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Uber and Lyft Drivers Strike in Los Angeles

Drivers for Uber and Lyft picketing at Uber’s Los Angeles headquarters.

On March 27, hundreds of Uber and Lyft drivers staged a one-day strike to protest cuts that Uber made to drivers’ pay rates. As the company goes on a spending spree buying up its competitors around the world  (Uber just shelled out $3.1 billion to buy out a competitor company based in Dubai), struggling drivers in Los Angeles and part of nearby Orange County are having their per-mile compensation cut by 25 percent. There are an estimated 30,000 full-time app-based drivers in Los Angeles alone.

The strike was organized by LA Rideshare Drivers United, an organization with a membership of nearly 3,000 drivers in Los Angeles. They are demanding a $27.86 minimum (pre-expenses) hourly rate and a 10 percent cap on the commission that the companies take for each fare. This follows the recent success of organized workers in New York City who won a $17.22/hr wage (after expenses)— the first minimum pay rate for app-based drivers in the country. The Independent Drivers Guild, which represents about 70,000 app-based drivers in New York City, expects its full time drivers to get an extra $9,600 a year from the pay raise.

Because Uber and Lyft have gotten away with classifying workers as independent contractors, the companies haven’t had to pay minimum wages to their employees or provide them with overtime, workers’ comp, family leave or sick pay. In fact, the majority of app-based drivers make less than the minimum wage in their state. But the drivers won’t stand for it much longer; they have shown that when they get organized for a fight, they can win.

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Mexican Walmart Workers Threaten to Strike, Get 5% Pay Raise

Walmart México has agreed to give workers a 5.5% annual pay increase and a productivity bonus linked to sales after 8,500 workers threatened to go on strike.

Earlier in March, the Revolutionary Confederation of Laborers and Farmworkers (CROC) had announced the strike, which was set to begin on March 21st and was to cover ten states.

Significantly, this announcement came on the heels of another strike wave that began in northern Mexico in January. That strike wave began in the auto plants, then spread to a Coca-Cola bottling plant and Walmart stores in Matamoros and several other northern cities. The result of those actions is that thousands of factory workers won 20% pay increases and annual bonuses of 32,000 pesos (US $1,650); that is, after the work stoppages cost the bosses an estimated $50 million a day!

As for the Walmart workers, the pay increase and bonus arrangement are big wins, as this section of workers is highly exploited. The primarily women cashiers and other low-ranking employees currently earn, on average 140 and 150 pesos (US $7 to $7.50) per day. They are also not enrolled in medical insurance or retirement schemes. According to the National Association of Shop and Private Office Workers, Walmart discriminates against pregnant women, doesn’t abide by the right to an eight-hour working day, breaks the law by not paying overtime, and dismisses workers unfairly.

The workers have achieved gains simply by threatening to strike, demonstrating their collective power, which is potentially massive. René Sasores Barea, the union’s secretary general, said, “The winds of change are blowing and . . . employers must understand that.”

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1.4 Million Students Hold Global Strike to Demand Climate Change Action Now!

Thousands of middle and high school students walked out of class in Sydney, Australia, kicking off a day of global youth-led protests demanding action on climate change.

By Nathalie Clarke

While capitalist politicians and billionaires twiddle their thumbs and hoard more wealth stolen off the backs of the working-class, students across the world are organizing and protesting elites’ inaction in the face of global climate change. On March 15th, an estimated 1.4 million students from across the world—from Nigeria to New Orleans—walked out of their schools. These internationally coordinated protests—the largest in 16 years—were organized entirely by the students themselves, and took place in 120 countries, 2,000 cities, and on every single continent including Antarctica.

Because our society prioritizes profit over the health and well-being of humans and our planet, species are going extinct at an unparalleled rate, and an estimated 210 million people have been displaced by rising sea levels and climate change-related disasters. Many of the students carried signs and banners directly connected the current ecological crisis with capitalism with slogans such as “Capitalism is killing the planet; kill capitalism;” or “Profit or future.”

