Cartoon by Fed Wright Courtesy of United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE)
Cartoon by Fed Wright Courtesy of United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE)
Cartoon by Fed Wright Courtesy of United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE)
Cartoon by Fed Wright Courtesy of United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE)
Fred Wright cartoon courtesy of United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE)
UNION LEADERS URGE CAUTION IN JUDGING TRUMP PICK FOR LABOR SECRETARY
President-elect Donald Trump’s designated appointment of Congresswoman Lori Michelle Chavez-DeRemer as Secretary of Labor in his incoming administration has been hailed in some quarters as an act friendly to labor. Others, however, were saying, “not so fast.” Her labor-friendly bona fides come from the fact that she was only one of three Republicans in the […]
UNIONS FACE BIG ATTACKS FROM INCOMING TRUMP PRESIDENCY
by Paul Becker Labor leaders around the country are bracing for the onslaught against unions that they see coming in the wake of Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential elections. Speaking of the election results, Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said, “This is going to impact the […]
NEW NLRB RULING: AMAZON DRIVERS ARE EMPLOYEES. ENTITLED TO UNION BARGAINING
A recent NLRB ruling could have a major beneficial effect for Amazon drivers. Millions of Americans today are ordering merchandise from Amazon, changing the manner of shopping for a large section of the American people as trucks with the bent arrow are a ubiquitous presence in virtually every neighborhood. But even as they receive their […]
DOCK WORKERS STRIKE HITS EAST COAST & GULF PORTS
Dock workers at Eat Coast and Gulf ports walked off the job Sept 30 after weeks of negotiations failed to yield an agreement between the International Longshoreman’s Association and the US Maritime Alliance, representing the shipping industry. ILA members have been working under a six-year contract that expired Sept 30 and saw their real income […]
BOEING WORKERS STRIKE AFTER REJECTING PROPOSED CONTRACT
By an overwhelming vote of 95 percent, thousands of workers at Boeing walked off the job Sept. 13, turning down a proposed contract that had been negotiated between the company and the union’s leaders. The strike by 33,000 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers affects workers on the West Coast that […]
‘TRUMP IS A SCAB’ PROCLAIM UNION LEADERS AT DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONVENTION
Labor unions were very visible on the first night of the Democratic convention Aug. 19 with the leaders of over a half-dozen unions representing millions of workers took the floor to express their support for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in this year’s elections. Particularly notable was the speech by United Auto Workers president Sean […]
AMAZON PRIME DAYS TAKE MAJOR TOLL ON COMPANY’S WORKERS
Every year Amazon stages a Prime Day season, featuring big bargains for Amazon Prime members and big profits for Amazon. But what’s left unsaid is how much the speedup during those sale days takes its toll on the company’s workers. A new report from the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions condemns […]
UNIONS ARE LINING UP TO SUPPORT HARRIS
As the Harris presidential campaign heats up, labor is an important part of the coalition that is emphasizing the stakes in this election. In the words of United Auto Workers President Sean Fain, “The path forward is clear. We will defeat Donald Trump and his billionaire agenda and elect a champion for the working class to […]
STEEL UNION WINS NLRB COMPLAINT AGAINST UNFAIR FIRINGS OF UNION WORKWERS
Hello Neighbor, a nonprofit in Pittsburgh, agreed July 5 to a settlement in which they paid more than $198,000 for unfair labor practices involving five employees unlawfully terminated for union activities and a supervisor terminated for refusing to commit unfair labor practices. The settlement includes remediating the denial of wage increases to 22 workers plus […]
STRIKE BY BUILDING CLEANERS PROMPTS MANAGEMENT FEELERS TO BARGAIN
In June it was a big demonstration in front of the office building at 529 Fifth Avenue, called by the Service Employees International Union. Hundreds of their members who work in the area, picketed in front of the building at 44th Street in Manhattan’s diamond district in support of their union brothers and sisters. We […]
WE’RE BACK
