Aug 19 2006
ARCHIVE OF COVERAGE: Unions & the Labor Movement

This page is a partial archive of labor- and union-related news coverage from US-based IMCs. It is not a complete archive of such coverage. If you know of a story that is missing, please contact the editorial collective at imc-us-editorial((at))lists.indymedia.org.

Labor & Workers' Organizations: AFL-CIO | Change to Win Federation | Industrial Workers of the World | Interfaith Worker Justice | Jobs With Justice | National Day Laborer Organizing Network

Labor & Workers' Media: CommunicateOrDie.com Labor Notes | New Beginnings Journal | Workers Independent News | Labor Notes | Brain Labor Report

Photo by Michael Gould-Wartofsky -- Oct 23, 2007: Images from NYC Taxi Workers' Strike, Take Two
[an error occurred while processing this directive]

local and national features

NYC
Mar 06 2010
UPDATE: Students, Workers, Supporters March on the MTA (Images + Video)

Yesterday, as college students were walking out, teaching in and rallying at universities citywide and nationwide, thousands of local high school students were streaming out of school gates and into the streets of New York. It was by far the largest protest to hit the State or the MTA since the Authority's decision to eliminate the free Student MetroCard last December. Joined by teachers, parents, transit workers, CUNY students and others, the students rallied at the office of embattled Governor Paterson and marched to the MTA hearings. Rush-hour traffic was blocked from Third Avenue to Seventh Avenue.

Mar 04 2010
Students, Education Workers Nationwide Rise Up to Defend Public Education on March 4

Nationwide demonstrations took place on Thursday, as students and education workers rose up against budget cuts, layoffs, fee hikes, and the system that prioritizes war and prisons over schools. Demonstrations took place at over 100 campuses in at least 39 states. The most militant actions took place in California. In Oakland, over 200 people shut down Interstate 880, resulting in a mass arrest. In Davis, protesters also tried to take over an Interstate. Thousands rallied in Sacramento, and in Santa Cruz, the UCSC campus was effectively shut down by 5am.

Sizable demonstrations also happened in Chicago, Minneapolis, New York City, Portland, Syracuse, Champaign, Baltimore and in Milwaukee, where 18 protesters were arrested.

See local IMCs for open-published coverage of all the March 4 actions: Southern California Actions: LA Indymedia (Crowdsourced Live Reports) | Northern California Actions: Indybay | Urbana-Champaign | Twin Cities | New York City (Pregame, Reportback) | Portland | Rochester | Santa Cruz

Mar 03 2010
Rally & March Against Attack On Workers And Public Transit

On March 1st, hundreds of MUNI workers from TWU Local 250-A, riders, and community organizations rallied and marched in downtown San Francisco to oppose the MTA proposed budget cuts and threatened layoffs. The march began at Powell and Market and went to MTA offices. The march then went to City Hall for a forum led by union organizer Eric Williams who called for unity between MUNI workers and riders.

Mar 02 2010
Banner dropped at Umass Boston

On the first school morning of March, activists representing the UMass Boston Committee to Have Fun dropped a banner from the Wheatley building reading “No Paycuts or Tuition Hikes. March 4th!” as a sign of things to come this week as schools across the country prepare for the March 4th day of action to defend public education.

Mar 01 2010
Come to PSU on the 4th to defend public education!

Hundreds Gather at the Education is a Right Rally!

In the defense of Education on March 4th A National Day of Action

WHO: Students, community leaders, and activists will rally to defend education in coalition with thousands from across the country on March 4th, A National Day of Action on behalf of Higher Education. Our local coalition is composed of the Associated Students of Portland State University (ASPSU), Students for Unity (SFU), International Socialist Organization (ISO), Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights (SUPER), Pan American Solidarity Organization (PASO), Radical Women, Faculty members, and volunteers through Jobs with Justice.

WHAT: In commemoration of the protests in California last year on UC campuses across the state, students return to continue to protest lack of an accessible, affordable education. Hundreds will gather to take a stand that education is a right!

WHERE: Portland State Park Blocks on the Center Stage

WHEN: Rally and speakers at 1P.M. Followed by a march and bands until 3 P.M, March 4th 2010

Mar 01 2010
Hundreds Caravan to Desert Mining Town To Support Locked Out Miners

BORON, CA - February 24th - A caravan of four big rig trucks and around 150 cars carried over 200 people and $30,000 in food to support lock out miners in the town of Boron last week. The miners have been lock out since January 31st by the Rio Tinto Corporation, a giant foreign-owned mining firm that operates one of the world’s largest borax mines near the town of Boron in California’s Mojave Desert.

