workers

Amazon Demands Workers Keep Going as Co-Worker Lies Dead

Supervisors told workers at an Amazon warehouse in Oregon to keep working as a co-worker lay dead on the floor. Top managers also failed to bring work to a halt. A worker was prevented from acting on normal human compassion and stepping in to help another person do chest compressions. Once EMS arrived, the facility’s […]

AHS Workers Demand a Safe Workplace

This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Highland Hospital in Oakland, CA. Healthcare workers at Highland and throughout the Bay Area were shocked to learn of the stabbing death of a social worker at a San Francisco General Hospital clinic earlier this month. Although SF General administrators are now agreeing […]

When Workers Organize, The Bosses Listen

This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Highland Hospital in Oakland, CA. Employees of AHS, especially at Highland, have been calling on the administration to protect patients from immigration enforcement in the hospital. They have been hosting Know Your Rights trainings, passing around badge buddies with info about how to […]

In Direct Attacks, Trump Busts Our Unions

This past Labor Day the Trump administration hung an enormous banner over the front of the Labor Department building with the words, “American Workers First.” With banners like these and other staged events with working people standing behind him in their blue-collar work gear, the Trump administration works overtime to say how much it cares […]

Now is the Time for Class Solidarity

This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Kaiser and Highland Hospitals in Oakland, CA. It takes many of us workers with different titles to make our hospital function. We may often feel invisible, but our work is essential, and our humility is not a weakness. We take pride in doing […]

Hands Off Our Community! Hands Off Immigrants!

download as 2-sided leaflet (8.5×11) An Attack on Our Communities The Trump administration has launched attacks on people across the country it claims are criminals, with the goal of deporting one million people each year. The new Federal budget has $45 billion to build new privately run detention centers. The budget for ICE, the masked, […]

Train Engineers Strike NJ Transit for 3 Days

On Friday, May 16, more than 400 NJ Transit train engineers (the workers who drive the trains) went on strike. One of the nation’s largest rail transit systems shut down, leaving the entire region in a state of economic and social uncertainty. Although the strike lasted only three days before a tentative agreement brought them […]

Trump’s Tariffs Are An Attack on Workers

On April 2nd, Trump announced a range of new tariffs on goods imported into the United States from almost every country in the world. The Trump administration has implemented a 10% baseline tariff on almost all goods imported into the U.S., with even higher “reciprocal tariffs” on goods from a select group of countries that […]

They Have No Solutions for Us

Download pdf Since Trump became President, the reality of this so-called democracy has been on display for all to see. The Republicans in Congress have bowed to every demand. And the Democrats have barely expressed any opposition. Some judges have issued rulings opposing the most blatant disregard for laws. But the final word is left […]

Speak Out Now National Newsletter: March 31, 2025

Download .pdf leaflet Download .pdf leaflet (Baltimore, Maryland)Download .pdf leaflet (Bay Area, California)Download .pdf leaflet (The Triangle, North Carolina) They Have No Solutions for Us Since Trump became President, the reality of this so-called democracy has been on display for all to see. The Republicans in Congress have bowed to every demand. And the Democrats […]

Speak Out Now National Newsletter: March 18, 2025

Download .pdf leaflet Download .pdf leaflet (Baltimore) An Injury to One is an Injury to All! Since Trump took office, he, his cabinet of billionaires, and Elon Musk have created an overwhelming sense of chaos. Each day, announcements of a new attack on a new group of people or a new agency have crashed over […]

An Injury to One is an Injury to All!

Since Trump took office, he, his cabinet of billionaires, and Elon Musk have created an overwhelming sense of chaos. Each day, announcements of a new attack on a new group of people or a new agency have crashed over us like relentless storm surges. It has created an atmosphere filled with fear, anger, or sometimes […]

Our Time, Their Terms

This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Kaiser and Highland Hospitals in Oakland, CA. Why is it that we’re required to submit our schedules for the entire year a full 12 months in advance, yet our employer consistently fails to meet us halfway? We’re expected to plan our lives around […]

We Want Cashiers, Not Kiosks!

This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Kaiser and Highland Hospitals in Oakland, CA. AHS Food and Nutrition management is considering replacing cashiers in our cafeterias at Highland and other facilities with self-serve kiosks. This plan not only poses significant challenges—like the fact that many fresh prepared foods don’t scan […]

The Attack on Immigrant Workers is an Attack on Us All!

