Workers

Maryland Becomes Sixth State To Raise Minimum Wage To $15 An Hour

April 8, 2019 By Alexia Fernández Campbell, Vox.com Create! Maryland, Minimum Wage, Wages, Workers

Maryland just became the sixth state to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. On Thursday, lawmakers managed to override Republican Gov. Larry Hogan’s veto of a minimum wage bill. Maryland’s current minimum wage is $10.10, and the new policy willgradually raise the wage floor to $15 by 2025. Hogan had blocked the bill earlier this week, claiming that such a change would “devastate” the economy. But it was clear early on that he would be unable to stop the national momentum building around a $15 minimum wage.

People Lose Their Employer-Sponsored Insurance Constantly

April 6, 2019 Matt Bruenig, Peoplespolicyproject.org Educate! Health Care, Workers

The bolded part is probably the most dishonest argument in the entire Medicare for All debate. It implies that, under our current health insurance system, people who like their employer-based insurance can hold on to it. This then is contrasted with a Medicare for All transition where people will lose their employer-based insurance as part of being shifted over to an excellent government plan. But the truth is that people who love their employer-based insurance do not get to hold on to it in our current system. Instead, they lose that insurance constantly, all the time, over and over again. It is a complete nightmare.

GM Squeezed $118 Million From Its Workers, Then Shut Their Factory

April 4, 2019 David Welch, Latimes.com Educate! General Motors, Unions, Workers

The union hall in Lordstown, Ohio, is a hive of confusion, anxiety and anger. Mostly anger. Three weeks after employees at the town’s General Motors Co. compact car plant assembled their last Chevrolet Cruze, employees are filing into the United Auto Workers Local 1112 hall to sign up for unemployment benefits and try to figure out if they should take a transfer to another GM plant or wait it out in the one factory most have ever worked and see if it survives. Union workers are livid that they agreed to make $118 million a year in annual concessions to save the plant in mid-2017, only to have GM effectively threaten to close it down a year and a half later.

Thousands Of Workers At US Factories In Mexico Are Striking For Higher Wages

April 1, 2019 By Alexia Fernández Campbell, Vox.com Resist! Class Struggle, Factories, Mexico, Wages, Workers

Hundreds of Coca-Cola workers are camping out at a major bottling plant until they get a raise. More than 8,000 Walmart employees were prepared to walk off the job, until management met some of their demands. And 30,000 striking factory workers have finally returned to work after a month-long strike. Workers are organizing at unprecedented rates along the border — in Mexico. Since January, thousands of factory workers have been striking for higher wages in Mexican border cities, which are home to hundreds of factories run by US companies and subcontractors.

Brazil’s Labor Unions Prepare For War With Far-Right President Jair Bolsanaro

March 29, 2019 Michael Fox, Inthesetimes.com Resist! Brazil, Class Struggle, Labor Unions, Workers

FLORIANÓPOLIS, BRAZIL—On a gray afternoon in early February, 60 local leaders from roughly 40 unions meet at the tan, seven-story headquarters of the Santa Catarina State Commerce Workers Federation to discuss how to move forward under Brazil’s new, far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro. They represent metalworkers, teachers and just about everything in between. Similar meetings have been held around the country. Since Bolsonaro's inauguration January 1, he has unleashed an assault on workers and unions.

“We Demand Food For Thought”: UIC Grad Workers On Strike For Living Wages And Respect

March 27, 2019 Hannah Steinkopf-Frank, Inthesetimes.com Resist! Chicago, Higher Education, Strikes, Workers

In front of the historic Jane Addams Hull-House Museum on March 19, University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) graduate workers began an indefinite strike. The union is joining a national movement of higher education employees demanding livable wages and better working conditions in the often-unstable field of academia. The strike is the result of more than a year of negotiations between UIC Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) Local 6297 and the university administration. Since September 2018, over 1,500 teaching and graduate assistants have worked without a contract.

Thousands Of Uber Drivers Are Striking In Los Angeles

March 27, 2019 By Alexia Fernández Campbell, Vox.com Resist! Class Struggle, Los Angeles, Strikes, Uber, Workers

Uber and Lyft drivers in Los Angeles are refusing to pick up customers today — part of a one-day strike to protest Uber’s recent decision to slash pay rates for drivers in the area. Last week, Uber slashed its per-mile pay by 25 percent in Los Angeles County and parts of Orange County. That means drivers will earn 60 cents per mile instead of 80 cents. That decision has pushed drivers, who were already struggling to make ends meet, over the edge. Hundreds of drivers swarmed the streets, chanting and picketing outside Uber’s office in suburban LA.

Minnesota Amazon Workers Walk Off The Job Over Speed-Up

March 25, 2019 Joe DeManuelle-Hall, Labornotes.org Resist! Amazon, Class Struggle, Jeff Bezos, Minnesota, Workers

After yet another speed-up in a workplace notorious for its lightning pace of work, workers at a Minnesota Amazon warehouse walked off the night shift for three hours. The March 7 walkout at Amazon’s fulfillment center in Shakopee, Minnesota, was these workers’ second job action in three months. The strikers work in the stow department, shelving items after they have been unloaded from inbound trucks and processed. Once shelved, the merchandise is then compiled into customer orders by pickers.

