From The Front Lines

 

Workers hit the bricks at Cornell University in a historic strike.

The photo is from The Cornell Daily Sun.

A crowd of Cornell workers sing and chant as they march around

the university’s campus on Friday, August 16, days before the union called

 a strike. (Photo: Aaron Fernando) See this article in The Nation.

Starbucks workers continue to organize and win.

AT&T technicians, customer service representatives, and others who

install, maintain, and support AT&T’s residential and business wireline

telecommunications network in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky,

Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee

walked off the job at 3 p.m. ET on Friday, August 16, in response to

AT&T’s failure to bargain in good faith.

The workers have set up a petition for supporters to sign.

Please do so at cwa.org/attse-support.

UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA PRESIDENT

ROBERTS SPEAKS AT A PRESS CONFERENCE FOR

THE PROPOSED SILICA RULE AT UMWA’S DISTRICT 2

OFFICE IN UNIONTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA.

Photo Credit: Department of Labor

Shawn T Moore

New Silica Rule Funding Challenged---

A DIRECT ATTACK ON THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OF COAL MINERS

The U.S. House Appropriations committee voted on July 10, along party lines, to advance a bill that would defund the Department of Labor’s efforts to enforce the new silica rule. The bill, which directs funding for the DOL and MSHA, explicitly states that no money can be used to enforce the silica rule limiting allowable levels of silica dust in mines.

Republican-controlled U.S. House Appropriations Committee approved the fiscal year 2025 funding bill in a 31-25 vote, setting up a vote on the appropriations package by the full House.

“This is an insult to the coal miners who have risked their lives and their long-term health to power our factories and heat our homes,“ said Senator Bob Casey (D-PA). “I am going to make damn sure we continue this funding so that we may keep our promise to miners suffering from black lung disease.

“MSHA’s silica standard was put into place to reduce the amount of deadly silica dust in mine atmospheres, which is crucial for combating the worsening epidemic of black lung disease. It is difficult to understand how certain members of Congress could possibly be supportive of more miners dying a suffocating death as a result of being forced to breathe silica dust,” said President Roberts.

“The actions of those in Congress who support defunding for the new silica rule is a direct attack on the health and safety of coal miners,” Roberts said. “The epidemic of black lung disease is a critical issue that demands immediate action. The union urges all members of Congress to reject this dangerous provision and stand up for the health and safety of our nation’s coal miners.”

“Miners with black lung disease have been fighting for protections from deadly silica dust for decades. The union is grateful MSHA finally took action formulating the new silica standard,” said Secretary-Treasurer Sanson.

“It is disturbing, to say the least, that a handful of politicians, who are supposed to be for the people, have taken actions that are a slap in the face to every coal miner in our nation,” Sanson said. “If this policy becomes law, it will put thousands of miners at even greater risk. Congress needs to do better, and our miners deserve better.”

Text taken from the United Mine Workers of America.

My Thoughts On The Remarks Made By Shawn Fain and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at the DNC

I found the remarks offered by UAW President Shawn Fain and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at the Democratic National Convention last night to be historic. That a militant union leader and a democratic socialist Congresswoman both addressed the convention and spoke one after the other signals a progressive shift in the Democratic Party and a change in our national political scene. Moreover, both support a ceasefire in Gaza, national healthcare, and a break with what gets called "neoliberalism." They were given enough time to make their cases, which they both did quite well, and their talks were scheduled close enough to the remarks made by Hillary Clinton and President Biden that listeners could not put Fain and Ocasio-Cortez in silos and forget about them or take the line that progressives and labor are being taken for granted at this point in the Democratic Party.

