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Mississippi Casino Workers Win Union Contract

Unite Here! members from Beau Rivage and IP Casinos complete Shop Steward training on August 27, Biloxi, MS

At the beginning of September, the workers at the Beau Rivage Casino (owned by MGM Resorts International) voted to form a union. That makes the Beau Rivage the third casino on the Gulf Coast to unionize. Over 1,000 workers at the Beau Rivage are included in the union. They are represented by the MGM Gaming Workers Council, which is comprised of Unite Here Local 23, International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 891, and International Union of Operating Engineers Local 406.

Under the union contract, workers will see a pay increase—in fact the highest across-the-board pay increase that Unite Here! has managed to win for any group of workers on the Gulf Coast. But the pay increase is only part of the win. Workers at the casino now have the option to join the union health insurance plan at a lower rate.

They are also no longer isolated individuals, fireable at will; they are part of a collective bargaining arrangement. That means that whatever issues they have with the owners or management in the future, the have the backing of their other co-workers and the rest of the union. Other MGM workers are already unionized in Las Vegas, Tunica, and New Orleans.

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Disney Workers United Win Big!

For months, Disney World workers struggled to get a new union contract. This fight has taken over nine months, with workers taking to the streets and marching outside key locations such as the Disney Springs shopping complex near Orlando. Participants in these actions included everyone from cast members to custodians at Disney’s Florida establishments. The hard work has now paid off, however, with a new contract.

The contract has been negotiated by the Service Trades Council Union, which is comprised of six unions, and represents 38,000 workers. With the four-year contract, starting pay will go from $10 and hour to $15 an hour by 2021. The contract is the result of the unions sticking to their guns. Back in May, Disney offered to implement $15 an hour starting pay, with the caveat that they would cut protections and benefits. The unions refused the deal, and now the workers have gotten the raise they demanded without losing any key benefits or protections. The unionized workers will also be getting a $1,000 bonus that Disney had previously withheld during negotiation

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UPS Workers Fighting for Contract

The current round of UPS contract negotiations has not yet come to a conclusion. UPS workers are represented by the Teamsters Union, with the largest private sector union contract in the U.S. The UPS Teamsters are comprised of 260,000 members in the UPS package division and UPS freight. These workers occupy a potentially-powerful position in the US economy which, like the rest of the world economy, is driven more and more by logistics and distribution. UPS is still the top logistics corporation in the U.S., though they are facing increasing competition from non-unionized Amazon.

The main point of contention is the creation of a two-tiered hiring system. Under this set-up, there would be regular drivers and so-called “hybrid drivers.” These drivers would deliver packages part-time and do other work for the rest of their shifts. They would not be guaranteed forty hours a week, would receive less pay, and would not be eligible for overtime when working weekends.

On September 7, Teamsters in Louisville, Kentucky, held a “vote-no” rally at a UPS freight operation. At the rally, Local 89 president Fred Zuckerman said, “The big thing is we need to get this rejected.” Zuckerman believes that workers in the union will not go for a system that will drive a wedge between regular drivers and the hybrid drivers. According to some in the union, such a system would ultimately undermine regular drivers as well, since the company would have an incentive to push higher paid, regular drivers out and replace them with hybrid drivers. The deadline for voting is October 5.

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Unions Make Big Gains in Texas

As the present crisis of the capitalist world system continues, we are seeing organized struggle cropping up in places where movements have long seemed dormant. The increasing frequency of labor struggles in the south is a case in point.

Texas is usually described as a “conservative” and pro-business state. Like Louisiana, Texas workers lack many basic legal protections, whereas corporations are allowed to get away with barely paying taxes and health and safety regulations are scant. Texas has a poverty level close to that of Louisiana.

In 2017 alone, 81,000 Texas workers joined unions, increasing the states’ unionization level from 4 percent of the workforce to 4.7 percent. That’s still a low rate compared to some other states, but such growth in a single year is nothing to scoff at. It shows an increasing awareness on the part of the working class that we must organize and fight back.

It looks like the organizing is paying off, too. There have been big pushes for paid sick days in San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas (Austin and San Antonio city councils have now passed ordinances mandating paid sick days, though reactionary state politicians who represent the bosses are challenging them in the courts). With the union, Unite Here!, 500 Hyatt employees won the first ever contract for workers in San Antonio’s famous River Walk tourist area in 2015. Despite challenges from the United Airlines bosses, United catering workers in Houston have made progress and will soon be able to vote on unionization, along with fellow employees in Newark, Denver, San Francisco, and Honolulu

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Grassroots Organizing Does the Trick – Missouri Workers Win Big

If your only source of news is CNN, FOX, MSNBC, or other corporate-owned (and corporate-oriented) media outlets, you would not know much about the organized peoples’ struggles in this country, and around the world, that are, in some cases, making real advances. The recent union victory in Missouri is a case in point. Workers have achieved something really remarkable, with long-range implications.

The labor movement in Missouri galvanized voters to strike down anti-union, and anti-worker “right to work” legislation in an August 7th referendum. The legislation was defeated with a 2-1 margin. 100 out of 114 counties voted it down, with St. Louis voting 88 percent “no.”

