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Unions

Labor: Turning The Corner? It Will Take More Than Mobilization

It has been called the postwar labor-management accord, social compact or contract, industrial truce, accommodation, and detente. By whatever name, out of the years during and immediately following World War II emerged a system of labor relations markedly different from that preceding the war. The New Deal-era labor movement which had been engaged in sharp, seemingly intractable conflicts with the nation’s corporate giants, had been guided by solidarity, militant collective action, considerable membership initiative and authority, and a broad sense of class interest — earning it the characterization as “social movement” unionism. It included a significant number of workers who questioned the very assumptions on which capitalist production relations were founded and who had an alternative socialist vision for society.

Kawasaki Workers On Strike In The Philippines, And Need Your Solidarity

Kawasaki is trying to bust our union. Before negotiations stalled over wage demands in 2024, the Kawasaki United Labor Union (KULU) had represented workers at the Japanese motorcycle manufacturer’s Filipino operations for 57 years, winning good contracts for members, which kept wages strong and working conditions safe. But for the last year, management has refused to bargain seriously, forcing us out on strike for the first time in our union’s history. We’ve now been on strike for over 100 days. Management is now moving backwards in bargaining as part of their effort to break our union once and for all. They are threatening us with lawsuits and filing charges against union leadership for an “illegal strike” in an effort to intimidate us and to stop us from exercising our rights.

Crime Bosses: Here Are The Ten Worst Employers In New York City

Most of the city’s ten worst labor-law violators listed by Comptroller Brad Lander’s office Sept. 3 come from typical categories of low-wage employers: tech giants Amazon and DoorDash, nonunion construction contractors, and home health-care agencies and nursing homes. The anti-awards were given for “egregious violations in ten categories including wrongful termination, prevailing wage violations, wage theft, and willful violations of workplace safety laws,” the comptroller’s office said. They were based on information compiled by its Bureau of Labor Law and Workers Rights. Amazon made the list for having 180 open unfair-labor-practice complaints against it with the National Labor Relations Board, far more than any other employer in the city from 2020 to 2024.

Brazilian Oil Workers Join Genoa Dock Workers To Defend Global Sumud Flotilla

Brazil’s National Federation of Oil Workers (FNP) and its various unions are demanding that the government of Brazilian president Lula guarantee the safety of Brazilian activists aboard the flotilla bound for Palestine. The Global Sumud Flotilla, the largest international humanitarian aid mission in history, is attempting to break the illegal blockade imposed by the Israeli government. In a statement, the union declared: Palestine is a country recognized by Brazil, and access for Brazilian and other civilians must be guaranteed by the Brazilian government. It is unacceptable that an invading force prevents civilians on a humanitarian mission from reaching Gaza to deliver aid to millions of people exposed to famine due to Israeli policy.

Hundreds Of Staff At California National Parks To Unionize

Hundreds of staff at two of California’s most popular national parks have voted to unionize, a move that comes during a troubled summer for the National Park Service, which has seen the Trump administration enact unprecedented staff and budget cuts. In an election held between July and August, more than 97% of workers at Yosemite and Sequoia & Kings Canyon national parks voted in support of organizing a union, according to a statement from the National Federation of Federal Employees. The Federal Labor Relations Authority certified the results last week. “I am honored to welcome the Interpretive Park Rangers, scientists, biologists, photographers, geographers, and so many other federal employees in essential roles at both Yosemite and Sequoia & Kings Canyon to our union,” said Randy Erwin, the NFFE national president.

Crackdown On Immigrant Workers At Cheese Factory Triggers Backlash

“This fight is all of labor’s fight,” Kevin Gundlach, president of the South Central Federation of Labor, declared at a “solidarity dinner” for 43 immigrant workers who recently lost their jobs at a Monroe, Wisconsin cheese factory. “Even Wisconsinites who don’t know about the story, should know in a cheesemaking state we should support cheesemakers.” The workers, some of whom labored for more than 20 years at W&W Dairy, were told in August they would have to submit to E-Verify screening and confirm their legal status in order to continue their employment after a new company, Kansas-based Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), bought the cheese plant.

The Labor Movement Today: Building Power Across All Our Issues

For Labor Day, Clearing the FOG speaks with labor organizer Jaz Brisack. Jaz was on the frontlines of organizing the first labor union in a Starbuck's shop and creating the Inside Organizer School in 2018. They are the author of Get on the Job and Organize published by Atria/One Signal Publishers in April of this year. Jaz speaks about their experiences growing up in the South, discovering the history of the labor movement in the United States and getting involved in labor campaigns during college. They also speak about the tactics used and challenges overcome in building Starbucks Workers United, as well as the youth contingent of the labor movement today and the importance of unifying the labor movement across types of work and around broader social demands.

Unions Aren’t Just Good For Workers; They Benefit Communities, Democracy

We know that unions promote economic equality and build worker power, helping workers to win increases in pay, better benefits, and safer working conditions. But that’s not all unions do. Unions also have powerful effects on people’s lives outside of work. They help foster solidarity, promote civic and political engagement, provide reliable information to working-class communities about how economic policies impact their lives, and serve as a counterweight to corporate power in our democracy. Throughout history, unions have been engines of resistance to entrenched and undemocratic power—mobilizing working people to challenge inequality, defend civil rights, and push back against authoritarianism in all its forms.