The lessons here are not that the Democratic Party gives us enough or is enough or that it can't move backward. What we're seeing is coalition politics and an exceptional level of unity against Trump and the far-right. So-called "Bidenomics" slowly and almost surreptitiously has begun to take us away from the worst aspects of globalization and neoliberalism, and the political expression of this philosophy has given the working-class in the United States the ability to make or win limited advances. I want to stress "limited" because progress has been uneven and has not gone deep enough or far enough and depends to some extent on a foreign policy and relations that risk world war, more famines, increasing global warming, and a deeper global and corporate fascist reaction. And---let's face it---some of the existing limits have been imposed by conservative and fascist forces here at home and through cave-ins by Sinema and Manchin and some others. 

I'm stressing "limited advances," but I also want to stress the potential in the current moment. If we can elect more pro-labor progressives in November, do much better at supporting progressive unions and union leadership at all levels, extend the unity and good vibes that many of us are feeling right now, build on the successes won under the Biden administration, make our movement younger and darker and women- and LGBTQIA+-led, and break the systemic drives to war, globalization, increasing exploitation we will be storming heaven, as the saying goes. And I do believe that we can do that.

Attacks on UAW and Other Unions Seek to Curb Union Power, not “Anti-Semitism”

From the United Electrical Workers:

August 11, 2024

Pittsburgh

Statement of the UE officers

In the face of rising working-class militancy, anti-union forces have launched various legal attacks on the labor movement, using the false claim that union involvement in protests demanding a ceasefire in Gaza is somehow “anti-Semitic.” Most prominently, the federal monitor charged with rooting out corruption in the United Auto Workers has engaged in wildly inappropriate behavior, in a clear attempt to use his immense legal power over the union to shut down their criticism of Israel. The National Right to Work Committee and union-busting law firms like Jones Day have also launched a series of legal cases, including some against UE locals, aimed at undermining union shop and exclusive representation.

On December 13, a little under two weeks after the UAW released a statement calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, the court-appointed monitor overseeing the union, Neil Barofsky, made a phone call to UAW President Shawn Fain, urging him to reconsider the union’s position. In February, Barofsky sent a letter to the UAW executive board reiterating his criticism of the union’s position, and also brought it up in a virtual meeting with the executive board on February 19.

Barofsky was appointed in 2021 as part of a consent decree between the union and the federal government, stemming from rampant corruption under previous UAW leadership. In his role, Barofsky has extensive power to oversee all aspects of the union’s operation, including the power to impose discipline on UAW officers and members. The current leadership of the union was elected to reform the union; they have democratized the UAW and led important and militant fights, and have in fact worked closely with the monitor to root out corruption.

The consent decree which gives Barofsky authority over the union charges him with “remov[ing] fraud, corruption, illegal behavior, dishonesty, and unethical practices” from the union. Nothing in this mandate is applicable to the union’s position calling for a ceasefire, a position voted on by an executive board elected through a democratic process overseen by Barofsky himself.

After the union refused to change its position, and sent Barofsky a letter raising concerns that he was acting outside of his jurisdiction, Barofsky opened a new investigation into the union and demanded that the union turn over more than one hundred thousand documents, including communications that could potentially expose the union’s internal plans for taking on corporations

The attacks on labor over positions on Israeli policy towards Palestinians are not limited to the UAW, however. In July, a lawsuit against the Professional Staff Congress, the union representing faculty and professional staff of the City University of New York, was appealed to the Supreme Court. The National Right to Work Committee, which is providing legal counsel in the case, seeks to further weaken public-sector unions by asking the Supreme Court to eliminate the principle of exclusive representation. If exclusive representation is eliminated, then employers will be free to reward non-members with higher wages and other perks. This would further undermine public-sector unions, which are already suffering under the effects of the 2018 Janus decision outlawing union shop in the public sector. Two UE locals have also been the target of legal actions making false claims of anti-Semitism to attempt to undermine the union shop in the private sector, instigated by the National Right to Work Committee and the notorious union-busting law firm Jones Day.

