U.S. Teacher Strikes Were Good, Actually by Rachel Cohen
August 25, 2024
Introduction:
(Vox) Few things have bedeviled education policy researchers in the US more than public school teacher strikes, driven by educators on the vanguard of resurging labor activism. While union membership nationwide continues to decline, nearly one in five union members in the US is a public school teacher — and their high-profile, disruptive strikes generate significant media attention and public debate.
But do these strikes work? Do they deliver gains for workers? Do they help or hurt students academically?
Answering these questions has been challenging, largely due to a lack of centralized data that scholars could use to analyze the strikes. The Bureau of Labor Statistics used to keep track of all strikes and work stoppages across the country, but since its budget was cut in the early 1980s, the agency has only tracked strikes involving more than 1,000 employees. Given that 97 percent of US school districts employ fewer than 1,000 teachers, the majority of teacher strikes are not federally documented.
Now, for the first time ever, researchers Melissa Arnold Lyon of the University at Albany, Matthew Kraft of Brown University, and Matthew Steinberg of the education group Accelerate have compiled a novel data set to answer these questions, providing the first credible estimates of the effect of US teacher strikes.
Their data set — which covers 772 teacher strikes across 610 school districts in 27 states between 2007-2023 — took four years to compile. The three co-authors, plus seven additional research assistants, reviewed over 90,000 news articles to plug the gaps in national data. Their working paper, which will be published tomorrow, provides revealing information about the causes and consequences of teacher strikes in America, and suggests they remain a potent tool for educators to improve their working conditions.
UPS Drivers Won “Historic Heat Protections.” They Say the Company Hasn’t Lived Up to That Promise. by Serina Lin
August 26, 2024
Introduction:
(Mother Jones) A year after a union contract won “historic heat protections” for UPS drivers, the Teamsters are still pushing the company to do more to protect workers in vehicles that can reach up to 120 degrees. Multiple employees told Mother Jones their vehicles are still hot—and dangerous.
For Jeff Schenfeld, a UPS driver working outside of Dallas, a typical shift requires more than 200 stops, sometimes involving multiple packages—entering and exiting the truck at least 400 times a day. “You’re back and forth, back and forth,” he said. In July and August, when the average high temperature in Dallas is 96 degrees, Schenfeld dreads rummaging for packages in the back of his truck.
Because of climate change, summer temperatures have risen significantly across the country. A recent study found that heat waves are hotter, last longer, and cover larger areas than they did 40 years ago.
Last August, a 57-year-old UPS driver named Chris Begley collapsed during his shift in McKinney, Texas, and died at a hospital four days later. An OSHA investigation summary said that he died of heat stress, a description that a UPS spokesperson claimed was inaccurate. But regardless of the official cause of Begley’s death, it underscored the potential dangers of working in extreme heat for many union members.
The Biden administration recently announced an OSHA rule proposal to set a national heat safety standard for both indoor and outdoor workers. Delivery drivers, like workers in construction and agriculture, are uniquely vulnerable to extreme heat. A Politico analysis of OSHA data from 2015 to 2022 found that after construction workers, delivery and mail workers had the second-highest rates of heat-related illness. Drivers for Amazon and FedEx contractors have raised concerns about working in the heat, and lawmakers recently urged the US Postal Service to expand heat protections.
Workers Need Protection from Record Breaking Heat by Farrah Hassen
August 29, 2024
Introduction:
(Other Words) This summer is on track to being the hottest on record, with 2024 very likely to be the hottest year.
Fueled by global warming, extreme heat is the leading weather-related cause of death in the United States. It claims the lives of around 2,000 workers and injures another 170,000 in heat stress-related incidents each year, according to Public Citizen.
Workers whose jobs expose them to dangerous heat — like farm, construction, maintenance, delivery, and warehouse workers — are the most vulnerable. Underlying inequities further compound the risks for lower-income workers and workers of color.
In August, as temperatures in Baltimore approached 100 degrees, heat tragically killed 36-year-old Ronald Silver II, a city sanitation worker. “He was found lying on the hood of a car and asking for water,” reported The Guardian. In other instances, airport workers have passed out and suffered from other symptoms of heat exhaustion while on the job.
These deaths and illnesses could have been prevented if long overdue, proper workplace heat protection standards had been in place.
More Than 10,000 U.S. Hotel Workers Strike During Labor Day Weekend
by Chris Isidore
September 1, 2024
Introduction:
New York CNN — More than 10,000 hotel workers at 24 hotels stretching from Boston to the West Coast to Hawaii went on strike early Sunday morning, disrupting travel during a busy Labor Day weekend.
The hotels are reportedly still open but guests will deal with a skeleton staff unable to provide full services. UNITE HERE, the union representing the striking workers, says they are striking not just for better pay but also better working conditions, including the return of automatic daily room cleaning that many hotels dropped during the pandemic.
“We’re on strike because the hotel industry has gotten off track,” Gwen Mills, International President of UNITE HERE, said in a statement Sunday morning. “During Covid, everyone suffered, but now the hotel industry is making record profits while workers and guests are left behind. Too many hotels still haven’t restored standard services that guests deserve. Workers aren’t making enough to support their families. Many can no longer afford to live in the cities that they welcome guests to.”
