Brian Renfroe, the national president, has come under fire in 2024, receiving formal charges of Abandoned Position and Dereliction/Neglect of Duty, Impaired Driving After Hours in a NALC Owned Vehicle, and Circulating False or Misleading Statements about a NALC officer during the start of negotiations. The executive council investigation recently acquitted him of the charges but revoked his driving privileges. Renfroe himself declared that the charges would not be a subject of the convention.

What's become clear to the membership is that this leadership is incapable of bargaining with the company and have failed the rank and file for the last 15 months. The carriers are rising up and are taking action by forming an opposition slate against national leadership, going by the name Concerned Letter Carriers (CLC).

Immediately after the presidential address, three members of the CLC went to each of the various stations on the convention floor with the intent to bring a motion to the floor that would force the president to read out the charges against him. After some discussion this vote was successful, with a margin of approximately 2100 to 1500.

Build a Fighting NALC (BFN), the new reform movement within the NALC which took shape in the late spring and early summer months, had their first in-person meeting where they had a panel of speakers discussing the need for change by making clear demands such as a $30 per hour starting wage, an end to Sorting and Delivery Centers, and the right to strike. BFN will be forming chapters in different cities in an effort to bring about more rank-and-file support.

On August 8, the delegate body heard the appeals of President Renfroe and agreed to uphold the decisions of the executive council.

There were a few contentious resolutions brought to the floor, with the largest being the case for open bargaining. The members of NALC want top to bottom transparency from national during contract negotiations so that members receive contract updates. The resolution called for public rallies in support of the bargaining efforts that would lead to real rank-and-file participation and bolster their positions at the table. While the strongest of such resolutions was unsuccessful, one of the other open bargaining resolutions was passed and national union will now be forced to hold rallies across the United States during contract negotiations. The resolution which would have forced transparency with rank-and-file members was shot down after national business agents stormed the mics to denounce the most popular solution brought to the convention.

The other big resolution was to demand an end to Sorting and Delivery Centers after Branch 3 in Buffalo was successful in its public campaign to stop the one being created in their district. However, business agents abused their power, coercing members from voting in favor and the resolution lost.

This is only the beginning of the reform movement within NALC. These demands are popular and felt amongst a wide base of the rank and file. Those at national, most clearly highlighted by President Renfroe, have forgotten what’s it’s like to be down on the shop floor fighting with the bosses. Build a Fighting NALC (BFN) and the opposition leadership slate of the Concerned Letter Carriers (CLC) represent a potential shift in direction for the membership and its leaders.

Fight Back! will carry updates as the election plays out and the reform movement develops.

#BostonMA #NALC #NationalAssocaitionofLetterCarriers #union #BFN #CLC

Milwaukee, WI – On the afternoon of May 31, nearly 100 union members and their supporters gathered outside the entrance to the Master Lock factory on Milwaukee’s North Side to call on the company to keep the plant open. The rally came in response to a sudden announcement that the shop was going to be closed, a course of action that will leave more than 400 people out of work. A number of other unions were represented by the different participants at the rally and picket, including United Steel Workers, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, and others.

Master Lock, where workers are represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW) Region 4, Local 469, is one of the only remaining well-paying union jobs available to people living on the North Side, home to Milwaukee’s historically Black community. The area has been hit hard by the same deindustrialization over the last several decades that can be seen in other Midwestern cities like Detroit and Flint in Michigan and Gary, Indiana, among other places.

“The company was doing just fine the week before the announcement. Our plant was the top producing and delivering facility in the company. To be told that wasn’t good enough, it was devastating,” said Yolanda Nathan, president of UAW Local 469. “We plan to do everything we can to keep our jobs here, and if we’re unable to do it, we’re going to fight to get the best deal for our members.”

A prominent theme among the workers on the picket line was that as things stand, they’re losing all of their benefits, including healthcare, and that there’s been a lack of transparency from the company. Others commented on the fact that the workers and the jobs at the facility have been intimately tied to the surrounding community. Union members have led food and clothing drives and trash clean-up initiatives. With the factory closing down, an important part of the community is being lost.

