Salem-Keizer: Emergency BackPacks Needed for Oregon Farm Workers

The Oregon Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Oregon's Farm Worker Union PCUN invite Willamette Valley churches and ecumenical community groups to participate in "Solidarity Summer 2024," collaborating to provide 500 equipped backpacks for farm worker families in the 2024 wildfire season:

July, August and September. Emergency supplies cost about $45 per backpack to protect against smoke, dehydration, dust and loss of communication in outdoor work and evacuation in an extreme wildfire event. You may make tax-deductible cash donations before July 1.  Give online:  oregonsynod.org, text field "PCUN Solidarity" or by mail: checks payable to "Oregon Synod," Mail to Oregon Synod, 2800 N. Vancouver Ave., Suite 101, Portland, OR 97227.

Solidarity Summer 2024 Backpack Celebration & Workshop -- Save the Date:  July 18, 2024, 1:00 P.M.--4:00 P.M., PCUN union office, 300 Young St., Woodburn, OR 9707.  Join faith and labor allies to acknowledge the land, fill backpacks and share blessings with PCUN staff leading farm worker summer wildfire preparedness workshops during July & August. Learn more by contacting Sarah Loose, Director, Oregon Synod Director of Disaster & Climate Resilience, email sarahl@oregonsynod.org or in the midWillamette Valley: Ed Brandt, Saint Mark member, Social Ministry Committee, 503-917-1326 (call / text), edgarbrandt74@gmail.com (email), for details about tax-deductible cash donations & car-pooling (meet July 18 @ 12:00 P.M. noon, at Saint Mark Lutheran Church). 

Editor's note: Readers are invited to read this short but challenging and radical article providing context for why the backpacks are needed.

Photo from Links.

Solidarity With Farm Workers

 

March With Farm Workers in the Skagit Valley, Washington

Sunday, April 21, 2024

Begin gathering at 9:00 am, March begins at 10:00 am

Edgewater Park

600 Behrens Millett Rd

Mount Vernon, WA 98273

From Community to Community: Dear supporters and allies,

We are one week away from this year's Marcha Campesina. We invite you to join us and show your support for Tulip and Daffodil workers through participation and donations.

This year’s Marcha will be a single purpose march, all messaging will be relevant to the tulip workers struggle for equitable wages, better working conditions, respecting seniority and no union busting.

Please respect the Marcha messaging protocols requested by the tulip workers organizing committee:We ask that you do not bring any banners, the march will be single file, we will be marching on the shoulders of rural country roads, and will not have the ability to march on the road due to heavy traffic.
We recommend you do not bring any signs, we will have plenty ready for you to carry, if you want to bring your own sign, for example expressing solidarity from your group or organization, it must be vertical on sticks, flags or cardboard that can be held up.Please do wear comfortable shoes and bring water, we will be walking a 7.5 mile loop.

Please do not bring pets, scooters, bicycles. Strollers are ok.

We appreciate anyone who can stay and support us with cleanup after we are done.
To volunteer, or for more information contact: marchacampesina87@gmail.com

Join us April 21 @ Edgewater Park, Mt Vernon
9:00am | Begin arriving
9:30am | Marchers line up, short send off ceremony
10:00am | March begins
2:00pm | March returns to Edgewater Park
2:30pm | Tacos de Azada will be served (bring cash or check to donate for food)
3:30pm | Worker declarations and other speakers
4:30pm | Closing ceremony and farewells

Healthy Workers Create Healthy Communities

This year's march continues our efforts to advance Farmworker Tribunal declarations, most critically to ensure the health and well-being of farmworkers is protected and nurtured.

C2C and the 2024 Farmworkers Tribunal judges denounce: Attempts to undermine overtime pay mandated by SB-5172 in
2021, when it has just begun to be fully implemented as of January
1, 2024.
The industrialization of agriculture that reduces workers to
machines as climate change creates more dangerous working
conditions.
Companies who dehumanize workers and retaliate against them
for taking time off to care for their families, particularly women
workers.Read more about the Tribunal Declarations and Farmworker legislative priorities here.

