As the US Postal Service prepares to default on a $5.5 billion payment to the US Treasury, postal worker unions are blaming privatization proponents for blocking congressional action that would make it possible for USPS to meet its financial obligation and begin making reforms that protect services and deal with the challenges of delivering mail in the […]
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Archive | July, 2012
Union calls for worldwide boycott of Hyatt
July 27, 2012 
2 Comments
UNITE HERE on July 23 announced a worldwide boycott of Hyatt Hotels in response to the hotel chain’s abusive treatment of its housekeeping staff and other employees. In addition to subjecting its employees to health and safety risks, the union said that Hyatt pays low wages, outsources full-time work to subcontractors who use temporary staff, […]
Read moreCon Ed, union announce tentative agreement to end lockout
July 26, 2012 0 Comments
Con Ed and the United Utility Workers of America Local 1-2 announced today that they reached a tentative agreement to end the nearly month-long lock out of 8,500 union members by the utility giant. Details of the agreement were not made public. Union members must still ratify the agreement Earlier in the day, Con Ed, which […]
Read moreUnions battle Verizon on multiple fronts; seek to build movement for economic and social justice
July 24, 2012 0 Comments
Verizon and unions representing 45,000 of the company’s workers on the East Coast will meet with a federal mediator on Wednesday, July 25 in hopes of resuming negotiations that have broken down. Verizon has refused to budge from concession demands that one of the unions, CWA, says will cost each worker $10,000 year over the life span of […]
Read moreActivists support Houston janitors; Mayor calls on cleaning corporations to resume negotiations
July 23, 2012 0 Comments
Labor and community activists on Wednesday, July 18 showed their support for striking Houston janitors by staging a sit-in at a busy downtown Houston intersection. Police arrested 15 people taking part in the sit-in, but the action and the possibility of similar actions in the future led Houston Mayor Annise Parker to issue a strong statement urging […]
Read moreVictory at UT; administration agrees to join Workers Rights Consortium
July 20, 2012 1 Comment
Members of the Make UT Sweatshop-Free Coalition celebrated their victory after University of Texas at Austin President William Powers on Wednesday announced that the university will join the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC). Powers’ announcement reverses earlier statements in which he said that UT could not afford to join WRC, an international organization that monitors and takes action to […]
Read moreUnions, community groups step up efforts to raise pay for low-wage workers
July 19, 2012 0 Comments
Unions and community groups have stepped up their efforts to raise the wages of the US’s lowest paid workers. In New York City, United NY, a community/labor coalition, will hold a Day of Action for Low-Wage Workers on Tuesday, July 24. On the same day, Stand Up Chicago, another community/labor coalition will rally for a […]
Read moreHouson janitors expand strike as they fight 1 percent-type corporations
July 18, 2012 1 Comment
Striking Houston janitors on Tuesday traveled to six cities where they will set up picket lines at work sites where their employers have cleaning contracts. Members of SEIU who work at the picketed work sites have said that they will not cross the picket lines. The cities affected are Washington DC, Minneapolis, Seattle, Boston, San […]
Read more“Historic day” for New York taxi drivers
July 16, 2012 0 Comments
Calling it “a historic day,” the New York Taxi Worker Alliance (NYTWA) announced on July 12 that the New York Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) had approved a 17 percent fare hike that would be used to create a Health and Disability Fund for taxi drivers and to increase their pay for the first time in […]
Read moreOlympic-sized gaffe puts UK privatization plans on hold for now
July 14, 2012 0 Comments
Two weeks before the London Olympic Games begin, a multinational, private security firm told Olympic officials that the company had hired only 4,000 of the 14,000 security staff that it said it would need to provide security at the Games, forcing the government to order 3,500 soldiers to London to help protect fans and athletes. The revelation that G4S, the world’s largest […]
Read moreHouston janitors strike.
July 12, 2012 1 Comment
Update: More Houston janitors have walked off the job. SEIU Local 1 reports that by Friday, July 12 janitors at nine more buildings have joined the strike. Read more at http://www.seiu1.org/2012/07/12/houston-janitors-strike-continues-to-grow-2/. Tuesday night (July 10) hundreds of Houston janitors walked off their jobs to protest employer misconduct and harassment. By Wednesday morning, the janitors and […]
Read moreMiners in Spain lead protests against government austerity measures
July 11, 2012 0 Comments
Police in Madrid fired rubber bullets at Spanish miners and their supporters as their massive July 11 demonstration against the Spanish government’s austerity cuts was winding down. At least 76 people including 43 demonstrators were injured. The miners, some of whom marched 250 miles over a three-week period from their homes in northern Spain to […]
Read moreActor and reps. support Houston janitors; banker snubs them
July 10, 2012 0 Comments
Actor Danny Glover, US Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, and Texas Representative Al Green last week told a public meeting that they stand with Houston janitors who are waging a campaign for a fair pay increase. The janitors, who work for cleaning contractors that clean office buildings for large corporations like JP Morgan Chase, currently make […]
Read moreRio Tinto workers return to work; union claims victory
July 9, 2012 0 Comments
Workers at the Rio Tinto Alcan aluminum smelter in Alma, Quebec on July 5 voted to accept a tentative agreement negotiated by the United Steelworkers and the company. The vote ends a six-month lockout. Rio Tinto, the world’s third largest mining and metals processing company, locked out 780 members of USW Local 9490 in December […]
Read moreSpanish miners continue their resistance to austerity measures
July 6, 2012 0 Comments
Miners in northern Spain continue to resist efforts to break their strike against austerity cuts imposed by the Spanish government. In one recent attack, Spain’s paramilitary police force, La Gaurdia Civil, marched into Cinera, a mining town in the province of Leon occupied by striking miners firing rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the miners. […]
Read moreCon Ed locks out workers; customers feel the heat
July 3, 2012 2 Comments
Locked out workers of Con Ed, the giant New York City utility company, on July 2 staged a noisy demonstration in front of their employer’s headquarters. The Associated Press reports that ”a chorus of honking, cheers, and whistling . . . could be heard from a couple a blocks away” as Con Ed customers, showed their support for the workers’ demonstration. […]
Read moreNurses, physcians step up Medicare for All campaign
July 2, 2012 0 Comments
The day after the Supreme Court upheld the Obama Administration’s health care reform law, nurses on a 19-city “Medicare for All” bus tour of California pulled into San Rafael with this message: the Court’s decision is a good step toward fixing our broken health care system, but it won’t be enough to get the job done. The […]
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