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  • Cómo forzamos que UPS creará empleos a tiempo completo en nuestra sección sindical

    A menudo, lograr una mejora en el contrato es solo la mitad de la batalla; la otra mitad consiste en hacer que se cumpla. Fue una gran victoria en 2023 cuando nuestra campaña nacional por mejoras al contrato logró que la empresa de paquetería UPS eliminara su sistema de dos niveles salariales para los conductores. En el momento en que los conductores del nivel inferior ascendieron a la categoría regular, nuestro centro en Charleston, Carolina del Sur, contaba con 91 conductores de reparto a tiempo completo.

  • Stewards Corner: How We Made UPS Create Full-Time Jobs in Our Local

    Often, winning something in your contract is only half the battle—the other half is enforcing it. It was a huge win in 2023 when our national contract campaign made UPS end its two-tier driver program. After the lower-tier drivers moved up to regular, our center in Charleston, South Carolina, had 91 full-time delivery drivers. But over time, drivers left, and eventually our center dropped down to 75. When we asked management to fill vacant jobs, they said we had adequate staffing.

  • Cómo integrar a más miembros en la vida del sindicato

    Se espera que los activistas sindicales desempeñen múltiples roles: comunicador, defensor, experto en normativa laboral, negociador y mediador. Los compañeros de trabajo confían en ti para plantear cara a la dirección, conocer el contrato y ayudar a encontrar soluciones, incluso cuando un problema laboral no esté contemplado en el contrato colectivo.

  • Letter Carriers Set to Deliver Change in Upcoming Union Election

    A leadership change looks likely in the Letter Carriers (NALC) this fall. Members are mad about low pay and forced overtime, dangerous heat and robberies, the rejected contract imposed last year, the backlog of tens of thousands of grievances, and the president’s secretive approach to bargaining.

  • How Letter Carriers Can Organize to Prevent Smoke Injury

    Letter carriers and other people who work outdoors, especially in the upper Midwest and East, are experiencing hazardous levels of smoke from Canadian wildfires. Some areas have been experiencing AQI (Air Quality Index) measurements of over 300, even over 500, with local authorities advising residents to stay indoors. As temperatures continue to rise from climate change and vegetation dries out and catches fire from lightning, this situation will get worse.

  • Running for Local Union Office: Building a Campaign Team

    An excerpt from Running for Local Union Office: A Labor Notes Guide As your union election approaches, you’re going to have a lot of work to do. Texting and phone banking. Campaigning. Getting all the last-minute details right. Do you want to be doing all that work alone? You can’t run a campaign by yourself, any more than you can run a local by yourself. Strong unions involve rank-and-file members. So do strong campaigns.

  • En la organización sindical, el respeto es lo fundamental

    La solidaridad entre tus compañeras y compañeros de trabajo es tu fuente de poder contra el empleador. Un ingrediente esencial es el respeto. En el ámbito laboral, usualmente no vivimos el respeto, sino la coerción. Por mucho que el jefe nos llame «socios» o asegure que «somos una familia», la relación de empleo es fundamentalmente antidemocrática: el empleador decide y los trabajadores tienen que obedecer.

  • Como superar la apatía en tu lucha sindical

    ¿Alguna vez has sentido que eres la única persona a la que le importa el sindicato? ¿Que ninguno de tus compañeros mueve un dedo para ayudar? ¿Que el lugar de trabajo está estancado en la «apatía»? Es una queja habitual. En los talleres de Labor Notes, a menudo pedimos a los afiliados sindicales que elaboren una lista de las razones por las que la gente no se involucra en su sindicato. Entre las respuestas típicas se incluyen:

  • Rochester Nurses Stood with Their Nonunion Co-Workers—and Stopped Millions in Health Care Cuts

    What should union workers do when their nonunion co-workers come under attack? When our health care system in Rochester, New York, announced deep cuts to employee health benefits last November, “we started hearing from people right away,” said critical care nurse Carmen Camelio, president of the Rochester Union of Nurses & Allied Professionals. “And not just members.

  • ‘Give Me a Chance to Survive’: Workers, Employers Dread Deportations’ Effect on Health Care

    “They killed my cousin,” said the Brooklyn man, a Haitian immigrant in his forties, explaining why he came to the United States four years ago. He asked to remain anonymous for obvious reasons. The situation in Haiti—a catastrophic earthquake in 2010, followed by the collapse of the government and the domination of much of the country by murderous gangs—enabled him to get Temporary Protected Status here. That meant he could stay and work legally, as a housekeeper in a nursing home, and support his family—his wife, who is pregnant, and their two children.