Other Ways Show Your Support

Buy this year's Marcha T-shirt
Marcha Campesina 2024 Commemorative T-Shirt — C2C (foodjustice.org)

Make a Donation
Donate — C2C (foodjustice.org)

Join Bill Fletcher, Jr., Rebecca Mills, Manuel De Paz and Prof. Peter Cole for a virtual discussion about the ILWU’s 1980 courageous defiance of the government order to send weapons to the brutal El Salvador regime.

Join Bill Fletcher, Jr., Rebecca Mills, Manuel De Paz and Prof. Peter Cole for a virtual discussion about the ILWU’s 1980 courageous defiance of the government order to send weapons to the brutal El Salvador regime.

Tuesday, April 23, 2024, 5:00 pm PST

Drop a line to sheard2001 at gmail.com for the Zoom link. 

Read the true story in the powerful historical novel Presente - A Dockworker Story, available from Hard Ball Press and your favorite independent bookseller.

On this day and every day carry the message on!

 

The Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation at the University of Oregon have declared their intent to strike on January 17...

This post came via the Oregon AFL-CIO:

The Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation at the University of Oregon have declared their intent to strike on January 17 if a fair contract is not reached. Last year, we saw a wave of strikes sweep across the Pacific Northwest and nationally. Everywhere workers picketed, unions and workers stepped up in solidarity to support the workers on strike.

The GTFF strike in Eugene is no exception, and it’s time for Oregon Labor to come together and help these hard working graduate employees win a fair contract. Without the labor of GTFF members, the University of Oregon simply cannot function effectively. By supporting GTFF, we can help send a message that the community in Eugene and across the state stands behind graduate employees.

Make sure you’re checking the GTFF website and following them on Facebook and Twitter/X for the latest news about the strike.

Here’s how you can help:

Sign Up to Walk the Line with GTFF

Click Here to Sign Up for a Picket Line Shift and please encourage others to join

Check-in at Strike HQ (609 E. 13th Ave. in Eugene)

Feel free to contact Miche with questions (971-998-8794)

Bring a donation with you! Click Here for a list of goods GTFF members need

Attend the Rally on January 19 in Eugene

Stand with the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation in their fight for a fair contract at a rally on Friday, January 19 at the EMU Amphitheater at the University of Oregon at 3:00pm. Speakers include AFT President Randi Weingarten! Click here to download a flier to help promote the rally.

Two important union solidarity requests from Portland Jobs with Justice

Update! Higher Ed classified staff to begin mediation with the universities.

The 4,500 SEIU 503 repped classified workers at the Seven Oregon Public Universities are in a very tough bargain. After three months of negotiations the economics of settlement are far apart. They hope you can share news of this struggle with your own members and allied folks, and ask them to take a moment to add their names to this support petition.

Classified workers are the non-teaching campus staff who make the Universities run on time – in academic support; IT; housing; health centers; food services; admissions; facilities; grounds and more. Without the work of classified staff, Oregon’s public universities literally could not operate and students would not be educated. Despite the importance of their work, far too many classified staff struggle with paychecks that don’t allow them to support themselves and their families. Add your name to support the 4,500 classified workers at Oregon’s public universities!

---

Support Progressive Workers Union to Win a Fair Contract for Sierra Club Workers!

Sign onto a public letter encouraging Sierra Club management to come to the table to support the union's proposals to create a contract that:

creates a safe and dignified workplace;

ensures pay equity, pathways to promotion and family sustaining wages;

protects jobs;

disrupts burnout; and

takes care of our community.

Unions and organized labor groups can sign on to this letter here.

If you are an elected official or environmental and/or social justice organization and would like to show your support, please sign on to this letter here.