“It’s not just us fighting for us, the employees; we’re fighting for the community,” Nathan said.

The company currently intends to cease operations at the facility in March of 2024. The union will fight until the end.

#MilwaukeeWI #union

Tampa, FL – Members of the Hillsborough County teachers union packed the school board meeting, September 20, to demand a better contract that takes teachers' needs for a livable salary into account. A sea of the union's red shirts confronted the board members and the county's superintendent, who with faux concern, offered nothing but the platitude that he “heard” teachers’ concerns.

The crisis could not have been clearer to anyone with eyes and ears, as union members shared stories not just of having to work second jobs for pennies, but unsafe conditions for students. One teacher said that because of understaffing due to a lack of funding, students were left without school counselors, wandering the campus, vaping in bathrooms, fighting and wandering off campus. Teachers emphasized to the school board that it was impossible to be pro-student and anti-teacher. School officials even suggested a plan to train high school students in technical repair and assign them to repair district computers and electronics, owing to a lack of adequate staff.

Eager to pretend that the crisis is over, public officials promulgated a story in the local press claiming the school staffing crisis was over. Several teachers referenced this absurd bald-faced lie, and how outrageous it is to ask teachers to disbelieve their own experiences working at severely understaffed schools.

Teacher’s demands are reasonable, with the same costs as district proposal. Teachers need a competitive wage that precludes them from having to work two or more jobs, sometimes working 21 or more hours additionally; adequate staffing that allows students to be monitored and kept safe; and working conditions that allow for learning, with often classrooms of 40-plus students and in sweltering temperatures over 90 degrees F in classrooms at times.

All this occurs in the backdrop of Florida siphoning over $1 billion this coming fiscal year from public education toward private school vouchers. Dismantling public education has long been a project of reactionaries in government like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who would like an educational system that is not unionized, and which allows greater latitude to discriminate and for racist, homophobic curricula.

The increase in private school vouchers has outpaced increases in public school funding, and the aid comes directly from state and local aid to schools, meaning that districts are more reliant on local funding, contributing to the crisis.

Residents of Tampa Bay have already been fighting for rent controls and housing aid, a people’s budget that prioritizes people not profit, but, much like Tampa city council, school officials and the school board are all too ready to throw up their hands and claim that there’s nothing they can do to adequately fund the needs of those they supposedly serve.

Teachers deserve their contract proposals met, better conditions, and respect for their years of service. With the deterioration of conditions in the school system and no sign of a slowdown in the explosion of rent costs, the need for a united front that challenges the status quo has never been clearer.

#TampaFL #teachers #union #TeachersUnions

“There’s a disconnect between management and local stores, it really just comes down to the fact that workers should have more voice in the companies they work for. We hope that our effort to unionize will inspire others,” said Calum Johnson, a barista and leading organizer of another Tallahassee Starbucks unionizing at John Knox Road. “We’re just trying to do what’s best for our store, and if any other stores in our district try to unionize, like Magnolia has, we will support them. We are here for all our stores in the district, whether they unionize or not.”

Some workers cited Starbucks’ COVID policy as a major reason they got involved in the union struggle. “When I got COVID, I had to use my sick time, about half of it to stay out for the two remaining shifts I would have been working, and I feel like it's such an unprecedented time we should get an expansion on that as well,” explained Elijah Reid, a barista. He went on to talk about the difficulties of working while understaffed.

“It’s very difficult for us to service customers properly, especially in the morning when we have a lot of mobile orders coming in and not enough workers on the floor and not enough machinery to keep up with it, because oftentimes we have to refund customers which I think is unfair to them and is stressful for us because then they’re upset,” said Reid.

Calum Johnson demanded better treatment from Starbucks, and an end to using tactics to stop union organizing: “I believe we could start by not scheduling meetings to give us misinformation and some intimidation, that’s what management can do.”

