Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Committee to Stop FBI Repression.

On May 20, Nadia Topete was visited by two FBI agents and served a subpoena demanding that she testify in front of a grand jury on June 3. Even now, it is not known why she is being subpoenaed; all we know is that she is an immigrants rights activist and an outspoken political Chicana organizer. She refused to go and testify, the penalty to which can be prison time without a known end date. Topete is a hero who stood with the people and the movement at a potentially huge cost to herself and her freedom. We in the Committee to Stop FBI Repression say, “Hands Off!” and we will fight any attempt to jail her, tooth and nail.

Grand juries, nine times out of ten, result in indictments. They do not permit the person being questioned to be in the room with a lawyer, nor to present a defense of any kind, nor even any witnesses. There would have been nothing but Topete and the prosecutors interrogating her and looking for somebody to indict. The result of refusing to go is often jailtime without knowing when you would get out. She did the right, brave thing by saying no. Every activist reading this statement needs to learn from her example.

Topete did nothing wrong. Neither did the other members of the activist group she is in, Centro CSO in Los Angeles, who were charged by the federal government after their participation in the anti ICE uprising in Los Angeles in 2025, such as Alejandro Orellana whose charges were dropped. They did nothing wrong either. We view this as a political attack on activists in Los Angeles, and we say a loud, resounding “No!” to political repression. We say, “Hands Off Nadia Topete!” We will do whatever it takes to defend her, a true daughter of Aztlán.

#InJusticeSystem #PoliticalRepression #NadiaTopete #ImmigrantRights #CentroCSO #CSFR #Featured

Indianapolis, IN — More than 30 workers, Teamsters members and labor supporters rallied outside the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) office in Indianapolis on the morning of June 2. They gathered to demand union certification for nearly 200 table games dealers and dual-rate dealers at Horseshoe Indianapolis, who struck for recognition in fall 2025.

Although the workers won an NLRB election on December 5, 2025, with 70% voting yes, the dealers and dual-rate dealers have continued to face anti-union tactics from Caesars Entertainment. The company filed three objections to the election results in an attempt to delay certification, leading NLRB Region 25 to schedule a hearing for June 2 – nearly six months after the workers' victory.

The rally began an hour before the hearing. It brought together many of the dealers and dual-rate dealers who spent 52 days on strike last year, along with Teamsters from workplaces including UPS and Kroger. Members of other unions, including the United Steelworkers and the Air Line Pilots Association, also joined community supporters in solidarity.

Outside the federal building, the energy was defiant and militant. Workers carried signs reading “Union now,” “Fight back,” and “Organize” as chants echoed through downtown Indianapolis. Teamsters Local 135's tractor-trailer repeatedly circled the building, sounding its horn as workers cheered.

“What do we want? Union! When do we want it? Now!” protesters shouted, calling for the election result to be respected and for the company to stop delaying recognition.

Other chants came directly from the strike that first united the dealers and dual-rate dealers. “One day longer, one day stronger,” demonstrators repeated – a familiar phrase that became a source of encouragement and solidarity on the picket line.

After the rally, members of Teamsters Local 135 and other supporters entered the federal building for an NLRB hearing on Caesars Entertainment's objections related to the payment of strike benefits during the workers' 52-day strike for union recognition.

Dealers and dual rates revive the strike for recognition

A supermajority of dealers and dual-rate dealers at Horseshoe Casino formed a union with Teamsters Local 135 and demanded recognition from the company on September 4, 2025. When management ignored that demand, the workers moved toward an NLRB election scheduled for October 17. But last year's federal government shutdown postponed the election indefinitely.

The union proposed holding the vote as scheduled through a neutral third party under the stipulated election agreement, but the company ignored that proposal as well. Instead, Caesars hired Littler Mendelson, one of the country's largest anti-union law firms, to launch an aggressive campaign against the union.

With no resolution in sight, the Horseshoe dealers and dual-rate dealers turned to a tactic used widely before the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) of 1935: the recognition strike.

Strikes for union recognition continued after the passage of the NLRA, though employer and government attacks on the right to strike in general made them increasingly less common. In the last four decades, the tactic virtually disappeared, as organized labor came to rely on the NLRB election process for union certification and moved away from strikes at all. Meanwhile, union density has collapsed from 20.1% in 1983 to 10% in 2025, with an even greater decline in the private sector.

On October 17, the date originally set for their union election, the dealers and dual rates of Horseshoe casino made history. By a vote of 92%, they authorized a strike for recognition and set up a picket line to force Caesars to the bargaining table. The strike lasted 52 days through severe thunderstorms, subzero temperatures, and heavy snow. Caesars relied on the Shelbyville Police Department and city officials to pressure the strikers, but those efforts failed to break the strike.

After the federal government reopened in mid-November, the NLRB set a date for an expedited election. NLRB Region 25 rejected union requests to hold the vote off-site while the strike continued, forcing striking workers to cross their own picket line to cast ballots.

Following advice from Littler Mendelson, Caesars challenged the eligibility of 50 of its own workers, further delaying the process. Even so, the union won decisively on December 5, 2025, with 100 votes in favor and 47 against. The strike ended a few days later, and the dealers and dual-rate dealers returned to work.

Employer attacks on the right to strike

One week after the union's victory, Caesars Entertainment, through outside counsel, filed three objections aimed at delaying certification. All three focused on strike benefits paid to workers while they were out, which Caesars claimed improperly influenced the election.

Since 2023, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) has offered enhanced strike benefits of $1000 per week, beginning on the first day of an authorized strike. Under General President Sean O'Brien, the union has paid these benefits in more than 300 labor disputes in less than three years.

Because the Horseshoe dealers and dual-rate dealers had already organized, whether or not the employer or the NLRB formally recognized them, the IBT extended enhanced strike benefits to support their fight for recognition. Teamsters Local 135 also provided supplemental aid from its own strike and defense fund. That support helped protect workers and their families from serious financial hardship and enabled them to sustain the strike through victory.

These benefits became the basis for all three company objections, which the NLRB allowed Caesars to pursue without requiring proof at the outset. Caesars argued that the benefits bribed workers to support the union, even though the strike began when no election was scheduled. The company also claimed, without evidence, that the union threatened workers with having to repay benefits if they did not back the union.

Despite decades of case law supporting unions' right to provide financial support during strikes, the Region 25 director ordered a hearing on these claims. The hearing took place on June 2 and 3 and drew more than a dozen dealers and dual-rate dealers.