These lawsuits, like the UAW monitor’s attack on that union, are justified by personal differences of opinion with positions taken by the union’s democratically-elected leadership, or in some cases by the membership as a whole. However, in a democracy, differences should be resolved, not by lawsuits, but by persuasion. UE has never taken action against a member for holding an opinion which differs from the union’s policy. Indeed, the preamble to our constitution directs us to unite all workers regardless not only of “craft, age, sex, nationality, race, [and] creed,” but also of “political beliefs,” and we encourage robust discussion of the union’s policies through our democratic structures.

It is ironic that several of these legal assaults alleging that criticisms of Israel’s military actions constitute “anti-Semitism” are being supported by the National Right to Work Committee, an organization whose history is steeped in actual prejudice against Jewish people. Vance Muse, the lobbyist who was central to the passage of so-called “right-to-work” laws throughout the country in the 1940s, was both a rabid anti-Semite and a committed white supremacist. His organization, the Christian American Association, sought to portray CIO unions like UE and UAW as agents of “Jewish Marxism” — precisely because our organizations united workers regardless of race, creed, and political beliefs.

It is not an accident that these attacks are specifically targeting unions which are growing, leading militant struggles, and daring to take independent positions on U.S. foreign policy. In this and in many other ways, they resemble the attacks on the progressive wing of the labor movement in the 1940s and 1950s when the unions which were growing, leading militant struggles, and taking independent positions on U.S. foreign policy were tarred as “communist-dominated” and subjected to government persecution — all of which only aided the corporations. The attacks on so-called “anti-Semitism” are nothing more than a new McCarthyism.

Just as we have always rejected any attempts by the government, corporations or special interests to dictate UE policy, we forcefully condemn the attempts by the federal monitor to influence the policies of the UAW, and to retaliate against them for taking a courageous and just stand for peace. We urge the court which appointed Barofsky to replace him with a monitor who will not exceed his authority.

More broadly, we condemn the cynical misuse of claims of anti-Semitism to attack union security and exclusive representation. We call upon the rest of the labor movement to close ranks against these attacks on exclusive representation, on the union shop, and on the right of unions to democratically take policy positions independent of the government or any political party.

Carl Rosen
General President

Andrew Dinkelaker
Secretary-Treasurer

Mark Meinster
Director of Organization

MSNBC report: UAW President Shawn Fain on Harris and Trump

 

"We are the Heart, Soul, and Backbone of Cornell." UAW Local 2300

A July 12, 2024 report from the union bargaining committee says:


Sisters, brothers, and siblings,

Your bargaining committee met with the university today and we discussed their response to our economic package that didn't come close to meeting our membership needs and expectations.

We went through each of their rejected demands line by line and asked direct questions regarding their attitude of dismissal for our proposals. These questions Included why Veterans Day with pay was rejected for Veterans, why our parking proposal was rejected, why Dining and other Student Campus Life (SCL) clothing allowances were rejected.

Many of the answers to the questions we posed were postponed until next week as "Cornell's only professional negotiator" needed time to come up with answers for the pointed questions we asked.

Jules hammered home the members' proposal at the Botanic Gardens to have a provision for cell phones. He provided detailed information outlining the importance of having the phone on Cornell's expansive property.

The Cornell committee seemed disinterested in what was being discussed except for their smirks.

Ronda gave an eye-watering and heart-wrenching account of the Cornell wages provided, drawing parallels to her experience as a new mom in 1990 and seeing the same old, same old today.

Molly queried about the floating holidays and why others on campus should have the ability to observe their particular holidays but not us.

John asked questions about the rejection of COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment) and vehicle allowance increases.

Chauncey had to explain what eliminating tiers meant to the Cornell team. (A tier is a higher pay grade or benefit that is forever unobtainable by employees not in the tier, versus a step which is a higher pay grade obtainable by seniority).

President Christine Johnson, argued aggressively and emotionally for the Statler tipped wage staff to be made whole in their retirement contributions.

The bargaining committee reminded the HIGHLY paid lawyer representing the University, Laurie Johnston, that our membership will not continue living paycheck to paycheck. That being left behind while Cornell University keeps padding its nearly $10 billion endowment and continuing to expand the infrastructure and invest in buildings not people is unacceptable. Finally, we reminded Cornell that it is our hands and hard physical labor that are developing the profits for the campus, and we will NOT be walking away from the bargaining table without what we deserve!

