Labor Notes

Union Members Distribute Food for Federal Workers

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 19:18:08 +0000

More than a dozen volunteers gathered on November 14 at the Community Resource Center in North Charleston for a large-scale food distribution aimed at supporting federal employees reeling from the effects of the recent government shutdown.

Organizers described the event as an early step in building a broader “Federal Worker Fightback” to stop job and service cuts and the erosion of worker power.

The collaboration brought together volunteers from several labor and community organizations, including the Charleston Central Labor Council, the Charleston Worker Center, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, the National Council of Negro Women, Longshore (ILA) Local 1422, the Machinists, the South Carolina AFL-CIO, the A. Philip Randolph Institute, Government Employees (AFGE) Local 3627, and Local 1199B, which led the 1969 Charleston hospital strike.

Coordinators emphasized that the mix of labor-based groups was critical: the intention was not charity, they said, but solidarity—workers stepping up for one another during a period of political crisis and economic strain.

HUNDREDS OF BAGS OF GROCERIES

Throughout the day, volunteers sorted, loaded, and distributed hundreds of bags of groceries stuffed with fresh eggs, meat, and produce.

They also delivered 60 bags of food to Department of Homeland Security employees at Charleston International Airport. Though unpaid, the DHS workers were unable to leave their posts to drive to the distribution site.

Turnout—among both volunteers and recipients—was strongest when co-workers encouraged one another to participate, a pattern organizers said will guide future actions. Expanding participation among sectors such as the U.S. Postal Service, the Park Service, the Veterans Administration, the Department of Defense, and Social Security will be essential.

DEEPER CRISIS UNRESOLVED

Federal workers arriving at the center shared stories of being forced to work without pay, mounting bills, and weeks of uncertainty. April Lott, President of the Charleston Central Labor Council and Charleston Workers Center, said those conversations underscored the need for a more organized and sustained response. She encouraged anyone wanting to get involved in this emerging work to call 843-513-8723 or email info[at]charlestonalliance[dot]org.

Federal workers may be back on the job, but with another shutdown looming, the deeper crisis remains unresolved. Back pay may help families regain their footing, but it does little to counter the long-term cuts to federal jobs and services—reductions that many consider illegal or illegitimate.

Real change, organizers insist, will require federal employees themselves to shape the political response.

In that regard, the Charleston region may prove critical. The area is home to roughly 11,000 federal employees, the largest concentration of federal workers in South Carolina, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

Organizers thus view November 14 as more than a food distribution. It offered a glimpse of what coordinated, worker-led action can look like in the Lowcountry.

Kerry Taylor is a member of the Charleston Worker Center.

From Temp Trap to Union Jobs: Building Pathways for Workers with Criminal Records

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 18:50:52 +0000

During a factory organizing drive, the Steelworkers in Chester, South Carolina, saw how criminal legal barriers were undermining its organizing efforts. Many of the workers had felony records and were afraid of losing their jobs, while others in the community were barred from getting these jobs in the first place.

So the union established a worker center, the Chester Worker Empowerment Center, that now provides record-sealing and expungement support, among other offerings.

Unions like this one are beginning to recognize that there is no path to transforming the conditions of work in this country without addressing the impacts of incarceration.

Each year, the 114 million people with criminal records power the American economy. They load trucks, stock shelves, fix roads, prepare food, and build cities. They are the invisible backbone of the industries that keep this country running.

The dominant narrative is that people coming home from jail or prison “can’t find work.” The truth is more insidious: people with records are working—often in the lowest-paid, most dangerous jobs in the country, precisely because they have records.

The carceral system orders people to work, while setting them up to fail. About 80 percent of people released from state prisons nationwide are placed on supervision, such as probation, which mandates employment while making steady work nearly impossible through requirements like random drug tests and mandatory in-person check-ins during business hours.

THE TEMP TRAP

That’s where the blue-collar temp industry comes in. Temp agencies promise what other employers won’t: fast placement with no background checks, a ride, a badge, and quick pay. When bills and court fees pile up, they are one of the few doors that open quickly enough. In South Florida, roughly 70 percent of people returning from prison or jail go to temp agencies to find work.

Temp agencies aggressively recruit people with records at probation offices and jails, negotiate agreements with reentry organizations and halfway houses to provide work for people enrolled in their programs, and then pocket federal subsidies such as the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, which are meant to incentivize second-chance hiring.

Temp work spans nearly every industry, but people with records are typically funneled into temp jobs at construction sites, warehouses, food processing and light industrial facilities, and manufacturing shops. Employers, meanwhile, use temp agencies to bypass background checks, shift legal liability, dodge unions, and drive labor costs as low as possible.

And despite the name, this work is rarely temporary. Many workers remain in the same job, through the same agency, for years or decades—what we call the Temp Trap.

The temp industry is part of a larger transformation of the labor market over the last 50 years, from long-term, direct-hire jobs with benefits and high unionization rates to jobs that are short-term and precarious, with lower wages, fewer protections, and more barriers to collective action.

The industry’s explosive growth has moved in lockstep with the rise of mass incarceration over the same time period. If we want a stronger labor movement, we have to address the impact of incarceration on the labor market by:

(1) Raising standards in the temp industry, and
(2) Building real pathways for workers with records into union jobs.

These objectives reinforce each other. Raising standards in the temp industry is in unions’ interest, because temp agencies undercut unionized contractors with cheaper, disposable labor and drive a race to the bottom. And expanding pathways into union jobs gives workers an alternative to exploitative temp jobs.

RAISING TEMP STANDARDS

Across the South, aggressive preemption laws block cities and counties from raising standards through local ordinances, while hostile state legislatures make statewide reform nearly impossible.

That means the strongest strategy is to organize where the real power lies: at the workplaces themselves, through enforceable agreements that employers cannot preempt away.

Traditional union drives targeting a single temp agency don’t work. Temp agencies control dispatch and payroll, while host employers control job sites, schedules, workloads, and the actual conditions workers experience.

In any major metro area, dozens of temp agencies compete for contracts with host employers; if one raises wages, host employers simply flip to a cheaper competitor. In short, host employers dictate contract terms.

That is why we have to target both temp agencies and their clients together, taking a page from SEIU’s Justice for Janitors campaign model.

BUILDING TEMP COMMITTEES

Breaking the Temp Trap starts with building lists of workers across blue-collar temp agencies.

Accessing temp workers is notoriously challenging: worksites are isolated, co-workers have weak ties, few unions exist to facilitate contact, and workers are dispersed, transported by agencies, or fearful of retaliation due to records or immigration status.

As a result, in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Leon counties in Florida, Beyond the Bars is training members to salt (get jobs in) temp agencies and worksites, pull contacts from reentry programs and halfway houses, canvass using publicly available jail-release records, and map worker networks across sites and neighborhoods.

From there, we are building temp committees where workers across multiple agencies track violations, compare conditions, and develop collective demands. These committees become engines for leadership development and escalation.

The work then expands outward to the host employers that actually control conditions. We are mapping out corporate networks that connect temp agencies to major warehouses, construction contractors, and manufacturers; engaging temps and direct hires in wall-to-wall organizing; and identifying firms most vulnerable to pressure.

GOAL: MULTI-EMPLOYER STANDARDS

Workers can escalate collectively through coordinated complaints, OSHA and wage-and-hour filings, media exposure, and direct action at both temp agencies and their corporate clients, while also developing capital strategies to increase leverage.

Host employers can be pushed to adopt high-road practices, including refusing to contract with agencies with major violations; providing real pathways to direct hire; ending permatemping and abusive placement fees; adopting fair-chance hiring policies; giving temps the same safety training and protections as direct hires; guaranteeing owed wages if an agency withholds them; and embedding labor-standards codes of conduct into temp contracts.

The goal is to win multi-employer standards, common wages, benefits, safety protections, and fair-chance hiring rules, so companies cannot undercut each other by racing to the bottom.