#Tallahassee #union #Starbucks

“There’s a disconnect between management and local stores, it really just comes down to the fact that workers should have more voice in the companies they work for. We hope that our effort to unionize will inspire others,” said Calum Johnson, a barista and leading organizer of another Tallahassee Starbucks unionizing at John Knox Road. “We’re just trying to do what’s best for our store, and if any other stores in our district try to unionize, like Magnolia has, we will support them. We are here for all our stores in the district, whether they unionize or not.”

Some workers cited Starbucks’ COVID policy as a major reason they got involved in the union struggle. “When I got COVID, I had to use my sick time, about half of it to stay out for the two remaining shifts I would have been working, and I feel like it's such an unprecedented time we should get an expansion on that as well,” explained Elijah Reid, a barista. He went on to talk about the difficulties of working while understaffed.

“It’s very difficult for us to service customers properly, especially in the morning when we have a lot of mobile orders coming in and not enough workers on the floor and not enough machinery to keep up with it, because oftentimes we have to refund customers which I think is unfair to them and is stressful for us because then they’re upset,” said Reid.

Calum Johnson demanded better treatment from Starbucks, and an end to using tactics to stop union organizing: “I believe we could start by not scheduling meetings to give us misinformation and some intimidation, that’s what management can do.”

#Tallahassee #union #Starbucks

This wave of union activity is especially remarkable in a city like Tallahassee, which has low union density. Right to work laws make it difficult to organize.

While the struggle at North Monroe Street has just started, union organizers have suggested creating a strike fund to receive financial support from other organizations and community members. Although excited about the level of community support, employees are already worried about the potential backlash from upper management.

There is a possibility of retaliation from Starbucks bosses. At a Starbucks location in Philadelphia, the National Labor Board of Relations found that Starbucks illegally discriminated against two employees organizing for better working conditions. They unlawfully spied on their conversations and gauged their support among fellow employees. Eventually Starbucks fired both of them in an attempt to stop future organizing. While they were reinstated and the NLRB held Starbucks responsible for their illegal actions in Philadelphia, conditions could be different in Florida.

Although uncertainty lies ahead, a Starbucks union in Tallahassee is unprecedented and could spread to the entire city.

#NorthMonroe #union #Starbucks #tallahasee

The vote was done by mail-in ballot, which can slow down the counting process, however even with a group of 5800 people it is highly unusual for a vote to take this long to count, or more than a few hours. The union says that this is a result of several hundred challenges being filed by the employer to votes cast, which has slowed the process considerably.

Actual counting of the votes is expected to begin on Thursday, April 8 in the afternoon, or on Friday morning. While counting the ballots may only take a couple hours by itself, the counting process may be laden with more challenges to ballots by either party if one party or the other argues that a ballot has been spoiled. Ballots can be spoiled in many ways, including if a worker wrote their name on a ballot, or did not fill it out in a manner in which the intent is clear.

Depending on the numbers, we may find out a result by the end of Friday. Or we may see further delays of weeks or even months if the number of challenges proves greater than the margin by which the vote is decided, which would mean the challenges would be ‘determinative’ and could result in a delay of results being certified until after those challenges are settled by the NLRB.

Many in the U.S. labor movement see this as an important time for the movement and are watching results anxiously.

#BirminghamAL #union #unionElection #Amazon #Alabama #Ballot

Bessemer, AL – Voting formally began Monday, February 8 for Amazon workers at a large distribution center in Bessemer, Alabama. They are voting on whether or not to join the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU). Ballots are being mailed to workers and voting will continue through March 29.

Amazon’s attempts at union busting included trying to stop the mail vote from happening by filing objections with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) insisting on an in-person vote to take place at the worksite instead of the mail-in vote that was scheduled. Attempts to make voting harder are a common practice used by professional union busters who frequently refer to themselves by names like “union avoidance attorneys” or “consultants.” These attempts at making voting more restrictive are often used when an employer believes that a vote is likely to go through, so making it more difficult improves their chances of stopping the workers from joining the union.

The NLRB threw out Amazon’s objection and ruled that the vote would continue as planned. Ballots should start hitting mailboxes in the coming days and the vote count, overseen by the NLRB, is set to begin on March 30. Joining the union at the Amazon facility in Alabama would be the first time Amazon employees successfully joined a union in the United States.