These objections amount to a broad attack on workers' right to strike. Under the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) of 1959, workers picketing for union recognition must file an election petition with the NLRB by the 30th day, and employers may file their own petition during that period. As a result, while not every recognition strike ends in an NLRB election, any recognition strike can.

If the NLRB were to rule that strike benefits constitute a form of bribery that taints an NLRB election, it would effectively restrict the ability of workers to strike for recognition at all. Such a ruling would give employers a powerful weapon for breaking recognition strikes any time a union provides financial support to its members.

Caesars' false testimony and Littler Mendelson's real motive

On the first day of the hearing, Jill Bortone, Horseshoe Casino's director of human resources, testified. When challenged during the union's cross-examination, she said twice that she had received a union message about strike benefits before the December 5 vote. When the union attorney produced screenshots of the original message dated December 6, the day after the election, doubts were raised about the accuracy of her testimony.

As the company's case weakened, Caesars attorney Alan Model of Littler Mendelson became increasingly combative before the hearing officer.

Model, who says he specializes in “NLRA compliance” and represented Starbucks in its recent anti-union campaign, signaled the company's broader goal in his opening remarks. He argued for limiting recognition strikes by restricting a union's ability to support members on the picket line. Over the two-day hearing, he presented no evidence for the company's third objection: that the union threatened workers with repaying strike benefits.

Lawyers like Model hate working people. They ideologically despise unions because they represent the organized power of the working class. Billing tens of thousands of dollars per hour, they work on behalf of big business and monopoly corporations to attack labor.

For Littler Mendelson, this case is larger than Horseshoe casino. By reviving the strike weapon during an organizing campaign, the dealers and dual rates dealt a mighty blow to their union-busting playbook and won. Employers and their dogs like Model fear the power of the recognition strike will spread to other workplaces. Much to their dismay, this has already happened in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, where workers at Batesville Products Inc. are engaged in their own strike for recognition, also with Teamsters Local 135.

Teamsters power at the NLRB hearing

The union presented a strong defense to the objections, calling witnesses and introducing evidence showing the true picture of the Horseshoe strike. Payroll records and other documents showed that Caesars artificially juiced wages for dealers who continued working during the strike and even paid scabs from another casino to break the strike, all of which far exceeded the $25 per hour of strike benefits ($1000 per week divided by 40 hours on the picket line).

Strike leaders testified to the discipline on the strike line, in which both part-time and full-time dealers walked the picket line for five eight-hour shifts each week, and highlighted the real economic harms that strikers overcame to fight for their union. In a particularly powerful display, the union introduced a petition that dealers and dual rates gathered themselves in the days before the hearing. Well over 100 workers signed the petition to demand union certification from the NLRB and to dispel the company's bogus objections.

The proceedings ended on June 3. Both the union and the company have additional days to file a 25-page brief outlining their positions and using the available evidence introduced at the hearing. The hearing officer will make a recommendation to NLRB Region 25 director Colleen Maples, who will then issue a ruling.

After the hearing, dealers and dual rates pledged to continue fighting in the workplace. They have already formed their union, and billion-dollar corporations cannot override the power of organized labor.

#IndianapolisIN #IN #Labor #Teamsters #Featured

Jacksonville, FL – On May 29, Community members protested against the harsh sentencing of Conor Cauley and Leah Grady, vowing to continue the fight against their charges and demanding the release of Conor Cauley, who is currently being held in Duval County Jail as a political prisoner.

Despite heavy rainstorms, over 60 community members protested in front of the courthouse and, later, in front of the county jail under tents buckling and breaking from the weight of rainwater. This did not discourage attendees, who continued to chant and rally against the unjust treatment of anti-war organizers.

These protests were led by Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network alongside community organizations including Jacksonville Community Action Committee, Jacksonville Immigrant Rights Alliance, Brentwood 300, Democratic Socialists of America, and Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

Cauley was sentenced to 60 days jail and three years of probation. He is additionally being ordered to stay more than 1000 feet from Officer Maykel Aliaga-Ruiz, the arresting officer who instigated the initial arrest last year by violently grabbing Cauley by the neck and throwing him over a row of chairs. This condition will, as Cauley’s lawyer pointed out in the courtroom, effectively ban him from city council meetings where Aliaga-Ruiz works, directly attacking his right to speak openly to his own elected officials and organize in the city.

Grady was sentenced to six months’ probation, 50 hours of community service, and court-ordered to write a “letter of apology” to the Republican City Council President Randy White.

Both sentences were heavier even than what had been recommended by the prosecutors. The prosecution requested three months’ probation and 25 hours community service for Leah Grady and requested 30 days of jail and one year of probation for Conor Cauley. In both instances, the judges either doubled or tripled the sentences. This comes after public calls by Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters for judges to make an example out of the arrested JPSN organizers in order to politically intimidate them.

This was also in spite of an overwhelming display of community support for both organizers. Over 40 character letters were submitted to the court for Conor Cauley, and high profile character witnesses spoke in Cauley’s favor, including the executive director of the International Longshoreman’s Association (ILA) Local 1408, Courtnee Staples.

“Who came out to defend Conor today?” asked a member of Freedom Road Socialist Organization during the rally at the courthouse. “Teachers, neighbors, union workers, students and people from all walks of life in Jacksonville – in short, a microcosm of the entire community. The city could only wrangle up a handful of people to speak against Conor, and who did they pick? The director of city council and chief of police.”

Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network is committing to fight the verdicts of both Conor Cauley and Leah Grady, having developed a plan to fight their convictions through appeal for retrial. They will be rallying to demand Cauley’s release until he is out of jail.

“It’s because of this jail that, for the next 60 days, Conor will see no justice,” said Ryan Delaney of the Anti-War Action Network. “Well that means that we’re gonna be the reason that for the next 60 days, this jail will see no peace!”

#JacksonvilleFL #FL #AntiWarMovement #InJusticeSystem #PoliticalRepression #JPSN #AWAN #Palestine #ConorCauley #Featured

Saint Paul, MN – On Wednesday, May 27, the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) brought its demands for a sanctuary state executive order to the office of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, along with dozens of blue bunny hats that they left on the floor outside of his office.

MIRAC has been calling on Governor Walz to issue an executive order making Minnesota a sanctuary state and on all gubernatorial candidates to commit to implementing statewide sanctuary policies. With no response from Walz, the group took their demands to his office in person.

MIRAC member Yann Chen laid out the group’s demands for the governor to sign an executive order that would: ban collaboration with local agencies and ICE; protect sensitive locations like schools, hospitals and churches from immigration enforcement; keep ICE off of state property; ban officers from wearing any face covering or concealing their identity; defend protesters against political repression; provide justice for all victims of ICE terror, and implement a state wide eviction moratorium.