“Right to work” is a policy that is designed to take away workers’ rights. By making union membership optional in unionized workplaces, the power of the union is weakened, tilting the scale in favor of big corporations.

The strength or weakness of unions affects all workers, not just union members. This is born out by the fact that – in “right to work” states like Louisiana and Mississippi – workers have lower average wages, more workers uninsured, and higher rates of on-thejob injuries and deaths. In other words, overall conditions for workers are lowered for workers, and poverty is exacerbated, in states with these anti-union laws.

What is, perhaps, most remarkable, is the ways that the unions went about organizing. Over the course of six months, the unions sent out over 1,000 volunteers (mostly rank and file union members) across the state to collect the 100,000 signatures needed to call a referendum. They actually collected over 300,000.

Almost anyone active in movements today understands the need for having a digital media presence. But these recent union campaigns show that meeting people face to face is still one of the most effective ways to organize. Union volunteers knocked on 770,000 doors (think about that for a moment!) and went wherever workers were gathered.

As Labor Notes reported (labornotes.org), “Robert W. Shuler II, a forge operator and president of IUE-CWA Local 86821 in Centralia, recruited 35 members to go to poker runs, the state fair, bike runs, and festivals all summer.”

Shuler says that these efforts have fundamentally changed his union local for the better. “We have more attendance at meetings. People are asking about stuff to do. Something like this gives people hope.”

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Coastal Alabama and Mississippi: Coca-Cola Workers Go on Strike

In August, Coca-Cola workers in coastal Alabama and Mississippi carried out a multi-day strike. The strike – organized by the 250-member Teamsters Local 911 union – has affected four Coca-Cola distribution plants. Workers organized work stoppages in Robertsdale, LeRoy, and Mobile, Alabama, as well as in Ocean Springs, Mississippi.

This has certainly gotten the attention of the Birmingham-based Coca-Cola Bottling Company United Inc. Since the start of the strike, the company has resorted to the classic union-busting tactic of hiring replacement workers, also known as “scabs.” But, the union has stuck to its guns.

On August 13, protesters gathered along U.S. 90 at Coca-Cola Road in Mobile. Picketers carried signs expressing union solidarity and denouncing the company’s scab-hiring maneuvers.

According to the union, the main complaint is starting pay. New hires could see a pay cut of $5-$7 an hour. Union representatives say that with new hires making so much less than current employees, workplace relations will sour. Workers in the same operation will be divided. And, of course, the company will want want to bring in more of the lower wage employees and force out existing employees who are in the $19 an hour range

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“No Union for Fascists” – Sioux Falls AFL-CIO Bans Fascists

The working class movement and fascism have always been opposed to one another. Even though fascists make appeals to sections of the working class – particularly white workers – this is never more than empty rhetoric; for all of Donald Trump’s talk about blue collar workers and reviving coal country, we can see that his administration has done everything they can to undermine workers’ rights, to the benefit of the bosses. Fascism and white supremacy are props that hold up the power of the capitalist class. Fascist power hurts workers, but workers’ power is the weapon that smashes fascism and white supremacy!

The AFL-CIO in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, has reaffirmed this truth. This union local recently amended their constitution, officially banning all fascists and white supremacists from the organization. This move was meant to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the death of Heather Heyer, a union member murdered by a fascist organizer at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.

In a message on their website, Sioux Falls AFL-CIO president, Kooper Caraway, stated: “It is our duty to let our fellow workers know that Fascism, White Supremacy, and its organizations have only ever existed to divide us as workers and do the dirty work of the Boss Class. The White Nationalists have always been bought and paid for by those in power, they exist not to fight for any ideal, but to destroy the progress made by us as working class people. That is why the Sioux Falls AFLCIO voted to Ban all Fascists and White Supremacists from our organization.”

In the statement, Caraway cited the long history of struggle between labor unions and the Klan. In the Jim Crow era, hundreds of union organizers were murdered by the Klan. On the other hand – together with civil rights and black liberation organizations – unions have historically helped to keep the power of the Klan and other vile reactionaries in check

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Puerto Rico Teachers Fight Against Privatization and Low Wages

Members of the Puerto Rico Federation of Teachers marching through San Juan

The people of Puerto Rico (or Borinquén, in the indigenous Taíno language) are in a situation all too familiar to New Orleans. The island is still in a state of crisis nearly a year after Hurricane Maria made landfall, thanks to the criminal negligence of the U.S. colonial government. On top of that, the working class is under intense attack in the form of budget cuts imposed by the federally-appointed Fiscal Control Board.

As with other spheres of life in Puerto Rico, the education system is threatened by the budget cuts. If the Fiscal Control Board has its way, the public educational system will be completely gutted and replaced by private schools.

Educators are resisting, however. They are demanding an end to the school closures as well as increased pay and an overall better allocation of resources to education. On August 15, the Puerto Rican Federation of Teachers carried out a work stoppage and marched through old San Juan. The march started at the Plaza Colón and went to the governor’s office.