Many of you have been wondering why we haven’t posted any new items for several months, particularly since so much has been happening on the labor front. We’ve had some medical problems that prevented us from working on the website for a while. But all is well now and we’re back and in good health. […]
HEALTH CARE A MAJOR ISSUE AS UFT RETIREES OUST LEADERSHIP BY A WHOPPING TWO-THIRDS VOTE
By Paul Becker With health care for retirees the big issue, a major step forward in the fight for democratic unionism was registered last week when a rank-and-file slate swept the elections for officers and delegates of the retirees chapter of the United Federation of Teachers. The chapter vote has implications of trouble for the […]
SOME LATE-BREAKING ITEMS
FLORIDA JURY HOLDS CHIQUITA RESPONSIBLE FOR COLOMBIAN DEATH SQUAD In an unprecedented legal development, a jury in he United Staes has held an American corporation legally liable for human rights atrocities abroad. A Florida jury on June 3, in a civil lawsuit brought by EarthRights InternationaL found Chiquita Brands guilty and liable for having knowingly […]
UNIONS REGISTER BIG GAINS IN RECENT MONTHS
Some big wins for labor over the past couple of months have signaled the rising power of the union movement. It may well be the opening shot across the bow against corporate attacks on unions over the last four decades that has resulted in a steady decline in the standard of living of working people. […]
AUTO WORKRS STRIKE SIGNALS A NEW CHAPTER IN UNION MILITANCY
The biggest news on the labor front this month is the strike by the United Auto Workers against selective plants of the Big Three auto makers. What makes it particularly ground-breaking is that, it signals the reawakening of the UAW, a union born in the militancy of the 1936-37sit-down strike against GM in Flint, Michigan. […]
AUTOWORKERS TAKE ON BIG THREE IN HISTORIC STRIKE
Once upon a time, autoworkers had the best jobs in American manufacturing industries. It was a time when unions were instrumental in building our country’s middle class. Workers at GM, Ford, and Chrysler were able to buy the new cars they were producing. They were able to afford a modest home, to send their children […]
BERNIE SANDERS: ON LABOR DAY, 2023
On this Labor Day, when labor is stirring all over the country after a summer of strikes and union organizing, along with wide public approval of unions, it is fitting to reprint a tribute to the holiday by US Senator Bernie Sanders that were first printed in The Guardian, 9/4 By Bernie Sanders Why this Labor […]
NEVADA SCHOOL DISTRICT BECOMES A MICROCOSM OF THE NATIONWIDE ATTACKS AGAINST TEACHERS
The Clark County school district in Nevada is the 5th largest school district in the country. Its teachers union, the Clark County Education Association (CCEA), is not affiliated with either of the two national teacher unions, the National Educational Association or the American Federation of Teachers. But the current fight taking place there is a […]
NYC RETIREES WIN BIG VICTORY
New York City retirees won major victory earlier this month when a state Supreme Court judge permanently enjoined the city from switching retirees from their traditional Medicare to a Medicare Advantage plan. Retirees have been fighting this change that the city is trying to force down their throats for two years. The scheme is the […]
NEWLY SPIRITED UAW LAYS OUT BARGAINING DEMANDS TO AUTO MAKERS
The Big Three auto manufacturers – GM, Ford and Stellantis (formerly Chrysler) are facing a different kind of union leadership as negotiations began on a new contract this year. With some of the old leaders now in jail, guilty of embezzling union funds and a referendum two years ago that mandated direct elections of the […]
TEAMSTERS WIN MAJOR GAINS IN NEW UPS CONTRACT
In what first impressions indicate to be a major win for Teamsters Union drivers at UPS, the company and the union came to a tentative agreement July 25 on a five-year contract, avoiding a massive strike that would have had a major impact on the US economy. The 325,000 UPS drivers had voted overwhelmingly to […]
HUMAN COMPASSION, HELL! NEW TEXAS LAW SAYS NOT FOR WORKERS
This one is hard to believe. In Austin and Dallas, Texas, ordinances had mandated 10-minute breaks for construction workers every four hours. These workers, 60 percent of whom are Latino, mostly work outdoors, often in blistering Texas heat. The 10-minute breaks allow them to rest, drink water their bodies have lost, and generally take a […]
LABOR STIRRINGS ARE IN THE AIR