Proposals such as the “Green New Deal,” are of great interest to many youth, but we cannot count on Congress to enact anything useful without a mass struggle—and certainly not without a militant struggle against US military spending and imperialist war. While we fight to push back to ultimately to save the planet, the humans and all species, we must rid ourselves of the capitalist system we live under. The super-rich extract every last resource from every human, animal, and plant on Earth in order to fill their pockets and maximize their profits. There’s no compromising with their greed.

March 15: Students from Lusher Middle and High School walked out of school to protest politicians’ inaction on climate change.

These student walkouts illustrate how powerful mass mobilizations of people can be. What if every single lab technician in a refinery or half the workers on the oil rigs across the Gulf South walked out of their jobs and demanded jobs in clean renewable energy? Our planet does not belong to the elites who poison our water, soil, and air. The planet belongs to us, those who have nothing to sell except our labor, those of us who toil in fields, and offices, and kitchens, and restaurants. When we are truly united—one band, one sound, despite our many differences—we win. We just need to wake up and see our power.

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LA Teachers and Staff Win Strike

In Los Angeles, 34,000 school personnel went on strike and won. In the face of attacks from a pro-corporate school board with an agenda to charterize the school district, these educators went on the offensive.

They secured a new union contract, won concessions (including smaller class sizes), and stopped the charter school agenda in its tracks, affirming that public schools are not only the lifeblood of education, but the heart of the community. They won a statewide moratorium on new charter schools.

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is the second largest school district in the country, serving 694,000 students, most of whom come from low-income, working class families; 90% are students of color.  Strikers included not only teachers, but nurses, counselors, librarians, and other school staff. This is the first LA school district strike since 1989. It comes almost one year after the teacher strike wave started in West Virginia swept the country.

The victory is even more impressive when we understand just how rotten the LAUSD school board is. Although is board is elected, its members are bought and paid for by the rich. Corporate interest groups pumped $13 million into the last election. Much of it came from the Walton family (the owners of Walmart). Their hand-picked superintendent is Austin Beutner, a former Wall Street banker who worked for the U.S. State Department to help the rich seize the state assets of Russia once counterrevolution had defeated the USSR. Beutner’s plan was for LAUSD was to carve up the district into clusters and then sell off “weak performers” as if they were stock portfolios.

We may be used to thinking that the rich vultures will always get their way, but this amazing movement has shown that old fashioned organizing—and especially going on strike—empowers working class people to take on the 1% and win.

Unity and community support did the trick. Large numbers of teachers were joined by parents and students at the picket lines. Over 50,000 people participated on the first day.

New Orleanians should take note of what is possible in the struggle for education. The situation in New Orleans may be worse, but privatization is not irreversible.

Last month, the first ever charter school teacher strike went down in Chicago and the teachers’ union won a new contract with major concessions. This shows that it is possible to wage struggle in places where the charter movement has seemed to have triumphed. Last month, over 200 New Orleanians packed into a school board meeting, protesting the planned conversion of McDonogh 35 into a charter school. The anger over the intentional destruction of public education is still intense here in the city. This anger must be organized into action.

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Domestic Workers Push to Pass Bill of Rights

The National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) has introduced new legislation at the federal level that could be game-changing for domestic workers across the country. This National Domestic Worker Bill of Rights, if passed, would dramatically increase legal protection for domestic workers, as well as increase potential earnings.

The U.S. has some 2 million domestic workers, including caregivers for children and the elderly, as well as house-cleaners. Although domestic workers greatly contribute to the economy, they are currently excluded from most protections that have been won by other sectors of workers. Conditions for domestic workers are currently dismal. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the mean hourly wage for housekeepers is only $11.84 per hour. A major 2013 study from the Economic Policy Institute found that 23.4% of domestic workers live below the poverty line, and 93.1% are women. Domestic workers are also disproportionately immigrants.

The new bill is co-sponsored by Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Sen. Kamala Harris, but the momentum has come from the grassroots. The legislation is based upon recommendations from domestic worker organizers, and is similar to bills that have already been passed in eight states and in Seattle.

If passed, the Bill of Rights would include domestic workers in Civil Rights and Occupational Health and Safety Act protections. It would also create requirements for fair scheduling, meal and rest breaks, written contracts and protection from employer retaliation. It would also increase access to retirement benefits, paid sick leave, healthcare, and occupational training programs. The bill would make live-in domestic workers eligible for overtime pay. Importantly, domestic workers would also be given increased collective bargaining rights, making unionization easier.