“At least five of my neighbors from my apartment complex have been stolen, while on the way to work, or getting ready in the early morning,” said Chen, “We demand Walz signs this executive order and we demand a sanctuary state now!”

Alissa Washington, representing the Wrongfully Incarcerated and Over Sentenced Families Council (WIAOSFC-MN) as well as Twin Cities Coalition for Justice (TCC4J) said, “We witnessed the devastating impact Operation Metro Surge had on Black and brown communities throughout Minnesota. But our people fought back. Because when systems fail, the people protect each other. And we are still fighting ICE today! Governor Walz, if Minnesota truly believes immigrants belong here, then prove it!”

After hearing from a few speakers, the group brought a box of blue bunny hats into the office foyer and took them out one by one, placing them on the floor. In the next room, children while on tour of the Capitol building watched as the hats were placed and organizers explained the significance of the hats and why they were protesting.

The hats are a tribute to five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos who was kidnapped along with his father outside their home in Columbia Heights, Minnesota and sent to detention in Texas before being released and returning home. Although released by a judge due to the outrage sparked by pictures of Liam being detained in his blue bunny hat, the Trump administration has continued its campaign to deport him and his father. The fight continues, so MIRAC brought the hats directly to the governor’s office, giving him no choice to look away.

A member of the governor’s staff repeatedly told the group they should leave and not interrupt the school groups or leave the hats on the floor, asserting that this was “a hazard.” Protesters left the hats there anyway and told the staff, “if children are not too young to be separated from their families, they are not too young to hear about this.”

After the hats were all placed, the group held a banner in the hallway that read “Sanctuary now!” and chanted “We want justice, you say how? Sanctuary state now!” as school group after school group went in and out of the office foyer, most of them stepping on the pile of bunny hats as they walked through. Before they left, protesters were told that the bunny hats would be thrown away. As MIRAC member Erika Zurkawski pointed out “this shows what they think of immigrants – that they are disposable!” The group left the pile of bunny hats on the floor for the governor and his staff when they left the capitol premises.

#StPaulMN #MN #MIRAC #ImmigrantRights #LiamConejoRamos #TimWalz #Featured

Milwaukee, WI – On the evening of May 25, a few dozen community members in Milwaukee gathered to pay tribute to the 6th anniversary of George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police. The vigil was organized by the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.

During 2020, thousands in Milwaukee took to the streets to demand justice for George Floyd and an end to police crimes. In 2026, the community is still coming out in his name to demand an end to police crimes.

Solidarity with the Floyd family is strong in Milwaukee and, unfortunately, the city has its own history of police murders. In the summer of 2024, Sam Sharpe Jr. was murdered by the Columbus, Ohio police department, who were in Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention.

Sharpe Jr.’s sister, Angelique Sharpe, the Milwaukee Alliance’s Education Chair, spoke at the rally and said, “I’m here really to join in solidarity. My brother wasn’t the first killed by those sworn to serve and protect and he won’t be the last.” Sharpe emphasized over and over that the community will continue to fight until there is justice for all victims of police crimes.

#MilwaukeeWI #WI #GeorgeFloyd #PoliceAccountability #InjusticeSystem #NAARPR #MilwaukeeAlliance #Featured

Los Angeles, CA – On the morning of Wednesday, May 20, Nadia Topete, a Chicana organizer with Centro Community Service Organization (CSO), was served with a subpoena to appear June 3 in front of a grand jury.

The subpoena was signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael G Wheat. Nadia Topete did nothing wrong and this is an attack on the immigrant rights movement and on Centro CSO.

In June of 2025, Centro CSO member Alejandro Orellana was raided by the FBI, National Guard and East Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. A week later, Verita Topete, the sister of Nadia Topete, was ambushed by FBI Agents and her phone was seized. The agents had a search warrant but have yet to give her phone back.

Due to a nationwide defense campaign, charges against Alejandro Orellana were dropped, Verita Topete was not charged, and Centro CSO assumed the FBI witch hunt was over. Almost a year later, Topete is now being targeted by the United States. She is being ordered to appear at the Orange County Federal Courthouse.

Carlos Montes, a longtime Centro CSO leader and Chicano activist, stated, “Nadia is actively advocating for our community, this federal subpoena is just an intimidating tactic by the Trump government.”

Centro CSO is committed to fighting back against this act of political repression and its members will not be intimidated.

Follow @CentroCSO on social media for any updates.

#LosAngelesCA #PoliticalRepression #InJusticeSystem #GrandJury #CentroCSO #Featured

If asked what I consider to be a defining moment of the 20th century, I would have to say that it was the moment on the Edmund Pettus bridge in 1965 that led to the historic passing of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

Let me talk about the things that I most distinctly remember. Jimmie Lee Jackson, a young Black man, was 26 years old when he was shot by the police while trying to protect his mother from being brutalized in Marion, Alabama. This was a peaceful demonstration for voting rights. Jackson was a Black worker who made $6 a day as a woodcutter before he was murdered on that fateful night. And here we are, over 60 years later, still following up on what Dr. King told us when he said, “now we must see that Jimmie Jackson didn't die in vain.”

We must see even now that all those who were murdered in Alabama, Mississippi and throughout the disenfranchised Black Belt South didn’t die in vain.

I was 21, turning 22 years old in the summer of 1964 and I had lived through four young Black girls being killed by a bombing in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham in 1963 and three young men, two white and one Black, being murdered in Mississippi in the same period. Then I saw Bloody Sunday on TV, where hundreds of people, protesters, were teargassed and beaten for peacefully demanding the right to vote.

And as I was saying earlier, here we are 60 years later, where Black legislators in the deep South and in Tennessee are sitting down in the state legislatures in protest demanding that the right to vote not be taken away from them, demanding that all majority-Black political districts not be disenfranchised based on the recent decision of the United States Supreme Court to totally gut the Voting Rights Act. That's what they did, they just struck down the Voting Rights Act, which took us over 100 years to enact. They struck it down in a day.

And now there's a wave of protests throughout the South, mainly Black people, but not just Black people, saying to this Supreme Court, to the Congress, and particularly to the Republican-dominated Congress, and to the world, that we’re not going back. And the world will see that through our united actions, that we’re not going back. The world will see once again the ironclad determination of Black people and their allies, refusing to go back, protesting and demanding that we go forward.