PATHWAY TO A UNION JOB

Because temp agencies are often the only option available to people with records, building alternative pathways to stable, dignified employment is essential. The best way to do this is with unions—the only large-scale, dues-funded membership organizations that have the mandate and capacity to transform work.

Unions can partner with worker and reentry organizations to create pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs tailored to the challenges of reentry.

In New Orleans, UNITE HERE’s Education and Support Fund launched a training program to place formerly incarcerated workers into union jobs in the hospitality industry.

In Washington state, Ironworkers locals partnered with the Trades Related Apprenticeship Coaching program to fast-track incarcerated women directly into union apprenticeships, removing intake delays that often push people into low-wage work upon release.

In New York City, Laborers (LIUNA) Local 79 recruits formerly incarcerated workers into union apprenticeship programs in the building trades. The union also advanced legislation at the city and state levels to bring transparency and accountability to “body shops,” temp agencies in the construction industry that target workers who are on parole.

And in Providence, Rhode Island, Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 328 and Co-op Rhody are collaborating to support the launch of several unionized, worker-owned cannabis dispensaries that provide union jobs for formerly incarcerated workers, creating a rare model that links reentry with employee ownership.

Unions can also push businesses to prioritize temps for direct-hire positions and incorporate fair-chance hiring policies into their business practices, making it easier for workers to get hired into union jobs in the first place.

In coalition with other organizations, SEIU Local 26 pushed Target, one of the largest property owners in Minneapolis where it organizes janitorial and security workers, to adopt “ban the box” policies to protect workers from hiring discrimination based on a criminal record.

SUPPORT MEMBERS WITH RECORDS

Many unions already include large numbers of members with records—in sanitation, construction, warehouses, food service, and more.

Unions can collect demographic data about their members’ records and offer benefits tailored to their needs, such as record-sealing and probation-termination support or transportation and legal assistance to help members maintain stable employment. They can also ensure that workers covered by their bargaining unit can meet supervision and court requirements without risking termination.

32BJ SEIU’s South Florida Cleaning Contractors Agreement ensures that immigrant workers can comply with their legal obligations without losing their jobs or seniority, an approach that could be adapted to workers navigating criminal court and supervision requirements.

Other locals include contract language that protects workers from being disciplined or fired solely because they were arrested or incarcerated.

ORGANIZE TEMPS FROM WITHIN

Finally, unions can organize temp workers from within. Unions as well as non-unionized workers engaged in organizing efforts can request information from employers on their use of temps, the agencies they deal with, and their service agreements with temp agencies, which employers are legally bound to comply with.

Unions can form temp worker committees, monitor the use of temps in their shops, invite temps to union meetings to open lines of communication, negotiate contract provisions that mandate conversion to direct hire after 60 days, monitor shop-floor treatment, hold social and educational events for temp workers, and petition the National Labor Relations Board to accrete temps into existing units.

In 2022, IUE-CWA and the Steelworkers joined with other labor and community organizations in an Alabama-based coalition to negotiate a community benefits agreement with a factory in Anniston, Alabama. At the time, the plant had a significant temp workforce, so the agreement contained requirements that helped workers with criminal records get hired directly, the first effort of its kind in the country.

Within two years, the workers had unionized and won a strong new contract that increased their pay up to 38 percent.

By raising standards in the temp industry and building pathways for workers with records into union jobs, we can create a labor market where stability and dignity aren’t reserved for the few. If we fail to organize these workers, we surrender the terrain on which the future of work, and the possibility of freedom, is being built.

Maya Ragsdale is co-executive director of Beyond the Bars, a Florida-based organization of workers with records building power together. For more organizing strategies and public policy recommendations, see Beyond the Bars' full report, The Temp Trap, based on two years of intensive field research supplemented by analysis of employment and correctional data and a review of existing literature.

One Battle After Another: The Big Contract Fights Coming in 2026

Keith Brower Brown, Natascha Elena Uhlmann — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 21:54:06 +0000

The coming year could keep the strikes rolling through steel mills, state offices, telephone lines, axle plants, baseball diamonds, and hospitals from coast to coast. Union contracts expiring in 2026 could open up major fights by manufacturing, education, entertainment, and government workers.

FIBER AND WIRES

The contract covering 20,000 Verizon workers in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic expires on August 1. Since their seven-week strike in 2016, the Communications Workers and Electrical Workers (IBEW) have agreed with the company on two contract extensions—but not this year.

Retiree health care is a major issue. At the start of 2026, Verizon retirees who are not yet eligible for Medicare face huge increases in their health care premiums. Verizon has not hired much over the past 20 years, as technological changes—including the move to fiber optics and wireless—have dramatically reduced the workforce. Most remaining workers are retirement-eligible, with either 30 years of service or a combined 75 years of service plus age. Another issue is that more recent hires form a lower tier, with weaker layoff protections, pensions, and retiree health care benefits than earlier hires.

CWA also has three contracts coming up with AT&T next year. The AT&T Mobility “Orange” contract, covering 9,000 workers, the biggest of the four contracts in the company’s wireless arm, expires February 13. And AT&T contracts covering 5,000 wireline (landline and fiber) workers in the Midwest and another 2,200 wireline workers across the country expire April 11.

The contract covering 3,500 Teamsters at DHL is up on March 31. Last time around, members won what the union celebrated as the most “financially lucrative agreement” in the history of that contract. It included protections against inward-facing cameras in delivery vehicles. That same day, the Teamsters First Student contract expires, covering 17,000 school bus drivers, attendants, and monitors nationwide.

Construction sector contracts expire for 12,000 Electrical Workers in Los Angeles on June 30. A month later, contracts are up for 1,200 fellow IBEW members in Richmond, California, many of whom work at oil refineries.

“In the next six months, there's going to be a lot more members involved, and the goal is to keep them that way,” said Chris Bonfilio, president of the young worker committee in the L.A. local. Bonfilio expects that a rank-and-file contract campaign, hopefully in concert with officers, will reinvigorate the fight for more paid time off, increased overtime pay, and jobsite safety.

MANUFACTURING

The national oil refinery pattern agreement for nearly 30,000 Steelworkers will expire January 31. The union struck at major refineries in 2015 and 2022 over wages, safety, and staffing demands. This round, the bargaining team aims to win first-time provisions barring A.I. from displacing, monitoring, or automatically disciplining members.

On May 15, contracts expire for 4,400 aluminum workers, members of the Steelworkers, at Alcoa and Arconic plants in Indiana, New York, and Tennessee.

United Auto Workers members at car part suppliers come due for a string of expirations, beginning with 2,500 members at Nexteer building steering controls, followed by 1,200 at Bridgewater Interiors in May. Contracts expire at five American Axle shops throughout the year, including in May for 1,000 workers at a growing Michigan plant. Members there aim to regain the $28-an-hour wages they had before 2008, and set a pattern for other plants to follow.

Some 25,000 Steelworkers at Cleveland Cliffs and US Steel mills, largely in the Midwest, have contracts expiring on September 1. This will be the first Big Steel contract bargaining since Nippon Steel acquired US Steel this year, and securing jobs at unionized steel plants will be a top worker priority.

In October, contracts will expire for 17,000 Boeing engineers and techs in the Seattle area, members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace.

In May, the contract expires for a thousand UAW members building heavy agricultural machines at Case New Holland in Iowa and Wisconsin. The union is demanding that the company commit to keeping the Iowa factory open.

“The agriculture market in the U.S. is very slow and lethargic right now,” said Keenan Bell, president of the union local at Bridgestone in Des Moines. “They’re not doing well, and we’re not doing well, especially with tariffs changing every month.” But Bell thinks the union can win raises, ease attendance policies for members with kids, and ensure that workers won’t be fired if their work visas expire.

