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Workers

Hundreds Of Janitors March For Better Wages, More Respect

A movement sweeping through Cleveland — “Justice for Janitors” has old roots but new momentum in our city. It’s a push for better wages, better healthcare, and most importantly, representatives say, more respect in the workplace. “People just want to be able to buy groceries, pay their rent, their mortgage, pay their car note, get to and from work and go home just like everyday else,” said Yanela Sims, Ohio state director for SEIU Local 1. “It’s not rocket science — people just need to be able to survive.”

With López Obrador In, Workers Have The Confidence To Walk Out

The election of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) as president of Mexico has raised the hopes and expectations of millions of Mexican workers. There could be no better evidence of this than the strike of tens of thousands of workers in Matamoros, a city at the eastern end of the U.S.-Mexico border, across the Rio Grande (Rio Bravo in Mexico) from Brownsville, Texas. During the past month, between 30,000 and 40,000 of the 70,000 maquiladora workers in Matamoros plants have walked off their jobs.

With Another Shutdown Looming, Flight Attendants Plan Demonstrations On February 16

Congressional negotiators told Politico on Friday that they’re working on a deal that will prevent a second government shutdown on February 15. If they fail — or if President Trump again refuses to accept whatever compromise they reach — hundreds of thousands of federal workers and subcontractors will find themselves without income once more. The last shutdown ended, in part, because workers revolted: After missing two paychecks, ten air traffic controllers called in sick, an absence significant enough to severely delay air traffic in New York City and Washington. Now, as another shutdown looms, workers are preparing for the worst. Sara Nelson, the president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA...

Auto Workers Walk Off Job To Save GM Plant

Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Union workers at a Canadian car seat plant walked off the job Friday to protest General Motors' planned closure of an Ontario manufacturing facility. About 220 workers at the Lear plant in Whitby, Ontario, walked off the job at the start of the day shift. The action by Local 222 of Unifor, Canada's autoworkers' union, is in solidarity with the union's efforts to save the General Motors assembly plant in nearby Oshawa, Ontario.

Beyond The 2020 Electoral Circus, A Workers Rebellion Is Brewing

Let’s be brutally honest and unsentimental: There are few, if any, serious prospects for attaining the transformative change we need through the current United States elections and party system. Yes, Donald Trump’s approval rating has dipped back down into the 30s (thanks to his shutdown madness), the Democrats have control of the House, and a handful of Democratic presidential candidates seem to be embracing progressive ideas like “Medicare for all.”

What The Government Shutdown Told Us About Worker Power

“Do we have your attention now, Leader McConnell?” Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, posed this question after shutdown-related staffing shortages at the Federal Aviation Administration all but halted air traffic in the Northeast. The longest-running federal government shutdown came to an end just hours later, fittingly brought to an end by government workers, the people most impacted by the ordeal. Nelson made waves among the labor community at an AFL-CIO awards ceremony earlier in January when she called for a general strike in support of furloughed workers.

Matamoros Strike Grows As Mexican Ruling Class Warns Of National Strike Wave

The strike of tens of thousands of Matamoros workers spread beyond the maquiladoras this week to new industries as workers in water purification, milk production and Coca-Cola bottling walked out of their Matamoros workplaces Thursday and Friday. Several additional auto parts maquiladoras also joined the strike at the end of the week, including at Spellman, Toyoda Gosei Rubber and Tapex. Although over a dozen plants have returned to work after the companies granted the 20 percent wage increase and $1,700 bonus demanded by the strikers, more than 25 remain on strike, costing the mostly US-based companies a whopping $37 million per day.

I Was A Student Worker Fighting For A $15 Wage. Now, I’m Facing A Criminal Record.

On Monday, February 4, I will have my day in court in New Brunswick, New Jersey. That’s not where I’d like to be spending my morning. I’d rather be at my office in DC working on getting back-pay for federal contract workers. But on Monday, 11 of my former classmates and I will march into the courtroom with our lawyer and defend ourselves against the charges brought upon us by our alma mater—Rutgers University. On December 12, 2017, dozens of students, workers, and activists of United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) staged a peaceful protest asking the Board of Trustees to give campus workers like me $15 an hour and a union contract.