Amazon has come out clearly against their employees wish to join the union and has argued that the latest union effort lacked support from a majority in Bessemer, while also noting that it offers above-average wages and benefits. These arguments are typical ones used by professional union busters to thwart attempts by workers to join unions. The reality is that what percent of workers support joining a union is not information that is made public to the employer, and in most cases the number of union cards submitted dramatically underrepresents the amount who support the idea, because it is often not possible for the supporters to reach everyone to ask them to sign a card, meaning many supporters are never able to sign before the vote. All that is known for sure, is that at least 30% of the workers submitted cards to the NLRB requesting membership in the union, meaning the threshold was met to trigger a legally binding vote.

The attempt to join the union comes amid a series of protests around the United States over safety and working conditions at Amazon and at the same time as the coronavirus pandemic has increased workload and pressure on those employees.

In dismissing the objection to the voting process, the NLRB said that there were no substantial issues in need of review and that the safety of all involved with the voting “is best served, at this time, by avoiding the type of in-person gatherings that a manual election entails.”

Amazon is the second largest employer in the United States with more than 800,000 employees, most of who are “essential workers” who must work in person. The Bessemer location employs more than 5800 workers. If this vote is successful this would be a significant win for unions in the South and at Amazon.

#BessemerAL #union #Vote #Amazon #Alabama #Bezos

Chicago, IL – Students in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) stayed home and learned remotely again on Thursday, January 28. The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) continued to demand that any return to in-person learning be done in a safe way. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot had ordered all teachers back to the classroom on Wednesday the 27th but was forced to backtrack and tell parents to keep their kids home again Thursday.

CPS has been demanding that 80% of school staff return in person and has refused to allow accommodations for staff who live in households with people who are in high-risk categories according to the Centers for Disease Control. CPS has also refused to provide weekly testing for unvaccinated staff and students at schools. In binding arbitration on October 2, CPS was ordered to allow school clerks and technology coordinators to work remotely, but the school system has yet to comply with that order.

The Chicago Teachers Union is seeking a health metric based on CDC guidance, a phased reopening, access to vaccinations for educators, and enforceable safety standards in school buildings, which have struggled to meet even basic needs for PPE, adequate ventilation and clean facilities. Because Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s CPS team has refused to offer vaccinations to educators before ordering them into school buildings, and has not been willing to agree to a phased-in resumption of in-person learning, the Chicago Teachers Union has now publicly called for mediation to resolve the impasse.

The teachers say that they continue to teach and want to continue to teach safely. To that end, their union has proposed critical precautions necessary for a safe return to in-person learning, but all of those precautions have been rejected by the Board of Education.

CTU President Jesse Sharkey said, “We are willing to keep teaching, but CPS has said they will lock us out. We are willing to keep negotiating, but CPS has refused to back down from insisting that 80% of educators and support staff return on February 1 to serve fewer than 20% of the students. Another 10,000 of our members became eligible for vaccinations on January 25. We can make schools safe with a phased reopening and enhanced COVID-19 testing for members of school communities.”

“It’s obvious to everyone but CPS and the mayor that parents aren’t sending their children back because they do not believe schools are safe or that COVID is under control,” said CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates. “This is especially true for Black and brown families. CPS does not need 80% of educators back in school to serve 19% of students. This makes no sense in a pandemic that continues to infect one in eight people in many of the Black and brown Chicago neighborhoods that have already shouldered a disproportionate burden of COVID disease and death. Our families want safety. Our educators want safety, yet CPS continues to refuse to negotiate an agreement that builds in that safety, and instead, has threatened to lock out tens of thousands of educators who have a right to safe workplaces to educate our schoolchildren.”

Only 19% of eligible students returned to pre-K and special education cluster programs on January 11, and in some cases teachers are being told to come in to schools in which not one family has opted in to the hybrid model in person learning, which shows that there is broad agreement in the community that the current CPS plan is not safe.

