Labor Unions
world-outlook.com
September 7, 2024 Union leaders told World-Outlook that while the letter is addressed to ALU members at JFK8 its content is public information.
www.peoplesworld.org
Check it out: ---- >WASHINGTON—Despite heavy security which prevented them from surrounding the U.S. Capitol, thousands of protesters jammed Washington’s Pennsylvania Avenue to denounce Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a mass march Wednesday. They declared him “a war criminal,” demanded his arrest, and blasted U.S. aid to and complicity with his ongoing genocidal war on Gaza. > >The protests continued even as Netanyahu spoke to a joint meeting of Congress, thanking Democratic President Joe Biden for weapons shipments since the Israeli military launched its massive retaliatory invasion of Gaza last October. > >The far-right PM lavished even more praise on former Republican President Donald Trump—a white nationalist, misogynist, convicted felon—and once again the party’s nominee. Both Netanyahu and Trump seek to again split the Democratic coalition that backed Biden and is now coalescing around Vice President Kamala Harris’s candidacy to succeed him. > >Using a Cold War insult, the U.S.-educated Netanyahu called the protesters “useful idiots.” Seizing on a chance to try to pinkwash the genocide, he took a shot at LGBTQ protesters, in particular, saying protesters holding signs reading “Gays for Gaza” were akin to poultry carrying “Chickens for KFC” placards. > >Addressing a pared-down gathering of lawmakers, Netanyahu demanded even more U.S. money and weaponry for his military campaign to subjugate Gaza. “Give us the tools faster, and we’ll finish the job faster,” he said. The war has reduced Gaza to ruins, produced two million refugees, killed at least 38,000 people, and left more than 100,000 injured. > >Aside from condemning Netanyahu, the big targets for the protesters were Congress and President Biden. “Our leaders have tacitly endorsed his \[Netanyahu’s\] crimes…. Biden and too many members of Congress have not only tolerated these atrocities, they’ve been complicit in them,” one demonstrator told _People’s World_. > >“As Americans and taxpayers, we do not welcome war criminals into our legislative chambers,” meaning Netanyahu, another said. > >**Labor leads in the streets** > >Besides Palestinian solidarity groups, organized labor and Jewish peace groups were also large presences among the demonstrators. The [United Auto Workers took the lead](https://peoplesworld.org/article/united-auto-workers-to-spearhead-labor-ceasefire-contingent-in-netanyahu-protests/) in building a “Labor for Ceasefire” contingent which ultimately encompassed several unions. > >UAW Region 9A President Brandon Mancilla spoke to attendees, and the Auto Workers chartered several buses from Detroit and five or six busloads from New York. “The more money going to war, the less money goes to working-class needs,” Mancilla said. “This has been a key demand of our working-class movement.” > >Postal Workers (APWU) President Mark Dimondstein declared, “We’re in solidarity with the workers and students of Gaza.” APWU was the first big national union to demand a ceasefire and negotiations to end the Gaza War. “We call on the U.S. government to halt all military aid to the Netanyahu government.” > >“Our tax dollars should never be used to bomb the men, women, and children of Gaza,” Dimondstein told the crowd. The Israeli war on Gaza “is raising the danger of a wider war,” he warned. “The U.S. government has the leverage to stop Israel,” Dimondstein elaborated. “And it is a falsehood that being anti-Israel is being anti-Semitic,” as both Netanyahu and Republicans contend. > >APWU was one of seven unions to sign a [joint letter to Biden](https://peoplesworld.org/article/seven-national-unions-demand-biden-end-u-s-military-aid-to-israel/) with those ceasefire and negotiations demands the day before Netanyahu’s speech. They also backed an aid cutoff. APWU reaffirmed its anti-war stand at a recent convention, Dimondstein told the crowd. > >Other signers included the National Education Association, the Association of Flight Attendants/CWA, the Service Employees, the Auto Workers, the Painters, and the United Electrical Workers. Speakers estimated the seven unions speak for 7.5 million members. > >“The Israeli government will continue to pursue its vicious response to the horrific attacks of October 7th until it is forced to stop,” their letter said. “We believe immediately cutting U.S. military aid to the Israeli government is necessary to bring about a peaceful resolution to this conflict.” > >Those unions, plus members of the Office and Professional Employees, the Communications Workers, the Steelworkers, and the National Nurses United, also marched. > >“I think union activists and organizers and the rank and file, for many months, have pressed our leadership to come out in opposition to the war crimes and pressed our \[U.S.\] administration to do more” to stop them, said OPEIU Local 2 member Chelsea Bland. > >The protesters were barred from ringing the Capitol due to a massive police presence, including 200 imported New York City cops. They responded with chants of “Free Palestine” and more. Signs declared, “The blood is on your hands” showing pictures of both Biden and Netanyahu. “Netanyahu, you can’t hide. We charge you with genocide,” another chant went. > >Code Pink reported that after both the demonstration and Netanyahu’s speech ended, police pepper-sprayed and arrested some of its members protesting at various barricades. _The Hill_ reported 16 arrests, including five who stood up with anti-war insignia in the House gallery. > >**Dissent inside the Capitol** > >Some 50 lawmakers boycotted the speech, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind-Vt., the prime sponsor of military aid cutoffs to Israel. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., a Palestinian-American whose Detroit-area district includes the nation’s largest concentration of Arab-Americans, and who blasted the administration in a floor speech the day before, wore a _kaffiyeh_ to the House floor. > >She defiantly faced down Netanyahu from her seat in the House chamber, holding up a black and white sign with messages the Israeli leader couldn’t avoid. On one side, it read, “Guilty of Genocide,” and on the other was “War Criminal.” > >Both Vice President Kamala Harris, and Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, were out campaigning. So was Trump. People noticed Harris’s absence. The Vice President and House Speaker usually jointly preside at such joint meetings. Pro-Israel Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., replaced Harris. > >The vice president is expected to meet one-on-one with Netanyahu at some point during his visit, and many ceasefire activists are hoping she will signal a break from Biden’s policy of essentially unconditional support for Netanyahu. Tlaib has [encouraged the new Democratic nominee to back an Israeli arms embargo](https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/tlaib-slams-netanyahu-visit-says-harris-should-back-israeli-arms-embargo/). > >Right-wing and Trumpite Republicans repeatedly cheered the Israeli PM, while most of the other Democrats sat in stony silence. As for those who boycotted the speech, some had a lot to say. > >“I am past pissed off. I am past upset. I am absolutely ashamed of what is happening,” Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., told the press. She participated in a conference call alongside other Democrats and former government officials who have resigned from their jobs in protest of the administration’s policy. “Our government has been actively complicit in genocide every step of the way,” Bush added. > >**Anti-war voices** > >“We want to make sure our voices are heard and our dissatisfactions are discussed,” said Melissa Kiseling, one of a group of Young Communist League members, from D.C., Baltimore, and Brooklyn, who carried a large banner and signs during the protest. > >“As workers and as union members, I think it is really important that we are standing with the workers and the union movement in Palestine,” added another, Justin Otter. > >The Communist Party USA distributed a statement Wednesday drawing attention to the fact that International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan is seeking an arrest warrant for Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity. > >“Netanyahu’s presence in Congress is a disgrace and an affront,” the CPUSA said. “We demand the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu, and we call for the United States to end its complicity in genocide and to support a permanent, lasting ceasefire.” > >The party reiterated its support for “Palestinian self-determination and an end to the illegal 76-year Israeli occupation of Palestine.” > >Gokar Ivfar, an Auto Worker Region 9A member from the Graduate Students Union at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, spoke with _People’s World_ about youth involvement in the ceasefire movement. “It’s very important to represent not just students in the U.S., but students around the world,” who have protested Biden’s aid to Israel for the Gaza War, he said. The war “should alarm all of us.” > >Some of the marchers and speakers wondered to what extent Harris would deviate from Biden’s lockstep support for Israel’s war. Some were skeptical, but others expressed the view that she is not as emotionally committed as he is to uncritical support of Netanyahu’s right-wing government and its military campaign. > >Harris “seems to be more open to a different approach” to the Israel-Palestinian conflict in general and the war in particular, UAW 9A President Brandon Mancilla told _People’s World_. “But we need to see results.” He noted Harris’s absence from Netanyahu’s speech. > >**Netanyahu the opportunist** > >The Associated Press reported that before Netanyahu’s speech, some 60 lawmakers, led by Rep. Tlaib, met privately with families of hostages whom Hamas still holds, nine months after the Oct. 7 attack. The families said Netanyahu ignores the hostages’ plight to seek peace in order to further his own political purposes. > >Netanyahu’s purposes, Israeli media report, are to “win the war,” establish complete rule over Gaza, and by doing so, keep himself and his far-right nationalist coalition in power while he evades trial on corruption charges. > >In a measure of how controversial Netanyahu is, security for his speech covered most of the nation’s capital. High steel fences surrounded the Capitol building, just as they did during anti-Trump and pro-abortion protests. The surrounding neighborhood was cordoned off, and the rest of D.C. suffered its most massive traffic jam in decades. > >Major avenues and all side streets for a mile or more around the Israeli embassy were closed for hours. Police cruisers blocked everything. Helicopters constantly patrolled overhead. Bus routes were canceled or stopped. Only the subway ran, and an occasional pedestrian got through. > >But none of that stopped demonstrators’ message from getting through to the world: Ceasefire and arms embargo now. > >_C.J. Atkins contributed to this article._ > >>We hope you appreciated this article. At _People’s World_, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all, but we need your help. Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader-supported. Only you, our readers and supporters, make this possible. If you enjoy reading _People’s World_ and the stories we bring you, please [support our work by donating or becoming a monthly sustainer today](https://peoplesworld.org/donate/). Thank you! ---- Your thoughts overall?
