Rolling Labor Action Thread

yup. the wobblies are still out there.

Activision action

https://www.polygon.com/22786117/activision-blizzard-walk-out-bobby-kotick-resignation-demands

https://lbo-news.com/2021/11/12/striketober-wasnt/

As marvelous as it would be to see a revival of labor militancy, people got a little ahead of things calling last month “Striketober.” According to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) stats, it was a blip by historical standards.

Here’s a graph of the number of workers involved in strikes or lockouts (the BLS counts them together) since 2000. There were 57 months with higher numbers of workers off the job. At the high point of this graph, May 2018, there were over fourteen times as many workers on strike as there were last month.

https://doughenwood.files.wordpress.com/2021/11/stoppages-monthly.png?w=1280

Here’s another measurement—what the BLS, in nice Victorian fashion, calls “days of idleness” as a percent of total days worked throughout the economy. It was 0.01% in October, a level that’s been matched in 39 other months since January 2000. And as the bottom graph shows, back in the old days when strikes were frequent, lost workdays were many times 0.01%. Before 1980, the low was 0.07%, set in 1957. From 1948 to 1979, it averaged 0.16%. In 1959, just two years after the pre-neoliberal era low, it was 0.43%, the series high.

there's always hope for strikevember

https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/kaiser-nurses-to-hold-sympathy-strike-in-solidarity-with-engineers/

BREAKING: The 10,000 striking John Deere workers voted to approve a third contract offer 61%-39%, ending the 5-week strike & solidifying major concessions from the company.

The big wins include:
- $8500 bonus
- Immediate 10% raise
- Another 10% raise by 2025
- Improved pension

— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) November 18, 2021

nice

I think the disproportionate attention is because — at least for the moment — there's a lot of focus on workers, or lack of workers. But it's a good opportunity to get people thinking about it. And publicity for something like the John Deere deal is worth a lot in making people think organizing could work for them.

yeah if it sticks, more media focus on strikes is a welcome trend

i saw some people who cover labor complaining about erasure in this piece, but the fact that it's getting written about as a media trend is a sign something is different (for now) https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/07/business/media/labor-unions-media-coverage.html.

my guess is labor power is about to begin a secular increase for the next few decades, not just for political reasons but because the US is trending towards labor scarcity. the trump/stephen miller reductions in legal immigration (which reduced refugee/asylum-seeker inflows by 100% and green cards by 50%) is now consensus policy, and birth-rates are below replacement. the working-age population started to shrink around 2018-19 and will probably accelerate

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.png?g=J3eH

we named the cc https://t.co/3bcwZPZjmN

— Michael Rose (@dcmichaelrose) December 13, 2021

sorry, posted reply instead of tweet

Wow. An NLRB employee has been charged with bribery and fraud. Charging doc alleges she was selling non-public info on potential union elections and ULP's to an outside labor consultant who would then sell the info to law firms https://t.co/6ybLIeD3Q8 pic.twitter.com/hh7k8Nxkp1

— Dave Jamieson (@jamieson) December 13, 2021

look at the world's tiniest legal notice on the bottom

That last bullet point is fucking despicable.#SupportWorkers #FredMeyerStrike pic.twitter.com/ydAG1aJCOC

— Shawn Levy (@shawnlevy) December 17, 2021

oh, you have to click the photo to see it taped on there

I saw someone say that line was a legal requirement in the state where that store is located.

re: crossing a picket line

it is, it lists the state statute making them say it
xp oh i'm referring to the thing taped under there, yeah

The UFCW is the only union* I've belonged to, at a Kroger. Never saw a union rep or heard from them again after the first sign-up meeting, somewhat disappointing as a 16-year old who had just read A People's History for the first time.

*excluding the IWW for ten years which was basically like a yearly PBS donation

about the only good news i see in my feed these days is labor action stuff

https://scontent-den4-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/268148823_251494930420109_4847124755181834689_n.jpg?_nc_cat=1&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=QyC3uHr4pn0AX9h9yfu&_nc_ht=scontent-den4-1.xx&oh=00_AT_ZIt9Qz3-s-9jeis_ybVN2CwoVqAimeFjucTdY1RVHZA&oe=61C6FD7E

no deal until they bring back Product 19

number of american workers covered by a union fell in 2021, percent of workers covered also fell relative to 2020 but flat compared to 2019, according to BLS

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm

good write-up https://www.epi.org/publication/latest-data-release-on-unionization-is-a-wake-up-call-to-lawmakers/

thanks for that flopson

You can follow the ongoing Starbucks actions at this Twitter account: https://twitter.com/SBWorkersUnited

Not only did REI make a union busting website, they already have a union busting podcast episode that starts with a fucking land acknowledgement!!

Liberalism is a disease, folks! https://t.co/5sp9T2O8pL pic.twitter.com/1ProLoaZQN

— Honda Wang 王宏达 (@HondaWang) February 7, 2022

How can this be, I was assured all corporations are now woke.

"chief diversity and social impact officer"

I'm a little unclear where Honda Wang's sympathies lie

Memphis Starbucks has fired 7 of its employees involved in unionization

https://news.yahoo.com/starbucks-fires-union-leaders-memphis-204249934.html

minneapolis federation of teachers on strike now, here's a recap of the last week:

https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/minneapolis-teacher-strike-week-one-update/89-95a9dd41-2bbe-4724-9ef5-2be2b0738dc5

really good deep dive into the people behind the vote

https://www.thecity.nyc/staten-island/2022/3/24/22995196/amazon-workers-staten-island-union-vote

Current Vote Totals:
2050 Yes
1574 No

476 votes in ALU’s favor after resuming the count today on the last box.

