labour
In Light of [This Recent Thread](https://hexbear.net/post/151871/comment/1840452), I was asked by a mod to make this post here and they would pin it, so here goes... so far I’ve Found: - https://libcom.org/organise - https://iww.org/resources - https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/kim-kelly-everything-you-need-to-know-about-general-strikes - https://libcom.org/blog/take-power-back-breathing-space-friendliness-solidarity-work-08012017 - https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjdjev/how-to-get-away-with-doing-less-work-outsmart-boss - https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/06/strike-back-review-joe-burns-teacher-strikes - https://labornotes.org/2016/10/inoculate-your-co-workers-against-bosss-tactics - https://workerorganizing.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/ewoc-organizing-guide.pdf - https://unionbustingplaybook.com/ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRpwVwFxyk4 - https://organizing.work/2019/08/no-more-fake-strikes/ - https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1905/industrial.htm - http://www.blackfridayblackout.info/ - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salting_(union_organizing) - https://www.labornotes.org/secrets/handouts - https://rebelsteps.com/ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvrldZlUwe0 If Anyone has any other resources they can find, PLEASE write them down below, and also consider radicalizing and talking to more Libs about it.
[!labour@hexbear.net](/c/labour) is a union / labour organizing specific comm. Any syndicalist comrades who want to work with me on this comm are also welcome. DM me and we’ll figure it out. Hexers, what kind of content / resources do you want to see in c/labour? I'm thinking guides, news, pro-union art, propaganda, and memes. Let's make one big comm for one big union. # :iww: :sabo: :big-bill:.
feel like I'm encounterimg tip requests with increasing frequency, but not jazzed about the prospect of adding a 20% charge at every point of sale.
On this day in 1898, the Battle of Virden began when armed members of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) surrounded a train full of strikebreakers and exchanged fire with company guards. 13 people were killed, dozens more wounded. After a local chapter of the UMW began striking at a mine in Virden, Illinois, the Chicago-Virden Coal Company hired black strikebreakers from Birmingham, Alabama and shipped them to Virden by train. The company hired armed detectives or security guards to accompany the strikebreakers, and an armed conflict broke out when armed miners surrounded the train as it arrived in town. A total of four detectives and seven striking mine workers were killed, with five guards, thirty miners, and an unrecorded number of strikebreakers wounded. After this incident, Illinois Governor John Tanner ordered the National Guard to prevent any more strikebreakers from coming into the state by force. The next month, the Chicago-Virden Coal Company relented and allowed the unionization of its workers. >"When the last call comes for me to take my final rest, will the miners see that I get a resting place in the same clay that shelters the miners who gave up their lives on the hills of Virden, Illinois...They are responsible for Illinois being the best organized labor state in America." Mother Jones - [Oct. 12, 1898: Battle of Virden](https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/battle-of-virden/) - [Battle of virden motherjonesmuseum](https://www.motherjonesmuseummtolive.org/battle-of-virden) **Megathreads and spaces to hang out:** - 📀 Come listen to music and Watch movies with your fellow [Hexbears nerd, in Cy.tube](https://live.hexbear.net/c/movies) - 🔥 Read and talk about a current topics in the [News Megathread](https://hexbear.net/post/3627378) - ⚔ Come talk in the [New Weekly PoC thread](https://hexbear.net/post/3627170) - ✨ Talk with fellow Trans comrades in the [New Weekly Trans thread](https://hexbear.net/post/3626970) - 👊 Share your gains and goals with your comrades in the [New Weekly Improvement thread](https://hexbear.net/post/3621440) **reminders:** - 💚 You nerds can join specific comms to see posts about all sorts of topics - 💙 Hexbear’s algorithm prioritizes comments over upbears - 💜 Sorting by new you nerd - 🌈 If you ever want to make your own megathread, you can reserve a spot [here nerd](https://hexbear.net/post/261657) - 🐶 Join the unofficial Hexbear-adjacent Mastodon [instance toots.matapacos.dog](https://toots.matapacos.dog/explore) **Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):** **Aid:** - 🌈 [LGBTQ+ Resource Post](https://hexbear.net/post/279079) - 🍉 [Resources for Palestine](https://buildpalestine.com/2021/05/15/trusted-organizations-to-donate-to-palestine/) - [🐌☕ Zapatista Coffee](https://schoolsforchiapas.org/store/coffee-corn-and-agricultural/zapatista-coffee/) **Theory:** - ❤️[Foundations of Leninism](https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1924/foundations-leninism/index.htm) - ❤️[Anarchism and Other Essays](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/emma-goldman-anarchism-and-other-essays)
>Algorithms can be employed to sniff out desperation for income based on the extremes people are willing to take on the job, such as high trip acceptance rates among Uber drivers. With this hoard of granular information, A.I. can calculate the lowest possible pay that workers across sectors will tolerate and suggest incentives like bonuses to control their behavior. While bosses have always offered so-called variable pay—for instance, paying more for night shifts or offering performance-based salary boosts—high-tech surveillance coupled with A.I. is taking real-time tailored wages to new extremes. >“Now you have machine learning trained on identifying the desperation index of workers,” Zephyr Teachout, a professor of law at Fordham University, told me. “When you move to the formal employment context, there is every reason to think that employers who can would be interested in tailoring their wages and using behavioral data.” >The clearest parallels can be drawn in other independent contractor roles, which make up around 15 percent of U.S. workers. Dubal has found that independent contractors working with Instacart and Amazon are similarly surveilled and receive personalized pay based on information including the times of day and length of time they work, along with the types of tasks they’re willing to accept.
>The planemaker said the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers unit representing the workers had failed to bargain in good faith during the four-week work stoppage.
