Worker Rights and Jobs

Schools For Struggle: For A Workers’ Education Movement

August 6, 2024 Daniel Judt, Portside. Organize! Education, History, Labor Movement, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

In December of 1936, a day into their historic sit-down strike at a General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan, autoworkers set up a school. Surrounded by idle machines, freed from the foreman's gaze, they took classes in public speaking and labor journalism, in political economy, in the history of the labor movement. This was not a spontaneous idea. Some of the key players in the strikes—the nascent United Auto Workers (UAW) union's education director and several rank-and-file organizers, as well as its future president, Walter Reuther, and his brother, Roy—had spent time at Brookwood Labor College, a small independent school for workers who wanted to radicalize the labor movement.

New Contract Equalizes Protections Across University Of Maryland

August 5, 2024 Bri Hatch, WYPR. Organize! Education, Maryland, Unions, Victory, Worker Rights and Jobs

Workers at nine of 12 schools in the University System of Maryland are now protected under the first-ever system-wide union contract. The new agreement raises wages, establishes health and safety protections, and guarantees permanent salaried positions for contractual employees after two years of service. The changes affect around 5,700 employees, from Frostburg to the Eastern Shore. Members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union and university leaders gathered at a signing ceremony Friday to mark the official start of the standardized protections.

Leadership In AFSCME DC 37 Is Stifling Rank And File Engagement

August 2, 2024 Duncan Freeman, Labor Notes. Resist! Labor Movement, New York City (NYC), Rank and File, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Members of District Council 37's Local 3005 in New York City say that attempts to mobilize their coworkers over the last two years have been stonewalled and met with apathy by union leadership. Current and former members say that since the pandemic, they have presented proposals to create a membership committee, speak out about city budget cuts, fight for telework rights and other efforts and that all were slow-walked or shot down by the union’s president Jeff Oshins. Most recently, some members have wanted to introduce motions calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and for the New York City Employees' Retirement System to divest from Israeli bonds and securities.

Debt Is Wage Theft, Debt Steals Leisure Time, Debt Can Suppress Strikes

August 2, 2024 Jason Wozniak, Sara Nelson, Brittany Alston, Olivia Schwob, Jackson Potter and Teresa Romero, In These Times. Strategize! Debt, Labor Movement, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Debt is fundamentally a labor issue. When labor is weak and unionization low, workers are forced to take on debt to offset costs for necessities like healthcare, housing and food. The more debt we have, the more we are compelled to work under the bosses’ conditions — rather than fighting for our own. Interest-heavy loans act as a regressive kind of pay cut, reaching deep into workers’ take-home earnings. Just to keep up with debt payments and interest, workers take on more hours and multiple low-paying jobs. And data shows debt can make workers more unlikely to strike.

The Union Co-Ops Council: Seventeen Years Of Forging Worker Alliances

August 2, 2024 Dylan Hatch, Grassroots Economic Organizing. Strategize! Cooperatives, New Economy, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

As the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives (USFWC) celebrates its twentieth anniversary in 2024, July marks seventeen years since the founding of its oldest member council – the Union Co-ops Council. Established to bridge worker cooperatives and organized labor, the Council has become a crucial player in both movements, fueled by the resurgence of unions and worker co-ops throughout the beginning of the 21st century. Just as the USFWC concludes its first twenty years with renewed energy, ambition, and capacity, the Union Co-op Council also reflects on its successes and sets a clear path forward to advance worker ownership and power.

Reform Caucus Wins Amazon Labor Union Officer Elections

July 31, 2024 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. Organize! Amazon, Elections, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Amazon workers at the JFK8 fulfillment center on Staten Island, New York, voted to elect reform officers in the first-ever leadership election. “We are extremely excited to announce that every candidate on our reform caucus slate won decisively in our union’s leadership elections,” said Connor Spence, co-founder of the Amazon Labor Union and former treasurer, who won the presidency. “After more than two years of fighting to reform our union to make it more democratic, transparent, and militant, we are relieved to finally be able to turn our full attention toward bringing Amazon to the table and winning an incredible contract.

UAW Rips ‘Corporate Greed’ Of John Deere

July 31, 2024 Jake Johnson, Common Dreams. Resist! Corporatism, John Deere, Stock Buybacks, United Auto Workers (UAW), Worker Rights and Jobs

The United Auto Workers on Tuesday condemned the manufacturing company John Deere over recent mass layoffs at factories in Iowa and Illinois, arguing the company's strong profits, lavish handouts to investors, and exorbitant CEO pay give the lie to claims that the job cuts and outsourcing were necessary. "John Deere's reckless layoffs and job cuts are an insult to the working-class people of Iowa and Illinois, and the United Auto Workers will fight for justice for our members and communities affected by these moves," the union said in a statement. "Let's be clear: there is no need for Deere to kill good American jobs and outsource them to Mexico for cheap labor.

Who Would Want To Grow Old Only To Grow Poor?

July 30, 2024 Eleni Schirmer, In These Times. Strategize! Class Struggle, Poverty, Retirement, Seniors, Worker Rights and Jobs

Despite the California sun in the summer of 1933, 66-year-old Francis E. Townsend’s mood was gloomy. He had just lost his job working as a physician for the Long Beach Health Department. Although the work itself had been bleak — attending to the city’s sick and poor was soul-wracking — not having a job was worse. Townsend, like millions of older adults during the Great Depression, found himself without savings, without work and, most of all, without hope. Who would ever want to grow old, Townsend wondered, only to grow poor? Townsend was not alone in his despair; suicides among 65- to 74-year-olds reached levels higher than at any time before or since.

