Some Leading Labor Movement News And Events: organizing, a boycott, attacks on civil rights, requests for solidarity, and union victories!

From Portland Jobs with Justice:

The monthly Early Ed social is happening this Friday, April 12th, on the heated back patio at Bye and Bye, 6:30 - 9pm. Get support and strategies from fellow early educators, about anything from working conditions to education!

Under 21 welcome until 8pm. Tell a friend.
Preschool teachers, nannies, sitters, any childcare workers - please stop by if you can! Solidarity means a lot to people working in a tough field.

Friday, April 12th from 6:30 - 9pm!
Bye and Bye (1011 NE Alberta St)
Contact: pdxccla@gmail.com / IG @pdxchildcarelaboralliance

Please join Postdocs at OHSU for a picket on April 16, gathering at Elizabeth Caruthers Park outside of OHSU CHH2 building. This marks the only day of mediation that OHSU is willing to schedule, despite that they have made no indication they are willing to invest in their postdoc researchers. Join us to call for justice for Postdocs!

Tuesday, April 16 from 12 - 2pm
Elizabeth Caruthers Park (outside of the OHSU Center for Health & Healing)

Radio Jornalera - Day Laborers & Oregon Migrant Community Launch Community Radio Station - Get involved!

On Friday, March 29, Viva Inclusive Migrant Network and NDLON (National Day Laborers Organizing Network) launched Oregon’s “Radio Jornalera” at Augustana Lutheran Church! The radio station in Portland will aim to promote migrant rights, workers rights, music, art, and culture through programs hosted by Day laborers, other members of the migrant community, and other social justice movements.

How you can help:

* Volunteer to support the radio show and expand the programming by adding your own show, too! Every Wednesday there will be a training on the boards.
* Are you skilled in content creation (banners, flyers) or setting up websites? Help the radio station with theirs.
* Do you have experience with setting up 501c3s, websites, and/or writing grants? Viva Inclusive Migrant Network is looking for help with setting up its nonprofit.
* Connect with Viva's community defense project, Defensa del barrio, to be ready to respond when there is wage theft or when there is a raid.
* Please tune in to the programming on Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube, which is currently Monday and Friday, 6pm.

Please email, call, text Francisco Aguirre at VIVA Inclusive Migrant Network at  francisco@oregonviva.org, 503-752-4882) about any of these opportunities.

Boycott Coors!

The Coors family, executives, and stockholders are living the high life while refusing to negotiate a fair contract with workers who make the beer. The workers behind the Molson-Coors brand beverages and record profits were forced onto the picket line Feb. 17 after the company refused to offer more than 99 cents an hour in new wages. Teamsters have renewed their long-running national boycott of the brand for it's anti-worker positions.

Until Molson Coors serves up a fair deal for hardworking Texas Teamsters in Fort Worth, join us in putting them on ice. Take part in a bit of history, renewed by Texas Teamsters, and join us in supporting the Boycott!

Teamsters Local 223 members in Eugene kicked off a Day of Action by flyering customers and supermarkets about the Boycott. Here in Portland, members circulated flyers and promoted the Boycott at recent actions! Support the Boycott and circulate the flier, here!

From Red Hot Worker Hits:

From Portside:

FEDERAL COURT STRIKES MAJOR BLOW TO BLACK VOTING RIGHTS

A federal district court’s order on Thursday allowing South Carolina to use a racially discriminatory congressional map for the 2024 election cycle is a gut punch to Black voters.

“For over a century, the NAACP has worked fervently to protect Black Americans’ access to the ballot box. Make no mistake — these discriminatory maps are a direct attempt to suppress Black voices ahead of a consequential election,” Brenda Murphy, the president of the South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, a plaintiff in the case, said in a statement.

Without a fair map, it would be enormously difficult for Black voters to elect a representative who has their interests at heart and who would fight for them on issues ranging from education to criminal justice to health care. READ MORE HERE.

From Jacobin:

Ron Carey’s Lessons in Labor Movement Reform by STEVE EARLY RAND WILSON

Books about union presidents are usually penned by professional writers — either academic historians, labor journalists, or paid flacks. Past accounts of the life and work of labor organization chiefs like John L. Lewis, Walter Reuther, Jimmy Hoffa, or Cesar Chavez have run the gamut from hagiographic to constructively critical. Few have had a biographer whose view of their leadership role is rooted in firsthand experience as a blue-collar worker in the same industry and union.

Ken Reiman’s personal connection to the subject matter of Ron Carey and the Teamsters resulted from his long career as a UPS driver and activist in the local union that Carey led before becoming president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) in the 1990s. Reiman’s insights into the workplace culture and organizational politics of IBT Local 804 in Queens, New York, before, during, and after Carey’s presidency provide a rank-and-file perspective on the challenges of institutional change in organized labor over the past fifty years.

Carey’s story, as told by Reiman, contains many important lessons for younger union activists, whether they are Teamsters or involved in other unions. Organized labor today is in a state of very positive ferment. A reform movement in the United Auto Workers (UAW), modeled after Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), has had similar success winning direct election of top officers and using that system to oust old-guard officials. READ MORE HERE.

From IATSE:

Following three days of in-person negotiations, IATSE Local 871 reached a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) on their craft-specific issues on Wednesday. Now seven of the 13 West Coast Studio Locals (80, 600, 695, 706, 729, 800 and 871) have reached tentative agreements with the AMPTP.

More information regarding these Local agreements will be provided to members by their Local Unions once Memorandums of Agreement have been formally drafted by the lawyers of both parties and submitted to the corresponding Local for approval. It’s important to note the process is not complete until the conclusion of Basic Agreement General Negotiations, which cover issues like wage increases, pension and health contributions, artificial intelligence (AI), job security and residuals. In other words, members should expect the Local agreements to be only part of the overall package to come in the General negotiations, which are expected to restart on April 29 and run through May 16. READ MORE HERE.

Dodger Stadium Tour Guides Vote to Unionize Join Local B-192

During a National Labor Relations Board election on Tuesday afternoon, a group of nearly 40 tour guides, tour leads and one plant data collector (a.k.a. the guide of the stadium’s “garden tour”) voted to join IATSE B-192, a growing Local that represents fellow tour guides at Universal Studios Hollywood and ushers at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre. Workers are responsible for leading the wide array of tours that the stadium now offers — from basic stadium tours to pregame tours to Jackie Robinson and “Fernandomania” (devoted to Fernando Valenzuela) tours, with offerings in English, Spanish and Japanese — the tour guides work year-round.