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Local and National News
Amid gains, railroaders seeking quality-of-life improvements
Jan. 30, 2023 | Even though track maintenance workers in the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division union aren’t on call the way train crews are, they are increasingly being sent on the road for days at a time to tackle construction projects and repairs, prompting many to reconsider whether the job is worth the sacrifice, Teamster BMWED union spokesman Clark Ballew said. “To date, we haven’t seen genuine concern from management about these quality-of-life decisions that our members increasingly wrestle with.” Associated PressEnergizer plans to outsource Teamster jobs
Jan. 20, 2023 | The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is fighting plans by billion-dollar company Energizer to outsource more than 600 good-paying jobs after the company announced intentions to close its battery plants in Fennimore and Portage, Wisconsin. Last year, Energizer gave $93 million to shareholders through quarterly dividends and posted a gross profit of $1.1 billion. Learn more at Teamsters.Tonight at 7 pm: Senator Sanders on the State of the Working Class
Jan. 17, 2023 | “Before we can effectively go forward in terms of economic policy, it’s necessary to know where we are at. On Tuesday, I will give a speech at the U.S. Capitol on the state of America’s working class and how we address the existing crises.” – Bernie Sanders, U.S. Senator from Vermont. Watch his national address live from the U.S. Capitol at www.facebook.com/senatorsanders.
Elsewhere in the News
Unions Can Help Beyond Their Membership. César Chávez Proved it.
Jan. 30, 2023 | LABOR HISTORY | [...] Chávez and the United Farm Workers union he led recognized in the 1960s what was happening — long before most other Americans did. They started blowing the whistle on how the chemical industry and agribusiness manipulated the idea of scientific uncertainty to continue selling pesticides they knew were dangerous. The UFW’s crusade against toxins like DDT — its 1972 ban was a milestone in U.S. agriculture that marked the beginning of a decade of bans — revealed how activists could triumph over big business and make American life safer. Washington Post
Week Ending 1/27/2023
• Kroger Union files class action suit alleging wage theft
• Amazon union fight continues despite workers’ win
• New study shows 4-day workweek has positive impact
• Gaming: a huge industry workers are trying to unionize
• Strong unions are a force for economic and racial justice
• Employer wants Supreme Court to set aside 60 years of settled law
• NLRB judge rules against Pittsburgh paper, orders it back to the table
• Why union members are first line of defense to protect Social Security
• Fast-food companies spending millions to block raises for their workers
• No to paid sick leave, Union Pacific spent more on stock buybacks than workers
• Gov. Moore proposes tax cuts, free health care for Maryland’s retired veterans
Maryland Allies Amplify Struggle of Starbucks Workers at ‘Sip-In’
Jan. 26, 2023 | WORKERS' RIGHTS | Among the 20 or so people who attended the Starbucks “Sip-In for a Contract” in Belair on January 20, 2023, was Ed Crizer. He’s a just-elected Baltimore County Democratic Central Committee member in District 6, the old shipbuilding neighborhood of Baltimore City/County. He says that Baltimore County used to be a union-dense area; even bartenders were unionized and thus had a steady income. Now that the service industry is dominant, too many people believe that younger people are doing these jobs and don’t need the benefits. “But if these jobs are just for students, why isn’t McDonald's closed during school hours?” … The Bel Air Starbucks voted to unionize months ago, and yet there has not been a sit-down meeting with management... When asked what allies can do to support the union between sip-ins, the answer from the workers was clear: “Show up (to Starbucks locations), tip, and say, ‘Union Strong.’” Peoples World
America’s Trucking Industry Is At A Crossroads
Jan. 26, 2023 | FREIGHT INDUSTRY | Life for truck drivers in the United States is changing. From government mandates to the approach of greater automation to drastically lower wages, making a living behind the wheel of a big rig is becoming tougher every year. By some estimates, around 90% of those who take up the profession leave within the first year. And now, there’s a serious shortage of qualified drivers. Andrew Kay got to know what drivers face today by meeting them at truck stops and on the road for a piece in Wired. He spoke with the Standard about what he learned about the struggles that modern truckers face. Texas Standard
If America Had Fair Labor Laws, 60 Million Workers Would Join A Union Tomorrow
Jan. 25, 2023 | LABOR LAW | According to the latest data, the ranks of unionized workers grew by 200,000 between 2021 and 2022. If the United States’ unionization rules in place weren’t so biased toward bosses, tens of millions more workers indicate they would have joined a union, too… The decades-long decline of unionized labor, as the Economic Policy Institute’s analysis concludes, has not occurred because workers don’t want to join unions but rather because the design of current labor law is prohibitive to forming them even when the appetite for doing so is strong. Through determination, grit, and courage, and with the winds of unusually strong job growth at their backs, hundreds of thousands of workers across America successfully joined unions last year. With more democratic labor laws in place, tens of millions more would eagerly have done the same. Jacobin
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