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #teachers #union #TeachersUnions #CTU #pandemic #COVID

Wonderstate Coffee employs six workers, consisting of baristas, kitchen staff and cashiers. As of December 16, these six workers have formed a bargaining unit. As a collective organization, they will begin negotiating for wage increases, benefits and terms of secure employment.

Their success in unionizing was timely. The company is closing the café for an undetermined amount of time, citing concerns about COVID-19. Without a union, Wonderstate workers would be at the will of the company. They would have no assurances of their continued employment whenever the café reopens. Several months ago, kitchen and wait staff at Comet Café learned this firsthand when management shut down the operation after complaints about untenable working conditions.

Molly Kiefer, the kitchen lead at Wonderstate, had a big role in the success of this effort.

“The support we have received from communities within and beyond Milwaukee has been significant and I am so grateful for everyone who has reached out in support of our effort,” Kiefer said.

Although the shop is closing for a time, Kiefer expressed pride in their collective accomplishment.

“While the closing affects what the union will look like over the next few months, the union will still be present for future employees and we are excited they will be able to benefit,” Keifer said. “This is particularly meaningful to me, because it gives baristas and bakers in Milwaukee the opportunity to practice the craft they love and have a union job, something that isn't readily available in the Milwaukee coffee community.”

Wonderstate was not the first coffee shop to lead a unionization effort in Milwaukee, but they were the first to win. Early in 2019, workers at Stonecreek Coffee led the charge with an initial effort (also with IBT Local 344), but eventually lost that battle. Workers at Colectivo are currently campaigning to form a union through the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 494.

Wonderstate management has vaguely told their employees that the shop will reopen in 2021 though no date has yet been set. During that time, IBT Local 344’s newest members will be negotiating for fair pay, benefits, and their right to return to work when the shop reopens.

The victory at Wonderstate is not the only union win for workers in Milwaukee but the latest. Several weeks before the vote at the coffee shop, workers at the Milwaukee Art Museum won their union election and officially joined the security guards in their workplace represented by the International Association of Machinists.

In addition, workers at two local nonprofits – Voces de la Frontera and Wisconsin Voices – are in various stages of their own organizing drives. An online panel set to include members of these various efforts across industries is being planned by the Young Workers Committee of the Milwaukee Area Labor Council. This event is expected to be held late next month.

#MilwaukeeWI #PeoplesStruggles #Teamsters #union #TeamstersLocal344 #WonderstateCoffee

The contested election underscores the internal democracy inside the CTU, in which debates about the direction and functioning of the union took place in school meetings across the city, in member forums on the internet, and in the union’s governing body, the House of Delegates.

Re-elected CTU President Jesse Sharkey, who took over from Karen Lewis when she retired for health reasons in September, made the following statement in the wake of the announcement of election results:

“I am proud of our union and honored to be elected as president. I commit to do everything in my power to advance the cause of our public schools, and our members who work in those schools. Since coming into office with Karen Lewis in 2010, we have done our utmost to build a strong, democratic movement for educational justice – the CTU sees dignity and respect on the job as going hand in hand with social, racial, and economic justice for our students, and we are committed to fight for the rights of every member and every student in Chicago.

“Over the past several years, we have witnessed the deepest cuts and worst fiscal austerity measures since the state takeover of CPS in 1979-80. As a result of the hard work by teachers, students, and parents our schools have made some gains, despite the financial hardships. However, conditions in the classrooms have reached a breaking point – with school-based budgeting disasters, unsanitary conditions, critical staffing shortages, a full-blown legal crisis surrounding special education, insufficient supports for student trauma, the precipitous decline of Black and veteran educators in the classroom, and the list goes on. A typical school in Chicago has a school nurse just one day a week.

“This must change. The CTU will work to dramatically improve the conditions in our schools and usher in an elected, representative school board. The new CTU contract provides an important opportunity to enshrine key improvements in a legally binding form. We hope that the new mayor makes good on her promises to transform our public schools. If she does, she will find us to be a steadfast ally. If she does not, she will find us to be an implacable foe.”

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #union #TeachersUnions #CTU #CORE

The contested election underscores the internal democracy inside the CTU, in which debates about the direction and functioning of the union took place in school meetings across the city, in member forums on the internet, and in the union’s governing body, the House of Delegates.

