Posts tagged RWDSU
Union Leaders Get Tough With Democrats as Members Drift Toward Trump
August 11, 2025 // “Every time we talk politics, the first thing that comes up is, ‘The Democrats let us down,’” Jimmy Williams, the president of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, told The New York Times.
US labor unions fight to contain AI disruption
June 5, 2025 // The threat extends beyond manufacturing. The CEO of Anthropic, which created Claude as a competitor to ChatGPT, warned last week that generative AI could eliminate half of all low-skilled white-collar jobs, potentially driving unemployment rates up to 10-20 percent. "The potential displacement of workers and elimination of jobs is a significant concern not just for our members, but for the public in general," said Peter Finn of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, America's largest union.
REI Greensboro, NC, workers vote to unionize
February 3, 2025 // Greensboro workers began the process after REI reduced the workforce by 275 company wide in October 2023. Most of the cuts were "leads," who are the most experienced in the chain, with the Greensboro store losing two. According to the RWDSU, Greensboro joins 10 others fighting for fair pay, guaranteed hours, a path to full-time status, and transfer opportunities within REI. The vote to unionize was conducted Friday by the National Labor Relations Board.
Amazon Workers in North Carolina to Vote on Union Next Month
January 14, 2025 // The group, which is known as CAUSE, filed a petition last month with the National Labor Relations Board seeking an election. The organization and the NLRB said the voting is scheduled for Feb. 10 to Feb. 15.
Labor unions start to unify behind Kamala Harris. Here’s why.
July 25, 2024 // Randi Weingarten, head of the 1.7-million member American Federation of Teachers and a close ally of President Joe Biden, said she'd forgotten to bring something on stage with her at the union's national convention in Houston, Texas on Monday. "I don't have tissues -- I should, unfortunately," Weingarten said, before thanking Biden for his achievements. A day earlier, Weingarten had been among the first labor leaders to express support for the newly announced presidential candidacy of Vice President Kamala Harris.
REI Opens New Store in Ithaca Amid Union Busting Allegations
July 2, 2024 // The rally will feature speeches from New York State Senator Lea Webb, Assembly Member Anna Kelles, Ithaca Common Council Members Kayla Matos and Phoebe Brown, and unionized REI workers. The event aims to draw attention to the difficulties REI workers have faced in negotiating their first contracts. Since 2022, ten REI stores have voted to unionize, including locations in SoHo, New York; Berkeley, California; Cleveland, Ohio; Chicago, Illinois; Boston, Massachusetts; Durham, North Carolina; Maple Grove, Minnesota; Bellingham, Washington; Castleton, Indiana; and Santa Cruz, California. Workers at these stores have cited a desire for better wages, improved working conditions, and greater job security as reasons for unionizing.
The UAW Has Set Its Sights on the Anti-Union South
March 8, 2024 // Young people are a crucial group for the campaign. In Alabama, very few young workers have ever been in a union, and their lack of familiarity with organized labor can prove a major stumbling block. While young people across the United States are particularly pro-union, their generational remove from the movement in the Deep South was a central factor in why workers voted against unionizing with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) at an Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, just twenty-five miles up the road from MBUSI.
Teamsters work to galvanize Amazon workers, hitting the company when it hurts most
March 7, 2024 // The resolution alleges that Amazon “exploits its employees, contractors, and employees of contractors via: wage theft, fraudulent classification, intense production quotas, dehumanizing work environments, unsafe workplaces and production standards, low wages, high turnover, no voice on the job, lack of job security and outsourced jobs.” The Teamsters have spent five years speaking to thousands of Amazon workers to develop the best strategies for organizing, the resolution states. The announcement comes during Prime Day, Amazon’s annual sales event and one of the busiest times of the year for workers in the company’s warehouses.
REI SoHo workers unionized in 2022, but still don’t have a contract. This play tells their story
February 21, 2024 // Neill first put on the play, called Foot Wears House, for her coworkers and fellow union members, through a reading at RWDSU’s office. Now, it will be open to the public with a reading at Hudson Park Library on February 24, once again starring members of the REI Soho union. The reading is supported by Working Theater, which is focused on stories for and about working people, and is free to the public, with the option for donations to the REI Union Hardship Fund.