Tag: labor organizing
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Interview: UAW Rank-and-Filer as Historic Strike Begins
For weeks now, the United Auto Workers (UAW) has been ramping up its aggressive rhetoric around the possibility of a strike at the ‘Big 3’ automakers – GM, Ford, and Stellantis. The UAW represents some 150,000 workers across the three firms. Each company has raked in billions of dollars in profit in recent years.
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Interview: UPS Teamster on the Possibility of Huge 2023 Strike
The contract for some 340,000 UPS workers, organized by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), is set to expire at midnight on July 31st. In preparation for a possible walkout, Teamsters across the country began casting strike ballots earlier this week. A strike by UPS Teamsters would be the largest labor action at a single…
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Interview: Adjunct Faculty on Recent Rutgers University Strike
In April 2023, faculty and graduate student workers at Rutgers University staged an historic five day strike. The strike was mostly over wages and working conditions, and contributed to a recent wave of labor actions at institutions of higher education in the United States. While they did not win everything, the strike led to serious…
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No COLA? No Contract! The Stakes and a Strategy for Success in the Historic University of California Strike
by Members of both Black Rose Bay Area and UAW 2865 On November 14, over 48,000 teaching assistants, tutors, readers, associate instructors, other Academic Student Employees (ASEs), Graduate Student Researchers (GSRs), and postdoctoral employees across the University of California (UC) launched the largest coordinated strike the United States’s higher education sector has ever seen. On…
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Flickers of a Resurgent Labor Movement: Our Report from Labor Notes ’22
While the current energy, activity, and excitement around unions marks a bright spot in otherwise troubling times, we are far from the militant labor movement that is urgently needed to confront the cascading crises that have cast a dark shadow over the entire globe. But we remain committed to turning the tide.
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“The Rank and File Strategy”: A Syndicalist View
Veteran activist and writer Tom Wetzel enters the wide ranging debate on the left around the “rank and file strategy” orientation to the labor movement. This piece is based on material in his forthcoming book from AK Press, Overcoming Capitalism. By Tom Wetzel Kim Moody’s writings on “the Rank and File Strategy” have gained a broad hearing…
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From Wildcat to Union Reform: The West Virginia Teacher Struggle Continues
By Michael Mochaidean In the aftermath of the 2018 wildcat teachers strike in West Virginia that kicked off the #Red4Ed movement networks of militant teachers formed the rank-and-file caucus known as West Virginia United and for the past five months the group has been working to challenge the incumbent leadership of the West Virginia Education…
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Healthcare Workers: Back-To-Work Strikes Can Put Health Before Profit
Following the release of a recent video statement, healthcare workers members and allies of Black Rose / Rosa Negra produced a follow up statement calling for organizing around back-to-work strikes to oppose the drive to put profits ahead of collective health by exposing millions of workers to untold risks. Catch their list of tips for…
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Labor Organizing During Covid-19: A University Janitor’s Account
A University of Washington custodian gives their personal account of workplace organizing under Covid-19 and the importance of labor organizing in this time. By BeauJon McNally I love working but I hate jobs and I hate capitalism. The state of our modern economy is such that even after squeezing in a Bachelors in Anthropology, I…
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Strike While the Iron is Hot: Interview on the Growing Wildcat Strike at UC Santa Cruz
By It’s Going Down Since the wildcat strike at the University of California in Santa Cruz kicked off last Monday, thousands of students have blocked streets and shut down the campus, while riot police from across the State have been mobilized and made over a dozen arrests. Predictably, police violence has broken out on the…