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Greek workers walk out to protest ban on teachers’ strike
May 14, 2013
Greek public sector workers walked off the job on Tuesday to protest against a government decision to ban a strike by high-school teachers, shutting down several schools and reducing staff at hospitals to a minimum. Invoking emergency legislation, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has threatened teachers with arrest and dismissal if they go ahead with a planned walkout on Friday that would disrupt university entrance exams, as he tries to show Greece’s foreign lenders that Athens is sticking to unpopular reforms.
The action on Tuesday was the latest in a string of anti-austerity strikes since 2010, when Greece adopted severe budget and wage cut measures as part of its international bailout. The turnout was not near someone of the movement’s larger demonstrations; turnout in demonstrations last year topped 100,000 at times. But activists insist that they are committed to fighting for humanity.
“Our message, that we fully condemn these policies, was sent, despite the low turnout,” ADEDY’s general secretary Ilias Iliopoulos told Reuters. “The government must make up its mind and show that it does care about students and teachers.
The conservative-led coalition wants teachers to put in two more hours of work each week to reach the average levels of high school teachers’ working hours in Europe, and transfer 4,000 of them to remote parts of Greece to plug staffing gaps.
These measures would allow the government to dismiss about 10,000 part-time teachers when their temporary contracts expire, causing outraged unions & citizens alike to call for the 24-hour strike on Friday and rolling strikes next week.
The government responded by invoking a law that allows it to mobilize workers in the case of civil disorder or natural disasters.
ADEDY had disagreed with the high school teachers’ decision to hold a strike on the first day of exams because it would inconvenience students. However, it opposed the government using emergency laws to pre-emptively ban the action, saying this was undemocratic and violated workers’ constitutional rights. ADEDY and GSEE, Greece’s largest private sector union, are also planning a four-hour work stoppage on Thursday.
More than 1,000 high-school teachers marched to parliament late on Monday, holding banners reading: “No to the civil mobilization and this terror!” and “It won’t pass”.
GSEE and ADEDY represent more than half of Greece’s workforce, which has been shrinking rapidly during the crippling recession after years of austerity. As unemployment grows, unions may not yield as strong of turn outs as they have when they had higher membership, but the increasingly impoverished people of Greece will not tolerate limitless government oppression.
Fast food strike wave spreads to Detroit, St. Louis
May 10, 2013St. Louis, and last month’s in New York and Chicago, today’s work stoppage is backed by a local coalition including the Service Employees International Union, and the participants are demanding a raise to $15 an hour and the chance to form a union without intimidation.
Organizers say that over a hundred workers joined the St. Louis strike between Wednesday and Thursday. That included a group of Jimmy John’s workers who alleged that management humiliated them by requiring them to hold up signs in public with messages including “I made 3 wrong sandwiches today” and “I was more than 13 seconds in the drive thru.”
“Sometimes I walk for more than an hour just to save my train fare so I can spend it on Ramen noodles,” St. Louis Chipotle worker Patrick Leeper said in an e-mailed statement Thursday. “I can’t even think about groceries.”
A spokesperson for Jimmy John’s declined to comment on Thursday’s strike; McDonald’s and Wendy’s did not respond to inquiries last night.
As I’ve written elsewhere, the fate of the fast food strike wave carries far-reaching implications: Fast food jobs are a growing portion of our economy, and fast food-like conditions are proliferating in other sectors as well. Organizers say the fast food industry now employs twice as many Detroit-area workers as the city’s iconic auto industry. These strikes also come at a moment of existential crisis for the labor movement, a sobering reality that was brought into sharp relief in December when Michigan, arguably the birthplace of modern US private sector unionism, became the country’s latest “Right to Work” state.
