Unions

Marathon Oil Teamsters Strike

September 22, 2024 Keith Brower Brown and Jane Slaughter, Labor Notes. Resist! Detroit, Michigan, Oil and Gas, Strikes, Teamsters, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

For the first time in 30 years, Teamsters at the Marathon oil refinery in Detroit are on strike. Close to 300 workers walked out September 4. Welders, firefighters, and heavy equipment operators in the union are demanding a raise that keeps up with cost of living, along with better hours. Above all, refinery Teamsters are trying to win a guarantee against outsourcing and to strengthen their union for the future. Although Michigan repealed its "right-to-work" law in 2022, Marathon managers are refusing a clause that requires every worker covered by the contract to pay their share, and they have aggressively expanded subcontracting with non-union labor.

Will Auto Workers Strike To Hold Stellantis To Its Promises?

September 21, 2024 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. Resist! Autoworkers, Stellantis, Strikes, UAW, Unions

Contracts come and contracts go, but the bosses keep on scheming forever. So workers’ resistance must be permanent. In August, 17 union locals representing tens of thousands of workers charged the automaker Stellantis with failing to honor its agreements by reneging on investment promises, including the celebrated reopening of the Belvidere assembly plant in Illinois. Today, the United Auto Workers filed unfair labor practice charges against Stellantis with the National Labor Relations Board over the company’s refusal to provide information about its plans for product commitments. Union locals also filed grievances over the company’s plan to move production of the Dodge Durango out of Michigan, to Canada, in violation of the national agreement.

Farmworker Union To Hold New Election

September 19, 2024 By Dan DiMaggio and Sindhu Sundar, Labor Notes. Resist! Democracy, Elections, Farm Workers, FLOC, Unions

Members of the second-largest farmworkers union in the U.S. will elect leaders on September 21 and 22. It’s a rerun of an election two years ago, following accusations that many members were effectively disenfranchised in that vote. The Farm Labor Organizing Committee agreed to the new election in a voluntary compliance agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) last year. The union has 1,500 members in North Carolina, Virginia, and Ohio. Its primary collective bargaining agreement, with the North Carolina Growers Association, covers 9,000 farmworkers scattered across 750 North Carolina farms.

PGFTU Calls For Unions To Support ‘Mask Off Maersk’ Campaign

September 18, 2024 People's Dispatch. Resist! Gaza, Genocide, Israel, Maersk, Palestine, Palestine Solidarity, Unions, Weapons Embargo

The Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions has issued a statement marking nearly one year of resistance to genocide since October 7. Addressing their “Brothers and Sisters of trade and workers’ unions in North America, Europe, and the rest of the world,” the PGFTU calls on “the free world and the global labor movement to stand in a broad and pressing solidarity campaign with our people in Gaza.” The PGFTU expressed support for “dock workers unions in Africa, Europe, and other ports in taking action to stop the flow of weapons and disrupt the financial networks that finance the bombing of our people.”

October 1: Nationwide Rallies To Save The Postal Service

September 18, 2024 Miriam Brockman, Labor Notes. Resist! Postal Service, Unions, USPS, Worker Rights and Jobs

The Postal Workers (APWU) will hold a national day of action on October 1, with rallies all across the country for better staffing and better service, a better contract that ends the two-tier wage system, and the right to speak to the board that governs the postal service. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s plan to “modernize” the Postal Service consists of condensing it. In the name of saving money, he is pushing to consolidate mail processing plants into fewer, bigger, more automated ones—which means cutting hundreds of jobs each time and slowing down the mail, especially for rural customers. The state of Wyoming will have no mail plants left at all, so if you mail a letter across town in Cheyenne, it will have to travel all the way to Denver and back.

States Are Pushing Back With Anti-Labor Laws As Union Popularity Grows

September 17, 2024 Casey Quinlan, Portside. Educate! Anti-worker laws, Right wing politics, State Legislatures, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Growing union organizing across the country has triggered an anti-labor legislative response in some states, but cities and counties are increasingly pushing back, a new report found. The report, released this month by the New York University Wagner Labor Initiative and Local Progress Impact Lab, a group for local elected officials focused on economic and racial justice issues, cites examples of localities all over the U.S. using commissions to document working conditions, creating roles for protecting workers in the heat and educating workers on their labor rights. In the face of increased worker organizing and Americans’ higher approval of labor unions in the past few year (hitting levels not seen since the 1960s), many states have introduced bills aimed at stopping payroll deduction for union dues and punishing employers that voluntarily recognize a union through the card check process.

New York Amazon Delivery Drivers Join The Teamsters In Surge Of Momentum

September 17, 2024 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. Resist! Amazon, New York (NY), Teamsters, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Hundreds of Amazon drivers at a delivery station in Queens, New York, marched on their bosses today to announce they are joining the Teamsters. They are demanding the logistics giant recognize their union and negotiate a contract. “To march today and walk in there with everyone behind us, all of us standing together as a union, it was so amazing,” said Latrice Shadae Johnson, who earns $20 an hour delivering packages for Amazon, where she has worked as a driver since last November. What about Amazon’s managers? “They weren’t expecting it at all,” she said. “So when we walked in, they ran scared into a little hole, like a little corner that they could go around and they couldn’t be seen in. But we ran into the hole too!

