Fight Back! News

News and Views from the People's Struggle

Labor

By staff

Minneapolis, MN – Public defense workers in Minnesota are ready to strike. The negotiating committees of both the lawyer bargaining unit and the support staff bargaining unit voted unanimously to reject a “last best final offer” from management. That unanimous vote carries with it a recommendation to strike if better terms are not reached. The membership of Teamsters Local 320 will begin voting on the offer next week, with ballots counted March 7.

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By staff

Strike vote ahead

Twin cities teachers are fighting for decent contracts.

Minneapolis, MN – Teachers and education assistants in both Minneapolis and Saint Paul will hold a joint march on February 12 to call for the safe and stable schools that their students deserve. The Minneapolis educators are members of the Minneapolis Teachers Union, and the Saint Paul educators are members of Saint Paul Federation of Educators. Both groups have been in bargaining over their next contract.

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By staff

Tallahassee, FL – On February 9, Starbucks workers and local organizations rallied to announce an effort to unionize at the Starbucks here on Magnolia Drive.

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By staff

Tallahassee, FL – On February 9, Starbucks workers and local organizations rallied to announce an effort to unionize at the Starbucks here on Magnolia Drive.

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By Severin Mortensen

UPS Teamsters oppose wage cuts to part time workers.

Lansing, MI – As UPS moves out from its peak season, the company is ending market rate adjustments (MRAs) and bonus programs designed to attract workers and boost part-time employees’ pay. The negotiated part-time pay rate for workers hired since August 1, 2018 is $15.33 per hour, with a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) included. Teamsters Local 623 reports that UPS paid its members $19 an hour as part of an MRA and the workers are taking a 27% pay cut as the adjustments expire.

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By Jacob Muldoon

Students protest treatment of Aramark workers on campus.

Tallahassee, FL – On February 2, around 80 Florida State University (FSU) students, representing FSU Against Aramark, FSU Students for a Democratic Society, FSUDems, and JStreet, marched across campus from Strozier Library to Dirac Library protesting Starbucks working conditions and standing in solidarity with Aramark workers on campus.

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By staff

Members of AFSCME Local 3343 demand a decent contract.

Tallahassee, FL – On February 1 from 8 to 11 a.m., around 20 people showed up to AFSCME 3343’s informational picket line to demand Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) raise the wages of workers on campus.

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By staff

Pittsburgh, PA – The United Steelworkers union (USW) announced today that it rejected Marathon Petroleum’s most recent proposal for a pattern settlement on wages, benefits and working conditions for approximately 30,000 USW members in the oil and petrochemical industry. The union then offered rolling 24-hour extensions of the current labor agreements.

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By Delilah Pierre

Tallahassee, FL- On January 12, Starbucks workers at 2264 North Monroe Street filed to unionize their store. Employees across the country have been filing to unionize at a remarkable rate, with locations in Oregon, Cleveland, Chicago and New Jersey having submitted petitions as well.

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By staff

Tallahassee, FL – On February 1, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) Local 3343 AFSCME workers will hold an informational picket line to protest the stalled contract negotiations between the AFSCME union and FAMU administrators.

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By staff

Looming strike averted

Hennepin County AFSCME workers fighting for a decent contract.

Minneapolis MN – A looming strike was averted when AFSCME Local 2822 came to a mediated settlement with Hennepin County, January 27. The agreement comes one day after Local 34 also reached a tentative deal. Workers represented by these two locals will begin voting on the contract February 2, the first day workers were poised to walk out. The bargaining committees of both locals are unanimously recommending a yes vote on the new contract offer.

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By staff

Denver, CO – On January 21, the United Food and Commercial Workers’ (UFCW) Local 7 reached a tentative agreement with Kroger subsidiary King Soopers after an all-night bargaining session. The picket lines that had been established ten days earlier went down and the strikers returned to work.

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By staff

Pittsburgh, PA – Roughly 500 workers at four Kane Community Living Centers voted unanimously January 21 to join the United Steelworkers union (USW).

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By staff

Hennepin County workers are preparing to strike

Minneapolis MN – Trails of frozen breath rose above hundreds of workers, January 19, as they chanted and picketed in subzero temperatures in front of county buildings throughout Hennepin County, the most populous county in Minnesota. The picketers are members of AFSCME Local 34 and AFSCME Local 2822 and work as library workers, social service workers and more. Earlier that morning the union members filed notice to go on strike February 2.

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By staff

UFCW strikers are standing strong

Denver, CO – On Monday, January 17, grocery workers represented by UFCW Local 7 entered day six of their Unfair Labor Practices strike against King Soopers. King Soopers is a subsidiary of Kroger.

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By staff

Fight Back! interviews Carol McMillian, a bakery worker from Denver currently on strike against the unfair labor practices of King Soopers, a division of Kroger. Fight Back!: Why are you out here today on the picket line?

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By staff

CTU members at school in Little Village protesting during the lockout.

Chicago, IL – Members of the Chicago Teachers Union’s House of Delegates voted to end a four-day remote learning action and return to school. The union announced today that by a vote of 55.5% in favor that the union would accept an agreement with Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s handpicked school board.

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By staff

Denver, CO – On January 3, King Soopers workers represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 (UFCW) in Denver and Colorado Springs approved an Unfair Labor Practices strike by a 97% margin. On January 7, the union announced that workers would walk off the job and onto the picket line starting next Wednesday, January 12.

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By staff

Mayor Lori Lightfoot locks teachers and students out of virtual classrooms

Chicago, IL – On Tuesday, January 4, more than 73% of teachers in Chicago who are represented by Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) voted to not return to classrooms on Wednesday, and instead taught their classes remotely to keep the teachers, staff and students safe as the pandemic surges. As the Omicron variant intensifies, the current positivity rate for COVID-19 in Chicago is at 23% and climbing.

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By staff

Denver, CO – On January 3, King Soopers workers represented by the United Food and Commercial Worker’s Local 7 (UFCW) in Denver and Colorado Springs approved an Unfair Labor Practices strike. Workers across 87 King Soopers locations approved the motion by a 97% margin.

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