Re-elected CTU President Jesse Sharkey, who took over from Karen Lewis when she retired for health reasons in September, made the following statement in the wake of the announcement of election results:

“I am proud of our union and honored to be elected as president. I commit to do everything in my power to advance the cause of our public schools, and our members who work in those schools. Since coming into office with Karen Lewis in 2010, we have done our utmost to build a strong, democratic movement for educational justice – the CTU sees dignity and respect on the job as going hand in hand with social, racial, and economic justice for our students, and we are committed to fight for the rights of every member and every student in Chicago.

“Over the past several years, we have witnessed the deepest cuts and worst fiscal austerity measures since the state takeover of CPS in 1979-80. As a result of the hard work by teachers, students, and parents our schools have made some gains, despite the financial hardships. However, conditions in the classrooms have reached a breaking point – with school-based budgeting disasters, unsanitary conditions, critical staffing shortages, a full-blown legal crisis surrounding special education, insufficient supports for student trauma, the precipitous decline of Black and veteran educators in the classroom, and the list goes on. A typical school in Chicago has a school nurse just one day a week.

“This must change. The CTU will work to dramatically improve the conditions in our schools and usher in an elected, representative school board. The new CTU contract provides an important opportunity to enshrine key improvements in a legally binding form. We hope that the new mayor makes good on her promises to transform our public schools. If she does, she will find us to be a steadfast ally. If she does not, she will find us to be an implacable foe.”

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #union #TeachersUnions #CTU #CORE

Chicago, IL – Teamster Chief Negotiator Dennis Taylor and UPS shook hands on a tentative agreement, June 22, which will include a new driving position called Full-Time Combination Drivers (Combo Driver). Full details were released July 10. UPS Teamsters across the country are calling the new position a two-tiered concession that spells doom for future package car drivers.

The new Combo Driver job will work inside the building and on the road as needed, unlike regular package drivers who work primarily on road. Their work will include Saturday and Sunday delivery, receive pay approximately $6 less than regular drivers, may include as long as 1.5 hour lunch breaks between shifts, and lack other protections, like protection from excessive overtime.

“This is a scam that fixes nothing and introduces a whole new set of problems,” commented Package Driver Peter Swan, Local 344. “Why not force the company to add more full-time driving jobs, strengthen 9.5 language for excessive overtime, strengthen weekend language, and add more full-time 22.3 jobs? I don't want to work alongside other drivers making six dollars less, working the weekends that I get to see my family. It's not good for them or me.”

Package Division Director Dennis Taylor argues that this new position is a remedy for the existing issues among Regular Package Car Drivers (RPCDs). In short, they claim the proposal is a way to relieve RPCD's of weekend work, excessive overtime, and add new full-time job positions to the workforce. Today, approximately 120,000 or the 240,000 US-based UPS jobs are part time while full-time drivers often are overworked.

Package Car Steward Daniel Ginsberg-Jaeckle, Local 705, added, “We can still fight and win a good contract. If this contract goes through as written, we're selling out a future generation and missing a huge opportunity to win a much-needed victory for the working class.”

Some other contract details include: Protections for RPCD driver work over Combo Driver work; a five-consecutive-day, two-day-off, 40-hour week, eight-hour day protection for both RPCDs and Combo Drivers; and a limit of Combo Drivers to 25% of all drivers in facilities operating on weekends (but may be renegotiated).

While the new contract adds another 5000 full-time positions, it also states that the new Combo Driver classification can fulfill this promise, meaning less full-time inside warehouse jobs and the continued agony of part-time workers waiting over a decade for a full-time position if they can't drive a truck.

Part-time worker Beau Dakota Hawk, Local 519, commented, “In many places part-timers wait over a decade to bid for an inside combo job when we can't become package car drivers. This proposal does not seriously address part-time issues. It creates far less full-time jobs than you'd suspect and it only favors people who can drive.”

Full national contract details can be found at upsrising.org. Voting on the contract will likely begin in the next couple months as regional supplements and local riders are finalized. The National UPS/Teamster Contract does not cover Local 705 and 710, who begin negotiations this week.