It should be noted that the potential power of domestic workers is tremendous and growing. For example, by 2030–because of an aging population—caregiving is predicted to represent the largest segment of the U.S. workforce.

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The Prison Strike Is Over But The Fight Is Not

Banner reads End Prison Slavery, Support Prison Strike, Aug 21 – Sept 9

By C.T.

Prisons are one of the biggest systems in the US that cash out on hurting Black, Brown and poor white people in the US. People in prison are also forced to work for pennies a day while making corporations rich. This system of slavery is legal in the US because of the 13th amendment. The 13th amendment was written after the Civil War to lock up Black people making prisons the new plantations and prisoners the new enslaved.

From August 21 to September 9, prisoners across the US organized work and commissary boycotts, hunger strikes and other protests to demand better living conditions and the right of every prisoner to apply for parole as well as other improvements. This was a truly amazing protest because prisoners cannot just call each other on the phone, send a text, email or Facebook message whenever they want. Additionally, reporters do not want to write stories that are hard to verify. This means that many major newspapers were not interested in covering the strike because it is simply too hard to reach prisoners, especially when they are being punished inside the prison for being a part of the strike. Some newspapers even made up lies about the strike to make it seem less powerful than it was.

From what we know, prisoners were able to strike across over a dozen states; many were put in solitary confinement and even transferred to other prisons as punishment for fighting against injustice.

Yet the strike went on and people all over the US have been trying to support the strike by calling prisons, writing letters, protesting outside of prisons and showing support and bringing attention to the strike anyway they can. In New Orleans, the People’s Assembly and Workers Group held a solidarity protest in front of the Orleans Parish Prison on Aug 21st. During the last week of the strike, a banner was put up on I-10 facing the prison that demanded ‘the end of prison slavery.’ Celebrities like J. Cole used their platform to shine a light on the strike and murals supporting the strike can be found across the US.

Although the strike is over, there are still so many ways to support our brothers and sisters in prison that are fighting for a better life.

To learn more you can find information on: https://incarceratedworkers.org https://www.facebook.com/BlkJailhouselawyer/

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Indian Tea Farmers Strike for Living Wage

Starting on Tuesday, August 7, Indian tea farmers went on strike in the Himalayan foothills of West Bengal state. Workers demanded an increase in daily wages. The unions planned the strike to coincide with monsoon season, which is peak production time. This is in order to exert maximum pressure on the tea estate owners and the government.

Aloke Chakraborty, president of the central committee of the United Union of Plantation Workers stated: “More than 400,000 workers from around 370 tea gardens are participating in the three-day strike. The minimum daily wage for a worker at the plantation is 169 rupees ($2.46). We have demanded a 20% raise to 203 rupees ($2.96).”

The tea plantation system in India is a holdover from the colonial era. Since the time of British rule, tea has remained a major Indian export, generating great wealth for the big tea companies and landowners at the expense of the farmers. These plantations are frequently in the news because of low wages and other abuses. Tea farmers are often from the ranks of India’s most oppressed ethnic minorities and face an uphill battle just to survive. Nevertheless, they have increasingly commanded national attention in recent years as they have organized for access to clean water and other basic rights. The recent strike could indicate an upturn in the movement in West Bengal.

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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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Operation PUSH: Florida Prisoners Plan Strike

Prisoners spread throughout the Florida Department of Corrections have announced a strike starting on MLK Day. The strike is aimed at undermining the exploitative, racist prison system. The prisoners have contacted the Gainesville chapter of the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC) and the national Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons with a list of demands. These include

  1. Payment for our labor, rather than the current slave arrangement
  2. Ending outrageous canteen prices
  3. Reintroducing parole incentives to lifers

Secondary goals:

  • Honor the moratorium on state executions, as a court ordered the state to do, without the legal loophole now being used to kill prisoners on death row.
  • Stop the overcrowding and acts of brutality committed by officers throughout FDOC which have resulted in the highest death rates in prison history.
  • Expose the extreme environmental conditions we face, including mold, contaminated water, and being placed next to toxic sites .

More info at incarceratedworkers.org