For many years labor unions have been in a “long slide,” declining from the 1950’s when more than one in every three workers belonged to unions to only 11.6 percent in 2021. There are many factors responsible for this, writes William E. Scheuerman in his book A New American Labor Movement. Among them are the […]
CORPORATIONS OVER WORKING PEOPLE: SCOTUS DOES IT AGAIN
“The teamsters will strike any employer, when necessary, no matter the size or the depth of their pockets,” was the defiant response of Teamster Union President Sean O’Brien to the latest Supreme Court decision that sharply impedes the ability of labor to conduct strikes. “The political hacks at the Supreme Court have again voted in […]
LABOR SEES VICTORY AT BLUE BIRD AS A “BELLWETHER” FOR THE SOUTH
Daniel Flippo, regional director of the United Steelworkers of America’s Southeastern district, was very happy with the vote. “For too long,” he said “corporations cynically viewed the South as a place where they could suppress wages and working conditions because they believed they could keep workers from unionizing.” But union officials are beginning to show […]
TEAMSTERS BEGIN FIGHT TO UNIO0NIZE AMAZON DELIVERY TRUCKERS
Amazon often contracts out its delivery services to trucking contractors. Most of them, like Amazon, are non-unionized. But the beginnings of change are in the air. On April 24, Amazon delivery drivers at Battle-Tested Strategies, a southern California company contractor, announced that they had joined Local 396 of the Teamsters Union. A week later, they […]
‘PENCILS DOWN’ AS MOVIE & TV WRITERS GO ON STRIKE
The big labor news so-far this month is the walkout of 11,500 movie and TV writers, members of the Writers Guild of America after their negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers broke down. The strike was immediately felt in New York and Hollywood with late night TV shows cancelled or showing […]
HEALTH & SAFETY RE-IMERGE AS BIG JOB ISSUES
In 2015, Carlos Moncayo, an Ecuadorian immigrant construction worker, was crushed to death on his job of helping to build a rooftop restaurant in New York City. His death made little news because on-the-job deaths, despite rules promulgated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, are a common occurrence in the country. According to the […]
RUTGERS STRIKE ‘SUSPENDED FOR NOW’
The faculty at Rutgers University ended their week-long strike April 15 after the three unions representing them reached a “framework” of an agreement with the school. Students at the school were slated to return to their classes on Monday, April 17. Rutgers, the flagship in the New Jersey state university system, has 67,000 enrolled students. […]
UNION-BUSTING FIRMS RAKE IN MILLIONS PROVIDING “ADVICE” TO CORPORATIONS
America’s corporations spent over $400 million on retaining companies whose specialty is union-busting, a recent report from the Economic Policy Institute reveals. Amid the rising tide of union activity and organizing campaigns has come a backlash from employers who are fighting union organizing with an arsenal of weapons, some legal, some bordering on illegality, and […]
REFORM CANDIDATE WINS UAW PRESIDENCY
In a close runoff election, Shawn Fain, an electrician and UAW member for over two decades, defeated the incumbent Ray Curry and has become the new president of the United Auto Workers. The defeat of the “Administration Caucus” that has run one of the country’s major unions for some 70 years marks a big upheaval […]
LA SCHOOL STRIKE DRAWS STRONG PARENT SUPPORT
Despite the inconvenience faced by many Los Angeles parents, most of them are strongly supportive of the three day strike by school workers that has shut down schools in the city. The strike, called by Local 99 of the Service Employees International Union, involved school bus drivers, cafeteria workers, custodians and other non-pedagogical employees in […]
GOING BACK 100 YEARS: CHILD LABOR LAWS NOW VIOLATED ACROSS COUNTRY
In gross violation of child labor laws, children as young as 12, are now working at dangerous jobs around the country. They are working in factories, some late into the night at machinery like fast-moving pulleys and gears that have torn off fingers and ripped open a women’s scalp. They are migrant children who crossed […]
TEAMSTERS PREPARING MEMBERS FOR POSSIBLE UPS STRIKE
With their current five-year contract set to expire in July and negotiations for a new one to start in April, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters is preparing its members for a possible strike against United Parcel Service this summer. The large increase in deliveries during the pandemic netted the company record profits – its revenue […]
PENDING SUPREME COURT CASE COULD CRIPPLE UNIONS’ BARGAINING POWER
