Guitar Center Workers Ratify New Agreement Maintaining Commission Structure

Workers at the Guitar Center New York flagship store celebrate their new

 contract. Photo from RWDSU.

Guitar Center Workers Ratify New Agreement Maintaining Commission Structure

Retail Wholesale & Department Store Union (RWDSU) members at six Guitar Center locations recently ratified a new three-year agreement! The new contract is chock full of worker wins! The deal includes an increased minimum wage rate for every position, which continues to go up every year of the agreement. Tenured employees received an additional seniority wage adjustment. The contract also maintains the union health plan, with the addition of a short-term disability benefit.

Other highlights include an updated attendance policy that changes the grace period for lateness from 5 minutes to 15 minutes and the ability to call additional labor-management meetings during the year. The deal also gives current workers a leg up on moving positions within Guitar Center; going forward, when new part-time and full-time positions become available in the bargaining unit, the manager will be required to share the listing with current workers five days ahead of advertising the job to the public.

Importantly for sales associates and repair technicians, the contract maintains the current commission structure – unlike the non-union Guitar Center stores, where commission payouts have been slashed across the company. That’s the union difference!

Congratulations to all the Guitar Center workers for sticking together for a fair deal! You can visit unionized employees at the Guitar Center stores in Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; Danvers, MA; Las Vegas, NV; New York, NY; and Queens, NY.

Note: The post above comes from RWDSU. We have several Guitar Center stores ion our region, including one in Keizer, one in Beaverton, one in Clackamas, and one in North Portland. RWDSU is also organizing workers at REI.

Will You Be Traveling Through The Ronald Reagen Washington National Airport Next Week? Please Read This.

Food service workers at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport are asking their employer, Master ConcessionAir, for a fair process to decide whether to form a union. Workers will be holding an informational picket at the airport Monday and Tuesday next week!

All reactions:

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Support The Poor People's Campaign & The Mobilization To Get Out The Vote

The following is a gently edited letter from Rev. Dr. William J. Barber concerning building the all-important mobilization that is underway to get out the vote and win the swing vote over---that is, the poor and low-income people across this country---to carrying an agenda that changes "the economic and political architecture of this country" and " addresses the needs of poor and low-wage people."
Please read the letter below and do what is being asked, and please support the campaign by watching this video and chipping in to help.

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and co-author Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove discuss

 their book,White Poverty: How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct

 American Democracy, with other speakers during a press conference at Democracy House 

in Chicago, IL, on August 21, 2024.

Dear Movement Family,

Last week my friend Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and I traveled to Chicago to speak with attendees at the Democratic National Convention.

We hosted a screening of the film Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism’s Unholy War on Democracy, where we pushed back on the notion that Christianity calls on us to be anti-gay, against people who may have had an abortion, against immigrants, and against the poor.

We highlighted the truth: that what the Scriptures actually say is that God loves all people. Jesus said the Gospel is about good news to the poor, healing to the brokenhearted, welcoming all people, caring for the least of these: the immigrants, the hungry, the sick, the imprisoned.

We also held a panel discussing the topic of our new book: White Poverty: How Exposing Myths about Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy.

At the panel, we talked about how we need to acknowledge the full breadth of the problem of poverty in America in order to mobilize the swing vote of poor and low-income people so that we can reshape the economic and political architecture of this country.

My longtime friend, civil rights leader and Sierra Club president Ben Jealous, highlighted the need to talk to all people.

“You will hear liberals say again and again, people of color and low-income communities. Well in a nation where the white poor are invisible, what people hear is low income people of color communities,” he warned.

Instead, he wisely counseled that what we need to start doing is including poor white people in our campaigns.

“You [should] say people of color and low-income white communities. You know, somebody might say to you this, they might say hey, but how many poor white folks are there?” he said. “Well, twice as many as there are poor Black folks! We’ve got 8 million and change poor Black folks in America, you’ve got 16 million and change poor white folks in America.”

Pamela Garrison of the West Virginia Poor People’s Campaign spoke about the struggles of poor white folks and others in the state.

“My whole state, when the coal mines went down, what they replaced it with was tourism. What tourism is, is low-wage jobs. It’s restaurants, it’s stores, it’s gas stations. That’s what we got. That’s what we’re living on,” she said.

Latosha Brown, the co-founder of Black Voters Matter, noted with sadness that her cousin recently passed as a consequence of poverty.

“She went to the hospital for a UTI. They sent her back home because they didn’t bother – because she was poor – they didn’t bother to check her labs,” she noted.

Her cousin had sepsis, when an infection causes your immune system to have a harmful reaction. By the time they called her back to the hospital, it was far too late.