I'm not sure how much detail to give, I don't think anyone involved or in my town browses this website, but I don't want to give any specifics in case someone does a search and this shows up. Using an alt so I this won't be tied to my normal account. I'm probably posting more details than I should, so If you think I should delete something specific let me know. First off: To anyone thinking of unionizing in the US, and are unsure of where to start, I recommend contacting [EWOC](https://workerorganizing.org/). We had followed the typical guidelines of union formation: Stay secret and form an organizing committee from people representing as many areas of the store as you can (we got a signal chat and got consent from everyone before adding new people), map the store and figure out who we should absolutely not talk to, and then gauge support of the unionizing idea by having discreet convos with your coworkers as you feel comfortable, etc. In our case we had trouble contacting unions, and got no repsonse from a lot of them. EWOC responded immediately and we got assigned a contact who helped us along with good advice and encouragement, and helped us settle on who to go with. They had just unionized an amazon warehouse they worked at, and they helped a lot when we had spent weeks getting frustrated with the lack of any response from unions. When the time came to choose a union, it came down to a couple choices: UFCW and CWA. CWA doesn't typically unionize our type of workplace but they are branching out, and we've heard mixed things about UFCW so we were hesitant about them. Our contact at EWOC is a socialist and informed us that CWA has been spamming pro-biden/harris ads, while their UFCW local has refused to endorse because of the ongoing genocide. So that made things simple. UFCW it is. I've worked at a local co-op for almost a decade. I started there thinking "aha! A co-op! This place will be much better than corporate!" and there are a lot of good things about it, but it was one of those co-ops formed by hippies way back when and who basically wanted natural foods and other hokum that tends to go along with that stuff. Basically a community owned whole foods type store. One of the cool things about it was that they were *officially* strongly pro LGBTQ and it was one of the founding values. But it's a community co-op, not a workers co-op. Officially democratically run by the member-owners, but absolutely no democratic principles at play when it comes to managing the workforce, and over the years it's become obvious to me and a lot of other employees about how poorly managed it is. Lots of safety issues get ignored until someone gets hurt and the co-op is financially liable, lots of homophobic incidents get swept under the rug, managers are basically unaccountable to anyone underneath them unless they flagrantly violate labor law, etc. Your experience can be a good one if your manager likes you, if you are one of the favorites, but if not they can get away with almost anything and treat you like absolute shit. Lately our general manager has been acting like a corrupt tyrant and their policies have caused numerous injuries and wide swaths of people to be put on disciplinary action for speaking up about working conditions, shockingly incompetent mismanagement, and transphobia in the workplace. Upper management is tired of our complaints and has decided to crack down hard over the past few months for reasons detailed in the spoiler, and that has involved under-staffing the store to a dangerous degree and numerous injuries. A lot us are fed up with it to the point that we are ready to burn the place to the ground, but since so many of the staff are fed up we have taken the more constructive path and started a union drive. We've been trying to keep it as secret as possible, but it becomes harder to maintain a lot of secrecy as you talk to more people. So management knows something is up, but not the extent of support. There was one person from the organizing committee who was talking up the union and was getting people on board, and they just got fired for taking a long planned vacation. It’s all shady and most likely an unfair labor practice, but they aren’t pursuing action at this time. I wish they would, but they understandably want to just enjoy they time off at the moment. But they were friends with a small local online news reporter, and I guess the reporter decided it was time to publish news about the union because it relates to other drama involving the board of directors that has been making news here. We really didn't want news of the union reported, and told them so, because with the way they've treated us this past year we were expecting them to go overboard with punishment and threats and didn't want to risk that bullshit yet, but management has taken the opposite approach and are now love-bombing us, LMAO. Who knows how long it will last until they hire a union buster or something, and revert back to to making shit up to get us in trouble for, but since the news of a union drive is public they can't do anything flagrantly illegal without risk of the union we are working with hitting them with unfair labor practice charges, and since many of us have ongoing L&I claims, they can't retaliate without making it look like they are punishing us for being injured. They are still in the dark about most of it, so we are sticking to our plan, but now we have the article to allow us to have conversations about the idea of a union with more people. It wasn't what we wanted, but it's going to work out. In the meantime we get the free pizza treatment.  ::: spoiler long back story This year we had a trans employee suddenly quit. They were competent and hard working, and a generally awesome human being, and their departure was a shock to everyone who worked with them. Turns out their department manager wrote some ignorant stuff about trans issues on social media and the employee wanted to talk it over with them, and HR basically told them to stop wasting everyone’s time. So they rightfully quit and stormed out the door. They also weren't the first trans person suddenly quit. There have been problems with misgendering among staff, and it just seems older people have a hard time with it. Not always something egregious, but when it happens all the time it makes it a hostile place to work for trans people, and a lot of us are pissed off about it and the lack of appropriate response from HR and management. There was also a recent local incident somewhere else that involved an older woman freaking out about a trans employee in a women’s only space. The lady was kicked out of the space, and so she raised a big stink and started a lawsuit about it. All of that drew a response from the mayor defending the trans person, which in turn brought in attention from fascists nationwide who have been coming to town off and on to protest town meetings and such and there are now lawsuits targeting the mayor and a bunch of other bullshit, and that's been a whole fucking thing for the past year or so. A lot of this stuff made the local news. If you live near the area and follow the news for these issues, it might sound famliar. The fascist clown show that’s been coming to town is why we've been unwilling to let all the transphobic bullshit slide anymore: it's very clearly become a staff safety issue. But any time people start bringing up the problem with HR, the response from management is either to roll their eyes and tell us to fuck off, or to make everyone watch a training video so we'll stop complaining. So, after the trans employee quit a few other employees, who had a problem with how everything was handled, spoke at the next board meeting to bring it to attention. Several board members never heard about this before. The GM said confidentiality issues were the reason. The GM is supposed to do reports, but why would they include antything that makes them look bad when they don't have to? In their reports employees leaving abruptly over issues of transphone is dismissed as "typical spring turnover". We had recently elected a board member who was responsive to these issues, and basically was one of the first board members to have concerns for how the staff are treated. So after this meeting where it was brought up, the board set up a committee to work on these issues, but the General Manager was clearly fuming or panicking behind the scenes. On of the things the GM did last year was to lower the annual cost of living adjustment for everyone while giving themselves $10k raise, so they obviously don't want any attention drawn to how they manage the store. A couple months later a surprise board meeting was called and the board member who raised concerns bout staff treatment and oversight of the GM was kicked off the board. A board member sympathetic to the GM claimed that people, including a couple employees who spoke at the previous meeting, were coached by the board member who was kicked out. One of the workers who spoke about transphobia and the board member have worked together on political projects before, and I think this is where the idea that they were "being coached" came from. The official reason stated for the removal was that our GM felt "threatened" by their behavior, but no specific details can be given because of “confidentiality issues”.  Since that board member was member of protected class, and their removal a flagrant violation of our bylaws, a boycott has recently been started. On top of that, when two new board members who started just recently, and who are BIPOC, they were basically asked by the current board if they still want to join, which is incredibly inappropriate.  On top of all that drama, we have been having an extremely busy year at the store and management has been ordered to cut labor costs to the bone. We have been doing record sales, and they have been unwilling to entertain the idea of hiring more people to keep staffing levels appropriate. Some managers have been trying to convince upper management that this is crazy, with no luck. This has made an already not great safety situation worse, and has resulted in a lot of injuries and several L&I claims. It makes no sense to anyone. We don't have shareholders trying to squeeze us for profits, so wtf is going on? Well, we have an idea, but more on that later. The response to all the injuries from management has been to post charts encouraging people to stretch.  