By MARK BRUNT Across the country, teachers have taken West Virginia’s lead after a successful wildcat strike. In Kentucky, legislators passed a teacher pension reform bill, and, although a strike on the specific day was not planned, so many teachers called out on March 30 that 20 counties were forced to close schools. They remained…
By UCONN YOUTH FOR SOCIALIST ACTION Since Oct. 19, 2017, University of Connecticut’s Graduate Employee Union-UAW Local 6950 has been in negotiations with the university administration for a second collective bargaining agreement. Under the leadership of university President Susan Herbst’s administration and the state appointed Board of Directors, the university has hired the union-busting law…
By ERNIE GOTTA — STAMFORD, Conn. — Workers at the Stamford Hilton Hotel walked off the job Thursday, March 8, to strike for a good contract. They picketed in front of the entry way for nearly two hours, chanting, “No contract, No Peace.” [See the video: https://www.facebook.com/melissa.abbe.7/videos/10214115775642871/ ] Members of International Women’s Strike Connecticut joined…
By HUGH STEPHENSON — CHARLESTON, W.V. — West Virginia teachers stunned politicians, the media, and labor officials across the country when they launched a nine-day wildcat strike demanding wage increases and better health-care benefits for all state employees. Some 27,000 teachers from all 55 counties of West Virginia walked out of their classrooms on Feb.…
By HUGH STEPHENSON While teachers in West Virginia were occupying the state capitol building and continued their wildcat strike for increased wages and better health care, a Cargill poultry processing plant in nearby Dayton, Va., pursued its campaign to deny the right of plant workers to organize a union. Cargill is an international food conglomerate…
By ANN MONTAGUE Activists with Fight For $15 renewed their struggle on Feb. 12 with rallies and strikes throughout the South in remembrance of the 50th anniversary of the Memphis, Tenn., sanitation worker’s strike. Fight For 15 teamed up with civil rights leader William Barber for a day of action in support of racial justice.…
By BILL ONASCH West Virginia “Wildcats”—Technically, public sector collective bargaining is illegal in West Virginia. But practically, governors have negotiated in the past with teachers—and school service employees including bus drivers, cafeteria, clerical, and maintenance workers—for salary and benefit packages passed by the legislature. While perhaps better than nothing, the teachers have been falling behind.…
By BRUCE LESNICK With 346 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2017 and 34 in the first two months of 2018—including the Parkland, Fla., tragedy that cost the lives of 17 high school students and injured 15 others—many are justifiably angry and frustrated. Mainstream politicians dither, debating how best to treat the symptoms of the…
By CHRISTINE MARIE On Jan. 30, around 100 people gathered at Verso Books in Brooklyn, N.Y., to participate in the launch of a campaign of action in solidarity with the International Women’s Strike (IWS) that will be held around the globe on March 8—a date celebrated as International Women’s Day by the working-class movement. This…
By BILL ONASCH On Feb. 5, civil rights, trade union, student, church, and environmental activists in communities across North America will come together in a variety of events to call attention to a looming crisis in public transit. The diversity of these groups indicates that they recognize not only the urgent need to save what…
By ERNIE GOTTA The movement of working women and the fightback against sexual harassment, abuse, and rape on the job is growing. The movement is challenging past practices of human resource departments and management everywhere that are guilty of sweeping sexual harassment complaints under the rug. For generations, women have been silenced on the job…
By BILL ONASCH Overcoming Hang-Ups—A New York Times story about a Communications Workers of America contract settlement after a long, often bitter fight opened: “Stemming the tide of rising economic insecurity for service workers, a major union has won significant job protection and increased pay for about 20,000 AT&T wireless employees, as well as a commitment…
By JULIUS ARSCOTT The Ontario Federation of Labour convention, held in Toronto, Nov. 20 to 24, saw several large affiliates that had withheld dues for four years rejoin the House of Labour in Canada’s most populous province. The dues strike by OPSEU, SEIU, and ONA, actuated by a factional battle between conservative union bureaucrats and…
By ERNIE GOTTA (Socialist Action) and WILLIAM LEWIS (Left Voice) On Monday, Dec. 4, workers at the Hilton Stamford Hotel voted overwhelmingly in favor of forming a union. With 110 for and only five against, it was a great victory for workers’ power and promises a better future for over 120 workers. The workers decided…
By CONNECTICUT STUDENTS — STAMFORD, Conn. — On Nov. 27, a delegation of students from across Connecticut arrived to tell management at the Hilton Hotel in Stamford that they stand in solidarity with the workers organizing a union. The union vote will take place Dec. 4 after three weeks of management’s anti-union intimidation campaign. We…
By ERNIE GOTTA — STAMFORD, Conn. — It’s 9 p.m. on a Monday night, and Marvin Castaneda, a union banquet server at the Hyatt hotel, is making phone calls to Hilton hotel workers. Initially, he leaves messages. Any unrecognizable number the Hilton workers won’t pick up. They think it might be the company or one of…
By ERNIE GOTTA In the coming weeks Hilton Hotel workers in Stamford, Conn., will likely face a serious attempt by the bosses to bust their campaign for union recognition. In past union drives the bosses have paid millions of dollars to law firms that specialize in union busting. The owners of the hotel would rather…
By HENRY ERIC and C.J. LAPOINTE “Over 85% of us have decided to form this union!” Lupe Martinez, a banquet server, declared as a mass of workers from the Hilton Hotel in Stamford, Conn., confronted General Manager Robert Langevin with their demand for union recognition. The workers’ cheers filled the lobby as Langevin stood there,…
By BILL ONASCH No VIPs in St Louis—The AFL-CIO quadrennial convention to elect officers and pass policy resolutions was held in St. Louis, Oct. 22-25. While many of the biggest unions—the National Education Association, Service Employees International Union, Teamsters, and Carpenters—are not affiliated, the federation still represents 12.5 million workers. In response to police killings…
By a WORKING CARPENTER On Oct. 5, a recently fired carpenter, Samuel Perry, 42, arrived at a Midtown Manhattan job site to pick up his last paycheck. He shot his foreman, 37-year-old Christopher Sayers, twice, killing him. He then turned the gun on himself. Both men were members of Carpenters’ Local 212, a concrete construction…
By BILL ONASCH Trying to Stop Runaway Train—As recently as a few years ago, the biggest local in the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers had nearly 6000 members at General Electric’s locomotive works in Erie, Pa. There is strong demand for locomotives and GE’s are most favored. But instead of rewarding their workforce with…
By ANN MONTAGUE On this year’s Labor Day, Sept. 4, there were more marches and rallies than in previous years. Several U.S. cities had large labor actions anchored in fast-food walkouts. Britain saw its first strikes against McDonald’s Corporation; activists chose U.S. Labor Day as a nod to the birthplace of the Fight For 15…
By BILL ONASCH A vote to reject—In recent years the threat of a veto by a Democratic governor stalled right-wing plans to pass a so-called “Right-to-Work” law in Missouri, as was passed in several other new states. That last obstacle was breached when the 2016 elections not only gave the Republicans a veto-proof majority in…
By BILL ONASCH The United Auto Workers’ organizing drive at the giant Nissan plant in Canton, Miss., once showed promise of becoming the biggest union victory in the Deep South since the United Food & Commercial Workers won bargaining rights—and a contract—at Smithfield’s huge hog plant in Tar Heel, N.C., in 2008. A win at…
By ANN MONTAGUE On June 20, 691 PepsiCo workers in Buenos Aires arrived at work to see a piece of paper on the door notifying them that the plant was being relocated and they were all out of a job. In Argentina it is illegal to just close a factory and lay off workers. Companies have…