In late July, national master contracts will expire at key firms in the rubber and tire industry, covering 4,000 Steelworkers at five Goodyear plants and 2,400 members at four Bridgestone-Firestone plants. Five hundred members at Yokohama in Virginia will follow in September.

PUBLIC SECTOR FIGHTS

Over 300,000 municipal workers in New York City have contracts up in 2026, just as a labor-backed mayor arrives in office. Some 50,000 New York state workers, largely in professional and technical roles, have a contract expiring April 1.

The contract expires for 96,000 Service Employees (SEIU) workers for the State of California on June 30. Giovanni Martinez, who works at the Housing and Community Development office, says a statewide stewards network is holding lunchtime meetings with union members, and has found that cost-of-living raises and restoring telework options are popular demands.

The nationwide contract for 16,000 National Nurses United (NNU) members at Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics is technically due to expire in May. Trump has ordered federal managers to ignore contracts for a million workers, so bargaining a new deal may be tough. But the date may become a lightning rod for nurses to force the issue.

Expiring in May is the three-year contract for 200,000 city Letter Carriers (NALC), which took so long to bargain that it was mostly retroactive, awarded by an arbitrator last March after members voted down a tentative agreement. After the groundswell of “vote no” sentiment and a bottom-up campaign for more transparent bargaining, the union leadership is doing a bit more to involve members this time, starting with a bargaining survey.

Still ongoing are the 2025 negotiations for a smaller postal union, the 50,000-member Mail Handlers.

GROCERY WORKERS

In February, a contract covering 30,000 Food & Commercial Workers at New England grocery giant Stop & Shop is set to expire. In 2019, a strike by 31,000 members beat back a plan to double out-of-pocket expenses and increase health premiums by 90 percent. The company, which shuttered 32 stores last year, could seek similar concessions this time around.

A contract covering 19,500 UFCW Local 99 members across 123 Fry’s stores (owned by Kroger) in Arizona expires in March. In May, a UFCW Local 75 contract covering 20,000 Ohio Kroger workers is up. Short staffing is a priority, said member Mason Wyss.

And in June, about 14,000 UFCW Local 876 members at Kroger in Michigan could walk out if they don't reach an agreement.

FREE SPEECH

The Trump administration’s sweeping attack on political speech has chilled campuses and schools across the country. Educators have been fired over social media posts about political commentator Charlie Kirk. Pro-Palestine students and teachers have had their visas revoked, and some still face deportation. Many are turning to their unions as a line of defense.

On August 15, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Graduate Employees’ Organization (AFT Local 6300) contract will expire. The bargaining unit doubled to 6,000 people over the summer when research assistants voted to join the union with teaching assistants and graduate assistants. Grace Garmire, a steward in the physics department, said workers need to codify the protections that grad workers have in practice, but not on paper.

The University of California’s contract with 29,000 academic student employees (UAW Local 4811) is up December 31, 2025. With federal funding under threat, job security and pay are priorities. The union is also fighting to protect immigrant members, including through paid leave for workers stuck outside the U.S., rehiring rights for those who lose their work authorization, and protections against ICE on campus.

“Management has to pick a side,” said Tanzil Chowdhury, a graduate student researcher and bargaining committee chair. “Are they going to stand with the workers and help us withstand this onslaught from the Trump administration?”

Members are bargaining alongside 7,000 research and public service professionals (RPSP-UAW) and 4,800 student services and advising professionals (SSAP-UAW), both fighting for first contracts. “Many of us saw co-workers essentially kicked to the curb as soon as their project lost funding, often without severance or layoff rights,” said field researcher Carolina Cormack Orellana, a bargaining team member.

At Brown University, 1,000 graduate student workers (Graduate Labor Organization, AFT) have a contract up on June 30. Academic freedom is a priority. The Brown administration “is trying to take advantage of a crisis to impose austerity on all workers on campus,” said Michael Ziegler, executive director of AFT Local 6516.

In June, contracts will expire at the majority of public higher ed campuses in Oregon. First come 2,000 educators and staff across eight community colleges, then 3,000 library technicians, food servers, and other staff represented by SEIU Local 503 at seven state universities.

HEALTH CARE

The contract for 80,000 nurses, aides, and other health care workers at New York’s League of Voluntary Hospitals will expire on September 30. The deal often sets the pattern for fellow SEIU members in health care in the region.

At Kaiser in Northern California, 24,600 National Nurses United members have a contract expiring in August. Company revenues surged more than 10 percent this year, while multiple unions waged strikes over safe staffing and pay.

BASEBALL, TV, AND MORE

The Major League Baseball Players Association contract expires December 1, 2026. Owners will likely continue their crusade to impose a salary cap: Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred stoked outrage when he proposed that a lockout could be “a positive.” But this is a fight the baseball bosses have lost time and time again.

“While 30 billionaire owners continue to get rich off the backs of players’ work, they claim their teams can’t compete without artificially capping labor costs,” said Silvia Alvarez, communications director for the union.

On May 1, the Writers Guild of America’s contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers will expire. In 2023, the Guild struck for 148 days over pay and protections against A.I. This time, health care costs and further A.I. protections are expected to take center stage.

The Washington Post’s contract with the Washington-Baltimore News Guild Local 32035 will expire on December 31, 2026. The 715 members—including workers in the editorial, marketing, ad sales, and purchasing departments, among others—are fighting for wage increases, layoff protections, and protections against the use of AI.

In December, unionized journalists at Politico scored a big win when an arbitrator found that the newsroom violated its collective bargaining agreement when it rolled out two AI-driven tools. “This ruling is a clear affirmation that AI cannot be deployed as a shortcut around union rights, ethical journalism, or human judgment,” Unit Chair Ariel Wittenberg said.

In July, the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council’s master contract covering New York City hotels is set to finally expire; the last deal was a seven-year extension of a five-year contract. The union has lobbied for unemployment benefits to support members in the event of a strike, and has reintroduced its Hotel Employees Action Team to engage members throughout the negotiations.

32BJ SEIU’s New York Metro Residential contract, covering 34,000 doorpeople, porters, supers, and handypersons who maintain and clean thousands of apartments, condos, and co-ops in New York City, is up in April. Members are fighting for higher wages and to defend their premium-free health benefits.

FIRST CONTRACTS

At the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee, 4,300 Auto Workers who won their union in 2024 are still bargaining a first contract. After executives provided a supposedly last offer in October, more than two-thirds of members voted to authorize a strike.

Fights for first contracts continue at Starbucks, where workers have so far unionized 650 stores, and at the Amazon fulfillment center on Staten Island where workers unionized in 2022.

Each of these 2026 fights is an opportunity to build confidence, try bolder tactics, set our sights higher, and practice the cross-union solidarity we're going to need to beat back the anti-union offensive.

'We Are Fed Up': Winnipeg Bacon Workers Unite for Better Contract

Tue, 16 Dec 2025 19:41:56 +0000

Originally published in The North Star, an independent newsroom covering labor and people's struggles in Canada.

After months of stalled negotiations, workers at a big Maple Leaf bacon plant in Winnipeg voted overwhelmingly last month to authorize a strike.

Maple Leaf Foods is a Canada-based company with meat production facilities across North America, including three facilities in the U.S. which make plant-based meats under the Field Roast and Lightlife labels. The Winnipeg contract, which covers more than 1,800 members of Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 832 at the Lagimodiere plant, is set to expire at the end of the year.

The November 15 strike vote marked the first time a strike has been authorized at the plant since it was purchased by Maple Leaf over twenty years ago. Workers describe a climate of fear and intimidation at the plant.

“The supervisors are like ghosts,” says Maria*, who has worked at the plant for a year. “You feel the hair standing up on the back of your neck, and you turn around and there’s a supervisor staring at you. They use fear to keep production running.”

“It is very physically demanding,” she says. “A lot of carrying, it’s a lot of weight to sustain and carry all day. It’s exhausting … They treat us like robots. They just want us to keep going faster, faster, faster.”