One of the workers who talked to the board when the transphobia was brought up is in a small department. It's been doing record numbers all year, and shortly after the board meeting they attended this worker started having their schedule fucked with and seemed to be targetted for harassment from management. Then around the time of the surprise removal of the board member who actually gave a fuck about the employees, the whole small department was written up. Since the person who attended the meeting about transphobia had previously talked to HR about misgendering issues from their boss, I think they didn't want the heat of targeting them specifically, and so wrote up the whole department, because they've been making noises about staffing levels, safety issues, and mismanagement from their boss for a long time. The communications around resolving those issues was cited as "toxic" and that was the excuse given for the department being punished. No specific examples of this toxicity were given, of course. The last several months have felt like a witchhunt to find exuses to fire the employee who talked to the board, and among other things has had their schedule fucked with as a form of harassment. Resulting in days where they, and others on the team, had 4hrs to do 8hrs of work. Bullshit like that. I am pretty certain that the GM leaned on the store manager to have the employee who attending the board meeting targeted for harasment and removal. Something they are not allowed to do, but they clearly don’t give a fuck and will abuse their power as they please. Not only was there misgendering and schedule fuckery, but also unsafe working conditions like the boss leaving knives in strange places, people almost being crushed by a pallet because the boss wasn't paying attention, food safety issues from the boss storing things incorrectly, letting an overwhelming amount of work pile up because the boss was fucking around on the computer instead of working, rotation issues caused by the boss, etc. So all of the complaints from employees who work under them has been clearly pissing them off and they've been steweing about it, so when they were given the green light to put everyone in their place, of course they have been enjoying fucking with everyone and throwing their weight around to make everything suck. A couple members of that department have since been injured and are on light duty from trying to work under those conditions, and the department has been relying on poorly trained subs to keep it running for the past few months and its basically been going off the rails. It's hard to fire people who are on L&I claims, so everyone was kept on disciplinary action even after the injuries, because I guess they were hoping to fire them after they got off light duty. But due to “rumors” and union talk, and a new HR hire realizing the obvious liability issues involved, they recently did a 180 and said basically “mulligan, forget it ever happened”. The team is no longer in trouble. LOL So why has the general manager been acting like this? The board member who got kicked off also suggested that the board should have some actual oversight over the General Manager, and noticed a discrepancy in the financial report the GM had submitted to the board. Rumor has it that the GM wrongfully terminated a former HR person, the one person who knows labor laws, and the co-op just lost a lawsuit and had to pay out a six figure settlement. We would like to find a public record of the case, but if it was settled there may not be any public details. We think they are paying for the lawsuit by under-staffing us while the store has been doing record numbers. If it's not that, then something equally shady has occured, and the GM fucked our finances and is trying to cover their ass. If we are profitable we get a certain percentage of those profits as a bonus, but they've floated hints there won't be one this year, and if we don't get one, or it's pathetically small, they are almost certainly going to blame the boycott, even though it's made a tiny dent in the finances of a record year. They've been throwing people on disciplinary action at a drop of the hat, and encourage people to spy on each other for that reason, and we think they plan to limit the bonus (if there is one) to a few favorites or people who aren't currently in trouble. Seems like a quarter of the store is either injured or on some kind of disciplinary action right now because of this nonsense. Amazingly, wildly irresponsible and corrupt behavior. ::: This is a heavily unionized town with a strong majority of democrat to far left demographic. If they add union busting to the list of egregious behavior along with racism and transphobia, they are cooked. There is now also pressure for them to drop Israeli products because of the genocide, so that's something else they have to deal with. We are absolutely going to win this thing and inshallah we’ll take down the people responsible for all this shit. I am doing everything in my power to make them suffer for it.   
fair.org
Not that its relevant anymore, but its a banger headline from fair and interesting article 
[linky](https://xcancel.com/outsidadgitator/status/1841151996696674807)
> Hundreds of workers at the Samsung electronics factory in India’s Tamil Nadu state staged roadblocks and a sit-in on Monday, September 30 as their strike entered its fourth week. Thousands of cadres of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) from across Tamil Nadu also joined the call of the Samsung workers and risked arrest and police repression. > >According to the news reports, over 900 striking workers were detained by the police in the Kanchipuram district. The police also detained the state president of the Centre of Indian Trade Union (CITU), A Soundararajan. They were released later that evening. > >Over 1,300 workers of Samsung electronics factory in Sriperumbudur, part of the Kanchipuram district near Chennai have been on strike since September 9 under the leadership of newly formed Samsung India Workers’ Union (SIWU) demanding recognition of their union, a salary increase, an end of discrimination, and better working conditions at the factory.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/30176676 > Amazon .com has been accused by a U.S. labor board of illegally refusing to bargain with a union representing drivers employed by a contractor, the agency announced on Wednesday. > > The complaint from the National Labor Relations Board claims that Amazon is a so-called "joint employer" of drivers employed by the contractor, Battle Tested Strategies (BTS), and used a series of illegal tactics to discourage union activities at a facility in Palmdale, California. > > BTS drivers voted to join the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union last year, becoming the first Amazon delivery contractors to unionize. > > The NLRB in the complaint, which was issued on Monday, said Amazon broke the law by terminating its contract with BTS after the drivers unionized without first bargaining with the Teamsters.
[linky](https://ilaunion.org/ila-will-maintain-pledge-to-handle-military-cargo-during-strike-passenger-cruise-ships-to-be-unaffected-by-10-1-strike/) >“Dating back to World War 1, the ILA was always proud to note that ‘ILA Also Means Love America’ when it came to its “No Strike Pledge” in handling U.S. military cargo at all its ports,” said ILA President Harold Daggett, who served in the U.S. Navy and saw combat duty during the Vietnam War. “We continue our pledge to never let our brave American troops down for their valour and service and we will proudly continue to work all military shipments beyond October 1st, even if we are engaged in a strike.” >The ILA’s Military Consultant, Gen. (Ret.) Tim McHale, weighed in on the ILA’s “No Strike Pledge” for U.S. Military cargo: “The U.S. Government representatives I have been engaging with are very happy and satisfied with the ILA who have always been there in tough situations, and always successfully accomplished the mission. Our U.S. Military knows that the ILA will conduct military load out operations even if there is a strike by ILA.” critical support to their strike and all, but example of international solidarity this aint
I've seen a few posts recently expressing frustration with neurotypical people and the secret implications an interaction can have. This might be obvious to a lot of people but I've been trying to figure out how I can be useful to others. Just got out of an "attendance discussion" (quotes because it was scheduled electronically with that title) because i had a week off from covid (tested and documented) after being injured and having my compo claim accepted. I brought a notebook with a folder in it and a pen. I wrote down the date and time of the meeting and the people present. Just presenting that you're keeping a record of things is enough to change the entire dynamic between you and a supervisor. Unless you're being managed by the owner of a small company your supervisor has a supervisor and so on. When you show them that you are taking notes you are also showing them that you would have more credibility in a dispute that goes above their head. Even if you're the dishwasher's assistant and you bring out a ratty looking notepad and scrawl something in it when your boss calls you into the office for being late. "Arrived 2:07pm for afternoon dish shift, dishpit empty, meeting with dylan" I don't want to ramble too much but beyond this specific scenario of being in trouble you can use it to empower yourself at work. Writing down every day that you work and the times you show up and leave can help you defend a shorted paycheque or let you fudge the numbers a bit and go home early without approval because you keep a record "it says i left at 10pm bro I don't remember leaving early" Use your phone if you want but older people will not respect your notes as much because they perceive electronic records to be more susceptible to manipulation than pencil on paper because idk. Better than no record, though. Plus when someone asks what you're doing in your phone you can say oh I'm just writing something down. That's the post thanks
jacobin.com
>In a state without a wage floor of its own, allowing employers to default to the federal wage floor of $7.25 per hour, ADOC collects 40 percent of the inmates’ gross paycheck. ADOC also deducts fees from the inmates’ paychecks to pay for transporting inmates between the prisons where they live and the “free world” jobs where they work, as well as washing their uniforms. >ADOC calls the whole scheme “convict leasing.” But given inmates’ inability to quit when they want to without repercussions behind bars, the system is closer to involuntary servitude — i.e., slavery. 
www.aljazeera.com
>Workers had sought a 40 percent wage rise, the restoration of a defined-benefit pension plan axed in 2014, and a stronger guarantee that future production would not be moved out of the Seattle region.