Some photos from the union rally at Western Oregon University today

SEIU Local 503, OPEU held a rally today at Western Oregon University (WOU) in support of the union contract demands. The state universities are demanding givebacks from classified staff. In my opinion, if the union accepts these concessions all university workers, and eventually most public workers throughout Oregon, will be at risk of losing benefits and having to take backward steps in wages and working conditions. The president of the faculty union at WOU gave a strong voice to these concerns when she delivered a moving solidarity message. It was gratifying to see many members of the Western Oregon University Federation of Teachers, AFT Local 2278, at the rally today.

The contract between the union and the state universities will not be settled by year's end, and if it is not settled by March then SEIU Local 503's members employed by the universities may strike.

See this article from the Northwest Labor Press for context. 

Union members from Local 503's bargaining team led chants and

 spoke from their hearts about their jobs and their union's demands. 

Oregon State Representative Tom Andersen (D.-Dist. 19) was there

 to support the workers and their union. He delivered a strong message

 of support and framed this as a social justice issue.

Long-time Local 503 member-leader Johnny Earl (University of Oregon

 sub-Local 085) roused everyone with a call to solidarity. That's SEIU Local 503's 

Executive Director Melissa Unger holding the bullhorn. 

 

A union member stepped up to lead a chant of her own that fired up

 the crowd.

Catherine Stearns is a retired Local 503, OPEU member, but she still puts in time

 as a union activist and still inspires everyone she meets. Her union jacket belonged to

 the  recently-departed union member-leader James Jacobsen. Brother Jacobsen provided

 leadership and guidance and a helping hand with good humor in his many years of activism.

He spoke with forthrightness and always came from a place of integrity. He and Sister Stearns 

were good friends and it was moving for me to see her wearing his union jacket. Yes, the sun

 was shining in her eyes when I took this photo, but Catherine does radiate light.  

Two Picket Lines In Portland Coming Up!

Flight Attendants Picket Alaska Air (AFA-CWA)
Red Hot for a Fair Contract ! (wear red)
Tues. Dec. 19, 11am-1pm
Portland Int'l Airport, 7000 NE Airport Way
RSVP: https://actionnetwork.org/events/dec-19-picketing-pdx

Image from AFA-CWA. Visit that link for a post on what this is about.

Zoo Lights Zoolidarity Picket (LIUNA 483)
Joyful Rally for a Fair Contract (wear holiday gear)
Wed. Dec. 20, 4:30-6pm
Oregon Zoo, 4001 SW Canyon Rd.

Image from LIUNA Local 483

CWA Leaders Arrested Alongside Federal Call Center Workers---Solidarity needed!

The following is a press release issued by the Communications Workers of America.

Communications Workers of America (CWA) President Claude Cummings Jr. and Secretary-Treasurer Ameenah Salaam were arrested alongside federal call center workers on Tuesday as they demanded that the Biden Administration back up its commitment to good jobs with concrete action.

The workers, who handle Medicare and Affordable Care Act calls for Maximus, the federal government’s largest call center contractor, traveled from across the country to distribute leaflets outside of the White House and to rally and protest at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Representatives Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Cori Bush (D-Mo.), and Greg Casar (D-Tex.) and SEIU President Mary Kay Henry joined workers in calling on HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and the Biden Administration to require livable wages of $25 per hour on federal call center contracts, ensure workers have access to affordable health care, and to investigate Maximus’s low-road employment practices.

“What do these call center workers want?” President Cummings asked the crowd. “Affordable health care. Think about it. These workers have to get a second job just to pay for their own healthcare while helping other Americans who are calling in about Medicare and the Affordable Care Act.”

“It’s unacceptable that we work for a federal contractor making billions of dollars from government contracts, but we don’t even get a living wage and affordable health care,” said Katherine Charles, a Maximus call center representative from Riverview, Fla.

You can watch speeches from the rally here and support the workers by sending a letter calling on the Biden Administration to investigate Maximus at cwa-union.org/maximus.

Maximus federal call center workers rallied with supporters outside of the

Department of Health and Human Services. (Photo Credit: Getty Images for

 Communications Workers of America)

The workers at Law360 use direct action

 

Photo take from the AFL-CIO

The AFL-CIO's Daily Brief and a dispatch from The News Guild are both highlighting a one-day job action carried on yesterday by the unionized workers at Law360. Many of us use Law360 in our work. The company is owned by LexisNexis and the workers and their union are trying to settle their union contract negotiations on favorable terms. These negotiations have been going on since November of last year.

