Worker Rights and Jobs

Union-Busting New York City Restaurant Faces Day In Court

November 12, 2024 Noah Kenner, Left Voice. Resist! New York City (NYC), Restaurants, union busting, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Workers at Lodi, the pricey Italian restaurant in Rockefeller Plaza, are continuing their struggle to gain recognition as part of the Restaurant Workers Union. In fall 2022, workers began organizing, leading to an overwhelming 75 percent of the workers signing union cards. In January 2023, organizers went public with a letter to management stating their demands. Their demands look to improve conditions for all workers at Lodi and safeguard their livelihoods. Workers are demanding wage increases to account for past inflation and cost-of-living-adjustments to protect them in the future.

The Right Believes It Has Supreme Court Votes To Overturn Labor Law

November 12, 2024 Shaun Richman, In These Times. Strategize! Labor Laws, NLRB, Supreme Court, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

The foundational 1935 labor law protecting workers is unconstitutional, according to major corporations and right-wing zealots who believe they have enough votes on the Supreme Court to overturn it. In the latest sign that anti-union forces will doggedly press the matter, a federal judge for the Northern District of Texas enjoined the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from processing any allegations of employer violations of workers’ rights. The National Review hailed the decision as “A Welcome Blow to the NLRB.” This is after Elon Musk’s SpaceX won a similar injunction against the NLRB before the Western District of Texas in July.

A Review Of Key 2024 Ballot Measures

November 11, 2024 Emma Cohn and Jennifer Sherer, Economic Policy Institute. Educate! 2024 US Presidential elections, Ballot Initiative, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Education, Finance and the Economy, Health Care, Reproductive Rights, Worker Rights and Jobs

In this year’s election, voters given the opportunity to weigh in directly on questions of economic justice showed policy preferences far more progressive than those reflected in many national and state election outcomes. Across the country, voters seized opportunities to approve state or local ballot measures increasing the minimum wage, expanding paid leave, strengthening workers’ rights to unionize, preserving public education, and protecting access to abortion. These ballot measure outcomes reflect a clear ongoing trend of strong voter support for policies that prioritize worker, racial, and gender justice—and illustrate how state and local governments can continue to play important roles in enacting such policies.

Labor Movement Must Unite Working Class

November 10, 2024 UE Officers, Portside. Strategize! Class Struggle, Democrats, Independent Politics, Labor Movement, Worker Rights and Jobs

For over half of a century, working people in the U.S. have seen stagnating wages, worsening working conditions, the loss of good jobs, and constant increases in the cost of living. This is the result of corporations’ never-ending thirst to squeeze as many profits out of workers as possible. Throughout this time, both major parties have been complicit in this corporate assault. They have maintained their power, and a corrupt two-party system, by dividing the working class along lines of race, gender, and education. Frustration with the Democrats and their unwillingness to confront corporate power or offer real solutions to working people’s economic concerns led many working people to vote for Donald Trump on Tuesday, giving him the margin of victory.

The Cost Of Corporate Profit In US Health Care Reaches $2 Trillion

November 10, 2024 Pete Dolack, ZNetwork. Educate! Big Pharma, Health Care, Iowa, Medicare for all, Worker Rights and Jobs

As has long been the case, the U.S. health care system is by far the world’s most expensive while providing the worst results among the world’s advanced capitalist countries. And that expense continues to get larger and more unaffordable. Just how large is the cost of private profit in health care? Almost two trillion dollars! Unbelievable? It certainly seems so. But that is indeed how much more money the people of the United States spent on health care in 2022 than they would otherwise have spent if the U.S. had a single-payer system.

Baltimore Is Setting A National Standard For Diversifying Its Economy

November 8, 2024 Ilana Preuss, Next City. Create! Baltimore, Local Economy, Manufacturing, Maryland, Worker Rights and Jobs

One of the crucial economic lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic is the importance of diversifying local economies, even in America’s largest cities. New York City continues to struggle with an economy too heavily reliant on tourists and commuters; Las Vegas saw its entertainment industry shut down when out-of-state visitors stopped traveling; vacant storefronts are prominently visible in major business districts and on main streets nationwide. Diversifying often implies attracting new industries by luring them from elsewhere – often a zero-sum game, if the industries are simply shifting locations within the United States.

Strikes Shut Down Canada’s Container Ports From East To West Coast

November 6, 2024 Lori Ann LaRocco, CNBC. Resist! Canada, Ports, Trade, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Key ports on Canada’s West Coast, including its largest container port in Vancouver and the Port of Prince Rupert, were shut down by a labor strike on Monday. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union Ship & Dock Foreman Local 514 began striking on Monday morning, stopping containers and cargo immediately. According to the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, $800 million in trade flows through West Coast ports every day. Approximately 20% of U.S. trade arrives in the Canadian ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert, where strikes broke out after union leadership and industry representatives failed to reach a deal before a cooling-off period expired.

Boeing Machinists End 53-Day Strike With 38 Percent Raise

November 6, 2024 Jenny Brown, Labor Notes. Resist! Boeing, Strikes, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Striking Boeing Machinists will start returning to work tomorrow after voting for a new contract with substantial wage increases. The 33,000 Seattle-area Machinists voted 59 percent to accept, just two weeks after two-thirds of them voted to reject a slightly worse contract. Voting was more subdued this time, workers said. “The big difference in this contract is that we're getting a lot of intimidation from our CEO now,” said striker Mylo Lang. He voted no. “We put in a long, hard fight. We achieved a lot,” said Jon Voss, a steward at the Renton factory, where they build the 737. “Boeing does not get to be the bully that they have been for the past 25 years.”