[linky to cwa](https://cwa-union.org/news/releases/birds-feather-audubon-joins-elon-musk-challenging-constitutionality-labor-law-after)
>Tens of thousands of disabled people in the United States are paid less than the federal minimum wage — with some workers making as little as 25 cents per hour. >These workers, most of whom have intellectual and developmental disabilities, are part of an arcane government program that is supposed to prepare them for higher-paying jobs in the community. But a Washington Post investigation has found that many disabled workers are paid low wages for years under a tangled bureaucracy that lacks accountability and oversight. >Jaime Muniz, 33, who has autism, was recently paid about $1.22 for every hour he spent at Pathways to Independence in Kearny, N.J., the facility where he has been working for 11 years. His tasks include sorting wire clothing hangers and unloading heavy boxes. >“I try to do better, and I’m not moving on,” Muniz said. “I don’t really know why.” >About 40,000 disabled people like Muniz work under the program, which was enacted in 1938 to provide jobs for injured veterans. Today, nearly 800 facilities in 37 states participate in what has become known as “14(c)” — a reference to Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which allows employers to apply for a certificate and legally pay disabled workers less than the $7.25 federal minimum wage. >At Pathways, where Muniz works, no workers have transitioned out of the program since 2020, said Alvin Cox, the executive director of the facility. >“Community integrated employment is not for everyone, but everyone should have the opportunity to try and experience the dignity of work,” Cox said. “These individuals need support and guidance to do the work that they’re doing.”  >A 2023 report from the Government Accountability Office surveyed wage data from 2019 to 2021 and found that workers were typically making about $3.50 per hour, compared with a federal minimum wage of $7.25. About 12 percent made hourly wages of less than a dollar. deeply cursed
jacobin.com
>The US government didn’t like that Jagan was a Marxist — it thought he would be another Fidel Castro, and it wanted to stop him at any cost. Usually folks in the left-labor movement think of general strikes as a positive thing, but in this case, a general strike secretly funded by the CIA, with US unions distributing the funds, undermined a left-wing government. >Similarly, in early-’70s Chile, Salvador Allende was in power. He was a Marxist, democratically elected, and believed in creating socialism through democracy — so he was seen as especially dangerous to anti-communists in the United States and in Latin America, because they relied on the trope that all communists were authoritarian dictators. The [Richard] Nixon administration wanted to create economic chaos in Chile, and part of that was achieved through a series of big strikes in industries including copper mining and trucking. These strikes also received funding, support, and training from the AFL-CIO, with many of the resources originating with the CIA. Those strikes were used as a pretext for the Chilean military under Augusto Pinochet to stage a coup in 1973 and overthrow Allende. would be nice to read citations on this (of links between afl and striking chileans) anyway la jacobina duality strikes again
John Maclean, born on this day in 1879, was a Scottish schoolteacher and revolutionary Marxist, sometimes referred to as "Scotland's Lenin". His Marxist evening-classes produced many of the activists who became instrumental in the Clyde revolts during and after WWI. MacLean was appointed both an Honorary President of the first Congress of Soviets and Soviet Consul to Scotland in recognition of his consistent socialist position on the imperialist war and his tireless work in support of the Bolshevik revolution. Maclean's revolutionary politics were well-known, and in 1915, he was arrested under the Defence of the Realm Act and fired from his job as a primary school teacher. As a consequence, he became a full-time Marxist lecturer and organizer, educating other Glaswegian workers in Marxist theory. Maclean supported Irish independence on an anti-imperialist basis, describing the Irish War of Independence as "The Irish fight for freedom" and even condoning the assassination of a magistrate, Alan Bell. He saw the war in Ireland as strengthening the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, arguing that "Irish Sinn Féiners, who make no profession of socialism or communism...are doing more to help Russia and the revolution than all we professed Marxian Bolsheviks in Britain". MacLean was at odds with much of the British left and dismissive of the newly-formed Communist Party of Great Britain. He had already turned his back on economism and the syndicalism favoured by the Clyde Workers’ Committee, had recognised the nature of British imperialism and come to the conclusion that revolution could only come about through the destruction of the British Empire. Maclean was also noted for his outspoken opposition to World War I, and, in 1918, he was arrested for sedition. During the trial, Maclean gave the now legendary "speech from the dock", expounding on his position. He was sentenced to five years' penal servitude, but was released after the November armistice. In captivity, Maclean had been on hunger strike, and prolonged force-feeding had permanently affected his health. He collapsed during a speech and died of pneumonia, aged forty-four. >"I have taken up unconstitutional action at this time because of the abnormal circumstances and because precedent has been given by the British government. I am a socialist, and have been fighting and will fight for an absolute reconstruction of society for the benefit of all. I am proud of my conduct. I have squared my conduct with my intellect, and if everyone had done so this war would not have taken place... >...I appeal exclusively to [the working class] because they and they only can bring about the time when the whole world will be in one brotherhood, on a sound economic foundation. That, and that alone, can be the means of bringing about a re-organisation of society. That can only be obtained when the people of the world get the world, and retain the world." - --John MacLean, from the "Dock Speech" - [John Maclean - revolutionary fighter of the working class ](https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/28420/12-12-2018/john-maclean-revolutionary-fighter-of-the-working-class) - [John Maclean Archive ](https://www.marxists.org/archive/maclean/index.htm) **Megathreads and spaces to hang out:** - 📀 Come listen to music and Watch movies with your fellow [Hexbears nerd, in Cy.tube](https://live.hexbear.net/c/movies) - 🔥 Read and talk about a current topics in the [News Megathread](https://hexbear.net/post/3260017) - ⚔ Come talk in the [New Weekly PoC thread](https://hexbear.net/post/3260530) - ✨ Talk with fellow Trans comrades in the [New Weekly Trans thread](https://hexbear.net/post/3203892) - 👊 Share your gains and goals with your comrades in the [New Weekly Improvement thread](https://hexbear.net/post/3254512) **reminders:** - 💚 You nerds can join specific comms to see posts about all sorts of topics - 💙 Hexbear’s algorithm prioritizes comments over upbears - 💜 Sorting by new you nerd - 🌈 If you ever want to make your own megathread, you can reserve a spot [here nerd](https://hexbear.net/post/261657) - 🐶 Join the unofficial Hexbear-adjacent Mastodon [instance toots.matapacos.dog](https://toots.matapacos.dog/explore) **Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):** **Aid:** - 🌈 [LGBTQ+ Resource Post](https://hexbear.net/post/279079) - 🍉 [Resources for Palestine](https://buildpalestine.com/2021/05/15/trusted-organizations-to-donate-to-palestine/) - [🐌☕ Zapatista Coffee](https://schoolsforchiapas.org/store/coffee-corn-and-agricultural/zapatista-coffee/) **Theory:** - ❤️[Foundations of Leninism](https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1924/foundations-leninism/index.htm) - ❤️[Anarchism and Other Essays](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/emma-goldman-anarchism-and-other-essays)
The core organizing group is deciding who to organize with, and the main consideration is UFCW. Good or no? Any other unions we should consider? We're an independent retail store All managers are bastards. Fuckers are causing injuries with malicious management tactics.
