Posts tagged Socialist
Protests Go Beyond Immigration to Include Array of Left-Wing Causes
June 15, 2025 // “In this moment we must all stand together,” said Becky Pringle, the head of the National Education Association, the largest individual union in the country and one of the groups that sprang into action as the protests emerged in Los Angeles. Local chapters of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a Communist Party offshoot of the Workers World Party, have also played a leading role, working with local leftist groups to post information about new demonstrations from California to Maine.
May Day demonstrations in US and around the globe protest Trump agenda
May 4, 2025 // Hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. and around the world rallied Thursday in May Day protests that united many in anger over President Donald Trump’s agenda from aggressive tariffs that are stoking fears of global economic turmoil to his administration’s immigration crackdowns. In the United States, organizers framed this year’s International Workers’ Day protests as a pushback against what they see as the administration’s sweeping assault on labor protections, diversity initiatives and federal employees.
Commentary: For Teacher Union Elites, It’s Always About Empowerment – of Themselves
October 25, 2024 // The first requires locals to give 60 days’ notice of plans to disaffiliate, allowing the NEA to gear up a defense. Locals must also give NEA officials time to speak at a membership meeting. A two-thirds majority is now required to leave the national union, not the simple majority required to affiliate in the first place. The second restriction allows the NEA itself – not only state affiliates – to establish trusteeships over local unions. Trusteeship permits the NEA to invalidate any attempt to disaffiliate and to conduct what amounts to a hostile takeover, directing the local’s books, funds, actions, and officers.
Chicago Teachers Union funds 3 in 5 Chicago aldermen, with big bucks to Socialists
August 11, 2024 // The Chicago Teachers Union has funneled over $850,000 to the political committees of 30 of the 50 current Chicago aldermen since 2010. Seven Socialists received the most money. Taking in the most was Jeanette Taylor, Ward 20’s progressive Socialist alderwoman, who has collected over $139,000 from CTU since 2010, according Illinois State Board of Elections records. Following her was Byron Sigcho Lopez, Ward 25’s progressive Socialist alderman, who has received nearly $107,000 from CTU. Of the 20 aldermen who have not received money from CTU since 2010, only one-quarter of them were progressives and none were Socialists.
Mercedes-Benz Workers in Alabama Facing Unionization Pressure
May 13, 2024 // Just as foreign countries shouldn’t interfere in U.S. presidential elections, foreign actors shouldn’t interfere in American union elections. Foreign unions don’t have American workers’ best interests at heart. If Mercedes wants to operate in America, it should follow American law and not cave to IG Metall.
Bernie Sanders’ 32-hour work week hypocrisy
April 30, 2024 // the UAW has several career opportunities available. Nearly all the full-time jobs note that these are “Monday to Friday” for an “8-hour shift.” In other words, if you want to work for the United Auto Workers, you better be ready to work five days a week for at least 40 hours. As for Sen. Sanders, his public job applications are vague about how many actual workdays and hours he requires from his employees. But it’s notable that recent reviews from staff members frequently cite “long hours” and “long workweeks” among the cons of working for him. It’s not uncommon for Capitol Hill offices to have 40-, 50- or even 60-hour workweeks. If Sanders and Fain believed fewer hours for the same pay makes sense, they would do it for the jobs they offer. They want to force others to do what they refuse to do. That’s hypocrisy.
From Strikes to New Union Contracts, Labor Day’s Organizing Roots Are Especially Strong Across the Country This Year
September 5, 2023 // The first U.S. Labor Day celebration took place in New York City on Sept. 5, 1882. Some 10,000 workers marched in a parade organized by the Central Labor Union and the Knights of Labor. A handful of cities and states began to adopt laws recognizing Labor Day in the years that followed, yet it took more than a decade before President Grover Cleveland signed a congressional act in 1894 establishing the first Monday of September as a legal holiday.
Detroit’s giant auto union is having a historic election after a series of scandals. Get ready for more strikes and higher car prices.
March 1, 2023 // This is the first direct election of the union’s leadership in the UAW’s 88-year history, following a series of corruption scandals that sent two former presidents to prison. In the races that have already been counted in the election, it’s clear that, for the first time in decades, the union leadership will be closely divided between the old guard and the challengers. This transformation of how the UAW is governed sets up what is widely expected to be a more adversarial relationship between the union and the Big Three domestic car producers. Regardless of who wins the presidency, a more combative stance with automakers is likely to result in more strikes, higher car prices and also greater competitive pressure on domestic companies to outsource or challenge unionization at new plants opening to make electric vehicles and their components.
Labor of Love: EWOC is Pioneering a New Model for Empowering Workers
May 26, 2022 // EWOC is most strongly concentrated in California, Illinois, Texas and New York. In New York City, the group has over 500 people — workers, volunteers and trainees — involved in its network. Its volunteer organizers have successfully organized workers at Sara Lawrence College and at Bright Horizons, the nation’s largest provider of employer-sponsored child care. Some of the REI-Soho worker-organizers who would eventually see through a successful union drive with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union went through EWOC’s training program. EWOC volunteers also help to funnel Starbucks workers who reach out to them to Starbucks Workers United, the newly-formed, independent Starbucks union.
Columbia student worker union concedes to second round of contract mediation in third week of strike
November 19, 2021 // Meanwhile, Columbia, along with the UAW, continues to put the financial squeeze on student-workers. After changing the way it distributes stipends at the beginning of the semester, the university has begun withholding striking graduate workers’ stipends, which students rely on to live.