— Amazon Labor Union (@amazonlabor) April 1, 2022

Memphis Starbucks has fired 7 of its employees involved in unionization

Former CEO and also former vaporware presidential candidate Howard Schultz has returned as CEO in order to crush the unionising push and its going great

If @SBWorkersUnited can win new benefits with just 9 unionized stores, imagine the gains Starbucks workers can win with hundreds of unionized stores. https://t.co/VFQF9fRb2F

— Josh Miller-Lewis (@jmillerlewis) March 31, 2022

Starbucks' appeal of a decision ordering a union election, which was due last Friday, was mislabeled and filed with the wrong part of the labor board, Starbucks' law firm Littler said in a new NLRB filing today that ends "Thank you in advance for your...professional cooperation"

— Josh Eidelson (@josheidelson) March 30, 2022

^ this is the second SBU union the law firm has failed to stop in recent weeks due to misfiling an appeal. Labor and employment law specialists Littler Mendelsohn PLC… welcome to the resistance

From earlier this month, guess the union busting podcast didn’t work.

VICTORY: by a vote of 86%, workers have voted to unionize with @RWDSU, officially making REI SoHo the first unionized @REI store in the nation! We go further together! #REIunion pic.twitter.com/tywvPzZAf9

— REI Union SoHo (@reiunionsoho) March 3, 2022

lmaooooo

“We want to thank Jeff Bezos for going up to space, because while he was up there, we were organizing a union,” a jubilant Chris Smalls said in remarks outside the NLRB offices in Brooklyn: https://t.co/PxBsVBAgGL

— Richard Kim (@RichardKimNYC) April 1, 2022

The latest unionized Starbucks is here in Knoxville, first one in the South. It was an 8-7 vote and there was a 16th ballot that Starbucks is challenging (because it was cast by an assistant manager who they say shouldn't have been able to vote), but the fact that they're the ones challenging it means they know it was a vote in favor. So I think either they lose 9-7 or 8-7, but it's going through either way.

this shit is my "inspirational fb meme" - just makes me feel immediately better xp

The first hometown one to unionize was last week - I got off the train three stops (40 min walk) early to stick my face inside a a Starbucks door for the third time ever and call out congrats to the workers

that's awesome. pretty sure it's never going to happen here (utah) for so many reasons, one of which is that conservatism runs so deep in the blood that almost all workers hate their own interests. i mean if it ever does happen i'd be shocked and elated.

Howard Schultz' new pitch for why workers shouldn't unionize: by the end of the year, Starbucks will be the most successful NFT platform in the world.

Why drink coffee when you can have a JPG of an ape drinking coffee?

Not sure if this is the right thread or not, but I've really been looking forward to K1m K3lly's book since it was announced. I was mostly offline for the long weekend and just now catching up on the brouhaha whipped up by the excerpt in the WaPost this weekend. Disappointing to see, even if it sounds like the book itself provides the proper citation. It also seems like the book's "Untold" subtitle is still stirring up a little bit of controversary today.

I like her writing a lot and I've really gotten a lot of our her labor reporting, this is a bummer all around.

There are currently 69 Unionized Starbucks in America! pic.twitter.com/sxOa69LDVm

— Every Union Starbucks (@everyunionsbux) May 15, 2022

Replies check out

Breaking: Dodger Stadium Workers Vote 99% to Authorize Strike Ahead of MLB All-Star Game pic.twitter.com/nQ70evlQj4

— UNITE HERE Local 11 (@UNITEHERE11) July 11, 2022

yessssss

fuck em up

They walking out at Amazon in Atlanta 😭 y’all not getting them prime day packages pic.twitter.com/rECUcRB1Lg

— Maybe: Papi Women Neglecter vol 5 (@JuicegawdinPriv) July 13, 2022

Oh this is the thread for union stuff is it? I've been on strike since last week, strike ends on Friday. Been on the picket five or six times. Our CEO just resigned (or was persuaded to resign) halfway through the strike so it looks like it's chaos in the organization!

solidarity, comrade <3

Awesome, good work!

Take it easy, Tom, but take it!

Solidarity with you, Tom.

sky-high meat prices on the way

About 3,800 workers at JBS USA, the world’s largest meat producer, are set to strike on Monday in what will be the first labor strike in the industry in decades.

The walkout threatens to put further strain on US meat prices – ground beef prices soared 15% last year – and could prove a headache for the Trump administration as it struggles with poor polling on cost of living issues.

Pilgrim’s Pride, a subsidiary of the JBS Brazilian meat processing conglomerate, donated $5m to the Trump-Vance inaugural committee, making it the largest single donor.

warehouse fires seem to be trending

do data centers next

organizing my co-workers to join the union so we can get recognized and start collective bargaining. am I a hero? well, if you say so.

yes, you are.

Yup

Stealing this from someone else, not my joke, but I look forward to a Hot Warehouse Summer.

ha i was being egotistical (I am trying to organize my unit but my wife who works for the same org has signed up more people than I have because she has better people skills), but thanks!

xp lol