These critical stories highlighted the need to organize America’s most potent swing vote: poor and low-income people across this country.

In every state these voters make up many times the margin of victory in the previous presidential elections. By mobilizing this sleeping giant, we can change the economic and political architecture of this country.

We must push all candidates of every party to embrace a moral agenda that abolishes poverty as the fourth leading cause of death in this country and addresses the needs of poor and low-wage people.

JOIN THE MOBILIZATION

Contact your state Poor People’s Campaign leaders to join our mass mobilization effort.

Click here to visit Vote.org to check your registration, register to vote, request an absentee ballot, check what’s on your ballot, and get election reminders to make sure you’re where you need to be on election day.

You can also help spread the word among your friends, family, and social networks.

Send this email to people you know

Share the Vote.org link on social media

Forward together, not one step back!

Bishop William J. Barber, II, DMin
National Co-Chair of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival
President & Senior Lecturer of Repairers of the Breach
Founding Director, Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School

Repairers of the Breach

P.O. Box 1638
Goldsboro, NC 27533
United States

 

Solidarity with UFCW Local 555 at Fred Meyer locations in the Portland Metro area!

The following note comes from the Oregon AFL-CIO:

It’s time to show your support for union workers at all Portland-area Fred Meyer stores. Unitede Food & Commercial Workers Local 555 has called a weeklong Unfair Labor Practice strike. The action will begin on Wednesday, August 28th at 6am and go through Tuesday,September 3rd at 8am at all Fred Meyer locations in the Portland Metro area, unless a deal is reached that includes a resolution to the ULPs.

When any worker is struggling for the dignity and respect they deserve on the job, it falls on ALL of us to stand beside them every step of the way. We urge you to head to your local Fred Meyer and hold the line until management does the right thing. Pickets will be held at all locations during the stores’ operating hours.

A bargaining update from Local 555 under date of August 23 reads as follows:

August 23, 2024 7:39 pm

On August 23, your Bargaining Committee met with representatives from Kroger, Fred Meyer and QFC for our 5th bargaining session.

Since our very 1st bargaining session, your Bargaining Committee has made it crystal clear: we are here to bargain for every single Local 555 union-represented employee. That includes everyone in Oregon and Washington, everyone in the Meat, Grocery and Non-Foods contracts and everyone at Fred Meyer and QFC, including the newly organized units in Grants Pass and Springfield.

Up until today, the employer said they were here to bargain only for Portland and Bend, Meat and Grocery contracts, at Fred Meyer and QFC. Today, the employer changed their position – instead of being here to bargain for more of our members, they went back on their word and said they are here to bargain for even less – by putting forward a proposal that now excludes all of QFC, stating they will not bargain QFC until their contracts expire.

The employer’s proposal included yet another step backward: to freeze all new hires who are hired above the bottom step of the apprentice bracket, until they work the hours needed to continue to advance up the wage scale. This means that a new hire could be made to work almost 4 years without seeing a raise.

The employer’s proposal includes absolutely nothing to improve your pension – despite what Todd Kammeyer, President of Fred Meyer, said to you all in his robocall. They say one thing, and then do another. It now makes sense why they have no problem violating your rights under the National Labor Relations Act.

All of this is Kroger spitting in your face. They sent the message loud and clear: they do not care about you, they do not care about our communities, and they do not even care enough to pretend that they do. They have no problem misleading you and going back on their word.

Kroger continues their disrespectful proposal to take the money you need to secure your family’s healthcare to pay for one-time bonuses, and wage increases that leave you well behind grocery workers up and down the West Coast.

Your Bargaining Committee made our outrage very clear: we will not tolerate Kroger going backwards on their deals with us. As a result of their regressive proposal, Local 555 will be filing Unfair Labor Practice charges for bargaining in bad faith. We will continue to take all legal actions to hold them accountable to their commitments and the law.

We will be bargaining with them next week on August 29 and August 30. We will update you all then. If you have any questions in the meantime, please contact your Union Representative.

The Communications Workers of America strike against AT&T in the Southeast is gaining strong solidarity from CWA locals and the labor movement.

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) unfair labor practice strike against AT&T in the Southeast---the union's District 3---is gaining strong solidarity from CWA locals and the labor movement. Here are some photos from the strike and strike solidarity efforts, a link to a petition for you to sign, and a video from The Valley Labor Report.

Photo from AP News

CWA Local 7000 took a moment last weekend to support their local Starbucks Barista's Unions (05505 and 65352) at a 'sip in.'

They say: Support our local unions; we're all family!