According to the union president Mercedes Martinez Padilla, “The public education system,… the students and their teachers, have suffered the most brutal attack in history. Secretary of Education Julia Keleher has decreed the closure of some 450 schools in two years and has reduced the number of educators from 31,000 in 2016 to around 22,500 today. The government is poised to push the creation of dozens of private charter schools, subsidized with public funds.”

So far, over 250 schools have already been closed, including many that were in perfectly functional condition. Instead of keeping these schools open, Keleher is having them spend millions on FEMA trailers for classes that each cost over $42,000. Many special-needs children have not been given assignments. Many children are meeting in gazebos and buildings/trailers without AC and have not been provided with transportation for their new school assignments.

Given these extreme attacks, the educators have much to fight for.

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Labor Briefs for June 2018

GEORGIA BUS DRIVERS STRIKE

After months of meeting with school board officials and being ignored, bus drivers and monitors in DeKalb County, GA went on strike. The workers are currently not unionized. On April 17, driver representatives presented the district superintendent with 50 demands; these included pay raises, fair pay for sick leave days, and reclassification as full-time employees. On April 19, 400 drivers and monitors called in sick. The school board retaliated by firing 7 drivers. The fight for better conditions, and the reinstatement of the fired drivers, is not over. Drivers, parents and supportive organizations held a press conference condemning the school board’s actions. Drivers are also consulting with lawyers about further action in regard to the firings. Whatever happens, the April strike was historic, being the first work stoppage carried out by Atlanta bus drivers since 1980.

DISNEY WORLD WORKERS ORGANIZE

Disney World is not the happiest place on Earth for workers. Many employees of Disney’s parks and resorts can barely afford housing. Long-time Tomorrow Land worker, Mike Beaver, told Shadowproof.com that he has “lived in a motel for two years and nine months,” sharing the room with another staff member. Workers are fighting back, however. A collection of unions represents 38,000 Disney Workers in Florida. A major demand is that the company raise its minimum Florida pay rate from $10 an hour to $15 an hour. Management has offered a 50 cent annual pay bump, which 93% of union members rejected in a December 2017 vote. Disney withheld bonuses up to $1,000 from 41,000 union employees in Florida and California in an attempt to make them cave. In response, the unions filed a federal charge with the Department of Labor against Disney over these tactics. Workers themselves have taken their grievances to the streets. On March 23, hundreds (including hospitality workers, cast members, and custodians) marched to the entrance of Disney Springs in Florida. Demonstrators carried signs chanting, “We work, we sweat, put a raise on our check!”

25,000 to 50,000 Las Vegas Casino Workers Vote to Strike at 34 Resorts

“I’m here to show the younger generations that this is the way we fight to maintain our jobs, job secuirity, health benefits and to gain a pay raise.” – Louis W Thomas, Utility Porter at Tropicana Casino Hotel

South Carolina Short-haul Truck  Drivers Vote to Join Teamster Union

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Teachers and Staff Across the Country Prove that Getting Organized and Going on Strike Works!

Business as usual in this country has been disrupted as a historic teacher strike wave has spread from West Virginia to Oklahoma. Teachers have gone on strike (all in supposedly-conservative states).

Teachers demonstrate in W. Virginia
It began in West Virginia on February 22, after Governor Justice signed legislation giving teachers a 2% pay increase. Teachers knew that this was inadequate to cover living costs and did not address other concerns, such as the long-time, intentional underfunding of public schools. With the support of parents and students, teachers and school staff shut down schools in all 55 counties for nine days. The teachers reached an agreement with the state, resulting in a 5% raise for all state workers and a freeze on raising health insurance costs.

Similar strikes have occurred in Kentucky, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Colorado. In most of these states, it is “illegal” for public sector workers to go on strike. These teachers, are setting an incredible example of courage and determination. All workers—the poor, the oppressed, the unemployed, and imprisoned—can learn from this struggle. When the people get organized and act in unison, major change is possible.

The Latest on Oklahoma
The Oklahoma strike ended on April 11, after nearly two weeks. Oklahoma has been undergoing a crisis of education, as teachers have left the state in recent years due to low wages and underfunded schools where students have been forced to use battered, outdated textbooks and only attend school four days out of the week. The strike has forced the state legislature to raise oil taxes, bringing in $450 million for education. On average, teachers will receive a raise of $6,100 per year as a result of the new funding.

Teachers in Louisiana resist, too
Educators, school staff, students and families face terrible conditions in Louisiana–both in New Orleans and throughout the state. In January, Deyshia Hargrave, a middle school teacher in Vermillion Parish, made national news.
Hargrave stood up at a school board meeting and asked about teacher salaries, saying “I have a serious issue with a superintendent or any person in a position of leadership getting any type of raise. It’s a slap in the face to all the teachers, cafeteria workers, or any other support staff we have. We work very hard with very little to maintain the salaries that we have…We’re doing the work. The students are doing the work. At the top, that’s not where kids learn. It’s in the classroom.”

As a result, Hargrave was handcuffed and removed. Hargrave was not charged, and because of her courage, she received massive support online. A mass rally of educators and supporters was also held in Abbeville. Hargrave was one of the main speakers.