Labor Notes Magazine, September 2003, No. 294

Magazine

Pam Galpern

On Saturday, August 2, Verizon workers in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions cleared out their desks, emptied their lockers, and turned in their tools. They removed the batteries from their equipment and got rid of anything that might make it easier for managers and scabs to do their work while they were on strike. No one doubted that a strike was imminent, and most people expected it to be a long one...

Yes

Jane Slaughter

On September 15 United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger will announce victory in contract talks with automakers. The UAW will hold the line on health care cost-shifting, Gettelfinger’s only clearly announced goal. And the Big Three will agree to pressure non-union parts supplier companies to allow the UAW into those plants...

Yes

Saladin Muhammad

Black Workers For Justice (BWFJ) views trade unions as necessary organizations for empowering and uniting the Black liberation and workers’ movements in the U.S. South. However, it sees trade unions, especially those in the South, as being narrow politically, lacking a strong presence and identity in working class communities and culture, and lacking an anti-racist perspective and practice. . . .


Yes

Sheila McClear

It’s a hot day in Detroit, and Cintas laundry worker Susan Amos is mad. Not about the heat, though. Amos shouts into a bullhorn, addressing her fellow workers at a rally in front of their plant. “I’ve been here 15 years and I still won’t be making ten,” she spits out. “They live off us...”

Yes

Dan Clawson

Imagine our goal is to revive the power of the labor movement, not just to hold on for another year, not just to do a little better. What might make that possible?

Yes

Marcy Rein and Jill Freidberg

On a balmy late May evening in Oaxaca, Mexico, tourists sipped and supped at the sidewalk tables ringing the zocalo, or main plaza. Vendors hawked their wares from small tables and roamed the square with bouquets of inflatable superheroes and rainbow plastic hearts...

Yes

Jane Slaughter

The UAW International’s actions at the Three Rivers, Michigan plant of American Axle and Manufacturing (AAM) could signal a willingness to drastically cut wages for new-hires at the big parts companies. As bargaining with the Big Three was proceeding in August, AAM was demanding a contract reopener and lower wages, in order to bid successfully on new work. The International insisted on a three-tier wage scale at the Three Rivers plant, further fracturing the pattern wage at AAM...

Yes