They also remind us: Don't forget to also sign the petition for our own CWA siblings on strike in District 3!

https://action.cwa.org/.../support-striking-workers-at.../

CWA Local 7250 in Minnesota held a strike solidarity event.

CWA 7250 Officers and Stewards in Minnesota delivered a petition to AT&T AVP for Credit/Collections demanding the company bargain in good faith with Communications Workers of America District 3 and give the workers in the Southeast great wages with real raises, strong benefits, and dignity on the job. She agreed to convey the message to AT&T senior leadership. Local 7250 has been carrying out daily solidarity actions with the Strike.

A striker met with CWA Staff Marvin Wells and CWA Minnesota State Council President Shari Wojtowicz. The striker came to Minnesota to thank CWA Locals in person for supporting the ULP strike.

An Alabama AT&T Worker Talked With The Valley Labor Report

The union's bargaining report of August 24 says the following:

The parties continue to engage in mediation with a federal mediator, which we agreed to at the company's request. What we have made clear to the mediator through this process is that the CWA bargaining team knows what good faith bargaining with real company decision-makers looks like. While we are now meeting with company labor relations representatives, AT&T has yet to demonstrate that we are dealing with the real decision makers or that they are interested in real bargaining with the intent of reaching an agreement. It is a slow process to begin with, made slower by the company's tactics.

When they are "bargaining" (if you want to call it that), the positions taken by the company on important issues to our members are shocking. One example is the company's refusal to make realistic proposals on wages that reflect the economic reality for our members who work hard for a living or the reality of the company's huge profits. Another is the company's refusal to budge on improving working conditions for Wire Techs, who we now know they think of only as "second-class employees." Yet another is that the company has come to the bargaining table demanding that our members switch to a new healthcare plan. AT&T’s new healthcare plan will jeopardize the livelihood of our members, as it eliminates the prescription copayments we have today, and in place of those copayments, our members would be forced to pay the full price of prescriptions, until they meet an annual deductible of $6,600 for families.

So not only are the company's bargaining tactics shameful, what they are proposing when they are "bargaining" is shameful. Remember that what the company is doing at the bargaining table is happening while CEO John Stankey talks about the company's plans to "grow subscribers and revenues, while deepening customer relationships." Apparently, Stankey has forgotten that CWA members - union members - are the people who are responsible for AT&T's growth in subscribers and revenues, and who are the front line in dealing with its customers. If only Stankey could find labor relations professionals who understand the meaning of the duty to bargain in good faith, all of us -- workers, customers, and company -- would be better off.

Our bargaining team is working around the clock trying to reach an agreement. We met into the evening yesterday, and met with the company again today. We have told the mediator and the company that we are ready to meet at any time. What we hope is that the company will wake up to the reality that it can't continue to bargain in bad faith and expect to get a contract. What we know is that we can count on our members to continue protesting AT&T’s bad-faith tactics until they change. Like all CWA members across the country, we are inspired by the unity that exists within the membership across District 3. District 3 members are united on picket lines across the southeast and are making a difference. We will continue fighting for more in 24!

Strike photo from the AFL-CIO

A strike statement dated August 23 said:

We are CWA members on strike at AT&T Southeast because AT&T is refusing to engage in good faith negotiations for a new contract.

We are a big part of AT&T’s success, but we have been at the bargaining table since June, unable to make any progress because of the Company's bad faith bargaining.

The National Labor Relations Act requires companies to bargain in good faith. We have filed an unfair labor practice charge against the company and are on strike to protest the Company's unfair bargaining tactics.

We want to be on the job, providing the quality service that our customers deserve and getting to work making sure every household and business in the Southeast has reliable high-speed internet service.

Tell AT&T to show us the respect we deserve and get serious about bargaining.

AT&T Southeast workers
Communications Workers of America

Labor Day In Oregon

On Monday, September 2, Oregon’s unions will gather at Labor Day picnics across the state to celebrate the achievements of working people and the strength we have when we stand together. Labor Day is a time to celebrate workers, the future of our movement, and all union members who came before us to fight for the 8-hour workday, safety protections and so much more.

 We want you to join us! The Oregon Labor Movement will gather in Canby, Springfield, and Bend. Here are the locations and times for each event, we hope to see you there!

 

PORTLAND AREA

Northwest Oregon Labor Council

Clackamas County Fairgrounds

694 NE 4th Ave in Canby 

11:00am - 4:00pm

 

LANE COUNTY 

Lane County Central Labor Chapter

Splash Pad Picnic Shelter 

6100 Thurston Road in Springfield

12:00pm - 3:30pm

 

CENTRAL OREGON

Central Oregon Labor Chapter

Alpenglow Park

61049 SE 15th St in Bend

12:00 - 3:00pm

Solidarity Needed At Clark, Pierce, Bellevue, Skagit Valley, Edmonds, Olympic, and Wenatchee Colleges In Washington On 8/28!