#ChicagoIL #IL #Teamsters #union #UPS #ComboDriver

Milwaukee, WI – On the overcast morning of June 22, over 50 package car drivers and part-time workers at the Elm Grove hub came to work early for a parking lot rally led by Teamsters Local 344.

The mood of the rally was set by news the night before that a ‘handshake deal’ had been reached between the national UPS and Teamster negotiating committees that included lower-than-expected wages for part-time workers and a second tier driver classification that would work weekends.

The workers present were not sold that this was the best contract their negotiators could get. Many brought up the fact that UPS is one of the most profitable companies in the country, yet they refuse to pay part-time workers a living wage or pay all drivers at the same wage rate.

Fired up, the workers rallied with their Local leadership, all in agreement that the only way they can get a contract they deserve is if they stand united. Local 344 has never flinched from stating that their part-time members deserve a living wage, that drivers deserve more time with their families and that their contract needs to have the strongest anti-harassment language possible to protect workers from zealous supervisors.

The rally ended with the workers chanting, “Who are we? Teamsters!” and “Worker power!” It was clear to all present that Wisconsin's Teamsters will not accept a concessionary contract, and are willing to fight for better.

#MilwaukeeWI #PeoplesStruggles #Teamsters #union #UPS #TeamstersLocal344

Minneapolis, MN – While Minnesota’s elite assembled for a University of Minnesota fundraising gala, Sept. 23, where the price of admission was a half-million dollars, about 200 campus workers and their backers crashed the party.

After rallying at the Coffman building, where union leaders put forward demands for raises and respect, workers marched to the site of the fundraising gala, Northrup Auditorium.

Cherrene Horazuk, president of AFSCME Local 3800, told the crowd that university workers were ready and willing to fight. Mick Kelly, a member of the Teamsters Local 320 negotiating committee, led the crowd in chanting, “What’s outrageous? Poverty wages!” Kelly also stressed the need to “do whatever it takes to get the kind of raise we deserve.”

According to a statement from the unions, “Frontline staff are currently negotiating for decent raises to keep up with the cost of living. The university is offering us pennies for the first year and nothing for the second year, claiming that they don’t have money for staff. At the same time, they are in the middle of a $4 billion fundraising campaign of which zero will go to frontline staff or to reduce tuition costs for students.”

#MinneapolisMN #PeoplesStruggles #union #UniversityOfMinnesota #Minnesota

Saint Paul, MN – More than 240 members of Workers United Local 150 walked off the job from Health Systems Cooperative Laundries, August 5, forming picket lines at the plant entrances in a strike over unfair labor practices, which include the company’s unilateral discontinuation of sick-day benefits.

Workers poured out of the building starting at 1:00 p.m., completely shutting down operations at the commercial laundry facility.

Many of the striking workers are Latino and Asian immigrants. They work in conditions that often include temperatures inside the building in excess of 100 degrees. They have walked the picket lines twice this summer during contract negotiations to protest the company’s unfair labor practices. Worker say money is not the issue, but rather protecting workplace rights, which they have had in their labor agreement for many years, including the sick-day benefit the company unilaterally discontinued in April.

Union members nearly unanimously voted down the company’s “last, best and final offer” on July 26. Since then, Workers United – along with other labor organizations such as SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and area labor federations and councils – have been urging hospitals, clinics, doctors and the board of directors that oversees the operation of the laundry to restore the benefits and drop oppressive and unnecessary demands.

Negotiations resumed between the union and the laundry the morning of August 5 at the offices of Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services in Minneapolis, but at this point have been unsuccessful.

Workers at Health Systems Cooperative Laundries provide linens to nearly every hospital in the Twin Cities. The linens are typically used the day they are laundered, delivered to hospitals in carts specially set up for distinct uses. It is unclear where the hospitals will obtain linen service, but it will likely be at a much higher cost and without assurance that they will receive the same service that the striking workers provide.

