Results 261 to 275 of 275
Time for a union at Nissan US plant
via industriall-union.org
In the face of anti-union management, workers at Nissan’s plant in Canton, Mississippi, have fought for more than ten years for the right to organize. This week, workers filed for a union election, with the assistance from United Autoworkers.
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Corrupt Teamster leader John Coli faces federal charges for extorting $100,000
via fightbacknews.org
Chicago, IL - John Coli, president of Joint Council 25 of the Teamsters Union, was indicted July 12 on federal charges that he extorted $100,000 in cash from a local business.
A big supporter of Teamster President James Hoffa Jr., John Coli was taking cash payoffs of $25,000 every three months in exchange for not calling work stoppages and other labor unrest. Apparently Coli, who made more than $330,000 per year from three official union positions, needed another outside source of income.
The Teamster Local 727 website posted that Coli plans to retire from the Secretary-Treasurer position at the end of the month. Coli’s son, John Jr. is the president of Local 727.
Coli was the head of Joint Council 25, representing more than 100,000 workers in and around Chicago. Despite this, Coli was defeated last year in an election for Teamsters international vice president for the Central Region.
Teamsters United, a reform slate, gained leadership posts in that regional election. Teamsters United campaigns on opposing corruption and winning strong contracts with raises for workers.
“John Coli abused the Teamsters for far too long. He is a parasite. Coli took multiple salaries and put his family on the Teamster payroll. Teamsters United opposes this corruption that sells out our members,” said David Bernt, a rank-and-file union member from Chicago and candidate for International Trustee.
Bernt offers, “In the short term nothing structurally will change. Coli’s son John Jr. is taking over his local. Coli’s closest personal ally Becky Strzechowski will take over the Joint Council. Other corrupt officials will be pushing and shoving for their positions.”
He continues, “However, the takedown of Coli hits Hoffa Jr. hard. Members hate corruption and the givebacks and sellouts at contract time. Backed by Teamsters for a Democratic Union, the reform movement is rising to take power from ineffective and corrupt officials who are killing the unions. We need leaders who are prepared to do battle for the upcoming UPS contract.”
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Help farmworkers in North Carolina defeat a bill that guts their rights!
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Protect Farmworker Rights!
Dear Chris,
Farmers elected to the North Carolina State Legislature are trying to make it harder for farmworkers, who are already discriminated against under U.S. labor law, to demand improved working conditions by organizing into a union.
On June 28, the North Carolina General Assembly passed Farm Bill S615 with no debate. Two legislators, who also own farms, pushed for an amendment that would make it illegal for farmers to deduct dues from union members and make it more difficult for farmworkers to win union contracts. The only way to stop this self-serving effort by state legislators to make it harder for farmworkers to organize for better conditions is for North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper to veto the bill!
U.S. farmworkers are excluded from the National Labor Relations Act and other worker protections like minimum wage, child labor, and workers compensation laws. Despite this, farmworkers have won union contracts that include wage increases, job security, and improved working conditions through the efforts of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), the only agricultural union operating in North Carolina. This bill aims to roll back this progress.
Please join ILRF, FLOC and the International Union of Foodworkers (IUF) in calling on Gov. Cooper to veto the bill. Your message will be sent by email to the Governor and delivered as part of a signed petition.
Hasta La Victoria,
Abby McGill
Campaigns Director
This email was sent by the International Labor Rights Forum.
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Update - It's now legal for North Carolina growers to violate farmworkers' human rights
North Carolina USA law makes it legal to violate farmworkers' human rights
Earlier this week we asked for messages urging the Governor of the US state of North Carolina to veto Farm Bill S615, a bill sponsored by farmers elected to the General Assembly. The bill was designed to stop farmworkers from joining the state’s only agricultural union, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) and winning improved working conditions through union agreements. Governor Cooper signed the bill into law on July 13.
The IUF-affiliated FLOC has vowed to challenge the law and will continue organizing to improving the working and living conditions of farmworkers in the state. The union has warmly thanked the IUF and all those who responded to our appeal for messages to the Governor urging him to veto the bill.
