Fight Back! News

News and Views from the People's Struggle

Labor

By Fight Back

UPS Teamsters are continuing the fight for a decent contract.

Tampa, FL – Rank-and-file trade union activists from Teamsters Local 79 hit the gates, Oct. 8, getting petition signatures and handing out call-in information to pressure the IBT National Negotiating Committee into further negotiations with UPS. This comes after Denis Taylor and the Hoffa administration announced the ratification of the contract, despite it being rejected by the membership.

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By staff

Washington, D.C. – On Oct. 7, Principal Officer of Teamsters Joint Council 10 Sean O’Brien sent an open letter to the Hoffa administration requesting negotiations continue with UPS as well as an emergency General Executive Board meeting to discuss the issues.

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By Dave Schneider

“The IBT needs to respect the will of the members and go back to the bargaining table.”

Jacksonville, FL – Just hours after UPS Teamsters voted down their tentative agreement in record numbers, union chief negotiator Denis Taylor announced he would ratify the contract anyway.

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By Dave Schneider

“The IBT needs to respect the will of the members and go back to the bargaining table.”

Jacksonville, FL – Just hours after UPS Teamsters voted down their tentative agreement in record numbers, union chief negotiator Denis Taylor announced he would ratify the contract anyway.

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By staff

Teamsters rank and file claim victory against concessions

Washington DC – The results are in. The UPS National Master Agreement, which covers approximately 250,000 workers across the country and is the largest private-sector union contract in the United States, has been rejected in a 45.74% to 54.26% vote.

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By staff

Approximately 1700 hotel workers in Boston walked off the job on Wednesday, October 3. The strike includes seven hotels across the city: the Sheraton Boston, Westin Copley Square, Westin Waterfront, Aloft Seaport, Element Seaport, W Hotel, and the Ritz-Carlton. All the hotels involved are operated by Marriott International, which is both the largest hotel employer in Boston and the largest hotel chain in the world.

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By staff

Washington DC – Fred Zuckerman, Principal Officer of Teamsters Local 89 and previous reform candidate to head the IBT sent an open letter blasting the Hoffa administration’s threats to ignore the UPS Teamsters contract vote. At the UPS National Grievance Panel, on Oct. 3, Denis Taylor, lead negotiator for Teamsters, stated the negotiating committee’s might ratify the UPS contract in the event it was voted down by the membership.

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By staff

Steelworkers are getting prepared for strike.

Pittsburgh, PA – Steelworkers represented by United Steelworkers (USW) are making preparations to strike against ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel company. The union is currently discussing plans for an orderly shutdown with the company in the event a strike occurs. Picket duty surveys, which workers fill out with their times available to picket, have also been distributed to the membership.

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By staff

Sarah Chambers speaks at the Rally for Equality.

Chicago, IL – Nearly 500 teachers, students, parents and allies gathered at the Chicago Board of Education, Sept. 26, to call for equal pay for equal work for charter school educators. “We fought for and won a large increase in state funding for education in Chicago, but in our schools most of that money was pocketed by charter operators and not put into their classrooms,” said Chicago Teachers Union Charter Division Chairperson Chris Baehrend.

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By staff

Members of IBT Local 79 are campaigning against a concessionary contract at UPS.

Tampa, FL – With the vote count a little less than two weeks out, west Florida UPSers will be voting ‘no’ on the tentative agreement. Despite retaliation from the company, rank-and-file militants have been informing the membership of Local 79 throughout the contract negotiation process. Now that balloting information has been mailed out and the vote is underway they are making sure UPS Teamsters have received their ballots and voted.

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By staff

Jacksonville, FL – A critical vote is underway on the largest private-sector union contract in the United States. Beginning on Sept. 11, hundreds of thousands of Teamsters at UPS and UPS Freight began receiving ballot information in the mail to vote on their respective tentative agreements, regional supplements and local riders.