“Going on strike is not something we want to do. We want to provide linens for the hospitals so healthcare workers and medical staff can continue caring for patients with the quality linens they are used to,” said Anita Beachler, a member of the union’s negotiating committee, who has worked in the laundry for over 30 years. “The company already took our sick-day benefits, and the contract they proposed would strip us of important leave of absence language, limit our bargaining rights over mid-term changes imposed by the employer and give us no protection should they sell the business to a new owner.

“The work we do is extremely valuable. Hopefully our bosses will understand that we deserve to be treated with respect, and that they need to give back our sick days and move off their anti-worker proposals in order to avoid a strike,” continued Beachler.

There is no indication as to how long a strike could last.

Members of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota are supporting Workers United and will be joining them on the picket line.

#SaintPaulMN #SEIU #PeoplesStruggles #strike #union #workersRights #HealthSystemsCooperativeLaundries

Calderon’s proposal is also supported by president-elect Enrique Peña Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), whose election is still being disputed due to widespread allegations of vote-buying and fraud. Both the PAN and the PRI are right-wing parties. Mexico’s labor law has some progressive aspects that were included in the constitution that was written in 1917 in the aftermath of the Mexican revolution. The current right-wing reforms seek to undermine those progressive parts of Mexican labor law.

The proposed reform is being pushed quickly through the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Congress, with a vote in the full chamber slated to happen as early as Sept. 27.

Unions in Mexico are strongly opposed to the anti-union and anti-worker reforms and have been mobilizing massively to stop them.

Among other things, the proposed reforms would legalize subcontracting and temporary contracting of workers to allow companies to avoid paying into social security for their workers; would make it easier for companies to fire workers; and under the guise of the “flexibility of the workday” the minimum wage and the eight-hour workday would essentially be gutted, though these are both supposed to be guaranteed in Article 123 of Mexico’s constitution. The new reforms would make it increasingly difficult for workers to retire with a dignified pension. They would make it harder for workers to take legal action against their employer. Finally and perhaps most importantly, the reforms would restrict collective union contracts, limit the autonomy of unions, and would restrict the right to strike.

#Mexico #union #EnriquePenaNieto #PRI #FelipeCalderon #PAN #Americas

El Salvador

18 October 2005

Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association – AMFA

Presente

Brothers and sisters, compañeros and compañeras:

In the name of the Frente Sindical Salvadoreño (Salvadoran Labor Front) receive solidarity and fraternal greetings to the members of AMFA that are on strike against the anti-union policies of Northwest Airlines.

The Salvadoran Labor Front is a federation of 27 unions that have made the decision to struggle together against the policies of transnational capital. Currently, we are struggling for a livable wage and dignified work for Salvadoran women and men. We are working against the privatization of public services, against the high cost of living and against the neoliberal policies that each day create more poverty and a greater concentration of wealth.

We understand that the members of AMFA have been on strike since the 19 of August and that you are confronting one of the most recalcitrant corporations in the U.S. Northwest is trying to negate the rights and victories that unions have won through decades of hard work. A defeat for the mechanics will open the door for the destruction of other unions in the airline industry, as well as unions in other industries.

Your struggle is important not only for yourselves, but it is significant for the entire labor movement in the U.S. and around the world. Northwest wants to outsource the work of the mechanics to other countries, including El Salvador. El Salvador is a country where there are ongoing violations of human and labor rights. It’s clear that if Northwest does not respect the unions that already exist at the company, they will not permit the unionization of their international locations and they will not respect international labor laws.

On this occasion, the members of the FSS would like to express our steadfast solidarity with you. Only through working class solidarity can we stop the strikebreaking and other attempts to dismantle unions. Only through this solidarity can we build a worldwide labor movement. Your struggle is our struggle. We anxiously await word on what we can do to help you, within the context of our modest resources.

Long live the Northwest workers!

Long live the labor movement!

Long live international solidarity!

[Signed by the general secretaries of the member unions of the FSS ]

#ElSalvador #AirlineIndustry #Statement #strike #AMFA #NorthwestAirlines #laborSolidarity #union #AMFAStrikeAgainstNorthwestAirlines #Strikes