Worker Rights

Rail Workers Push For One Member, One Vote

March 30, 2024 Joe DeManuelle-Hall, Labor Notes. Strategize! Democracy, Railroads, Unions, Worker Rights

Railroad track workers have launched a campaign to get their union officers elected by the members, rather than by convention delegates. The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes is one of the largest of the 13 rail unions, with 31,000 members. The campaign is being organized by the group BMWED Rank and File United, with the backing of the longtime reform caucus Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU). “We don’t think a handful of delegates can fully express how the membership is feeling—which is why we vote on contracts!” said Deven Mantz, a 13-year BMWED member at BNSF railroad.

Waffle House Workers On Day Three Of ‘Meal Credit’ Strike

March 28, 2024 WSB-TV Channel 2 - Atlanta. Resist! Alabama, Waffle House, Wages, Worker Rights

Conyers, Ga. — Striking Georgia Waffle House workers are rallying as the ‘meal credit’ strike reaches its third day. The strike began on Monday as workers are demanding the company to end mandatory ‘meal credit’ paycheck deduction, improve working conditions, wages, safety measures Waffle House workers in Conyers with the Union of Southern Service Workers (USSW) continued their rally on Wednesday to mark the third day of their strike and demand an end to the company’s policy of deducting a ‘meal credit’ of at least $3 from workers’ pay every shift, regardless of whether they eat a meal.

CHIPS Ahoy For Stock Buybacks R Us!

March 27, 2024 Les Leopold, Scheer Post. Educate! Big Tech, Government Subsidies, Intel, Stock Buybacks, Worker Rights

Intel, the largest chip maker in America, with 2023 revenues of $54 billion, has just been awarded an $8.5 billion grant from the federal CHIPS and Science Act, plus $11 billion in favorable loans. In addition to badly needed microchips, Intel produces totally useless stock buybacks. On its website the company proudly proclaims to have spent $152 billion on stock buybacks since 1990. That’s not a typo — $152,000,000,000. Which is why I call it Stock Buybacks Я Us. Intel took $152 billion of its revenues, some portion of which could have been used for R&D and building new microchip facilities in the U.S.

UE Demand For Ceasefire Built On Decades Of Education And Debate

March 24, 2024 Carl Rosen, Labor Notes. Organize! Ceasefire, Gaza, Labor Movement, Palestine, Solidarity, UE Union, Worker Rights

Unions representing more than half of the U.S. labor movement have now called for a ceasefire in Gaza, as has the AFL-CIO and some 70 city councils—the result of actions by many local and international unions and rank-and-file activists. Our union, the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE), was able to mobilize quickly on this critical issue because we have a strong tradition of international solidarity and taking a critical view of U.S. foreign policy. When Israel launched its brutal assault on the people of Palestine in the wake of the unconscionable Hamas attack of October 7, the UE leadership recognized that this was an issue that the labor movement had to take action on.

French Public Sector Employees Protest Cuts In State Spending

March 22, 2024 People's Dispatch. Resist! France, Public employees, Wages, Worker Rights

Public sector employees in France led massive protests on Tuesday March 19, demanding an increase in wages to compensate for cuts in their real wages indexed with the inflation. They also participated in a general strike on Tuesday called for by the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT), Solidaires, Force Ouvrière (FO), the CFE-CGC, the Autonomous Federation, the SNES-FSU and the UNSA. Major rallies were held in Paris, Bordeaux, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Nantes, and Toulouse.

If The Workers Take A Notion

March 15, 2024 Matt Noyes, Labor Notes. Create! Cooperatives, Documentary, Film Review, New Economy, Unions, Worker Rights

“Works for All,” the latest film by Mark Dworkin and Melissa Young, shows what can happen when workers and unions take worker coops seriously. The story is told by the workers and organizers themselves, with minimal narration. “That’s by design,” Dworkin says. “The film is not about us, it’s about them.” From their stories you get a fuller picture of what it can mean to be in charge of your own workplace—from better wages and decision-making power to fundamental respect. In one telling moment, cooperative food hub (distribution center) manager Zeke Coleman talks about his previous job driving a truck for a pork company.

An Invisible Chemical Is Poisoning Thousands Of Warehouse Workers

March 9, 2024 Naveena Sadasivam and Lylla Younes, ScheerPost.com. Educate! Ethylene Oxide, Georgia, health, Worker Rights, Workplace Safety

The dangers came as a surprise to warehouse workers and regulators alike. Georgia EPD officials had originally only set out to monitor ethylene oxide levels around the industrial sterilization facilities fumigating medical equipment. The EPA had just published modeling that suggested high levels of cancer risk around the country’s medical sterilization facilities, and Georgia regulators wanted to assess the plants in their jurisdiction. (The modeling incorporated the results of a 2016 study that found ethylene oxide to be 30 times more toxic to adults and 60 times more toxic to children than previously known.)

