The Union Movement In The USA Died Today

[tbtommyb]

You are very confused. You may as well be voting for the BNP while being concerned about racism.

Why? unions can still be shit and promote certain groups and grades above others. Mine certainly chose to distribute a spending envelope by giving more to certain groups and none to others (i.e. mine).

 

[MikeMcc]

Speaking from limited exposure I do believe US unionisation is a complete and utter ball-ache. My examples in the US are that when crates holding our machines turn up I can't physically pick up a powerdriver and unscrew the crate to save time, I have to wait for the riggers to do it. Fair enough for the next section, getting the machine lifted off the pallet and moved into position. The rigger company takes the risk of maybe damaging flooring, etc. But then trying to organise all of the service required for the machine, especially electrics, is a nightmare. The electricians think they are so special, when really they aren't. Getting compressed air, CO2, network connections, etc is easy because those guys appreciate that they are supporting the machine. At times the relationships we have with the riggers pays dividends (craning machines in through a window on the 7th floor whilst it's raining in November in Boston is seriously not fun, but the riggers were magnificent!), other times (when they don't turn up on time or at commercial shows) it can be a real ball-ache. It's not a problem with the individuals, we all have the same end-view, it's just the stupid antiquated procedures. In the US nothing is scheduled on line, it's all in the mind of the foreman (a minor miracle would be having a spreadsheet explaining the timing, but believing in that is a fools errand!)

 

[J Ed]

Why? unions can still be shit and promote certain groups and grades above others. Mine certainly chose to distribute a spending envelope by giving more to certain groups and none to others (i.e. mine).

I agree with you (and Sass) in that a lot of union bureaucrats obviously do not always prioritise the rights of their members, but I think it's a bit rich for someone who has voted for governments which have attacked unions and forced them to fight with one hand behind their backs to say that.

 

[J Ed]

A who's who on the anti-union campaign at VW http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/23093-a-primer-on-the-antiunion-campaign-at-volkswagen

 

[petee]

lots of dates could be chosen as "the day" the union movement in the states died. in my lifetime the most prominent day was the day reagan broke the air traffic controllers' strike, 40 years ago. or before that when walter reuther's suggestion, in the 1950s even, of a nationwide, portable health insurance plan for union workers was scotched, which would have kicked one leg out of capital's bargaining power. or was it the establishment of the AFL in 1886?

you read these days that workers feel their power in the post-coronavirus economy. "labor shortage!" let's see.

 

[hitmouse]

If boris jonson ever becomes party leader and then PM, I swear I'll do time

Had been wondering if there was a general thread for putting US strike and worker struggle stuff on, along the lines of the UK one - the Nabisco and Alabama coal strikes both sound pretty significant.
Alabama:

Alabama’s Coal Miners Are Striking for Their Lives

Over a thousand miners at Warrior Met Coal have been on strike now for over two months, and the conflict is only heating up.

www.thenation.com

The Coal Miners' Wives Keeping a Strike Alive in Alabama

The women in miners' lives is a labor trope that reaches back centuries, but these women are on the front lines of the struggle here and now.

www.elle.com

Nabisco:

âWeâre peons to themâ: Nabisco factory workers on why theyâre striking

While the CEO of Nabiscoâs parent company is paid nearly $17m a year, plants are closing, jobs outsourced to Mexico, and older workers are unable to retire on weakened pension benefits

www.theguardian.com

Strike at NE Portland Nabisco bakery spreads to 5 other facilities, gains national attention

A strike that began at the Nabisco bakery in Northeast Portland on Aug. 10 has spread to five other facilities across the United States and gained national attention with both politicians and celebrities voicing support for the workers.

www.oregonlive.com

 

[hitmouse]

.

 

[Sasaferrato]

If boris jonson ever becomes party leader and then PM, I swear I'll do time

Which jail are you in?

 

[krtek a houby]

Which jail are you in?

Britain 2021, at a guess

 

[hitmouse]

Update on Nabisco:

The Bakers’ Strike at the Nabisco Factory Heats Up—With Both Sides Digging Deep Into Their Playbooks

www.wweek.com

The Nabisco bakery strike in Northeast Portland had humble beginnings. In mid-August, the local bakers’ union took to picket lines along Columbia Boulevard, refusing a new contract workers said stripped them of overtime pay and robust health insurance.

Fast-forward a month and the strike has both expanded and intensified. Every single Nabisco facility on that contract in the nation is on strike: three bakeries and three distribution centers.

And in Portland, the brinksmanship now includes trains halting on railroad tracks, vans with tinted windows, and car alarms honking in a Marriott parking lot.

That’s because the bakery’s owner, Mondelez International, has allegedly brought in strikebreakers to do union jobs. And a new wave of leftist protesters have joined the picketing workers—bringing with them intense new techniques that the striking bakers weren’t expecting.

