ for years to come, but one place where the effects are already being noted is Hollywood. Building on the momentum of the newly-chartered IATSE Local 111, which represents thousands of commercial production workers across the country, production assistants in the Film and TV sector are coming together to fight back against exploitative working conditions in the industry. The Real News speaks with organizers from Production Assistants United to understand the conditions faced by production workers in Film and TV, and how the unionization of these PAs could reshape the politics of Hollywood labor.

Detroit Casino Workers On Strike For The First Time In History

November 16, 2023 Kyle Thibodeau and Emma Boyhtari, Left Voice. , , , ,
For nearly a month, the casino workers at Detroit’s three casinos, MGM Grand, Hollywood at Greektown, and MotorCity, have been on strike. This coincides with the strike wave that is happening in the Metro Detroit area, including workers at Blue Cross Blue Shield, and following the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike at the Big Three auto manufacturers who recently reached a Tentative Agreement (TA). The casino workers represented by Unite Here Local 24, UAW, Teamsters Local 1038, Operating Engineers Local 324, and Regional Council of Carpenters that make up The Detroit Casino Council (DCC) have demanded the following: a wage increase to keep with inflation, lowering the price of healthcare, and job security with the guarantee that the casinos won’t replace their jobs with technology before the contract is up.

Starbucks Workers’ Strike On Red Cup Day

November 15, 2023 Jaya Saxena, Eater. , , , ,
Red Cup Day, the day Starbucks releases its collectible holiday cups, is one of the company’s most profitable. But last year, Starbucks Workers United used the occasion to draw attention to its ongoing fight for unionization. The group’s Red Cup Rebellion involved strikes at over 100 stores and was SBWU’s largest coordinated effort to date. This year, SBWU says it’ll be even bigger. On November 16, according to SBWU, thousands of workers will once again walk out of hundreds of Starbucks locations to protest working conditions, including short-staffing and the frequency of promotional days like Red Cup Day.

Another Win For Union And Worker Center Collaborations

November 15, 2023 Isabela Escalona, The Real News Network. , , , ,
In the late summer of 2021, a group of workers from First Avenue, the iconic Minneapolis music venue, were fed up with low pay, last-minute scheduling, lack of parking, and safety concerns, and wanted to implement some of their own ideas in their workplace. Unsure of how to get it done, the workers decided to first contact  Restaurant Opportunities Center of Minnesota (ROC-MN) to learn more about their workplace rights. Fast forward to November 2: Over 200 bartenders, event staff, and other in-house workers across seven venues affiliated with First Avenue marched on the boss and delivered a petition that included the faces and names of over 70% of staff who want to unionize with UNITE HERE Local 17.

Cornell Graduate Students United Wins Unionization Election

November 13, 2023 Jonathan Mong and Matthew Kiviat, Portside. , , , ,
Cornell graduate students have won their unionization election by a vote of 1,873 to 80, and will federate as Cornell Graduate Students United — an organization fighting for the rights of graduate workers — under the national United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America union. 128 ballots were challenged, but not counted because they would not have determined the outcome of the election. Voting occurred on the Ithaca campus between Nov. 6 and Nov. 8, as well as on Nov. 6 at the Geneva campus and at New York City’s Cornell Tech campus. Of the 3,175 eligible voters, 1,953 voted in the election.

IATSE Members Launch Reform Caucus As Hollywood Strikes Wrap

November 12, 2023 Lisa Xu, Labor Notes. , , , , ,
After supporting screenwriters and actors through a months-long double strike, film and television crew workers are finally stepping into the spotlight themselves. Dissatisfied with their union’s leadership and direction, a group of members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) is launching a reform caucus called CREW, or the Caucus of Rank-and-File Entertainment Workers. Their first public event will be a webinar on November 16 on preparing for the 2024 expiration of the main pattern-setting contracts they work under, the Hollywood Basic Agreement (HBA) and Area Standards Agreement (ASA).

A General Strike In 2028 Is A Uniquely Plausible Dream

November 12, 2023 Hamilton Nolan, In These Times. , , , ,
The labor movement is a capricious friend — it hands out heartbreak as much as it hands out joy. But every once in a while, it is able to wave a triumphant flag and give us all a glimmer of what its potential could truly be. The recently concluded UAW strike offered just such a moment. It wasn’t just the contract agreements themselves, which were a material success, but also the union’s public call for movement-wide coordination to build the possibility of mass action around the May 1, 2028 expiration of the next auto contracts. ​“We invite unions around the country to align your contract expirations with our own so that together we can begin to flex our collective muscles,” the UAW declared on October 29.

Dock Workers Refuse To Deal With Weapons Ships Heading To Israel

November 10, 2023 Middle East Monitor, Orinoco Tribune. , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Workers at the Spanish port of Barcelona announced their refusal to allow any ships carrying weapons to operate inside the port, rejecting the violence practiced by Israel in the occupied territories, and accusing the UN of failing to carry out its role. The workers said in a statement to their association that it is their duty to adhere to and defend the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, at a time when the signatory countries have forgotten about it. The statement continued: “We decided within the association not to allow ships containing war materials to operate in our port, for the sole purpose of protecting any civilian population, regardless of their location, as there is no justification for sacrificing civilians.”
«12345678910»
assetto corsa mods

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Donate Here

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! 

Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Donate Here
Sign Up To Our Daily Digest

Independent media outlets are being suppressed and dropped by corporations like Google, Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our daily email digest before it’s too late so you don’t miss the latest movement news.