We want to thank everyone for the turnout at yesterday's A LOT rally despite the last-minute announcement and rain. We had a lot of information available and given by your UAW Region 9 International Rep. Lonnie Everett.

Very important OUR NEXT BARGAINING UNITY RALLY will be Tuesday, July 16 at 1:30 N LOT Tower Road across from Mann Library by the Athletic fields.

In Solidarity, your UAW Local 2300 bargaining team.

THE BRONX DEFENDERS UNION ANNOUNCES UNLIMITED UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICE STRIKE BEGINNING WEEK OF JULY 22, 2024

Bronx, NY – On July 2, 2024, one day after the contract between The Bronx Defenders (BxD) and its wall-to-wall union, The Bronx Defenders Union–UAW Local 2325 (BxD Union), expired, BxD Union’s Bargaining Committee voted to authorize an unlimited Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike beginning the week of July 22, 2024.

The difficult decision to authorize a strike comes after the Bargaining Committee attempted for months to engage BxD’s executive management team in bargaining without success. BxD’s failure to bargain in good faith—an unfair labor practice—has left BxD Union with no choice but to call for a strike.

“For the past six months, the Bargaining Committee has worked tirelessly to meet the demands of all 260 of our members. BxD Management, in their failure to bargain in good faith, has shown us that they don’t serve the Bronx communities we defend. Sadly, the solidarity, equity, and empathy with which our union operates appears foreign to them,” said Tyler Johnson, Bronx native, Civil Legal Advocate, and member of the Bargaining Committee. “Nonetheless, BxD Union stands ready to show BxD Management the value of our labor and the power of our collective solidarity. We cannot be bullied, gaslit, or intimidated. We’re ready to strike.”

The Bargaining Committee was empowered to call for a strike by a historic strike authorization vote. On June 27, 2024, with 93% of members participating, 93% of BxD Union voted to authorize the Bargaining Committee to call for a strike if necessary. With this vote, BxD Union became the first of the alternate providers formed after 1994 to authorize a strike in thirty years, since the Legal Aid Society went on strike under Mayor Giuliani.

Members of BxD Union cannot effectively defend the people of the Bronx when they are among the lowest-paid public defenders in New York City, contending with high attrition and unmanageable caseloads. On strike, they will protest BxD’s unfair labor practices and call for competitive salaries and benefits, no rollbacks of existing benefits and protections, a one-year contract, and key noneconomic benefits, including free speech and sustainable working conditions.

BxD Union is prepared to return to the bargaining table and make every effort to avoid this strike. BxD’s management can avert the extreme disruption a strike will cause, including interruption of client services, by agreeing to BxD Union’s reasonable contractual framework.

Post from the United Auto Workers.

Workers at the University of California represented by UAW Local 4811 are striking & need our support

The following is a loose recap from several sources of the rolling strike movement underway in the University of California university system and led by UAW Local 4811:

Academic workers led by UAW 4811 are going on an unprecedented strike to protect their rights to free speech, protest, and collective action. Members voted overwhelmingly in favor of authorizing a ULP strike over the violation of basic workplace rights like safety. The University of California system allowed counter-protestors to assault peaceful demonstrations and called riot cops on its students and workers. In the coming days, campus by campus, these workers will be standing up and walking out.

The union has stated their case with these words:

On the night of May 1-May 2, LAPD police in riot gear arrested more than 200 peaceful student protesters and academic workers exercising their legal right to demonstrate against the death, destruction and human suffering directed at the people of Gaza. Many of those arrested had spent the previous night seeking medical care or hospitalization after being physically attacked and maced by a group of anti-Palestinian counter-protesters . Though UCLA and LAPD were on notice of the attacks, they deliberately failed to respond.

