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Worker Rights and Jobs

Workers In The South Aren’t Letting Anti-Labor Laws Stop Them

September 21, 2023 Mindy Isser, In These Times. , , , ,
Even though strikes are illegal for public sector workers in North Carolina, the difficult and sometimes dangerous work — coupled with low wages and the rising cost of living — led Perry and his co-workers to refuse to get in their trucks to pick up trash on September 6. The action reflects growing labor agitation in the South — a region where union organizing and striking are exceptionally challenging, but workers are nevertheless coming together to improve their working conditions. The day before the action, on the evening of September 5, sanitation and other city workers packed the Durham City Council meeting to present a petition demanding an immediate $5,000 bonus, payment for all work done outside job titles, and hiring all temporary workers as permanent.

Joe Biden Is Afraid Of The UAW Strike; That’s A Good Thing

September 21, 2023 Enid Brain and Jason Koslowski, Left Voice. , , , , ,
At midnight on September 15, the UAW began its strike at three plants of the the Big 3 — GM, Ford, and Stellantis. While limited, this strike immediately sent shockwaves across the nation with every bourgeois news outlet turning to cover the strike. Indeed, the strike is proving very popular: 75 percent of Americans side with the UAW in their fight. This strike is part of what some have dubbed a “Hot Labor Summer,” characterized by an averted strike at UPS and the on-going entertainment industry strikes amongst many smaller strikes and labor actions, like Blue Cross Blue Shield workers also represented by the UAW. It’s placed the working class at the center of the national agenda.

UAW Continues To Fiercely ‘Stand Up’ Despite Company Attacks

September 20, 2023 People's Dispatch. , , , ,
Entering the fifth day of the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike, 13,000 out of 146,000 UAW workers continue to walk the picket lines in front of three auto plants in Missouri, Michigan, and Ohio, belonging to each of the three largest automakers in the country, GM, Stellantis, and Ford. This partial strike has the potential to build up to a strike of all 146,000 members depending on how the auto companies respond to contract negotiations. The UAW has dubbed this strategy, which keeps the union a step ahead of the automakers at all times, the “Stand Up Strike”. UAW President Shawn Fain appeared on MSNBC Sunday to talk about updates in negotiations.

UAW President Sets Friday Deadline For Companies To Meet Demands

September 20, 2023 Shawn Fain, In These Times. , , , ,
Hey UAW family. Last week, we announced the launch of the Stand-Up Strike. I want to give a major shout out to the thousands of members who are on the picket line right now, fighting for all of us. For the first time in our union’s history, we’re on strike at all three of the Big Three. The stand up strike is a new approach to striking. Instead of striking all plants all at once, select locals will be called on to stand up and walk out on strike. This is our generation’s answer to the movement that built our union: the sit-down strikes of 1937. Then, as now, we faced massive inequality across our society. Then, as now, our industry is rapidly changing, and workers are being left behind.

Don’t Do The Boss Any Favors

September 20, 2023 Joe DeManuelle-Hall, Labor Notes. , , ,
Management everywhere relies on workers “going the extra mile.” We cut corners, we skip breaks, and we look the other way on common violations of the contract, work rules, or even safety. But it’s also possible, when the time is right, to just stop doing the boss these favors. After all, how often does management do workers a favor? As they build momentum for a possible strike, General Motors worker Nick Livick in Kansas City reports that his co-workers are refusing to help management as they normally would. Instead they are waiting for direct orders, and stopping the line when management starts it up early after a break.

America’s Auto Workers: On Strike Against Inequality, Again

September 18, 2023 Sam Pizzigati, Inequality.org. , , , , , ,
This past Thursday night, just hours before the expiration of the United Auto Workers contract with Detroit’s Big Three, UAW president Shawn Fain had plenty on his mind. Most of that plenty would be obvious and predictable. The impending expiration of his union’s auto industry contract, with no new pact in sight. The state of the union’s readiness for what could be the UAW’s most pivotal strike since 1937. But Fain had something else on his mind as well: the continuing and unforgivable maldistribution of America’s income and wealth. “Just as in the 1930s,” Fain reminded his fellow auto workers, “we’re living in a time of stunning inequality throughout our society.”

France: Stellantis Workers Walk Out To Demand Breaks Amid Heat Wave

September 17, 2023 Dorian Maffei, Left Voice. , , , ,
Last week, France was blanketed by a dome of heat, resulting in exceptionally warm temperatures. It even broke the previous record set in 1949, making September 4 the hottest day ever recorded in France during the month of September. The French national meteorological service, Météo-France, points to a remarkably long and intense heat wave which has lasted late into the season, clearly pointing to the impact of climate change, which tends to extend summer heatwaves. At the Stellantis plant in Hordain, France, where Peugeot and Citroën vehicles are assembled, outside temperatures exceeded a scorching 30°C (86°F) every afternoon from September 5 to 10.

UAW’S ‘Element Of Surprise’ Strike Appears To Be Working

September 17, 2023 Sarah Lazare and Jeff Schuhrke, In These Times. , , ,
Workers walked off their shifts on September 14 at midnight to cheering crowds as the United Auto Workers launched its first simultaneous strike against the ​“Big Three” automakers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. The initial work stoppages were not company-wide but instead targeted three locations: GM’s Wentzville Assembly in Missouri, Stellantis’ Toledo Assembly Complex in Ohio, and Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Mich., just outside Detroit. The plants employ some 12,700 of the roughly 150,000 UAW members who work for the Big Three. The strike strategy, developed under the leadership of reform challenger Shawn Fain, was defined by its element of surprise.