Dallas Black Dancers Fight For Their Union

September 16, 2024 Rosemary Curts, Labor Notes. Resist! Dallas, Performing Arts, Texas, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Leave it to performing arts unions to make a picket line that grabs attention. The rally outside Dallas Black Dance Theatre included a drummer, line dancing, and spontaneous performances from the unionized dancers. The August 17 picket drew 200 people supporting the entire 10-member primary dance company, who were fired less than three months after they voted to unionize under the American Guild of Musical Artists. Hours before the dancers’ termination, DBDT called auditions for August 17 for scab dancers. Immediately, AGMA issued a “do not work” order for the auditions, something that is reserved for the most egregious cases.

Boar’s Head Plant Shuts Down

September 15, 2024 Edward Carver, Portside. Educate! Boar's Head, Food Industry, health, Unions, Virginia, Worker Rights and Jobs

About 500 workers lost their current jobs when Boar's Head on Friday announced the closure of the Virginia meatpacking plant behind a deadly listeria outbreak. A chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, which represents the workers, said in a statement that the closure was "especially unfortunate" given that the workforce was not to blame for the outbreak, which killed at least nine people nationwide. The UFCW announced that it had reached a deal with the company to allow the workers to transfer to another Boar's Head facility or receive a severance package "above and beyond" what's required by law. "Thankfully these workers have a union they can count on to always have their backs," the union statement said.

AT&T Southeast Strike Nears One Month

September 15, 2024 Dan DiMaggio, Labor Notes. Resist! AT&T, California, Nevada, Strikes, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Seventeen thousand AT&T workers in the Southeast have been on strike since August 16. They may be joined soon by another 8,500 workers at AT&T in California and Nevada. Workers in nine Southeast states walked out on an unfair labor practice strike four weeks ago over accusations the telecom giant has been bargaining in bad faith, including engaging in surface bargaining, not sending representatives with real authority to the table, and reneging on commitments to bargain to lower health care costs. Their contract expired August 3. “They got people at the table who can’t make the decisions—they’re just there,” said Clarence Adams, a wire technician with Communications Workers Local 3611 outside Raleigh, North Carolina.

Trade Unions Find Their Place In Global Peace Efforts At ManiFiesta 2024

September 14, 2024 Ana Vracar, People's Dispatch. Organize! European Central Bank, Global South, Manifiesta 2024, Unions, United Auto Workers (UAW), Worker Rights and Jobs

At ManiFiesta 2024, the trade union square was buzzing with activity for two full days. Belgian labor activists preparing for a demonstration on September 16 to protest job cuts at Audi’s Brussels factory shared the space with union members from across Europe—Dutch, Italian, German, and French activists all exchanging struggles and strategies. Under the tents, the General Federation of Belgian Labour (ABVV-FGTB) and the Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (ACV-CSC), alongside the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU), discussed campaigns to defend workers’ rights.

Boeing Machinists Strike

September 14, 2024 Jenny Brown, Labor Notes. Resist! Boeing, Strikes, Unions, Washington State

Third-shift workers walked out of Boeing’s giant factories at Renton and Everett, Washington, as their contract expired early Friday morning, blasting music and airhorns, shooting off fireworks, and waving hand-made signs. They immediately formed picket lines and began setting up homemade burn barrels with “IAM” carved in the side. “People are really excited to strike,” said Ky Carlson, a third-shift assembler who walked out at midnight and was picketing the Everett plant at 3 am. She said they were aiming for what the union demanded at the beginning of negotiations, 40 percent raises and restoration of the pension.

WFSE Local 1488 Workers At University Of Washington Rally

September 14, 2024 Fight Back! News. Resist! Higher Education, Seattle, Strikes, Unions, University Workers

Seattle, WA – On Tuesday, September 10, over 100 members of WFSE Local 1488 walked out ahead of their current contract expiring in a few weeks. The union, representing food service, custodial, maintenance and other workers at the University of Washington, has been bargaining since the beginning of June for a strong contract, with university administration stalling. Workers rallied in front of the administration building on Red Square, as well as at a picket line in front of the University of Washington Medical Center. The walkouts at the University of Washington were part of a larger, coordinated walkout by WFSE members across the state of Washington, with thousands walking out in total.

Can A National Strike Save A Closed Plant?

September 12, 2024 Sarah Lazare, In These Times. Resist! Illinois, Stellantis, Strikes, Unions, United Auto Workers (UAW), Worker Rights and Jobs

Dawn Simms has been out of work for a year and a half. The Stellantis auto plant where she, her father and grandfather worked most of their adult years now sits idle, ringed with tall grass and weeds. Almost all of the members of her union, United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 1268, have been laid off, too, and the effects have rippled through the northern Illinois town of Belvidere, where restaurants have closed and business at others has slowed, as the need at food pantries has increased. It’s a familiar Rust Belt story, with a twist. Sitting in the union hall, a five minute drive from the shuttered plant, Simms does not talk like someone resigned to the loss of her livelihood or her home town’s vibrancy.

‘Hard No’: Boeing Workers React To Tentative Agreement

September 11, 2024 Jenny Brown, Labor Notes. Resist! Boeing, Strikes, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

With their contract expiring at midnight on Thursday, the Machinists union at the aircraft giant Boeing announced a tentative contract agreement September 8. It was a shock to many union members. “Insulting,” “Joke of a contract,” and “Hard no” were some of the more polite reactions registered on X in response to the proposal, which would raise wages 25 percent over the four-year life of the deal, but eliminate an annual bonus of 3 to 6 percent of wages. The 32,000 members of Machinists (IAM) District 751 in Washington and District W24 in Gresham, Oregon, will vote in person September 12 on the deal. A walkout requires a majority vote to reject the agreement plus two-thirds support for a strike.

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