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Worker Rights

Amazon Protested In Three Cities Over Climate Crisis

July 6, 2019 Forrest Crellin, Reuters. , , ,
Paris - Several hundred environmental activists protested outside Amazon’s headquarters in Paris and at two of its regional distribution centers in France on Tuesday as part of stepped-up climate change demonstrations. The protest drew support from groups including Friends of the Earth and the “Gilets Jaunes”, who have mounted months of demonstrations against President Emmanuel Macron. Some 240 people blocked access to Amazon’s (AMZN.O) main office in Paris, organizers said, with many denouncing the online giant’s business practices, saying it wasn’t paying its fair share of tax or paying its employees a fair wage.

Nurses Are Leading Strike Efforts — Where Are The Physicians?

April 21, 2019 Michael Pappas, Left Voice. , , ,
The U.S. healthcare “system” is completely and utterly broken. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.S. system ranks 37th in the world, all while spending dramatically more on healthcare than other wealthy countries. Tens of millions remain without any health insurance coverage. For many, medical bills can mean economic ruin—some surveys show that up to 66.5% of all bankruptcies in the U.S. are a result of medical expenses. On the front lines of this system are nurses and physicians—individuals who, by and large, decided to go into the profession to help patients and communities—are becoming more frustrated by their inability to do just that, sometimes even causing providers to leave the profession.

Largest Private Sector Strike In Years – At Supermarkets Across Northeast

April 14, 2019 By Alexia Fernández Campbell, Vox. , , ,
More than 30,000 grocery store employees in the northeastern US are refusing to return to work for the second day in a row. Cashiers and deli workers at Stop & Shop supermarkets walked off the job Thursday afternoon at 240 stores in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, saying the supermarket chain is trying to slash their pay by hiking health insurance premiums and lowering pension benefits for new employees. The workers have been negotiating new jobs contracts with the company since January, according to their labor unions, which are part of the United Food & Commercial Workers Union International.

The Eight Most Important Labor Stories Of 2018

December 23, 2018 Rebecca Burns, In These Times , , ,
In June, the Supreme Court issued its long-awaited ruling in Janus v. AFSCME—and it was just as bad as everyone feared. In a 5-to-4 decision, the court found that public-sector unions violated the First Amendment by collecting so-called fair-share fees from workers who aren’t union members but benefit from collective bargaining regardless. A report by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute estimated that the resulting “free-rider” problem could eventually lead to the loss of 726,000 public-sector union members nationwide. This diminished strength could result, in turn, in a 3.6 percent decline in public-sector wages.

One Of America’s Poorest Cities Has A Radical Plan

December 1, 2018 Jordan Heller, Huffington Post. , ,
Cleveland ― The last time Tymika Thomas’ name appeared in newsprint was in connection with an elaborate 2012 robbery in the Cleveland suburb of Wickliffe in which Thomas and two accomplices stole numerous handguns and more than $30,000 in cash from a bookie. Thomas, who knew the victim and was well aware that he kept a large amount of money in his home, took the man out for a night on the town while her partners broke into his house. Thomas and the man returned to find two armed robbers wearing ski masks. They absconded with the man’s possessions and took Thomas as a hostage.

Capitalism Is Killing Patients… And Their Physicians

November 5, 2018 Dr. Michael Pappas, Popular Resistance. , , ,
Until physicians are willing to accept the fact they they are being exploited by the same system that harms their patients, there will be no progress made in addressing physician depression and suicide. At that same time, until health care providers generally accept that it is our current capitalist system which puts profit production above the well being of every living thing on this planet--including themselves--we will not be able to effectively address true social and structural causes of disease and suffering. Capitalism exploits, damages, and destroys us all.

NLRB Rules Union Pickets Illegal

October 28, 2018 By Moshe Z. Marvit, In These Times , , ,
The National Labor Relation Board (NLRB) recently ruled that janitors in San Francisco violated the law when they picketed in front of their workplace to win higher wages, better working conditions and freedom from sexual harassment in their workplace. The ruling could result in far-reaching restrictions on picketing that limit the ability of labor unions to put public pressure on management. 

National Prison Strike Solidarity: Next Steps

September 14, 2018 Amani Sawari, Sawarimi. , , ,
We made it! I appreciate everyone's efforts in making the National Prison Strike a national headline for three weeks. Your solidarity and support has been a huge reason why the NPS flooded the media and transformed the national narrative surrounding prisoners' human rights. While the symbolic end date of the national prison strike past on Sunday's 45th anniversary of the Attica Uprising, prisoners take the lead in determining whether to continue striking depending on their individual circumstances at their institutions: some extending the call, others placing a new date on their call and even striking indefinitely.

