The Union Movement In The USA Died Today

[hitmouse]

Generally very suspicious of attempts to organise a strike or anything through social media, but will be interesting to see if anything comes of this:

Calls For a Migrant Labor Strike Grow on Social Media - UNICORN RIOT

Since the xenophobia-fueled presidential re-election of Donald Trump, calls have been growing on social media for a pro-immigrant labor strike beginning on January 11, days before Trump is to take office. The emerging movement’s goal is to highlight the social, cultural, and economic importance...

unicornriot.ninja

Suppose it is also one of those weird things where under the NLRA wildcats have more protection in the US than they do here?

 

[hitmouse]

Some useful analysis of the pre-xmas Amazon strikes here:

Amazon Strike by the Numbers

An estimated 600 Amazon workers went on a short strike or participated in pickets from December 19 to Christmas Eve across eight warehouse locations, from Queens to San Francisco. The coordinated mobilization was an opening salvo to Amazon, and a test of capacity for the Teamsters’ growing...

labornotes.org

 

[hitmouse]

Labor Notes now have a new podcast:

The Labor Notes Podcast | Labor Notes

The Labor Notes Podcast is a new show from the folks who put on the Labor Notes conference every two years. We’ll talk each week about the strikes, contract campaigns, shop floor actions, reform caucus organizing, and union elections that our staff and r...

labornotespodcast.podbean.com

 

[yield]

Warehouse Workers Who Ship NYC’s Luxury Fashion Brands Are Unionizing
truthout. May 11, 2025

Minutes from the high-end boutiques of SoHo in Manhattan sits Bergen Logistics’ fulfillment facility in North Bergen, New Jersey, where workers sort, package, and ship hundreds of packages a day for luxury fashion brands including Acne Studios, Kenzo, and Phillip Lim.

The workers themselves can’t realistically afford the ornate gowns and crisp suits they ship to online shoppers. Some work two jobs just to stay afloat, and rush to keep up with unit-per-hour expectations.

Now they’re fighting for union recognition and the reinstatement of a colleague the union alleges was fired for her organizing. The workers point to the gap between word and action for high-profile brands that publicly claim to care about working conditions.

 

[JimW]

LL Cool J is no scab:

LL Cool J says he won't perform at Philadelphia's July Fourth festival in support of workers strike

Rapper LL Cool J says he will not perform at a Fourth of July festival in Philadelphia in support of a strike by nearly 10,000 city workers in Philadelphia.

apnews.com

 

[petee]

A Federal Appellate Court Finds the NLRB to Be Unconstitutional

And just like that, it frees Elon Musk—and any fellow employers—to violate whatever rights their workers thought they enjoyed.

prospect.org

i don't know why the headline writer focussed on musk, everything in here is awful.

 

[JimW]

Nice collection of linked articles from recent and earlier US (and wider) labour history, for Labor Day: Labor Day: A Celebration of Working in America - JSTOR Daily

I've been reading these three:

How the IWW Grew after the Centralia Tragedy - JSTOR Daily

A violent confrontation between the IWW and the American Legion put organized labor on trial, but a hostile federal government didn’t stop the IWW from growing.

daily.jstor.org

Was There a Conspiracy to Kill a Canadian Labor Activist? - JSTOR Daily

While conspiracy theories about Ginger Goodwin’s death may interest some, these complicated explanations deflect our attention from real issues.

daily.jstor.org

Interview: The League of Revolutionary Black Workers - JSTOR Daily

Two industrial workers, members of Detroit’s League of Revolutionary Black Workers, share experiences with political organizing and education.

daily.jstor.org

ETA:

Our initial development was as anarcho-syndicalist revolutionaries who were won over to Marxism. And even then, we loved the heritage of us being anarcho-syndicalists first. We would fight at the drop of a hat, man. There was none of that book shit for us. We loved intellectual development, man, but we liked fighting more than that. That was our heritage.

 

[petee]