The US Supreme Court is scheduled hand down a decision in April that may severely curtail labor unions’ most important weapon – the right to strike. The unions are nervously sitting on edge for the outcome of the case, which was argued before the court on January 10. The case involves Glacier Northwest, Inc., a […]
NYC AND UNIONS HIT IMPASSE OVER NEW CONTRACTS
The efforts by New York City Mayor Eric Adamas and the heads of municipal unions in the Municipal Labor Council to push retirees out of Medicare and into a cheaper Medicare Advantage plan have led to a stalemate that is stonewalling negotiations on a new labor contract for 300,000 unionized city workers. Under the proposed […]
A SALUTE TO BLACK HISTORY MONTH AND THE ROLE OF BLACK WORKERS IN THE AMERICAN LABOR MOVEMENT
The month of February, the month of the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, is recognized as Black History Month. It was initially proclaimed by the distinguished Black historian, Carter G. Woodson in 1926 as a counter to the omission or often racist portrayal of African Americans in the standard works on American history […]
NYC NURSES STRIKE AGAINST CHRONIC UNDERSTAFFING
After several days on strike, nurses at two hospitals in Nw York City went back to work January 12 after the hospitals agreed to the nurses’ demands to hire more nurses to relieve the understaffing. The strike was less about pay (the two sides had already agreed to a 19.1 pay raise over three years) […]
NYC Retirees Protest Attempts to Push Them into Privatized Health Care
We reprint below an article from the labor website Work-Bites by its editor Joe Maniscalco. Reprinted by permission. Giving ‘em Hell For The Holidays… DEC 22 NYC municipal retirees march down Broadway this week protesting the city’s ongoing campaign to push them into a for-profit, privatized Medicare Advantage plan. Photos by Joe Maniscalco By Joe Maniscalco […]
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AND GRAD SCHOOL WORKERS REACH TENTATIVE PACT
A tentative agreement between two unions and the University of California may end the largest strike in the history of higher education, although the agreement must still be ratified by the unions’ membership. The vote taking place the week of Dec. 19 involves 48,000 teaching assistants and other graduate school workers – members of two […]
OVER 500 AUTHORS GIVE STRONG SUPPORT TO HARPERCOLLINS STRIKERS
Striking workers at HarperCollins, one of the nations largest publishers, got a big boost in early December from over 500 leading authors. In a letter to the company, they expressed strong support for the workers in the editorial, marketing, design, and other departments who have been out on strike since Nov. 10. Signers of the […]
AFT LEADER BLASTS POMPEO’S ATTACK ON TEACHERS AND SCHOOLS
In response to the attack on her and teachers unions, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten responded forcefully to the slander by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that she, not any of the world’s dictators is “the most dangerous person in the world.” In an interview with Semafor, Pompeo claimed that teachers’ unions […]
ONTARIO THREAT OF GENERAL STRIKE FORCES END OF ANTI-UNION LAW
Four days after he pushed a law through the Ontario legislature outlawing labor’s right to strike, the governor was forced to announce its repeal. The humiliating retreat by the governor, Doug Ford was the result of a general strike call announced by the Canadian province’s labor movement set to begin Nov. 14. Ford had rammed […]
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA STRIKE ENTERS ITS SECOND WEEK
With tens of thousands of workers at the state’s university campuses still on strike, negotiations continue between the unions, affiliated with the United Auto Workers and the administration of the University of California. The strike, which began Nov. 14, involves some 48,000 teaching assistants, lab assistants, researchers and other UC employees. At issue is pay […]
RE-EXAMINING LOWER MINIMUM WAGE FOR WORKERS WHO RELY ON TIPS
In the current tight labor market, an area that is currently coming under increasing scrutiny is the pay of workers who rely on tips for a living. Existing labor laws, both federal and in all but eight states, substantially modify prevailing minimum wage requirements. In these states, employers can pay tipped workers subminimum wages, resulting, […]
MICHIGAN NURSES WIN GROUNDBREAKING CONTRACT