Real US Wages Are Essentially Back At 1974 Levels, Pew Reports

August 26, 2018 Drew Desilver, Pew Research Center. , , ,
On the face of it, these should be heady times for American workers. U.S. unemployment is as low as it’s been in nearly two decades (3.9% as of July) and the nation’s private-sector employers have been adding jobs for 101 straight months – 19.5 million since the Great Recession-related cuts finally abated in early 2010, and 1.5 million just since the beginning of the year. But despite the strong labor market, wage growth has lagged economists’ expectations. In fact, despite some ups and downs over the past several decades, today’s real average wage (that is, the wage after accounting for inflation) has about the same purchasing power it did 40 years ago.

National Prison Strike Kickoff #August21

August 22, 2018 Amani Sawari, Sawari Mi. , ,
On the first day of the prison strike we’ve already seen hundreds demonstrating on both sides of the wall. Particularly where I reside in the Pacific Northwest, there have been reports of over 200 individuals incarcerated in Tacoma’s Detention Center participating in the Nationwide prison strike through work stoppages. In support of those on the inside demonstrations took place throughout Washington State as supporters march through the University of Washington’s Seattle campus. The university currently has contracts with Correctional Industries in which prisoners’ labor is responsible for the construction of the furniture in their campus housing and classrooms.

Supreme Court’s Fatal Attack On Public Sector Workers

July 1, 2018 Anthony DiMaggio, Counterpunch. , , ,
The courts have always been an instrument of plutocratic power. But the war against American workers has intensified in Trump’s America. With its recent rulings, Harris v. Quinn (2014) and Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (2018), the Supreme Court has set American workers’ rights back decades. Through these cases, the court is hammering the final nails in the coffin of organized labor, threatening what little remains of unionization in America. While just 11 percent of Americans are members of a union – most of which are in the public sector – the Janus case threatens to destroy what little remains of the economic foundation of state and local unions.

Labor Struggles Unite Students And Workers

May 28, 2018 Arvind Dilawar, Pacific Standard Magazine. , ,
New York City - Students making their way into the New School's University Center on May 8th passed through a gauntlet of labor demonstrations. Reaching the center on 5th Avenue between East 13th and 14th streets in Manhattan, they were confronted by posters affixed to the building from ground level up to the windows of the second-story cafeteria: some excoriating University President David Van Zandt; some inviting students to join the ongoing occupation of the cafeteria; and still others expressing solidarity with the university workers' labor struggles.

Prisoners Organizing National Strike Against ‘Modern Day Slavery’

May 6, 2018 Michael Arria, In these Times. , , ,
Prisoners across the country say they are gearing up for an end-of-summer nationwide strike against inhumane living conditions and unpaid labor—or, in their words, “modern-day slavery.” The strike was announced in an April 24 press release and shared by a number of advocacy groups. According to one of the outside organizers who was contacted by In These Times, the press released was developed and written by prisoners. The strike, which is primarily being organized by the prisoners, will start on August 21 and last until September 9.

Teachers’ Courage Is Contagious

March 25, 2018 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, Popular Resistance. , , ,
At the roots of the teacher's strikes and protests are neo-liberal policies. Education has become a profit center, which is driving more testing so that companies can sell testing software and other materials whether or not the tests actually have educational value. Many argue that the tests drive teachers to narrow their focus to the content of the tests and test-taking skills and that weeks of testing take significant amounts of time away from education. Companies are also selling new metrics to analyze and document everything about students from their cognitive to their emotional abilities. Educators are concerned about how this data will be used in the future to possibly restrict access to higher education and/or employment for students who may not perform well. Schools are also being privatized through charter schools, which can pick and choose their student population instead of providing education to all students.

West Virginia Teachers Are Now Out On A Wildcat Strike

March 4, 2018 By Kate Arnoff, In These Times , ,
In a bright spot among an otherwise bleak landscape for labor, over 15,000 teachers and school support employees in all 55 West Virginia counties have been out on strike for seven days, as they and supporters from around the state continue to flood the capitol in Charleston, W.V., demanding higher pay and affordable healthcare. Bucking a deal struck between the West Virginia Education Association (WVEA) and the state government, school workers have defied both union leadership and state law, which affords them no right to strike and does not recognize their right to collectively bargain. These restrictions haven’t stopped West Virginia educators from leading what may be one of the most important labor actions in years.
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