Protesting and demanding that not only will we not be pushed back to Jim Crow, but that we’re going to put an end to those who are trying to take us back there: Donald Trump and his minions, Donald Trump and his Supreme Court, Donald Trump and his corrupt Congress, Donald Trump and his corrupt White House. You’re not going to take us back. We refuse to go back. We’re fighting to go forward. And in going forward, we will put an end to all of these travesties of justice. We will put an end to the so-called white backlash, which thinks it has a political destiny to make America worse again, not great again, to take the American dream and turn it into the American nightmare.

We will not go back, and we can’t say this strong enough, that what we need to do in the days ahead is protest what the Supreme Court has done, to confront and challenge what's going on in the state houses in the Deep South, and what the governors and congresspeople in the Deep South are trying to do to bring back Jim Crow, to bring back that period when Black people were terrorized, brutalized and murdered for trying to exercise their constitutional right to vote, which was earned through a revolution that took place in the 1860s.

There are three amendments that came out of that revolution. These were the 13th Amendment, 14th Amendment, and the 15th Amendment. The 13th, abolishing the buying and selling of Black people. The 14th Amendment, giving equal protection of law, and making it a law that if you are born in America, you are automatically an American citizen. And the 15th Amendment, extending the franchise, the right to vote, to those who had been in bondage during slavery.

Since the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the political history of the Deep South has been about state governments in the Black belt states’ resistance to the voting rights of Black citizens.

Since 1877, the year when the North and the South agreed that the South was uniquely suited to be the guardians of the “Negro Problem,” they agreed on keeping Black folks out of politics and redeeming the South from biracial coalitions that protected and enforced the voting rights of Black folks and the masses of propertyless people who were denied the franchise.

1877, the year of the great betrayal, with the election of Rutherford B. Hayes for president, marked the beginning of the reign of white supremacist terrorists initiating campaigns of racist violence and political repression. Mississippi, a state whose population was 70% Black, led the South to hold state conventions to establish a movement of disfranchisement creating a system of obstacles between the voter and the ballot box, ushering in an era of disenfranchisement that lasted for over 75 years.

Electoral structures designed to keep Black folks from voting were not only profoundly undemocratic but helped to maintain a status quo that keeps the South the most economically, socially and culturally most backward quadrant of the nation.

Those amendments to the Constitution were revolutionary then, but apparently not enough to settle this question once and for all. So, that’s our task. Our task is to finish this revolutionary process that was started back in 1861, to finish this revolutionary process in the 21st century.

We will not go back, and if we’re not going back then we have got to go forward, and going forward means putting an end not for once but once and for all to these racist policies and the racist regime that sits in Washington instituting these policies.

All Power to the People!

#Commentary #VotingRightsAct #OppressedNationalities #FrankChapman #PeoplesStruggles #Featured

Hamtramck, MI – On May 10, hundreds assembled on the corner of Joseph Campau and Caniff Streets following a call put out by the Detroit Resisting Oppression by President Trump Coalition (DROPT Coalition) to push Jake Lang and other racists out of Hamtramck. Lang and his crew had publicly announced what they claimed would be the “largest book burning in American history,” including the burning of a Quran outside of Al-Islah Islamic Center.

On the day of, Lang and his followers began to back out of their book-burning in Hamtramck, posting on social media that he was going to Dearborn, while messaging his followers that he was going to Hamtramck. For over four hours, he repeatedly changed his arrival time, showing his fear of the community and the organizers who sought to chase him out.

Jackson Robak of Freedom Road Socialist Organization said, “They are weak because they know they are not supported by the people.”

Afterward, Hamtramck community leader Dr. Mohammad Alam spoke on the pride immigrant families take in Hamtramck. “We came from all over, but this is our home here and abroad. Hamtramck is the beacon and hope for many of us; we cherish Hamtramck. We are law-abiding citizens, yet you come from somewhere and try to slam on our faith, we aren’t going to take it.” Showing the connection between these racist thugs and the Trump administration, Alam added, “Just like when ICE comes taking families, they are deporting, they are removing, they are destructing [destroying]! We do not want to see this!”

Minutes later, Jake Lang attempted to drive past the crowd in a U-Haul, but was hit with water bottles, flag poles, and other objects, forcing him to speed out of the city.

He would soon drive to Dearborn in the hopes of going to the Islamic Center of America, only to be pulled over for being on his phone while driving. While he was pulled over, dozens assembled on Evergreen Road in Dearborn to continue the attempt to chase him out of the communities he intended to intimidate. Even as he was protected by police, the protests got closer and louder to Lang, and saw him get his U-Haul towed and himself arrested for possession of psychedelic mushrooms.

The next day, he attempted to once again burn a Quran outside the ICA in Dearborn, only for the community and activists to once again assemble to stop him. This time, initially, the police used fire extinguishers to stop Lang’s attempted burning, but gave up, leaving the activists to use their own fire extinguishers to put out the fires and take books from his hands.

Lang, as well as three activists, were arrested. Shamefully, Lang was released quickly from the Dearborn Police Station, while protest organizers went to the jail to demand the timely release of the activists arrested. After hours, they were bailed out due to community support.

Jake Lang is a racist grifter who seeks to violently intimidate Arab and Muslim communities around Metro Detroit, Minnesota and New York. However, every time he comes, he gets driven out, arrested, and shown to be weaker than the last time. In Metro Detroit, these facts were once again made obvious by the communities and activists who he attempted to threaten.

#HamtramckMI #MI #PeoplesStruggles #Lang #RightWing #Featured

The rising costs of energy drove the increase in prices, on the backs of higher fuel prices as a result of Trump’s war on Iran. Gasoline prices were up 28.4% over a year ago. Electricity rates were up 6.1% from a year ago.

These higher prices mean that the purchasing power of workers’ incomes, or what economists call real income, fell in April as compared to March, and also fell compared to a year ago. Using another measure of prices paid by workers, the CPI-W, real wages or hourly earnings fell 0.3% in April from March, and fell 0.2% as compared to a year ago.

There were also signs that higher fuel and energy prices are spreading to goods and services that use a lot of energy to produce. With diesel fuel prices up over 60% from a year ago according to the AAA (American Automobile Association), transportation costs are showing up in the higher prices for food, up 0.5% in April as compared to no increase in March. Airline fares have soared, up more than 20% as compared to April 2025, as jet fuel prices have almost doubled.

While economists often refer to the “core” rate of inflation, which takes out food and energy costs as they are more variable month to month, this means that the actual rate of inflation for lower and middle income households is actually greater than the headline (total) inflation, since those consumers spend more of their income on necessities like food, gasoline and electricity.

