Over the past week unions wrapped up short strikes at whiskey maker Jim Beam in Kentucky and Libbey Glass in Toledo, Ohio. The walkouts involved some 250 workers at distilleries in Clermont and Boston, Kentucky, and close to 1,000 workers at table glassmaker Libbey in Toledo.
Union Loss in Bend, Oregon (tags)
The game is rigged, but not the fight.
Workers Stand Up to Walmart (tags)
When a torrent hits an obstacle that refuses to give, it either flows around or over the obstruction. When workers’ needs for a living wage, fair treatment, and a voice are damned up by an oppressive employer, it is only a matter of time before they find a way of asserting their strength.
Downtown Labor Day Rally Draws Over 200 (tags)
MoveOn.org's San Diego chapter and other local activists hosted a Labor Day rally outside Horton Plaza in downtown San Diego Monday, September 5, featuring speakers like Congressmembers Bob Filner and Susan Davis, San Diego-Imperial Counties Central Labor Council secretary-treasurer Lorena Gonzalez, State Senator Juan Vargas, State Assemblymember Lori Salda?a, former City Councilmember Floyd Morrow and Activist San Diego president Jeeni Criscenzo. Much of the action urged solidarity with the supermarket workers threatened by their employers' demands for a takeaway contract and the likelihood of a strike. While most of the speakers said, "Jobs, jobs, jobs," Criscenzo urged listeners to take another look at the whole concept of a "job" and question why the only way we should be allowed to make a living is to beg a rich person or corporation for the chance to make them richer.
Solidarity Hall Matching Fund (tags)
Local person offers to match donations to IMC with a larger donation to Solidarity Hall.
Queer Democrats Warned About Threats to Reproductive Choice (tags)
The predominantly Queer San Diego Democratic Club heard two presentations at its June 23 meeting: a report on the likely strike by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) against southern California?s three largest grocery chains ? Ralph?s, Albertson?s and Vons ? and a warning about the potentially devastating effects of Republican and radical-Right policies against women?s rights to reproductive choice. Though the struggles of women to maintain safe and legal access to contraception and abortion may seem to have little in common with those of workers for decent pay, access to health care and other benefits, speakers on both issues noted how the radical Right has effectively linked them in the service of a paternalistic agenda that regards workers as mere cogs in a capitalist economy, and women as mere vessels for giving birth to the next generation.
UFCW Local 135 Union Stores Not Facing a Strike (tags)
Facing a strike at the three largest grocery chains in southern California ? Ralph's, Albertson's and Vons ? the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 135 prepared this list of stores in San Diego County which they represent and which will NOT be involved in the likely upcoming strike. Since at this time they have not posted this list on their own Web site, http://www.ufcw135.org, Mark Gabrish Conlan and Zenger's Newsmagazine are making it available as a public service. Please help support this action by reposting this list and spreading it far and wide on the Web, and hopefully this will give the union leadership the message that they need to join the 21st century and promote this list on their own Web site.
Wage-Stealing Boss Sent to Slammer (tags)
A dirty rat boss who cheated workers out of 1.5 million dollars is going to be sent to prison. This is a NYC story, but has national implications.
May Day Rallies Against ICE Raids (tags)
In response to nationally coordinated raids conducted by Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) the Coalition to Defend Immigrant Rights (CDIR) in Los Angeles will join the Press Conference of the newly formed Filipino American for Immigrant Rights (FAIR) and the Pilipino Workers Center (PWC) on April 26, 2008 and the May 1 Rally Immigrant Workers Day March-Rally in downtown Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, more recent ICE Raids More than 200 immigrants have been arrested in Los Angeles this month. On April 4, more than 60 Mexican and Korean workers were arrested by ICE in Torrance and in downtown LA.
“¡Aguirre Si, Labor No!” (tags)
Zenger's Newsmagazine announces its endorsement of progressive Democrat Mike Aguirre for re-election as San Diego city attorney, despite the opposition of reactionary city employee unions more concerned with preserving the pensions of current city workers than protecting the salaries and benefits of future ones.