Nurses at the University of Michigan hospital won a big victory Oct. 1 when they approved a contract with management that ends the impossible burden placed on them caused by the shortage of nurses nationwide. That shortage has resulted in nurses working in extra-long shifts and neglect of the patients they serve. Their schedules were […]
RR AGREEMENT APPEARS TO BE BIG GAIN FOR WORKERS; IT NOW HEADS FOR VOTE
By now, much has been written about the narrowly averted railroad workers strike. Although salary issues are nearly always paramount in collective bargaining and was an issue here, the key sticking point was the punishing work schedules that was wreaking havoc on workers lives. Workers were expected to be on call at any time for […]
WRITING NEW BASEBALL CHAPTER, MINOR LEAGUERS VOTE OVERMINGLY FOR UNION
Most American baseball fans watching their favorite major league teams don’t think too much about the minor league players. If they do, it’s usually that these athletes are just being groomed for the high salaried majors. But minor league players are among the most exploited people in the country with salaries that can be as […]
LOW PAY & STAGGERING WORK LOADS LEAD PUBLISHING HOUSE WORKERS TO BEGIN TO TALK UNION
Glamor industries often attract young workers despite their usual practice of paying terrible wages and imposing staggering working conditions. The recruits are lured by the superficial aspects the job promises. They become flight attendants – young women with visions of travel to exotic places who did not reckon with a job that made them glorified […]
ORWELL’S PREDICTION HAS ARRIVED FOR MILLIONS OF WORKERS
When George Orwell wrote his classic novel 1984, few people could envision the idea of Big Brother watching over them every minute of the day. Well now, the Big Brother moment has arrived in many workplaces and is rapidly expanding. An astounding piece in the NY Times, 8/14 (8/15 in the print edition), details the […]
TEAMSTERS GEAR UP FOR CONTRACT TALKS NEXT YEAR
The Teamsters Union has begun preparing for negotiations scheduled to begin early next year. They are intent on undoing parts of the current contract, set to expire next July, that deal with pay scales and working conditions and are a sore point with the membership. For the first time, rank and file members of the […]
“LISTEN TO YOUR FELLOW WORKERS:” NEW GENERATION OF LABOR LEADERS TALK ABOUT THE FUTURE
“Unions may finally have the energy to reverse their decades-long decline” declared Steven Greenhouse as he opened an online forum July 28 on the current surge in union activity and prospects for the future. Outlining the new labor activity, Greenhouse, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation which sponsored the event, cited the 68 percent […]
HARPERCOLLINS WORKERS STAGE ONE-DAY WALKOUT; ATLANTIC WORKERS UNIONIZE
About 100 employees at HarperCollins publishers Manhattan office staged a one-day strike July 20, picketing for higher wages, better family leave policies, and stronger action to improve diversity in its staff. Negotiations with the company have been going on since the union contract expired Dec. 31 with little headway. The HarperCollins workers are members oi […]
FREIGHT TRAIN WORKERS SET TO STRIKE
A conductor on Union Pacific rail summed up the mood. “The company keeps making working conditions worse. They’re making billions per quarter and they’re only paying those dividends out to shareholders, when it’s the workers who are moving freight and making sure this country keeps the supply chain moving.” The conductor asked that his name […]
THE CLASSIC WAYS CORPORATIONS BUST UNIONS
We invite you to click on the link below for a graphic presentation by Robert Reich of the four ways that corporations engage in union busting. The tactics are classic and they continued to be employed by corporations all around the country. Reich was Secretary of Labor in Bill Clinton’s administration and is currently a […]
Amid Jousts and Stunts, NJ medieval times workers vote union
Workers at Medieval Times have formed the dinner-theater chain’s first labor union, bringing collective bargaining to a castle in northern New Jersey. The knights, squires, show cast and stablehands at the Lyndhurst location voted 26 to 11 in favor of joining the American Guild of Variety Artists following a ballot count June i5, according to the union. The […]
In Memoriam
Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) for many years during the period of its historic growth, and a staunch defender of civil rights, who died July 10. In addition to being an effective union leader in bargaining for good wages and working conditions for his members, he […]
AFL-CIO head hits court decision on abortion rights
