Rolling Labor Action Thread

https://shows.acast.com/jacobin-radio/episodes/behind-the-news-cold-war-liberalism-ups-teamsters

Announcement via More Perfect Union:

BREAKING: Marvel VFX workers have just won a historic first union in the visual effects industry.

The workers who power the biggest superhero movies on the planet voted unanimously to unionize with vfxunion.

This is a major first step for the industry, and Disney is next.

YES!!!!!!

let's go

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/detroit-three-strike-deadline-nears-sides-remain-far-apart-2023-09-14/

Bring it

It’s already broughten

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/15/business/auto-workers-strike/index.html

✊

Hmmm

https://deadline.com/2023/09/authors-openai-lawsuit-john-grisham-george-rr-martin-1235551400/?fbclid=IwAR0M4ucuTIo2ajqI0TWxyjY_b2OOpN4IvenGukPPqluE64XtuimH32U2CB0

https://www.npr.org/2023/09/24/1200770450/writers-strike-ends

Tentative deal reached

👍🏽

Back to work

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/09/26/business/wga-back-to-work/index.html

Another good thing!

https://variety.com/2023/artisans/news/walt-disney-pictures-vfx-workers-unionize-1235730179/

Also this!

Student Assistants are making history by forming a union with @CSUEU. This is the largest non-academic student worker campaign in U.S. history. Next stop, a UNION YES election. @CalState administration needs to accept PERB decision & let Student Assistants Vote! #CSUStudentsWork pic.twitter.com/JcYTz64v5I

— CSUEU (@CSUEU) October 3, 2023

Looking good...

https://apnews.com/article/auto-workers-strike-general-motors-battery-plants-a6ad7d6b9c3f42c24f3c7dbe21f4b694

walgreens pharmacy workers (who are not yet unionized) have organized a walkout mostly on reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/WalgreensStores/) and facebook afaict

some local labour action: https://jacobin.com/2023/10/public-sector-workers-quebec-canada-general-strike-common-front

https://deadline.com/2023/10/levar-burton-drew-barrymore-national-book-awards-1235572952/

On we go

https://www.thewrap.com/why-sag-studio-talks-ended-fran-drescher/?fbclid=IwAR0sgKE4qvLo2P7Iz1M-FCGkzvJsZLUpgPp2IGybBxFF5rCXBlCPQPQlC_c

https://www.thewrap.com/studios-sag-strike-one-week-deadline/

yessss

https://archive.ph/2023.10.30-192803/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-10-30/uaw-strike-why-elon-musk-tesla-could-be-union-s-next-target

oh please

new boss unlocked

Tesla workers should be unionized. Driving Elon absolutely nuts and to the point he commits multiple unfair labor practice violations is just the sweetener.

A six-week wave of strikes that hobbled the three largest U.S. automakers has resulted in tentative contract agreements that would give workers their biggest pay raises in decades while avoiding a protracted work stoppage that could have damaged the economy.

On Monday, General Motors and the United Automobile Workers reached a deal that mirrored agreements the union had reached in recent days with Ford Motor and Stellantis, the parent company of Ram, Jeep and Chrysler. The terms will be costly for the automakers as they undertake a switch to electric vehicles, while setting the stage for labor strife and demands for higher pay at nonunion automakers like Tesla and Toyota.

The tentative agreements, which still require ratification by union members, also appeared to be a win for President Biden, who had risked political capital by picketing with striking workers at a G.M. facility in Michigan last month.

“They have reached a historic agreement,” Mr. Biden said Monday after speaking with Shawn Fain, the U.A.W. president. The deals, the president said, “reward autoworkers who gave up much to keep the industry working and going during the global financial crisis more than a decade ago.”

Flawless victory

Cool

https://www.axios.com/2023/10/31/toyota-raises-uaw-strike-ford-gm

Cool!

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/07/world/europe/sweden-tesla-strike.html

Let Oscar campaigning season commence

https://variety.com/2023/biz/news/sag-aftra-tentative-deal-historic-strike-1235771894/amp/

I've got an actor friend losing his shit on FB right now over how bad he feels the SAG deal is.

What’re his complaints?

The pay raise isn't high enough, particularly when they are also promising shorter, more efficient work hours (ultimately less pay overall).

But his big deal is that he feels the AI restrictions/protocols don't go far enough, particularly on a three-year contract because the tech will so much stronger when they're back at the negotiating table there's no way a good deal is happening them or any time afterwards.

I'm inclined to believe him there, because his current day job is a consulting thing with Disney, where he goes around the country checking up on projects at their different studio and tech spaces, so he knows a bit about what they are already doing re: computerization and AI.

nice

New: How Formula One accidentally helped Las Vegas workers land the 'best contract ever'

Culinary Union, threatening a mass strike timed to the much-hyped F1 race, inked deals w/casino giants mere days before the event.

