Navigation
Mass. AFL-CIO
Union Web Services
Massachusetts Union News
- IBEW Solidarity
- Throw Back Thursday: decades of partnership against cancer
- Don’t Delay! Register Today for the UFCW’s Free College Benefit
- Brother Welch Funeral Information
- UFCW Local 365 member Jason Holland wins Mother Jones Award
- Organizing in Digital Media Continues to Grow: Worker Wins
- No Ban, No Wall, No to Baker’s Racist Law: Week of Action for Immigrant Rights!
- Summer Camp reimbursement
- July 31, 2017: JwJ 2017 Summer Workshop – The Movement for Immigrant Rights
- August 1, 2017: Interfaith Gathering for Francisco
LabourStart
- Canada: When Hate Goes Public: Unionists Stand Up and Speak Out
- Spain: Barcelona and Cambrils attacks: ETUC solidarity and condolences
- South Africa: Marikana Five Years Later: Thousands gather on the koppie to pay tribute to the 34 miners
- Belarus: Global unions call to support independent union movement in Belarus
- Israel: High Court signals end of right to strike at state-owned enterprises
PFFM
Who's online
Syndicate
Labor Notes
In Wake of Charlottesville, How Can Unions Fight for Racial Justice?
How should unions respond to the chilling events in Charlottesville? As believers that “an injury to one is an injury to all,” what's our special responsibility? Can we survive if our own unions are split along racial lines?
Labor Notes looked through our recent coverage to find examples of unions that are proactively working for racial justice. The excerpts below show steps some locals are taking to help members learn from each other and fight discrimination right on the job. Many began after the recent wave of police shootings of unarmed Black men.
In Wake of Charlottesville, How Can Unions Fight for Racial Justice?
How should unions respond to the chilling events in Charlottesville? As believers that “an injury to one is an injury to all,” what's our special responsibility? Can we survive if our own unions are split along racial lines?
Labor Notes looked through our recent coverage to find examples of unions that are proactively working for racial justice. The excerpts below show steps some locals are taking to help members learn from each other and fight discrimination right on the job. Many began after the recent wave of police shootings of unarmed Black men.
Teachers Union Caucuses Gather to Swap Strategies
With teachers facing similar attacks in school districts across the country, it makes sense to share strategies for fighting back. That’s the goal of the United Caucuses of Rank-and-File Educators (UCORE), a growing network of locals and caucuses within the teachers unions.
Seventy-five educator activists met in Los Angeles August 4-6, representing school districts from Philadelphia to Oakland and statewide groups from Hawaii, New Jersey, and Massachusetts.
Teachers Union Caucuses Gather to Swap Strategies
With teachers facing similar attacks in school districts across the country, it makes sense to share strategies for fighting back. That’s the goal of the United Caucuses of Rank-and-File Educators (UCORE), a growing network of locals and caucuses within the teachers unions.
Seventy-five educator activists met in Los Angeles August 4-6, representing school districts from Philadelphia to Oakland and statewide groups from Hawaii, New Jersey, and Massachusetts.
The 1997 UPS Strike: Beating Big Business & Business Unionism
Twenty years ago this month, 185,000 Teamsters shut down UPS and won labor’s biggest victory in decades.
The contract pitted a Fortune 500 company that was accelerating toward a low-wage, part-time future—against a grassroots campaign intent on applying the brakes.
The strike was also a showdown between union reformers and business unionism.
Democracy is power, Labor Notes has always argued. The UPS strike put that proposition to the test.
The 1997 UPS Strike: Beating Big Business & Business Unionism
Twenty years ago this month, 185,000 Teamsters shut down UPS and won labor’s biggest victory in decades.
The contract pitted a Fortune 500 company that was accelerating toward a low-wage, part-time future—against a grassroots campaign intent on applying the brakes.
The strike was also a showdown between union reformers and business unionism.
Democracy is power, Labor Notes has always argued. The UPS strike put that proposition to the test.
Why Did Nissan Workers Vote No?
There's no sugar-coating a loss this dramatic: 2,244-1,307 against the United Auto Workers, after a 12-year campaign to organize the mile-long Nissan plant in Canton, Mississippi.
After four attempts, the UAW has yet to win a plant-wide vote at a foreign-owned auto plant in the South.
Why Did Nissan Workers Vote No?
There's no sugar-coating a loss this dramatic: 2,244-1,307 against the United Auto Workers, after a 12-year campaign to organize the mile-long Nissan plant in Canton, Mississippi.
After four attempts, the UAW has yet to win a plant-wide vote at a foreign-owned auto plant in the South.
