Workers Rights and Jobs

McDonalds’ Workers Strike Is About Workplace Democracy

November 19, 2019 Eli Day, Inthesetimes.com Resist! Class Struggle, McDonald's, Strikes, Workers Rights and Jobs

On Tuesday, over 1,000 people gathered for a strike action at a McDonald's location on Detroit’s East Side. The workers, who were fighting for basic workplace dignity, a fair wage and a union, showed that they’re ready to raise hell in the face of injustice by standing together. That’s how Patricia Moseley, who has worked for McDonald’s for 34 years, describes her experience of solidarity during the strike. “We always get each other’s backs,” Moseley says. “When I see people out here, doing the same thing I'm doing, it makes me feel like ‘Hey, everybody can do this.’ Come and join us. You ain't gotta be scared.”

Vote Yes: A Historic CUNY Labor Contract

November 7, 2019 By Luke Elliott-Negri, Gotham Gazette Create! Wages, Workers Rights and Jobs

Adjuncts across the country have been organizing in recent years, at universities like Tufts, George Washington, and many more. They are fighting for better pay, job security, benefits, and other improvements to working conditions. Though adjuncts have long been organized at CUNY, they have faced an uphill battle as decades of austerity have been foisted on the country’s largest urban university by powerful political and financial forces. Yet this round of bargaining represents a significant reversal of the inequality between full- and part-time faculty that has characterized the work life of 12,000 CUNY adjuncts.

Coca-Cola Workers Fighting For Their Rights In Haiti, Indonesia, Ireland, And The USA Still Need Your Support

November 7, 2019 Staff, Iuf.org Resist! Class Struggle, Coca Cola, Haiti, Indonesia, Ireland, United States, Workers Rights and Jobs

Coca-Cola continues to violate the fundamental rights of workers in Haiti, Indonesia, Ireland and the USA. CLICK HERE to learn more and to send a message to Coca-Cola's CEO and Chairman James Quincey. In Haiti Coke's bottler La Brasserie de la Couronne continues to systematically deny workers their right to form and be represented by a union, SYTBRACOUR (read more here). Haiti is a dangerous place to live and to work. Companies should, at a minimum, be alert to this situation and exercise maximum due diligence. In July 2019, a Coca-Cola truck driver was shot in his vehicle while at work.

UPSers Elect Vote No Activists To Lead Philadelphia Local 623

November 6, 2019 Staff, Tdu.org Organize! Class Struggle, Labor Unions, Philadelphia, Workers Rights and Jobs

Teamsters in Philadelphia Local 623 have overwhelmingly elected Richard Hooker and the #623LivesMatter slate. In a four-way race, Hooker beat the incumbent 547-346. That's a 61% to 39% margin. “Today, the members won an election. Tomorrow, we start building a stronger, better union together,” Hooker said. Local 623 has 4,000 members. The overwhelming majority work at UPS. Hooker didn’t start getting active at election time. He’s been organizing non-stop for years.

GM Workers Ratify Contract Though ‘Mixed At Best’

November 1, 2019 By Chris Brooks and Jane Slaughter, Labornotes.org Resist! Class Struggle, General Motors, Labor Unions, Strikes, Workers Rights and Jobs

The Auto Workers' strike against General Motors came to a close this weekend after six weeks on the picket lines, with workers voting to ratify a contract that was clearly unloved but accepted with a yes vote of 57 percent. “I don't think we'll get any more out of it,” said Nelson Worley, who will have 42 years with GM in March. Although he called the proposed deal “mixed at best,” he planned to vote yes, worried about “public perception,” that others would see GM workers as “a bunch of whiners.”

GM Backs Down On Cutting Off Healthcare For Its Striking Workers

September 28, 2019 Patrick George, Jalopnik.com Resist! Class Struggle, General Motors, Health Care, Labor Unions, Strikes, Workers Rights and Jobs

Last week GM shocked the United Auto Workers and outside observers alike by ending healthcare coverage for striking employees, shifting the costs to the union’s strike fund. That move by GM was anticipated, just not so early on, and as you might guess it looked gross for lots of reasons, including GM’s handsome profits at present and healthy executive pay. But after criticism from the public and lawmakers, and after realizing it probably won’t be the workers who back down this time, GM has opted to reinstate healthcare for those on strike. “This is truly an attempt to do what’s right for our employees,” spokesman Dan Flores told The Detroit Free Press.

The Future Of U.S. Jobs Looks Bleak. Unions Are the Answer.

September 7, 2019 Heidi Shierholz, Inthesetimes.com Educate! Labor Unions, New Economy, Workers Rights and Jobs

We were just handed a wake-up call. Newly released numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics project that six of the ten occupations expected to have the most total job growth over the next decade pay less than $27,000 a year. Three of those six are low-paying jobs in the restaurant industry. Even more striking is the concentration of low-paid healthcare jobs at the top of the list, with personal care aides at number one and home health aides at number four. These jobs are disproportionately held by women and by people of color.