actionnetwork.org
cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/2010898 > I understand this is mostly an empty gesture, but it does allow you to donate some money to the Trader Joe's Union, which is better than nothing.
(Not in the USA but in Bulgaria) Let's start by saying that I work in customer support for a company that employs us full time but then subcontract us to other companies. In my case I'm a contractor for one of the GAFAM companies (I don't think I can say exactly what product for legal reasons) and in our project they just announced to some people (and will inform the rest of them in the next few days) that a lot of workers will be fired as they are introducing more AI support (which is obviously worse for the customer, i've seen the tests they are doing) starting from next month. I'm not sure this is enough time to fight to create a union especially considering how past fights to unionize as contractors for this company went (We would likely loose some other clients as well with the protests and unionization) My job is very likely not at risk right now but obviously there will be no more promotions and probably no pay raise as they will just say they can't due to AI competition or something. Also a lot of my collogues will be fired. Probably if everyone in my project that knows about this things doesn't get involved somehow nothing will happen since for now it's just our part of this company project even though very clearly it's going to be all of them at some point. What should I do to help my fellow workers ? Would it actually be possible to unionize when only some projects are currently affected ? Or should I just try to raise class awareness as much as possible to make the people that will remain more active about their condition in the future ?
Article is pro-Democrat, but it's yet another union victory that we can add to the list of union victories since 2020.
web.archive.org
 CHICAGO —Another month and another leading Chicago cultural institution—the Museum of Science and Industry—saw workers file to unionize with the State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31. Their April 12 announcement accompanied a letter with 54 signatures. AFSCME wants to cover 140 guest operations, guest experiences and education workers. If workers at the museum, located at the northern end of Jackson Park, win a National Labor Relations Board-run recognition election, they’ll follow in the footsteps of colleagues at other world-renowned Chicago cultural institutions: The Newberry Library, the Art Institute and its school, and the Field Museum. Council 31 has won recognition votes at all of them. Next up on AFSCME’s list, even before the Museum of Science and Industry, is the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum of the Chicago Academy of Sciences. Its workers filed for union recognition on March 28. That election would cover approximately 50 guest services workers. All are part of a continuing nationwide Cultural Workers United organizing campaign by the 1.4-million member AFSCME, national union President Lee Saunders told reporters D.C. at an informal get-together/press conference in a bar on April 12. Other notable wins include victories at art museums in Baltimore, Minneapolis and Philadelphia and leading libraries in major cities. The Museum of Science and Industry “operates like a machine with many moving parts and it cannot thrive if we are unable to stand in solidarity with one another. We deserve a workplace culture that embodies the value of workers,” the grass-roots committee posted on its campaign website. “In order to continue providing high-quality experiences and to create more inclusivity within our community, we have come together to solidify our voice by forming our union,” they wrote. Council 31 Executive Director Roberta Lynch said in a statement other reasons for the organizing drive “include fair treatment, better pay and a say in all decisions that affect them.” The Museum of Science and Industry is familiar with unions, as a unit of 60 Electrical Workers (IBEW) members serves there, Council 31 says. There’s no indication of their specific tasks, but the museum’s renovated building is the sole surviving structure, at least externally, of the 1892-93 World’s Columbian Exposition—which was totally electric-lit in an era when electric lights were rare. Internally, exhibits range from a reconstructed underground coal mine—complete with an elevator down the shaft—and see-through human body mockups to a captured Nazi submarine. A museum email to the Chicago Sun-Times mouthed the standard corporate lines, that management “would respect the right” of workers to go union or not, but prefers direct dealing with employees, one by one. In such cases, bosses hold all the cards, especially the money card. The museum claimed it’s competitive on pay, an assertion workers disputed in talking with the paper. They added low pay led to high turnover. The museum was silent about if it would hire an union-buster in union-friendly Chicago. The unionists’ cover letter urged it to avoid doing so.
