In what has been described as the world’s largest strike ever, tens of millions of workers in India stayed off the job Tuesday to support a 24-hour nationwide general strike called by the country’s major trade unions. “For the first time all the big trade unions have come together to protest the anti-labor polices of […]
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Archive | February, 2012
Republic Windows and Doors reoccupied
February 28, 2012 
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Workers at a Chicago building materials plant formerly known as Republic Windows and Doors refused to leave work on Friday and occupied the building on what was to have been the plant’s last day of operation. “Workers were told today (Friday) it was going to be last day of production,” wrote journalist Micha Uetrict on Twitter. […]
Read moreTunisian unionists protest attacks, call for new government
February 27, 2012 0 Comments
Over the weekend, more than 4,000 trade unionists and their supporters took to the streets of Tunis, the capital city of Tunisia, to protest mounting attacks on the trade union movement. After a two-hour peaceful demonstration, police used force to disperse the protestors. “They want to terrorize us and instill fear in our hearts to keep […]
Read moreCWA, community coalition fights AT&T layoffs in Atlanta
February 24, 2012 1 Comment
A long row of tents extends along the sidewalk at 675 West Peachtree Street NW in Atlanta where the new Occupy Atlanta encampment has moved. The new site is just outside the southeastern US headquarters of AT&T, one of the US’s richest corporations. Occupiers moved there on February 13 after about 70 people, union members, Occupy […]
Read moreCriminal charges filed in mine explosion
February 23, 2012 0 Comments
The US Attorney in southern West Virginia yesterday announced that a former superintendent at the Upper Big Branch (UBB) mine near Montcoal, West Virginia has been charged with conspiracy to thwart government mine safety inspections. The mine was the site of an April 2010 explosion that killed 29 miners, making it the worst mining disaster […]
Read moreUniversity of Minnesota grad students seek voice on the job
February 22, 2012 0 Comments
University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus graduate students are conducting a union organizing campaign to give them a collective voice in determining the terms and conditions of their work, which faculty, administrators, and the students themselves say is essential to the university’s mission. “You don’t have to be working in a factory for your voice to be […]
Read moreMember mobilization and community support key to ILWU victory
February 21, 2012 0 Comments
When the multi-national grain cartel EGT agreed to a contract with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union after a bitter eight-month struggle, union leaders extended a conciliatory hand to the company that once thought itself so powerful that it could make its own rules for the dangerous work of loading and storing grain without any input from those who actually […]
Read moreWar on workers at Philippines airline
February 20, 2012 1 Comment
The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA earlier this month became the latest in a growing number of international labor unions announcing their support for a public boycott of Philippine Airlines (PAL) for its attack on its longtime employees. In a letter to PAL management, AFA-CWA President Vera Shook said that the union would support the boycott until […]
Read moreSeattle port drivers return to work; major strike issues still unresolved
February 17, 2012 0 Comments
As their strike entered its third week, about 400 Seattle port short-haul truck drivers on Tuesday agreed to return to work. In return for agreeing to resume hauling shipping containers between the port and the nearby BNSF rail yard, the drivers won some modest concessions from employers. But members of the drivers’ newly formed organization, the Seattle Port Truckers Association, said that […]
Read moreSan Antonio Yellow Cab drivers ponder solutions to job injustices
February 15, 2012 3 Comments
Submitted by Pancho Valdez “If one man has a dollar he didn’t work for, some other man worked for a dollar he didn’t get.” Bill Haywood, Founding member of the Industrial Workers of the World, socialist For most of us who work or who have worked for a living, there are/were always issues about our […]
Read moreHostess and American Airlines workers resist bankruptcy cuts
February 15, 2012 0 Comments
Union members and supporters rallied yesterday at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport to show solidarity with American Airlines workers facing job cuts and loss of benefits if the company’s bankruptcy restructuring plan is approved. The day before, the Teamsters announced that their members voted to strike Hostess Brands, the maker of Twinkies and other snack food, if the […]
Read moreBahrain democracy protests flare; unions protest repression
February 14, 2012 0 Comments
On the eve of the first anniversary of their pro-democracy uprising, thousands of Bahrainis rallied Monday in Manama, the capital city, to commemorate the beginning of their struggle. After the rally, some of the protestors marched from the rally site to the Pearl Roundabout in the heart of city where last year’s rebellion against the country’s monarchy […]
Read moreTruck drivers’ strike slows cargo traffic at Port of Seattle
February 13, 2012 2 Comments
Nearly two weeks ago short-haul truck drivers at the Port of Seattle stopped working to protest their poor pay, unsafe working conditions, and their misclassification as independent contract workers. The port and local economy are starting to feel the impact of the work stoppage, and on Friday representatives of the port, the trucking companies, ocean […]
Read moreWildcat strike at New York cable company
February 9, 2012 3 Comments
About 120 non-union cable installers walked off the job last week and set up picket lines at the offices of Corbel Installations, a contractor that handles cable installations for Cablevision in the Bronx and Westchester, New York. The wildcat strike actions was taken to protest pay cuts announced by the company. Strikers and company representatives both said that the […]
Read moreAnti-austerity demonstrations topple Romanian government
February 8, 2012 1 Comment
Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc and his entire cabinet resigned on Monday in hopes of quelling anti-austerity demonstrations that began more than two weeks ago. Demonstrators took to the streets to support a cabinet member who resigned to protest a plan by Romanian President Traian Basescu to privatize parts of the country’s health care system. The […]
Read moreSan Antonio Greens support Teamster strike
February 7, 2012 0 Comments
The Bexar County (San Antonio) Green Party recently passed a resolution urging members and consumers to refrain from buying baking products produced under the Pioneer brand and other brands owned by CH Guenther, a multi-national food processing company. Members of Teamster Local 657 at the Guenther flour mill in San Antonio have been on strike since April […]
Read moreSouth Carolina anti-union bill a possible threat to port
February 6, 2012 3 Comments
As state legislatures convene around the country, right-wing politicians have introduced a number of bills aimed at curbing union power. Indiana lawmakers recently enacted a law making Indiana the 23rd right-to-work-for-less state in the US, and in Arizona, lawmakers will soon be taking up legislation to deny collective bargaining rights to public service workers. But […]
Read moreEGT recognizes ILWU as bargaining representative
February 4, 2012 0 Comments
EGT, a multinational grain exporter, agreed to recognize Local 21 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union as the bargaining representative for workers at its new grain terminal in Longview, Washington and agreed to use Local 21′s dispatch hall to staff the terminal. Workers at the terminal on January 30 and 31 signed union authorization cards; the next […]
Read moreUSW and Shell reach tentative agreement
February 4, 2012 0 Comments
United Steelworkers and Shell Oil reached a tentative agreement on a new national labor contract for refinery workers that could serve as a pattern for contracts with other oil companies if ratified by members. The two sides have not released details of the three-year contract, which was set to expire on February 1. The USW […]
Read moreVerizon demands concessions; CWA says it will take a movement to win
February 3, 2012 2 Comments
Verizon remains intransigent in its demand that its union workers accept nearly $1 billion in concessions that include steep cuts to their health care and pension benefits and work rule changes that will make their jobs less secure, CWA District 1 Vice-President Chris Shelton told about 5,500 CWA members on a national union hall teleconference. CWA […]
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