Matamoros, Mexico Maquiladora Workers Threatened With Mass Plant Closures

The strike of auto parts and electrical workers in Matamoros, Mexico has powerfully demonstrated the international character of the class struggle. In the third week of the strike by auto parts and electrical workers, 23 companies representing 31 plants have agreed to meet the workers’ demands of a 20 percent wage increase and a $1,700 bonus. In 13 plants, the state government colluded with the companies to declare the strike illegal and had threatened 25,000 workers with mass firings unless they return to their posts within 24 hours. Another 10 companies have asked the state government to take similar actions.

Mexican Workers Are Engaging In Wildcat Strikes At The Border

Catalyzed by the Mexican government’s minimum wage hike in the northern border zone, wildcat protests in Mexico’s assembly-for-export industry, or maquiladoras, greeted the first weeks of the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO). Workers temporarily halted production or walked off the job at mainly foreign-owned automotive and electronic factories in Ciudad Juárez, Matamoros, Agua Prieta and Cananea. A common link in the protests has been company non-payment of production and attendance bonuses typically offered to workers along with a daily wage.

General Strike: The Fierce Urgency Of Now

Thank you. I am proud to represent my union tonight, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA. We are aviation’s first responders and last line of defense. It’s wonderful to be joined by my family, my fellow officers Debora Sutor and Kevin Creighan, and Flight Attendant activists who are here participating in our MLK Conference and doing the work daily on our Human Rights committees. Kia Carroll, Melinda Jorge, Trina Johnson, and Jennifer Kraakevik – stand up and thank you for working to make our union stronger!

Companies, Union Appeal For Federal Intervention Against Strike In Matamoros

On Tuesday, the corporations sent appeals to president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (known as AMLO) to intervene directly through both repression and by appealing to workers to accept a rotten compromise. nThe Business Coordinating Council (CCE), which includes the largest employer groups in Mexico, sent a communiqué to López Obrador that read, “Appealing to your mandate and authority we ask for your intervention since this moment of instability that the labor and business sectors live in Matamoros can bring irreversible consequences for the region’s economy.”

Thousands Of Striking Matamoros, Mexico Workers March To Border To Appeal To US Workers

The strike by 70,000 “maquiladora” workers in Matamoros, Mexico has entered its second week and continues to intensify each day. Yesterday, workers held a protest titled “A Day Without Workers” to demonstrate that it is the working class—not the unions or the bosses—that generates all of society’s wealth. Photos circulating on social media showed deserted factories and union bureaucrats struggling to keep production lines operating after workers put down their tools en masse. Over 50 factories have now stopped production as a result of the strike, costing corporations an estimated $100 million over the course of one week.

Capitalist-Style Wealth Gap: 1 Tech Guy = 1,000,000 Teachers

As of 01/20/19, the richest six American tech leaders (Bezos, Gates, Zuckerberg, Ellison, Page, Brin) averaged over $80 billion in net worth. Meanwhile, the 25 million Americans just above the median, many of them teachers, have an average net worth of $78 thousand. That’s a difference of a million times. For anyone questioning this disturbing truth, the following information should be helpful: There are over 4 million preschool, primary, secondary, and special education teachers; the median teacher age is 41; the median elementary school salary is $57,000; the median wealth of a 41-year-old is only $60,000.

Shutdown Exposes How Many Americans Live Paycheck To Paycheck

Today marks the two-year anniversary of Donald Trump’s inauguration, and we have learned some hard lessons in the interval. The ongoing, historically unprecedented shutdown of the federal government has exposed Trump as one of the worst deal-makers ever to stand up in two shoes. It has further exposed the Republican Party’s bottomless disdain for marginalized people through its craven refusal to contain the man who has unleashed all this misery. It has exposed deep fissures in Trump’s once-unbreakable base as more and more of his supporters — battered by tariffs and now the shutdown — come to correctly believe they’ve been played for chumps.
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