  • World Cup Leverage: California Stadium Workers Win the Right to Strike Over ICE

    In a World Cup-fueled union win, concessions workers at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles have won the right to walk off the job, should ICE pose a threat to their safety. The stadium’s 2,000 cooks, bartenders, dishwashers, servers, and attendants had a major piece of leverage this summer: eight scheduled World Cup matches. Their victory came days after a 96 percent vote to authorize a strike. Their next contract will expire at the end of April 2028, weeks before the Los Angeles Summer Olympics.

  • Power Workers Independence Day Strike Wins Pensions in Pennsylvania

    Workers at PECO, the electric company for the Philadelphia region and Pennsylvania’s largest electric and natural gas utility, went on strike just after midnight on Saturday, July 4, winning a tentative agreement for the 1,500 workers just before midnight on Monday, July 6. They restored defined-benefit pensions for the 600 newer hires who had been relegated to 401(k)s, and won full medical coverage in retirement.

  • Artists: Apply for an Anne Feeney Hellraiser Grant

    Applications are open once again for the Anne Feeney Hellraiser Memorial Fund, this year offering five grants of up to $1,000 for emerging artists of any discipline who create art in support of social movements for justice. Applications open today and are due by August 24. Winners will be announced on Labor Day, September 7. Past applicants are encouraged to reapply.

  • Strike Six: New Orleans Nurses Fight for First Contract

    Two years and six strikes into bargaining—after switching law firms, cancelling negotiation sessions, firing union leaders, and allegedly backing a decertification effort—perhaps it’s dawning on University Medical Center in New Orleans that nurses don’t tire out easily. On May 1 the nurses held their sixth strike—at five days, the longest yet—and their picket lines keep growing. There was dance music blasting, spontaneous line-dancing, boiled crawfish and jambalaya.

  • Still Fighting at 250

    As America turns 250, it’s easy to despair about where we're going. The Labor Notes Conference was a powerful antidote. These 4,000-plus fighters have not given up. They're still fighting. And this country is filled with courageous working people like them, who believe that a better world is possible “I didn’t hear no bell,” says Rocky Balboa, as he miraculously gets up yet again in the midst of a brutal street fight at the end of “Rocky V.” The best union activists have that underdog determination. It’s sewn into the fabric of this country.

  • Learning, Recharging, Uniting at Labor Notes 2026

    In a time when there’s real cause for fear and despair—and when the Trump administration is pushing hard to divide us—the Labor Notes Conference June 12-14 in Chicago was an oasis of inspiration and solidarity.

  • On Eve of Election, UAW's Shawn Fain Stands Up to Government Monitor

    The federal monitor charged with rooting out “fraud, corruption, illegal behavior, dishonesty, and unethical practices” in the Auto Workers union issued a report on June 25 accusing UAW President Shawn Fain of “retaliation” against Vice President Rich Boyer. Earlier reports by Monitor Neil Barofsky had made similar claims regarding Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Mock.

  • On Eve of Elections, UAW's Shawn Fain Stands Up to Government Monitor

    The federal monitor charged with rooting out “fraud, corruption, illegal behavior, dishonesty, and unethical practices” in the Auto Workers union issued a report today accusing UAW President Shawn Fain of “retaliation” against Vice President Rich Boyer. Earlier reports by Monitor Neil Barofsky had made similar claims regarding Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Mock.

  • Los trabajadores por aplicación luchan por hacer valer sus derechos bajo la reforma laboral

    Al grito de, “No somos socios, somos trabajadores”, cientos de trabajadores de todo México que prestan servicios de transporte y reparto a través de las plataformas digitales realizaron un paro laboral de dos horas el 15 de mayo para exigir tarifas justas, un fin a las desconexiones injustificadas, y, en última instancia, un acuerdo colectivo de trabajo con gigantes de las aplicaciones como Uber, Didi y Rappi.

  • Mexico's Gig Workers Fight Efforts to Hollow Out Their Employee Status Win

    Chanting, “We are not partners, we are workers,” hundreds of workers across Mexico who provide rides and deliveries through apps held a two-hour work stoppage on May 15 demanding fair rates, an end to unjustified deactivations, and ultimately, a collective labor agreement with app giants like Uber, DiDi, and Rappi (two Uber Eats-style delivery platforms).

  • Auto Worker Delegates Back Union's Fighting Direction at UAW Convention

    Delegates to the United Auto Workers constitutional convention affirmed this week the aggressive direction the union has taken under President Shawn Fain, who took office in 2023 and immediately set the 400,000-member union on a new path, illustrated in bold campaigns like the Stand Up Strike against the Big 3 automakers.