They say it gave them "leverage."https://t.co/5IgYmqYOIL

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) November 22, 2023

Washington Post striking tomorrow

https://www.washingtonian.com/2023/12/05/washington-post-staffers-will-go-on-strike-thursday/

Get ready

https://variety.com/2023/biz/news/iatse-teamsters-hollywood-labor-peace-next-year-1235823080/amp/

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/01/18/media/los-angeles-times-staffers-to-protest-layoffs/index.html

Was bummed to read this, I thought he was a good one

‘A slap in the face’: progressive anger as Teamsters union chief meets Trump

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/18/teamsters-union-chief-trump-meeting

This will be big if it comes through: Unionizing a VW plant in Chattanooga that has twice voted not to unionize. (Under crazy heavy pressure campaigns, of course, including our own governor warning of apocalypse etc.)

The United Auto Workers union says it has signed up the majority of employees at Volkswagen AG’s Tennessee plant, teeing up a high-stakes test of the union’s ability to expand its ranks following its record Detroit contract wins.

In November, the UAW announced an audacious effort to organize 13 automakers’ non-union plants, including Toyota Motor Corp., Tesla Inc., and Nissan Motor Co. facilities. The union, which represents around 265,000 automaker or auto parts employees, is aiming to organize around 150,000 more workers at those 13 firms. VW’s Chattanooga factory is the first of those locations where the union says it’s secured over 50% support. It previously announced signing up more than 30% of employees at Mercedes-Benz Group AG and Hyundai Motor Co. facilities in Alabama.

Under US law, a company can voluntarily recognize and negotiate with a union once a majority of workers have signed union cards, or can refuse to do so unless the group first wins a government-run election. The UAW has said it will seek recognition once it has 70% of a plant signed up.

“Momentum’s picked up in a big way,” said Zach Costello, a six-year VW employee who’s a member of the Tennessee plant’s UAW organizing committee. The union’s successful strike last year against Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co., and Stellantis NV, which ended with agreements that will boost many union members’ pay by a third or more, “was massively influential in waking people up” at the VW factory, Costello said. “It really turned a lot of people to our side.”

And of course ...

The Center for Union Facts, a business-backed nonprofit, on Monday announced plans to place billboards in cities including Chattanooga advertising a website that criticizes the union’s political stances, contracts, and past corruption scandals.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-06/uaw-signs-up-majority-of-workers-at-vw-plant-after-detroit-wins

On the bad front, the union at the school where I adjunct has secured a tentative agreement that is fucking wack, and is not a win at all, particularly for more rank and file members. I am furious and will be voting NO on ratification and withdrawing my card after this is over— honestly, my experience with academic unions has been so bad that I will never voluntarily join a union ever again.

Uber

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/02/13/business/uber-lyft-deliveroo-valentines-strike/index.html

On the bad front, the union at the school where I adjunct has secured a tentative agreement that is _fucking wack_, and is not a win at all, particularly for more rank and file members. I am furious and will be voting NO on ratification and withdrawing my card after this is over— honestly, my experience with academic unions has been _so bad_ that I will never voluntarily join a union ever again.

No, it’s a corrupt union leadership working in concert with the school and accepting the first TA offered. I know because two friends who have worked for the AFT told me privately that they agree with me but can’t say so publicly, and told me why.

Also, spare me the “you can do such and such.” You think I have time for that when I’m making next to nothing because the union is deferential to management’s needs to fuck over employees? Please . Get one clue.

Big deal

https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2024/message-from-sara-starbucks-and-workers-united-agree-on-path-forward/

It's interesting how many European & Korean companies have absolutely no issues with collective bargaining.. even VW was fine with their Tennessee plant going union, it's just part of the business
It makes it easier to budget when you know what your labor expenses are going to be, years in advance

Corporate America just has this utter contempt for the worker, like they should be fucking grateful to get a fifteen minute break now and then

^^^^ Speak of the devil

Under previous leadership at the UAW, the union came close to winning elections in 2014 and 2019 at the plant but came up short after a surge of anti-union organizations and Republican elected officials aggressively opposed the efforts. Similar efforts have already begun during the current campaign at the plant.

US Volkswagen workers file for union election to join United Auto Workers

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/mar/18/volkswagen-workers-file-union-election-to-join-uaw

IATSE seems to be making deals

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/iatse-negotiations-cinematographers-reach-deal-craft-issues-1235857297/amp/

Fuck these people

To be sure, southern politicians have spoken out against the UAW. Tennessee’s governor, Bill Lee, said, “It would be a big mistake for (the VW) workers to risk their future” by unionizing. Alabama’s governor, Kate Ivey, wrote, “Alabama has become a national leader in automotive manufacturing, and all this was achieved without a unionized workforce … Unfortunately, the Alabama model for economic success is under attack.”

(UAW President) Fain fired back, saying that Ivey “dared to say that the economic model of the south is under attack. She’s damn right it is! It’s under attack because workers are fed up with getting screwed.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/17/uaw-union-drive-south-volkswagen-tennessee

these governors were bought by special interests a long time ago

Well, it's not VW that's paying them off... most of their plants worldwide are already union. It's just this aggressive posture where they don't want to see labor make any gains at all, because pretty soon they'll be coming after the poultry plants that are employing 14 year old undocumented workers and we can't have that

well sure, those are also special interests, but don’t be under any illusions that vw wants unionized plants in the US

btw there has been a lot of organizing effort in TN poultry plants.. a great movie about that here (my mom worked on it) - https://annelewis.org/morristown-in-the-air-and-sun/

They did it!!

https://tabithaarnold.substack.com/p/these-hands