by David Jones A version of this article will appear in the July issue of Socialist Action newspaper. For a one-year subscription, send $8.00 to Socialist Action, 298 Valencia St., San Francisco, California 94103. There is no doubt that the possibility of a deep-going split in the AFL-CIO will be the central preoccupation of the … Continue reading From “Unite to Win” to “Split to Win” at AFL-CIO’s July Convention?
Category: Labor
The United Pension Default: Saving ‘Our Airline” or Saving Labor?
by Andrew Pollack / June 2005 issue of Socialist Action On May 10 Judge Eugene Wedoff gave bankrupt United Airlines the right to terminate its pension plans. This is the biggest pension default in U.S. history, and the Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation now assumes responsibility for these plans—which means a bailout for the … Continue reading The United Pension Default: Saving ‘Our Airline” or Saving Labor?
A Top Banana Split in AFL-CIO?
by Bill Onash / June 2005 issue of Socialist Action “Is Labor Headed for Splitsville?” was the title of a Business Week article about the Las Vegas gathering of a dissident faction in the AFL-CIO last month. The top dogs in the SEIU, Teamsters, UFCW, UNITE-HERE, and the Laborers had hoped they would … Continue reading A Top Banana Split in AFL-CIO?
Westchester Bus Strike Ends in Mediocre Deal
by Marty Goodman/ May 2005 issue of Socialist Action On April 19 union negotiators representing 568 workers on strike for seven weeks at the Bee-Line Bus Company in affluent Westchester County, N.Y., finally reached a four-year tentative agreement. The financially strapped workers voted overwhelmingly the next day to accept the tentative deal and to … Continue reading Westchester Bus Strike Ends in Mediocre Deal
Sweatshop Workers Force Agreement in Haiti
by Marty Goodman / April 2005 issue of Socialist Action An unprecedented agreement has sweatshop organizers and workers in Haiti cautiously optimistic that a milestone has been reached. The deal was struck with the owners of two factories operated by the Grupo M (GM) company in Haiti’s notorious “Free Trade Zone” (FTZ), which employs … Continue reading Sweatshop Workers Force Agreement in Haiti
AFL-CIO Tops Stand Pat at Las Vegas Meeting
by David Jones / April 2005 issue of Socialist Action The much-anticipated meeting of the AFL-CIO Executive Council in Las Vegas, Nev., in early March declined by a nearly two-to-one margin (a vote of 14 to 8) to adopt changes in structure and financing urgently pressed by Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andrew … Continue reading AFL-CIO Tops Stand Pat at Las Vegas Meeting
The Debate in the AFL-CIO
by David Jones / March 2005 issue of Socialist Action The present decline of membership in U.S. unions to 8.2 percent of those working for private employers is the low point of the past century, a fact that has been cited frequently in the current debate about reforming the structure of organized labor initiated … Continue reading The Debate in the AFL-CIO
PSAC Job Action Interupted
by Barry Weisleder – February, 2005 Last month we reported on the struggle of members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, who had embarked on a brave battle last summer against harmful government cuts to public services and jobs. The militant walk outs were cut short and a huge strike mandate was betrayed … Continue reading PSAC Job Action Interupted
Update on the Struggle at Toronto’s Metropolitan Hotel
by Barry Weisleder – February, 2005 In late January, hotel worker and union activist Emily Tang was fired by the Metropolitan Hotel in Toronto. Emily had been suspended for three months for violating a policy that bans workers from making public statements about the hotel deemed negative by management. She was targeted as a … Continue reading Update on the Struggle at Toronto’s Metropolitan Hotel
Split in the AFL-CIO?
by Jeff Mackler When one of the AFL-CIO's largest and fastest growing affiliates, the 1.7-million-member Service Employees International Union (SEIU), threatens to leave the crumbling "house of labor," one would think that the issues in dispute and the measures proposed to heal the breach were substantial. Sadly, as we will demonstrate, nothing could be … Continue reading Split in the AFL-CIO?
PSAC officials abandon strike
by Barry Weisleder “While the details of how the union leadership killed a three-day national strike are still emerging, this much is clear: The decision to put the employer's final offer to a membership vote and end job action is being widely seen as a sell out by members”, writes Ian Shaw, president of … Continue reading PSAC officials abandon strike
Report on the Ontario NDP convention
by Sean Cain More than 600 delegates converged on Hamilton, Canada’s steel town 45 minutes west of Toronto, for the Ontario New Democratic Party’s (ONDP) 22nd convention, held Nov. 19-21. North America’s only major labour-based political party was founded in 1961 as a successor to the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). Although the NDP has rebounded … Continue reading Report on the Ontario NDP convention
Youth in Action!
A Young Worker's Introduction to the Labor Movement Below is a brief interview with Lauren Stusak, a young worker in Duluth, Minn., who is active with the campaign to unionize hotel workers there. Socialist Action: Where do you work and what is your job there? Lauren Stusak: I'm a room attendant and inspector at the Inn … Continue reading Youth in Action!
