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Worker Rights and Jobs

How Philly Whole Foods Workers Beat Bezos

February 4, 2025 Eric Blanc, Labor Politics. , , , , , ,
Can labor sustain its forward momentum under Trump? The first big test came last Monday, when Whole Foods workers in Philadelphia voted on whether to unionize with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW). Many in the labor movement were expecting a loss, since MAGA is now in office and since management — headed by Trump’s new billionaire buddy Jeff Bezos — went scorched earth against the nascent union effort. But a multiracial crew of young, self-organized, left-leaning workers proved the skeptics wrong, as so often has been the case since 2021.

Eight Ways States Can Fight Inequality And Build Worker Power

February 4, 2025 Sarah Anderson, Inequality.org. , , ,
With each passing day, we’re seeing more signs of our federal government becoming on oligarchy that puts the economic interests of the ultra-rich above the needs of ordinary Americans. In the face of this billionaire takeover in Washington, state governments need to step up and fight for the working class. Here are eight ways states can combat inequality and support economic justice. President Trump’s administration and right-wing judges are expected to repeal or block many of President Biden’s new labor protections, including safeguards against working in extreme heat, broader overtime pay coverage, and new organizing rights.

UAW Strike Threat Defeats Stellantis Job Cuts

February 2, 2025 Martha Grevatt, Workers World. , , , ,
After the powerful auto strike in 2023, the United Auto Workers won a commitment from Stellantis (formed by the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Peugeot) to reopen a closed plant in Belvedere, Illinois, by 2027. However, Stellantis, under the direction of CEO Carlos Tavares, reneged on its commitment one year later. Regarding other plants, the company threatened to move future production to plants outside the U.S. This would violate product commitments agreed to under the 2023 contract. Thousands of workers were laid off indefinitely.

REI Workers Look To Shake Up Co-Op’s Board

February 1, 2025 Nate Wolf, Non Profit News. , , ,
Since March 2022, over 600 workers have voted to unionize at 11 REI stores. The campaign is growing, with workers in Greensboro, NC, voting to become the eleventh union store just last week. Workers at these stores are affiliated with either the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) or the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). To date, management recalcitrance has stymied workers’ efforts to win a first contract, so the REI Union is trying a new tactic: Running candidates for the board of the 24-million-member outdoor equipment retailer, the nation’s largest cooperative.

Months After Indefinite Strike, Samsung Workers Register Their Union

January 31, 2025 Abdul Rahman, People's Dispatch. , , , , ,
Hundreds of workers at Samsung India’s Chennai plant celebrated the registration of their union after months of struggle. Following the official notification of the registration on Monday, January 27, they held a victory rally to mark the occasion. Samsung India Workers Union (SIWU) is Samsung’s first workers’ union in India. It is only the second such union in a Samsung plant anywhere in the world. The first was National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU), which only recently formed in South Korea in 2021, despite the company’s over 55 years of operation.

Closures In Quebec Show Amazon Is Scared Of Workers Organizing

January 30, 2025 Pola Posen, Left Voice. , , , , , , , ,
The workers at a Whole Foods location in Center City, Philadelphia, voted to form the grocery chain’s first-ever union on Monday, marking an incredible victory for workers who have been organizing at the store for over a year. Whole Foods was bought by Amazon in 2017, and since then benefits, staffing levels, and working conditions have gotten worse. 130 workers voted in favor of unionizing with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), while 100 voted against. Through the union, workers are demanding a living wage (the starting salary is currently only $16/hour), better benefits, and more protections.

Artificial Intelligence Means ‘Oh No’ For Low-Income Americans

January 29, 2025 Kevin De Liban, Inequality.org. , , ,
The billions of dollars poured into artificial intelligence (AI) haven’t delivered on the technology’s promised revolutions, such as better medical treatment, advances in scientific research, or increased worker productivity. So, the AI hype train purveys the underwhelming: slightly smarter phones, text-prompted graphics, and quicker report-writing (if the AI hasn’t made things up). Meanwhile, there’s a dark underside to the technology that goes unmentioned by AI’s carnival barkers — the widespread harm that AI presently causes low-income people. 

City University Of New York Union Votes To Divest From Israel

January 28, 2025 Olivia Wood, Tatiana Cozzarelli and James Dennis Hoff, Left Voice. , , , , , , , , ,
Thursday night, delegates of the Professional Staff Congress (PSC-CUNY), the union representing faculty, graduate assistants, and many staff titles at the City University of New York (CUNY), voted 73-70 in favor of a resolution for the union to divest from Israeli companies and government bonds, identify other potential investments for divestment, and recommend that the Teachers Retirement System (TRS) pension plan also divest its $100 million invested in Israeli companies and bonds. This is an important victory for CUNY workers and the movement for Palestine, setting an example for the broader labor movement.