Workers said they have been disciplined for refusing unsafe work, that they endure racism and discrimination from management, and are arbitrarily bullied and shouted at by supervisors.

The conditions at Maple Leaf have taken a psychological toll on the workers. “It’s just tiring, really,” says Ray*, who has worked for the company for two years. “It’s demoralizing. It’s hard for people to keep motivated to do their job,”

“When I started, the wages were okay. They were about $3.50 above the minimum wage,” says Jose*, who hopes to start a family with his partner some day. He says stagnating wages at the company are causing uncertainty. “We are only 50 cents above minimum wage now.”

‘WE ARE FED UP’

On November 12, UFCW Local 832 detailed the company’s latest offer in conference calls with members.

Workers were shocked. If accepted, it would spread out $2.75 in wage increases over seven years, end the defined benefit pension plan in favor of a defined contribution plan, and refuse their demand for paid sick leave.

Between November 12 and November 15, more than 70 percent of the plant’s workers turned out to vote 98 percent in favor of authorizing a strike.

“The 98 percent vote means that workers are angry,” says Maria. “We are fed up. We don’t want a seven-year contract—a lot can change in seven years. We want sick leave. We want pensions. We want good wages. An acceptable contract is four, five years max.”

Maria stresses that the workers’ demands are widely and deeply felt. “Lots of my coworkers have families, kids they need to support. They can’t just leave, especially with how hard it is to find other jobs at this point.”

Ray explains that the plant currently has no paid sick leave policy. “This is Canada. We get sick a lot. We work with meat and other people and stuff like that, so there’s germs that are around.”

“It leads to stress. When you’re sick, you don’t want to go in. You feel miserable, but you have to worry about being able to pay bills,” he says.

Maria explains the change to pensions would threaten the safety net of hundreds of Maple Leaf’s senior and immigrant workers. Immigrants from all over the world make up the vast majority of the plant’s workers, with numerous languages spoken, including Tagalog, Punjabi, Hindi, Spanish, Chinese, and Tigrynia.

“Anybody I’ve talked to who has been in the company who is older than I am, they say they need their pensions,” she says. “Especially immigrants who have recently moved here and haven’t had the chance to work as long as somebody who was recently born here.”

Ray says that the declining wages have caused a lot of stress, “In the past five years, the minimum wage has gone up only a few times. But our wages have stayed at the same level.”

He hopes that negotiations can help make up for what has been lost. “What is fair is between $1.00 and $1.50 every year.”

Maria agrees that a dollar a year would be the bare minimum. “Lots of us here are doing tons of heavy physical labour. It’s only fair that we make a livable wage, doing what we do.”

Jose, who is from Latin America, sees the contract fight as an opportunity to gain dignity. “I want equality in the plant, because I don’t feel like there is equality here. You feel discriminated against, depending on what race you belong to.”

MEETINGS, FLYERS, PETITIONS

In the year leading up to this round of bargaining, workers began organizing at Maple Leaf. They held meetings, handed out flyers, and circulated petitions to the union and boss among their co-workers.

Workers say that taking collective action on the shop floor has inspired them to think about how change is possible.

But on the first day of the strike authorization vote, Maple Leaf fired Charles Martel-Marquis, who had worked at the plant for two years, for distributing flyers on company property.

The flyers contained information the union had publicized to members about the strike vote translated to Punjabi, Tagalog, and other languages commonly spoken by workers at the plant.

“[The company] didn’t want people to know about the strike vote. They’re trying to put a divide between members,” explains Maria. “In Filipino circles, some people didn’t know what the strike mandate vote was. Some people were even afraid to vote. The flyer was to address this.”

She and several other co-workers distributed the flyers alongside Martel-Marquis.

“Without getting in touch with other workers, I don’t think we would have had such a strong vote for the strike mandate because people wouldn’t have been informed in the languages that they speak fluently,” she explained.

Jose says the firing exposes that the company sees workers’ activity as a threat. “If we have the information as employees, if we are united and we know our rights, then we have the power to change things, like the unfairness and the low wages at the company. They saw a chance that we could stand to change things, and to me, that’s why he was fired. They knew he was making a difference, and they were afraid of that.”

STAND TOGETHER

Maria says the company is using the firing and the contract offer to put workers in line. “What Maple Leaf wants, at the end of the day, is for us to throw in the towel and say, ‘Yeah, okay, we’ll take this subpar agreement.’ They want us to think that if we speak up, we might get fired too, so that we will say yes to whatever the company wants.”

“We need to be angry together as a community, rally people, show Maple Leaf that we aren’t going to bend over. We’re going to stand up and say we want to be respected, we want a livable wage, and we don’t want to live in fear.”

Ray stresses the importance of overcoming fear. “We have to communicate what we want. Some people are scared, but that shouldn’t matter. Our voices need to be heard. We need to make sure that we get what we want. So we need to drop this fear and just talk. Because we’re allowed to talk. The more that we talk to each other, Maple Leaf is going to hear that, and they’re going to know that we want what we deserve.”

Jose agrees. “We need to get everybody on board. Once everybody is on board, we are going to be unstoppable. But if we are divided, there is no chance to win. People have to be united and they have to be convinced that there is going to be a good outcome if everyone is on board.”

The company and the union reached a tentative agreement on November 28. Details have not yet been made public. UFCW Local 832 has stated members will be able to access information about the agreement in advance of the ratification vote scheduled from January 4 through January 7.

*Pseudonyms have been used at the request of the workers interviewed.

Viewpoint: SEIU California Sits Out Fight Against Classroom Censorship

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 17:05:16 +0000

SEIU California routinely uses fighting words. Unfortunately, when it was time to “stand up” and “fight back” against legislation that threatens the working conditions of tens of thousands of SEIU education workers, our union’s spirited rhetoric dissipated. SEIU California stood down.

In the final days of the legislative session, AB 715, a dangerous censorship bill with broad implications for California public education, was forced through an abbreviated legislative process and subsequently signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom.

The bill was backed by Israel lobby groups and California Democrats. Its authors claim it’s about fighting antisemitism—but in reality, it’s a dangerous attack on free speech and truthful education across California’s public school system, particularly targeting Ethnic Studies and educators who speak about Palestine.

WE SAW IT COMING

Legislative attacks on Ethnic Studies have a history in our state. In anticipation of renewed attacks in 2025, at the start of the year, members of SEIU Local 1021 began organizing a petition urging SEIU California to oppose any legislation that would censor Ethnic Studies or free speech.

“We educated our co-workers and built coalitions across locals as support steadily grew,” said Local 1021 executive board member Jeffery Dix.

When AB 1468, the first 2025 bill aiming to police Ethnic Studies, was presented, the California Faculty Association (CFA, a local of SEIU) immediately opposed it. We urged SEIU California to do the same. Leadership hesitated. So members mobilized on our own, joining a broad coalition to defeat the bill.

Because it singled out Ethnic Studies, AB 1468 was so unpopular that it was pulled and replaced with a new bill, AB 715, in what's known as a “gut and amend” manuever. This new bill would accomplish the same goals using different mechanisms.

Instead of targeting Ethnic Studies directly, AB 715 creates a complaint procedure allowing anyone to file complaints–-even anonymously–-accusing teachers of antisemitism. It creates a politically appointed Antisemitism Coordinator and uses the deeply problematic National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism, as a working definition, leaving open to complaint anything perceived as criticism of Israel.

This will silence educators who teach about Palestine or the genocide in Gaza, and censor the use of related books and materials that show factual histories.

CONSPICUOUSLY SILENT

Many groups moved swiftly to oppose the bill, including CFA as well as the California Teachers Association, the California Federation of Teachers, the Association of California School Administrators, California School Boards Association, County Superintendents and the ACLU. The California Nurses Association joined in solidarity.