Along with a shared significant supporter—SEIU—the campaigns in New York, Chicago, St. Louis and Detroit have apparent strategies in common. Rather than waiting until they’ve built support from a majority of a store’s or company’s workers, they stage actions by a minority of the workforce designed to inspire their co-workers. Rather than publicly identifying the campaign and its organizers with a single international union, these union-funded efforts turn to allied community groups to spearhead organizing. Rather than training all their resources on a single company, they organize against all of the industry’s players at once. And—faced with legal and economic assaults that have weakened the strike weapon—these campaigns mount one-day work stoppages that are carefully tailored to maximize attention and minimize, but not eliminate, the risk that workers will lose their jobs.
Whether these strategies can ever compel a fast food giant to negotiate with its employees remains to be seen.
“After what I would consider well over three decades of wage suppression, workers in this particular industry—and then I think it’ll go to others—are realizing that their only way up the wage ladder is through their own organizations,” CUNY labor studies lecturer Ed Ott said Wednesday. Ott, a board member of the community organizing group that spearheaded the New York fast food strike, added, “The only way these workers are going to be able to advance these jobs is through unionization. And I think that idea has finally gotten traction.”
Update (9:15 AM Friday): According to the campaign, a walkout by twenty workers at Detroit’s 10400 Gratiot Avenue McDonald’s prevented the store from operating. Some workers brought in as strikebreakers to replace those striking workers chose to join the strike instead.
Organizers say that by day’s end, today’s strike could be the largest fast food work stoppage yet, topping last month’s 400-strong strike in New York.
Fuck yeah.
I have to say, considering Jimmy John’s is featured here, I’m disappointed the IWW hasn’t been remotely mentioned, but of course I’m also not surprised. (I’m furthermore hoping this doesn’t get picked up by the SEIU or any trade unions because not even SEIU has a concept of total militancy…) But still, this is a fantastic development. Solidarity with all the strikers!
Fill our inbox and/or email with information about the IWW. I’ve heard bits and pieces about the organization (things I’ve heard that may or may not be true: was syndaclist, now isn’t; was problematic, now isn’t). Anyway, ya’ll’ve got a strong enough internet presence to peak my curiosity.
Fast food strike wave spreads to Detroit, St. Louis
May 10, 2013
St. Louis, and last month’s in New York and Chicago, today’s work stoppage is backed by a local coalition including the Service Employees International Union, and the participants are demanding a raise to $15 an hour and the chance to form a union without intimidation.
Organizers say that over a hundred workers joined the St. Louis strike between Wednesday and Thursday. That included a group of Jimmy John’s workers who alleged that management humiliated them by requiring them to hold up signs in public with messages including “I made 3 wrong sandwiches today” and “I was more than 13 seconds in the drive thru.”
“Sometimes I walk for more than an hour just to save my train fare so I can spend it on Ramen noodles,” St. Louis Chipotle worker Patrick Leeper said in an e-mailed statement Thursday. “I can’t even think about groceries.”
A spokesperson for Jimmy John’s declined to comment on Thursday’s strike; McDonald’s and Wendy’s did not respond to inquiries last night.
As I’ve written elsewhere, the fate of the fast food strike wave carries far-reaching implications: Fast food jobs are a growing portion of our economy, and fast food-like conditions are proliferating in other sectors as well. Organizers say the fast food industry now employs twice as many Detroit-area workers as the city’s iconic auto industry. These strikes also come at a moment of existential crisis for the labor movement, a sobering reality that was brought into sharp relief in December when Michigan, arguably the birthplace of modern US private sector unionism, became the country’s latest “Right to Work” state.
Along with a shared significant supporter—SEIU—the campaigns in New York, Chicago, St. Louis and Detroit have apparent strategies in common. Rather than waiting until they’ve built support from a majority of a store’s or company’s workers, they stage actions by a minority of the workforce designed to inspire their co-workers. Rather than publicly identifying the campaign and its organizers with a single international union, these union-funded efforts turn to allied community groups to spearhead organizing. Rather than training all their resources on a single company, they organize against all of the industry’s players at once. And—faced with legal and economic assaults that have weakened the strike weapon—these campaigns mount one-day work stoppages that are carefully tailored to maximize attention and minimize, but not eliminate, the risk that workers will lose their jobs.
Whether these strategies can ever compel a fast food giant to negotiate with its employees remains to be seen.