Statement from AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 6/24: Today’s decision by the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade is a devastating blow to working women and families across this country. We strongly believe that everyone should have control over their own bodies, […]
Taft-Hartley: The Law That Made Union-Busting ‘Official’ Policy
Very few people are still around who remember the year 1947 when the US labor movement represented one out three American workers. It came after a decade in the thirties when union organizing hit its peak with the formation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). The CIO provided the militant push that organized the […]
4,000 Unionists Plan New Organizing Steps at National Meeting
In what is reported to have been an inspiring weekend conference of labor union activists, opening speeches by those involved in current organizing drives drove home the picture of working people building unions and fighting for their rights around the country. [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EI4x90xk2U[/embedyt]Highlighting the picture of the power and greed of giant corporations and the […]
APPLE WORKERS REGISTER UNION BREAKTHROUGH AT MARYLAND STORE
In another breakthrough on the labor front, 100 workers at an Apple store in Towson, Maryland, voted by a two-to-one margin to unionize. The victory represents a big step for union activists who have been trying for years to make inroads into the retail outlets of the computer corporate behemoth. The union, the Coalition of […]
NEW UNIONS PRESENT CHALLENGE TO THE ESTABLISHED ONES
“For decades, the labor movement’s efforts to halt its long slide have been – to speak plainly – an utter failure” writes Steven Greenhouse in The American Prospect (6/13). “The U.S. has gone from having 35 percent of its workforce unionized in the 1950s to 20 percent in the 1980s to just 10 percent today. […]
Starbucks Organizing Drive Gaining Steam
Efforts to unionize the giant Starbucks chain that began with two stores in Buffalo a few months ago is picking up momentum even though there is still a long way to go. As of mid-May, 78 Starbucks stores around the country have voted to unionize. And Starbucks is not the only one. The drive of […]
Pass Laws to Protect Amazon Workers, NY Teamsters Tell State Legislators
All Three Joint Councils of the Teamsters Union in New York State have urged the state legislature to pass two laws aimed at protecting workers in warehouse industries like Amazon from some of the notorious corporate abuses they have suffered. In letters to the legislature and in a rally and two press conferences at the […]
Amazon Union Loses Attempt to Organize Second Warehouse
After its stunning victory at the massive Staten Island warehouse a few weeks ago, the drive of the fledgling Amazon Labor Union to unionize the smaller Amazon facility in Staten Island failed to materialize. The vote at the LDJ5 center was 998 to 380 according to the NLRB tally. The plant has about 1,600 employees. […]
Union Shops More Likely to Enforce Laws Protecting Workers
One of the many problems facing American workers in recent years has been the lax enforcement of laws and rules meant to protect them. A very interesting April 29 article on the website of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth and reproduced on LaborStart.org details how at union-organized shops these rules are more likely to […]
Indiana U. Grad Workers Strike for Recognition
Graduate school workers at Indiana University went on strike April 13 demanding recognition of their union in the face of the university’s refusal to recognize it. The walkout came after the union, the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition, a unit of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers (IGWC-UE) obtained a strike authorization vote by a […]
MIT Grad Workers Latest to Vote Union
Graduate student workers at MIT have now become the latest to vote for a union in a rank-and-file organizing drive. Last week, they voted 1,785 to 912 to be represented by the MIT Graduate Student Union, a local of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers (UE). The union will become the bargaining agent for […]
IN LANDMARK WIN, AMAZON NY WORKERS VOTE UNION
In a huge win for union organizing, workers at Amazon’s Staten Island, NY warehouse voted by a large margin to be represented by the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), the first victory for a union at the mammoth company. Hailing the workers victory, ALU President Christian Smalls said: “We want to thank Jeff Bezos (Amazon’s anti-union […]
