By MARTY GOODMAN De Blasio wants to balance the budget on the backs of workers. The money should be raised instead by taxing the rich!
NYC Mayor De Blasio Threatens Mass Layoffs and Cuts
Category: Labor
Rank and File Movement Builds Demanding Cops Out of Unions
By MARC ROME A new mass movement is questioning the very foundations of the US police system, including its role in perpetuating the inequality and divisions among workers based on race.
Supreme Court Decision Expands LGBTQ Job Protections To All 50 States
By ANN MONTAGUE In an opinion issued in the context of a mass movement demanding justice, equality and an end to discrimination, the Supreme Court immediately expanded job protections to LGBTQ workers in 23 states where none had existed.
Meatpacking Workers Attacked by COVID-19
By DON HARMON Workers at meatpacking plants are suffering extremely high levels of coronavirus infection, due to lack of protection, while the plants become hotspots for widespread outbreaks in their towns and cities.
COVID-19 and NYC Transit Worker Hell
By MARTY GOODMAN Over 130 New York City transit workers have died of COVID-19 with MTA doing little to protect the largely Black, Latino, and immigrant workforce. As one train conductor says, "We are not essential. We are sacrificial."
May Day Protests Call for Workers’ and Immigrant Rights and Housing Protections; U.S. Predicts 3,000 Deaths per Day
By BARRY SHEPPARD May Day saw significant actions by workers in essential companies serving the general public during the shutdown.
Workers Shut Down France to Defend Pensions!
By MARTY GOODMAN On December 5th, French workers walked off the job in massive numbers to protest a proposed attack on pension rights by French President Emmanuel Macron. The proposal would change the age required for public workers to receive full retirement benefits from 62 to 64. French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe bluntly told the … Continue reading Workers Shut Down France to Defend Pensions!
Courageous UAW strike ends with few gains
By DAVID JONES Some 47,897 United Automobile Workers (UAW) ended their six-week strike against U.S. auto manufacturing giant General Motors on October 31. Fifty UAW-organized plants were closed across the country with the union demanding increased job security, a gateway for temporary workers to become permanent, better pay and to retain healthcare benefits. The contract … Continue reading Courageous UAW strike ends with few gains
Chicago teachers divided over strike settlement
By JEFF MACKLER Twenty-five thousand Chicago teachers, affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers Local 1, AFL-CIO, returned to work on October 31 following a divided vote of the Chicago Teachers Union’s (CTU) 700-member Delegate Assembly (DA) to end the union’s 11-day strike. The vote to accept the five-year tentative contract was 60 percent in … Continue reading Chicago teachers divided over strike settlement
Solidarity with the GM strike!
By JIM FARRELL At midnight on Sept. 15, the United Autoworkers Union (UAW) contract with General Motors (GM) expired and almost 50,000 workers downed tools and walked off the job. During the recession, the UAW and its members had agreed to deep concessions to keep GM afloat. Now, GM is prospering and CEO Mary Barra … Continue reading Solidarity with the GM strike!
Connecticut service plaza workers fight wage theft
By ERNIE GOTTA Dozens of SEIU members and supporters rallied in support of fast-food workers at a service plaza in Darien, Conn., on Aug. 28. These workers are fighting to reclaim potentially millions of dollars in stolen wages through unpaid benefits or the additional payment required by the Connecticut Standard Wage Law. 32BJ SEIU, the … Continue reading Connecticut service plaza workers fight wage theft
French postal workers win 14-month strike
By DAVID KIELY The postal workers of SUD-Poste 92, in Haut-de-Seine, in the western suburbs of Paris, have won their 14-month strike, marking an end to one of the longest strikes in French history. During these long months the workers faced intense repression by the police, who worked hand in hand with the managers of … Continue reading French postal workers win 14-month strike
Shifting the balance of power in hotels
By ERNIE GOTTA and ERWIN FREED — STAMFORD, Conn. — Like any capitalist enterprise, hotel companies hate losing profit margins to benefit the workers who make them rich. Industry professionals debate about the type of model they need to make the most profit. Currently, hotels in the Stamford area are running on very lean models. … Continue reading Shifting the balance of power in hotels
After 11-day strike in New England — Stop & Shop workers win gains
By ERWIN FREED and ERNIE GOTTA The UFCW’s historic 11-day strike that involved over 31,000 Stop and Shop workers and covered all stores in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts came to an end on April 21. As covered at socialistaction.org (April 11), the demand of the union was to maintain all wage, benefit, and work … Continue reading After 11-day strike in New England — Stop & Shop workers win gains
