Posts tagged solidarity
WAWU begins striking
May 23, 2024 // Some picket lines are designed to stop delivery trucks and other vehicles from crossing their lines. When stopped, participants hand the drivers a flyer explaining their cause and why they should not enter campus if avoidable, according to strike participant Parker Hopkins. Construction workers working on Kaiser Borsari Hall aren’t working Tuesday, according to a worker from Seattle who stepped out of his car on Bill McDonald Parkway and offered to buy coffee for the picketing student employees. Because of his own union involvement, the worker said he’s getting paid to sit in his hotel room for the day. Whatcom Transit Authority is also not running buses through Western’s campus on High Street, but rerouting them to pick up and drop off on Garden Street beneath the Viking Union, according to a post on X from Whatcom Transport Authority.
What to know about the ‘Make Amazon Pay’ strike campaign
November 27, 2023 // An organizer with GMB Union, a U.K.-based labor union, described the effort as “the largest day of industrial disruption in Amazon’s thirty-year history.” The effort garnered support from more than 400 lawmakers from 38 countries for a protest in 2020, including Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and former U.K. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Supporters also planned protests at Amazon facilities in Massachusetts, Georgia and Illinois. Outside the U.S., organizers planned protest action in Japan, India and throughout Europe, including Germany, France, Spain and the U.K. Hundreds of workers were striking Friday at warehouses in Coventry, U.K., and in multiple German cities, Reuters reported.
Union workers end strike at Thombert after new contract is signed
October 31, 2023 // When picketing first began, workers were frustrated Thombert, Inc. had grown “leaps and bounds,” but their paychecks did not reflect that. Others argued the initial offer from management was an “insult” and “ridiculous.” Later that month, union groups from across the state joined Thombert employees on strike outside the company’s Newton factory. Charlie Wishman, president of the Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, advocated for fair contracts. “We are here to show support and solidarity to let them know they’re not alone,” he said. “You’ve got people from every single different kind of union out here right now, the trades, private sector, the public sector.
UAW Urges All Unions in US to Prepare for May Day 2028 Strikes
October 31, 2023 // The UAW’s social media accounts expanded the call by reposting other organizers’ social media calls to align more labor agreements to end alongside the UAW’s contract. Mass strikes are a common occurrence in Europe. Just this year, more than one million French people struck to protest the government’s proposal to raise the retirement age. Hundreds of thousands of public service workers in the UK — including rail workers, nurses, postal employees and lawyers — struck for higher wages in the face of soaring inflation. In March, German air and rail workers banded together to bring travel to a halt as they demanded more pay.
UAW strike: What the media won’t tell you about the strike
September 21, 2023 // The Wall Street Journal reported that some in the UAW, including President Shawn Fain, pushed for a full strike, but “there was a simple financial calculation to consider: Such an option would rapidly drain the UAW’s $825 million fund that it uses to pay striking workers, likely depleting it within about two months.” In other words, the union itself doesn’t think it could hold out for long if it tried to shut all three companies. Hence the spin surrounding the current limited strike: UAW is trying to make a virtue out of necessity. In past negotiations, UAW has tried to secure a deal with one of the three automakers ahead of the others and then use that agreement as a template for bargaining with the other two. That UAW didn’t try that this time suggests the union feared it could not wrestle even one company to the ground.
Starbucks Union: College Students Use Billboards, Leafleting in Solidarity Action
September 18, 2023 // Today, inspired in part by the recent developments at Cornell, 11 university campuses are unveiling solidarity billboards that criticize Starbucks’ union-busting tactics, which are so copious, the NLRB, according to the Guardian, has brought over 100 cases against the company — though it cannot hold the company accountable with fines or other punitive mechanisms. (Starbucks told Bloomberg it plans to appeal the NLRB ruling in Ithaca.) Students on those 11 campuses, including the University of Arizona, the University of Washington, and the University of Chicago, will spend today leafleting outside local Starbucks locations to support workers’ unionization efforts. “Students prefer our coffee union-brewed," reads one of the billboards. "We support Starbucks baristas & demand an end to Starbucks' union-busting.”
Drew Barrymore’s Talk Show Is Returning — Without Her Striking Writers
September 12, 2023 // She added that she was approaching the new season, which premieres Sept. 18, “with an astute humility” — despite the optics of resuming her show during two strikes, which have called attention to inequitable working conditions in film and television.
Political scientists confront real world politics dealing with hotel workers strike
September 5, 2023 // Last week, Unite Here Local 11 broadened its call for solidarity by asking all conventions to stay away from Los Angeles until the hotels meet their demands. The union and the hotels are far from reaching an agreement. That means political scientists likely won't be the last group to navigate their Los Angeles events in the midst of major labor action.
Are salaried workers required to cross a picket line during a labor strike? What happens.
August 23, 2023 // "If (nonunion workers) refuse to follow the direction they’ve been given by management, they could potentially lose their job if the company wanted to take such drastic measures," Kaminski said. "They could be fired for refusing to accept an assignment." ◾ Sympathy strikers can be permanently replaced, Kaminski said. Depending on their rank in an organization, some will retain the right to be put on a preferred recall list for a limited period of time. Many people consider being fired and being permanently replaced as the same, though technically different, Kaminski said.
Regional union members support AMCOR workers strike
August 7, 2023 // The Teamsters Local 238 began it’s strike on Saturday, July 29 after the union rejected the company’s latest deal. On Sunday, members of other unions came to support the striking employees in a solidarity picket event.