Autoworkers Face Massive Assault On Their Livelihoods

November 6, 2024 Martha Grevatt, Workers World. Educate! Autoworkers, Stellantis, Unions, United Auto Workers (UAW), Worker Rights and Jobs

The U.S. economy only added 12,000 jobs in the month of October, a big drop from the 200,000 average monthly job gains previously in 2024 and just one-tenth of the predicted 120,000 added jobs for September. But whether October’s overall figures are a trend or a blip, workers in the auto industry are facing a massive crisis of job insecurity. Stellantis, formed by the 2021 merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and France’s PSA Peugeot, has put thousands of workers on indefinite or permanent layoff around the Midwest. Metro Detroit is particularly hard hit.

Striking Hotel Workers Fight BlackRock

November 3, 2024 Will Hodgkinson, Workers World. Resist! BlackRock, Boston, Hotel workers, Massachusetts, Strikes, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Boston, Massachusetts - For almost two months, UNITE HERE! Local 26 hotel workers have been striking to demand the living wages and expanded benefits that management has denied them for years. The strike wave began on Sept. l when over 1,000 Boston and Greenwich, Connecticut, hotel workers walked off the job. Rolling strikes in nine other cities — including Baltimore, Honolulu and San Francisco — have followed. UNITE HERE! demands include: increased wages to offset rampant inflation, fair staffing schedules and an end to the staffing cuts made during the first wave of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Over 5,000 hotel workers have gone on strike across the U.S since September.

Consolidation Threatens To Rip ‘Service’ Out Of Postal Service

October 31, 2024 Alexandra Bradbury, Labor Notes. Educate! Louis DeJoy, US Postal Service, USPS, Worker Rights and Jobs

Workers are battling an overhaul of the U.S. Postal Service that would cost thousands of jobs and slow the mail for half the country. In the name of efficiency, a letter mailed within Cheyenne, Wyoming, would travel to Denver and back. And if you miss a package, your local post office would no longer have it. It might be 45 minutes away. In March, Buffalo became the first place to fend off the closure of its mail processing plant, in a team effort by Letter Carriers (NALC) Branch 3 and Postal Workers (APWU) Local 374. The unions turned out 300 people to picket in front of the plant, and 700 to pack a public hearing, said Branch 3 President David Grosskopf. They deluged USPS with feedback in its online survey.

Clark Atlanta University Launches New Black Southern Labor Institute

October 31, 2024 Mirtha Donastorg, Portside. Create! Atlanta, Black America, Labor Movement, Worker Rights and Jobs

Clark Atlanta University has launched a new institute focused on labor issues and training a new generation of leaders to help Black Southern organizing and collective bargaining efforts. Jobs With Justice, a nonprofit network of labor unions, community groups and activists, is partnering with Clark Atlanta on the new Institute for the Advancement of Black Strategists, which was announced in late September. Erica Smiley, executive director of Jobs With Justice, said policies against organized labor disproportionately impact Black workers because more than half of Black Americans live in the South.

Portland Grocery Workers Strike Together

October 30, 2024 Paul Kirk-Davidoff, Labor Notes. Resist! Labor Day, Oregon, Portland, Strikes, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Over Labor Day weekend, 5,500 grocery workers in Portland, Oregon, went on strike across 38 stores—and two unions. A thousand workers at 10 New Seasons Markets, members of an independent union seeking a first contract, struck for one day on September 1, in their first union-wide strike. And 4,500 members of Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 555 walked out of 28 Fred Meyer supermarket-department stores August 28 on a seven-day strike. This month they reached and ratified a tentative agreement. Though the two unions did not coordinate their strike plans—both chose Labor Day because it’s a big grocery shopping weekend—workers at New Seasons donated leftover food from their one-day strike to Fred Meyer picket lines

Waffle House Workers, At The Front Lines Of Disasters, Demand More

October 30, 2024 Kim Kelly, In These Times. Resist! climate crisis, Extreme weather, Hurricane Helene, Unions, Waffle House, Worker Rights and Jobs

Disaster preparedness is as much a part of the Waffle House brand as its all-day breakfast offerings. The 24-hour diner chain — home of a utilitarian menu of generously smothered, covered, scattered and peppered hash browns, among other quick-serve favorites — is omnipresent throughout the Midwest and Southeast. Its iconic butter-yellow letters have welcomed many a weary traveler since its founding in 1955, and its reputation for reliability is far more than a marketing tactic. In 2011, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) administrator Craig Fugate created the “Waffle House Index” — a metric for measuring the severity of an oncoming storm.

University Medical Center Nurses Hold A One-Day Strike For Decent Contract

October 28, 2024 Fight Back! News. Resist! Health Care, Louisiana, New Orleans, Nurses, Strikes, Worker Rights and Jobs

New Orleans, LA – On October 25, nurses at University Medical Center gathered on the corner of Canal and Galvez Streets for a one-day strike to demand safe staffing ratios, workplace safety protections, higher pay and improved benefits. The strike began at 7 a.m. on Friday, when nurses joined the picket line outside the hospital. They were joined by dozens of community members, chanting loudly and proudly as they marched. Chants included “What do we want? A contract! When do we want it? Now!” Some signs read “If nurses are outside, there’s something wrong inside.” The crowd was filled with energy, with music blasting and people dancing together.

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