An explanation of the Unfair Labor Practice charges that are being filed are here.

The strength of this movement lies in its ability to build solidarity between labor and social movements, deepen union organizing, defend and build upon social justice principles, and find new ways to protect workers who want to stand for social justice even when our rights are under attack. Some of the workers who are active in the strike movement were on strike in 2022 and come to the current strike with strike and organizing experience. This strike movement is being built in part in solidarity with Palestnian trade unionists. Other unions are respecting the picket lines and strike participation is increasing as the strike takes hold. The dangers here are that this is a spontaneous movement and that we need to keep focused on demands for a ceasefire in Palestine and not let this moment become primarily about the right to protest peacefully here in the United States. The main weaknesses here are that UAW Local 4811 is going into this fight without enough solidarity from others, that this is largely uncharted territory, and that the local needs more rank-and-file involvement in order to back up the threat of rolling strikes. And the same people who will attack an encampment might well attack picket lines.

Aside from the positives and negatives mentioned here, the strike movement that Local 4811 is leading depends on deep internal organizing that union activists have been engaging in for several years. That means that the union's leading activists are building structures that can respond to the current crises and other ones that will evolve in time, but it also means that what is happening in California with Local 4811 cannot be easily copied. If you want a local union that can take on big fights, you have to work towards that and doing that can take years. Mass strike movements hit a wall when the rest of us aren't also in motion.   

An article in Labor Notes written by Caitlyn Clark under date of May 14 gives us some helpful context for what is going on:

As campus protests—and violent police repression—continue to roll across the country, some unions are getting involved.

More than 2,700 protesters have been arrested on 64 college campuses since the initial arrests at Columbia University in New York on April 18. Encampments have appeared at 184 campuses worldwide. The protesting students are calling for full disclosure of their universities’ finances and divestment from all financial ties to weapons manufacturers and Israel’s war on Gaza.

Unionized academic workers are demanding decision-making power over their work and what it’s used for. For instance, academic workers in the astronomy department of the University of California Santa Cruz have organized to refuse to apply for or accept funding from the U.S. Department of Defense, weapons manufacturers, and military contractors.

In an open letter published by the magazine Science for the People in January, they wrote, “UC has received $295 million in research funding from the Department of Defense in FY 2022 alone… Technology that astronomers have developed for science is being misused to surveil and target people both within and outside the U.S.”

For others, the police assaults on protestors and university administrators’ attacks on campus free speech have become issues of contract violations and workplace safety. Auto Workers (UAW) Local 4811, representing 48,000 academic workers across the University of California system, filed unfair labor practice (ULP) charges against their employer over violent police attacks on the UCLA student encampment.

“UCLA unilaterally changed its workplace free speech policies without providing notice or bargaining,” Local 4811 said in a statement. “In so doing it violated its policy of content neutrality toward speech by favoring those engaged in anti-Palestine speech over those engaged in pro-Palestine speech.”

The local will hold a strike authorization vote over the ULP May 13-15. The vote could lead to thousands of academic workers striking for free speech and in solidarity with the student movement for Palestine. READ MORE HERE.

This video from Humboldt Freelance Reporting also gives some needed context:

The university system has seemed to be unwilling to meet with the union and resolve the issues at hand. The California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) has asked the University of California to meet with the union to work through what is motivating the filing of the Unfair Labor Practice charges, but UC instead asked the Board for an injunction against the strike. PERB has denied the injunction. This denial is going to help grow the strike movement. 

Rafael Jaime, the President of Local 4811, has been quoted in the media as saying, “It’s unfortunate that UC has not made progress toward remedying the unfair labor practices they have committed. Rather than put their energies into resolution, UC is attempting to halt the strike through legal procedures. Academic workers are united in our demand that UC address these serious ULPs, beginning with amnesty for our colleagues who are facing criminal or disciplinary proceedings because they spoke out against injustice.”