The most famous female labor activist of the nineteenth century, Mary Harris Jones—aka “Mother Jones”—was a self-proclaimed “hell-raiser” in the cause of economic justice. She was so strident that a US attorney once labeled her “the most dangerous woman in America.” Born circa August 1, 1837 in County Cork, Ireland, Jones immigrated to Toronto, Canada, with her family at age five—prior to the potato famine with its waves of Irish immigrants. She first worked as a teacher in a Michigan Catholic school, then as a seamstress in Chicago. She moved to Memphis for another teaching job, and in 1861 married George Jones, a member of the Iron Molders Union. They had four children in six years. In 1867, tragedy struck when her entire family died in a yellow fever epidemic; she dressed in black for the rest of her life. Returning to Chicago, Jones resumed sewing but lost everything she owned in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. She found solace at Knights of Labor meetings, and in 1877, took up the cause of working people. Jones focused on the rising number of working poor during industrialization, especially as wages shrunk, hours increased, and workers had no insurance for unemployment, healthcare or old age. Jones first displayed her oratorical and organizing abilities in Pittsburgh during the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. She took part in and led hundreds of strikes, including those that led to the Haymarket riot in Chicago in 1886. She paused briefly to publish The New Right in 1899 and a two-volume Letter of Love and Labor in 1900 and 1901. A beloved leader, the workers she organized nicknamed her “Mother Jones.” Beginning in 1900, Jones focused on miners, organizing in the coal fields of West Virginia and Pennsylvania. For a few years, she was employed by the United Mine Workers, but left when the national leadership disavowed a wildcat strike in Colorado. After a decade in the West, Jones returned to West Virginia, where, after a violent strike in 1912-1913, she was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder. Public appeals on her behalf convinced the governor to commute her twenty-year sentence. Afterward she returned to Colorado and made a national crusade out of the tragic events during the Ludlow Massacre, even lobbying President Woodrow Wilson. Later, she participated in several industrial strikes on the East Coast between 1915 and 1919 and continued to organize miners well into her nineties. Despite her radicalism, Jones did not support women’s suffrage, arguing that “you don’t need a vote to raise hell.” She pointed out that the women of Colorado had the vote and failed to use it to prevent the appalling conditions that led to labor violence. She also considered suffragists unwitting dupes of class warfare. Jones argued that suffragists were naïve women who unwittingly acted as duplicitous agents of class warfare. Although Jones organized working class women, she held them in auxiliaries, maintaining that—except when the union called—a woman’s place was in the home. A reflection of her Catholic heritage, she believed that men should be paid well enough so that women could devote themselves to motherhood. In 1925, she published her Autobiography of Mother Jones. She is buried in the Union Miners Cemetery in Mount Olive, Illinois. >"I'm not a humanitarian, I'm a hell-raiser." Mother Jones - [The Autobiography of Mother Jones](https://archive.iww.org/history/library/MotherJones/autobiography/) - [Who Was Mother Jones? The Labor Icon Remains an Inspiration to Activists](https://www.teenvogue.com/story/who-was-mother-jones-labor-activist) **Megathreads and spaces to hang out:** - 📀 Come listen to music and Watch movies with your fellow [Hexbears nerd, in Cy.tube](https://live.hexbear.net/c/movies) - 🔥 Read and talk about a current topics in the [News Megathread](https://hexbear.net/post/3095249) - ⚔ Come talk in the [New Weekly PoC thread](https://hexbear.net/post/3096628) - ✨ Talk with fellow Trans comrades in the [New Weekly Trans thread](https://hexbear.net/post/3096681) **reminders:** - 💚 You nerds can join specific comms to see posts about all sorts of topics - 💙 Hexbear’s algorithm prioritizes comments over upbears - 💜 Sorting by new you nerd - 🌈 If you ever want to make your own megathread, you can reserve a spot [here nerd](https://hexbear.net/post/261657) - 🐶 Join the unofficial Hexbear-adjacent Mastodon [instance toots.matapacos.dog](https://toots.matapacos.dog/explore) **Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):** **Aid:** - 🌈 [LGBTQ+ Resource Post](https://hexbear.net/post/279079) - 🍉 [Resources for Palestine](https://buildpalestine.com/2021/05/15/trusted-organizations-to-donate-to-palestine/) - [🐌☕ Zapatista Coffee](https://schoolsforchiapas.org/store/coffee-corn-and-agricultural/zapatista-coffee/) **Theory:** - ❤️[Foundations of Leninism](https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1924/foundations-leninism/index.htm) - ❤️[Anarchism and Other Essays](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/emma-goldman-anarchism-and-other-essays)
www.nature.com
Abstract: Researchers have argued that wealthy nations rely on a large net appropriation of labour and resources from the rest of the world through unequal exchange in international trade and global commodity chains. Here we assess this empirically by measuring flows of embodied labour in the world economy from 1995–2021, accounting for skill levels, sectors and wages. We find that, in 2021, the economies of the global North net-appropriated 826 billion hours of embodied labour from the global South, across all skill levels and sectors. The wage value of this net-appropriated labour was equivalent to €16.9 trillion in Northern prices, accounting for skill level. This appropriation roughly doubles the labour that is available for Northern consumption but drains the South of productive capacity that could be used instead for local human needs and development. Unequal exchange is understood to be driven in part by systematic wage inequalities. We find Southern wages are 87–95% lower than Northern wages for work of equal skill. While Southern workers contribute 90% of the labour that powers the world economy, they receive only 21% of global income.
arstechnica.com
> SAG-AFTRA has called for a strike of all its members working in video games, with the union demanding that its next contract not allow "companies to abuse AI to the detriment of our members." > > The strike mirrors similar actions taken by SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) last year, which, while also broader in scope than just AI, were similarly focused on concerns about AI-generated work product and the use of member work to train AI. > During the strike, the more than 160,000 members of the union will not provide talent to games produced by Disney, Electronic Arts, Blizzard Activision, Take-Two, WB Games, and others. Not every game is affected. Some productions may have interim agreements with union workers, and others, like continually updated games that launched before the current negotiations starting September 2023, may be exempt. > The Washington Post says the biggest remaining issue involves on-camera performers, including motion capture performers. Crabtree-Ireland told the Post that while AI training protections were extended to voice performers, motion and stunt work was left out.
