Posts tagged John Deere
The small pro-labor news site that has the Biden White House’s ear
October 3, 2023 // Ahead of the announcement that Biden would join the striking workers. More Perfect Union’s executive director, Faiz Shakir, helped connect the White House and United Auto Workers leaders, smoothing the way for Biden to address a crowd of striking workers. “We had a number of conversations with the White House,” Shakir, a former campaign manager for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), said of the planning for the Biden trip. “We’re also on the ground covering UAW and building relationships there. So that’s where we gave a little bit of help on the sidelines.” With a tone that is often serious but always conversational, More Perfect Union highlights the struggles of workers from disparate sectors; one post on social media might be about striking railway workers, while the next might be about exploitation women face in the modeling industry. It also dabbles in memes, jokes and commentary familiar to anyone who spends time online.
Why it seems like everyone’s going on strike on Biden’s watch
September 19, 2023 // Biden was able to intervene directly in talks between railroads and rail workers since federal law gives the government a big say in that industry’s labor relations due to its economic importance. And his top Labor Department official was involved in a deal this year between West Coast ports and dockworkers. Here’s how the administration publicly stepped in — or didn’t — in some of organized labor’s most high-profile moments.
Labor unions are pushing hard for double-digit raises and better hours. Many are winning
August 28, 2023 // More than 320,000 workers have participated in at least 230 strikes so far this year, according to data from the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations. That’s already higher than the roughly 224,000 workers who participated in roughly 420 strikes in 2022, due in large part to tens of thousands of striking workers with the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and Writers Guild of America. “Major” strikes involving 1,000 or more workers so far amount to just 16 such work stoppages this year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That compares to a recent high of 25 recorded major work stoppages in 2019 and 23 last year.
A big clash is coming for Detroit’s Big 3 automakers as their workers’ union gears up for another round of contentious negotiations
July 27, 2023 // "We have to be able to do whatever we have to do if you want to have these gains. The companies aren't going to freely give it," Fain said in June. Escalating tactics at the UAW predate Fain. In 2019, at the height of the union's corruption scandal, the UAW initiated a 40-day strike at GM's more than 30 US factories. The work stoppage helped the union notch wins on wages and job security, even as the company won the ability to close several factories. In the end, GM lost some $3.6 billion due to the strike. The union, which also covers workers in other industrial industries and some academic institutions, has also had high-profile work stoppages at John Deere in 2021 and the University of California in 2022. Fain has said he is not ruling out a strike in this round of talks, potentially at more than one company.
UPS Teamsters strike threat lingers, here’s how a strike could impact non-union workers
July 14, 2023 // Non-union workers are likely to see additional workload expectations in the event of a strike. Management, supervisors and other clerical staff that may not be covered by the Teamsters contract "could be told to keep the packages moving" while the union members walk the picket lines, Morris said. Clark said UPS could try and lean on the non-union workers to keep the company afloat during a strike.
The president of the United Auto Workers union has been ousted in an election
March 27, 2023 // A court-appointed monitor declared challenger Shawn Fain the winner over incumbent Ray Curry. Fain's slate of candidates won control of the big union, as workers rejected most incumbents in the wake of a bribery and embezzlement scandal It was the 372,000-member union's first direct election of its 14-member International Executive Board, which came in the wake of the wide-ranging scandal that landed two former presidents in prison. The vote count had been going on since March 1, and the outcome was uncertain going into Saturday because of challenges against several hundred ballots.
UAW Election Results Delayed to “Challenged” Ballots
March 7, 2023 // The outcome will be decided by 1,608 “challenged ballots.” The court-appointed monitor is determining whether the challenged ballots come from eligible voters. In many cases, the voters never included the number of their Local Union on the ballot. In other cases, the elections officer appointed by the monitor was unable to determine if the voter appeared on a list of a local union’s list of active or retired members, observers said. “The independent monitor is continuing to conduct the vote count process. No outcome has been determined,” the Curry Solidarity Team said in a Facebook post. “This is a process that make take a while,” Members United noted. So far, the elections officer has counted 137,591 votes and Fain, boosted by the fallout from a scandal, is leading by 645 votes, according to the unofficial results compiled by the monitor, who was appointed in the wake of the recent scandal during which a dozen union officials were sent to prison.
Already strained supply chain at risk in ongoing port labor talks
June 22, 2022 // Both Tirschwell and Larian point out that it wouldn't take a strike or a management lockout to slow or stop the flow of cargo. In the past, union members have slowed cargo simply by following strictly the terms of their existing contact, rather than trying to work most effectively. "Maybe they won't go on strike, but they can slow down everything," said Larian, the toymaker CEO. "A strike is very unlikely. A lockout is very unlikely," said Tirschwell. "But there's a definite possibility of an industrial action that disrupts the flow of cargo. That's what happened for six months in 2014 and 2015." Jim McKenna, Isaac Larian, Peter Tirschwell,
Now Is the Time for Unions to Go on the Offensive
June 7, 2022 // But, thankfully, a growing “militant minority” of labor advocates are calling for a more aggressive and offensive stance, and an implicit rejection of fortress unionism. Those forces argue for a dramatic increase in spending on organizing campaigns, a boost in the funding of alternative labor groups and independent unions, and more militant and disruptive labor activities, such as legal and illegal strikes, secondary boycott activities, and defying restrictive court injunctions on picketing and protest. May Day,