Common and popular ways to support the strike movement are:

1. Donate to the UAW 4811 Hardship Fund at UAW 4811 Hardship Fund,

2. Pass a Support Resolution – The Democratic Socialists of America have a template here at “Solidarity with 4811” to help you do this. Please feel good about crafting resolutions in your own words, and please send them to Loal 4811.

3. Show up at the picket lines, listen to the strikers, and provide what is needed if you can.

UAW Local 4811 & Other Unions Are Taking Action To Support Union Members Engaging In Protests

An important article in The Guardian under the headline "Union plans strike vote over crackdown on University of California Gaza protests" opens with the following:

The largest union of academic workers, which represents more than 48,000 graduate student workers throughout the University of California system, will hold a strike authorization vote as early as next week in response to how universities have cracked down on students’ Gaza protests.

“The use and sanction of violent force to curtail peaceful protest is an attack on free speech and the right to demand change, and the university must sit down with students, unions, and campus organizations to negotiate, rather than escalate,” read an announcement of the strike vote from UAW local 4811.

Earlier this year, the union voted by a margin of more than nine to one in favor of supporting a ceasefire, according to the announcement.

Read more here.

From UAW Local 4811

A May, 2024 post on UAW Local 4811's website gives the following advisory notice:

Last night, LAPD police in riot gear arrested more than 200 peaceful student protesters and academic workers exercising their legal right to demonstrate against the death, destruction and human suffering directed at the people of Gaza. Many of those arrested had spent the previous night seeking medical care or hospitalization after being physically attacked and maced by a group of anti-Palestinian counter-protesters. Though UCLA and LAPD were on notice of the attacks, they deliberately failed to respond.

In response, our union is preparing Unfair Labor Practice charges against UCLA arising from the Administration’s conduct and actions taken at their request. UCLA administration unilaterally took action that impacted our teaching, our work obligations, our safety and our academic freedom. Of note, under existing University policy, employees had the right to engage in peaceful protest at the worksite. When faced with the Palestine Solidarity encampment, UCLA administration unilaterally changed its policies without providing notice or bargaining. In so doing it violated its policy of content neutrality toward speech by favoring employees engaged in anti-Palestine speech over employees engaged in Pro-Palestine speech. It went further by unilaterally changing workplace policies by prohibiting pro-Palestine speech at the worksite. UCLA used its powers to not only change policy but then, in an unprecedented act, used brute force and police intervention to prevent students and workers from exercising what have historically been rights at the University.

As early as next week, academic workers will hold a Strike Authorization Vote to be able to respond to the Administration’s actions as circumstances dictate.

Yesterday, the Daily Californian reported that UC Berkeley management has started negotiations with the Free Palestine encampment. This option remains open to other campuses as well.

In solidarity,

Anny Viloria Winnett
Department of Community Health Sciences, UCLA
ASE Trustee, UAW 4811

From the Graduate Labor Organization at Brown University 

What the UAW Won At Daimler

 From Portland Jobs with Justice:

After making a credible threat to strike, the UAW reached a historic deal at Daimler Trucks. Thanks to our labor and community members who supported UAW Daimler Global Day of Solidarity at the North American HQ (right here in Portland) to put the company on notice!

The tentative agreement includes:

- 25% raises
- Abolishing wage tiers
- COLA for 1st time
- Profit sharing for the first time

Total worker compensation will go up as much as 67%!

UAW President Fain on Daimler Deadline, New Organizing & Building Power for Every Member

 

TODAY AT 3PM: UAW Global Day of Solidarity

 

Solidarity with Auto Workers and striking Teamsters and a great conference in Portland!

Since 2018, Daimler Truck has seen a 90% increase in profits while its workers have fallen further and further behind. Work by UAW members at Daimler factories, including Freightliner, Western Star Brand, and Thomas Built Bus is driving record company profits, but working at Daimler isn't what it used to be.

UAW members across the country are ready to stand up for a record contract at Daimler!