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By Fight Back

Lawrenceburg, KY – On Sept. 21, Four Roses Bourbon workers ended a two week strike and successfully prevented the creation of a two-tier system at their workplace. The strike came after workers rejected a concessionary contract offered by the company. Over 50 workers were involved with the work stoppage and are represented by UFCW Local 10D, UFCW Local 23D and NCFO Local 320.

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By staff

![Los Teamsters que trabajan en UPS luchan por trabajos de tiempo completo, un fin](https://i.snap.as/oiptlMkU.jpg “Los Teamsters que trabajan en UPS luchan por trabajos de tiempo completo, un fin Los Teamsters que trabajan en UPS luchan por trabajos de tiempo completo, un fin al tiempo extra excecivo y en contra de las concesiónes.

Los Teamsters que trabajan en UPS luchan por trabajos de tiempo completo, un fin al tiempo extra excecivo y en contra de las con”)

Washington, D.C. – Alrededor de 250,000 Teamsters recibirán una boleta a principios de septiembre sobre la ratificación del principal acuerdo UPS nacional de cinco años entre UPS y la International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Los Teamsters de UPS en todo el país se están movilizando para rechazar el acuerdo, firmado por el Comité Nacional de Negociación de UPS de Teamsters, el 21 de junio. Los únicos dos locales de UPS no afectados por el acuerdo son Local 705 y Local 710, que actualmente se encuentran en negociaciones.

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By staff

Washington, DC – The United Steelworkers (USW) announced today, Sept. 18, that the 13 locals at ArcelorMittal unanimously authorized a strike. About 15,000 workers could take part. The vote means that the USW bargaining committee now has the power to call a strike if needed.

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By staff

Battle Ground, WA – Teachers, who had voted to continue striking despite a court order to return to work, made major gains and won a strong contract, Sept. 16. The Battle Ground Education Association (BGEA) had been on strike since August 21. The strike came after the school district’s refusal to properly allocate state funding for teachers’ salaries.

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By staff

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Chicago, IL – Thousands of striking hotel housekeepers, servers, cooks, doormen and other workers marched on Chicago’s famed Magnificent Mile, Sept. 13 to press their demands for a decent contract. Workers from 26 hotels are now out on strike.

#ChicagoIL #strike #Strikes #UniteHere #UniteHereLocal1 #ChicagoHotelStrike

By staff

The picket line at the Drake Hotel, in Chicago.

Chicago, IL – Workers at 26 hotels are now on strike as members of UNITE HERE Local 1 walk the picket lines. Wages, workloads and health insurances are among the issues at play. Thousands of housekeepers, servers, cooks and doormen walked off the job on Friday, Sept. 7.

#ChicagoIL #strike #Strikes

By staff

USW rally

U.S. Steel employees represented by United Steelworkers (USW) voted overwhelmingly in favor of a strike authorization, Sept. 7. USW has been negotiating a master agreement with U.S. Steel that covers more than 16,000 workers around the country. The vote would grant the negotiating committee the power to call a strike against the company.

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By Fight Back

Four Roses Bourbon workers on the picket line.

Lawrenceburg, KY – Workers at Four Roses Bourbon went on strike Sept. 7, rejecting a concession-filled contract. The striking workers are represented by UFCW Local 10D, UFCW Local 23D and NCFO Local 320. The strike took place after a 100% strike authorization vote at the Lawrenceburg and Cox Creek plants.

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By Jim Byrne

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Tucson, AZ – Outraged educators took to the streets in both Phoenix and Tucson Sept. 5 to protest the removal of Proposition 207 from the November ballot. The actions took place at the Arizona Chamber of Commerce in Phoenix and at Chamber members Tucson Electrical Power (TEP) and Wells Fargo in Tucson. These places were targets because it was the Chamber of Commerce that funded and filed the lawsuit against the InvestInEd ballot initiative that would have raised income taxes on the top 0.07% of Arizonans, some 15,000 people, and generated an estimated $690 million. This amount would provide a significant boost to missing $1.1 billion from public schools over the ten years.

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