aflcio.org
Join a union. Even an AFL-CIO union would be better than no union. Keep in mind that there are also IWW and independent unions. Good luck!
web.archive.org
Tesla, a multi-million-dollar company known for its union-busting tactics, has fired over 40 workers at their plant in Buffalo, NY in an attempt to halt a fast-growing union drive. At Tesla plants across the country, workers have reported issues with low pay, wage theft, and safety violations. Workers at the Tesla Gigafactory 2 plant in Buffalo, NY have reported similar issues, such as workers living paycheck-to-paycheck, a lack of pay transparency, purposefully confusing management structure, insufficient sick time, inability to provide automatic pay raises that were promised, and a lack of say in day-to-day operations. A group of Buffalo Tesla workers (referred to as Tesla Workers United), launched their union drive on Valentine’s Day this year. This union drive began in November 2022 when the Buffalo Tesla factory closed due to a record-breaking blizzard and Tesla management refused to pay workers unless they used their sick or vacation time that was not already spent. When workers tried to express concerns via official communication channels, those channels were shut down by Tesla management. This led to workers creating their own lines of communication and discussing the need to form a collective voice – a union. Tesla Workers United plan to be represented by Workers United Upstate New York, a prominent union group in the Buffalo area. Workers United successfully organized the historic first Starbucks union in the United States, which was formed in Buffalo, NY in 2021. Similarly, Buffalo Tesla workers are coming together to form the first-ever Tesla union in the United States. As we saw with Starbucks workers (who now have over 250 unions across the United States), the union drive by Buffalo Tesla workers could be a catalyst for far-reaching union activity across Tesla plants nationwide. According to a February 14th statement by Tesla Workers United, workers believe that unionizing and creating a more collaborative work environment fulfills Tesla’s existing mission toward sustainability: “Unionizing will further accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy, because it will give us a voice in our workplace and in the goals we set for ourselves to accomplish… Our union will further Tesla’s principles and objectives, including by helping to serve the conscience of the organization and by ensuring and deepening our culture of trust and respect.” Tesla workers are correct to point out that Tesla’s supposed mission towards sustainability and environmental benefit is at best performative if workers are being abused and refused a voice. Profits should never be a priority over people and the planet. Unfortunately, Tesla has already implemented harsh union-busting tactics against its workers in Buffalo. Just one day after workers launched their union drive, Tesla fired dozens of workers. Tesla representatives have made excuses that firings were part of regular performance reviews, yet workers made clear that performance reviews were not scheduled until March and rarely include mass layoffs. Amidst all of this, Tesla has half-heartedly affirmed that they support the right of their workers to unionize. This is clearly a hollow affirmation, given Tesla has refused to sign the Fair Election Principles. If Tesla agrees to sign the Fair Election Principles, they must: 1. not threaten or retaliate against workers for organizing a union, 2. agree to a quick and fair election process, and 3. facilitate Tesla Workers United to hold meetings and post information. Tesla Workers United have also experienced censorship as they try to gain community support for their campaign on Twitter, which is owned by Elon Musk (Tesla CEO). According to a recent National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) charge, Tesla Workers United’s Twitter page (@united_tesla) was restricted from appearing on Twitter’s search function. Purposefully stopping or discouraging Tesla Workers United from communicating with fellow workers and the public via Twitter is against the National Labor Relations Act. This is not the first time Tesla has used illegal union-busting tactics. In 2018, Musk took to Twitter to intimidate Tesla employees against unionizing. Specifically, Musk threatened to revoke employee stock options: The NLRB ordered Tesla to delete Elon Musk’s unlawful tweet, but the Tesla CEO has never removed the message. But that’s not all. In 2021, the NLRB found that Tesla had illegally fired an employee attempting to unionize at a Tesla plant in Fremont, California. In 2022, the NLRB ruled that Tesla had illegally prohibited workers from wearing union insignia or apparel in the workplace. Just recently, workers in a new Tesla factory in Austin, TX reported rampant wage theft and falsified safety records. Given Tesla’s (and Elon Musk’s) history of abusing and intimidating workers, it’s inspiring to see that organizers have decided they aren’t going to take it anymore. Already, Tesla workers at the Buffalo plant are receiving outstanding support for their collective efforts. People in Buffalo, NY, and nationwide are realizing that it is the workers that make Tesla successful – NOT mega-rich CEOs like Elon Musk. Elon Musk has done nothing but put workers in danger and violate their basic human rights. Musk has a bloated net worth of almost $200 billion dollars and has made clear that he will do much more to protect his perverse fortune than to support the workers that make his company run. Workers unionizing in Buffalo are proving to workers everywhere that: when we organize, we can beat the boss! If you’d like to donate to fired workers at Buffalo’s Tesla plant, follow this link.