With Trump polling at all-time lows, with 70% of people disapproving of him on the economy, Congress is proposing to suspend the federal gasoline tax. However, the tax is only 18 cents a gallon, or about 4% of the current national average price. But with gasoline up more than 40% since the war started, this would at most offset 10% of the increase. Further, the gasoline tax is an excise tax that the seller pays, so there is no way to ensure that the gasoline sellers pass on the tax cut to drivers.

With no end in sight to the war that is blocking the flow of oil, gas, fertilizer, sulfur (used in industry) and helium (used in a lot of tech industries), higher prices are likely to spread to more and more goods and services.

#SanJoseCA #CA #CapitalismAndEconomy #Inflation #Featured

Orlando, FL – An hour before the Orlando City Commission meeting, community organizers rallied outside City Hall to put police accountability back on the agenda. Activists and community members toughed it out in the heat. They crowded around a banner that read, “Say their names” and held “Bring back the Civilian Review Board” signs.

The action was called for by Orlando Against Police Crimes (OAPC), a local grassroots group that fights for justice for the victims of police violence. OAPC is advocating for the return of a civilian review board (CRB) as a step towards justice, accountability and community control over the police.

OAPC organizer Richard Thomas addressed the crowd, “in 2024, the Civilian Police Review Board was dismantled and in the years following there has been an immediate surge in police brutality and community victims.” Thomas went on to describe how that hasty decision was made unnecessarily after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis passed HB 601, a law designed to intimidate local governments into abandoning civilian oversight of the police.

Longtime community activist Lawanna Gelzer spoke passionately about the right of the community to have real oversight and accountability. Speaking about the long struggle against police crimes in Orlando, she said, “The city council is now debating ICE’s role in the community, but for years they have been acting like ICE in our community!”

Organizer Cassia Laham directed her comments at Mayor Buddy Dyer. “Right now, when the police kill a community member, the media repeats their false narrative, the FDLE [Florida Department of Law Enforcement] whitewashes the investigation, and everything is swept under the rug. The CRB can give families a voice. You have the power to bring it back.” Laham also referred to an ACLU study about the decision to abandon civilian review boards across Florida. It concluded that HB 601 cannot in fact prevent cities from establishing review boards. There are currently two ways that a new CRB could be created in Orlando: through a ballot referendum or mayoral decree.

As the action drew to a close, emcee Edmund Anglero led the crowd in chants of “Justice for Kaleb Williams,” a 20-year-old local tattoo artist who was killed in November by OPD in a botched SWAT raid. Standing alongside Williams’ family, it was a powerful reminder to all in attendance of exactly why the fight for justice must go on.

Afterward, the group attended the city commission meeting and participated in public comment. OAPC organizers vowed to continue their campaign to bring back the CRB. This may have been the first time that some commissioners heard about the fight for police accountability, but it will not be the last.

#OrlandoFL #FL #InJusticeSystem #OAPC #Featured

The employment report, based on a survey of businesses, was strong relative to the weak hiring in 2025, with 115,000 new jobs created. There were still pockets of weakness, with government jobs declining by 8000, making April the seventh month in a row of job losses by government workers. Manufacturing also lost jobs, down by 2000 jobs.

However, the survey of households showed more weakness, with the labor force participation rate declining by 0.1%. Without this decline, the unemployment rate would have gone up. The unemployment rate was also held down by a big jump in self-employed workers, many of whom, like rideshare drivers, are really a new type of temp workers. Last, but not least, the broadest measure of unemployment, which includes people who gave up looking for work and people working part-time who can’t find full-time jobs, rose to the highest this year, at 8.2%.

Workers’ compensation, including wages, benefits and taxes paid by the employer, rose 3.1% in the first three months of the year (January to March) according to another BLS report issued Thursday, May 7. But prices rose even faster, meaning that real compensation, or the purchasing power of workers’ wages and benefits, actually fell by one half of one percent, or 0.5%, during these same three months.

This meant that the share of total output in the economy that goes to workers was only 54.1% in the first quarter, the lowest since these records began almost 80 years ago, in 1947. With more of the share of the economy going to corporate profits, rent, interest and small business income, it is no wonder that more and more people feel that the rich are getting richer, and the poor poorer.

The growing divide between haves and have-nots can also be seen in the contrast between the latest Consumer Sentiment report by the University of Michigan and the booming stock market. The Consumer Sentiment report, which covers the period of April 21 to May 4, fell to an all-time low of 48.2. This drop reflected consumers’ expectation of inflation to rise. Expectations are that inflation will jump over the next year from 3.3% over the last 12 months to 4.5% over the next 12 months. This will further reduce the purchasing power of workers’ wages.

In contrast, the stock market, as measured by the broad S&P 500 Index, is at an all-time high. The stock market is being driven by corporate profits and the fast-growing wealth of those at the top. In particular, semiconductor chip stocks have risen to about 15% of total stock market value, even higher than during the 2000 dot-com stock market bubble.

How have sales and business profits held up with so many working-class households struggling amid soaring gasoline prices? On one hand, more and more consumer spending is based on high-income households as the economic divide in terms of income and wealth continues to grow. On the other hand, lower and middle income households, mainly the working class, are borrowing more to make ends meet. The Federal Reserve report on consumer credit, released yesterday, May 7, shows that credit card borrowing increased at the fastest rate since the last bout of inflation, in 2022.

#SanJoseCA #CA #CapitalismAndEconomy #Jobs #Unemployment #Featured

Bozeman, MT – On May 1, around 50 students walked out of Gallatin High School during third period, joining a growing wave of protests against ICE and its impact on immigrant communities. The walkout was organized by senior Charlotte Haslam as part of her senior project and as an effort to mobilize students in what she described as a politically divided school environment.

As the bell rang, students streamed out of the building and assembled near the front entrance before marching toward a nearby park. While the demonstration remained peaceful, it drew visible opposition. A group of students briefly followed the group while mocking them with unrelated signs, while passing vehicles, one displaying a Trump flag, recorded the protesters.

For many participants, the issue of immigrant rights is very close to home. Some cited family ties to immigrants, while others pointed to broader political concerns and the growing fear in the national climate.

Haslam emphasized, “That’s what the government is trying to do to us at this point, scare us into silence and fearmonger people into compliance.”

Haslam continued, “I would tell students, you know, don’t be afraid. Don’t quiet yourself. Don’t make yourself smaller. Just do whatever feels right to you.”

