Jonah Furman is a staff writer and organizer for Labor Notes.
Despite high-profile organizing drives at Starbucks and elsewhere, the latest numbers show that union membership is still shrinking as a percentage of the workforce. Unions will have to massively scale up new organizing to counter the brute might of capital.
In the wake of the rail showdown, locomotive engineers have voted to boot their union president. It’s a stunning upset — and one that shows rank-and-file railworkers are still simmering at the contract that was forced on them.
We spoke with a train engineer about President Biden undemocratically forcing a union contract on rail workers, the failures of rail unions’ leadership during negotiations, and why he thinks progressives in Congress should be “commended” for their role in pushing for seven paid sick days.
After a tentative agreement between railroad companies and unions was reached earlier this year, political leaders acted like the deal was settled. But thousands of rail workers just voted it down — which could put a national railroad strike back on the table.
A rail system shutdown was averted by an eleventh-hour tentative agreement between rail companies and union negotiators. But union members may reject the deal — the details of which are still forthcoming — making future strikes a distinct possibility.
Two Trader Joe’s stores have now unionized, raising the question of whether the chain could be the next Starbucks. But the company may at least be following in Starbucks’s footsteps in one way — by engaging in illegal union busting.
Chipotle workers in Lansing, Michigan, have organized the first-ever union at the company. Could Chipotle be the next Starbucks, with unionization efforts spreading like wildfire?
Let’s be real: the PRO Act isn’t going to pass anytime soon. Labor unions need to figure out how to organize under current conditions or perish.
The United Auto Workers is one of America’s most important unions. It has long been hobbled by an autocratic internal culture and widespread corruption. The members’ vote in favor of a direct voting system to elect leadership could change that.
In ongoing contract negotiations, health care giant Kaiser wants to impose a two-tier wage structure — meaning a giant pay cut for new hires. Union locals representing 35,000 Kaiser workers have voted to authorize a strike in response.
John Deere is in the midst of its most profitable year ever. Yet workers say the company is stiffing them at the bargaining table — which is why 90 percent of voting members rejected the most recent contract proposal and are poised to strike tomorrow.
Tonight’s election returns might seem dispiriting, but that’s exactly what the Right wants — for us to preemptively concede. Our demand should be simple: just count the damn votes.
Unions are absolutely essential for building working-class power. But they’re also often undemocratic. Building a strongly democratic labor movement is a key task for the Left and the labor movement as a whole.
The United Federation of Teachers, New York City’s teachers union, is a massive local that could wield enormous power through striking. But the union hasn’t struck in nearly half a century — even in the face of a deadly pandemic and unsafe schools reopening. Why does the UFT refuse to use its most powerful tactic?