What Battle Plan for Dockers?
By CHARLES WALKER On July 3, 1989, the Margaret Thatcher government privatized Britain's 60 seaports, ending five decades of nationalization. In quick order, the new owners, private shipping firms, took on the dockworkers' unions. After two years of court and picket line battles, all ports but Liverpool, were no longer unionized. On Sept. 28, 1995, … Continue reading What Battle Plan for Dockers?
Partial Victory for Boston Janitors
By JOE AUCIELLO BOSTON-Better pay. Health insurance. Respect. Nearly 2000 janitors in Boston, represented by the Service Employees International Union, organized, marched, and won a nearly four-week-old strike against the largest cleaning service companies in the region. The five-year contract offered by the Maintenance Contractors of New England extends benefits that have never been granted … Continue reading Partial Victory for Boston Janitors
NY Transit Workers in Historic Contract Battle
By LEO SCHWARTZ NEW YORK-Transit workers here are gearing up for a contract battle that will pit 35,000 subway and bus workers of the Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100 against the financial elite of the world. The contract deadline is Dec. 15, 2002. It's either fight to win or be dealt a terrible … Continue reading NY Transit Workers in Historic Contract Battle
AFL-CIO’s Sweeney Faces Growing Antiwar Opposition
By CHARLES WALKER At long last, the AFL-CIO has spoken out about the looming U.S. war against Iraq. In an Oct. 7 letter to U.S. Senators and Representatives, AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney concludes that "we" must assure the sons and daughters of America's working families that "war is the last option, not the first, … Continue reading AFL-CIO’s Sweeney Faces Growing Antiwar Opposition
Bush Employs Taft-Hartley Act to Intervene in Dock Workers Struggle
By CHARLES WALKER Though the Taft-Hartley Act has been on the books for over five decades, it has never been used to end an employer-led lockout. Never, that is, until Oct. 8, when the Bush administration came down hard on the bosses' side in the contentious West Coast contract dispute over jobs and the future … Continue reading Bush Employs Taft-Hartley Act to Intervene in Dock Workers Struggle
Coca-Cola Workers Murdered By Terror Squads in Colombia
The following interview was done in Colombia by Joergen Hassler and published in the Aug. 8 issue of Internationalen, the weekly newspaper of the Socialist Party (Swedish section of the Fourth International, Socialist Action's sister organization in Sweden), from which we have translated it. "Six of our comrades have been murdered by paramilitaries at … Continue reading Coca-Cola Workers Murdered By Terror Squads in Colombia
Teamsters Ranks Still Between a Rock and a Hard Place
By CHARLES WALKER In the Nation of Sept. 29, labor commentator David Moberg, senior editor of In These Times, rightly says that the neither the government's intercession into the Teamsters Union nor internal efforts at reform have yet succeeded in establishing "a culture of democracy within the union." Nevertheless, Moberg suggests, the government's 12-year supervision of the union … Continue reading Teamsters Ranks Still Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Hotel Workers Rally in Duluth
By ADAM RITSCHER DULUTH, Minn.-Between 400 and 500 workers rallied here on Aug. 20 in support of the struggle by hotel workers to organize. The protesters assembled at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center, where the Minnesota AFL-CIO was holding its annual convention, and marched through Canal Park in the city's tourist district. Hundreds of … Continue reading Hotel Workers Rally in Duluth
ILWU Dockworkers Need an Emergency Conference of Labor!
By CHARLES WALKER West Coast dockworkers, members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), find themselves facing the combined enmity of their bosses and the political and military power of the world's dominant state and the ruling class that stands behind it. The shipping bosses act like they have the high ground, demanding a … Continue reading ILWU Dockworkers Need an Emergency Conference of Labor!
UFW Marches – But Toward What Goal?
By JEFF MACKLER Retracing the route of the march on Sacramento led by United Farmworkers of America (UFW) President Cesar Chavez in 1966, farmworkers and their supporters marched across California on Aug. 15 in a 10-day, 175-mile march to pressure Gov. Gray Davis to sign a bill mandating binding arbitration on stalled contract talks. UFW … Continue reading UFW Marches – But Toward What Goal?
Politicians and Bosses Team Up Against Airline Workers
By GERRY FIORI Taking advantage of the current political climate and economy, airline bosses and politicians are teaming up to mount a direct assault on the collective bargaining rights of America's airline workers. Bill S.1327, the Airline Labor Dispute Resolution Act, is being sponsored by Senators John McCain (R-Az.), Trent Lott (R-Miss.), and Conrad Burns … Continue reading Politicians and Bosses Team Up Against Airline Workers
‘They All Must Go’ Say Argentine Workers
By GERRY FOLEY In the context of the continuing popular upsurge, the prospect of new elections in March 2002 is becoming a political focus for the mass movement. Thus, on Aug. 30, the CTA (one of the Argentine trade-union confederations) and a series of left organizations held a massive demonstration in Buenos Aires, along with … Continue reading ‘They All Must Go’ Say Argentine Workers