Here’s how the standoff outside Nabisco escalated...

In recent weeks, the Nabisco bakers have been joined by Portland protesters—committed leftists who are veterans of standoffs against police during racial justice protests last year.

Two of those new allies spoke with WW under the condition of anonymity.

They describe three distinct actions by a small group of protesters over the past few weeks to disrupt Mondelez’s operations.

On Friday, Aug. 20, protesters blocked vans and personal vehicles from entering an external parking lot eight minutes away from a building on Northeast Killingsworth Street where protesters say strikebreakers park, then load onto buses and vans, and get taken to the bakery. Starting around 5 am, protesters blocked the driveway into the parking lot with their bodies for an hour. Eventually, cars and vans started turning around.

Once those vehicles left, protesters rushed to the Nabisco facility and started slowly walking across the main vehicle entrance on Columbia Boulevard to impede swift entry.

Then, on the following Tuesday evening before strikebreaking workers left the facility, protesters tell WW they staged “car troubles” at all seven of the egresses. Pictures shared with WW show two cars at one of the entrances, the driver of one swapping out a tire and moving painfully slowly, according to bakers—for over an hour. Eventually, videos show, the vans drove across the grass and between trees to enter the street and leave.

Later that same night around midnight, protesters tell WW, 10 of them drove their cars to the outside of two hotels near the airport where they suspected strikebreakers were being lodged and set off their car alarms and honked horns. The cacophony lasted about 10 minutes.

The union, too, has stepped up strike efforts.

Perhaps most notably, Nabisco bakers have halted rail delivery of ingredients to the Portland bakery. (Strikers say the supplies carried via rail include flour, sugar and oil. WW could not independently confirm that.)

On Aug. 23, baker Linda Lasher and a co-worker named Julie stood on the railroad tracks that run under the Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard overpass to stop a Pacific Union supply train headed for the Nabisco facility. The train engineer—a union member—reversed course.

A Union Pacific spokesperson tells WW that it’s not currently serving the facility because of the strike.

Now, two workers with the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union Local 364 keep watch of the tracks at all times. They’ve set up a white tent beside the track in a small brown clearing beside the railroad. (Union Pacific told them they couldn’t stand on the tracks.) Five camp chairs have been set up, and a picnic table is stocked with powdered donuts, Hot Pockets from a nearby convenience store, and wasp repellent.

On a Saturday afternoon, the station is manned by Eddie Mayagoitia and another man. Mayagoitia’s shift is usually from 3 to 11 am. He met his wife while running the ovens that bake Oreos and Chicken in a Biskit. He and his wife trade strike shifts to take care of their baby.

He believes the blockade is affecting Nabisco’s production.

“I haven’t seen any trucks coming out with products,” Mayagoitia says. “If they were making stuff, we would smell the cookies.”

 

[hitmouse]

Behind the Nabisco Strike

Workers at US food company Nabisco are on strike in four states over impossible schedules, two-tier healthcare and attacks on pay – their aim is clear: to make the corporate giant

tribunemag.co.uk

 

[hitmouse]

Nice little video from the Nabisco picket line:


I absolutely love the security guard ineffectually trying to wave the scab car through, apparently oblivious to the fact that doing a "go on, you're fine" hand gesture doesn't mean much when there's people physically blocking your route?

 

[hitmouse]

Things getting a bit heated at Nabisco:

Teamster Sues Strike Staffing Company Used by Nabisco Owner, Alleging Assault by Security Guard

www.wweek.com

(warning for some pretty full-on violence in the video):

 

[hitmouse]

BBC on Starbucks unionising:

Gen Z battles to bring back unions, one Starbucks at a time

Younger Americans are reviving US labour activism amid stagnant wages and Covid hardship.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[hitmouse]

Very interesting article about the Washington carpenters' strike:

Washington Carpenter: “It’s Up to the Membership to Win This Strike”

Two thousand carpenters went on strike in Washington on Thursday after rejecting a fourth tentative contract agreement. Jacobin spoke with one of the workers about the strike, and why it’s pitting rank-and-file carpenters against their union leaders.

jacobinmag.com

 

[extra dry]

The week(+) in US unions, September 23 - October 2 strikes and campaigns in the states, quit a few strikes, labour unions and workers in the mix.

Warning the person who designed this site has forgotten to use paragraphs

 

[Yossarian]

The week(+) in US unions, September 23 - October 2 strikes and campaigns in the states, quit a few strikes, labour unions and workers in the mix.

Warning the person who designed this site has forgotten to use paragraphs

A more concise roundup:

 

[hitmouse]

Wave of US labor unrest could see tens of thousands on strike within weeks

From healthcare to Hollywood, workers are demanding higher wages, fighting cuts and seeking better safety and conditions

www.theguardian.com

 

[petee]

IATSE membership authorized a strike.