www.peoplesworld.org
cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/5204246 > Check it out: > > ---- > > >WASHINGTON—Despite heavy security which prevented them from surrounding the U.S. Capitol, thousands of protesters jammed Washington’s Pennsylvania Avenue to denounce Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a mass march Wednesday. They declared him “a war criminal,” demanded his arrest, and blasted U.S. aid to and complicity with his ongoing genocidal war on Gaza. > > > >The protests continued even as Netanyahu spoke to a joint meeting of Congress, thanking Democratic President Joe Biden for weapons shipments since the Israeli military launched its massive retaliatory invasion of Gaza last October. > > > >The far-right PM lavished even more praise on former Republican President Donald Trump—a white nationalist, misogynist, convicted felon—and once again the party’s nominee. Both Netanyahu and Trump seek to again split the Democratic coalition that backed Biden and is now coalescing around Vice President Kamala Harris’s candidacy to succeed him. > > > >Using a Cold War insult, the U.S.-educated Netanyahu called the protesters “useful idiots.” Seizing on a chance to try to pinkwash the genocide, he took a shot at LGBTQ protesters, in particular, saying protesters holding signs reading “Gays for Gaza” were akin to poultry carrying “Chickens for KFC” placards. > > > >Addressing a pared-down gathering of lawmakers, Netanyahu demanded even more U.S. money and weaponry for his military campaign to subjugate Gaza. “Give us the tools faster, and we’ll finish the job faster,” he said. The war has reduced Gaza to ruins, produced two million refugees, killed at least 38,000 people, and left more than 100,000 injured. > > > >Aside from condemning Netanyahu, the big targets for the protesters were Congress and President Biden. “Our leaders have tacitly endorsed his \[Netanyahu’s\] crimes…. Biden and too many members of Congress have not only tolerated these atrocities, they’ve been complicit in them,” one demonstrator told _People’s World_. > > > >“As Americans and taxpayers, we do not welcome war criminals into our legislative chambers,” meaning Netanyahu, another said. > > > >**Labor leads in the streets** > > > >Besides Palestinian solidarity groups, organized labor and Jewish peace groups were also large presences among the demonstrators. The [United Auto Workers took the lead](https://peoplesworld.org/article/united-auto-workers-to-spearhead-labor-ceasefire-contingent-in-netanyahu-protests/) in building a “Labor for Ceasefire” contingent which ultimately encompassed several unions. > > > >UAW Region 9A President Brandon Mancilla spoke to attendees, and the Auto Workers chartered several buses from Detroit and five or six busloads from New York. “The more money going to war, the less money goes to working-class needs,” Mancilla said. “This has been a key demand of our working-class movement.” > > > >Postal Workers (APWU) President Mark Dimondstein declared, “We’re in solidarity with the workers and students of Gaza.” APWU was the first big national union to demand a ceasefire and negotiations to end the Gaza War. “We call on the U.S. government to halt all military aid to the Netanyahu government.” > > > >“Our tax dollars should never be used to bomb the men, women, and children of Gaza,” Dimondstein told the crowd. The Israeli war on Gaza “is raising the danger of a wider war,” he warned. “The U.S. government has the leverage to stop Israel,” Dimondstein elaborated. “And it is a falsehood that being anti-Israel is being anti-Semitic,” as both Netanyahu and Republicans contend. > > > >APWU was one of seven unions to sign a [joint letter to Biden](https://peoplesworld.org/article/seven-national-unions-demand-biden-end-u-s-military-aid-to-israel/) with those ceasefire and negotiations demands the day before Netanyahu’s speech. They also backed an aid cutoff. APWU reaffirmed its anti-war stand at a recent convention, Dimondstein told the crowd. > > > >Other signers included the National Education Association, the Association of Flight Attendants/CWA, the Service Employees, the Auto Workers, the Painters, and the United Electrical Workers. Speakers estimated the seven unions speak for 7.5 million members. > > > >“The Israeli government will continue to pursue its vicious response to the horrific attacks of October 7th until it is forced to stop,” their letter said. “We believe immediately cutting U.S. military aid to the Israeli government is necessary to bring about a peaceful resolution to this conflict.” > > > >Those unions, plus members of the Office and Professional Employees, the Communications Workers, the Steelworkers, and the National Nurses United, also marched. > > > >“I think union activists and organizers and the rank and file, for many months, have pressed our leadership to come out in opposition to the war crimes and pressed our \[U.S.\] administration to do more” to stop them, said OPEIU Local 2 member Chelsea Bland. > > > >The protesters were barred from ringing the Capitol due to a massive police presence, including 200 imported New York City cops. They responded with chants of “Free Palestine” and more. Signs declared, “The blood is on your hands” showing pictures of both Biden and Netanyahu. “Netanyahu, you can’t hide. We charge you with genocide,” another chant went. > > > >Code Pink reported that after both the demonstration and Netanyahu’s speech ended, police pepper-sprayed and arrested some of its members protesting at various barricades. _The Hill_ reported 16 arrests, including five who stood up with anti-war insignia in the House gallery. > > > >**Dissent inside the Capitol** > > > >Some 50 lawmakers boycotted the speech, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind-Vt., the prime sponsor of military aid cutoffs to Israel. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., a Palestinian-American whose Detroit-area district includes the nation’s largest concentration of Arab-Americans, and who blasted the administration in a floor speech the day before, wore a _kaffiyeh_ to the House floor. > > > >She defiantly faced down Netanyahu from her seat in the House chamber, holding up a black and white sign with messages the Israeli leader couldn’t avoid. On one side, it read, “Guilty of Genocide,” and on the other was “War Criminal.” > > > >Both Vice President Kamala Harris, and Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, were out campaigning. So was Trump. People noticed Harris’s absence. The Vice President and House Speaker usually jointly preside at such joint meetings. Pro-Israel Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., replaced Harris. > > > >The vice president is expected to meet one-on-one with Netanyahu at some point during his visit, and many ceasefire activists are hoping she will signal a break from Biden’s policy of essentially unconditional support for Netanyahu. Tlaib has [encouraged the new Democratic nominee to back an Israeli arms embargo](https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/tlaib-slams-netanyahu-visit-says-harris-should-back-israeli-arms-embargo/). > > > >Right-wing and Trumpite Republicans repeatedly cheered the Israeli PM, while most of the other Democrats sat in stony silence. As for those who boycotted the speech, some had a lot to say. > > > >“I am past pissed off. I am past upset. I am absolutely ashamed of what is happening,” Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., told the press. She participated in a conference call alongside other Democrats and former government officials who have resigned from their jobs in protest of the administration’s policy. “Our government has been actively complicit in genocide every step of the way,” Bush added. > > > >**Anti-war voices** > > > >“We want to make sure our voices are heard and our dissatisfactions are discussed,” said Melissa Kiseling, one of a group of Young Communist League members, from D.C., Baltimore, and Brooklyn, who carried a large banner and signs during the protest. > > > >“As workers and as union members, I think it is really important that we are standing with the workers and the union movement in Palestine,” added another, Justin Otter. > > > >The Communist Party USA distributed a statement Wednesday drawing attention to the fact that International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan is seeking an arrest warrant for Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity. > > > >“Netanyahu’s presence in Congress is a disgrace and an affront,” the CPUSA said. “We demand the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu, and we call for the United States to end its complicity in genocide and to support a permanent, lasting ceasefire.” > > > >The party reiterated its support for “Palestinian self-determination and an end to the illegal 76-year Israeli occupation of Palestine.” > > > >Gokar Ivfar, an Auto Worker Region 9A member from the Graduate Students Union at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, spoke with _People’s World_ about youth involvement in the ceasefire movement. “It’s very important to represent not just students in the U.S., but students around the world,” who have protested Biden’s aid to Israel for the Gaza War, he said. The war “should alarm all of us.” > > > >Some of the marchers and speakers wondered to what extent Harris would deviate from Biden’s lockstep support for Israel’s war. Some were skeptical, but others expressed the view that she is not as emotionally committed as he is to uncritical support of Netanyahu’s right-wing government and its military campaign. > > > >Harris “seems to be more open to a different approach” to the Israel-Palestinian conflict in general and the war in particular, UAW 9A President Brandon Mancilla told _People’s World_. “But we need to see results.” He noted Harris’s absence from Netanyahu’s speech. > > > >**Netanyahu the opportunist** > > > >The Associated Press reported that before Netanyahu’s speech, some 60 lawmakers, led by Rep. Tlaib, met privately with families of hostages whom Hamas still holds, nine months after the Oct. 7 attack. The families said Netanyahu ignores the hostages’ plight to seek peace in order to further his own political purposes. > > > >Netanyahu’s purposes, Israeli media report, are to “win the war,” establish complete rule over Gaza, and by doing so, keep himself and his far-right nationalist coalition in power while he evades trial on corruption charges. > > > >In a measure of how controversial Netanyahu is, security for his speech covered most of the nation’s capital. High steel fences surrounded the Capitol building, just as they did during anti-Trump and pro-abortion protests. The surrounding neighborhood was cordoned off, and the rest of D.C. suffered its most massive traffic jam in decades. > > > >Major avenues and all side streets for a mile or more around the Israeli embassy were closed for hours. Police cruisers blocked everything. Helicopters constantly patrolled overhead. Bus routes were canceled or stopped. Only the subway ran, and an occasional pedestrian got through. > > > >But none of that stopped demonstrators’ message from getting through to the world: Ceasefire and arms embargo now. > > > >_C.J. Atkins contributed to this article._ > > > >>We hope you appreciated this article. At _People’s World_, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all, but we need your help. Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader-supported. Only you, our readers and supporters, make this possible. If you enjoy reading _People’s World_ and the stories we bring you, please [support our work by donating or becoming a monthly sustainer today](https://peoplesworld.org/donate/). Thank you! > > ---- > > Your thoughts overall?