This post came to us by way of Portland activist Jamie Partridge:

I'm writing to gather support for the Washington Public Employees Association (WPEA) classified staff at Clark College who are currently in negotiations with the state. Classified staff at Clark are who keep the College running. Sadly, compensation for far too many of our classified staff falls significantly short of a living wage, and the current compensation offer from the state (2%) does next to nothing to alleviate this exponentially growing problem.

Please spread the word and invite folks to participate in an informational picket/march down Fort Vancouver Way on Wednesday, August 28th (this Wednesday) from noon to 12:30 and 1 pm to 1:30 pm in front of Gaiser Hall (the building on the Northernmost side of campus on the east side of Ft. Vancouver Way) at 1933 E. Ft. Vancouver Way, Vancouver, WA 98663 to raise awareness about WPEA's ongoing compensation negotiations.

This is actually a somewhat unique action ... a multi-campus action taking place on the same day at Clark, Pierce, Bellevue, Skagit Valley, Edmonds, Olympic, and Wenatchee.

See the WPEA message below for more information about this action and other ways you can help. Please invite your friends, neighbors and colleagues to participate.... 

Thank you for spreading the word!

~Suzanne Southerland, Clark County Association of Higher Education President


We are organizing an Informational Picket to raise awareness about our ongoing wage negotiations. The state’s current offer results in a pay cut after inflation, and we need to ensure that both staff and the public understand what’s at stake.

Information is POWER! Our goal is to secure a wage increase that reflects the rising cost of living and to send a strong message that we will not accept a pay cut disguised as an offer. Sign up for a picket time, if you cannot, sign up to talk to coworkers through the phone bank, learn the Union Chants, participate in sign making, but plug in where you can.

YOU are the UNION! You deserve a fair wage!

Stand together and be heard! Sign up to participate in the picket at a college by using one of the links below, invite friends family, students, staff, faculty, anyone who supports fair wages.

Light snacks and water will be provided by WPEA.

We are stronger together, always!


Bellevue College
Date: 8/28/2024
Time(s): 30-minute increments
7:30 AM - 8:30 AM
11:30 AM - 1:30 PM
Location(s): The free speak zone near the cafeteria.

Clark College
Date: 8/28/2024
Time(s):
12:00 PM - 12:30 PM
1:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Location(s): North GHL entrance, outside in front of culinary

Edmonds College
Multiple dates, times, and locations.
Learn more at: https://tinyurl.com/230wpea

Olympic College
Date: 8/28/2024
Time(s): 12:00 PM and 3:30 PM
Location(s): Main entrance by Warren Ave and in front of Building 5

Pierce College
Date: 8/28/2024
Time(s):
7:30 AM - 8:00 AM
5:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Location(s): At the northeast and south entrances of the Cascade building

Skagit Valley College
Date: 8/28/2024
Time(s): 30-minute increments
11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Location(s): On the corner of North Laventure and East College Way

Wenatchee Valley College
Date: 8/28/2024
Time(s): 30-minute increments
12:00 PM - 2:00 PM
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Location(s): 5th Street in front of college by administration building

Be sure to sign up for a picket time, action leaders at many locations will use picket sign ups to distribute communications to participants to coordinate things like sign making so we can prepare together and make our message loud and clear.

WPEA will supply some signs, but if you are participating in making them or want to make your own, expressing our message visually is just as important as our chants. When crafting your signs, focus on clear, bold statements that highlight the need for fair wages and expose the reality of the state's offer.

Signs should have 2-6 words on them and the words should be non-violent. Below are some suggestions to get you started, but feel free to get creative!

Prioritize Public Employees
2% is milk, not a COLA
HONK if you support Public Employees
Stop the pay cut!
Don’t leave us 30% behind!

Chants are a powerful way to keep energy high and attract attention during a picket. When starting a chant, make sure your voice is loud and clear—repeat the chant a few times until others join in. Each chant should last for about 1-2 minutes before switching to another, to keep things fresh and engaging. Feel free to rotate through a variety of chants so that the message stays strong and everyone remains energized!

“Push us down, we rise up!”
"No more pay cuts!"
"Fair wages now!"
"We work for you, now pay us too!"
"We serve the people, now pay us equal!"
“Stand up, fight back!”
“Stop the cuts, raise us up!”
“We work, we fight, we demand what is right!”
"Exploitation ain’t the way!, Workers gotta get fair pay!"
"When I say UNION you say POWER!"
"What do we want?, Fair Wages! When do we want it?, NOW!"