“After what I would consider well over three decades of wage suppression, workers in this particular industry—and then I think it’ll go to others—are realizing that their only way up the wage ladder is through their own organizations,” CUNY labor studies lecturer Ed Ott said Wednesday. Ott, a board member of the community organizing group that spearheaded the New York fast food strike, added, “The only way these workers are going to be able to advance these jobs is through unionization. And I think that idea has finally gotten traction.”
Update (9:15 AM Friday): According to the campaign, a walkout by twenty workers at Detroit’s 10400 Gratiot Avenue McDonald’s prevented the store from operating. Some workers brought in as strikebreakers to replace those striking workers chose to join the strike instead.
Organizers say that by day’s end, today’s strike could be the largest fast food work stoppage yet, topping last month’s 400-strong strike in New York.
On this day in 1972, 4,000 garment workers (mostly Chicana workers) go on strike at Farah Manufacturing Co. in El Paso, Texas. They demanded union recognition and better working conditions. At the time they were making $1.70/hour starting pay with no maternity benefits.
I recently began an working with a few EP social justice orgs, such as La Mujer Obrera, Sin Fronteras, SURCO community farms & El Centro de los Trabajadores Fronterizos, which all have involvement from Farah strikers, who are have continued to organize workers along the borderland. They’ve created crucial organizations that have come to be the backbone of a lot of neighborhoods in south El Paso, as they have produced quality jobs, community resource centers, cultural libraries & workers cooperatives, along with a network of community farms that are working to provide food sovereignty for the area.
+ fun fact: The city is opening the Fountains at Farah, a luxury shopping area where the factory used to be this October.
Fire kills ‘last survivor’ in Bangladesh building collapse
April 28, 2013
A fire broke out in the wreckage of the Bangladesh garment factory which collapsed last week, killing what has been characterized as the last remaining survivor.
“The fire broke out as we were cutting a beam to bring out what we believe was the last remaining survivor from the collapsed building. We managed to douse it, but as we came back we saw her dead,” the country’s fire chief Ahmed Ali told AFP on Sunday.
Firefighters described a nearly 11 hour struggle to bring her out alive, with many seen weeping on television following her death. Her battle for survival had captured the hearts of Bangladeshis watching the drama unfold on television.
Rescue workers moved to postpone a decision to use heavy machinery to clean up the debris in a bid to boost her chances at survival. A volunteer recounted hearing her make a feeble cry for help from underneath the wreckage early on Sunday.
“When we first arrived on the scene, she pleaded with us to not to leave her. We gave her water, oxygen, saline and food. And she ate and hang on,” a volunteer involved in the rescue operation told the agency.
“She was a brave lady and fought until the end”, Ali said. “We took the challenge but we lost. It’s broken all our hearts. Everyone became emotional,” he continued. At least three rescue workers were injured when the blaze erupted on Sunday.
Rescue workers have abandoned efforts at the scene of the wreckage which is now consumed by flames, refocusing their efforts on finding any possible survivors in other parts of the decimated eight-story building.
Firefighters continue to work desperately to douse the blaze.
“Hopefully we will be able to control it,” Brig. Gen. Mohammed Siddiqul Alam Shikder, who is overseeing rescue operations, told AP.
Authorities put the latest death toll at 379, with the number of causalities expected to increase as hundreds remain unaccounted for. Earlier on Sunday, four other people were dug out from the debris after spending nearly 100 hours beneath a mass of broken concrete and metal. Another woman was pulled from the wreckage but later died, fire service officials said.
About 2,500 people have been rescued from the collapsed building which housed five garment factories in the commercial suburb of Savar, located some 20 miles from the capital, Dhaka. Around 1,000 of those rescued sustained serious injuries, as many had limbs amputated in order to free them from the rubble.
The fire came hours after the owner of the illegally-constructed building was captured Sunday while attempting to flee into India via a border crossing. He is set to face charges of faulty construction and causing unlawful death. Two other owners of garment factories based in the complex were taken into custody on Saturday.
