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UAW’s Surprise Strike Strategy Kept Stellantis in the Dark, Company Confirms
This article is a joint publication of Workday Magazine and In These Times. Workers walked off their shifts on September 14 at midnight to cheering crowds, as the United Auto Workers launched its first simultaneous strike against the “Big Three” automakers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. The initial work stoppages were not company-wide, but instead targeted at three locations: GM’s Wentzville Assembly in Missouri, Stellantis’ Toledo Assembly Complex in Ohio, and Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Mich., just outside Detroit. The plants employ some 12,700 of the roughly 150,000 UAW members who work for the Big Three.
Exhausted, Injured and Angry: Autoworkers Are Ready to Strike
CHICAGO – Wearing a red United Auto Workers (UAW) t-shirt, Anastasia Gibson, 48, is warm and polite, quick to flash a broad smile. But her anger rises when she talks about her sacrifices to Ford, which made $10.4 billion in profits in 2022. Gibson works 10-hour shifts and injured her back on the job in 2021. “They don’t value anything we do. They want us to get as many cars off the line as we can.”
Why Do We Let Our Bosses Control Our Health Care?
This article is a joint publication with Minnesota Women’s Press for the September issue on Labor & Organizing. In the United States, we spend more on health care than other high-income countries, but we have some of the worst health outcomes. When employers offer health care benefits to their...
The Conflicted Analysis of What an Auto Workers Strike Would ‘Cost’
As 150,000 members of the United Auto Workers gear up for a possible strike against the “Big Three”—Ford, Stellantis, and General Motors—we are seeing the re-emergence of a well-worn media trope: fearmongering about how a collective work stoppage could harm “the economy.” This slant is common, from the media buildup to the potential rail strike to the potential UPS strike. This time, media outlets are throwing around a scary-sounding number: $5 billion.
In a Summer of Record Heat, These Striking Workers Are Making Climate Demands
This article is a joint publication of Workday Magazine and In These Times. July was the hottest month on record, and possibly the hottest in the history of human civilization, and August is bringing more scorching temperatures and supercharged storms. On July 16, the heat index at the Persian Gulf International Airport weather station in Iran climbed to 152 degrees Fahrenheit, a level that tests humanity’s ability to survive. Meanwhile, in vast swaths of the United States, people watched smoke from Canadian wildfires turn their skies noxious hues of orange and gray, only to then be hit with storms and heat waves. The scientific consensus has long held that climate change is human-made and real. But this summer, it seems a threshold has been crossed.
Biden Says There’s No Blockade. Tell That to Yemenis Who Need Medical Care.
This article is a joint publication of Workday Magazine and The Nation. SANA’A, Yemen—Raneem Isa Muhammad Jaber dreams of swinging in a playground or participating in a popular pastime called sahlilah, in which children use cut plastic containers to skate down a hill. “I want to play all the games, but I can’t,” said the 11-year-old, who has suffered since birth from a skin condition that leaves black spots all over her body and an itchy and painful black tumor-like growth that covers her backside. “I can’t sit down, I can’t walk, and I can’t sleep.”
“We Are Drowning”: Nurses Say Illinois Hospital Plagued With Unsafe Staffing
Tania is a mother of four and a new registered nurse in the intensive care unit at Ascension St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, Illinois, also known as St. Joe’s. On May 30, at a bargaining meeting with management to negotiate for the union’s next contract, she gave testimony about how her employer allegedly treated her for bringing up safety issues.
Amazon Says a Worker’s Death Was Not Work-Related. But a 911 Call Appears to Contradict the Company’s Narrative.
This article is a joint publication of Workday Magazine and In These Times. On the afternoon of June 2, Amazon worker Roger A. Kieca died after suffering a medical emergency while working at the company’s cross-dock facility in Joliet, Illinois. The temperature in Joliet that afternoon was 90 degrees.
Delayed Care, Stolen Wages: The Human Cost of Worker Misclassification
In 2022, construction worker José Alfredo Gómez fell two stories from the home he was working on, he says. A group of men on a boat in a nearby lake saw and called an ambulance. This was against the wishes of the jobsite supervisor, who insisted on transporting him in a work van, which had no seats and was filled with tools, Gómez says. The ambulance arrived, but Gómez’s injuries were so extreme, emergency personnel decided it would be best to airlift him to a hospital in St. Paul, Minn., where he was able to be treated, he recalls.
The Unions and Workers Supporting Cop City Protestors
This article is being co-published with In These Times and The Real News Network. Vincent Quiles, a 28-year-old father and union organizer in Philadelphia, is part of a fledgling labor effort to support the months-long protests against construction of the notorious Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, popularly known as “Cop City.”