  • How (and When) to Build a Union Reform Caucus: Advice from a Grocery Worker

    Quick! What do these exciting stories have in common? Educators bringing a new fighting spirit to their unions, from Los Angeles to Chicago to Massachusetts. Members overthrowing corrupt leaders in the Teamsters and the United Auto Workers. Grocery workers and letter carriers rebelling against subpar contracts. Building trade workers organizing to turn their locals around. The answer is union reform caucuses. A reform caucus is simply a group of union members who are organizing together to improve their union and build its power to fight the boss more effectively.

  • American Axle Strikers Set to Win $30 by ’30

    Update, June 16: American Axle workers voted to ratify the contract over the weekend, with 80 percent voting in favor. For years their pay topped out at $22 an hour, max. Now $22 becomes a new hire’s starting pay, under the tentative agreement workers at American Axle reached on Wednesday, after 10 days on strike. Their slogan and demand was “$30 by ‘30.” By 2030 all 1,000 workers in the plant will be making $30 an hour.

  • They Didn’t Wait: California Teachers Strike and Win

    Tens of thousands of California educators joined forces statewide, wagering that they could win more by working together. The result was a wave of strikes this school year that defied narratives of austerity and won better funding.

  • Can Transit Workers Escape the Death Spiral?

    Public transit has been in a deep crisis since the Covid pandemic. Transit systems weren’t adequately funded to begin with. Then, as remote work increased, ridership declined. Now, emergency relief and infrastructure funds passed during the Biden administration have dried up.

  • Trabajador de Honda México logrará su reinstalación tras una lucha de 15 años

    El líder del sindicato de trabajadores de Honda ganó su reinstalación la semana pasada, en una victoria importante para trabajadores que buscan construir sindicatos democráticos en el sector automotriz masivo. Pero tomó 15 años para que José Luis Solorio Alcalá, del Sindicato de Trabajadores Unidos de Honda de México, STUHM, pudiera llegar un paso más cercano a la justicia.

  • Trabajador de Honda México logrará su reinstalación tras una lucha de 15 años.

    El líder del sindicato de trabajadores de Honda ganó su reinstalación la semana pasada, en una victoria importante para trabajadores que buscan construir sindicatos democráticos en el sector automotriz masivo. Pero tomó 15 años para que José Luis Solorio Alcalá, del Sindicato de Trabajadores Unidos de Honda de México, STUHM, pudiera llegar un paso más cercano a la justicia.

  • Honda Mexico Worker Wins Reinstatement After 15-Year Fight

    The leader of Mexico's Honda workers’ union won reinstatement last week, in an important win for workers seeking to build real unions in the country's massive auto sector. But it took 15 years for José Luis Solorio Alcalá, of the Union of United Honda Workers of Mexico (Sindicato de Trabajadores Unidos de Honda de México, STUHM), to get one step closer to justice.

  • Bring Member Power to the Table By Opening Up Bargaining

    Since electing new leadership in 2022, Teamsters Local 135 in Indiana has completely changed the way it conducts negotiations. It’s using open bargaining to revitalize the local. Under the previous leadership, a small bargaining team negotiated behind closed doors. Gag orders ensured that members would know nothing about negotiations until an agreement was presented for a vote.

  • Steward's Corner: Respect Is the Foundation of Organizing

    Solidarity among co-workers is your source of power against the employer. And one essential ingredient for solidarity is respect. In the workplace we typically don’t experience respect—we experience coercion. No matter how much the boss may call us “partners” or claim “we’re a family here,” the employment relationship is fundamentally undemocratic: The employer makes the decisions, and workers are required to comply.

  • ‘We Demand Freedom’: Immigrants on Strike in New Jersey Prison

    On a patch of sidewalk on a busy industrial corridor in Newark, federal agents with rifles, metal batons, flak vests, and balaclavas faced off against unarmed activists with cardboard signs and a bullhorn. Detained workers could be heard on the soccer field behind the prison walls, shouting in Spanish, “¡Libertad!” (Freedom!)

  • In Bus Factories, A Triple-Decker Win

    What does it take to unionize factories today, especially in the South? In the last two years, bus manufacturing workers secured first union contracts and a national master agreement across New Flyer facilities in three states. Their strategy shows how, with pressure from transit agencies that buy the buses, union members from organized sites leading outreach to non-union workers, and fighting stewards on the line, workers can unionize plants across a whole company.

  • Portland Community College Workers Defeat Budget Cuts in Wall-to-Wall Strike

    Two unions representing 2,300 workers at Portland Community College went on strike for three weeks in March. It was the first-ever community college strike in Oregon, and a rare wall-to-wall strike where both educators and support staff walked out together. The strike ended in resounding victory. We won wage increases and protection against cuts to course offerings, and defeated the administration’s attempt to impose budget cuts on the backs of workers and students. Six weeks after we reached a tentative agreement, PCC President Dr. Adrien Bennings resigned.