Students Of The Strikes

September 16, 2023 Emily Hilliard, Dissent Magazine. , , ,
On Monday, August 21, hundreds of students at West Virginia University, the state’s flagship land-grant institution, walked out of their classrooms to protest the massive gutting of their university by its administration. Students wore red T-shirts and red bandanas around their necks, carried homemade signs with messages like “Stop the Gee-llotine” (a reference to WVU President E. Gordon Gee), played protest songs on fiddles and guitars, chanted “STOP THE CUTS!” and shouted impassioned speeches into megaphones. At issue was the administration’s proposal to fire 16 percent of the faculty and cut 9 percent of its undergraduate majors and twenty graduate programs in response to a projected $45 million shortfall over the next two years.

‘No Justice, No Jeeps!’ Scenes From The Auto Workers Strike

September 16, 2023 Keith Brower Brown, Luis Feliz Leon and Jane Slaughter, Labor Notes. , , , ,
The strike is on. Last night the Auto Workers (UAW) shut down three major assembly plants at Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis (formerly Chrysler). It’s the first time in history the union has struck all three companies at once. New UAW leaders kept a tight lid on plans for which plants to strike, counting on members to be more prepared to quickly swing into action than management. The strategy, so far, seems like a success, with widespread reports of managers caught by surprise, after making costly materials moves for strike prep at the wrong plants. At each striking plant, auto workers have organized strong, jubilant pickets on barely an hour's notice.

Automakers Hand Billions To Shareholders While Stiffing Workers

September 16, 2023 Matthew Cunningham-Cook and Lucy Dean Stockton, The Lever. , , , ,
Roughly 150,000 auto workers are preparing to launch what may be the biggest strike in decades this Thursday over their employers’ refusal to provide adequate pay and job security. Meanwhile, in the past twelve months, the Big Three automakers — General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis — have authorized $5 billion in stock buybacks, effectively giving billions of dollars to shareholders that could have gone to auto workers. On top of the stock buybacks, the Big Three have reported $21 billion in profits in just the first six months of 2023. Despite the enormous gains, the companies have cried poverty in response to union demands for wage increases to make up for decades of pay stagnation.

Auto Workers Strike Plants At All Three Of The Big Three

September 15, 2023 Luis Feliz Leon and Jane Slaughter, Labor Notes. , , , , ,
Tick, tock. At midnight the clock ran out, and auto workers massed on picket lines. The first-ever simultaneous strike at the Big 3 automakers—General Motors, Ford, Stellantis—started September 15 with 13,000 workers walking out of three assembly plants in Michigan, Ohio, and Missouri. There are 146,000 Auto Workers (UAW) members at the Big 3. The UAW is calling its strategy the “stand-up strike,” a nod to the Flint sit-down strike of 1936-1937 that helped establish the union. The shot across the bow came two hours shy of midnight via a very short Facebook Live video where UAW President Shawn Fain shared the strike targets.

When Auto Workers Stand Up, Here’s How To Stand With Them

September 14, 2023 Keith Brower Brown, Labor Notes. , , , , ,
The likely Auto Workers (UAW) strike, which the union is dubbing the "Stand Up Strike," could be a turning point for the U.S. labor movement—and all of us across the movement can lend a hand to help the strikers win. Cross-union solidarity can turn up the heat on the Big 3 to end tiers and make green jobs good jobs. It can also boost strikers’ morale and build connections that endure for years to come. When Frito-Lay workers went on strike two summers ago in Topeka, Kansas, the Bakery Workers were amazed at the support they received, including from UAW members who brought them water and donuts.

Big 3 Auto Workers Prepare To Strike: ‘Cost Of Doing Nothing Is Much Higher’

September 13, 2023 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. , , ,
Two days before their contract expires at midnight Thursday, the Auto Workers (UAW) are poised to strike the Big 3 automakers—General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis—to recoup concessions made over the past two decades, end tiers, boost wages, and fight for a shorter workweek and other quality-of-life demands. The auto companies are preparing for a strike, given the UAW’s new fighting spirit, on display in rallies and on the shop floor. UAW President Shawn Fain was elected in March on a slate backed by the reform movement Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD), on a platform of “no corruption, no concessions, no tiers,” ending nearly 80 years of one-party rule in the union.

How A Strip Mall Became The Center Of The Modern-Day Labor Movement

September 13, 2023 Diti Kohli, Portside. , , ,
Hadley, Massachusetts - Picture a sprawling suburban strip mall, and Route 9 in this Western Massachusetts town may come to mind. The busy commercial corridor is dotted with curb strips and parking lots, with neatly painted lines and weeds pushing through cracks in the asphalt. National brands fill the low-lying storefronts one after another: Home Depot, Whole Foods, Marshalls, ULTA. But a half-mile stretch of the roadway between Amherst and Northampton is unusual for one reason: It has become a hotbed for labor activism. Starting last year, workers at three big-box stores — Trader Joe’s, Barnes & Noble, and Michaels — formed unions in and around the Mountain Farms mall.
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