May Day 2019 – National Mobilization For Immigrant Workers Rights!

March 19, 2019 Staff, Immigrantsolidarity.org Resist! Immigration, International Workers Day, May Day, Undocumented, Workers

We are calling a national day of multi-ethnic unity with youth, labor, peace and justice communities in solidarity with immigrant workers and building new immigrant rights & civil rights movement! Fight against Trump's racist anti-immigrant policies. Wear White T-Shirt, organize local actions to support immigrant worker rights!

Berkeley Sets The Bar For Municipal Support Of Worker Cooperatives

March 18, 2019 By Yassi Eskandari, Theselc.org Create! California, Cooperatives, New Economy, Workers

Berkeley, CA - Last month, Berkeley City Council unanimously adopted a set of recommendations provided by the Sustainable Economies Law Center (Law Center) and a coalition of worker coop members and advocates. In doing so, Berkeley became a national leader in supporting worker cooperative businesses. “Berkeley is among the first US cities to earmark funding specifically to help local businesses convert to democratic worker ownership,” says Sara Stephens, Staff Attorney at the Law Center.

‘Winds Of Change Are Blowing:’ 8,500 Walmart Employees Threaten To Strike

March 13, 2019 Staff, Elfinanciero.com.mx Resist! Class Struggle, Strikes, Walmart, Workers

More than 8,500 Walmart employees will strike in 10 states on March 20 if the company doesn’t meet their demands for a 20% pay increase as well as other benefits and better conditions. The mainly female cashiers and other low-ranking employees at the big-box retail chain earn on average between 140 and 150 pesos (US $7 to $7.50) per day and are not enrolled in medical insurance or retirement schemes, their union claims. In addition, the National Association of Shop and Private Office Workers contends that Walmart doesn’t respect the right to an eight-hour working day, doesn’t pay overtime in accordance with the law, discriminates against pregnant women and has dismissed workers unfairly.

Why Workers At The Biggest Grocery Chain In New England Just Authorized A Strike

March 4, 2019 Michael Arria, Inthesetimes.com Resist! Class Struggle, Strikes, Workers

On February 24, a union representing more than 8,000 Massachusetts workers at the supermarket chain Stop & Shop overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike. The vote came just one day after the company’s three-year labor agreement with its employees expired. Stop & Shop is the largest grocery chain in New England. United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1445 is one five unions that represent Stop & Shop workers in the New England area, bargaining on behalf of more than 8,000 employees across over 60 stores. In an interview with In These Times, the union’s political director, Jim Carvalho, said that Stop & Shop is asking for “nothing but concessions” from its employees.

Scaling Social Justice: A Latinx Immigrant Worker Co-op Franchise Model

February 27, 2019 Emma Yorra, Nonprofitquarterly.org Create! Cooperatives, Immigrants, New Economy, Workers

Araceli Dominguez, an immigrant housecleaner living in Staten Island, New York, has a lot to be proud of. She is a founding member of a local branch of Brightly®, a worker-owned cleaning cooperative with ambitions to be part of a newly created franchise model looking to scale nationally. She has worked hard with her fellow worker-owners to launch their business. “Being in this co-op fills me with a hunger to learn,” she notes. “I am so full of pride. I am an inspiration to my daughters that they too can achieve their goals. Without this, I wouldn’t be the person I am today; I would be a different Araceli.”

‘We Refuse To Create Technology For Warfare And Oppression:’ Microsoft Workers Demand Company End Army Contract

February 26, 2019 Andrea Germanos, Nationofchange.org Resist! Class Struggle, Microsoft, Technology, Wars and Militarism, Workers

"On behalf of workers at Microsoft, we're releasing an open letter to Brad Smith and Satya Nadella, demanding for the cancellation of the IVAS contract with a call for stricter ethical guidelines." Declaring to chief executives that they refuse “to become war profiteers,” a group of Microsoft workers on Friday demanded the company cancel a contract with the U.S. Army that they say would “help people kill” and turn warfare into a “video game.” Their open letter is addressed to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and president and chief legal officer Brad Smith, and, according to the “Microsoft Workers 4 Good” Twitter handle, which posted the document, it got over employee 100 signatures in its first day.

Illinois Workers Celebrate As ‘Life-Changing’ $15 Per Hour Minimum Wage Signed Into Law

February 20, 2019 By Jessica Corbett, Commondreams.org Create! Illinois, Minimum Wage, New Economy, Workers

"Fifteen dollars an hour will be life-changing for me. I can barely afford the basic needs for my two sons on my minimum-wage salary. Simple things like whether to buy school supplies for my older boy or formula and diapers for my little one become agonizing choices," said Fight for $15 member Ieshia Townsend, who works a McDonald's in Chicago. Reflecting on the past six years of grassroots organizing to raise wages across the state, Townsend shared that "as a single mom and a Black woman on the south side of Chicago, I felt invisible before I joined the Fight for $15 and a union. But by coming togethe and speaking out, our voices have been heard." While welcoming the victory on Tuesday, she vowed to continue the fight for a union.

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