unions

90% of Workers Aren’t in a Union. Labor’s Future Depends on Them.

Leave a Comment / unions / By max cyril

My comrade Laura Gabby says that “supermajorities are necessary to raise class consciousness, fight capital, strike and win,” and I agree. But we diverge on how to get there. She and other rank-and-file strategy (RFS) supporters suggest realigning internal union politics from the inside out through a “militant minority.” As Kim Moody argues in his seminal pamphlet about RFS, …

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Want To Build the Labor Movement? Get a Job at a Union Workplace.

Leave a Comment / unions / By max cyril

Only workers themselves have the power to transform society, and workers must organize themselves to do so. Union staff and elected leadership can play important and sometimes pivotal roles, but in the fight against capital to win substantive, lasting gains, workers must be in the driver’s seat. When workers are sidelined, at best we get …

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Newsom has an organized labor problem

Leave a Comment / labor / By max cyril

Some of California’s most powerful unions are openly denouncing Gov. Gavin Newsom less than a year into his tenure, exposing early fractures in the Democratic governor’s base after he spurned proposals they considered a bellwether of his support for labor. Simmering tensions erupted last month when Newsom vetoed three bills backed by the State Building …

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A worker upsurge? This week in the war on workers

Leave a Comment / Strike / By max cyril

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 485,000 U.S. workers were involved in strikes and lockouts during 2018. That’s the highest number since 1986. The data for 2019 won’t be released until 2020, but there’s a good chance that number will be exceeded, a point driven home by the fact that, over the last week, at …

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Chicago teachers reach tentative agreement but one key thing is missing to end strike

Leave a Comment / Strike, Teachers / By max cyril

The Chicago Teachers Union reported a tentative agreement with schools management Wednesday night, but Mayor Lori Lightfoot is holding up the end of the strike in a disagreement over make-up instructional days. In previous strikes, the schools have added make-up days to the end of the school year—but Lightfoot doesn’t want to do that. Chicago …

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When Unions Save Lives

Leave a Comment / unions / By max cyril

It was a typical workday for Michael “Flip” Wilson when a splintered steel bit punctured his forehead an inch above his eye. He was operating the claw-like continuous miner, a machine that cuts coal from an underground seam. Back above ground, Wilson’s superintendent tweezed out the metal, slapped on a BandAid and sent him back under, …

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Will GM Workers Stay Out On Strike In Hopes of a Better Deal?

Leave a Comment / Strike / By max cyril

“They always say it will take multiple agreements to reach equality—we can’t win it all in one go,” said Sean Crawford, a second-tier worker at Flint Truck Assembly in Michigan. For Crawford, the GM strike, the longest at a Big 3 company in 50 years, was the best chance the union had to put an …

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Trump Is Waging a War On Labor Unions, But You Wouldn’t Know It from CNN’s Dem Debate

Leave a Comment / labor / By max cyril

Last night, CNN and the New York Times co-hosted a Democratic debate in Westerville, Ohio—and even by the standards of the mainstream media, the omissions were glaring. There were no questions about police violence, affordable housing, Israel, or the climate crisis. However, there was a softball question about friendship inspired by the bond between Ellen …

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Brazilian and U.S. Workers Confronting Common Threat Build Solidarity in the Global Labor Movement

Leave a Comment / labor / By max cyril

This week, the AFL-CIO joins much of the global labor movement in Brazil to participate in the 13th Congress of Brazil’s largest labor organization, the Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT). Fred Redmond, AFL-CIO vice president and United Steelworkers vice president for human affairs, is leading the AFL-CIO delegation. Addressing the entire congress, Redmond pointed out …

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Treated Like Meat

1 Comment / sexual harassment / By max cyril

Smithfield Foods’ 2,000-employee bacon and sausage packaging plant in Smithfield, Va., sits a mile down the road from the company’s stately corporate headquarters and flagship restaurant, Taste of Smithfield, a tourist-friendly establishment known for its smoked pork brioche sandwich, Virginia craft beer and “piglets” menu for kids under 12. Near the meatpacking plant on Church …

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