The second Trump administration has begun with aggressive targeting of immigrant communities. From San Jose to Chicago to Miami, close to one thousand people a day have been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be deported. There are even now talks of daily quotas, 1,500 arrests nationwide, and 75 for each ICE field […]

Speak Out Now National Newsletter: December 9, 2024

Download .pdf leaflet Download .pdf leaflet (Baltimore) Trump Cabinet Picks: Bad for Our Health Trump’s latest Cabinet appointments reveal an administration even more determined to prioritize the wealthy and powerful at the expense of working people. His selections for key healthcare roles, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.) as Secretary of Health and Human Services […]

Speak Out Now National Newsletter: November 18, 2024

Download .pdf leaflet Download .pdf leaflet (Baltimore) An Attack on Immigrant Workers is an Attack on All Workers During the recent U.S. presidential elections, both Harris and Trump focused on immigration as a central issue. Now that Trump has been elected president, he is threatening serious measures: mass deportations, ending automatic citizenship for children of […]

Speak Out Now National Newsletter: October 21, 2024

Download .pdf leaflet (Baltimore)Download .pdf leaflet (Bay Area, California)Download .pdf leaflet (North Carolina) Their Election is Over, Our Future is Up to Us! As of November 4, 2024, people are still casting their votes, and we might not know who officially won the presidential election for weeks. With so much uncertainty, it’s important to look […]

Speak Out Now National Newsletter: September 22, 2024

Download .pdf leafletDownload .pdf leaflet (Baltimore) We Must Oppose This War on the Middle East On Tuesday, September 17, the Israeli government expanded its reign of terror across the broader Middle East in a new wave of attacks on Lebanon. Hundreds of pagers and hand-held radios simultaneously exploded on two successive days in Lebanon, wounding […]

The East Coast and Gulf Ports Longshore Contract Expires September 30: Will the Union Settle or Strike?

Negotiations for new contracts covering 45,000 longshoremen, working at 11 ports on the Atlantic seaboard and the Gulf Coast, are at a standstill. On June 10th, the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) broke them off, saying that longshore employers were continuing to violate the existing contract. The ILA has scheduled a meeting of local union officers for September 4th and […]

Against Milei’s Repression in Argentina: Solidarity with PO (the Workers’ Party) and People Fighting Back

This is an appeal for support from our comrades in the Partido Obrero (Workers’ Party) of Argentina, a revolutionary socialist organization. Help with your contribution to the defense fund and by spreading the word about the situation. You can donate through PayPal to schiaffinojavi@outlook.com. We will be direct. In Argentina, we need your help to […]

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now workplace newsletter at Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) in the San Francisco Bay area. The way this contract has been presented, some workers feel like there are no good choices. They are caught between a rock and a hard place. A 2% increase every six months […]

May Day: There Is Power in the Working Class

General Newsletter April 28, 2024 Download .pdf leaflet May Day: There Is Power in the Working Class In the 1880s, the United States was deeply unequal and divided. A few families owned the overwhelming bulk of U.S. wealth, and workers had to work up to 16 hours per day. Workers had no rights on the […]

We Need More Permanent Staff

This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Kaiser and Highland Hospitals in Oakland, CA. Travel nurses play a vital role in our hospitals – they help make sure patients are cared for when facilities have higher than usual census, such as during a sudden outbreak, natural disaster, or major accident. […]

Refinery Fires In Martinez, CA

In Martinez, a small suburb of the San Francisco Bay Area, two separate fires broke out at the Marathon oil refinery over the last month. In a fire on November 19, refinery worker, Jerome Serano, suffered third-degree burns on more than 80 percent of his body, which has left him currently fighting for his life. […]

Plutocrat’s rant is a warning

“We need to see pain in the economy,” said Australian multimillionaire Tim Gurner at a summit of plutocrats held last month in Sydney, Australia. Gurner argued that an increase in unemployment to “40 to 50 percent” is needed to make workers work harder. This is because Gurner believes that post-Covid “employees feel the employer is […]

Workers Have a Right to a 32-Hour Work Week Plus a Big Boost in Pay

In 1940, the United States government set 40 hours as the basic workweek. Since then, pay for hours worked above 40 has been calculated at time and a half. The government passed this law only after workers engaged in massive struggles, including taking over factories until the bosses met their demands, which included not only […]

There’s a new contract between the Teamsters and UPS — what did the workers get?

Leaders of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) announced toward the end of last month that UPS workers had ratified a new five-year contract. The new contract included wage increases of up to 16% for most drivers working full-time, topping out at $47/hr. The new contract eliminates the hated two-tier system for delivery drivers that […]

BART – How Do They Think? Do They?

The following is reprinted from Speak Out Now’s workplace newsletter at Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) in the San Francisco Bay area. Clean stations are important to BART riders. Coming into a station that has stuff spilled on the platform or trash scattered in the station doesn’t create a very inviting environment. The level of […]

Mini rooms, 22.4, and electric vehicles: What’s going on in the labor movement today?