But SEIU California did not, despite months of outreach, education, and pressure from rank-and-file members to make our voices heard.

While waiting for leadership to act, we attended hearings at the Capitol, made calls, and lobbied lawmakers—all on our own time and resources. Finally, the SEIU State Council issued a decision to remain “neutral”—too late to make a difference anyway. (The State Council is composed of a small number of officers from each SEIU local in the state. The body is empowered to support or oppose statewide legislation.)

As historian Howard Zinn wrote, “To be neutral, to be passive in a situation is to collaborate with whatever is going on.” If SEIU California had joined the fight, we might have defeated this legislation.

At a time when political targeting has resulted in harassment, dismissal and even abduction and detention of academics including SEIU members Sang Hea Kil and Rümeysa Öztürk, this bill only makes educators more vulnerable. SEIU remained silent.

Following the passage of AB 715, angry members traveled to Sacramento with signs and flyers to confront State Council members before their September meeting. Members have yet to receive an official explanation for the betrayal.

REAL CONSEQUENCES

Silence and neutrality have real consequences.

This bill, which mirrors Project Esther, part of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, is a gift to right-wing forces that are already using false claims of antisemitism to control speech and target academics.

AB715 affects more than educators. Approximately 77 percent of California's public K-12 population are students of color. Workers and their families will be affected by this political interference in Ethnic Studies and the atmosphere of fear it will create in schools.

“This kind of censorship may begin with policing Ethnic Studies, but it won’t end there,” said CFA member Dr. Theresa Montaño. If politicians can dictate curriculum and whose voices are heard, all marginalized communities are at risk, including people of color, LGBTQ+ people, and people with disabilities. Political interference will easily spread from the social sciences and humanities to the physical sciences.

“Antisemitism and all forms of hate and discrimination must be fought through solidarity and learning–-not censorship,” says Local 1021 member Lorrie Beth Slonsky, who is Jewish. “Laws like AB 715 won’t build the bridges we need and will erode civil rights.”
SEIU California President David Huerta has promised our members a meeting to discuss how our union can better protect us moving forward. We are eager to have that conversation.

If you are an SEIU member in California, or are experiencing similar struggles in your own state, please contact us at 1021membersforpalestine[at]gmail[dot]com.

Larry Bradshaw, Anne Wolf, and Noga Wizansky are members of SEIU Local 1021.

We’re Making ‘Tax the Rich’ More Than a Slogan

Max Page — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 15:14:56 +0000

Taxing the rich should bring a smile to your face. It certainly brings one to mine.

Here’s what passing the Fair Share Amendment in Massachusetts allowed us to do, in just the first years since its passage in 2022: Offer free community college tuition to every resident (bringing a 40 percent increase in enrollment), free school meals for every student, free regional buses, a multi-billion-dollar capital program for public higher education and public vocational high schools. And we’ve been able to invest in literacy programs, and expand access to affordable childcare and early education.

We did it by making the rich pay a small additional tax (4 cents on every dollar) on their income above a million dollars a year. That tax affects just 25,000 households in a state of 8 million, less than one percent of the state’s residents.

Because the rich are so very rich, that small surtax produced $3 billion this past year, all dedicated to public education and transportation.

Fair Share changed our state constitution, so it’s there every year, and it’s not going away, much to the chagrin of the billionaire class.

But if they were honest (which they are not) the rich would admit they don’t even feel it. Beyond the fact that $100 million to them is like pennies you might have sucked up into your vacuum cleaner, the uber-rich in Massachusetts just got their money back: the 1% in Massachusetts received a $3.3 billion tax cut from Trump and the Republican Congress this year as part of the Big Ugly Bill—paid for by stealing health care from the working poor.

“Workers Over Billionaires” was the slogan on Labor Day. It should be the slogan every day. The coalition of Democrats and Republicans who perpetuated a politics of austerity, the undermining of unions, and attacks on the very idea of government have paved the path to full-blown authoritarianism. It is an unholy—but unsurprising—alliance of the 1%-of-the-1% who own much of the wealth in this nation, and the authoritarians who find democracy and unions an inconvenient obstacle to their power and rapacious goals.

We are reaping what mainstream politics sowed. The labor movement has to plant new seeds.

FIFTY-STATE CAMPAIGN

One row to plant is a 50-state campaign to tax the very rich, to fund our public schools and colleges, protect health care, make public transportation efficient and free, and most importantly, expand our vision of what is possible. Our states need the money. They needed it before, and with the federal attacks on state budgets, we need it more than ever.

Taxing the rich will be popular among working people—it has always been popular—but it’ll be even more popular as the reality of what this regime is doing to people’s health care and public schools becomes clearer. This year is terrible; next year, when the Medicaid cuts hit, it will be catastrophic.

Taxing the rich should not just be a blue state strategy. It is a working people’s strategy. We in the teachers unions learned an important lesson in Kentucky in 2024. On the very same ballot where Donald Trump won by 30 points, the people voted by the same margin to reject private school vouchers. They loved their public schools and could tell vouchers were a scam to hurt their schools, while giving more to those who don’t need it. There’s a politics there to build on.

JANUARY CONVENING

Unions and community groups are gathering in Boston at the end of January to do just that. It's not an academic policy conference, it’s a convening of activists who are in the middle of a tax campaign, those at the very beginning, and others who are “revenue-curious.”

We in the Raise Up Massachusetts coalition, which led the Fair Share Amendment campaign, will share what we learned about how to win these notoriously difficult campaigns. Washington state activists will talk about their new wealth tax proposal—a 1 percent tax on stocks and bonds of people who have more than $50 million of wealth, or just 4,300 individuals in the state. Maryland union leaders will share how they won improvements to their progressive taxation system to generate significant new revenues from the 1%. Californians will discuss the ballot campaign they won several years ago to extend taxes on the super-rich. And labor and community groups from around the country will learn about the policy choices, and more importantly, the organizing strategies needed to win.

Working on legislation or ballot initiatives might seem off to the side of building the disruption we need across the country—the big demonstrations, the direct action. But it’s hugely important to win material gains for working people, to show that politics can work for workers.

We in Massachusetts were pleased when New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani kept pointing to our state as a place that had taxed the super-rich, lost none of them or their taxes to outmigration, and was able to invest in what matters to working people.

Winning material gains with and for working people is hugely important right now. A freeze on rent plus providing universal childcare and free buses, the platform Mamdani campaigned on, would immediately improve the lives of New Yorkers and build an even stronger movement for greater moves for economic justice.

So now is a good time to bring this fight to every state, and to every multimillionaire and billionaire.

The Tax Convening, led by MTA and other NEA and AFT state affiliates, as well as the State Revenue Alliance and May Day Strong, is by invitation only. Please email mpage[at]massteacher[dot]org if your union or community organization is interested in attending.

Max Page is president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association.

To Get on Offense, Offer Workers Many Ways In

Diamonté Brown — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 23:18:30 +0000

[This article is part of a Labor Notes roundtable series: How Can Unions Defend Worker Power Against Trump 2.0? We will be publishing more contributions here and in our magazine in the months ahead. Click here to read the rest of the series.—Editors]

To fight back against authoritarianism and the billionaire takeover, the labor movement must get on offense. We must have our own agenda, set by rank-and-file members, rooted in the issues that members care most about—issues that unite us and build power.

Maybe our agenda includes a starting wage of no less than $30 an hour, expanding workers’ rights, and building union membership to a supermajority in our bargaining units. We can be fighting for a lot of things.

But to fight for any of them, we need enough involved union members, armed with political education and trained on organizing skills, to increase our fighting capacity. Getting this critical mass of people to do the work—and money to do it—means we need to increase the number of dues-paying members in our locals.

Therefore, we have to offer as many ways as possible for workers to get engaged in the union: meaningful roles to play and ownership over the work, but also practical help on the job, frequent opportunities to feel solidarity, and fun stuff, too.