  • Green Shoots of Hope in the Labor Movement

    Gardeners have a saying about newly planted perennials: “They sleep, then creep, then leap.” Last summer I pulled a lot of grass out of my yard (hard work!) and planted a garden. The new plants stayed small through the winter, gathering strength. Now suddenly my garden is teeming with new leaves. Spring has brought green shoots in the labor movement too. Here are some causes for hope:

  • Green Shoots

    Gardeners have a saying about newly planted perennials: “They sleep, then creep, then leap.” Last summer I pulled a lot of grass out of my yard (hard work!) and planted a garden. The new plants stayed small through the winter, gathering strength. Now suddenly my garden is teeming with new leaves. Spring has brought green shoots in the labor movement too. Here are some causes for hope:

  • May Day Actions Call for 'Workers Over Billionaires'

    On May First—International Workers’ Day—people across the U.S. and the world joined rallies and other actions calling for “Workers over Billionaires.” In the U.S., workers organized over 4,000 May Day actions in big cities and small towns. They focused on three demands: tax the wealthy, no to ICE, and expand democracy, not corporate power.

  • List-Building 101, or How to Expand Your Reach as a Troublemaker

    Effective troublemakers need many skills. One of the most important, though not the most glamorous, is list-building. If you otherwise have the fundamentals of organizing in place but you’re still struggling to reach more people, make sure you’re paying attention to your list and not leaving an opportunity on the table.

  • As Contract Deadline Looms, Auto Parts Workers Say ‘No Axles, No Trucks!’

    Axles are to vehicles what joints are to human bodies: the mechanism that facilitates movement. For parts worker Rosie Dodge, who has worked on a paint line for American Axle & Manufacturing for 10 years, the metaphor is embodied in the work environment. “They just do not treat us like people,” Dodge said. “We are often referred to as bodies, like they don’t even want to give us credit for having a pulse. They do what they call ‘manpower moves,’ and they say, ‘We just need bodies over here.’”

  • Secrets of a Successful Organizer Now Available in Nine Languages

    We are happy to report that Secrets of a Successful Organizer has now been translated into eight languages: Spanish, Japanese, German, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Swedish, Danish, Quebecois French, and, most recently, Korean. (See below for details on how to get copies.) We’ve also heard from union activists in Brazil, Norway, and Poland who are interested in translating it.

  • La gerencia les cobraba 100 dólares semanales por trabajar, alegan los trabajadores. Pero están luchando por sus derechos.

    Cuando Evelyn comenzó a trabajar en Marder Trawling, un centro de procesamiento de mariscos en New Bedford, Massachusetts, se enteró de una condición de trabajo inusual: tendría que pagar discretamente a su gerente $100 dólares semanales por el privilegio de trabajar, dijo. “Yo no tenía trabajo, y tengo a mis niños. Yo le dije, ‘Está bien. Con tal de tener un trabajo.’

  • Management Charged Them $100 a Week to Work, Workers Say. They’re Fighting Back.

    When Evelyn began work at New Bedford, Massachusetts, seafood processing center Marder Trawling, she learned of an unusual condition of employment: She’d need to quietly pay her manager $100 per week for the privilege of working, she said. “I didn’t have work, and I have kids,” she said. “So I told him, ‘All right,’ just to have a job. “There were times I didn’t have money for rent, bills, or food for my kids,” she told Labor Notes, but her manager was happy to oblige: she could skip a week’s payment, and owe $200 the next week.

  • Management Charged Them $100 a Week to Work, Workers Say. They’re Fighting Back.

    When Evelyn began work at New Bedford, Massachusetts, seafood processing center Marder Trawling, she learned of an unusual condition of employment: She’d need to quietly pay her manager $100 per week for the privilege of working, she said. “I didn’t have work, and I have kids,” she said. “So I told him, ‘All right,’ just to have a job. “There were times I didn’t have money for rent, bills, or food for my kids,” she told Labor Notes, but her manager was happy to oblige: she could skip a week’s payment, and owe $200 the next week.

  • Rutgers Labor Center to Celebrate Life and Legacy of Tony Mazzocchi

    In the 1960s and 70s, conservative leaders of the AFL-CIO and many national unions viewed militant activists in the civil rights, anti-war, environmental, and women’s movements with alarm. When student radicals started migrating from campus and community organizing to unionized workplaces, labor officials did not welcome them.

  • It’s Our Money: Union Members Fight for Good Public Pension Investments

    Union members in many states and cities are pushing for a stronger voice in pension investments. And sometimes they’re actually winning: They’re holding pension boards accountable and advocating for investments that insure worker protections, climate resiliency, and decent retirement benefits.