“Everywhere we go, (Everywhere we go),
People wanna know, (People wanna know),
Who we are, (Who we are)
So we tell them, (So we tell them)
We are the union, (We are the union)
The mighty mighty union, (The mighty mighty union)”

”Fighting for justice,(Fighting for justice)”
”Fighting for respect, (Fighting for respect)”
"Hey HEY, Ho HO, Poverty wages have got to go!"

Our power as a union comes from collective action. We need every member to participate so that we can demonstrate our strength to the employer. Without your involvement, the employer will continue to ignore our voices, and our wages will keep falling further behind.

This is our chance to stand together and demand the fair pay we deserve. Let’s make it clear that we don’t accept anything less. Your participation is crucial—together, we can make a difference!

In Solidarity,

WPEA UNITY Team

solidarity@wpea.org

Labor History: Sacco and Vanzetti, Coal Miners, A Strike, And You

 

The Italian anarchists Nicola Sacco and BartolomeoVanzetti were executed in Massachusetts on August 23, 1927 for a hold up and theft and for killing a guard and a paymaster, crimes that they most likely did not commit. The two men were arrested shortly after the hold up and murders and were first sentenced in July of 1921. Appeals and international protests and interventions by prominent politicians, public figures, and legal scholars followed. The defense had an answer for every argument made by the prosecution, and it was clear that the international protests supporting the two men had an effect on the judges and the prosecution and those they consulted with. Still, Sacco and Vanzetti were sentenced to death in April of 1927 and an advisory committee charged with reviewing aspects of the case by Massachusetts Governor Alvan T. Fuller let the verdict stand.

We tend to think of the 1920s as a time of social excesses, mass consumption or consumerism, jazz, flappers, and people flaunting Prohibition. What we do not learn, or what we overlook, is that the 1920s were also times of increasing exploitation of workers, racist and mean-spirited restrictions on immigration, violent outrages against people of color, political repression, and strike-breaking by employers and losses for many unions. Coal mining and steel-producing regions were living in depression conditions well before the stock market crash of 1929. The labor movement and the Left were both deeply divided, although there were moments during the 1920s when both movements showed remarkable creativity and sometimes united around common objectives. By the standards of today the international labor and Left movements were large and deeply rooted in working-class communities, but by the standards of the 1920s these movements were in crisis and were trying to find their bearings after the devastation of the First World War and the failed strike waves and repression that followed the war. Moreover, the generation that had founded the modern labor and Left movements in many countries---including the United States---was passing on and the new leaders of these movements had only known the conditions of intense class war, repression, a world war, and bitter anti-colonial and often failing democratic struggles. It was in this atmosphere that Italian and German fascism formed and that industrial production and consumerism in the United States were reconfigured in the United States. And it was in this environment that Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested, tried, and convicted. Innocent or guilty, the laws that prevail today would likely not have allowed either their convictions or their death sentences.

The cases of Sacco and Vanzetti might not be of great interest to working-class people in the United States today. What lessons could they hold for us after 97 years?

On August 8, 1927, the revolutionary Industrial Workersof the World (IWW) called a strike in Colorado’s southern coalfields to protest the executions of Sacco and Vanzetti. Those coalfields employed thousands of mine workers, most of them employed by the Rockefeller-owned Colorado Fuel & Iron Company. Memories of the Ludlow Massacre of 1914 that had taken place in those same southern Colorado coalfields were still fresh in the minds of people there. The IWW had seen better days and was suffering from internal divisions and isolation. Depression conditions were prevalent in the coalfields at the time. Employment in some mines was sporadic and the state had four or eight or more distinct coalfields that produced for different markets and worked under different conditions. Immigrants and immigrant communities were facing special attacks. The Ku Klux Klan was on the march as a mass organization and had infiltrated state and local law enforcement. A bloody regional conflict between rival gangs over bootlegging and car thefts was underway. CF&I seemed all-powerful. The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) officially opposed the strike. 

And still the mine workers of southern Colorado struck.

Thousands of mine workers, most of them with roots in Italy or Mexico or Eastern Europe, walked out and stayed out for three days with the hope that their actions would help prevent the executions of Sacco and Vanzetti, two Italian anarchists being held on death row 2000 miles away, and lead to improvments in their working and living conditions as well.

There was no strike fund or strike pay.
There were no lawyers ready to help.
Most of the strikers were not affiliated with any union.
Many of the strikers could have been deported for having joined the strike.
All the strikers knew that they could be blacklisted.
One of the leading strike activists was a young woman named Milka Sablich, or "Flaming Milka," who was known for her red hair and wearing red to the picket lines on the prairies and for being especially tough.