web.archive.org
> After facing the flak on the job reservation bill, the Karnataka government is now planning to increase the working hours of IT employees to 14 hours a day from the current 10, triggering opposition from IT sector unions. The proposal to amend the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishment Act to facilitate 14-hour working day was presented in a meeting called by the labour department with various stakeholders in the industry. The representatives of the Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU) have already met with labour minister Santosh Lad and raised their concerns over the move. > > The proposed new bill ‘Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments (Amendment) Bill 2024’ attempts to normalise a 14-hour work day. The existing act only allows a maximum of 10 hours work per day including overtime, which has been completely lifted in the current amendment. > > IT sector unions have come out in public in protest against the move, calling it 'inhuman’, that will have implications on 2 million workers in the state. "It will facilitate the IT/ITES companies to extend the daily hours of work indefinitely. This amendment will allow the companies to go for a two shift system instead of the currently existing three shift system and one-third of the workforce will be thrown out from their employment. During the meeting, KITU pointed out the studies on the health impact of extended working hours among the IT employees," said Suhas Adiga, general secretary of KITU. > > According to a KCCI report, 45 per cent of employees in the IT sector are facing mental health issues such as depression and 55 per cent facing physical health impacts. Increasing working hours will further aggravate this situation. A WHO-ILO study says increased working hours will lead to an estimated 35 per cent higher risk of death by stroke and 17 per cent higher risk of dying from ischemic heart disease, the union said. absolute surplus value go  god damn the 21st century sucks
https://xcancel.com/MorePerfectUS/status/1816116306459922848 https://xcancel.com/jacksonpCTU/status/1816135168866054255 https://xcancel.com/AFTunion/status/1816137016578617829
> [Bethesda Game Studios](https://venturebeat.com/games/how-bethesda-prepped-fallout-76-for-the-prime-series-viewers/) workers have voted to join the Communications Workers of America, forming the first wall-to-wall union at a Microsoft video game studio. > > The workers, consisting of 241 developers, artists, engineers, programmers and designers have either signed a union authorization card or indicated that they wanted union representation via an online portal. Microsoft has recognized the union. > > Bethesda Game Studios produces popular games including Elder Scrolls, Fallout and Starfield. > > “We are so excited to announce our union at Bethesda Game Studio and join the movement sweeping across the video game industry. It is clear that every worker can benefit from bringing democracy into the workplace and securing a protected voice on the job. We’re thrilled to get down to brass tacks and win a fair contract, proving that our unity is a source of real power to positively shape our working conditions, our lives, and the company as a whole,” said Mandi Parker, senior system designer and member of CWA, in a statement. > > The Bethesda Game Studios employees join a surge of workers who have recently formed unions in the video game industry, which had previously been seen as hostile to worker organizing. These works will be members of CWA Locals 2108 in Maryland and 6215 in Texas and join other CWA members at [Sega of America](https://venturebeat.com/games/sega-of-america-workers-unionize-in-california-across-departments/), [Activision Blizzard](https://venturebeat.com/games/activision-publishings-600-qa-workers-form-union/), [ZeniMax](https://cwa-union.org/news/releases/quality-assurance-workers-microsofts-zenimax-studios-establish-companys-first-union), [Tender Claws](https://code-cwa.org/stories/independent-studio-tender-claws-and-tender) and [more](https://venturebeat.com/games/gamesbeat-summit-2024-the-power-of-unions/). > > “We continue to support our employees’ right to choose how they are represented in the workplace, and we will engage in good faith negotiations with the CWA as we work towards a collective bargaining agreement,” said a spokesperson for Microsoft, in a statement. > > “In a groundbreaking achievement, the dedicated professionals at Bethesda Game Studios have demonstrated that, no matter your job title, you too can benefit from having a union,” said Johnny Brown, president of CWA Local 2108, in a statement. “Through securing a protected voice on the job, workers are taking a step forward to negotiating better working conditions, helping to raise standards across the industry. We are incredibly proud to welcome these workers into our union and are confident that together, we will secure a brighter future for all workers in the video game industry.” > > “The labor movement in the South is strong and growing. As the video game and tech industries continue to expand in Texas, it is critical that workers have a protected voice on the job to ensure they receive their fair share. We welcome Austin and Dallas based workers at Bethesda Game Studios to CWA and are looking forward to meeting Microsoft at the bargaining table to secure a fair union contract,” said Ron Swaggerty, president of CWA Local 6215, in a statement. > > Workers at Bethesda Game Studios in Montreal filed for union recognition with the Quebec Labor Relations Board in late June. When the process is complete, they will be represented by CWA Canada. > > The Campaign to Organize Digital Employees (CODE-CWA) is a network of worker-organizers and their staff working to build the voice and power necessary to ensure the future of the tech, game, and digital industries in the United States and Canada. CODE-CWA is a project of the Communications Workers of America which represents hundreds of thousands of workers throughout tech, media, telecom, and other industries.
