labor

Steward’s Corner: How One Union Uses Kitchen Table Economics to Advance Medicare for All

Leave a Comment / healthcare, labor, unions / By max cyril

Our union, the United Electrical Workers, represents a diverse range of workplaces. Our members manufacture locomotive engines in Erie, Pennsylvania, and soap in Orange County, California; provide social services from Connecticut to Iowa to Los Angeles; and work in grocery stores from Vermont to Wisconsin. They also have a wide spectrum of political opinions. But …

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The Heat Wave Shows Climate Change Is a Workers’ Rights Issue

Leave a Comment / Climate Change, labor, OSHA / By max cyril

The workers laboring outside in this extraordinary heat are on the front lines of the climate crisis. The end of June saw temperatures soar all around the United States, with historic heatwaves in the Pacific Northwest and excessive heat advisories, watches and warnings elsewhere. The heat is not just uncomfortable, it’s deadly, buckling roads and …

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Shrugging Off Anti-Union Campaign, New York Times Tech Workers See a Chance to Make History

Leave a Comment / labor, media, technology, unions / By max cyril

Times workers plan to ride the media union wave right onto a bigger wave of tech organizing. In April, more than 650 tech workers at the New York Times announced that they were unionizing with the NewsGuild, forming what would instantly become one of the biggest unions of tech workers in America. Times management refused to voluntarily recognize the union, a break …

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Dispersed but Undaunted, Chicago Amazon Workers Help Win Megacycle Pay Nationwide

Leave a Comment / labor, unions / By max cyril

Chicago Amazon warehouse workers were put in a tough spot, and made the best of it. In January, the company hit workers in Chicago’s DCH1 delivery station with a devastating one-two punch. First, Amazon was shutting down their workplace, so they would have to transfer to other facilities across the city. Second, workers at delivery …

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Black-owned distillery embraces its workers’ union, this week in the war on workers

Leave a Comment / labor, unions, workplace safety / By max cyril

When workers at Du Nord Craft Spirits decided to form a union, joining UNITE HERE Local 17, the company voluntarily recognized them without any delay and in fact publicized the occasion itself. Du Nord bills itself as the first Black-owned distillery in the United States. “The production staff of Du Nord Craft Spirits chose to form a union …

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There Is No Labor Shortage, Only Labor Exploitation

Leave a Comment / labor, unemployment / By max cyril

Conservatives and corporate employers are weaving an insidious web of myths, lies and exaggerations to justify maintaining low-wage jobs. For the past few months, Republicans have been waging a ferocious political battle to end federal unemployment benefits, based upon stated desires of saving the U.S. economy from a serious labor shortage. The logic, in the words of …

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How Many Strikes Are There in the U.S.?

Leave a Comment / labor, Labor Movement, Strike, unions / By max cyril

How many strikes are there in the United States? It’s a question with obvious importance to labor activists, yet there is no readily accessible answer. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases an annual work stoppage summary in February reporting the number of strikes and lockouts over the prior year—but only those that involved at least 1,000 …

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The Dream of a Unionized New Orleans Is Coming True

Leave a Comment / labor, unions / By max cyril

The pandemic was the first big test for New Orleans’ hospitality unions. They passed with flying colors. Drago’s, the sea food restaurant inside the over 1,600-room Hilton Riverside hotel, advertises itself as the inventor of charbroiled oysters, a claim too good to check. Trinice Dyer, a New Orleans native, has worked there as a server for 12 years. When Dyer and …

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BREAKING: Draft Legislation in New York Would Put Gig Workers into Toothless ‘Unions’

Leave a Comment / Independant Contractors, labor, unions / By max cyril

An effort backed by the New York State AFL-CIO would create a new bargaining scheme for app-based workers without addressing the question of whether or not these workers are legally “employees.” Labor Notes obtained a draft version of the legislation that is being negotiated by unions and app employers. Workers for apps like Uber, Lyft, and …

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Wage theft is a huge problem that requires a creative solution, this week in the war on workers

Leave a Comment / labor, MinimumWage, wage theft / By max cyril

If a worker steals from their employer, they can be fired or even face criminal charges. If an employer steals their workers’ wages, they … usually get to keep the money with no penalties. Wage theft is outrageously common, and it’s rarely treated as a serious civil violation, let alone a criminal one, despite taking money from …

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