Officials said the eight-story complex had been built on spongy ground without the correct permits, and more than 3,000 workers - mainly young women - entered the building on Wednesday morning despite warnings that it was structurally unsafe.
Bangladesh’s garment industry is valued at some $20 billion annually, making it the third largest in the world after China and Italy according to 2011 figures. Many of the workers earn approximately $38 a month to make some of the top international brands in often squalid conditions.
Wednesday’s collapse has sparked days of protests and clashes, with police deploying tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets to suppress often violent demonstrations.
Garment workers blockaded a highway in the neighboring industrial zone of Gazipur on Sunday, demanding the death penalty for the owners. The country’s opposition has called for a national strike on May 2 to protest the incident.
Police fire tear gas at Bangladeshis protesting factory collapse
April 26, 2013
Bangladeshi police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse a crowd of enraged workers protesting the deaths over 300 of their coworkers in a Wednesday garment factory collapse. At least 25 people have been injured in the clashes.
The demonstrators – some armed with bamboo sticks – blockaded roads, smashed vehicles, burned tires and attacked factories at Gazipur, just outside the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka.
“The situation is very volatile. Hundreds of thousands of workers have joined the protests. We fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse them,” M. Asaduzzaman, an officer in the police control room, told AFP.
The rioting also spread to several districts in the capital, local media reported. The protesters have demanded the arrest and execution of those responsible for the disaster, and blamed the building’s owners for the deaths.
The collapsed eight-story building at Savar, a town on the outskirts of Dhaka, housed five factories. Rescuers have recovered nearly 300 bodies form the rubble, and found 62 people buried alive in the ruins; the death toll may rise further.
There are fears that hundreds of people remain trapped in the wreckage of the building, which officials claim was built illegally and without proper building permits.
“Some people are still alive under the rubble and we are hoping to rescue them,” Reuters cited deputy fire services director Mizanur Rahman.
The building reportedly developed cracks on Tuesday evening, but the owners ordered fleeing workers to return to their production lines, survivors said.
The incident was the worst to befall Bangladesh since a fire in November 2012 that killed over 100 workers.
Many of the country’s 4,500 factories have already been closed due to protests and fears of damage. Manufacturers have declared Saturday to be a holiday, while trade unions called for a strike on Sunday to demand better working conditions, AP reported.
Special prayers for the dead, injured and missing were offered at mosques, temples and pagodas across Bangladesh on Friday.
Chicago is having a busy, revolutionary day today. From worker walkouts due to the terrible working conditions in the service-industry sector to this:
HAPPENING NOW! Hundeds of Chicago Public School students walk-out of testing day in protest of over-testing and the impending mass school closures to happen the beginning of next school year.
SOLIDARITY!
Chicago fast food, retail workers strike today - workers walk out at some McDonald’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, Macy’s in push for higher wages, union
April 24, 2013
Community organizers said they expect hundreds of fast food and retail workers in Chicago to walk off the job Wednesday in a campaign to push for higher wages.
The Fight for $15 campaign, named for its goal of securing $15 an hour for workers, said it expects McDonald’s, Subway, Dunkin Donuts, Macy’s, Sears and Victoria’s Secret store in the Loop and Magnificent Mile to be affected.
The rolling strikes began at 5:30 a.m. as workers walked off the job at some McDonald’s restaurants and Dunkin’ Donuts. Strikes are expected later this morning at some retailers. A rally is planned for 4 p.m. at the St. James Cathedral near Huron and Rush streets. A McDonald’s spokeswoman said that while the company believes “a few workers may have walked off the job,” it was “not a high number at all.” Basically, they are daring you to boycott them and daring their workers to strike because they feel like they can do anything they want to their workers and have no consequences. Let’s call their bluff.
“Our downtown restaurants remain open, and it remains business as usual for us,” she said.
Representatives for Dunkin Donuts and Subway said that hourly wages are set at the discretion of franchisees who operate their restaurants.