BUILD COMMUNITY THROUGH POLITICAL EDUCATION

During this chaotic time, people are looking for community, knowledge about the current political climate, and ways to get more civically engaged. This presents an opportunity to educate people on politics, labor, and organizing.

Some people may already be thinking in terms of ideas like authoritarianism and democracy. But many people will find it more relatable when we can connect the dots on how the political landscape explicitly impacts their lives, like how it impacts the neighborhood they live in, the grocery store they shop at, and the public transportation they patronize.

We have to teach content and strategy. We need more people to know how to have one-on-one organizing conversations, how to compile communication lists, and how to build campaigns. We have to capitalize on such a chaotic time instead of surrendering to fear and uncertainty. Our members are wondering what happens now, so although things are chaotic, this is a perfect opportunity to increase union members’ engagement!

MEMBERS MUST OWN THE STRATEGY

Members want to be together, so give them something to do together. Working together with shared responsibility and specific tasks makes people more invested in the work.

For example, there is a group of union members working to repeal Maryland’s no-strike laws for public employees. One member is making a one-pager of talking points, another member is making a PowerPoint presentation, a couple of members are working on a digital media plan, another is looking for someone to build our website, and others are researching legislators’ direct numbers, so we can more easily access them.

We didn’t brainstorm together and then expect union staff to produce a product and report back. Rank-and-file members are doing the work.

SHOW, DON’T TELL: GENERATE JOY

Also, everything is not about work. It’s also about creating solidarity, because people want to be together and feel a sense of belonging. You can be in a room of 50 people and still feel alone. Solidarity actions and events show people they are not alone.

Make your union shirt a thing; only members get shirts. Pick a day every week to wear them. In the Baltimore Teachers Union, we do “Wear It Wednesday.” This increases our visibility and shows that we are united—join us!

We have to show people, not just tell them, that they are not alone. Wearing union shirts once a week helps members identify other union members. And supporting the actions of other locals or our state affiliate often helps workers to realize that others are facing similar challenges.

The same energy we put into the work is the same amount of energy we need to put into joy. Joy must be a part of organizing, because people will disengage if they don’t feel replenished. Create opportunities where people can be together without working. Host a gala, happy hours, and fun activities.

Make some of your membership meetings social gatherings where no business gets done on purpose. Instead of meeting, have a cookout, make bracelets together, throw pies at pictures of management. It’s important to have gatherings and convenings that don’t just focus on planning, plotting, and strategizing, because there are union members who are just not with all that…yet.

I’ve noticed that far less members come to meetings than come to fun events. The holiday party, the general membership cookout, the new staff happy hour, and conferences get attended at maximum capacity. People like being happy, and want to have fun with each other.

We do need to have all the meetings to plan, plot, and strategize… and we need to have opportunities for fun and joy, so we have the opportunity to touch as many members as possible. You can’t engage people who you don’t even have access to.

LEADERFUL UNIONS

Once we have access to union members, we can start to build the necessary structures in our locals to take on any fight. Have a building steward/representative at every worksite. Build union chapter committees at each worksite, so that stewards don’t have to fight alone. Increase and improve the democratic processes and shared decision-making in our locals.

Rank-and-file members shouldn’t just be giving feedback on a meeting agenda; they should be the ones to build the agenda. Make sure people know when a union election is coming up; encourage them to run, even if it’s against you. Encourage them to vote, and make voting as accessible as possible. Use meetings as spaces where members can vote on priorities.

You should have several access points for members to join your union. Have a plan to capture all the new hires. Host your own new staff gatherings, union orientations, events, and new staff committee. New hires need help; give them opportunities to come to the local headquarters for help and community, and sign them up when they get there!

In the Baltimore Teachers Union we offer help with licensure, for union members only. We don’t just give the information; we go into the licensure portal with you and support you as you push all the buttons. Non-members sign up just because they want this support.

Definitely make a plan to build a supermajority in your union. You want to have one leader for every 10 members. This creates a structure for rapid responses, effective mass communications, relationship-building, solidarity, and universal messaging—all the things we will need to fight authoritarianism, fight for democracy, increase wages for workers, improve our working conditions, and get on offense.

Diamonté Brown is president of the Baltimore Teachers Union.

Red Cups Raised in Rebellion, Starbucks Strike Spreads

Jenny Brown — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 20:13:26 +0000

Several hundred more Starbucks baristas walked out Thursday, the 22nd day of their growing unfair labor practice strike. It is now the longest strike the coffee giant has faced, spreading to 145 stores in more than 100 cities.

Kingston, New York, baristas joined the strike early Thursday, and management didn’t even bother trying to open the store. So the workers, joined by supporters, picketed a nearby store in Lake Katrine, piercing the crisp winter air with chants of “What’s disgusting? Union-busting!” and “I want to eat food and pay rent at the same time!”

Starbucks Workers United, the union representing 12,000 baristas, is asking customers to shun all Starbucks stores for the duration of the strike. They had not previously called for a boycott. The company is big, and the 550 unionized stores account for only 5 percent of the company’s 10,000 U.S. outlets. Starbucks is the second-largest fast food company in the world.

In Lake Katrine, several would-be customers turned away at the drive-through, and others who had pre-paid mobile orders pledged not to return for the duration of the strike. After a morning out on the picket line, some workers drove to New York City to join a rally at the Empire State Building, where there is both a flagship Reserve store (serving espresso martinis) and corporate offices.

Twelve baristas and supporters were arrested for blocking the corporate entrance to the Empire State Building after being rebuffed when they asked to meet with Starbucks executives who work in the offices above. Photo: Jenny Brown

In Manhattan, 500 rallied with giant red cups saying “Baristas on Strike,” and signs comparing CEO Brian Niccol to The Grinch. Twelve workers and supporters sat down to block the iconic building’s office entrance. They had asked for a meeting with executives in the offices above, but were met with silence. The police immediately warned that they would be arrested if they didn’t move, then arrested all 12, while a press scrum snapped photos and the crowd chanted “Shame!”

The strike started with 65 stores on November 13, then escalated with 30 more a week later, while five more stores—in Maryland, Virginia, and Arkansas—filed for union elections. Workers turned away trucks delivering to Starbucks’ largest distribution center in York, Pennsylvania on November 20.

New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders joined a Brooklyn Starbucks picket line on December 1. They blasted CEO Niccol, whose pay is 6,000 times that of the average barista.

‘UNDERSTAFFING, LOUSY PAY’

After four years of organizing, Starbucks workers are still trying to get a first contract. Negotiations progressed for eight months, then stalled last year. The company has racked up a record number of labor law violations since 2021, with an additional 125 charges filed by the union since January.

Baristas said the main issues are pay and scheduling. The average store worker makes $15.25 an hour and works 19 hours a week, said Rami Saied, who works at the 325 Lafayette store in Brooklyn. “That is not a livable wage,” Saied said.

In bargaining last year, the union proposed minimum pay of $20 an hour, with 5 percent raises each year, while the company proposed no immediate increase and 1.5 percent raises in future years.

“We've been consistently clear on what we need,” said Rey Shao, a barista at the 2 Broadway store, at the NYC rally. “We need more take-home pay, we need better hours… Bring us new proposals that actually address these issues so we can finalize a contract.”

Saied said that the raise they’re asking for would cost “less than they spent to send all store managers to Las Vegas to have this huge retreat [in June]… It shows how little they care about us that they are not willing to negotiate over that amount.” The managerial shindig cost $80 million.

At a practice picket in October, baristas chanted, “Understaffing, lousy pay! This is how your coffee’s made!” Mima, a barista at the 155 Water Street store in downtown Manhattan, said she regularly stays until 2 a.m. to finish closing the store. She said that on the previous Sunday there had been only two workers on the floor between 5 a.m. and noon, “which made it difficult for us to keep up with customer demand, and to take our legally mandated breaks.”

