Fight Back! News

News and Views from the People's Struggle

Labor

By Rob Wilson

A delegate gives an account and commentary

Las Vegas, NV – The United Auto Workers International convention was held here, June 12 – 15. This was the first convention I have ever attended. It was an honor and a privilege to be elected by the membership (active and retired) to represent them at the convention. The convention was a thorough learning experience in regards to the issues that exist not only throughout our Local and International Union but our society as a whole. I was given a lot of information on what to expect so I was not stunned by what I observed. Nauseated, maybe – surprised, no.

Read more...

By staff

UAW Local 974, located in East Peoria, Illinois, held an election for delegates to the UAW International Constitutional Convention April 23 at the UAW Local 974 union hall. In a stunning upset for the incumbent caucus, the Members for CHANGE! Group, led by Rob Wilson, won a majority of five delegate positions out of eight.

Read more...

By mick

Picket at Delphi plant

Flint, MI – Chanting, “Not one dollar, not one dime! Cutting wages is a crime!” more than 75 auto workers joined together here for a spirited picket line at the Delphi auto parts plant, Feb. 16. Many on the picket line were members of the rank-and-file auto workers organization, Soldiers of Solidarity. Coinciding with the end of sparkplug production at the plant, the protest slammed Delphi/GM’s demands for concessions.

Read more...

By Mike Griffin

Autoworkers with banner: "Good Jobs for All. Solidarity Now"

Decatur, IL – Nowhere in organized labor is the failure and treachery of business unionism more indicting than in the United Auto Workers (UAW). Today, that treachery threatens not only the existence of the organization, but the fundamental values upon which the union was built. If there exists a saving grace for the UAW, it is not in the halls of Solidarity House [UAW headquarters in Detroit], but in the rank and file resurgence against the devastating concessions at Delphi and Visteon, parts suppliers to the auto industry. The massive job losses and concessions, including tiered wages and benefits, are not a new occurrence, but a carefully crafted course that involves not only the bastards of the boardroom, but top UAW leadership as well.

Read more...

By staff

Detroit, MI – More than 600 rank-and-file auto workers demonstrated here, Jan. 8, to protest attacks on working people by Delphi and General Motors. The Delphi Corporation, which makes GM auto parts, wants to use bankruptcy proceedings to make huge cuts to wages, benefits and pensions.

Read more...

By staff

Interview with Rank-and-File Leader Gregg Shotwell

Fight Back! interviewed Gregg Shotwell, a key leader of the rank-and-file movement that is growing inside the United Auto Workers. A worker at the Delphi auto parts plant in Cooperstown, Michigan, Shotwell helped organize the mass meetings of autoworkers that took place over the past two months. These meetings led to the formation of the rank-and-file organization, Soldiers of Solidarity.

Read more...

By Rob Wilson

After decades of concessionary contracts, rank-and-file United Auto Worker activists have worked tirelessly the last two months resisting attacks on auto parts workers at Delphi Corporation.

Read more...

By UAW ‘Members for CHANGE’

Peoria, IL – United Auto Workers (UAW) members employed by Caterpillar Inc. ratified a six-year agreement, Jan. 9, 2005 . Many union members called it, “The worst contract in the history of the union.”

Read more...

By Mike Griffin

Mike Griffin, left, at a march for workers' rights

Decatur, IL – Sunday, Jan. 9 proved to be a day of infamy for United Auto Workers members worldwide. The fallout from the new six-year contract with Caterpillar will ultimately touch the lives of every member, active or retired. Without any fight or any known strategy, United Auto Workers (UAW) leadership surrendered any hope of recovery at Caterpillar Inc.

Read more...

By staff

The United Auto Workers (UAW) will sit down in August to negotiate a new contract with the Big Three automakers – General Motors, Ford and DaimlerChrysler. Many union activists expect the negotiations to be characterized by concessions to management. Detroit launched an assault on autoworkers years ago, and it continues. For example, GM slashed some 120,000 jobs in the 1990s.

Read more...

By staff

Inglewood, CA – Twenty thousand people demonstrated here, Jan. 31 in a powerful display of solidarity with the striking, locked-out United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) grocery workers. Trade unionists – including strikers and their families, longshoremen, public workers and Teamsters – along with community supporters marched on Safeway-owned Vons market.

Read more...

By George Iechika McKinney

More than 75,000 grocery workers on strike in southern California are on the front lines of a battle to defend health care and job security. The United Food and Commercial Workers have been on strike or locked out by their employers since Oct. 12, 2003.

Read more...

By mick

Shipping containers on docks

As Fight Back! goes to press, a key battle for the working class is shaping up in West Coast ports. On one side stands the International Longshore Warehouse Union (ILWU), which has mobilized strong support from West Coast labor. On the other side is the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), a coalition of shipping companies. Behind the PMA stand big business and the Bush Administration.

Read more...

By George Iechika McKinney

Los Angeles, CA – The single largest victory for the labor movement since the 1930s took place here last spring. Seventy four thousand homecare workers voted for a union, and won their first raise ever, from the State of California. This year, the struggle for a Union contract continues.

Read more...

By Fern

Union members marching with signs and banners

Jacksonville, FL – On May 17, 150 union members from around north Florida and southern Georgia gathered outside the Hyatt Regency Riverfront Hotel here to expose a top-secret meeting of CUE – the Committee for a Union-Free Environment. Corporate bosses are trying to stop the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) from passing in Congress, an event that one union buster referred to as “Armageddon.” Unions like the Teamsters, Boilermakers, Electricians, Metalworkers, Carpenters, Plumbers and community and student supporters attended.

Read more...

By staff

On March 23, Robert Walston, former Local 743 president, pled guilty to stealing two union elections and attempting to purchase $150,000 of cocaine.

Read more...

By Labor Beat

Fight Back! is posting the video Workers' Republic: Scenes From a Successful Factory Occupation that was created by the Chicago-based Labor Beat.

#ChicagoIL #ImmigrantRights #ChicanoLatino #RepublicWindowsAndDoors #BankOfAmerica #UELocal1110

By staff

signs: "$ billions for Bank of America, $0 for workers"

Chicago, IL – The accompanying photos are were taken by Fight Back! photographer Kim DeFranco at the Dec. 10 noontime protest here, at Bank of America. About 700 people participated in the picket to back the workers at Republic Windows. At about 10:00 p.m. that evening the leaders of UE Local 1110 announced the victorious end of the occupation.

Raul speaking at UE protest. signs: "Banks got bailed out, we got sold out"

Man speaking at UE protest. signs: "Bail out people, not banks"

signs: "Banks got bailed out, we got sold out"

#ChicagoIL #ImmigrantRights #News #ChicanoLatino #RepublicWindowsAndDoors #BankOfAmerica #UELocal1110

By Stephanie Weiner

Victorious factory workers with raised fists

Chicago, IL – After a six-day occupation of the plant which brought them nationwide attention, the Republic Windows and Doors workers met inside their factory tonight, Dec. 10, to vote on the settlement offer from their employer. A roomful of politicians watched and a knot of supporters waited for the results with great anticipation.

Read more...

By staff

The workers at Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago are calling on supporters in Chicago to join them at a protest at Bank of America, 231 S. LaSalle today, Wednesday, December 10 at 12:00 noon.

Read more...