> ‘We're unionizing because we love CounterPulse,’ technician Jessi Barber said before the vote. > > By [Lily Janiak](https://www.sfchronicle.com/author/lily-janiak/), Theater criticJune 26, 2024 > > CounterPulse workers held a March on the Boss near their venue in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood on June 4. > > Workers at performance art company CounterPulse voted unanimously to unionize — a history-making move in an industry where few office staff are organized. > > The 19 employees, occupying roles from administrative staff to technicians to a drum circle instructor, have been dues-paying members of the Industrial Workers of the World since June 4. The vote on Tuesday, June 25, which was certified by the National Labor Relations Board, secures them official recognition from management and means “the employer must begin bargaining in good faith with the union,” NLRB press secretary Kayla Blado told the Chronicle. Both parties have five business days to challenge the result. > > CounterPulse workers gather during a June 4 March on the Boss. They voted to unionize Tuesday, a move that the National Labor Relations Board has certified. Dylan Brown/CounterPulse Workers United > > “We feel like an exemplary arts org, especially here in San Francisco,” CounterPulse house manager Lonnie Taylor said at the Tenderloin venue minutes before casting her vote. Unionization, she added, marks yet another case of “us doing something that hasn’t been done.” > > A June 4 letter notifying Artistic and Executive Director Julie Phelps and the Board of Directors of their joining the IWW echoed those sentiments. > > “For too long, the hierarchical structure of CounterPulse has stood in opposition to the art that finds home in our pink building,” the workers wrote, referring to the company’s risk-taking and boundary-blurring output that might feature everything from a [game show](https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/theater/hands-feed-you-counterpulse-review-18397160) that tasks the audience with designing a utopia to a [dance performance staged in total darkness](https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/dance/into-dark-dance-review-18485353) to [affectless but agreeable weirdness](https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/theater/how-we-spend-our-days-counterpulse-klanghaus-sf-18173338) involving time machines and shadow puppetry. > > Phelps said she was inspired by the workers, adding, “I believe the union holds unique potential to collectivize and share power toward creating more sustainable nonprofit workplaces.” > > Board Chair Victor Cordon also expressed support and a commitment to collaborate. > > “We are excited by what this process can mean for actualizing new models of nonprofit leadership and for CounterPulse to be part of an important movement at the forefront of reimagining a thriving nonprofit workforce,” he said. > > Julie Phelps sits for a portrait at CounterPulse’s building in San Francisco on March 3, 2023. > > The letter also made demands for a nonhierarchical structure and collective decision making on staffing issues; union representation on the board of directors and in artistic programming; the company’s full commitment to the [boycott, divestment and sanctions movement;](https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/uc-protesters-divestment-targets-19455464.php) and improvements in pay and benefits. > > “We’re unionizing because we love CounterPulse, and we believe in the work CounterPulse does, and we want CounterPulse to always exist,” technician Jessi Barber declared before Tuesday’s vote, noting that she’s worked at many other arts organizations where progress on issues such as racial equity evaporates once a committed staff member departs. Unionizing, by contrast, creates a sturdier framework, “furthering the mission, operationalizing the mission,” she said. > > Katherine Neumann dances during Charles Slender-White’s “Split,” a 15-minute and one-on-one experience by Fact/SF at CounterPulse on Sept. 7, 2021. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle > > Many theater workers at large companies such as BroadwaySF and the American Conservatory Theater have union contracts through trade-specific rather than venue-specific associations, covering thousands nationwide. For instance, Actors’ Equity Association represents actors and stage managers, while various sister unions cover stagehands and technicians, directors and choreographers, and scenic artists. But no nationwide theater trade union exists, for example, for the administrative staff who want to organize at CounterPulse. > > The company’s election could prove a model for other performing arts workers seeking better contracts amid successive waves of labor unrest throughout the country. It might also serve as an alternative to the [distributive or collective leadership model](https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/theater/term-limits-theater-industry-experiment-17904515) many theater companies in the Bay Area have adopted in recent years, partly to address concerns similar to those expressed by CounterPulse workers. > > “Are: era” by Psueda at CounterPulse on April 13, 2021, in San Francisco. The art installation allowed pods of up to four audience members at a time inside as part of Combustible Residency 2021. > > The vote comes after the pandemic and the racial reckoning of 2020 brought heightened scrutiny to labor conditions in the performing arts, with the [We See You, White American Theatre](https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/theater/people-of-color-in-bay-area-theater-demand-bold-steps-toward-racial-justice-in-online-documents) collective and other groups publishing demands for more humane hours, salary transparency, racial equity and more. More immediately, it comes as nationwide disputes between labor and management about the Israel-Hamas war have riven even famously cushy workplaces such as [Google](https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/fired-google-workers-file-labor-complaint-allege-19432013.php). Taylor and Barber also cited worker organization drives at City Lights Bookstore and Peet’s Coffee as inspirations. > > Prior to Tuesday, there have been two other recent successful union drives elsewhere in Bay Area arts. In March, employees at the [Oakland Museum of California](https://www.afscme.org/blog/oakland-museum-of-california-workers-announce-plans-to-unionize) voted to organize, followed the next month by 34 workers at 50-year-old [Creative Growth,](https://oaklandside.org/2024/04/02/creative-growth-union-announcement-oakland-arts-nonprofit/) the studio and gallery for artists with disabilities. Both Oakland shops unionized through the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Cultural Workers United. > > Sher-ron Freeman wears her own design during the Beyond Trend Runway event at the Oakland Scottish Rite Center on April 27, 2019. The event by Creative Growth featured the work of artists with developmental, mental and physical disabilities. > > Creative Growth United member Sam Lefebvre cited a number of factors that last summer led him and his peers to start discussing the possibility of organizing, including “an overreliance on low-paid contractors and volunteer labor” with the prospect of stabler employment dangled only after a certain period of paying dues. > > “I think that’s really typical of employers in the arts,” Lefebvre said. “They expect the prestige or access of working in an arts organization to compensate for low pay. > > “Our workplace, like museums and other arts institutions around the country, agrees that you can’t eat prestige.” > > Creative Growth Interim Executive Director Tom di Maria said the unionization “reflects our collective commitment to fostering an open, respectful, and supportive work environment.” > > Audience members gather before “The Hands That Feed You” event at CounterPulse on Oct. 6, 2023. Noah Berger/Special to The Chronicle > > While the long-standing American image of a union member is of a blue-collar worker at a large industrial company, John Logan, chair of the Labor and Employment Studies Department at San Francisco State University, said, “That is beginning to change.” > > Cultural workers, he noted, fit the nationwide profile of young, college-educated and low-paid laborers whose interest in organizing was bubbling before — and then was accelerated by — the pandemic. Such workers are less interested in labor behemoths such as the AFL-CIO and more “attracted to the idea of being able to organize your own workplace, organize your co-workers,” he said. They’re also less likely to advocate for traditional union sticking points such as pensions, instead focusing on “cultural issues” such as “diversity in the workplace.” > > Will Caldwell as Gene Goo, left, and Julie Phelps as Captain Phelps in CounterPulse’s “How We Spend Our Days.” > > “These are workers who entered the paid workforce for the most part after the Great Recession of 2008,” he went on, explaining the shift in labor priorities as generational. “They’ve only ever known precarious employment situations.” Partly as a result of Black Lives Matter movement and campaigns for LGBTQ rights and abortion rights, “They tend to be more skeptical about the more brutal side of U.S. capitalism.” > > Then the pandemic spurred workers further. > > “They were working often for multibillion-dollar corporations who really didn’t appear to care that much if they lived or died,” he said. > > _**Editor’s note:** This story has been updated to include responses from CounterPulse’s leadership._
www.ineteconomics.org
>Similarly, the job openings rate and the hiring rate have grown apart, as is shown in Figure 2. Both moved closely together from 2001 to early 2020, but then the job openings rate almost doubled, whereas the hiring rate held fairly steady. >Again, it is clear that the sharply elevated vacancy ratios during 2021-2023 do not correspond to a considerably tighter U.S. labor market as measured by a more strongly negative employment gap. >However, recent survey evidence suggests that many firms now advertise positions with no intention of any imminent hiring. Such information allows them to track the replacement cost of their current workforce in real-time and remind current employees that they could be dispensed with.
[linky](https://xcancel.com/therecount/status/1811117075416445295)  unions can now do gladio-style operations, confirmed.