E-mail: [email protected]
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Sears managers to earn thousands in bonuses while laid-off workers get no severance
Sears Canada plans to dole out big bonuses to senior management while the retailer restructures, even as thousands of laid-off workers aren't being paid severance.
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Chicago Teachers Union files lawsuit to defend Sarah Chambers
via fightbacknews.org
CHICAGO, IL- The movement to ‘Let Sarah Chambers Teach’ has grown since her May termination from Maria Saucedo Academy. An online petition calling for her reinstatement has gathered nearly 4000 signatures; a support rally organized in April drew a crowd of over 100, and 28 aldermen have re-leased letters of support for the educator.
This public pressure from her students, supporters and fellow teachers has now crossed over into the legal arena. On July 7, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) filed a federal lawsuit against Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Board of Education for retaliating against Sarah’s First Amendment rights to speak out against policy decisions that harm special education.
Chambers has also filed a charge with the Illinois Department of Human Rights, according to her lawyer Josiah Groff, to investigate whether her sexual orientation played a role in the Board’s decision. Sarah is an openly LGBTQ educator and sponsor of Saucedo’s Gay/Straight Alliance.
In a press conference held the same day announcing the lawsuit, CTU President Karen Lewis said "She has never been disciplined for advocacy in the past. Now, all of sudden, she is the world's worst per-son.” Countering the allegations made by CPS when they terminated Chambers, CTU President Lewis noted that, “Sarah is a devoted teacher that knows the law."
Attack on students, union
Chambers has been active in the union since she began teaching at Saucedo nearly eight years ago. She is the chair of the CTU Special Education task force and a member of the House of Delegates. She is one of the most well-known and militant rank-and-file educators in the CTU.
While this is an attack on Chambers and her students, clearly it is also an attack on the CTU. Chambers has spoken out against Mayor Emanuel and the Board of Education for their unfair treatment of stu-dents with disabilities, as well as Black and Latino students in the Chicago Public School (CPS) system. She has complained about the injustices in the classroom at multiple school board meetings, in front of board administrators. She has also organized students and teachers to attend these meetings and ex-press their frustrations with the education system.
Being an outspoken union leader and unapologetic advocate for special education has made Chambers a target by CPS. The lawsuit alleges that Chambers has been targeted by Saucedo administrators since January because of her concerns about classroom sizes being in violation of Illinois law, and the admin-istration not meeting the requirements mandated in students’ Individualized Education Plans (IEPs).
Additionally, Chambers is a distinguished teacher. She was rated as ‘excellent,’ the highest available rating, by school administrators two school years in a row. She’s never faced criticism for her performance in the classroom.
“I love my students, I care deeply about my students and their education and their social and emo-tional well-being, " said Chambers during the July 7 press conference, "If Rahm Emanuel and CPS truly cared about our students with disabilities, they would immediately reinstate me, separate the co-mingled special education/general education funds, and fully fund special education."
Breaking News: As Fight Back! was preparing to publish this article, CPS conceded to the CTU demand to separate the co-mingled special education and general education funds. Watch Fight Back! for analysis of this development.
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UFCW success at Unilever US
via iuf.org
Members of UFCW Local 400 approved a first collective agreement on July 24 which brings significant gains for workers at Unilever's Lipton tea factory in Suffolk, Virginia. Member ratification of the agreement brings to fruition an organizing and bargaining effort which began last year.
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CTA, Take This Rodeo and Stuff It!
CTA, Take This Rodeo and Stuff It!
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CTA, Take This Rodeo and Stuff It!