The closing paragraph of the union's press release describes some of what happened yesterday as follows:

Workers will march in a day-long picket line beginning at 10:30 a.m. outside LexisNexis headquarters at 230 Park Ave. in Manhattan. At 2 p.m, the Guild will hold a rally on the north side of the building on 46th Street featuring speakers including NewsGuild-CWA President Jon Schleuss, NewsGuild of New York President Susan DeCarava and members of the Law360 Union. Throughout the walkout: Law360 members at offices around the country will gather via Zoom.

I think that this brief description of what occurred yesterday gives a good picture of what a disruptive one-day job action can look like. These actions certainly test the water and raise the bar and assert union and worker power when they involve critical numbers of union members and when they disrupt operations. For many workers such actions may be used to lead up to a more protracted period of protest or to a longer, and hopefully successful, strike.

What occurred yesterday raises some good questions about the increasing use of short strikes and direct action at work. The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA has detailed how an extended period of worker-led disruption at work in support of reasonable union demands can look like. The Washington State Labor Council has had much to say as these tactics were put into practice at Alaska Airlines. I mention the workers in the airlines in order to make the point that coordinated union disruption at work can win support from many places that we might not expect. Taking direct action can be scary, but it is much easier to do when you can be confident that you will have support and that others have your back.

Thank you to the workers at Law360 for your bravery!

(The views expressed here are the views of the author only.)   

Support Starbucks Workers United over the holidays

 An email from Starbucks Workers United reminds us of the following facts:

Since we won our first union just two years ago -

* We won ~380 union elections
* We’ve gone on nationwide strikes with thousands of our coworkers

* Our movement continues to grow + win improvements at Starbucks

We’re really proud of the work we’ve done and will continue to do.

Over the last two years, on top of continued union-busting in stores, Starbucks has repeatedly and illegally failed to bargain in good faith with the Union. We need them to actually come to the table in good faith with workers in 2024 - we’ve been ready and waiting for a very long time. It is way past time that Starbucks sit down and bargain with us meaningfully.

The company has not substantively responded to a single union contract proposal in over 17 months. Actions speak louder than words. It’s time to bargain in good-faith.

The union is asking for our help. You can help by sharing their story on social media, forwarding this email to a friend, and telling everyone to sign the No Contract, No Coffee pledge on our website.

Support actions for Salem-Keizer Classified School Staff This Week

 

Labor And Palestine: CWA Local 7250 Is Hosting a Zoom Solidarity Event With The Communications Workers Union--Palestine

This coming Saturday, hear from Palestinian Trade Union activist Imad Temiza from the Communications Workers Union -Palestine/ Palestinian Postal Service Workers Union نقابة العاملين في الخدمات البريدية talk about life under apartheid, occupation and war.
Register for the zoom meeting: bit.ly/PTUSPEAK

This is not endorsed by the Marion-Polk-Yamhill Central Labor Chapter or the Oregon AFL-CIO. 

The National Writers Union and the demand for a ceasefire in Gaza

I am a proud member of the National Writers Union. To those who follow the labor movement, our NWU is currently known for two things. We are taking on the downsides of freelancing and advancing a movement that is seeking to win both local legislative solutions and contractual provisions that begin to solve the problems freelancers are facing. This is new territory for unions. We are also getting known for our support for a ceasefire in Gaza, our work in helping to coordinate a progressive labor response to the carnage there, partnering with the United Electrical workers and some other unions in support of a ceasefire, and our support for Palestinian journalists. This support for a ceasefire and our Palestinian and Arab union siblings is also new territory for Labor.

Karim Khan, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, met

 with Nasser Abu Baker, President of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, in

 Ramallah on December 2,2023. Photo from the National Writers Union.

