On 12 September, 33,000 union machinists for Boeing – members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) voted to go on strike. The workers rejected a contract that would have increased their pay by 25% and are aiming to secure a deal that would raise their wages by 40% and restore the …
Tag Archives: labor
GM’s $10 Billion Stock Buyback Plan
In the US, stock buybacks – where a corporation purchases its own stock to inflate prices – were illegal throughout much of the 20th century. This practice was banned in the US because it was considered an underhanded way to manipulate the stock market. Enter the 1980s. Amidst a wave of privatization and elimination of …
The Kaiser Permanente Strike
On 4 October, 75,000 healthcare workers walked off the job. The workers were striking against their employer, Kaiser Permanente, a company which is a mix of for-profit and non-profit healthcare entities. The strike was initiated over inadequate wages for healthcare workers that were not keeping pace with inflation and chronic staff shortages that resulted in …
United Auto Workers Strike
The United Auto Workers (UAW) is a union that represents hundreds of thousands of workers in the automotive industry. On 14 September, UAW leadership called a strike when the deadline to make a deal with industry leadership passed. 13,000 auto workers have now walked out on the job from companies General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis. …
Recent Trends in the Reshoring of US Jobs
With Labor Day being tomorrow, it’s a perfect time to talk about this subject. Across the US, too many cities have seen the same pattern. At one time, a large manufacturing employer provided steady income that allowed individuals working there to obtain a comfortable middle-class lifestyle. Such jobs often came with pensions and other benefits. …
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Starbucks Suddenly Finds Money for Raises, Just Not for Union Workers
In December of 2021, a Starbucks in New York became the first of the 8,000 locations in the US to for a union. Since this time, more than 50 additional stores all across the country have voted to unionize. In fact, of the 60 union votes that have occurred at American Starbucks locations, 54 ended …
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Alice Hamilton: Your New Toxicologist Hero
Although workers have been exposed to harmful toxins as part of their work since early on in civilization, the field of industrial toxicology is a relatively new one. It wasn’t until late in the 18th century when scientists began to document the deleterious effects of chemicals on the individuals who worked with them, and measure …
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A Huge Victory for Workers: A Few Words on the Amazon Labor Union
Amazon workers at a warehouse in Staten Island, New York (known as JFK8) have voted by a majority to create the Amazon Labor Union (ALU). The ALU is the first labor union to be organized by Amazon employees, and prevailed despite the company’s long history of union-busting and anti-union propaganda served to its workers. The …
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A Good Needle in a Burning Haystack of Terribleness: GM and Intel to Invest in New Mid-Western American Plants
Over the past few decades, the American working class has been decimated. Companies have increasingly shipped jobs overseas, a process unquestionably aided by NAFTA. Automation has taken away still further jobs that would have previously furnished a comfortable middle-class lifestyle. Many parts of the Midwest US were devastated by the neoliberal policies that began in …
The Miracle of Solidarity: Victory of the Striking Kellogg’s Workers
Towards the middle of 2021, a wave of strikes rolled over the United States. After workers were shown that they are not in fact fully expendable at the same time as they were subject to brutal work schedules, they were emboldened to walk off of the job to fight for better conditions. Although union membership …
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