The Chicago Transit Authority put on a publicity stunt called a “Rodeo" for its employees so it could showcase their job skills in competing nationally with other transit system workers. But Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308 (CTA rail employees) boycotted the August 26, 2017 event because they've been working for 20 months without a contract. Management wanted to set transit workers competing against each other in games for trinkets, while forcing upon them at their real jobs stressful, low-paid, and unsafe working conditions. Length - 11:28
Video url:
https://youtu.be/ZRinHUHfndM
+ YouTube Video
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For info: [email protected], www.laborbeat.org, 312-226-3330; Labor Beat, 37 S. Ashland Ave., Chicago, IL 60607. For other Labor Beat videos, visit YouTube and search "Labor Beat". Labor Beat is on as a cable-tv series in six U.S. cities: Chicago, Rockford, Urbana, IL; Philadelphia, PA; Princeton, NJ; Cambridge, MA. Chicago schedule: CAN TV 19, Thursdays 9:30 pm, Frdays 4:30 pm.
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Ckaihatsu, without having done much of a search myself, do you have any news on the ibew/ilwu antifascist participation?
"whatever they might make would never be the same as that world of dark streets and bright dreams"
http://youtu.be/g-PwIDYbDqI
The article I read about the topic is: http://libcom.org/news/san-francisco...rally-21082017
From the comments, apparently: "Today was a total shitshow non-event in San Francisco -- with tens of thousands turning out to protest against Patriot Prayer white nationalist sympathizers who didn't even bother to show up.
Apparently ILWU declared "victory" in the early a.m., then went to work on the docks. Berkeley tomorrow canceled, with a similar shitshow pig clampdown expected.
More soon . . . with more details how radical rank-and-filers from the building trades -- including Painters Union Local 4 and IBEW Local 6 -- and maritime workers from IBU-ILWU marched en masse as a working class bloc to the protest at the site of the canceled Patriot Prayer press conference at Alamo Square Park in the center of San Francisco."
Interesting stuff.
Modern democracy is nothing but the freedom to preach whatever is to the advantage of the bourgeoisie - Lenin
Korea Report from Veterans for Peace; Mechanics Strike
Korea Report from Veterans for Peace; Mechanics Strike - Next Labor Beat on CAN TV 19, starts 8/31
Two-segment show
Korea Report with Will Griffin, Veterans for Peace
Chicago - CAN TV Channel 19
Thursday, August 30, 9:30 pm
Friday, Sept. 1, 4:30 pm
Thursday, Sept. 7, 9:30 pm
Friday, Sept. 8, 4:30 pm
An interview with Will Griffin (Veterans For Peace), a member of the U.S. Peace Delegation to South Korea in July of 2017. What were the objectives of the delegation? Why the controversy about the THAAD missile? Is the U.S. strategy with North Korea to be continual aggression, instead of negotiating for peace? What is North Korea’s perspective and how does China fit in? Enhanced with visuals and scenes from the August VFP National Convention in Chicago. Can also be viewed at: https://youtu.be/He6am2cTHNg
+ YouTube Video
US Peace Delegation with Korean Confederation of Trade Unions in Gincheon. Photo: Will Griffin
2nd Segment
Mechanics Local 701 City Wide Strike
The Automobile Mechanics Local 701 strike against Chicago area car dealerships on day two of the action. Interviews with mechanics at Mid City Subaru, and BA/Organizer Tony Albergo. (At the time of this announcement the employers' New Car Dealer Committee is in retreat, as several dealerships are breaking ranks and separately reaching agreements with Local 701 mechanics.) Also can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/eYzXGp4NLyE
+ YouTube Video
Mechanics picket on second day of strike at Mid City Subaru. Photo: Labor Beat
Labor Beat is a CAN TV Community Partner. Labor Beat is a non-profit 501(c)(3) member of IBEW 1220. Views are those of the producer Labor Beat. For info: [email protected], www.laborbeat.org. 312-226-3330. Labor Beat, 37 S. Ashland Ave., Chicago, IL 60607. For other Labor Beat videos, visit YouTube and search "Labor Beat". On Chicago CAN TV Channel 19, Thursdays 9:30 pm; Fridays 4:30 pm. Labor Beat is a regular cable-tv series in Chicago, Rockford, Urbana, IL; Philadelphia, PA; Princeton, NJ; Cambridge, MA.