“It’s just so devastating to see children being taken from their parents and seeing people get killed by the government,” Haslam said. “I have Hispanic friends whose parents are immigrants, and it’s so sad to watch them stay in their houses because they’re scared to go outside just to go shopping. It’s a horrible, horrible thing that we’re witnessing.”

At the park, Haslam addressed the crowd, calling for public resources to be directed toward healthcare, education, and working-class communities rather than immigration enforcement. She encouraged those in attendance to remain politically active beyond the demonstration.

School officials stated that students are permitted to exercise their First Amendment rights, though those who left class without an excuse would receive an unexcused absence in accordance with school policy. For the attendees, however, the consequences were secondary to the demonstration itself. The walkout, they said, was about proving that even in a conservative environment, students are willing to speak out.

Haslam encouraged students to continue organizing, and to continue fighting back against fear and silence. “If you have a passion for something and really believe in it, and really want to make a change, don’t let anything stop you,” she said.

#BozemanMT #MT #StudentMovement #ImmigrantRights #MayDay #Featured #Highschool #Walkout

On International Workers’ Day, we uplift the past and present global struggles for a better world. We commit to carrying the torches of liberation forward, because there’s much to fight against, and much to fight for. Monopoly capitalism is built on exploitation, and it hands down needless suffering, environmental ruin and endless wars. The decay is obvious. Prices soar, families are bankrupted by medical costs, millions are saddled with crushing debt and working people who were already on the brink are being pushed into ruin. The system delivers obscene profits to the ones on top who are relentless in pursing profits. We should be even more relentless in building the united forces of workers and oppressed people that can take them down.

May Day is a reminder that the people organized can land blows against this system. It cuts right through the lie that nothing will change, or we can’t do any better.

The history of May Day itself is rooted in a great upsurge in the class struggle. It began in Chicago in 1886, where workers in the factories bore brutal working conditions and extreme hours. They said enough is enough and flooded the streets, clashing with the hired guns of the robber barons. The state then executed four of the strike leaders. The martyred working-class heroes became a rallying point for people power, and May 1 became the day for working people to advance our demands.

Under the banner of struggle, huge May Day demonstrations take place around the world every year. This year is the 20-year anniversary of the mega-marches – the immigrant rights struggle against the racist Sensenbrenner bill that brought May Day back to the forefront as a day of mass protest in the U.S.

Across the country, the great upsurge against ICE thuggery and the fight against mass deportation created a force that has pulled forward all the people’s struggles. These are the first major battles fought against the Trump agenda, bringing out a broad grouping of people and forging new fighters. From Los Angeles to Chicago, people rebelled with massive demonstrations and a show of force to push back Trump’s attacks.

ICE agents, emboldened and violent, have murdered members of the community, immigrants as well as the people standing up for them, in cold blood. In Minneapolis, a three weeks after the murder of Renee Good, Alex Pretti was killed, just blocks from where George Floyd was executed, in a community where a history of broad resistance to state violence reverberates. These crimes activated people in the tens of thousands to take to the streets. Trump and his ICE goons tried to swallow Minneapolis whole, but they ended up choking.

These battles became a “whose side are you on” moment. Whole sections of people were activated for the first time. In each upsurge, the outpouring of people who want to fight back shows that we’re living in different times than past decades. More and more people see that this system, monopoly capitalism, has no future. It’s a system sitting on a rotten and cracked foundation failing to meet the needs of the many while enriching the few.

In the era of imperialism, we stand in solidarity with workers and oppressed people everywhere. The U.S.-Israel war on Iran is indefensible. They want to destroy the camp of resistance that has been at the forefront of the fight for Palestine. We’re glad if Iran succeeds, not only because the war is wrong, but because we share a common enemy: the monopoly capitalists at the helm of the war machine.

U.S. imperialism is on the decline, and the rate at which things are coming apart in this country is picking up speed. The growth of the revolutionary movement is on the rise as well. We want to take every opportunity to bring more people into the fight.

Our movements are going to come out of this era stronger than they went in. People are changed forever by participating in these battles: their outlook, their views on what’s possible and their understanding of what it’s going to take to bring this system down. We’re not looking to keep things steady. We want to fan the flames.

On International Workers Day:

Fight for Workers & Immigrants’ Rights!

ICE Out! Stop the Deportations!

Down with Trump & the Billionaires!

No to War on Iran, Lebanon & Palestine!

#Statement #FRSO #Labor #ImmigrantRights #PeoplesStruggles #Featured

Havana, Cuba – Monday, April 27 marked the first day of the annual May Day Brigade in Cuba. Around 300 international delegates, with more expected in the coming days, officially began their visit to a conference of leading Cuban scientists.

The opening of the conference proudly celebrated Cuba's scientific achievements along with their struggles. For example, Cuba's healthcare system was able to immediately organize during the COVID-19 pandemic to create five vaccine candidates, three of which were successful at combating the virus but were inaccessible for use in the U.S. or Europe due to the U.S. blockade. While successful in medical developments, Cuba cannot access materials for vaccines, despite the ability to afford them, due to the U.S. blockade.

Speakers, including Fernando González, the president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with Peoples, thanked the international delegates for coming and stressed the importance of international solidarity during a heightened time of threats, especially those coming from the Trump administration.

González announced the official commencement of the 2026 May Day Brigade, telling them in Spanish, “The solidarity movement has been present and is still present; your presence brings forth that this solidarity is still alive.” González said that when threats of aggression increase, Cubans turn to the words of Fidel Castro for motivation and are safer with the presence of the solidarity brigadistas.

The overall sentiment shared by all is that Cuba is a country defending its sovereignty and its right to survive. “The Cuban people want to defend their sovereignty, the Cuban people do not want war, they want peace.” González said, “While the Cuban people know how to struggle for peace, they also know how to defend themselves.” He finished his speech with “La patría o muerte, veneceremos!” which was received with a standing ovation.

#International #Cuba #Blockade #Featured

Santa Ana, CA – On Tuesday, April 21, residents of Coach Royal mobile home park demanded Kingsley Management Corporation get out of their park. Community Service Organization Orange County (CSO OC) joined them to demand the city council intervene against years of harassment, unjust evictions, home theft, and intimidation by the corporation. The abuse resulted in the suicide of resident Maria Pedraza, whose home was in the process of being taken after years of sacrificing to purchase it.

Karla Alvarado, one of the residents whose home was stolen, stated: “The city of Santa Ana has already met with 45 residents who can testify to this. 45 residents and counting. We have spoken to people across multiple parks. The stories are consistent, the tactics are consistent, and the outcomes as well. That is the definition of a systemic issue.”