NYC’s $15 Minimum Wage Helped Restaurants Thrive

August 11, 2019 Allana Akhtar, Business Insider. Create! Minimum Wage, New Economy, Workers Rights and Jobs

New York City restaurant workers saw their pay increase by 20% after a $15 minimum-wage hike, and a new report says business is booming despite warnings that the boost would devastate the city's restaurant industry. As New York raised the minimum wage to $15 this year from $7.25 in 2013, its restaurant industry outperformed the rest of the US in job growth and expansion, a new study found. The study, by researchers from the New School and the New York think tank National Employment Law Project, found no negative employment effects of the city increasing its minimum wage to $15. Restaurant workers in the city saw a pay increase of 20% to 28%, representing the largest hike "for a big group of low-wage workers since the 1960s," James Parrott, a director of economic and fiscal policies at the New School and an author of the study, told Gothamist.

2019 Sees The Return Of Labor Activism As Workers Strike Back

March 31, 2019 Dan Sisken, Occupy.com Resist! Labor Unions, Strikes, Workers Rights and Jobs

National Labor Relations Board data indicate that 2018 marked a huge upsurge in strikes by workers across the U.S. The year saw 21 major work stoppages involving 485,000 workers, compared with 25,000 in 2017. The most obvious takeaway is this: In the year of the Janus Supreme Court decision that prevented unions from charging fees to non-union workers who still benefit from union-negotiated contracts, workers were anything but cowed. Workers struck across the country, including hotel workers, university graduate students, United Steelworkers locals, and staff of the University of California Medical Centers up and down the state.

Marx And The Democratization Of Work

March 24, 2019 Richard D. Wolff, Roarmagazine. Create! Karl Marx, New Economy, Worker Cooperatives, Workers Rights and Jobs

Marx himself said and wrote little about the future beyond capitalism. He didn’t believe in future-gazing; no one could know how the world would evolve. Marx gave us some ideas of what might have to happen if we were going to get beyond capitalism. But he offered no blueprints or road maps. Later Marxists did not always share these hesitations, especially after Marxists came to play leading roles in what they called “socialist” societies. Marx never suggested, contrary to what so many have said, that the state — the government — had to play some sort of ongoing, central role in what this future post-capitalist world would look like.

Solidarity On The California Picket Lines

March 24, 2019 Brooke Anderson, In These Times. Resist! California, Education, Strike, Workers Rights and Jobs

California - The strike, which took place at all 10 campuses and 5 medical centers affiliated with the UC system, is the largest strike of 2019 to date, thanks to the significant number of solidarity strikers. The strike was called by the University Professional and Technical Employees (UPTE), CWA 9119, which represents 10,000 research and technical workers. Joining them in a solidarity strike were 5,000 health care workers also represented by UPTE, as well as 27,000 patient care and service workers represented by UC’s largest union, AFSCME 3299. All three groups of workers are currently working without a contract.

Oakland Teachers Strike Ends With Tentative Deal for Raise

March 2, 2019 Jocelyn Glecker, The Associated Press Resist! Strike, Teachers, Workers Rights and Jobs

Striking teachers in Oakland, California, celebrated after reaching a contract deal Friday with school administrators to end a seven-day walkout. To cheers and applause, union leaders from the Oakland Education Association announced that teachers had won everything they demanded — higher pay, smaller classes and more school resources. “We have achieved so much in the seven days of our historic strike in Oakland,” union President Keith Brown told a news conference. “Our power in the streets prevailed.”

Union Thugs Assault Striking Matamoros Workers

February 17, 2019 Andrea Lobo, WSWS.org. Resist! Matamoros, Mexico, Strike, Workers Rights and Jobs

The Mexican and US ruling class and the trade unions are ramping up their physical intimidation and reprisals against the workers in Matamoros, Mexico, whose rebellion against the trade unions and sweatshop conditions has sparked an ongoing strike wave across the country. On Thursday morning, the same workers at the Fisher Dynamics auto-parts plant in Matamoros who sent a video supporting the February 9 demonstration in Detroit against plant closings announced by GM in the United States and Canada, told the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter that union thugs had attacked their picket line.

Instead of Enriching Shareholders, These Companies Could Give 8 Million Workers a $46,000 Raise

February 10, 2019 By Colleen Boyle, In These Times Educate! Finance and the Economy, New Economy, Workers Rights and Jobs

During the most recent fiscal year, the 30 companies that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average gave $378.5 billion to shareholders. That translates to more than $46,000 for each of their combined 8 million employees. Publicly traded companies—like Nike, Coca-Cola and Apple—have many options for how to spend their profits. Historically, companies spent their profits reinvesting in their business through research and development, mergers and acquisitions, capital expenditures, and workforce training and increased salaries. Today, corporations are spending the majority of their profits on share repurchases and dividends, which enrich executives and shareholders while stiffing workers.

Indian Workers Hold Biggest Strike In History

January 14, 2019 Staff, Industriall-union.org Resist! Class Struggle, India, Strikes, Workers Rights and Jobs

Ten trade union centres and several independent federations joined together for an historic general strike on 8 and 9 January 2019. Workers in manufacturing, mining, energy, transportation, banking, public services, construction and many other sectors took part, including many IndustriALL Global Union affiliates. For the first time, agricultural workers and farmers also called for a solidarity shutdown of rural India. The unions sent a strong message to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s National Democratic Alliance ahead of the May 2019 general elections. The key union demand is to engage in genuine consultation with unions over reform of labour laws, including the Trade Union Act 1926.

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