First US Unionized Apple Retail Store Workers Reach Historic Tentative Agreement With Tech Giant

July 29, 2024 IAMAW. Organize! Apple, Maryland, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Towson, MD – The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers’ (IAM) Coalition of Organized Retail Employees (IAM CORE) has reached a tentative agreement with Apple that improves work-life balance, raises pay and helps protect job security. Workers at the Towson, Md., Apple retail store, the first in the country to unionize, will vote on the tentative agreement on Aug. 6. “From the beginning, IAM CORE’s mission has been to improve Apple for our employees, customers and communities,” said the IAM CORE Negotiating Committee. “By reaching a tentative agreement with Apple, we are giving our members a voice in their futures and a strong first step toward further gains.

World Of Warcraft Developers Form Blizzard’s Largest, Most Inclusive Union

July 27, 2024 Ash Parrish, The Verge. Organize! Big Tech, Blizzard, Games, Microsoft, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

More than 500 developers at Blizzard Entertainment who work on World of Warcraft have voted to form a union. The World of Warcraft GameMakers Guild, formed with the assistance of the Communication Workers of America (CWA), is composed of employees across every department, including designers, engineers, artists, producers, and more. Together, they have formed the largest wall-to-wall union — or a union inclusive of multiple departments and disciplines — at Microsoft. This news comes less than a week after the formation of the Bethesda Game Studios union, which, at the time of the announcement, was itself the largest wall-to-wall Microsoft union.

Capital Has No Borders; Why Should We?

July 21, 2024 Maurizio Guerrero, In These Times. Create! Capitalism, Immigration, Joe Biden, Open Borders, Worker Rights and Jobs

Elia Velásquez fled the violence and poverty that plagued her native El Salvador in the 1990s. “I saw how my family was suffering, so I said to myself, ‘If I leave, I can work and help them,’ ” the 55-year-old hotel worker in Washington, D.C, tells In These Times during a phone interview in Spanish. “That would be better for them.” El Salvador was deep into a fratricidal civil war, partially instigated and funded by the United States, that left the country in shambles when it ended in 1992. Velásquez came to the United States and initially worked in a packaging facility in the Washington, D.C., area. There, workers did not even get “a glass of water” from the managers, she says.

After Two Weeks On Strike, Minneapolis Park Workers Stand Strong

July 21, 2024 Fight Back! News. Resist! LIUNA, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Strikes, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Minneapolis, MN – On July 4, round 100 members of the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) Local 363 walked off their jobs and began what was intended to be a limited-duration strike set to end on Wednesday, July 10. Right from the start the attitude was one of feisty resolve from these workers. This is the first time in the Minneapolis Park Board’s 141 year history that the workers went on strike, and the strike was authorized by a 94% majority. During the first weeklong strike, they held planned pickets and actions all around Minneapolis, primarily at the parks. They also saw many solidarity actions popping off that week in support of the striking workers.

A New Era Of Endless Labor Shortages?

July 16, 2024 Thomas Ferguson and Servaas Storm, Scheer Post. Educate! Finanace and the Economy, Report, Unemployment, Worker Rights and Jobs

Every so often a publication comes along that more or less perfectly captures the Zeitgeist of world business elites. So it was on the 26th of June when the McKinsey Global Institute issued a new report: “Help Wanted: Charting the Challenge of Tight Labor Markets in Advanced Economies.” The message its few pages of charts and text deliver is dire indeed: “Labor markets in advanced economies today are among the tightest in two decades, not merely a pandemic-induced blip but rather a long-term trend that may continue as workforces age.” This constraining labor market, the report claims, “means forgone economic output,” since employers are not able to “fill their excess job vacancies.”

Will Immigrant Workers In Britain Win Europe’s First Amazon Union?

July 16, 2024 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. Organize! Amazon, England, Europe, Unions, United Kingdom (UK), Worker Rights and Jobs

Workers at fulfillment center BHX4 in Coventry, central England, cast votes July 8-13 for the GMB union to negotiate over pay, hours, and working conditions with the Amazon bosses. The results are expected July 17. The watershed vote comes after a long, bruising battle; Amazon tried U.S.-style stalling and union-busting tactics. Meanwhile the workers have taken 37 days of strike action in two years. They’ve grown their union to 1,400 members, established a stewards network, and built multiethnic solidarity. In the U.K., workers can become dues-paying members before union recognition is attained.

Thousands Of Samsung Workers Go On Indefinite Strike

July 11, 2024 Abdul Rahman, People's Dispatch. Resist! Samsung, South Korea, Strikes, Tech industry, Tech Workers, Worker Rights and Jobs

Thousands of workers in South Korea at Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest memory chipmaker, declared an “indefinite strike” against the company’s refusal to dialogue and listen to their demands on the last day of their three-day strike on Wednesday, July 10. In a statement, published on the website of the National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU) which is spearheading the strike, the union told its members “don’t get tired” and continue the strike until further instructions are given. The NSEU has around 30,000 members and represents 24% of all workers with Samsung Electronics. According to NSEU, over 6,540 workers have been participating in the different strike actions.

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