Long waits in some stores lead to frazzled customers. Mima said it’s management policy. “Even when understaffing isn't so egregious on the weekends, it is still difficult to keep up with volume as is.”

HAD TO PAY UP

Scheduling practices are so grueling that Starbucks has been breaking New York City law. On Monday, the company agreed to shell out $38.9 million for violating the city’s Fair Workweek statute. Management “arbitrarily cut workers’ hours, involuntarily kept them in part-time work, and failed to provide predictable schedules,” according to the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection.

Workers report that the company keeps many of them below 20 hours a week, the threshold where it starts providing benefits, and denies requests for more hours, preferring to hire more hours-starved workers. That’s been illegal in New York City since 2017, when retail workers won the Fair Workweek law after enduring years of scheduling that created chaos for workers trying to go to school or raise a family or even go on dates.

Many retail outlets had introduced software that predicted store traffic based on weather and other factors, and forced workers to conform to just-in-time schedules—calling them in for surprise shifts, short shifts, or dismissing them early. Under the law, workers are entitled to know their schedules two weeks in advance and managers have to offer current workers more hours rather than hiring.

The law has provided some relief, and the Starbucks settlement is the largest to date. As many as 15,000 workers from 300 stores will get $50 for each month they worked under illegal conditions between July 2021 and July 2024.

To be updated on pickets near you, sign the Starbucks workers’ No Contract, No Coffee pledge here.

Natascha Elena Uhlmann contributed reporting.

Maybe a General Strike Isn’t So Impossible Now

Alex Han — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 21:15:40 +0000

Trump’s attacks on working people—threats to send troops into major U.S. cities, ripping collective bargaining rights from a million federal workers, an immigration enforcement terror campaign that borders on unconstitutional—have been so extreme that many people are talking about a general strike. These calls are coming not just from the usual suspects, but even from my own mayor, former Chicago Teachers Union leader and organizer Brandon Johnson.

We’ve all heard calls for a general strike before—usually not as a serious proposal or strategy, but as a reaction to the attacks that working people face on a regular basis from existing political and economic power. Such calls are easy to dismiss, because they tend to come from well-meaning people without the knowledge of how difficult a strike is to launch and win in a single shop, let alone across a country of 330 million people that hasn’t seen anything approaching a national general strike in almost 150 years.

Those of us who have done the hard work of organizing our co-workers, winning union recognition, and negotiating with recalcitrant employers have frequently dismissed the idea out of hand. But two years ago, in the wake of the “Stand-Up Strike” at the Big 3 U.S. automakers, United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain put the idea on the table when he called on the labor movement to prepare to strike together on May 1, 2028.

At first glance it sounds impossible—but a strategic look back at the coordinated strikes and militancy of the past two decades shows we might be much closer than we think. We’ve laid the groundwork. Now we have to harness the lessons from those fights and “speed-run” to much larger, disruptive actions.

PROVOCATIVE CONDITIONS

The preconditions for large-scale coordinated actions are being laid out in plain view. Draconian, racist attacks on entire communities with the veneer of immigration enforcement. Gigantic tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations—which, along with economic contraction and federal budget cuts, will lead to huge budget challenges in statehouses and city halls across the country.

The attacks on democracy, immigrants, and the rule of law have already led to some of the largest mass mobilizations in U.S. history, including on October 18, when millions of people across the country joined thousands of “No Kings” protests. For the labor movement, the question is: when do we shift from mass mobilizations to mass economic action?

The first half of 2026 is the critical moment. State legislators across the country will begin their deliberations over budgets hobbled by the hollowing-out of the federal government, at the same time that the $170 billion increase to ICE’s budget begins moving in earnest. Public colleges and universities will begin feeling the even deeper impact of the Trump administration’s cuts and attacks, as tech oligarchs and finance capital continue to bleed workers and the public sector.

We need to plan now to connect and coordinate these fights in our cities and states. Not a top-down national plan or centralized day of action, but to make a plan in every state.

FOUR LESSONS

Here are four important lessons we can learn from the recent past:

Immigrant community defense must be understood as economic action, and lifted up. In 2006, the national movement for “A Day Without an Immigrant” began with a march of 100,000 on March 10, and peaked on May 1, when 500,000 immigrants and allies marched through downtown Chicago.

So many immigrant workers and their allies participated in that day’s action, also known as the “Great American Boycott,” that large parts of the Chicago area were effectively shut down for economic activity. Stores and restaurants closed either in solidarity with their workers or of necessity, with not enough staff to function.

Bring labor and community together to coordinate campaigns. Ten years after the reemergence of May Day, in the midst of what would become a two-year-long Illinois state budget stalemate under a billionaire Republican governor, the Chicago Teachers Union went on a one-day strike to protest the budget impasse and call for full funding of schools.

For most of 2015, CTU and SEIU Healthcare Illinois had jointly convened a coalition of local unions, united in a commitment to progressive working-class politics and militant action, to coordinate campaigns and share strategies.

Because of that coalition’s work, a dozen unions participated in the 2016 one-day strike, including fast food workers with the Fight for 15, higher education unions from Chicago State and Northeastern Illinois universities, and childcare and homecare workers from SEIU HCII, along with a large community coalition led by both longtime neighborhood groups and key organizers of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Push our unions to take bigger risks, especially in key sectors. In February 2018, incensed by insulting wage proposals from another billionaire Republican governor, West Virginia teachers set off what would become a nationwide wave of city and statewide teacher strikes, the Red for Ed movement. Some were one-day strikes billed as “days of action”; some were sustained for weeks. Importantly, almost all of the multi-district and statewide walkouts happened in states where teachers were prohibited by law from going on strike—but they went on strike anyway.

Public school teachers, by their nature, are embedded in communities. To varying degrees, so are many other groups of workers: in state and county governments, nursing homes and health clinics, community colleges, grocery stores, and restaurants. These are all potentially key sectors that have public reach and visibility across diverse communities.

Line up contract expiration dates and demands across industries, and work with community allies to publicize demands for the common good. In March 2024, unions representing more than 15,000 workers in the Twin Cities coordinated strike authorization votes across several industries.

This effort, launched publicly in October 2023, included teachers, transit workers, janitors, nursing home workers, and retail workers from six different unions. It was the product of intense joint campaigning and leadership development.

The simple threat of coordinated strike action led to big contract wins for transit workers, Minneapolis city workers, and security officers, while an even broader coalition of labor and community allies supported janitors, nursing home workers, and retail workers through their strikes.

PROGRESS IN UPHEAVAL

One thing we know about the coming months is that the attacks from Trump and his corporate allies will only sharpen. And the structures that exist now—our unions and other organized groups that are fighting for immigrant justice, tenant rights, and a fair economy, as scattered and weak as they may be—are the vehicles we have to organize a fightback.

In the history of this country, worker movements have been the critical central driver toward justice and equality. But workers have always faced daunting odds against powerful opponents with the ability to disorganize and disorient us.

The progress we make is not linear, but happens in moments of upheaval and upsurge. Our task isn’t to create the perfect strategy for the masses to follow. It is to use the lessons of the past to set the table for the fights of the future.

Alex Han is executive director of In These Times magazine, and a former union organizer and elected officer.

Review: Who’s Got the Power: Hope for Troubled Times

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 22:01:47 +0000

Every few years a book comes out that tries to explain what’s happening in the labor movement and maybe cheer us up from the bad news of union decline. Dave Kamper’s new book, Who’s Got the Power: The Resurgence of American Unions, does the job. And it’s packed with insights about unions and organizing drawn from key labor events during the pandemic era.

Kamper is a longtime union organizer and analyst of the labor movement, whose articles tell some hard-to-hear truths about labor (for one of my favorites, see his piece “We Don’t Know What We’re Doing” at the Forge).

Today, Kamper says in Who’s Got the Power, we are seeing the biggest union upsurge in 50 years. “Again and again,” he writes, “workers turn in the direction of solidarity, taking on corporations and bosses with purpose and commitment.”