Lupe Barragan, a resident and organizer, looked at and pointed directly at each council member as she spoke. “You need to respond! Phil Bacerra, you tried to intimidate us when we came to your office. You, Jonathan Hernandez, we need you to respond to us too. You came to support us and we need more of that. City manager, we need your help. Valerie Amezcua, I know my presence doesn’t please you, but you told us you were going to get out the big guns. We are waiting for you!” As she walked away, Mayor Amezcua laughed at her. Barragan turned around, pointed at Amezcua and scolded her for being disrespectful.

Sylvia Ayala, another resident, told the council, “I’ve lived here for 40 years and I’ve never gotten any help from you. Because you don’t care about the people; you only look out for yourselves. You work, but we have to work more than you. The humiliation that people with money have done to us is not fair.”

While the residents spoke, CSO OC and residents unfurled a banner reading “Kingsley fuera!” The camera began frequently changing angles to avoid showing the banner on screen. At one point, four Santa Ana Police Officers approached the organizers and told them they must move to the back if they are going to hold a banner, despite nobody complaining about an obstructed view.

When Rain Mendoza of CSO OC went up to make public comment, she first held up the banner and told the council to look at it and show it on camera.

Mendoza responded to the council’s frequent response that they cannot do anything because the park is private property, stating, “You sued El Centro Cultural de Mexico, a pillar in this community, so you can use your cops to toss homeless people’s belongings in the trash and push them out of a place where they were allowed to stay by the private property owners. So, you can do all that and use the courts, the police, and all your resources to terrorize a very vulnerable community, but you can’t lift a finger when there is a company that operates in Santa Ana that acts like thugs? Shame on you!”

Diana Terreros of CSO OC reminded the council that the residents of Coach Royal are mainly working-class immigrants whose homes are their refuge during the Trump administration. Terreros stated, “Kingsley’s actions go against the spirit of the entire sanctuary city ordinance. They are exploiting the fear of the immigrant population in Santa Ana. They are hoping the fear will be enough to force the residents to keep their heads down and their mouths shut. They are exploiting this community and their fear to increase their profits by stealing their homes. This is a multi-million dollar corporation from Utah. Why are we allowing them to exploit Santa Ana like this?”

Another member of CSO OC summarized the hundreds of thousands of dollars that groups representing mobile home park owners have donated against the campaign for the Rent Stabilization and Just Cause Eviction Ordinance that was passed in October of 2021. They have also donated to council member’s campaigns. He asked council members, “Is this what’s influencing your frequent responses that there is nothing you can do to enforce what you know is unjust and illegal acts by Kingsley against the Coach Royal residents?”

#SantaAnaCA #CA #CSO #OC #OrangeCounty #PeoplesStruggles #CoachRoyal #Eviction #Featured

Toledo has been wrongly charged with misdemeanor assault, battery and false imprisonment. Another charge, “conspiracy” to commit a crime, is still being weighed by the district attorney. It’s clear that administrators see this as an opportunity to try to take down an effective organizer who has been a thorn in their side for the last three years and as revenge for the 2024 Siemens Hall occupation since they failed to successfully charge the students who were involved at the time.

After entering the courtroom, Toledo pleaded not guilty. A trial date has been set for July 13.

About 25 supporters of Toledo gathered with protest signs for a rally outside the courthouse around 12:30 p.m. in preparation for the 1:30 hearing. Supporters marched in beside Toledo with their protest signs and joined him in the waiting room. Before the hearing began, court officials announced new restrictions, including a ban on protest signs and cell phone use. Supporters say court staff also attempted to limit how many people could enter the courtroom. When that proved difficult, Toledo’s case was called first.

Toledo was represented by attorney Matthew Kellegrew of the Civil Liberties Defense Center. When he approached the judge he quickly entered a plea of not guilty. Three bailiffs were stationed inside the small courtroom during the proceedings, an unusual show of force. Supporters also reported that a university administrator was present to observe who attended the hearing and left after the case was called.

“Cal Poly Humboldt has been trying to silence student organizers for years,” said Toledo. “These charges are an attempt to criminalize protest and scare people into backing down. It won’t work.”

Supporters say the court’s response shows the impact of organized pressure and the power of the people.

“The fact that they suddenly changed the rules and packed the courtroom with bailiffs shows they’re nervous,” said supporter Kyle Berryman at the courthouse. “They see that people are paying attention, and they know we’re not going away.”

Another attendee, Pat Kanzler stated, “Students stood up for Palestine and now they’re being targeted. This is what happens when you challenge institutions that support war and oppression.”

Toledo, who has organized at Cal Poly Humboldt with Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) for three years, says the fight is bigger than one case.

“This is about defending the right to protest,” Toledo said. “It’s about standing against repression and standing with Palestine. We’re going to keep organizing until these charges are dropped.”

During the hearing, hundreds of people from all over the country called the court in support of Toledo demanding that the charges be dropped immediately. Supporters say they will continue mobilizing ahead of the July 13 trial and are calling on people across the country to continue to speak out against these repressive politically motivated charges and fight back until the charges are dropped!

#EurekaCA #CA #Humboldt #StudentMovement #RickToledo #InjusticeSystem #SDS #CalPolyHumboldt #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #Featured

St. Paul, MN – At 7 a.m., April 20, over 300 nursing home workers from five nursing homes walked off the job and began a three-day strike. The striking workers are represented by SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa and have been in negotiations for their next union contracts.

The strike includes workers from Cerenity Care at Humboldt, which is owned by the Benedictine Living chain, as well as workers from Estates of Saint Louis Park, Estates of Fridley, Estates of Roseville and Estates of Excelsior, all of which are owned by Monarch Healthcare Management.

The workers are striking for higher wages, safe staffing, better benefits and because that management has not bargained in good faith throughout contract negotiations, for which the union has filed unfair labor practice charges.

Rhonda Little is a striking worker and lead cook who has worked at Cerenity Care at Humboldt for ten years. Speaking on the picket line, Little said, “We want more money. We want safe staffing and we want to keep our PTO. We are bargaining for a new contract and it is not going very well because our management doesn’t want to move, they don’t want to do anything, they want to just stay at 1.5% [pay increases] and we’re worth way more than that.”

Little has been on strike three times in her ten years at Cerenity but says that this time, “The entire management team are different, even corporate are different. So it’s a whole different way of fighting now and their answers to everything is just ‘no’ instead of trying to compromise to a deal. Our strike, I think a lot of it is about respect. Care for your employees as much as we care for the residents. We have been called heroes, during COVID right, we are called heroes because we care for people, we are taking care of human beings, but we are paid like we are dog walkers, so yes it its about money but the bottom line is respect.”