Join the Global Day of Solidarity to stand with UAW members doing what it takes to win Tuesday, April 23rd TBD! uaw.org/Daimler

The Coors family, executives, and stockholders are living the high life while refusing to negotiate a fair contract with workers who make the beer. Teamsters Local 997 in Fort Worth, 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.

Support the Teamsters who are holding the line for a strong contract. Boycott Molson Coors until workers get the job protections and wage increases they deserve! Take part in a bit of history, renewed by Texas Teamsters, and join us in supporting the long-running 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!

Registration for the Labor Research Action Network Conference is now open!

The conference will run from Thursday June 20th 8am to Friday June 21st 5pm PDT.

The 2024 LRAN conference is co-hosted by the University of Oregon Labor Education and Research Center (LERC) and will be held at Portland State University. The theme of this year’s conference is “How labor can confront a rapidly changing landscape," and plenary sessions will focus on exciting efforts at strengthening and co-enforcing worker protection laws in Oregon and the rise of independent union organizing. Workshops and trainings will be held on a range of issues, including AI, climate jobs, and worker co-ops. The agenda will be available in April.

The early bird rate for admission is $130. The rate will go up to $150 on May 1st. Register here.

If you need a hotel room, there is a room block at the University Place Hotel & Conference Center Portland (union hotel). The rate is $114/night and includes breakfast. To book a room, call the hotel directly at 503-221-0140 and mention the LRAN conference.

The information above was taken from Portland Jobs with Justice. Please support them.

Some Photos From The Front Lines Of Union Organizing

IATSE members employed in off-Broadway productions are on the move!

REI workers are organizing!

Women trade unionists from Brazil, Argentina, and South Africa met at a World

 Federation of Trade Unions meeting.

Another victory for the UAW!

4000 Volkswagon workers in Tennessee are organizing!

Nurses represented by National Nurses United (NNU) at two hospitals in the 

Kansas City, Kansas region rallied outside Research Medical Center last week to 

kick off contract negotiations as they fight for improved staffing, safety and services.

Note: I am sorry that I did not keep better track of the sources for the photos above and the texts given. Most of the photos came from the AFL-CIO, I think. The photo of the women members of the World Federation of Trade Unions came from a digest sent out by the WFTU. The other photos either came from the unions mentioned, thhe metro Washington Labor Council, or from The Red Hot Worker, a great source of clips sent out by SEIU.

Catch up with some labor news

Portland Democratic Socialists of America has the following labor solidarity items posted:

Dealing with Difficult Supervisors - A Steward's Workshop
Wed. Feb. 21, 4-5:30pm (zoom)
This workshop has limited capacity and is for stewards and elected officers who work with stewards - not staff. Please register only if this applies to you.
REGISTER: https://labornotes.org/events/2024/stewards-workshop-dealing-difficult-supervisors-february-2024

Healthcare Workers for Ceasefire
Rally & Deliver Demand to Sen. Wyden & Rep. Blumenauer
Fri. Feb. 23, 4pm
911 NE 11th Ave.

Several labor organizations are promoting these important upcoming Black History Month events:

Coalition of Black Trade Unionists: Black History Month Events
Ongoing throughout February both on Zoom and in person in Portland
The Oregon Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) cordially invites you to join us for a month-long recognition of Black excellence in conjunction with the Pacific Northwest Labor History Association, Portland Rising, Oregon AFSCME, and AFRAM/SEIU Local 503. 

February 22, 2024 at 6:30pm: Labor History Workshop (In Person at Oregon AFL-CIO)
February 29, 2024 at 7:00pm: Movie Night (In Person at SEIU Local 503)

Click here to learn more about these exciting events!

There is this:

The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) just picked up some bragging rights:

Approximately 34 in-house audio and video workers at Allianz Field, the home

stadium for Major League Soccer’s Minnesota United FC (MNUFC) ratified their

first contract Tuesday — bringing an end to eight months of contentious negotiations

 for the newly unionized crew.