Labor is not all on the same page as this work unfolds, as the links above and a recent article in In These Times point out. Labor solidarity is always a work in progress, and this is especially true when it comes to unions in the United States building solidarity with unions in other countries when the administration in Washington has other priorities and other allies.  

Our NWU is going one step further than other unions in our solidarity work. A helpful opinion piece that appeared in The New York Times by Lama Al-Arian on December 3, 2023 sets some context for our union's solidarity work. We are being asked to contribute to a special appeal for Palestinian Journalists Syndicate and the Palestinian media workers on the ground in Gaza and Ramallah. Donations can be sent here: bit.ly/ifjsafetyfund. Please contribute if you can.

For additional information and context, please see this article in The Nation by Sarah Lazare, this article from Oregon AFT Local 5017 and this article by Keith Brower Brown and Caitlyn Clark that appeared in Labor Notes, 

This post does not reflect the opinions of the Marion-Polk-Yamhill Central Labor Chapter or the Oregon AFL-CIO.

A solidarity action with Salem-Keizer classified workers on December 12

Salem-Keizer School District workers are having a difficult time in union contract negotiations. Our solidarity is needed. Please turn out at the District offices on Commercial Street on Tuesday, December 12 and be a voice for solidarity, progress, public workers and education.  

Solidarity & News From Unions And Friends

 

The photo above comes from the National Union of Healthcare Workers website. These are some of the California hospice workers who are coming into the union in large numbers there. Read about them here.

Marion-Polk-Yamhill Solidarity & Fun: Our Labor Chapter will be participating in the Salem parade this coming Friday evening, December 1st, and you and your friends and family are invited to participate. Please bring your union gear. We are going to meet near the intersection of State and Court streets in Salem at around 5:45 PM. We will be giving out some toys, distributing some treats, waving at the crowd and having a good time. I think that the route is a bit less than one mile, but don't hold me to that. Good times!

Second, our annual holiday party will be held on Saturday, December 9, starting at 9:00 AM and going to noon. We will be at the Ken Allen AFSCME union hall located at 1400 Tandem Ave., NE in Salem. There will be great music, activities for kids, Caesar The No Drama Llama, storytelling, gift bags, and snacks. There will also be a table for folks who want to organize a union or join a union associate membership program. The holiday party will be more fun.

SEIU Local 503, OPEU higher ed workers at WOU and PSU: At our last Marion-Polk-Yamhill Central Labor Chapter meeting we heard a report from a union activist at WOU. Negotiations for a new union contract in our state's higher ed system are not going well. We supported a call to rally in support of the union at WOU at noon on Friday, December 15. If you can attend, please do so. The union has since posted a November 17 update on negotiations here.

Portland Jobs with Justice reports this from Portland State University:

Classified workers have started contract negotiations with administration at the seven Oregon public universities. These workers keep students fed, facilities and infrastructure cleaned and maintained, and so much more. Like so many other workers, classified staff are barely keeping up, choosing which bills to pay, and watching the value of their paychecks erode while the new PSU president is paid more than half-a-million dollars per year (plus a $96,000 yearly housing allowance). Community members and other allies are encouraged to join SEIU 503 workers for a rally to demand a fair contract for the people who make PSU work.

Where: PSU Urban Plaza, 1819 SW 5th Ave., Portland, OR 97201
When: Friday, December 1st, 12-1 pm

Photo taken from a PBS 2021 story about the Teamsters

 at Amazon.

Amazon's legal troubles continue. Read about one fight in Washington State here and one in Canada here. Meanwhile, workers at Starbucks continue to organize despite great pressure from the company. See this story. 

Starbucks Workers United

Doctors are organizing. Jacobin magazine has a great article on doctors in Minnesota and Wisconsin who are organizing a union of physicians. Another effort is underway in Oregon, California and Washington State with the Union of American Physicians and Dentists.