(where's the Strike! thread? can't find it.)

 

[8ball]

IATSE membership authorized a strike.

(where's the Strike! thread? can't find it.)

Useful super-high level summary here: Everything You Need to Know About Hollywood’s IATSE Strike Vote

Some ground-level perspective here: “Unsustainable and Unhealthy”: As IATSE Workers Go Public, Pressure Mounts on Studios Amid Looming Strike

 

[Yossarian]

Kellogg's workers now on strike as well

 

[hitmouse]

IATSE membership authorized a strike.

(where's the Strike! thread? can't find it.)

There's one in the UK forum, but reckon it makes sense to keep that one for UK stuff and leave US stuff here.
Anyway, write-up of the Kelloggs strike:

‘People Work 100 Days Straight’: Kellogg’s Workers Shut Down Cereal Factories

1,400 workers who make Corn Flakes, Frosted Flakes, Fruit Loops, and Rice Krispies are on strike in four states.

www.vice.com

 

[hitmouse]

I appreciate we probably don't have a huge number of US posters here, but for the benefit of any yank posters/lurkers, or indeed anyone else who wants to support the Kelloggs strike:

Strike Solidarity Network Sign Up

International solidarity of workers and community members helped striking workers to raise over $100,000 for strike funds and supported all the striking locations at the recent Nabisco strikes. Sign up for updates on how the Solidarity Network is here to support striking workers at Kellogg's...

docs.google.com

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

I appreciate we probably don't have a huge number of US posters here, but for the benefit of any yank posters/lurkers, or indeed anyone else who wants to support the Kelloggs strike:

Strike Solidarity Network Sign Up

International solidarity of workers and community members helped striking workers to raise over $100,000 for strike funds and supported all the striking locations at the recent Nabisco strikes. Sign up for updates on how the Solidarity Network is here to support striking workers at Kellogg's...

docs.google.com

Here's the union's website, if anyone is interested.

BCTGM RTEC 2021 Contract

bctgm2021rteccontract.com

It sure didn't take long for the cereal shelves to empty. It was mostly bare yesterday afternoon.

I don't know if your regional settings will permit it, but there's a quick interview with some strikers in Omaha here:

Kellogg’s workers go on strike in Omaha, other cities

Union workers at the Kellogg’s plant in Omaha went on strike just after midnight Tuesday.

www.wowt.com

 

[hitmouse]

Here's the union's website, if anyone is interested.

BCTGM RTEC 2021 Contract

bctgm2021rteccontract.com

It sure didn't take long for the cereal shelves to empty. It was mostly bare yesterday afternoon.

I don't know if your regional settings will permit it, but there's a quick interview with some strikers in Omaha here:

Kellogg’s workers go on strike in Omaha, other cities

Union workers at the Kellogg’s plant in Omaha went on strike just after midnight Tuesday.

www.wowt.com

Yep, works here.

 

[petee]

 

[hitmouse]

‘Can You Help The Scab Get Into The Cereal Factory?’ Read Instructions On Back Of Kellogg’s Box

BATTLE CREEK, MI—Focused as he enjoyed the activity on the back of the package, local 9-year-old Carter McCauley was reportedly working on a maze on his Kellogg’s cereal box Thursday that read “Can you help the scab get into the cereal plant?” “Uh-oh, it looks like the greedy union workers are...

www.theonion.com

Two Thousand Hospital Workers Strike in Buffalo

Two thousand nurses, clerical workers, technologists, and service workers have walked out of Mercy Health in Buffalo, New York, in an open-ended strike over the hiring and retention of workers throughout the hospital. At 6 a.m. on October 1, the sky just starting to lighten, an already full...

labornotes.org

 

[hitmouse]

BBC on Starbucks unionising:

Gen Z battles to bring back unions, one Starbucks at a time

Younger Americans are reviving US labour activism amid stagnant wages and Covid hardship.

www.bbc.co.uk

Update on that:

'It's Almost Comical:' Starbucks Is Blatantly Trying to Crush Its Union

Starbucks executives have swarmed Buffalo, New York stores, pulling aside workers to chat one-on-one during their breaks, at peak hours, and at night.

www.vice.com

 

[hitmouse]

5 Ways to Support the #KelloggStrike

On October 5, 1,400 BCTGM members at Kellogg’s cereal plants in Battle Creek, Mich. (Local 3G), Omaha, Neb. (Local 50G), Lancaster, Pa. (Local 374G) and Memphis, Tenn. (Local 252G) took a stand on the future of their workforce by going on STRIKE. Here are FIVE ways you can support them:

bctgm.org

 

[hitmouse]