Minnesota Prison Officials Seized $10,000 in Wages From Incarcerated Workers
This article is a joint publication of Workday Magazine and The American Prospect. Since December 2022, Michael Common has spent time during his incarceration working in the kitchen of Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater, in the eastern part of the state. He cleans pots and pans, which he calls “the hardest job there,” and he started at just 50 cents an hour.
How Minnesota’s New Paid Family and Medical Leave Protects LGBTQ+ Working Families
When Samie Burnett’s infant daughter became sick and hospitalized two years ago, she had to choose between taking time off work as a tutor in a school and working virtually. “I literally clocked into work from my phone, and was doing classes from my phone while in the hospital waiting to be released. That’s not okay,” she said at a rally for paid leave at the Minnesota state capitol.
Even Breathing Is Strange: Reflections on the 3rd Anniversary of George Floyd’s Murder
Black bodies swingin’ in the Southern breeze. Strange fruit hangin’ from the poplar trees”. Don’t go to that neighborhood. Keep your hands where they can be seen. Comply always. He is forced from my grip. and suffocated until he is merely. just flesh on concrete.
3 Decades Ago, There Was a Deadly Attack on Mexican Autoworkers. Here’s What It Can Teach the U.S. Labor Movement Today.
Rob McKenzie is a writer and former auto worker at the Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant in St. Paul, Minn., where he worked as an assembler, industrial electrician, and then as a full-time union representative for the United Auto Workers (UAW) until the plant closed in 2011. During his time as a steward at the Twin Cities plant in 1990, news hit of a deadly attack on a Ford plant in Cuautitlán, Mexico, a town just outside of Mexico City.
Inside a Teamster Rebellion: This Is What Union Democracy Looks Like
This article is a joint publication of Workday Magazine and The Nation. In the early morning of April 12, members of International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 90 rallied in the parking lot of the United Parcel Service distribution hub in Des Moines, Iowa, to prepare for what could be the largest strike against a single company in US history later this summer. The sun was shining as the union distributed “hot dogs for breakfast” to a crowd that started small but quickly ballooned to over 100, workers said. People were standing on trucks giving speeches to their coworkers. “We had workers talking about working six days a week, talking about getting written up for calling in sick,” said Tanner Fischer, the 26-year-old president of the local, who has been working for UPS since he was 18.
How Secret ‘Bondage Fees’ Trap Contracted Workers in Low-Wage Jobs
This article is a joint publication of Workday Magazine and The American Prospect. For almost six years, Raymond Pearson has been working as a front-desk concierge at one of the Galaxy Towers condominiums in Guttenberg, New Jersey, answering phones, getting packages to residents, dealing with food delivery, and developing bonds with the people who live there.
UMN Grad Workers Express Hope and Urgency as They Gear Up for Union Election
Over 65% of University of Minnesota Graduate Workers have signed their union cards, an optimistic start after several attempts over the past several decades. “Me and my colleagues across the board were overworked, underpaid, and really feeling the effects of that to the point that it was making it really difficult to do the stellar work that we like being here to do and we want to do,” says Phoebe Keyes, a third year Ph.D. student in civil, environmental, and geo-engineering at the University of Minnesota (UMN).
Preparing for War in the South China Sea
This article is a joint publication of Workday Magazine and The Nation. “Imagine you have a visitor who comes into your house,” Corazon Valdez Fabros said over Zoom from Quezon City in the Philippines. “You welcome this visitor. But this is a visitor who has all the guns, all the materials, that basically you cannot object to because they are fully loaded. And you cannot even tell this visitor to get out of your house when you want them to get out.”
Telling a Complete Story of the Pandemic Must Start with Workers
As the third anniversary of the Covid-19 pandemic passes us by, the Biden administration is seeking to declare an end to the federal public health emergency, along with policies and benefits that provide protection and support for working people who kept the economy open and running during a planetary health crisis. In doing so, the president is leaving the states responsible for addressing gaps and protecting workers.
What Captive Audience Meetings Are—And Why Minnesota’s Labor Movement Wants to Ban Them
Imagine that there have been rumors of unionization being discussed among employees at your workplace. Then, one day, when you show up to work, your supervisor informs you that all employees will be attending a “training session.” Once you arrive at this meeting, you’re told you can’t leave and you can’t ask questions, and you are directed just to listen to the speaker. You take your seat, and a person from human resources introduces what they call “a labor professional.” You spend the next few hours listening to people tell you why unions are bad, how they are going to interfere with your relationship to your employer, and how they will cost you more than they’re worth. If you try to leave, you might face discipline, such as being written up or even fired.
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Workday Minnesota holds the powerful to account while bringing the perspective of everyday workers and the organizations that defend their rights to focus. Workday emphasizes long-form investigative journalism to bring to light the concealed and buried.
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