The "Sacco and Vanzetti strike," as it was called, shut down all of the major mines in the southern Colorado coalfields.

Can you imagine this?

Milka Sablich

The mine workers returned after three days, reorganized, and struck again in September and October for a long list of union demands. The strike spread, and for the first time mine workers in all of Colorado’s coalfields struck together for a common set of demands.

The strike faced repression. A mineworker and a boy who was watching an IWW demonstration were killed in Walsenburg. Six striking mineworkers were killed at the Columbine Mine in northern Colorado. Union halls were raided and destroyed by the police and company thugs and vigilantes kidnapped strikers and transported them over state lines and left them in the middle of nowhere. The Governor of New Mexico ordered troops to the New Mexico-Colorado state line. The Catholic Bishop in Denver was said to have decreed that no member of the IWW could receive a Church funeral, although local clergy seem to have disregarded this. Strikers and strike supporters were held without charges and were moved from jail to jail. Homes were raided. Martial law conditions were imposed, although martial law was never declared, and these conditions were enforced by the Colorado National Guard and a state police unit that was reassigned from enforcing Prohibtion laws to strike-breaking. This special unit often acted with violence and was perhaps infiltrated by the Ku Klux Klan. Strikers and their supporters were blacklisted.

The IWW could not hold the strike together and state and company repression took a toll. The union was forced to the margins. The UMWA intervened and got a contract at the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company that shut the IWW out and gave the UMWA a base for future organizing. That contract and the UMWA’s later organizing helped bring some stability to the northern Colorado coal fields and helped steelworkers employed at the C&I-owned steel mill in Pueblo, Colorado to get a union contract years later. It also helped Josepine Roche, the progressive owner of Rocky Mountain Fuel, and her liberal cohort gain national attention and secured a place for her and some of those around her in President Roosevelt’s New Deal administration. She became a major force behind the New Deal coal codes and she later served as an administrator of the UMWA’s Welfare and Pension Fund.

The Columbine Mine was owned by Rocky Mountain Fuel. Roche and her closest advisors denied being responsible for the deaths of the six who died there and the sixty or so people who were wounded there on November 21, 1927. She managed to survive charges that she and the management team under her were responsible for the violence and other charges that she interfered and prevented the families of those killed from receiving settlements for the deaths of their loved ones. Roche was forced from her position as a Welfare and Pension Fund administrator in 1971 as militant mine workers and their families and allies fought for democratic control of the UMWA. To this day, I believe, there is no accurate account of Roche's relationship to the violence that occured at Columbine and its aftermath and her role as a Welfare and Pension Fund administrator and her removal from that position.  

 

The IWW’s great organizer Sam Embree was hounded out of the union in the aftermath of the strike. He later became an organizer for the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers. But before the strike was over the IWW opened an organizing campaign among western agricultural workers that had limited success. The mine workers’ strike and the campaign among the agricultural workers became foundational to Colorado’s Chicano movement of the 1960s.

The strike ran, more or less, from September or October of 1927 to February or March of 1928. For a brief time after the strike, Colorado mine workers were the highest paid mine workers in the world. Mine owners forced the workers to surrender their wage gains once the IWW was gone and the UMWA was tied up with trying to make the contract at Rocky Mountain Fuel work. 

Many of the strike's leaders and participants went on to make lasting contributions in politics, the labor movement, the Chicano movement, and Depression-era social movement organizing. They passed on what they learned in 1927-1928 to others who carried these lessons well into the 1960s. And so it is, I think, that Sacco and Vanzetti have given us lasting legacies, however indirect or difficult to trace these are.

I have been documenting the 1927-1928 Colorado mine workers’ strike and the legacies left by the strike’s participants and organizers since 1982. In the meantime, Leigh Campbell-Hale has come out with a worthyintroduction to the strike and Michael Robert Gonzalez has written his dissertation on the strike and has offered us a special look into the radical and ethic-communal origins of the strike. The book Slaughter in Serene gives an account of the violence that occured at the Columbine mine.

My hope is that we will read working-class history to place ourselves in our own history as collective owners of our destinies.

Bartolomeo Vanzetti had in his possession a draft of a leaflet when he was arrested that may still resonate with many of us today. It read:

Workers, you have fought all the wars. You have worked for all the bosses. You have wandered over all the countries. Have you harvested the fruit of your labors, the price of your victories? Does the past comfort you? Does the present smile on you? Does the future promise you anything? Have you found a piece of land where you can live like a human being and die like a human being?

