Labor Notes - News

Author(s):
Chris Kutalik Excerpt:

United Auto Workers officials ended the 12-week American Axle strike with a concessions-heavy tentative agreement May 16. If approved, the contract will close two of the five struck plants by November and impose deep givebacks only marginally better than the offer that sent workers to the picket lines.

Available Online:
Yes

Author(s):
Chris Kutalik and Mischa Gaus Excerpt:

Thousands of dock workers refused to move cargo containers on May 1 at all 29 West Coast ports as part of a protest against the war in Iraq. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Author(s):
Jane Slaughter Excerpt:

The labor movement has been hurtin’ for certain, so what made the Labor Notes conference April 11-13 in Detroit seem an oasis of enthusiasm and inspiration. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Author(s):
Chris Kutalik and Mischa Gaus Excerpt:

Leaders of the Service Employees International Union launched what appeared to be a carefully crafted plan on April 12 to disrupt parts of the Labor Notes conference, where contingents from a dissident SEIU local, a new reform caucus within SEIU, and a competing union were in attendance. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Author(s):
Jane Slaughter Excerpt:

Although the two-month-old strike at parts-maker American Axle has shut down 30 General Motors plants and idled more than 40,000 GM workers, the United Auto Workers appear unable or unwilling to make use of their leverage to reach a settlement. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Author(s):
Mark Brenner Excerpt:

Mounting conflicts within the SEIU have spilled into the delegate election process for the union’s convention, scheduled for June 1-4 in Puerto Rico. SEIU opposition activists, particularly from several large locals on the West Coast, are crying foul. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Author(s):
Joshua DeVries Excerpt:

Flight attendants at Delta Airlines are pushing to join the ranks of unionized cabin crews. With almost all major airlines organized for decades, only Atlanta-based Delta has held out. Now a growing number of flight attendants there—aided by a huge team of Association of Flight Attendants member - organizers from other airlines — have decided their time has come. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Author(s):
Tiffany Ten Eyck Excerpt:

Members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers have exposed Burger King for its role in attempts to infiltrate and spy on the inner workings of a CIW-allied organization, the Student/Farmworker Alliance. Both CIW and SFA are headquartered in Immokalee, Florida, where tomato pickers are demanding Burger King join with other tomato purchasers to better the wages and working conditions throughout the tomato industry. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Author(s):
Dan La Botz Excerpt:

The miners of Local 65 of the Mexican Mine and Metal Workers Union at Cananea marked their ninth month of striking against Grupo Mexico, the country’s largest mining corporation and third-largest copper producer in the world. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Author(s):
The Labor Notes Staff Excerpt:

Troublemakers Unite! More than 1,000 union activists and supporters met at the Labor Notes conference April 11-13 to strategize and debate how to rebuild labor's power...

Available Online:
Yes

Author(s):
Jeff Ballinger Available Online:
No

Author(s):
Wendy Thompson Excerpt:

Picketers at American Axle talk about the need to draw a line in the sand—or snow—against spiraling concessions on wages, health care benefits, and pensions. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Author(s):
Paul Krehbiel Excerpt:

On the heels of a public fight over the Service Employees (SEIU) International’s move toward labor-management partnership deals and hyper-centralization, members are joining a newly founded national reform group. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Author(s):
Mischa Gaus Excerpt:

Accusations of sweetheart deal-making and union busting flew thick and fast in mid-March as the Service Employees and the California Nurses Association fought over SEIU’s bid to quietly gain wall-to-wall representation at nine Ohio hospitals. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Author(s):
Herman Rosenfeld Excerpt:

The ongoing debate about the Canadian Auto Workers in these pages isn’t about particular tactics, it isn’t about whether or not to consider new and creative approaches (who could oppose that?), and it isn’t about underestimating the very real challenges that Canada’s largest private sector union (and all unions) face today. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Author(s):
José A. Laguarta Ramírez Excerpt:

Striking members of Puerto Rico’s teachers union, the Federación de Maestros de Puerto Rico (FMPR) voted to end their strike March 5. Lasting two weeks, the teachers’ strike paralyzed classes at most of the island’s 1,500 public schools, thanks in large part to the hundreds of thousands of parents who kept their children home from school. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Author(s):
The Labor Notes Staff Excerpt:

When you are trying to put the movement back into the labor movement, you’re going to meet resistance. Labor Notes supporters are no strangers to heated debate—and the SEIU International is not the first union to protest at our conference...

Available Online:
Yes

Author(s):
Jim O’Neil Excerpt:

Labor activism has never been limited to a single tactic or channel. It is this point that Herman Rosenfeld fails to recognize in his Viewpoint criticizing the recent direction of the Canadian Auto Workers union (see Labor Notes February 2008). . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Author(s):
Jane Slaughter Excerpt:

Is it illegal for an activist group or union to criticize a company’s business practices? Is it a “conspiracy” if advocates call for boycotts, organize rallies, or press for resolutions from elected bodies? Smithfield Foods, the largest producer of pork products in the world, is hoping so, after a lawsuit it filed last October passed an initial court challenge. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Author(s):
Mark Brenner Excerpt:

A long-simmering dispute over the direction of the Service Employees has erupted inside the union, pitting leaders of the 150,000-member United Healthcare Workers—West against top International officials. UHW President Sal Rosselli and other executive board members contend that the International is taking too much control of organizing and bargaining contracts away from local unions. . . .

Available Online:
Yes