Alex N. Press is a staff writer at Jacobin who covers labor organizing.
A record number of American workers quit their jobs in November, another sign that worker leverage in the labor market is stronger than it has been in years. But without organizing, today’s gains for workers will vanish as soon as the labor market slackens.
Following on the heels of the union drive at Starbucks, a growing number of campaigns have appeared to organize coffee shops. In Pittsburgh, baristas at Coffee Tree Roasters, a local company with five stores, are unionizing with the UFCW.
Amazon’s HR department is a hellscape where automated systems arbitrarily cut off benefits and fire workers, leaving an alarming number penniless and literally suicidal. And the company simply doesn’t seem to care.
Animation writers — responsible for some of the world’s most recognizable cartoons at studios like Nickelodeon — are subject to staggering disparities between themselves and live-action writers.
The 3,000-member Student Workers of Columbia work stoppage is currently the largest strike in the US. With unfair labor practice charges unresolved and tensions rising, Columbia University is now threatening to replace strikers with scabs.
A new report finds that Amazon warehouses in Minnesota have more than double the injury rate of non-Amazon warehouses, with a sky-high turnover rate and black workers making far less than their white counterparts.
The shipping industry is making record money as supply chain snarls and consumer demand drive up opportunities for profit. It’s the perfect moment for the 15,000 dockworkers who keep the goods flowing to negotiate their new contract.
Ironworkers at Erie Strayer have been on strike for ten weeks. They’re fighting for a 3 percent raise, dental, and an end to the company’s draconian attendance policy. Erie offered them a nickel an hour more.
On Black Friday, workers around the world are targeting Amazon under the banner of Make Amazon Pay. The actions span the supply chain and traverse borders — just like Amazon itself.
From the hypercommercialization of Kindle Singles to the fraught question of classifying book genres, Amazon has put its stamp on the literary field in ways large and small — but always in the interests of profit, says Mark McGurl, author of Everything and Less: The Novel in the Age of Amazon.
“Microworkers” are the anonymous digital contract workers whose labor powers the tech giants’ artificial intelligence systems. They’re hyper-exploited — and, like all other workers under capitalism, will continue suffering until they can organize.
Some of the lowest-paid workers at UPMC, Pennsylvania’s largest private-sector employer, are on a one-day strike. Their demands — a living wage, safe staffing — are shocking only in how incredibly reasonable they are.
The film and TV workers’ union IATSE ratified a pair of contracts on Monday, despite a majority of ballots being cast against the larger of the two deals. Thanks to the union’s Electoral College–style voting system, that contract passed anyway.
At Kaiser Permanente, some 32,000 workers are preparing to go on strike. In addition to proposing measly raises, the health care giant is resisting workers’ desire to have more say in addressing chronic understaffing.
After the deadly tragedy at Astroworld, rapper Travis Scott has announced a partnership with therapy app BetterHelp, sometimes called the Uber of the mental health space. Its business model: ruthless exploitation of both therapists and patients.
When the labor movement collapsed, labor journalism collapsed with it. Today labor journalism is making a curious comeback. But without a truly revived labor movement, the labor beat will remain marginal to big media.
Workers at Kellogg’s cereal plants across the United States are still on strike. As the company drags out the bargaining process, workers, now without health insurance, are demanding a contract without concessions.
As negotiations continue between Kaiser Permanente and the Alliance of Health Care Unions, which represents 50,000 workers at the company, Kaiser’s workforce is preparing to strike. Tens of thousands have authorized a stoppage, should bargaining stall.
Many workers in the United States are forced to stand up while performing duties they could fulfill while seated. It’s pointless and mean-spirited — they deserve the right to sit down.
Halyna Hutchins’s death during the filming of Rust is a tragic consequence of studios prioritizing profit and speed over crew members’ lives. Alec Baldwin’s culpability isn’t about him pulling the trigger on a prop gun — it’s about his and his fellow producers’ cost-cutting decisions.