Consider these union news items as you make travel plans

The following comes from the Association of Flights Attendants-CWA. Please check in with the union's latest news as you are making travel plans. Many of the airlines are not treating workers with respect or doing enough to ensure their safety. With all of that in mind, it's helpful for us to recall the lives of thoose who were killed on 9/11 and reflect on their lives and their sacrifices as workers and as union members (see below).

Unleashing Our Power: United AFA Day of Action

August 20, 2024 - In two weeks, United AFA will hit the picket line for a system-wide Day of Action on August 28 to announce the results of their strike vote live. Already 72% of eligible Flight Attendants have cast their ballot. These powerful pickets will show United management and the flying public that United Flight Attendants are ready to do whatever it takes to get an industry-leading contract.

We raise the standards of our careers with our Solidarity. There are events at more than 14 airports across the globe — find one near you and join our United siblings in Unleashing Our Power!

2024 AFA September 11 Honor Guard

August 20, 2024 - Twenty-three years ago, we made a promise to Never Forget the events of September 11, 2001 and never allow them to be repeated. No matter the uniform we wear, the routes we fly, or the years we have worn our wings we will always remember the events of September 11th and lift up our heroes.

2024 AFA September 11 Honor GuardOur ninth annual AFA Honor Guard will attend services at our nation’s three national memorials to ensure the public remembers the sacrifice of Flight Attendants. This Honor Guard is comprised of Flight Attendants who have done work to advance our Never Forget priorities:

2024 AFA Honor Guard

September 11th Memorial New York

Kimberly Fritsch, United
Maria Alpogianis, United

National Flight 93 Memorial Shanksville

Jackelyne Cuin, Piedmont
Samantha Wolff, Alaska

National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial

Kaela Berg, Endeavor
Edgardo Mangual, United

Frontier Airlines Flight Attendants to Vote on Strike Authorization as Management Refuses to Bargain on Business Model Change

DENVER (July 30, 2024) – Flight Attendants at Frontier Airlines, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA), will take a strike authorization vote as management refuses to negotiate over the impact of the carrier’s business model change. Frontier management has a legal obligation to bargain over that impact, separate and distinct from their obligation to engage in regular contract negotiations, yet it refuses to do so or to even engage in mediation through the National Mediation Board.

“Frontier management’s “out and back” business model has resulted in a massive hit to our compensation and time away from our homes,” said Jennifer Sala, AFA Frontier President. “Frontier Flight Attendants are experiencing harm right now. There’s no time to wait to address the impact of management’s decisions on our lives.”

Strike vote ballots will be sent to the 4,000 Flight Attendants, with the vote opening on August 20, 2024 and closing on September 18, 2024.

One common example illustrates how quickly and significantly Flight Attendant pay and work life have been affected. When comparing the same number of days at work in February with March, a Flight Attendant experienced 11% fewer paid flight hours, coupled with a requirement of 5 more trips to the airport. In April that became a 17% reduction in flight hours paid (base compensation) and 8 more trips to the airport. This example means over the course of two months, Flight Attendants lost nearly 20% in pay for the same number of days worked, while also being required to report to work 40% more.

“This strike vote will show just how serious this issue is and the action Flight Attendants are willing to take to get it fixed,” said Sara Nelson, AFA International President. “The change in time on the job and compensation is staggering. We will not pay for this business model change. The longer this goes on, the more Frontier will have to pay to make it right.”

AFA has a trademarked strike strategy known as CHAOS™ or Create Havoc Around Our System™. With CHAOS, a strike could affect the entire system or a single flight. The union decides when, where and how to strike without notice to management or passengers. There is no strike date set at this time. The first step is authorization by the members to empower the union to set a strike deadline, if necessary.

The Flight Attendant Union filed for federal mediation with the National Mediation Board (NMB) in May after issuing a formal notice to management on April 3, 2024, that its “turn” plan constitutes a dispute under the Railway Labor Act, separate from regular contract negotiations. This impact of the new business model has a significant negative effect on the working lives of the over 4,000 Flight Attendants in a way not contemplated under the negotiated collective bargaining agreement.

HOLD LOGAN COUNTY, WV TO THEIR WORD: STAND UP FOR WORKERS RIGHTS!

 From the United Mine Workers of America:

Logan County Commissioners Office refuses to negotiate with the union and is choosing to spend TAXPAYER MONEY on union activities!

The workers have clearly expressed their need for union representation, a right that should be respected and upheld.

The UMWA contributes $35 million annually through retirees’ healthcare and pensions, playing a crucial role in Logan County’s local economy and the community.

We demand that you honor your commitment to the people who supported you and end all union-busting activities immediately. Recognize the UMWA and support the rights of Logan County workers to advocate for themselves. It is time to do what is right and just for the community you serve.