The War on Working Americans - Part I (tags)
Working Americans are losing out in the war waged against them.
New, improved unions
Labor Union - Labor Department to act on employee safety equipment (tags)
WASHINGTON (AP)Labor Union — The Labor Department has agreed to issue rules outlining an employer’s responsibility for the cost of workers’ safety equipment — two months after a lawsuit by the AFL-CIO and the United Food and Commercial Workers seeking such regulations. www.LABORUNIONRESOURCES.ORG
BTL: Union Campaign to Organize Smithfield Workers at... (tags)
...World's Largest Slaughterhouse~Interview with Gene Bruskin, organizer with the United Food & Commercial Workers Union, conducted by Between the Lines' Melinda Tuhus
More ICE Raids Possible (tags)
U.S. Attorney Matthew Whitaker said Wednesday: “This is not the end to these types of operations. We will continue to work with ICE and develop plans.'' Referring to last Tuesday’s raids on the Swift & Co. meat packing plants where approximately 1300 undocumented workers were arrested.
Labor must take the road of class struggle! (tags)
A Working Class Emancipation labor bulletin
Bush's Immigration Trap (tags)
Labor: Organize the Unorganized!
What Does it Mean to be 'Pro-Labor?' (tags)
Do you want evidence of how ad-driven media works to silence labor? Read this follow-up to "'Alternative' Media Quietly Sells Out to Whole Foods Market" [ZNet, April 28, 2005]. Mark T. Harris answers Dragonfly Media's denial that it gave Whole Foods Market free advertising for a year in its Chicago publication, Conscious Choice, following the grocer's complaint about a UFCW ad that ran under the magazine's old management. Dragonfly says neither would it promise Whole Foods no more union ads. But when union activists attempted to purchase new ad space last December, Dragonfly said no.
1,400 at D.C. meet say 'Take Back America' (tags)
WASHINGTON — Hundreds of protesters, chanting "Hands off my Social Security" and "Not wise to privatize," marched to the White House in the rain June 3.
Grocery Strikers’ Heroic Fight for Healthcare (tags)
In the end, workers who had fought so hard for five months were forced to accept a raw deal. They were unable to prevail against a bold united front of employers when their own leaders were not willing to organize an equally bold united front of labor.
The Los Angeles Supermarket Strike of 2003-2004 (tags)
Media coverage was eclipsed by Hollywood’s Academy Awards, but on Sunday, Feb. 29, Southern California supermarket workers voted 86% to end their five-month old strike, accepting a contract that amounts to a serious, if not total, victory for a determined employer offensive with national implications.Thus one of the most important strikes in the U.S. in years has ended in defeat.
California workers hold the line on health care (tags)
Somehow surviving on $20 per day strike pay, the United Food and Commercial Workers continue to maintain a picket line outside Vons and Albertsons grocery stores in Southern California. Seventy thousand workers are on strike against Safeway/Vons in Southern California -- and locked out by Albertsons and Kroger/Ralphs. Despite a 91% profit growth over the last five years, the grocery chain owners are demanding wholesale cuts in employee health care benefits. Workers from seven locals voted over 90% to reject the offer by three of the largest supermarket operators in the country, Vons (Safeway-owned), Ralphs (Kroger-owned) and Albertsons and set up picket lines October 11, 2003. See http://www.sevenoaksmag.com/
Demonstrations at Two Santa Cruz Taco Bells in Solidarity with CIW (tags)
On February 27, at least 300 people took part in demonstrations focusing on the sweatshop conditions in the Florida fields where Taco Bell's tomatoes are picked. People rallied at the Mission St. Taco Bell before marching through parts of Santa Cruz and on to the Laurel St. Taco Bell.