“Fight for 15, seeks to put money back in the pockets of the 275,000 men and women who work hard in the city’s fast food and retail outlets, but still can’t afford basic necessities,” the group said in a release. “If workers were paid more, they’d spend more, helping to get Chicago’s economy moving again.”
Wednesday’s action follows a nationwide Black Friday strike by Walmart workers and comes just weeks after 400 fast-food workers walked off their jobs in New York City.
“Fast food and retail workers bring more than $4 billion a year into the cash registers of the Magnificent Mile and the Loop, yet most of these workers earn Illinois’ minimum wage of $8.25, or just above it,” the group said.
In addition to higher pay, Fight for 15 says it is pushing to organize a union for workers. Among those participating will be Aimee Crawford, 56, who said she has worked for 14 months at a downtown Protein Bar restaurant for $8.75 an hour.
“I’m using my retirement funds and my savings to bridge the gap between what I bring home and what I need to survive,” Crawford said.
New York fast food workers turn up heat in bid for better pay
April 4, 2013
Hundreds of fast-food restaurant workers in New York City are expected to walk off the job on Thursday in what organizers said would be their largest rally yet for better pay.
Employees from familiar chains such as McDonald’s Corp, Wendy’s and Yum Inc’s KFC are seeking to roughly double their hourly pay to $15. They also say they want the right to form a union without intimidation or retaliation.
Winning such concessions will be difficult. Low-wage, low-skill workers lack political clout and face significantly higher unemployment than college graduates.
As many as 400 workers from more than five dozen restaurants around New York City have committed to turn out for protests planned at various locations, said Jonathan Westin, director of Fast Food Forward, which organized Thursday’s actions and is backed by labor, community and religious groups.
That turnout would be twice as large as in November, when the city’s fast-food workers also walked off the job, Westin said.
And, he said, the majority of employees from some individual fast-food outlets have vowed to participate in Thursday’s actions.
“It’s going to be difficult for these businesses to operate this time,” Westin said.
The nearly $200 billion U.S. fast-food industry long has been known as a employer of teenagers and students.
But the 18-month “Great Recession” that began in December 2007 helped change that. It destroyed thousands of middle-income jobs and forced more adults to seek part-time, largely minimum wage work flipping burgers and manning fryers.
In his State of the Union address in February, U.S. President Barack Obama proposed raising the federal minimum wage as a way to help lift some workers out of poverty - a plan critics said would kill jobs by burdening small businesses with higher costs.
The state of New York is already on that path. Its recently passed budget included plans to raise the state minimum wage, now at $7.25, to $9 by the end of 2015.
But even with that 24 percent hike, New York’s minimum wage would remain below the roughly $11 hourly pay needed to lift a family of four above the poverty line.
Such pay-boosting efforts are welcome but not enough for workers struggling to make ends meet, said fast-food employee Joseph Barrera, who plans to join Thursday’s protests.
The 22-year-old says he has earned $7.25 per hour for the 10 months he has worked at a KFC restaurant in Brooklyn. Even with a side job as a freelance mechanic, he still stretches to cover rent on his basement apartment that has no windows or heat.
“Anywhere where the cost of living is very, very high, $9 is not enough. Everyone should be able to make a living wage,” Barrera said.
McDonald’s Corp, the world’s biggest fast-food chain by sales, in November said that the majority of its namesake U.S. restaurants are owned and operated by independent business men and women who offer pay and benefits competitive within the quick service restaurant industry.
In related news, a McDonald’s job ad in Massachusetts requires a bachelor’s degree & two years of experience for a cashier job.
Walmart sues grocery workers union, some Florida store protesters
March 26, 2013
Wal-Mart Stores Inc<wmt.n style=”list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: none;”>has sued a major grocery workers union and others who have protested at its Florida stores, the latest salvo in its legal fight to stop “disruptive” rallies in and around its stores by groups seeking better pay and working conditions.
Wal-Mart does not have union-represented workers in its U.S. stores. Nevertheless, it has long faced opposition from various labor groups including the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), and from a small but vocal group of current and former employees backed by the union and known as OUR Walmart.
