UE

  • 'Toxic' Health Bill or No, Labor's 'Medicare for All' Activists Dig In

    When I told friends I was on my way to the Labor Campaign for Single-Payer conference, held last weekend, they all said, “I bet that’ll be a bunch of long faces.” I predicted not—these were people who’d always known the health care reform debate in Congress would come up short. Yet the 124 delegates to the March 5-7 conference in Washington were upbeat.

  • Just Say ‘No’ to Drug Tests — Then Bargain
    David Cohen
    Mar 10 2010 - 5:51am

    Under the guise of concern for employees’ safety and health, employers demand the right to conduct drug and alcohol testing. Most use it as just another hammer to hold over workers’ heads. Employers often try to divide the membership on this issue, but we can turn this around and fight. What are the union’s rights? What are the best policies to fight for?

  • Non-Majority Auto Union in North Carolina Fights to Soften the Blow of Layoffs
    Tiffany Ten Eyck
    Jan 22 2010 - 10:34am
    ** Print only

    Most union workers laid off in the economic crisis had recall rights—a promise they’d get called back before their employer could hire new workers along with the ability to maintain seniority. But millions of workers simply lost their jobs. That’s what happened to nearly 200 workers at the Cummins engine plant in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, in March last year. . . .

  • Celebrate Martin Luther King Day in the Streets

    If you're one of the fortunate workers that gets Martin Luther King Jr. Day off, keep in mind that MLK probably didn't write his famous "Letter From a Birmingham Jail" in comfy pj's and bunny slippers. Join up with local events commemorating the civil rights movement, or support workers in your area that are fighting to get the day off.

  • U.S., Canadian Delegation Supports Embattled Mexican Electrical Workers

    A delegation of U.S. and Canadian labor leaders visited Mexico November 29-December 3 in solidarity with fired electrical workers of the former Light and Power Company. On October 11 President Felipe Calderón sent police to occupy the facilities of the government-owned company and fired its 44,000 workers, attempting to break the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) because the union has stood in the way of Calderón’s effort to privatize the entire electrical industry.

  • Cracking the Subcontracting Shell Game

    If you want a glimpse inside the legal maze global corporations have erected to fatten their bottom lines and keep workers off-balance, take a look at this video. Monica Sanchez, a worker at the vacuum-maker Bissell's warehouse in Elwood, Illinois, talks about what happened to her and her co-workers when they tried to form a union with the United Electrical Workers.

  • Bissell Tries Sucking the Life Out of Union Organizing Drive

    Forty warehouse workers and their supporters picketed Wednesday in front of the Bissell distribution center in Joliet, Illinois, one of dozens of mammoth buildings that have sprung up off of I-55 south of Chicago. One week earlier Bissell—through their temp agency—dropped the axe on all 70 workers in the warehouse. Their offense? Trying to form a union.

  • Republic Factory Occupiers Meet French ‘Bossnappers’

    Chicago saw an unusual meeting of the minds last week between two groups of workers who have taken extraordinary steps when faced with a plant closing.

  • Now For Something Completely Different: Dispatches from the UE Convention

    Looking for a break from the palace politics and spit-shine glitz of the AFL-CIO convention in Pittsburgh (where, behind our reporters just hours ago, they turned back on the booming sound system to give tomorrow's speeches a dry run)? Let us transport you to downtown New Haven, where a gathering of a totally different stripe is underway.

  • How Republic Workers Occupied Their Plant

    Author(s):
    Leah Fried

    Excerpt:

    December 5 was to be the last day of work at Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago. But managers soon realized that workers would not go quietly: they had voted to occupy the factory. . . .

    Body:

    December 5 was to be the last day of work at Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago. But managers soon realized that workers would not go quietly: they had voted to occupy the factory.

    Members of United Electrical Workers (UE) Local 1110, they’d made plans to scatter throughout the plant, chain themselves to machines, and risk arrest. This is the story of how they did it.

    The occupation that won workers their back pay and the admiration of union members around the world didn’t happen out of the blue. It was the culmination of years of struggle to build a democratic, fighting union able to take on the boss.

    Available Online:
    Yes