Posts tagged United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America
Sen. John Fetterman, local leaders appear Monday at Erie UE rally attended by hundreds
August 24, 2023 // Fetterman, who concluded the rally with brief remarks, continued to display signs of the stroke he had in May of 2022. Some words came out haltingly and not necessarily in the order that the first-term senator might have intended. But Fetterman received a warm welcome from a friendly crowd as he pledged his continued support for their efforts. Fetterman, who has worked to raise money for the union strike fund, said "One of the most amazing and powerful things ever invented is called a union." UE 506 President Scott Slawson said Monday's crowd "speaks to the power of a U.S. senator." He also praised Fetterman for his support of the union at a time when he's working to overcome his own health challenges.
What’s on the line as Wabtec strike in Erie nears the two-month mark?
August 18, 2023 // The company's Erie workforce of more than 2,000, including nearly 1,400 union workers, helps sustain five local jobs for every job at the former GE Transportation plant, Bernstein said. "A plant shutdown would lead to an immediate domino effect on local businesses that rely on the patronage of the 1,400 union workers and their families," Grunke wrote. "From small shops and restaurants to service providers and suppliers, the livelihoods of countless other families hang in the balance." Scott Slawson, president of UE Local 506, which represents most of the striking workers, doesn't minimize the importance of the plant to the local economy. He's spoken of it often, both before and during the current strike.
Wabtec sues union, seeks injunction aimed at conduct of striking workers on picket line
August 3, 2023 // Since the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America went on strike on June 22, according to Wabtec's motion, the striking workers have, among other things, used racist and homophobic slurs against non-striking employees entering and leaving the plant, damaged employees' personal vehicles, blocked the plant's gates and subjected the plant to two phoned-in bomb threats. Wabtec sued the UE in asking for the injunction. "Wabtec has made consistent efforts to address the Union's unlawful and dangerous picket activity with the Union and its counsel, but the activity has persisted and most recently escalated, amounting to an unlawful seizure of the Wabtec facility," according to Wabtec's motion.
Stanford University graduate workers succeed in unionizing
July 11, 2023 //
US workers strike for green jobs
July 11, 2023 // Prototypes for green locomotives are already made at the plant. In negotiations with the employer, United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America Locals 506 and 618, proposed language that would guarantee that green locomotive work be done in Erie. Instead, Wabtec threatened move at least 275 jobs out of the plant. The two locals voted down the employer’s offer and went on strike on 22 June for a contract that will allow them to move forward with green locomotive production.
National Right to Work Foundation Issues Legal Notice to Wabtec Locomotive Manufactures Facing Union-Ordered Strike
June 30, 2023 // The Foundation’s notice informs workers who are union members of their right to resign from union membership at any time. The notice also suggests, if employees who are currently union members wish to work during the strike and avoid union discipline such as fines, they should resign their union membership before returning to work. The legal notice informs Wabtec employees they “have the right to revoke [their] dues check-off authorization and stop allowing the union hierarchy to collect money from [their] paycheck every week. [They] can send letters to the union and [their] employer revoking [their] authorization to have union dues deducted from [their] paycheck during periods when there is no collective bargaining agreement in effect.”
One Small Union Is Stoking Much of the Militant New Graduate Worker Organizing
May 30, 2023 // With around 35,000 members, the UE is not a huge union. It was once the third-largest — and arguably the most left-wing and democratic — member of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, with around a half-million members in core industries, until it fell victim to postwar anti-communist purges, raids from other unions and plant shutdowns. But the union revived itself by the 1990s. Famously, UE workers at the Republic Windows & Doors factory in Chicago occupied their plant in 2008, and today the union boasts a range of affiliated locals across sectors and industries from California to Vermont.
Wabtec-union negotiations set to begin; both sides hopeful about talks
April 25, 2023 // Slawson, who led what was described as one of the nation's largest industrial strikes in several years, won't make an absolute promise that a strike couldn't happen again. But he expressed optimism in a recent interview with the Erie Times-News.
Amid unionization uncertainty, Princeton Graduate Students United took on broader activism
April 14, 2023 // From its early days, PGSU took positions on campus issues. In September 2017, PGSU criticized the University for stressing “diverse perspectives” when it came to “issues such as climate change, white nationalism, the rights of transgendered [sic] people and immigrants” as part of an open letter signed by mostly left-wing groups on campus. The open letter called on the University to instead “unequivocally condemn climate change denialism, white nationalism, gendered violence, and anti-immigrant hatred.” In May 2019, PGSU backed undergraduate students protesting the University’s “negligent” response to Title IX allegations writing in the ‘Prince’ that the University “is not a tax-advantaged hedge fund with a side business in issuing diplomas and greening its lawns. It serves at the pleasure of its human base of students, teachers, researchers, or workers. The needs of this constituency are its only imperatives.” PGSU’s stances elicited some controversy. Brandon Hunter, who was a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology when PGSU formed in 2016, said that the PGSU took stances that failed to accurately represent individuals in the organization. Hunter cited this as a foundational problem, saying, “The labor movement can only succeed if it is as inclusive as possible.”