Fight the Boss

Labor Notes | July 02, 2018

Credit: UFCW

You’re not asking co-workers to join a social club or an insurance plan. You’re asking them to join a fight over issues that matter.

Why do any of us pay union dues? It’s because we feel our union fights for us, and we consider it important to our lives. So one key to surviving an open shop is to do the essentials that unionists should be doing anyway: Win grievances. Fight for a good contract. Report your victories and struggles.

Consider the Jeffboat shipyard. In the years after Indiana went right-to-work, only one person dropped out of the union—in a workforce of 700.

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Amazon Profits from Secretly Oppressing its Supplier’s Workers: An Investigative Report on Hengyang Foxconn

China Labor Watch | June 10, 2018

                       

（ Hengyang Foxconn factory）

Executive Summary

From August 2017 to April 2018, China Labor Watch dispatched several investigators into Hengyang Foxconn, a factory that predominantly manufactures products for Amazon. CLW’s investigation revealed a number of rights violations at the Hengyang Foxconn factory, which manufactures Amazon’s Kindle, Echo Dots and tablets. This is CLW’s first investigation into an Amazon supplier factory.

U.S: T-Shirt Ban Energizes Michigan Nurses

by Anne Jackson

Labor Notes | Auguest 01, 2018

Staffing, overwork, and compensation are the top issues for Michigan nurses. Members are going rogue and new red shirts are springing up all over. Photo: Anne Jackson

Stewards and active rank and filers at the University of Michigan Hospital have been working hard to engage a membership that has not had to fight for a contract in seven years. It was slow going at first, trying to get 5,800 nurses at maize and blue U of M to wear red to show our union solidarity as we bargain.

Iraq’s oil union defends protesters

by David Bacon

People’s World | August 01, 2018

Oil workers on a drilling rig in the Rumaila field | David Bacon

As uncertainty continues over the results of Iraq’s May 12 election, the deterioration in social services that brought about the victory of the Sairoon coalition has impelled thousands of people to take to the streets to protest the increasingly difficult conditions of their lives.

Trump Launches War on Federal Unions

by  Jim Campana

Labor Notes | July 26, 2018

Trump has issued three executive orders attacking federal unions. They’re “aimed at choking the union out of existence,” says AFGE’s David Cann. Photo: Texas AFL-CIO

Federal employees are at war with a presidential administration that’s bent on busting their unions. They rallied around the country July 25, their day in court as federal unions sue to halt three anti-union executive orders.

President Donald Trump’s push is the most antagonistic he’s ever seen under any president, said David Cann, director of bargaining for the Government Employees (AFGE). With 700,000 members scattered across 70 federal agencies, AFGE is the largest union of federal workers.

Argentina Workers on Third General Strike Against Macri’s Austerity

teleSUR | June 25, 2018

Buenos Aires’ downtown was still Monday morning. Many have joined the general strike against Macri’s policies. | Photo: EFE

Argentine workers’ unions and social movements protest President Macri’s economic policies and reject his government’s agreement with IMF. 

Argentina’s most important workers’ unions paralyzed the country Monday in the third general strike to protest President Mauricio Macri’s economic policies and to reject an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

U.S: AFL-CIO launches ‘Join a union’ ad campaign

by Mark Gruenberg

People’s World | May 31, 2018

AFL-CIO

WASHINGTON—The AFL-CIO has launched a national print and digital “Join a union” ad campaign, complete with quarter-page ads in top national and regional newspapers.

The point, federation President Richard Trumka says in an open letter to all workers – the centerpiece of the drive – is to tell workers if they want decent raises, better benefits, and a voice on the job, unionizing is the way to go.