Spectrum Workers Soldier On in Months-Long Strike
Some 1,800 members of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 3 have been on strike at Spectrum/Time Warner Cable in New York and New Jersey since March 28, more than four months ago. Since then, only a fraction of the workforce has crossed picket lines, but the company is working hard to keep up normal operations by using scabs and subcontractors to break the strike.
Spectrum Workers Soldier On in Months-Long Strike
Some 1,800 members of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 3 have been on strike at Spectrum/Time Warner Cable in New York and New Jersey since March 28, more than four months ago. Since then, only a fraction of the workforce has crossed picket lines, but the company is working hard to keep up normal operations by using scabs and subcontractors to break the strike.
With Nike Up to Old Tricks, Students and Workers Launch Global Protests
In February Nike launched its “Equality” campaign, professing its commitment to diversity and inclusion. On July 29, students and workers held a Global Day of Action in 25 cities across 12 countries to tell Nike: we’re not buying it.
Workers in garment factories producing Nike apparel say the company’s up to its old tricks, by barring independent inspectors and cutting production from unionized plants. Members of garment worker unions and allies demonstrated in India, Bangladesh, El Salvador, Spain, and eight other countries.
With Nike Up to Old Tricks, Students and Workers Launch Global Protests
In February Nike launched its “Equality” campaign, professing its commitment to diversity and inclusion. On July 29, students and workers held a Global Day of Action in 25 cities across 12 countries to tell Nike: we’re not buying it.
Workers in garment factories producing Nike apparel say the company’s up to its old tricks, by barring independent inspectors and cutting production from unionized plants. Members of garment worker unions and allies demonstrated in India, Bangladesh, El Salvador, Spain, and eight other countries.
Review: In the Fields of the North (En los campos del norte)
Mexican blueberry picker Honesto Silva Ibarra died in Washington state on Sunday after complaining of headaches but being forced by his supervisor to return to work in the blazing sun. He ended up in a coma. When 70 of his co-workers struck Sarbanand Farms to protest Silva's treatment, they were fired the next day and within an hour were thrown out of their company-owned housing.
Review: In the Fields of the North (En los campos del norte)
Mexican blueberry picker Honesto Silva Ibarra died in Washington state on Sunday after complaining of headaches but being forced by his supervisor to return to work in the blazing sun. He ended up in a coma. When 70 of his co-workers struck Sarbanand Farms to protest Silva's treatment, they were fired the next day and within an hour were thrown out of their company-owned housing.
The Racist Origins of Right to Work
As right-to-work laws proliferate, it's worth remembering that they originated as a means to maintain Jim Crow labor relations in the South and to beat back what was seen as a Jewish conspiracy.
No one was more important in placing right-to-work on the conservative political agenda than Vance Muse of the Christian American Association, a larger-than-life Texan whose own grandson described him as “a white supremacist, an anti-Semite, and a Communist-baiter, a man who beat on labor unions not on behalf of working people, as he said, but because he was paid to do so.”
The Racist Origins of Right to Work
As right-to-work laws proliferate, it's worth remembering that they originated as a means to maintain Jim Crow labor relations in the South and to beat back what was seen as a Jewish conspiracy.
No one was more important in placing right-to-work on the conservative political agenda than Vance Muse of the Christian American Association, a larger-than-life Texan whose own grandson described him as “a white supremacist, an anti-Semite, and a Communist-baiter, a man who beat on labor unions not on behalf of working people, as he said, but because he was paid to do so.”
Irish Retail Workers Strike for Secure Hours
In Ireland the retail sector employs 1 in 7 workers—and their fight for a living wage, secure hours, and union rights is heating up. Recent strikes at the country’s largest private sector employers, Tesco and Dunnes, have grabbed headlines and working-class support.
Irish Retail Workers Strike for Secure Hours
In Ireland the retail sector employs 1 in 7 workers—and their fight for a living wage, secure hours, and union rights is heating up. Recent strikes at the country’s largest private sector employers, Tesco and Dunnes, have grabbed headlines and working-class support.
Making Buses Safer
After two passengers died in a horrific stabbing on a train in Portland, Oregon, the transit agency upped police presence. But the union is pushing for a different solution.
The May 26 incident began with a man yelling racist slurs at two young women of color. When three passengers defended the women, the man stabbed them.
Making Buses Safer
After two passengers died in a horrific stabbing on a train in Portland, Oregon, the transit agency upped police presence. But the union is pushing for a different solution.
The May 26 incident began with a man yelling racist slurs at two young women of color. When three passengers defended the women, the man stabbed them.