Please see this article from November of 2023 for context.

California's journalists do not consent to this shakedown

 

August 21, 2024

This afternoon, Google, California Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, California Governor Gavin Newsom and many of California's publishing lobbies announced "a first-in-the-nation partnership with the State, news publishers, major tech companies and philanthropy, unveiling a pair of multi-year initiatives to provide ongoing financial support to newsrooms across California and launch a National AI Accelerator."

After two years of advocacy for strong antimonopoly action to start turning around the decline of local newsrooms, we are left almost without words. The publishers who claim to represent our industry are celebrating an opaque deal involving taxpayer funds, a vague AI accelerator project that could very well destroy journalism jobs, and minimal financial commitments from Google to return the wealth this monopoly has stolen from our newsrooms.

Not a single organization representing journalists and news workers agreed to this undemocratic and secretive deal with one of the businesses destroying our industry. Moments ago, the following opposition letter was filed with the California legislature:

We represent journalists and news workers who provide essential news for millions of Californians in print, digital, broadcast, commercial and nonprofit newsrooms.

The future of journalism should not be decided in backroom deals. The Legislature embarked on an effort to regulate monopolies and failed terribly. Now we question whether the state has done more harm than good.

California’s journalists and news workers OPPOSE this disastrous deal with Google and condemn the news executives who consented to it in our names.

Signed,

Matt Pearce, President, Media Guild of the West, The NewsGuild-CWA Local 39213
Jon Schleuss, President, The NewsGuild-CWA
Annie Sciacca, President, Pacific Media Workers Guild, The NewsGuild-CWA Local 39521
Carrie Biggs-Adams, President, NABET-CWA Local 51
Javad Ayala, President, NABET-CWA Local 53
Kevin Gallo, Regional Vice President 5, NABET-CWA
Frank Arce, Vice President, Communications Workers of America District 9

The Oregon Center for Public Policy says Measure 118 would do more harm than good.

Reposted from The Oregon Center for Public Policy
 
August 21, 2024

(See here and here for past posts on this issue.)

By: Angie Garcia and Alejandro Queral

Measure 118 would do more harm than good.

Oregon Ballot Measure 118 is poorly designed. Its enactment would likely trigger several unintended, damaging consequences. Accordingly, the Oregon Center for Public Policy recommends a “no” vote on the measure.

Measure 118, also known as the Oregon People’s Rebate, would increase the state corporate minimum tax to 3% on business sales of more than $25 million in Oregon. The revenue raised from the measure would be distributed equally to all Oregon residents.

Although taxing large corporations to fund cash payments to families facing economic insecurity is sensible policy, Measure 118 comes with too many downsides.

Measure 118 would reduce available funding for schools and other essential services. If the measure were approved, some revenue from corporate taxes that currently funds education and other essential services would instead help pay for the cash rebates — including rebates for rich people. One of the more likely scenarios is that the Oregon General Fund — which pays for key services such as education, health and human services, and public safety — would lose more than $3.4 billion in the 2031-33 budget period.

Measure 118 would send rebates to people who don’t need them while making it harder to address existing crises. The measure would send rebate checks to everyone, including well-off people who don’t need it. The reality is that Oregon can only spend money it raises, so those limited dollars need to be spent on addressing the state’s most pressing needs, such as the lack of affordable housing, unaffordable child care, and the rising cost of higher education. Not only would a significant portion of Measure 118 go to people who do not need a rebate, but the proposal would make it more difficult to address pressing needs by foreclosing revenue-raising options and making it more difficult politically to raise revenue.

Measure 118 would likely result in vulnerable Oregonians losing public benefits while reducing the flow of federal dollars to Oregon. The federal government is likely to consider the state cash rebates created by the measure as taxable income, as well as income for determining eligibility for safety-net programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Thus, vulnerable Oregonians could lose partial or full access to such benefits. While the measure tries to anticipate this problem by providing “hold harmless” payments to make up the difference, the reality is that these payments would arrive well after families have lost their benefits and the ensuing financial harm. The “hold harmless” payments themselves could count as income for benefit determinations, potentially leading to a benefit-loss spiral. Finally, triggering the hold harmless provision would mean that a significant portion of the revenue raised by Measure 118 would simply go to fill the loss of federal dollars that would otherwise flow to Oregon — a loss caused by the measure itself.

While we agree that big corporations should pay more in taxes, and that giving cash rebates to vulnerable families is an effective way to improve economic security, Measure 118 would do more harm than good.


Alejandro Queral
Alejandro Queral is Executive Director of the Oregon Center for Public Policy

Angie Garcia
Angie Garcia is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Oregon Center for Public Policy.