In the case studies that are the heart of the book, Kamper describes the surprising boldness and imagination workers have shown in this era.

IS THIS AN UPSURGE?

Are we really in a union upsurge? The union membership rate, which has continued to decline nearly every year for decades, now stands at just 10 percent of the workforce and an alarming 6 percent in the private sector.

However, my analysis of union election data from the National Labor Relations Board found that after the early pandemic years, union election wins, win rates, and number of workers organized all rose from 2022 to 2024. Nearly 100,000 workers organized through elections last year—the most in several decades. Moreover, the number of large strikes has been higher over the past three years than in recent decades. And union approval has been 65 percent or higher since 2020. So I agree with Kamper that something significant is happening.

Kamper cites three contributing factors for this surge of union activity: the pandemic; unrest among young workers; and the rejuvenation of unions like the United Auto Workers. This book pairs well with Eric Blanc’s We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Organizing Is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big, which also has stories about recent organizing campaigns and identifies some of the same trends.

PANDEMIC STRUGGLES

Kamper tells the story of the three-week Frito-Lay strike in Topeka, Kansas in the summer of 2021, which he identifies as the first major labor dispute of the pandemic era. (In the process, he describes a strike as “one part theme-park haunted house, one part waiting in line at the DMV, one part spring break, and one part storming the castle. They’re not equalized parts, though, and the strikes that work are the ones that get the proportions right.”)

And his strike stories are great. Kamper discusses how the workers were demoralized about the buses coming in with scabs day after day, until they investigated further. A striker flew a drone over the plant parking lot and discovered the arriving buses were empty!

Kamper has a thoughtful chapter on how public school teachers dealt with the chaos of the pandemic, when they and their unions were the target of conservative attacks. A wave of teachers’ union reform and militancy, including the Chicago Teachers Union strike in 2012 and the Red for Ed strike wave in 2018, helped give the unions the tools and confidence to fight on during the pandemic.

Education unions have started bargaining using a practice called Bargaining for the Common Good (BCG) where unions partner with local groups and use their contract negotiations to win things that also benefit the community.

This approach to bargaining, Kamper reminds us, is reminiscent of the UAW’s strategy in 1950, when they wanted to limit the price increases of cars for consumers—and win wage increases for workers. But the union didn’t achieve that goal under the famous “Treaty of Detroit.” And over time, unions have allowed themselves to become limited to bargaining over “bread and butter” issues. Larger ambitions have withered.

But now, Kamper sees hope in this new strategy: “The teachers’ unions have pushed past that barrier. They’ve left the Treaty of Detroit behind. The era of [bargaining for the common good] is one of nearly unlimited possibility for unions that are willing to take on the big fights. When they do, they win.”

(Another example of this union-community bargaining coalition strategy is the Minnesota Model, which was used very effectively in Minneapolis last year.)

Kamper also discusses how during the pandemic, the 50,000-member Association of Flight Attendants was able to negotiate government support for the airline industry that included significant support for workers. The deal also enforced stricter regulations on employers (limiting stock buybacks and executive compensation) than did the federal government’s more widespread Payroll Protection Plan.

A heavy union presence in the airline sector was crucial to the union’s success, Kamper says: “Workers in industries with weaker unions didn’t fare as well.”

THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT

Kamper’s chapters on young workers organizing are inspiring. The first Starbucks store was organized in late 2021. Now over 650 stores have joined the union. The organizing has persevered through an avalanche of company unfair labor practices, firings, store closures, and stalling on contract bargaining. Kamper wonders how they did it.

“It has to have been the solidarity,” he writes. “An entire generation, let down by every so-called leader and every cherished institution it had ever met, seeks strength within itself, reaching out digital hands all over the country and finding the will and the imagination and the fire and the spirit and the courage to stick it out.”

The book’s chapter on graduate worker organizing is close to my heart. Kamper and I both came up through graduate worker unions in the late 1990s—he at the University of Illinois and I at the University of Michigan.

For decades, grad unions had a substantial presence at public universities. Then the 2016 NLRB Columbia decision authorized collective bargaining at private universities, and there has been an explosion of organizing ever since. I laughed out loud as Kamper described the astounding margins of victories at some recent campaigns:

“In election after election, graduate employee unions have piled up margins of victory so lopsided that even dictators holding sham elections don’t win by as much. Try 1,860-179 at Yale; 1,696-155 at the University of Chicago, the intellectual home of neoliberal economics; 1,414 to just 28 at Boston University… This was quite possibly the biggest margin of victory ever seen in a large union election in this country.”

Kamper notes that graduate employees are winning their unions largely through direct rank-and-file organizing activity, with less reliance on union staff. And they will all graduate or move on after a few years into many other kinds of jobs—many won’t become professors. Thus graduate unions, he points out, are serving as a training program that is spreading tens of thousands of experienced, union-conscious workers throughout the economy.

UNION REFORM AND MILITANCY

The last section of the book covers the extraordinary events of 2023: the Teamsters’ huge contract campaign at UPS and the successful Hollywood and UAW strikes. In all, the year saw 33 large strikes (greater than 1,000 workers), the most since 2000. They involved 459,000 workers–the second-highest number since 1986.

Kamper’s discussion of the internal politics of SAG-AFTRA leading up to their successful strike is fascinating. “There’s never really been labor peace in Hollywood,” Kamper writes, “just armistices before the next outbreak of hostilities, because the nature of the business is always changing, and every change creates another moment of conflict.”

So it was for playing films on TV in the 1950s, when VCRs and video tapes came out in the 1980s, and when internet streaming started in the 2000s. In the last strike, A.I. was a big issue, and probably will be again the next time around.

“Nothing better encapsulates the resurgence of organized labor than the revitalization of the United Auto Workers and their 2023 strike,” writes Kamper. The UAW is a great recent example of union revitalization, as reformers took the helm in 2022. As Kamper says, “Union reform isn’t just about what you stand for; it’s about knowing how to union and to union well.”

I love his discussion of the importance of contract campaigns that involve members, like the one that the UAW executed so well: A series of escalating activities that organized members to pay attention to the negotiations and take supportive actions, up to and including a strike vote and then a rolling strike against the Big 3 automakers.

That approach should be standard in every contract negotiation, but often isn’t, because union leaders don’t see the need for it, don’t want to raise expectations, or don’t trust their membership, Kamper writes. Avoiding a contract campaign leaves a lot of potential power undeveloped, while the union relies solely on discussions at the bargaining table, often a fatal error.

SOLIDARITY CAN SAVE US

This book brings together a lot of Kamper’s wisdom and experience, and the stories are told with compassion and a sense of humor. “If you boil down the American labor movement to just seven words, they are ‘It doesn’t have to be this way,’” writes Kamper. “It’s our belief that a better world is possible. We can make things better; that’s what drives us.”

“For a long time, that belief has been hard to hold on to. But when unions win, it reminds us all that things can be different.”

So if we are in an upsurge, will it continue? Who knows. Trump’s politics of cruelty and chaos are a huge challenge for the labor movement. “It’s at moments like these that labor’s worst tendencies can rear their ugly heads,” Kamper warns. To survive this era, unions may be tempted to stay quiet, cut deals, or look away while vulnerable folks are under attack.

But we can choose another path, and this book provides examples of how. Unions need to increase their organizing and militancy. We have to dig deep and emphasize basic solidarity in these troubled times with “boldness and imagination,” Kamper writes. As AFA President Sara Nelson says in the book’s foreword, “It will take radical solidarity to save our union movement. And I believe a thriving, fighting union movement is the only thing that can save our country and our world.”

“Yes, it’s going to be rough,” Kamper concludes. “But don’t ever count the working class out. We’ve got the power.”

Eric Dirnbach is a labor movement organizer and researcher in New York City.