The lawsuit filed on Friday in Orange County, Florida state court seeks “to help protect our customers and associates from further disruptive tactics associated with their continued, illegal trespassing,” Walmart spokesman Dan Fogleman said.
Defendants, however, charged that the world’s biggest retailer is trying to muzzle its critics.
“This is another attempt on Wal-Mart’s behalf of … silencing their employees and also the communities that support them,” Denise Diaz, executive director of Central Florida Jobs With Justice Corp and a defendant named in the suit, said before reviewing the documents.
“Rather than creating good jobs with steady hours and affordable healthcare, Walmart’s pattern is to focus its energies on infringing on our freedom of speech,” the Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart), also a defendant, said in a statement.
Other defendants include the 1.3 million-member UFCW and the individuals Angela Williamson, Alex Rivera, and Alan Hanson.
The UFCW was not immediately able to comment on the lawsuit.
Wal-Mart alleged that the defendants violated Florida law through coordinated, statewide acts of trespass in several Walmart stores over the last eight months. It has asked the court for a legal ruling that would prevent future trespassing.
In the lawsuit Wal-Mart cited an example where a group of protesters projected a video promoting OUR Walmart on the side of a store in Orlando and passing out literature inside that store in July, 2012.
It alleged that a group of UFCW demonstrators returned to that same store on October 30, 2012 and “confronted the store manager and handed him a rotten pumpkin painted in support of OUR Walmart. The group left the store only after the manager warned that he had called the police.”
Wal-Mart filed an unfair labor practice charge against the UFCW in November, asking the National Labor Relations Board to halt what the retailer said were unlawful attempts to disrupt its business in several states including protests that were planned for Black Friday, the busy shopping day right after Thanksgiving. In January, labor groups said that they would stop much of their picketing against the chain, while still trying to push the company to improve working conditions.
The case is Wal-Mart Stores Inc v. United Food and Commercial Workers International Union et al, 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida, Orange County, No. 2013-CA-004293.
A strike by millions of low-skilled workers in India has seen banks close and public transport disrupted, amid reports of two deaths in the north.
An estimated 100 million Indians (for perspective, this is around the entire population of Mexico or the Phillipines - about 1/12 of the whole population of India), angry about rising prices, low pay and poor working condition, walked off their jobs on Wednesday, on the first day of a two-day strike organised by eleven major trade unions.
The strikers are demanding a legal minimum wage, fairer contracts and improved working conditions.
Solidarity!
Man trampled as hundreds of desperate Greeks scuffle for food
February 7, 2013
A fruit and vegetable handout in Greece led to one man being trampled on Wednesday, calling attention to the desperate conditions in the crisis-hit country. Some 55 tons of produce was given away by farmers who were protesting high production costs.
The person was injured when he was pushed by a crowd trying to grab the goods and fell and hit his head.
The chaos was sparked when food stalls ran out of fruits and vegetables, prompting dozens of people to rush to a nearby truck.
It was an “every man for himself” situation as the Greeks shoved their way to the front of the truck, competing for the food that was left. The 55 tons of food was completely gone in under two hours.
A Reuters employee at the scene was hit on the head with cauliflower heads as he attempted to photograph the situation.
“These images make me angry. Angry for a proud people who have no food to eat, who can’t afford to keep warm, who can’t make ends meet,”
Kostas Barkas, a lawmaker from the leftist Syriza party, told Reuters.
Other Greek lawmakers said the situation showed images “of people on the brink of despair” and the sense of“sadness for a proud people who have ended up like this.”
It’s a reality that many Greek citizens find hard to comprehend.
“It’s difficult. I never imagined that I would end up here,” 65-year-old Panagiota Petropoulos said.
“I can’t afford anything, not even at the fruit market. Everything is expensive, prices of everything are going up while our income is going down and there are no jobs,” she continued.
Greece, which is currently in its sixth year of recession, is experiencing record high unemployment rates. Citizens have been forced to endure wage and pension cuts to satisfy European Union and International Monetary Fund demands.