Other Avenues Grocery Cooperative

March 6, 2024 Storied: San Francisco, Grassroots Economic Organizing. Create! Cooperatives, Food Security, San Francisco, Worker Rights

From a collection of neighborhood clubs called the Food Conspiracy, whose motto was, "If you can't walk to Food Conspiracy, it's time for a new Food Conspiracy," to the People's Food System, which included Other Avenues, Rainbow Grocery, Veritable Vegetable, and other co-ops that don't exist anymore, there's proof all over today that cooperative models work. We like the sound of that, in fact, compared to competitive businesses. Other Avenues' doors opened in 1974. By 1987, a hybrid system of worker and community management was adopted. And the worker-owned model that exists today started back in 1999.

The Collapse Of US Media Is Accelerating Our Political Crisis

February 17, 2024 Chris Hedges, Scheer Post. Resistance Report Journalism, Media, Political crisis, Worker Rights

Yet another wave of media layoffs is putting hundreds of journalists out of work across some of the largest major news outlets in the US, including CNN, the LA Times, Vox, Business Insider, CNBC, Garnett, and others. In an already-grim media landscape that’s been decimated by decades of tanking revenues, this latest round of cuts raises serious questions about how the loss of so much journalism will impact our society. Newspapers closed at a rate of 2.5 per week in 2023, up from 2 per week in 2022. 3,000 of the US’s 9,000 newspapers have permanently closed, and since 2005, two thirds of all journalists have lost their jobs.

Strikes And A Boycott Win A Better Deal From Macy’s

February 17, 2024 Lisa Xu, Labor Notes. Strategize! Labor Unions, Macy's, Strikes, Worker Rights

Fans of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade may have noticed one glaring omission in its cast of charismatic balloons and floats: Scabby the Rat, who for some reason, has never been invited. But what employer wouldn’t want a reminder from Scabby—“an imposing 12-foot inflatable rat, replete with red eyes, fangs, and claws,” as the National Labor Relations Board puts it—to stay on its best behavior? Macy’s workers in northwest Washington rectified this last year by prominently featuring Scabby when they launched a strike and boycott campaign against the retailer over low wages and safety issues. Scabby was also the star of their own mock Thanksgiving Parade.

Tens Of Thousands Of Florida Workers Just Lost Their Labor Unions

February 17, 2024 Daniel Rivero, Portside. Educate! Florida, Labor Unions, union busting, Worker Rights

In St. Johns County, on the Atlantic shore of Northeast Florida, more than 55% of public school teachers paid their union dues this last year. Despite that, nearly 3,500 teachers are facing the threat of having their union representation revoked. At the same time, in Southwest Florida, only 16% of law enforcement officers of the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office paid union dues last year. Their union is under absolutely no threat of being decertified. A year after Governor DeSantis signed into law a sweeping anti-union bill requiring most public sector unions to boost the rate of members paying dues or be disbanded, the full effects of the new union rules are coming into clear view — double standards and all.

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

February 16, 2024 Elizabeth Donald, Portside. Educate! Gender Disparities, Labor Movement, Racial disparities, Unions, Worker Rights

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.

Prisoners Are A Hidden Workforce Linked To Popular Food Brands

February 3, 2024 Margie Mason and Robin McDowell, New York Amsterdam News. Educate! Big Ag, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Food and Agriculture, Prison Labor, Slavery, Wages, Worker Rights

Angola, LA - A hidden path to America’s dinner tables begins here, at an unlikely source – a former Southern slave plantation that is now the country’s largest maximum-security prison. Unmarked trucks packed with prison-raised cattle roll out of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, where men are sentenced to hard labor and forced to work, for pennies an hour or sometimes nothing at all. After rumbling down a country road to an auction house, the cows are bought by a local rancher and then followed by The Associated Press another 600 miles to a Texas slaughterhouse that feeds into the supply chains of giants like McDonald’s, Walmart and Cargill.

Fed Up With Inaction, Rail Unions Draft And Push Their Own Safety Plan

January 30, 2024 Mark Gruenberg, People's World. Create! Railroads, Regulations, Worker Rights, Workplace Safety

Washington - Fed up with the big Class I freight railroads’ incessant drive to put profits over people, and safety, and with federal regulators’ piecemeal and often pro-corporate responses, a coalition of rail freight unions issued a comprehensive analysis of the problem, with key recommendations to the government to force the carriers to put people first. The study, including pages of internal railroad documents and e-mails, reveals the horrible impacts of the railroads’ system, Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR). It’s designed to cut costs and workers, including safety workers who inspect freight cars and locomotives.

Inside Igalia: Scaling A Co-op Beyond 100 Members

January 30, 2024 Valerie Young, Grassroots Economic Organizing. Create! Cooperatives, New Economy, Open Source, Worker Rights

Igalia is an open source tech co-op success story. We have been around for 22 years; we have 140 members. We play an essential role in several open web platform projects such as Chromium/Blink, WebKit (WPE & WebKitGTK), Firefox and Servo. We have contributed to GNOME / GTK+ / Maemo, WebKit / WebKitGtk+ / JSC, Blink / V8, Gecko / SpiderMonkey projects, amongst others. The reason we started as a co-op and the reason the focus of our work is Free and Open Source software are one and the same. Both are implementations of our values, in a word: egalitarianism. In this talk you will hear a bit about our history.

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