Entries by Paul Becker

MAY BITS & PIECES

STARBUCKS TRYING TO DECERTIFY 3 UNION STORES Starbucks, which has been using all kinds of tricks, legal, borderline, and down-dirty, to combat the union organizing drive in its stores, now is possibly involved in a new one. At three Starbucks locations where workers have voted for the Starbucks Workers United union, a worker has filed […]

HEALTH & SAFETY RE-IMERGE AS BIG JOB ISSUES

In 2015, Carlos Moncayo, an Ecuadorian immigrant construction worker, was crushed to death on his job of helping to build a rooftop restaurant in New York City. His death made little news because on-the-job deaths, despite rules promulgated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, are a common occurrence in the country. According to the […]

RUTGERS STRIKE ‘SUSPENDED FOR NOW’

The faculty at Rutgers University ended their week-long strike April 15 after the three unions representing them reached a “framework” of an agreement with the school. Students at the school were slated to return to their classes on Monday, April 17. Rutgers, the flagship in the New Jersey state university system, has 67,000 enrolled students. […]

UNION-BUSTING FIRMS RAKE IN MILLIONS PROVIDING “ADVICE” TO CORPORATIONS

America’s corporations spent over $400 million on retaining companies whose specialty is union-busting, a recent report from the Economic Policy Institute reveals. Amid the rising tide of union activity and organizing campaigns has come a backlash from employers who are fighting union organizing with an arsenal of weapons, some legal, some bordering on illegality, and […]

APRIL BITS AND PIECES

FORDHAM GRAD SCHOOL WORKERS STAGE 3-DAY STRIKE A three-day strike beginning April 23 at the two campuses of New York’s Fordham University has resulted in the cancellation of hundreds of classes on those three days. The strike was called by the Fordham Graduate Student Workers Union after a series of fruitless negotiating sessions. The union […]

REFORM CANDIDATE WINS UAW PRESIDENCY

In a close runoff election, Shawn Fain, an electrician and UAW member for over two decades, defeated the incumbent Ray Curry and has become the new president of the United Auto Workers. The defeat of the “Administration Caucus” that has run one of the country’s major unions for some 70 years marks a big upheaval […]

LA SCHOOL STRIKE DRAWS STRONG PARENT SUPPORT

Despite the inconvenience faced by many Los Angeles parents, most of them are strongly supportive of the three day strike by school workers that has shut down schools in the city. The strike, called by Local 99 of the Service Employees International Union, involved school bus drivers, cafeteria workers, custodians and other non-pedagogical employees in […]

GOING BACK 100 YEARS: CHILD LABOR LAWS NOW VIOLATED ACROSS COUNTRY

In gross violation of child labor laws, children as young as 12, are now working at dangerous jobs around the country. They are working in factories, some late into the night at machinery like fast-moving pulleys and gears that have torn off fingers and ripped open a women’s scalp. They are migrant children who crossed […]

TEAMSTERS PREPARING MEMBERS FOR POSSIBLE UPS STRIKE

With their current five-year contract set to expire in July and negotiations for a new one to start in April, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters is preparing its members for a possible strike against United Parcel Service this summer. The large increase in deliveries during the pandemic netted the company record profits – its revenue […]