Confessions of a Union Buster
Union busting has been a widespread employer activity for many years and is today not the exception but the norm. The Economic Policy Institute, in a study released three years ago, found that 41.5 percent of employers whose employees are organizing are charged with violating federal labor law. Another study found that 90 percent of […]
Hershey’s workers, facing brutal conditions, hold union vote
In the face of outrageous working conditions, Workers at Hershey’s chocolate plants, are in the process of holding a union election with ballots to be counted March 24. http://https://perfectunion.us/hershey-prison-workers-who-make-reeses-expose-brutal-factory-conditions/ The workers, who make chocolate bars, Reese Peanut Butter Cups and other candy products, in interviews have described being forced to work overtime, in some cases […]
NEW UNION WIN AT GM MEXICAN PLANT HAS MAJOR INTERNATIONAL IMPLICATIONS
Workers at the General Motors plant in Silao, Mexico won a major victory in early February when an independent union won collective bargaining rights for them by a large margin. The new independent union, the National Auto Workers Union (SINTTIA) soundly defeated the corrupt national Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM), which has been allied for […]
GOOD NEWS FOR DELIVERY WORKERS – URINE LUCK
Drivers who deliver food from New York City restaurants will now be entitled to use customer restrooms from restaurants when they’re picking up food. Beginning January 31, the drivers for app-based delivery companies like UberEats, Grubhub, and others will no longer have to resort to the indignity of relieving themselves between parked cars and risking […]
COLORADO SUPERMARKET CHAIN WINS MAJOR GAINS AFTER TWO-WEEK STRIKE
Eight thousand workers at the King Scoopers supermarket chain in the Denver metropolitan area ended a two-week strike January 24 with a three-year contract that sees many gains in their pay and working conditions. They Can’t Run Without Workers The strike showed “the company they can’t run without workers,” triumphantly declared Kim Cordova, president of […]
STARBUCKS WORKERS TALKING UNION AROUND COUNTRY
Buoyed by the victory of a newly organized union at one Starbucks store in Buffalo to gain collective bargaining rights, and in the face of intense anti-union pressure from the company, Starbucks workers at other facilities are also talking union. Workers at a second store in the Buffalo area won union rights after the National Labor […]
COLUMBIA GRAD SCHOOL WORKERS WIN STRONG GAINS AFTER10-WEEK STRIKE
Striking graduate school student workers at Columbia University ended their labor action Jan. 7 with an agreement that includes a 7 to 11 percent raise for workers with annual contracts based upon the length of their appointments and an hourly wage boost from the previous $15/hour to $21/hour. The annual salaries of doctoral candidates on […]
THE DIFFERENCE A UNION MAKES: HOW THE LAS VEGAS CULINARY WORKERS POINT THE WAY
What a difference a good strong union makes. Particularly a progressive one that always keeps the needs of its rank-and-file members as its number-one priority. A most recent example of that difference is the work of the 60,000 member Culinary Workers Union in Las Vegas, Nevada, representing the city’s workers in the hotels and casinos. […]
AMAZON, UNDER MOUNTING PRESSURE, AGREES TO END ANTI-LABOR PRACTICES
After repeated and determined efforts to unionize its warehouse workers in the face of stubborn intimidating tactics by the company, Amazon has finally come to a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board to keep its hands off workers attempts to freely organize into unions. In the settlement, reached just before Christmas, Amazon agreed to […]
FILM, TV WORKERS REACH “LANDMARK AGREEMENT” WITH MAJOR STUDIOS
In what the union described as a landmark agreement, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employers (IATSE) reached a three-year agreement with motion picture and television producers in October. The agreement affects 60,000 film and television workers in 36 IATSE locals across the country. IATSE member posting a message on the car of a union […]
KELLOGG WORKERS OK NEW CONTRACT AFTER LONG STRIKE
After a prolonged strike that lasted 2 ½ months, workers at four Kellogg cereal plants ratified a new contract just a few days before Christmas and voted to return to work. The contract, negotiated through the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Union, will sharply limit the “unfair two-tier wage system” that had only […]