Stop & Shop strike: One huge fist
By IVAN DOLPHY All across New England, workers in over 240 Stop & Shop stores have declared that they will not tolerate the attacks to their wages, benefits, and jobs being made during contract negotiations by their employer. Some 31,000 employees have moved to strike and join the picket lines at their shops. On April 11, … Continue reading Stop & Shop strike: One huge fist
Brothers & sisters in the building trades: Time is running out for the planet
By A WORKING CARPENTER I’ve been a carpenter my whole adult life. I worked nonunion before I joined the Carpenters’ Union—easily the smartest thing I’ve ever done. For a working-class person, a union is still the best anti-poverty program. Recently, the heads of the Building Trades unions, alongside the leaders of the United Steelworkers and … Continue reading Brothers & sisters in the building trades: Time is running out for the planet
Stop & Shop workers authorize a strike
BULLETIN — APRIL 11 — At 1 p.m. this afternoon, Stop and Shop workers in three New England states walked away from their cash registers, shopping aisles, and stockrooms in a coordinated strike action affecting thousands of workers. Picket lines immediately went up outside the stores. The strike includes workers at about 163 stores in … Continue reading Stop & Shop workers authorize a strike
After week-long strike, Oakland teachers’ contract falls short
By JEFF MACKLER Facing a pro-charter school board intent on closing or consolidating 24 schools in the next five years, presumably to replace some with private for-profit charters, 3000 teachers represented by the Oakland Education Association (OEA) began a district-wide strike on Feb. 21. On the seventh day of the strike, March 1, a tentative … Continue reading After week-long strike, Oakland teachers’ contract falls short
Protests bust up New York’s Amazon deal
By MARTY GOODMAN On Feb. 14, Amazon, owned by the world’s richest man, Jeff Bezos ($166 billion), announced that it was pulling out of a deal made with top New York Democrats for a second Amazon headquarters in Long Island City, Queens, near Manhattan, due to opposition from local politicians. But the resistance was much … Continue reading Protests bust up New York’s Amazon deal
Teachers’ strikes are women’s strikes
By ANN MONTAGUE The new wave of teachers’ strikes suggests one way that the fight for women’s liberation from the privatized tasks of social reproduction may unfold. The recent one-week strike in Los Angeles, which featured demands to arrest the privatization of public education and improve student health services, reaffirms the potential of political strikes … Continue reading Teachers’ strikes are women’s strikes
L.A. teachers’ strike: Gains, losses, and perspectives
By JEFF MACKLER After seven solid days on the picket lines in drenching rains and in the face of a poor-mouthing school district that swore they were dead broke, 34,000 Los Angeles teachers voted overwhelmingly to approve a three-year contract. Most teachers saw the agreement as an important first step toward stemming the decades-long tidal … Continue reading L.A. teachers’ strike: Gains, losses, and perspectives
New York Democrats shower Amazon with $billions
By MARTY GOODMAN On Nov. 13, after long secret negotiations, two New York “progressive” Democrats, Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, jointly announced that Amazon will place one of two new corporate “headquarters” in New York City and the other in Arlington, Va. Virtually kissing the feet of Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s CEO, whose … Continue reading New York Democrats shower Amazon with $billions
Hartford teachers union fights school board’s assault
By ERNIE GOTTA Across the country, teachers in their thousands are fighting back against poor working conditions, low wages, overflowing classrooms, and unusable health care. Following teachers in Arizona, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and West Virginia, Los Angeles teachers erupted in a strike last month. They are 34,000 teachers strong and ready to take a stand against … Continue reading Hartford teachers union fights school board’s assault
Money for workers, not the Wall!
Below, we present a statement by the Young Workers Committee of the Milwaukee Area Labor Council, AFL-CIO. Socialist Action believes that this statement is an excellent contribution to a discussion in the labor movement of what to do next in the fight against Trump’s government shutdown. One real strength of this statement is that it does not … Continue reading Money for workers, not the Wall!
GM layoffs could cost 40,000 jobs
BY JEFF MACKLER For public consumption only, General Motors’ billionaire executives flew on public airlines to Washington, D.C., in 2009, leaving their private jets behind. Bleeding $1 billion in monthly losses, and threatening bankruptcy, this corporation—once the world’s largest—eased its way to the government troughs, with their kept media and the United Automakers Workers (UAW) … Continue reading GM layoffs could cost 40,000 jobs