Ford workers got this fixed:

We have this good news:

This is historic:

The staff of FRESHFARM farmers markets voted in favor of ratifying their

 first union contract, making them the first farmers market workers in the country to 

secure a collective bargaining agreement.

The American Federation of Government Employees says:

During a week of spectacular protest actions the following came from the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA:

Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants Authorize Strike, Raising Stakes in

 Contract Talks

Senator Jeff Merkley @SenJeffMerkley 18h Solidarity with the @afa_cwa, @APFAunity, and
@transportworker workers walking out of major airports across the country this week. Flight
attendants are essential workers who support billions in profits for the airline industry. They
must be paid well with a strong #ContractNow!

A cautionary note:

An apology: I am unable to accurately credit most of the sources for the items given above  because of problems with my filing. Most likely came from the AFL-CIO or the unions listed.   

Two Important Labor Solidarity Calls from Portland Jobs With Justice (AND A VICTORY!)

The first post below regarding the academic student employees at Washington State University reached us this morning. I posted it just a few minutes ago and while I was working on another post word reached us that "THE STRIKE IS OFF ! WSU-CASE has a Tentative Agreement with WSU Administration!"

This is indeed good news and it shows what labor solidarity and a credible strike threat can accomplish. It's almost counter-intuitive. You may well avoid a strike if you help build solidarity among your coworkers, have a credible strike threat at hand that even management can see, win support from other union members and then from the public, and have good issues that everyone can identify with. It's much more about what happens between us and our coworkers every day and much less about what happens behind closed doors.

I'm going to leave the post up to draw attention to the union's victory.

More than a thousand academic student employees at Washington State University walked off the job today, after 11 months of university administration's unwillingness to offer a contract which supports fair wages, improved health care, paid parental leave, and more. Join WSU CASE-UAW (Coalition of Academic Student Employees-UAW) and UAW Local 492 down at the Vancouver branch of WSU to support workers on strike! Follow along on Facebook here, on Twitter here. And sign up for picket shifts here!

WSU entrance, 14100 NE Salmon Creek Ave., Vancouver WA

Beginning today, for as long as it takes! 7am - 5pm

Doughnut Workers United Blue Star will vote in their union election today! Following the election, you can join DWU Bluestar tonight, at 7pm, at Workers Tap in Portland.

10% of all sales will support the GoFundMe set up to aid the active union supporters who were furloughed during the unionization effort.

Join the fundraiser tonight and/or contribute directly here!

The connection between contract bargaining and politics

Taken from SEIU's Red Hot Worker of 1/9/24 

 

Who We Are Right Now

Members of Plumbers & Gasfitters Local 5 marched with union locals from across

 the country as part of Tradeswomen Build Nations last weekend in DC. Photo from

 the Metro Washington Labor Council.

“When I’m at work, I spend a lot of time waiting near idling diesel locomotive 

engines. I know this pollution is affecting my breathing. I can feel it, and I am not the

 only one. We have a lot of drivers who have health problems. It impacts everybody, 

especially in the communities that are right around these rail yards. Drivers like me

 used to have better jobs directly with the railroads, but they subcontracted our work

 so they could save money. Now, they don’t have to pay for things like health insurance

 for us. Here we are, doing the work, making them money, and all they are doing is

 making us sick.”---Cedric Whelchel of the United Electrical workers. Photo from

the UE Research and Education Fund.

"Hundreds of early-career researchers at the US National Institutes of 

Health (NIH) have voted overwhelmingly to form a union, nearly completing

 the official process required to do so. They plan to call on the agency — the world’s

 largest public funder of biomedical research — to improve pay and working conditions,

 and to bolster its policies and procedures for dealing with harassment and excessive workloads."

 Taken from an article by Max Kozlov that appeared in NATURE and in Portside. Photo by

 Melissa Lyttle.

Communications Workers of America District 1 Healthcare Workers met in Buffalo,

 N.Y., for their first ever Healthcare Worker Convening. Photo from CWA District 1.

These Hands--A New Auto Workers Video