Grocery workers win lawmakers’ backing (tags)
LOS ANGELES – If Safeway and its CEO Steve Burd have their way, the 21st century will have conditions more like the 19th century for working families, said Connie Leyva, president of Local 1428 of the United Food and Commercial Workers, speaking to a panel led by four Democratic California congresspeople.
Inglewood: Huge March Backs Grocery Strikers (tags)
Inglewood, CA - Twenty thousand people demonstrated here, Jan. 31 in a powerful display of solidarity with the striking, locked-out United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) grocery workers. Trade unionists - including strikers and their families, longshoremen, public workers and Teamsters - along with community supporters marched on Safeway-owned Vons market.
UFCW "Salt of the Earth" Benefit (tags)
Please join us this Thursday, January 22nd in Santa Monica for a benefit screening screening of the classic, blacklisted 1954 film, "Salt of the Earth." All proceeds will go to the strike funds of the UFCW Locals 770 and 1442. Tickets are $20, and advance tickets are available online at https://www.readyticket.net/webticket/webticket2.asp?WCI=BuyTicket&WCE=SALT%20OF%20THE%20EARTH,012220041930,5,59,NR
Southern California: la huelga de los trabajadores de supermercados (tags)
Cuando se publica este artículo los trabajadores y trabajadoras de Albertson's, Vons y Ralphs entran en el cuarto mes de huelga.
Viva la huelga de Souther California (tags)
An article by a latinamerican student about grocery workers! (only in spanish, sorry!!!) I hope you enjoy it!!!
Misleaders’ Strategy Undermines Grocery Strike (tags)
"The strategy of relying on token informational pickets in in northern California, rather than extending the strike, is part of a loosing strategy by the UFCW bureaucrats that is defeating the strike. With a defeat in southern California it will be easy to extract concessions here. Victory will only come through real solidarity, with a militant rank and file class struggle leadership in the union that challenges the career bureaucrats for the continued life of the union!" --Steve Argue
[gangbox] THE JAVITS CENTER SHUFFLE (tags)
THE JAVITS CENTER SHUFFLE...discrimination, unequal distribution of work and the pitfalls of seeking workplace justice in the court system at New York City's convention center
[gangbox] LIFE IS CHEAP..BUT CONSTRUCTION DELAYS ARE EXPENSIVE (tags)
LIFE IS CHEAP...BUT CONSTRUCTION DELAYS ARE EXPENSIVE..or, why construction continues to be such a hazardous industry to work in..
Grocery strike impressions (tags)
Grocery strike shows So Calif has not moved to the right.
Wal-Mart's benefits come under fire (tags)
Sally Lieber, D-San Jose, points to Wal-Mart employee hand-outs about social services like Medicaid, food stamps and temporary assistance as proof that the retailer uses state and federal tax dollars to supplement "poverty" level wages and benefits.
Health care costs spark Calif. strikes (tags)
VAN NUYS, Calif. – Daniel Lucra, 19, just wants to keep his health care in case he gets sick or hurt on his job behind the deli counter at Albertson’s, where slippery floors and sharp blades can cause injuries.
DONT SHOP AT RALPHS, VONS, OR ALBERTSONS UNTIL THE STRIKE IS OVER! (tags)
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Whole Food's Vote to Unionize Upsets Libertarian Founder (tags)
Whole Foods union problems erupted in 1990, when they took over a failed co-op in Berkeley, CA. Founder John Mackey believed that union demands sunk the co-op, so he refused to hire its employees -- an unpopular move in leftist Berkeley.
Wal-Mart – the nation’s worst workplace bully (tags)
With $7 billion in profits squeezed from the labor of one million workers at 3,250 stores across the country last year, Wal-Mart deserves its reputation as the nation’s worst “workplace bully.”
This Saturday! A Taste of Justice Conference (tags)
Come to the "A Taste of Justice" Conference this Saturday, Nov. 3rd. Diet related diseases such as diabetes and obesity are reaching epidemic proportions in low-income communities in Los Angeles. Come work together with other Los Angeles residents to solve this and other problems.