Cool beans.
I love watching this. You can see how the union position is morally unassailable. You can see how the Tory select committee member is just probing at their position, fishing for answers that he can spin to make the union look like it's working against worker interests or just illegitimate, and completely disinterested in replies that don't have that potential. Meanwhile the Labour MP's approach is far more engaged in an actual dialogue with the union reps, actually responding to their answers and trying to resolve conflicting issues. Lynch is based as fuck, and UK mainstream media never actually gives people a chance to see it.
whogetsthebird.substack.com
Thoughts?
www.insidehighered.com
Love to see it.
workdayminnesota.org
Let's keep 'em coming; we need more stuff like this.
mltoday.com
One thing that should be noted is that a lot of union staff are either dying or retiring due to old age, never mind the Covid-19 pandemic. I don't think it's all bad and the drop is not as bad as was expected; I know that a lot of people that I'm around are joining labor unions. We'll see how this continues...
truthout.org
Here we go...
www.peoplesworld.org
These folks could use a union, alright.
Kinda a bad documentary, but worth a listen to (you don't actively have to watch it).
thecounter.org
Awesome!
www.youtube.com
Check it out! Listen to it while you're doing other things 'cause it's a good one. Video is an hour and 30 minutes long.
Video is 10 minutes and 43 seconds. You can listen to it while you're doing other things.
www.peoplesworld.org
Glad that the *Labor Citizen* (from the paper that has its article republished here) is being honest about this. I surmise that this is because the people in this particular industry are usually from the Mid-West and South? Perhaps. Maybe I'm being too cynical.
www.peoplesworld.org
Interesting observation near the end. Worth a read. Seems there's new blood in the labor movement
Others might find this interesting. Basically: while there's no direct proof of any nationalist chauvinism in the IWW, though the citations do mention the work *Settlers* as if to make note of possibly valid criticisms, it does seem that the IWW could only go so far in its revolutionary culture. It is obviously very much based in the "Anglosphere," so to speak. That being said: I'm not sure how much of the "parameters" (as the author says) is based on any sense of "Anglo" nationalism or "Anglo" anything; it may just be historically-based parameters. By that, I mean that it was the turn of the 19th century into the 20th century and, obviously, people were not going to be as far-reaching and far-thinking as we are today. Still, it's an interesting discussion to be had and you could make this discussion with the entire communist movement, I suppose (with then attitudes on LGBTQ peoples and women and so on and so forth). I'm still going through the article, but I think that while it's a worthwhile discussion to be had, I would argue that we need to also see as these earlier movements setting up the current discourse and culture of our own movements, of a link between the movements of the First International (including Marx and Engels) and the 21st century movements. Without these earlier movements, we would've never gotten to where we are today. I hope I'm getting across my point.
www.cnbc.com
This could very well work and it could even give an added boost to labor union efforts that aren't tied to the AFL-CIO. Of course, the AFL-CIO, while turning more to the "left" in recent years (it was called the "AFL-CIA" because many CIA and other intelligence agents had infiltrated the offshore organizations in other countries, at the very least), is still very much a "reformist" organization in terms of politics, though it is not as "anti-communist" as it used to be (the anti-communist legislation is still there by federal law, I think). The Teamsters are known for being the "most radical" of the unions and the more independent ones. They also get the most flack. I know people that know Teamster people and they aren't afraid to get rough and dirty when needed; I daresay they may be more "militant" than even the current IWW in some cases, though I would prefer joining the IWW despite the syndicalist bent of the organization. For those that don't know, this resolution comes on top of a lot of labor battles and fights that have started in the 2010s and have extended even more with the onset 2020 to 2021 so I'm quite hopeful that the labor movement will be a bit stronger than they were before. But we shall see...
jacobinmag.com
Much as I hate Jacobin quite a lot of the times, they seem to be right here. And it's because of people like Joe Biden that there pretty much is no labor movement, at least not one like the earlier decades. We'll see how the events at Bessemer go, but it won't be any thanks to Joe Biden...