Miners were lockout and scabs bused in from out of state after new contact negotiations with Rio Tinto broke down. The situation, although barely mentioned in local corporate media, has drawn international attention in what many see as a clear case of illegal union busting. At stake is the livelihood of nearly 600 families. Reports from the newswire: Caravan to Rio Tinto to support miners locked out | | UFCW Delivers Food to Locked Out Miners in Desert

Mar 01 2010
SEIU Janitors Issue Statement on Weekend Contract Victory

Twin Cities’ Janitors Win Full-Time Green Jobs, Better Health Insurance in New Contract

In a major victory for good jobs in the new green economy, Twin Cities’ janitors won support for the use of environmentally friendly cleaning products and transitions to day shift cleaning in a new tentative contract agreement reached in the early hours of Sunday morning after about 26 hours straight of bargaining.

Feb 27 2010
Students and Education Workers Gear Up for March 4th

In anticipation for the statewide strike and day of action on March 4th activists have stepped up their actions with a renewed round of occupations in California. An occupation of a construction site at UC Berkeley resulted in a "mass riot" on Telegraph Avenue with hundreds of youth fighting the police. March 4th actions are planned throughout the Bay Area, California and beyond. In the East Bay strikes and walkouts are planned to converge in Downtown Oakland and an evening rally is planned for San Francisco.

Related: UCSC Banner Drop to Mobilize for March 4th | Banner dropped at Umass Boston | March 4 Crowdsourced News

Feb 26 2010
Justice for One Janitor, Continuing Struggle for Local 26 Preparing to Strike

SEIU Local 26’s Justice for Janitors campaign announced today that US Bank executives will meet and negotiate with Rosalina Gomez, the union janitor who cleans the office of US Bank CEO Richard Davis.

Gomez had planned to deliver a letter to Davis today, asking him for help to save her home — a home foreclosed on by U.S. Bank. Without this intervention Gomez and her family would be out on the street March 11. “I work hard every day to keep Richard Davis’ office clean, but my family and I need help to save our home,” Rosalina said. I am glad a representative of U.S. Bank has decided to meet with me because everyone in our community needs good jobs to keep our homes, and it is the right thing for them to do.” 

Feb 25 2010
UCSC Banner Drop to Mobilize for March 4th

On January 25, a banner was placed on the Humanities 2 building at UC Santa Cruz displaying support for the upcoming March 4th strike. The banner reads "Strike March 4. Stop Privatization!" and criticizes the trend the UC has taken of prioritizing building construction over student instruction. The action also serves to mobilize protestors for March 4th, the statewide day of action against the privatization of public education.

NYC
Feb 25 2010
Building Bridges Radio: Restaurant Workers ROC the Nation

Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report
National Edition
Produced by Ken Nash and Mimi Rosenberg
**************************************

Feb 23 2010
Janitors Protest Wells Fargo, Deluge Bankers with Monopoly Money and Toy Houses

SEIU Local 26 janitors converged on Downtown Minneapolis today with a pair of coordinated actions designed to disrupt the business community, particularly megabank and cleaning client Wells Fargo. While about 40 members of the bargaining unit ran a decoy action, marching and chanting in the Skyways from US Bank Corps Plaza, the main unit descended on the Wells Fargo downtown branch.

DC
Feb 22 2010
DON'T GET MAD, GET EVEN: Mexican Foxconn Workers Retaliate for Unpaid Overtime, Burn Down Factory

SOUTH OF THE BORDER, SHOWING WUSSY AMERICAN WORKERS HOW IT'S DONE There's a lot of hostility swirling around Foxconn these days. First, Foxconn security assaulted a photograph-snapping reporter in China. Now there's a report that workers at a Mexican Foxconn factory burned the joint down after being forced to work overtime.

Feb 17 2010
SEIU Local 26 Janitors Demand Justice from MN Bankers

Fed up Local 26 janitors and allies disrupted a meeting of the state’s top bankers on Tuesday as they met at St. Paul City Center before lobbying legislators at the State Capitol later in the day. Protestors tried to enter the bankers’ meeting to demand bank executives do the right thing, help people keep their homes, and support good-paying green jobs.

“We are here to make ourselves heard and stand up for what all working families in Minnesota should have: eight-hour full-time jobs with good health insurance,” said Everett Spicer, a janitor at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. “Big banks like US Bancorp and Wells Fargo have a responsibility to rebuild the economy they wrecked by supporting good jobs in our community.”

Feb 16 2010
Janitors Crash Banker Meeting, Slam Billions in Exec Bonuses

At 10 am today, about one hundred janitors and supporters of SEIU Local 26 crashed the National Bankers Association meeting at the Saint Paul City Center. They executed a carefully planned action designed to barge into the bankers’ conference and demand fair treatment of Local 26 workers. Union members quickly surged from their bus parked outside into the atrium of the Hilton, past the conference check in desk and into the ballroom where speakers were addressing hundreds of Minnesota bankers. Security stopped the vast majority of the protesters, but a few made their way into the bankers’ gathering.

The union’s message was conveyed with chanting, air horn blasts and massive signs that exposed the multimillion dollar salaries of top Minnesota bank executives like Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf, who made over $18 million this year. Full-time janitors make as little as $20,200 a year, before taxes, and many face thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket medical costs due to poor coverage, or avoid doctor visits out of fear of incurring big bills.