Are you TRAPped? Are you one of the hundreds of thousands of "bank workers, salespeople, dog groomers, police officers, aestheticians, firefighters, mechanics, nurses, federal employees, electricians, roofers, social workers, paramedics, truckers, mortgage brokers, teachers and metal polishers" and others working under a "stay or pay" contract clause, often also known as a training-repayment-agreement provision (TRAP), that charges you if you leave your job? The Sunday New York Times Magazine of November 26, 2023 carried a long article by Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein on these oppressive agreements and that's where the incomplete list of occupations where workers are TRAPped comes from. It's possible that as many as one-third of U.S. workers work under such agreements and are forced to either work on jobs where they face burnout, poor safety conditions, harassment and low pay or pay employers and collection agencies what can amount to large penalty payments if they leave their jobs. This is what happens when unions lose power. Towards Justice may be able to help if you're a victim of TRAPping.  

Union holiday shopping: If you are doing holiday shopping, check out Union Plus before you get deep into spending money. It really will save you money. If you or the people you're shopping for are readers, the University of Illinois Press is having a holiday sale. They publish some of the best labor history books in the United States. International Publishers is also having a holiday sale and they have some great labor offerings. I recommend reading William Z. Foster's American Trade Unionism. Use coupon code IP@100 when you check out.

Some Upcoming Events & Labor Solidarity News

Important event announcement: The Labor Solidarity Project will be hosting an outstanding event this Thursday, November 30, at 6:00 PM (PST) featuring Dr. Diana Johnson, discussing her work on multiracial coalition building in Seattle during the final decades of the 20th century. Dr. Johnson is Associate Professor of History and Ethnic Studies and the Chair of the Ethnic Studies Department at California State University, San Bernardino. She received her MA and PhD from the University of California Davis and specializes in the history of race and ethnicity in the United States, political activism, and oral history. She recently published her first monograph, Seattle in Coalition: Multiracial Alliances, Labor Politics, and Transnational Activism in the Pacific Northwest, 1970-1999 with the University of North Carolina Press in 2023. This work chronicles the history of Black, Native American, Chicanx, and Asian American labor and political activists stemming from Seattle. More specifically, she examines how activists built coalitions across ethnic, regional and international lines, challenging racial inequalities, capitalist labor systems, and globalization. At Cal State San Bernardino, Dr. Johnson primarily teaches courses in systemic racism, immigration in America, and racial activism during the 1960s and 1970s. The Zoom link is https://washington.zoom.us/j/93515461794

Also:

From the Marion County Democrats located at

 245 High Street NE in Salem.

AND:

IATSE Local 488 will host a film worker flea market and maker fair in Portland’s Old Town District to benefit film crews who are still recovering from the strike. It will feature items used in local TV and movie productions, plus original art and crafts made by IATSE Local 488 members. It is open to the general public and will include live entertainment, raffles, and special guests. 

Read more here.
Vendor sign up here.
December 9-10 from 10am - 6pm
Goldsmith Blocks Building (412 NW Couch St)

AND:

Don't forget to order your 2024 labor history calendar from the Pacific Northwest Labor History Association!

Some Labor Solidarity News

AFL-CIO: The Oregon Labor Dispatch of November 17, 2023 has a link to a press release issued by AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler on November 16 applauding "President Biden’s announcement today of the Presidential Memorandum on Advancing Worker Empowerment, Rights, and High Labor Standards Globally, a framework that will reshape how U.S. government agencies conduct international diplomacy by putting workers’ rights and standards at the center." The press release argues that this is a "game changer for workers in the U.S. and around the world" and says that "We need a global economy that puts working people at the center, and we look forward to collaborating with the Biden administration to implement and execute the strategy with our partners and allies at home and abroad."

A report in In These Times claims that the AFL-CIO recently intervened to "squash" a resolution passed by the Olympia, Washington-based Thurston-Lewis-Mason Central Labor Council (TLM CLC) supporting a ceasefire in Palestine/Israel .

From The Northwest Labor Press

An article in the Pacific Northwest Labor Press dated November 16, 2023 meanwhile highlighted remarks made by Hannah Winchester, political action committee co-chair at Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, at a Portland rally supporting a ceasefire. The article noted that "Over a dozen local unions have also signed on to a labor letter calling for a ceasefire, including the Oregon Education Association and Portland Association of Teachers."