Aissata Seck, a banquet food server who has worked at Hilton Park Plaza in Boston for 18 years, said her rent has increased from $1,900 to $2,900 in the last five years. “My pay only covers my rent,” she told CNN. She is now working as an Uber driver to make ends meet.
Apple Ratanabunsrithang, a cook at Hilton Union Square in San Francisco, told CNN’s Gloria Pazmino that she “has to work two jobs to survive in the city,” and while wages are important, so is keeping health care benefits. “The majority of people that work and are in the union are long established — they’ve worked 10, 20, 30 years. So their whole life is working at a hotel, which is physical work, so the health care is very important,” she said.
On Labor Day, Champions of Working Class Vowed to Defeat Trump by Brett Wilkins
September 2, 2024
Introduction:
(Common Dreams) With the Labor Day holiday as a backdrop, U.S. union leaders on Monday reiterated their message that a Democratic administration led by Vice President Kamala Harris would offer far better policies for workers than a Republican one with former President Donald Trump at the helm.
Echoing Harris' resonant "We are not going back" campaign slogan, Communications Workers of America president Claude Cummings Jr. said that "we are not going back because we have the opportunity to elect Kamala Harris, a true champion for working people, who has a vision for the future where we all have more control over our own lives, not less."
"Last month, as our members at AT&T Southeast were preparing to go on strike, Donald Trump laughed with notorious union buster Elon Musk about firing striking workers," (see previous post) he continued. "Today that would be illegal, but if he's elected president, Trump will have the plan and the power to take us back to a time when it wasn't."
"Donald Trump's allies, including many people he appointed to serve in his administration, want to take us back to the days before the NLRA," he contended, referring to the landmark National Labor Relations Act signed into law by Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935. "Their dangerous, extremist agenda, detailed in a handbook known as Project 2025, calls for increasing corporate control over workers. They want to appoint [National Labor Relations Board] members who will stop enforcing large parts of the NLRA, including the ban on company unions."
Harris, who was in Detroit Monday, said: "On Labor Day, we honor workers, unions, and the entire labor movement fighting for fair wages, good benefits, and safer working conditions for all. As president, I will always stand with workers, because when unions are strong, the middle class is strong. And when the middle class is strong, America is strong."
Boeing Gains on Optimism Labor Deal Will Avert Strike by Julie Johnsson and Danny Lee
September 9, 2024
Introduction:
(Bloomberg) -- Boeing Co. shares rallied on optimism that a labor deal with its largest union will help the troubled US aircraft manufacturer avoid a potentially crippling strike at its Seattle-area factories.
The landmark offer hammered out over the weekend includes a 25% wage increase over four years and a commitment to build Boeing’s next plane in the Seattle area, the two sides said in separate statements.
The accord with union negotiators promises to be a significant victory for new Boeing Chief Executive Officer Kelly Ortberg and his pledge to reset long-contentious labor relations. But it’s too soon to know if workers will go along or buck their leadership, with anti-management sentiment still running high on the factory floor.
“Labor had a lot of leverage here, and Boeing had limited leverage,” said Robert Spingarn, an analyst with Melius Research. “Boeing has some mountains to climb, and the last thing they need is an uncooperative union.”
US port strike by 45,000 dockworkers is all but certain to begin at midnight
Source: Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — The union representing U.S. dockworkers signaled that 45,000 members will walk off the job at midnight, kicking off a massive strike likely to shut down ports across the East and Gulf coasts.
ILA confirmed over the weekend that its members would hit the picket lines at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. In a Monday update, the union continued to blame the United States Maritime Alliance, which represents the ports, for continuing to “to block the path” towards an agreement before the contract deadline.
ILA members are demanding higher wages and a total ban on the automation of cranes, gates and container-moving trucks used in the loading or unloading of freight.
The coming strike by the ILA workers will be the first by the union since 1977. And the Biden administration has signaled that it will not intervene.
Port Strike Leader Harold Daggett's Salary and Connection to Trump Scrutinized by Jenni Fink
October 2, 2024
Introduction:
(Newsweek) Harold Daggett, the leader of the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), is facing criticism for his relationship with former President Donald Trump and his salary as the port strike continues.
On Monday night, nearly 50,000 port workers agreed to strike after a collective bargaining agreement wasn't reached. The strike has the potential to halt imports to the United States and Daggett previously warned that it would "crush" the U.S. economy
The strike coming a month before the election is unwelcome news for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump has long been seen as more trustworthy on the economy, although Harris has started to close the gap. People losing their jobs or an increase in inflation has the potential to erase Harris' advances on the issue.
In the wake of the port strike starting, attention has turned to Daggett. Social media users shared a photo of him and Trump from a meeting in November. Daggett, a New York native, said in a statement in July that he's known Trump for "decades" from New York City. He added that they're the same age and both from Queens.
In November, Daggett met with Trump in Mar-a-Lago, which he called a "wonderful" and "productive" meeting.