This strike is a three-day strike set to end on Wednesday April 22, however when asked what they will do if management doesn’t come back to the table and bargain in good faith Little said, “Push for another strike and push them for more!”

#StPaulMN #MN #Labor #Healthcare #Nursinghome #Strike #SEIUHCMNIA #SEIU #Featured

Fight Back News Service and the Committee to Stop FBI Repression are circulating the following call to action from Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network.

On May 27, 2025, three organizers, including two Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network members, were unjustly arrested by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO) after being targeted during a city council meeting. Conor Cauley was violently attacked by JSO officers, and is facing up to 10 years in prison for felony charges of resisting arrest with violence and battery of a law enforcement officer. Activists Leah Grady and Dragon Belloit were also arrested.

Videos of the arrest clearly show that the only violence came from JSO officers. These are trumped-up, bogus charges. Sheriff T.K. Waters publicly stated he wants to make an example out of these activists in order to silence people who use their right to protest Jacksonville’s involvement in the genocide of Palestinians.

With one week to go before Conor’s trial, we need to be louder than ever to demand that these charges get dropped. Every single call helps!

Please call and email the office of State Attorney Melissa Nelson and Prosecutor Kelli Lynn Shobe at (904) 255-2500 – press 0 to reach the front desk and ask to leave a message for Nelson or Shobe.

You can email them at SAO4th@coj.net and kshobe@coj.net

Here is a sample script for calls or emails:

Hello, my name is [FIRST NAME, LAST NAME], and I am a resident of [CITY, STATE]. On May 27, 2025, three community members, Conor Cauley, Leah Grady, and Dragon Belloit, were arrested and brutalized during a city council meeting simply for speaking up against the genocide of Gaza. Thousands witnessed the viral video in which one member of the Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network, Conor, was violently grabbed by the neck and flipped over a row of benches. Yet, the State Attorney’s Office has persisted in launching a campaign of clear political repression by targeting Conor with two felony charges. No jury of our peers would convict someone who JSO threw over a row of chairs and the State Attorney’s Ofice is wasting taxpayer time and money by refusing to drop these charges. I am calling to demand that sheriff T.K. Waters fire both the arresting officers, Maykel Aliaga-Ruiz and Donovan Davis, and that State Attorney Melissa Nelson drop all charges against Conor Cauley, Leah Grady, and Dragon Belloit immediately.

#JacksonvilleFL #FL #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #InJusticeSystem #PoliticalRepression #CSFR #Featured

New Orleans, LA – On April 17, 30 community members gathered outside of the New Orleans immigration court to protest the detention of two immigrants after their hearing on the morning of April 16. The emergency rally demanded an end to ICE presence in the immigration courts and respect for immigrants’ due process rights.

The detainees, a mother and father, were present for a routine hearing. They were detained in front of their children in a traumatic display of aggression by ICE agents.

“People heard screaming and crying. When they went to investigate, they saw the mother and father being taken away and their children were left behind,” said Rachel Taber, an organizer with Union Migrante, who called the emergency rally.

Protesters held signs that read, “Say no to deportations” and chanted “ICE out of NOLA now!” as tourists walked by, pumping fists and waving in support.

The immigration court is located in the same mall as Tiffany & Co. and Louis Vuitton, a cruel reminder that the exact same place can mean wealth and privilege for the few and incarceration and deportation for the many.

“We’ve had people here observing the immigration hearings, every day without fail, since ICE agents started coming to the court last spring. This is the first arrest at the 365 Canal Place court we’ve seen in a long time. If you don’t come to court, there's an automatic order for deportation, so it's like you're damned if you do, damned if you don't,” said Taber.

Ordinary people continue to engage in court watch and ICE watch activities in New Orleans. One attendee at the protest noticed two suspicious men taking pictures of the crowd and promptly confronted them.

“I followed them as they walked to their vehicle and asked what they were doing. They told me to mind my own business and fuck off. So, I took a picture of them and their license plate, so we can share with other ICE observers in the city,” he said, immediately notifying the crowd to be on the lookout for plainclothes agents.

Speakers emphasized the need for our movements to continue to demand full democratic rights for immigrants in the United States. “As we keep rallying and keep fighting, we need to demand justice and legalization for all,” emphasized Deborah Alvarenga, an organizer with Union Migrante.

#NewOrleansLA #LA #ImmigrantRights #ICE #Featured

Justin, TX – In a bold show of unity, workers at the Volvo Parts Distribution Center in Justin marched on management, April 13, to demand union recognition, escalating their fight for respect, safety and a real voice on the job.

Warehouse workers walked into the boss’s office together, delivering their message directly, stating, “We are organized, we are militant, and we expect their union to be recognized.” The action marks a turning point in an organizing drive that has seen workers put aside their differences in the interest of collective power.

The warehouse, operated by Volvo Group, is a critical link in the company’s supply chain. Workers there handle the constant flow of parts that keep trucks and heavy equipment moving across the country. But those doing the work say they’ve been pushed to the limit – dealing with exhausting schedules, rising production demands and ongoing safety concerns.

Workers describe a job where speed is everything and injuries are an ever-present risk. Short staffing has made conditions worse, forcing longer hours and heavier workloads. Many say management has ignored their concerns for years, leaving them little choice but to organize.

The action also builds on momentum beyond Texas. Just months ago, Volvo workers at a parts distribution facility in Joliet, Illinois voted to join the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 179, showing that workers across the company’s network are beginning to move in the same direction. That victory helped demonstrate what’s possible and gave workers in Justin added confidence to step forward.

By marching on the boss as a group, workers made clear that this effort isn’t coming from a handful of individuals, it’s a collective demand backed by growing support across the warehouse.

Marching on the boss is a tactic with a long history in the labor movement – workers acting together, presenting their demands directly, and demonstrating their unity in a way management can’t ignore. It’s often a key step in winning recognition and building the confidence needed for the contract fight.

The demand is straightforward: union recognition and the right to negotiate a decent contract. Workers want better pay, safer conditions, reasonable workloads and an end to the disrespect they say has defined the job.

For the Volvo workers who acted, this is just the beginning. Management now faces a choice. They can recognize the union and respect the workers’ decision or face the power of their workers’ solidarity.

Either way, the message from the shop floor is clear. Workers are organized, they are militant and they’re ready to fight for what they deserve.

#JustinTX #TX #DallasTX #Labor #Teamsters #Volvo #Featured