Oregon AFL-CIO: Please visit the Oregon AFL-CIO blog and read the Oregon Labor Dispatch to keep up with what the Oregon AFL-CIO is doing. The strike map on the blog shows no strikes currently underway in Oregon, but it is important to keep an eye on this. An October 31 post on the blog predicted more strikes in Oregon as the Auto Workers moved to settle their contracts with the Big Three automakers. Another post on that date provided links to the State Federation's Legislative Scorecard and to the Federation's overview of the last Oregon legislative session and highlighted officeholders and politicians who the Federation regards as friends of working people. This is important reading, so please take a look.

The November 17, 2023 Labor Dispatch report provides a list of short labor news items and action items. The list includes an invitation to our upcoming holiday party (December 9, 9:00am -12:00pm, Ken Allen AFSCME Labor Canter, 1400 Tandem Ave NE in Salem), an announcement concerning the  University of Oregon Labor Center Collective Bargaining Institute to be held on December 3-8, at the University Place Hotel in Portland, and a solidarity action supporting Multnomah County dentists. "The dentists stand united, asking for the opportunity to provide patients meaningful care, in an environment that allows enough time to do the work," says the post.

Alphabet Workers Union: A group of Google contractors, some of whom have worked on Search and Google’s artificial intelligence chatbot Bard, have voted to unionize. A news report claims that "Following the filing for unionization, the group, which included 120 writers, graphic designers and coordinators, among others, were told more than half the team would be laid off, according to the Alphabet Workers Union, which alleged the layoffs were an act of retaliation." See this article for details. The Alphabet Workers Union frequently works with the Communication Workers of America. 

Communications Workers of America: An interesting article in The New Republic highlights bank workers who are opting to organize with CWA.

CWA's Call Center Workers United are on strike at Maximus, or were the last I heard. This is an important strike given the needs to organize call center workers and take on racism and the conditions that divide these workers. Please go to the website, get on their email alert list and follow through with the light asks that the union is putting out.

Steelworkers (USW): The Fall 2023 USW@Work publication ran two very important articles. One article on two-tier wage systems put it well when saying that "Unscrupulous employers often look for ways to divide union members, whether by age or job classification or other factors, and multi-tiered wage and benefit systems can play into bosses’ hands by helping them to serve that purpose." The article also said that "Success in eliminating tiers has come from workplaces large and small, improving lives and building solidarity for thousands of members. In the paper industry, one of the largest employers of USW members, workers achieved a series of strong contracts that cut tier systems, including in the union’s master agreement with International Paper, and Local 1013 and Local 1853 at Georgia Pacific."

From USW@Work

Another inspiring article in the United Steelworkers publication covered the recent USW International Women's Conference. Amanda Buda, a delegate of Local 412 at the University of Guelph in Ontario, is quoted in the article as saying, "There are a lot of people here that are in the same boat and in very similar situations. If I have any advice, it's that you don't know what you don't know. It’s always best if you have any type of question to reach out and ask a current union member how they did it, because there's always an answer and information that will benefit you in the long run.”

From USW@Work

Trade Unions for Energy Democracy: Trade Unions for Energy Democracy (TUED) recently issued an important report on developments in Argentina that will likely affect global privatization and the fight to hold on to public services and resources in many countries, including the U.S. There is much talk in TUED and elsewhere about a Global Green New Deal. We should become familiar with these ideas because they are affecting us, our work and our unions.  

Photo from UE News 

United Electrical Workers Research and Education Fund (UEWREF): The UEWREF and the United Electrical Workers proudly reported winning $6.5 million in bonuses for Durham, North Carolina city workers as part of their on-going organizing in the South and in workplaces with majority-Black workers. The Durham victory was won through direct action on the job in a right-to-work and racist environment. UEWREF is in need to funds to keep the ball rolling, so please contribute if you can.