Kentucky Battery Plant Joins United Auto Workers In Close Vote

Kentucky battery plant workers at the BlueOval SK Battery Park (BOSK) in Glendale have voted to join the United Auto Workers. The workers make batteries to power Ford’s all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck and E-Transit cargo van. On August 27 at 10 p.m., an unofficial tally showed 526 yes and 515 no votes, with 41 challenged ballots. There were 1,200 eligible voters; turnout was over 90 percent. The UAW called the vote “a major step forward for workers who stood up against intense company opposition and chose to join the UAW.” “We’re feeling pretty confident, I think we’re gonna win,” said battery worker Halee Hadfield via text message on August 23.

The Labor Education That Workers Need Most

What kind of knowledge do you need the most in order to make a decent living and avoid getting injured or beaten up by your job? It’s not those hard skills that take years of costly training, or the work-ethic skills that workforce development planners promote. It’s labor education. Narrowly defined, it means how to organize a union, plus all the ancillary leadership, mobilizing, negotiation, education, and enforcement responsibilities that come with that. Much of this is quite technical. It’s also philosophy. Broadly defined, it’s essentially the arts and sciences from a working-class perspective. The narrow definition of what people learn in labor education classes reflects the reality that our labor relations system is unusually complex.

How NYC Teachers Ran A Slate To Build Member Power

Teachers measure time in school years, not calendar years. As the new school year begins, I’ve been reflecting on my experiences from last year as an unexpected candidate for president of the 200,000-member United Federation of Teachers in New York City. When last school year started, I was focused on teaching my students, supporting colleagues, and coaching middle school soccer. Running for the highest office in the largest local union in the country was not on my radar. I didn’t see myself as a potential presidential candidate, but fellow organizers within the UFT reform movement did. In January 2025, I accepted the nomination to lead the Alliance of Retired and In-Service Educators (ARISE), a coalition slate uniting three major reform caucuses in the UFT: MORE (the Movement of Rank-and-File Educators), New Action, and Retiree Advocate.

War Against Workers In United States Intensifies

It has been a month-long whirlwind of fascistic maneuvers by President Donald Trump’s administration. First came the firing of Erika McEntarfer as director of the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Aug. 1. Trump then immediately nominated Project 2025’s Heritage Foundation chief economist E.J. Antoni as her replacement. Next came the staging of hundreds of National Guard troops in the streets of Washington, D.C. All of this intensifies the war against workers and oppressed peoples coast to coast. McEntarger’s firing immediately followed the BLS’s monthly “jobs report,” which claimed that from May through July 2025, only 73,000 jobs had been created in the world’s largest capitalist economy.

Defying Back To Work Order, Flight Attendants Score Tentative Agreement

Flight attendants with Air Canada and subsidiary Air Canada Rouge walked out early August 17. As expected, the Liberal government ordered them back to work 12 hours later, declaring their strike unlawful. In a bold move with wide implications, the 10,000 striking flight attendants defied the order. They’d voted 99.7 percent to strike earlier this month. Their union, an affiliate of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, said the back-to-work order violated their right to strike, and CUPE president Mark Hancock ripped it up. “Members are reminded that it is not a criminal offence to remain on the picket line,” the union wrote in a bargaining update. “While union leaders may be subject to arrest, union members are not at risk of arrest for participating in the strike.

Air Canada Flight Attendants To Vote On New Tentative Agreement

Flight attendants with Air Canada are voting on whether to accept a new tentative agreement from their employer. After a high-profile strike, this tentative agreement marks a victory in the face of government intervention in labour negotiations.  Represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees, flight attendants began a strike on August 16, the same day the employer initiated a lock-out. Negotiations had been ongoing since December 2024, with the parties being sent to conciliation and still not reaching a deal.  CUPE made headlines when its membership decided to defy a back-to-work order issued by the Canada Industrial Relations Board. The order was delivered after Minister of Jobs and Families Patty Hadju invoked section 107 of the Canada Labour code which allows the Minister of Labour to take actions they believe would be likely to “secure industrial peace.” 

Liberatory Unionism In The US Art Museum Labor Movement

Art museum workers in the U.S. are in the midst of the most exciting period of labor organizing in decades. Since the launch of the New Museum Union in January 2019, there has been a 223% increase in new organizing at private, not-for-profit art museums alone. Though precarious working conditions long predate the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a boom in organizing in its wake after institutional responses exposed and exacerbated worker exploitation, unsafe working conditions, and layoffs and furloughs, predominantly affecting front-of-house workers.  Museum workers are also enacting liberatory unionism, a term I borrow from labor journalist Eve Livingston. In liberatory unionism, workers are not simply organizing for higher pay and better working conditions, but are also connecting labor struggles with resistance to racism and gender oppression.
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