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Keith Brower Brown is Labor Notes’ labor-climate organizer and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Overall union density in the US ticked up slightly last year to 10%. This figure doesn’t account for Donald Trump’s executive order last March that commanded agencies to ignore contracts and bargaining rights for nearly a million federal workers.
The Trump administration is attacking jobs and wages in the building trades, as well as the rights of immigrant workers. Building trades unions have been divided over whether to try to curry favor with the president or confront the attacks head-on.
Rank-and-file autoworkers democratized their union, elected president Shawn Fain, and won a landmark strike. Now they will have to win local officer positions, dominated by the old guard, to hold bosses to their word and maintain a fighting union.
Amid soaring temperatures across the US, workers at risk of heat stroke and death on the job are demanding better protections. In some cases, the threat of overheating has fueled unionization efforts and innovative demands like heat pay.
At San Francisco State University, students built a democratic pro-Palestine protest movement — convincing the university president to engage in open bargaining and to work on a proposal for divestment with the protesters.
Unlike in most of the US, solar plants in California have largely been built by union construction workers. Many of those workers toiled on the underside of a two-tier system — until bottom-up pressure led the Ironworkers to a successful push to abolish tiers.
Last month the UAW reached historic agreements with the Big Three automakers after several weeks on strike. Now workers on the shop floor are weighing in on these deals as they go up for ratification votes.
The UAW strike isn’t over, but workers have already won major victories on everything from plant closures to electric vehicles. Going forward, the UAW will be in a position to launch an organizing offense at Big 3 battery plants and nonunion companies alike.
Yesterday afternoon, UAW president Shawn Fain announced a surprise strike at one of the Big Three’s most lucrative plants, mobilizing workers who, despite coping with economic hardship, have been eagerly waiting in the wings to join the picket lines.
As more UAW members at the Big Three take to the picket lines, workers still on the shop floor are finding different ways to do their part to support the strike and stand up to management.
With the UAW using a “targeted strike” against the Big Three, only a minority of workers are on strike so far. But many others are wreaking havoc on the companies by refusing overtime — forcing management to shut down some plants for this entire past weekend.
Jubilant pickets. Rattled managers. Here’s what the first day of the historic United Auto Workers strike looked like on the ground with rank-and-file autoworkers.
On September 14, the United Auto Workers’ contract with the Big Three automakers will expire. When it does, members may very well go on strike to win their ambitious demands, including abolishing tiers and establishing the right to strike over plant closures.
The United Auto Workers are starting to negotiate their next contract with the Big Three automakers. As bargaining begins, workers at the companies say management is pushing unsafe work paces, more and longer shifts, and divisions between workers.
Unionized workers at Brazil’s largest company, the oil and biofuels giant Petrobras, are organizing to resist privatization and lead a clean energy transition on their terms.
The United Auto Workers has long been hobbled by two-tier contracts, corruption, and a lack of internal democracy. At its recent convention, rank-and-file reformers did their best to fight on all of those issues — but the old guard is still firmly in charge.
Joe Biden’s climate plans bit the dust, just like Barack Obama’s. But workers are showing us how to organize for climate action where it counts.
Polls show that many older Americans don’t support Bernie Sanders. But we don’t want to write those boomers off — we want to warmly invite them to join our movement that’s fighting for dignified lives for us, for them, and for their children and grandchildren.
With Bolsonaro in office, Brazil’s left needs more than ever to build mass resistance to the Right. We spoke to two socialist congresswomen about how they’re using their positions in the state to rebuild the country’s socialist movement.
If we want a Green New Deal that can take on climate change, we need to challenge powerful business interests.