Farmers Organize Tractor Rallies Across India

January 28, 2025 Abdul Rahman, People's Dispatch. , , , ,
Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) and other farmers’ groups carried out tractor parades in areas across India on the country’s Republic Day on Sunday, January 26. Their national mobilization was in an effort to continue putting pressure on the central government to respond to their demands. The demands of farmers include a legally guaranteed minimum support price (MSP) for all farm produce, the withdrawal of the draft National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing (NPFAM), the withdrawal of all pending cases against farmer leaders, and loan waivers for farmers and farm workers, among others.

Week Three: Oregon’s Largest Healthcare Workers Strike

January 28, 2025 Lyn Neeley, Workers World. , , , , ,
Portland, Oregon - Providence Health & Services’ health care workers are entering the third week of the largest nurse’s strike in Oregon’s history. Nearly 5,000 nurses, physicians, clinicians, midwives and other medical professionals from eight Portland area hospitals are demanding decent health care benefits, safe staffing, competitive wages and the hiring of more caregivers. Providence pays some of the lowest wages, and its workers have among the worst health care benefits in the region. When sick, nurses are forced to use their vacation days, stay home without pay or come to work sick, because Providence doesn’t provide sick time!

SF Native Touts Worker-To-Worker Organizing As Key To Labor Revival

January 27, 2025 Steve Early, Beyond Chron. , , ,
How many graduates of Buena Vista Elementary and Lowell High School have become labor book authors? Probably not many–other than Eric Blanc, whose mother taught in the San Francisco school system (and served as union president) and whose father was long active in the central labor council. Blanc became a teacher himself and drew on that experience when writing his first book, Red State Revolt: The Teachers Strike Wave and Working-Class Politics. Now an assistant professor at Rutgers University, Blanc has just published a more wide-ranging study. It grapples with a perennial question facing the labor left—namely, what kind of break with business as usual, within established unions, would help more private sector workers win union recognition, first contracts, and strikes?

Amid Bad News For Workers, Win In New Orleans Offers Hope

January 27, 2025 Sarah Jaffe, In These Times. , , , , ,
There’s a little bit of hope in the city, even with grim election results and a grimmer start to the year. A Workers’ Bill of Rights was overwhelmingly approved by voters on Election Day. More than 80% of those who cast a ballot voted to enshrine workers’ rights in the city’s Home Rule charter, the first step in the process of building a real framework for enforcing higher minimum wages, employer-provided healthcare, paid family and sick leave, vacation time and the right to organize. In a state where President Donald Trump won 60% of the vote and where a far-right legislature and governor have preempted many of the possibilities for local action, the Workers’ Bill of Rights offers a blueprint for forward motion under conservative governance.

Sewing Network Shows How Entrepreneurs Can Thrive In Place

January 27, 2025 Ilana Preuss, Next City. , , , ,
Despite no formal sewing training and few successful entrepreneurship examples in her neighborhood, Pittsburgh-based entrepreneur Nisha Blackwell has spent the last 10 years using her love of sewing to show her community that successful entrepreneurship is possible. Her boutique bowtie company Knotzland, upcycling rescued textiles and materials into high-quality bows through a distributed production model, shows how small-scale manufacturing can bring new life to struggling neighborhoods.

Labor Faces Artificial Intelligence And Outsourcing

January 26, 2025 Ed Grystar, Counter Punch. , , , ,
Two recent articles on AI / automation and outsourcing / immigration offer a glimpse of what faces labor unions and the working class as capital, emboldened by the election of Trump and his alliance with Big Tech, sets up to continue its push on automation, subcontracting, outsourcing, and the importing of foreign labor – despite Trump’s tacit claims to support “American jobs”. Organized labor, which, with the exception of the Teamsters, doubled down on its support for Biden and the Democrats in November and clinging to the lost strategy of labor-management cooperation, now appears more on the backfoot than ever to defend against the onslaught.

What Could Workers Win In A New NAFTA?

January 25, 2025 Natascha Elena Uhlmann, Labor Notes. , , , , , ,
In his nine years in the auto industry, Ben Hinsey has seen a lot of misplaced blame. The threat of job cuts is always looming. In fact, Hinsey transferred into his current job at the Stellantis Jeep factory in Toledo, Ohio, when his previous one at the Chrysler Toledo Machining Plant evaporated in a 2017 wave of layoffs. He now installs instrument panels and serves as a float, moving from job to job to cover absences. Hundreds of thousands of auto jobs have disappeared from the U.S. since the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994 and its successor, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), often known as NAFTA 2.0.
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