This is a repost of an article written by Adam Shils for the International Socialism Project posted on June 19, 2023. The labor movement is back in the news. The Screen Writers strike has gained wide publicity as A-list actors support the picket lines. Starbucks workers appear to unionize a new store every day. High […]

Rail and Airport Workers in Germany Flex Their Muscles in Fight for Higher Wages

Rail workers organized in the Railway and Transport Union (EVG) in Germany have engaged in two short “warning strikes,” on March 27th and April 21st, in an effort to win their demand for a 12% wage increase phased in over the course of a year and meant to counteract high levels of inflation. That increase […]

Big Business Attacks Child Labor Laws

Reported violations of state and federal child labor laws are on the rise nationwide. From meatpacking plants to construction sites to food packaging and coffee harvesting, teenagers, mostly immigrants, are being exploited in violation of longstanding child labor laws. Now let’s be clear — this isn’t all that new. Businesses trying to hire the cheapest […]

French Workers Continue the Fight Against Raising the Retirement Age

Many thousands of workers and students have taken to the streets of France once again in response to the government’s announcement on March 16 that it is raising the retirement age from 62 to 64. President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne have done this without a vote of the National Assembly. Macron’s government […]

Child Labor, Dangerous Work

Last summer, the federal Department of Labor opened an investigation into Packer Sanitation Services, Inc. (PSSI) to determine if the Wisconsin-based company was using child labor to clean slaughterhouses. The company provides cleaning services for over 700 locations nationwide, including JBS, the world’s largest meatpacking company. The Labor Department looked into company records from 50 […]

2023: ¿Quién decidirá nuestro futuro?

Nuestro futuro puede sentirse inseguro y fuera de nuestro control durante estos tiempos. Pero, como todos sabemos, las cosas pueden cambiar rápidamente cuando las personas se animan a responder, como vimos después del asesinato de George Floyd. Nos enfrentamos a problemas graves. Tenemos un sistema de salud que en realidad es un sistema de cuidado […]

2023: Who Will Decide Our Future?

Our future can feel insecure and out of our control during these times. But, as we all know, things can change rapidly when people are moved to respond, like we saw following the murder of George Floyd. We are confronting some serious problems. We have a healthcare system which is in reality a wealthcare system […]

UK Working Class is Fighting Back

The United Kingdom (UK) experienced a tumultuous 2022 that has hit workers hard. Last year saw three separate prime ministers in the UK, including Liz Truss who resigned after 46 days, and who was followed by Rishi Sunak, the wealthiest PM to set foot in 10 Downing Street. In September 2022, after former PM Liz […]

Anti-Government Protests Rock China

Online and on social media, Chinese families blamed authorities for the death of a four-month-old girl after access to medical care was delayed because of the government’s harsh, so-called zero-Covid policies. In southern China, protesters broke out of buildings locked down because of those same zero-Covid policies, confronting health care workers and ransacking stores to […]

Rail Workers Point to the Power of the Working Class

Freight railroad workers have been on the brink of striking for months. On September 14, at the 11th hour, it was announced that a rail strike was called off, and rail companies and union negotiators reached a tentative agreement. President Biden, who was present during the final negotiations, has tried to paint himself as a […]

What’s Been Going on in the Railroad Sector?

For those not familiar with the railroads, trying to follow the situation over the last few months can be confusing. We offer some clarification to help paint a clearer picture. Freight and passenger rail operators in the U.S. have been negotiating with railroad workers’ unions for months now. Railroad workers, or “rails” as they sometimes […]

A National Railroad Strike has been Called off … for now

On Thursday, Sep. 14, two unions representing about 60,000 railroad workers announced that they have reached a tentative contract agreement, and have called off what would have been the first national railroad strike in 30 years. For months the Biden administration has been supporting the rail companies in trying to stop a strike from happening. […]

Labor Day: It’s Time for Workers to Unite

Labor Day is supposedly a time to celebrate working people. Politicians often make cynical speeches saying how much they appreciate the work that ordinary people do, even as millions of workers don’t even get the day off. But Labor Day is also an opportunity to consider the situation that working people face across the U.S. […]

Coal Miners’ Strike: Over 500 Days and Betrayed by Democrats and Republicans

Coal miners in Alabama have been on strike now for more than 500 days — nearly a year and a half. The strike originally started when the mine’s owner, the company Warrior Met Coal, refused to negotiate a contract with better terms. This refusal came even though years earlier the company told miners they would […]

Worker Productivity Scores: Exploitation Gets an Innovation

The bosses are always trying to find new ways to squeeze more work out of us throughout the day. If there’s any way bosses can find to make us work more like machines, they’ll take it. And in response to the increasing numbers of workers working from home due to Covid, companies decided to monitor […]

Hard days on the picket lines, but baristas pour into unions

This is a repost of a recent article by Adam Shils for the International Socialism Project, originally posted on August 17, 2022. We post reprints like this to call attention to important ideas that might influence working class and other organizing, whether we agree with those ideas wholeheartedly or not, and to stimulate constructive discussion […]

Workers of Panama: “Solo el pueblo salva al pueblo” (Only the people can save the people!)

On August 2nd the teachers of Panama ended their nationwide strike that sparked strikes for construction workers, Indigenous groups, and regular people nationwide. The strikes began because of high prices on fuel, food, and medicine caused by the pandemic and U.S. and EU sanctions from the war in Ukraine, high unemployment, and political corruption. But […]

(video) U.S. Rail Workers Could Strike and Shut Down the Economy

The following short video {5 min} was produced and edited by Paula Pecorella and Meg Herschlein for the website More Perfect Union. In this excellent video railroad workers discuss many of the reasons that could lead to a major railroad strike in the U.S. as soon as next month, in September 2022. Over the past […]

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