The handout was an attempt by farmers to persuade the government to give them a 50 per cent price reduction on diesel-powered farm equipment, abolish the obligatory declaration for cultivation and cut Value Added Tax from 23 per cent to 6 per cent on their products and agricultural machinery and equipment.
Strikes continue to take place in various sectors, as workers protest the government’s austerity plan.
On Wednesday, Greece’s ruling coalition forced striking seamen to return to work after a six-day action that suspended ferry services to dozens of Greek Islands. The strike led to food and medical shortages.
But when one strike ends, others continue.
Farmers throughout the country are in their ninth day of demonstrations, staging roadblocks with their tractors on highways across Greece on Wednesday.
Journalists working for state broadcasters went into a third day of strikes on Wednesday, protesting against the government’s policies regulating the sector. The strike is scheduled to continue until Thursday.
Various Greek Unions have held a wave of strikes over the past three years to protest the harsh austerity measures taken to secure international rescue loans.
Unemployment for workers under 25 is now at 57.6 percent, & more than one fifth of the population lives in poverty in Greece. Austerity measures have also cut wages by 60 percent. The IMF & the EU are planning more cuts to the minimum wage & public sector wages.
Year of the Worker: How labor struggles punctuated 2012
January 14, 2013
On the morning of December 17, half a dozen United States postal workers set up an “emergency encampment” and began a week-long hunger strike to fight for the future of the U.S. Postal Service and its employees. The protest demanded an end to Congress’ proposed office closures and budget cuts, including the removal of six-day mail delivery that would gut nearly 25,000 jobs.
That strike capped a year in which new fires were set ablaze to the United States labor movement. From Walmart employees battling back against America’s second richest corporation on Black Friday, to fast food workers “Fighting for $15,” wage workers brought the discussion of income inequality back to the workplace. And we can expect more to come in 2013.
Although not all strikes and walkouts last year were successful in directly improving workers’ rights, organized labor managed to move itself to the center of political, economic and social discourse. The failed recall of union-busting Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin and the passage of right-to-work legislation in Michigan dealt obvious blows to labor.
But by highlighting unfair wages, long work hours, limits on the rights to union organizing, and the increasing wealth gap, American workers brought core issues of economic justice back into the discussion. Here are some of the key struggles of 2012 that showed the resurgent force of U.S. labor:
Chicago teachers’ monumental strike:
The Chicago Teachers Union garnered the support of parents, students and education advocates nationwide when the CTU went on strike on Sept. 10. The union marched throughout the streets of Chicago denouncing Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s privatization efforts — both slashing the number of teachers in schools and increasing the sizes of classrooms. The strike pinpointed the source of the city’s deep-rooted problems of poverty and violence: a poor education system, or as CTU president Karen Lewis put it, an “educational apartheid.” The strike ended with a diminished focus on standardized testing, more funding for public schools and an average raise of 17.6 percent over the next four years for educators.
Walmart workers’ fight against the corporate giant:
The struggle that captivated America’s labor movement this year was the long-awaited uprising of workers at Walmart, most notably during Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year. Citing chronically dangerous working conditions, Walmart warehouse workers in California and Illinois went on strike in September, which lent a wave of momentum to company employees across the country who expanded rallies and actions through the fall. Strikes and walkouts spread to more than 100 cities and eventually grew into a worldwide movement after a fire at a Walmart factory in Bangladesh killed 112 workers.
Right-to-work legislation pierces labor movement:
Despite daily rallies at the Indiana statehouse, anti-union “right-to-work” legislation was passed there in February, and passed in Michigan in December. Riot police warded off angry protesters as Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed the measure without any public discussion or committee hearings. The misnomer bill limits bargaining rights, and other proposed legislation dealt a blow to fair contract and fair wage laws. Although the bill passed, workers mobilized national support and framed economic inequality discussion around labor rights.
Workers take a stand for fair pay:
More than 1,300 American Crystal Sugar factory employees stood up to millionaire founder and CEO David Berg when they rejected the new contract proposal and were locked out of the job in August. Since Dec. 1, workers have rejected unfair contract negotiations four times.