A National Movement to Organize Amazon Takes Off by Luis Feliz Leon
October 4, 2024
Introduction:
(Labor Notes) The Teamsters are spinning off momentum from recent organizing fights to new battle fronts across Amazon’s logistics chain.
A group of 100 warehouse workers at DCK6, an Amazon delivery station in San Francisco, marched on company managers October 2 demanding voluntary recognition rather than filing for a National Labor Relations Board-supervised election.
In the Teamsters’ strategy to organize the logistics behemoth by a thousand cuts, this is the first time that warehouse workers—rather than delivery drivers nominally employed by a subcontractor—have demanded recognition.
“I think that they suspected that something was up, because we were gathering in the parking lot, and one of the regional managers came out to suss us out and then went back inside,” said Dori Goldberg, who sorts packages and loads them onto trucks from 3:20 a.m. to 12 p.m.
“So I went inside, and he was trying to make small talk with me as I was leading him into the break room, where we had all assembled. When he came in, his face—he was shocked to see so many of our co-workers standing shoulder to shoulder.
This Little-Known Program Protects Immigrant Workers from Retaliation by Jorge Mújica
October 10, 2024
Introduction:
(Labor Notes) Perhaps the biggest obstacle to organizing, for workers everywhere, is fear of retaliation. This is an even greater factor when the workers are undocumented immigrants. Not only do you fear being suspended or fired, but the idea of being deported if the employer calls immigration, and being separated from your family, multiplies the fear.
But a federal program that few know about can offer confidence-boosting legal protection. Arise Chicago has been supporting workers to use the program, Deferred Action for Labor Enforcement (DALE).
RAIDS ENDED, FEAR CONTINUES
The fear of workplace raids remains widespread—even though the current federal administration has not conducted workplace raids targeting immigrant workers since 2021.
Memoranda issued by Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security, directed workplace immigration enforcement to go after employers, rather than workers, who break the National Immigration Act. Looking for work is not illegal, but knowingly hiring undocumented workers is.
Mayorkas went even further in 2021. Immigrants in deportation proceedings, no matter the reason, can argue that they are participating in a civil or labor case, and they can get their deportation case suspended.
caltrek’s comment: The anti-immigrant policies of Trump and other Republicans isn’t about keeping immigrants out as many MAGA supporters would suppose, it is about providing employers with the maximum possible leverage over their immigrant workers.
Boeing and Union Reach Tentative Wage Deal to End Strike by Clive McKeef
October 19, 2024
Introduction:
(Market Watch) Boeing and its machinists union have reached a tentative agreement that could end a strike that has halted most production in the past month, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.
The proposal negotiated with the 33,000 workers of the union includes a wage increase of 35% spread over four years, a reinstated incentive plan and an increase to company 401(k) fund matching, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers district representing the workers said in a statement on its website Saturday.
The latest offer does not restore pensions, which was a demand of many members, but union leaders said that may be out of reach. The company also would keep paying annual bonuses, which were eliminated as part of the initial offer, and pay $7,000 ratification bonuses.
A ratification vote is set for Oct. 23.
Boeing’s original offer of 25% that was rejected by the union local representing machinists in the Pacific Northwest that builds most of its jets.
Boeing Strike to Continue After Workers Reject New Contract by Max Zahn, Jack Moore, and Ayesha Ali
October 23, 2024
Introduction:
(ABC) Boeing machinists on Wednesday rejected a new contract proposal that would've ended a weekslong work stoppage against the embattled aerospace company -- and the union said the strike will go on.
Sixty-four percent of workers voted to reject the new contract, according to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), the union representing 33,000 Boeing workers in Washington, Oregon and Californi
New York Times Tech Workers Go on Strike Ahead of Election Day by Julianne McShane
November 3, 2024
Introduction:
(Mother Jones) Update, Nov. 4: The New York Times Tech Guild began their strike on Monday, just ahead of Election Day. Danielle Rhoades Ha, senior vice president of external communications for the newspaper, said in a statement: “We’re in one of the most consequential periods of coverage for our readers and have robust plans in place to ensure that we are able to fulfill our mission and serve our readers. While we respect the union’s right to engage in protected actions, we’re disappointed that colleagues would strike at this time, which is both unnecessary and at odds with our mission.”
With two days until Election Day, the New York Times is confronting a potential crisis: The army of tech workers who keep its digital platforms running is threatening to go on strike.
Nearly 700 members of the newspaper’s Tech Guild—which represents the workers who power the famous election needle, mobile push alerts, Wordle, the audio app, and many other things—voted in September to authorize a strike. Now, just a few days out from an election in which the candidates look locked in a dead heat, the workers say a strike could come to fruition if they do not reach an agreement with management, who they allege “have demonstrated an unwillingness at the table to be reasonable on key contract demands.” They say they have been bargaining for more than two years.
“We have made it clear that we need to reach an agreement before the election in order to avert a strike,” the guild wrote in a Nov. 1 letter to management.
Among the Tech Guild’s demands are just cause for termination with no exceptions, higher wages, and more initiatives to foster diversity, equity, and inclusion among their workforce.