Fast food workers’ strike:
From Wendy’s, whose revenue jumped to $615 million in 2011, to chain behemoth McDonald’s, more than 200 New York City fast food workers walked off the job in November to demand a living wage of $15 an hour and the right to unionize with the Fast Food Workers Committee.
Janitors’ strike:
In June, 3,000 members of the Service Employees International Union Local 1 voted unanimously in favor of the Houston janitors strike. Janitors who clean offices at corporate powerhouses such as Wells Fargo, ExxonMobil and JPMorgan Chase were earning an average hourly wage of $8.35, for an annual income of $8,684. After gaining national support, the striking workers won a pay increase of $9.35 an hour over the next four years.
Transportation workers organize:
Nearly 500 American Airlines pilots, flight attendants and ground workers picketed outside of the Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport on numerous occasions in 2012, protesting the wage gap between workers and executives who have slashed budgets to try and stay afloat after bankruptcy restructuring. After thousands of layoffs and cuts to pensions and healthcare benefits, pilots secured a new contract that included a pay raise and a 13.5 percent stake in the company in exchange for allowing American Airlines to outsource more of its flights to regional airline partners.
Los Angeles International Airport workers represented by the SEIU walked off the job the afternoon before Thanksgiving when contract negotiations were left unsigned, leaving workers without health insurance and fair pay. Thirteen employees were arrested as riot police descended on the airport, and protesters blocked roads to bring further attention to LAX’s unfair practices.
US Airways workers represented by the Association of Flight Attendants–CWA voted to authorize a strike in November to pressure the company over labor contract agreements. After failed negotiations, the union rallied to increase pay and lessen restrictive workplace rules.
Many defeats in 2012 could have been challenged through larger organizing efforts, and by further connecting labor’s demands to issues of basic inequality. While attacks on unions also grew, the year’s victories provided a clear push forward for workers’ rights and economic justice.
As 2012 marked the year of the worker, 2013 must become the year to organize workplaces more effectively: to strengthen the labor movement so that it truly combats poverty and inequality in the U.S.
- Graciela
for Occupy.com
Greece hit by public sector strike
December 19, 2012
Greek transport systems have been disrupted and schools and tax offices shut after public sector workers walked off the job in protest at new austerity measures and lay-offs demanded by foreign lenders.
The 24-hour strike is the latest in a series of protests since September against a package of wage cuts and tax hikes demanded by Greece’s European Union and International Monetory Fund lenders as the price for bailout loans to keep the country afloat.
The measures, which include earmarking 27,000 civil servants for eventual dismissal, remain unpopular among Greeks who say society is crumbling under the weight of spending cuts and tax hikes that hurt mostly the middle class.
‘Enough is enough’
On Wednesday, striking teachers, doctors and municipal workers started gathering in central Athens as part of the walkout called by the ADEDY union, which represents about half a million public sector workers or roughly a quarter of the country’s workforce.
“We want to tell the government enough is enough! Enough with layoffs, wage and pension cuts, the collapse of the public sector, enough with these tax hikes,” said Adedy unionist Despina Spanou.
Greece’s other major union, the private sector union GSEE, said it would hold a three-hour stoppage in solidarity and join the march through the streets of central Athens.
The Communist-affiliated PAME group was expected to hold a separate rally.
Some domestic flights were grounded and about 100 workers occupied the headquarters of Athens’ city train company on Wednesday in protest at planned wage cuts.
Train workers also started a 48-hour strike against the conservative-led coalition’s plans to privatise Greece’s national railways.
Metro and tram workers walked off the job for a few hours on Wednesday and plan a 24-hour strike on Thursday.
Thousands were expected to march to the administrative reform ministry which oversees public sector reform, however unionists expected a smaller turnout that previous strikes.
Unions said that some Greeks, although fed up with austerity, could no longer afford to lose a day’s wages.
Police deployed about 2,000 officers in central Athens.
