| Page 2 | Labor Notes

From Cell to Cell, Jailed Minnesota Unionists Sang of Freedom

Emmett Doyle, a bearded white man wearing a "Class war veteran" hat, a keffiyeh, and a Carhartt jacket, plays an Irish bouzouki. He is outdoors, silhouetted against a blue sky with thin white clouds.

Yesterday the federal government arrested and indicted 15 people, many of them union activists, on conspiracy charges over the protests and massive strike against ICE in Minnesota last winter.

Trabajador de Honda México logrará su reinstalación tras una lucha de 15 años

Natascha Elena Uhlmann

Ex trabajadores de Honda se reunen para una foto.

El líder del sindicato de trabajadores de Honda ganó su reinstalación la semana pasada, en una victoria importante para trabajadores que buscan construir sindicatos democráticos en el sector automotriz masivo. Pero tomó 15 años para que José Luis Solorio Alcalá, del Sindicato de Trabajadores Unidos de Honda de México, STUHM, pudiera llegar un paso más cercano a la justicia.

Honda Mexico Worker Wins Reinstatement After 15-Year Fight

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Former Honda workers gather for a photo at a press conference.

June 05, 2026

The leader of Mexico's Honda workers’ union won reinstatement last week, in an important win for workers seeking to build real unions in the country's massive auto sector. But it took 15 years for José Luis Solorio Alcalá, of the Union of United Honda Workers of Mexico (Sindicato de Trabajadores Unidos de Honda de México, STUHM), to get one step closer to justice.

Bring Member Power to the Table By Opening Up Bargaining

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A group of 50 people stand behind a bargaining table with fists raised.

June 02, 2026

Since electing new leadership in 2022, Teamsters Local 135 in Indiana has completely changed the way it conducts negotiations. It’s using open bargaining to revitalize the local.

Under the previous leadership, a small bargaining team negotiated behind closed doors. Gag orders ensured that members would know nothing about negotiations until an agreement was presented for a vote.

In Bus Factories, A Triple-Decker Win

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The skeleton of an unfinished bus, and the outer shell of another are shown in a factory

May 29, 2026

What does it take to unionize factories today, especially in the South? In the last two years, bus manufacturing workers secured first union contracts and a national master agreement across New Flyer facilities in three states.

Their strategy shows how, with pressure from transit agencies that buy the buses, union members from organized sites leading outreach to non-union workers, and fighting stewards on the line, workers can unionize plants across a whole company.

As Contract Deadline Looms, Auto Parts Workers Say ‘No Axles, No Trucks!’

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People, mostly wearing red, hoist printed signs in a packed indoor rally. A woman in the foreground, smiling, wears a "no tiers" button. Her sign, held high, reads "UAW: Fight for Job Security." Other visible signs say "UAW: Fight for No Tiers" and "UAW: It's Our Time at Local 2093 American Axle." A man behind her, applauding, wears a red and black buffalo plaid shirt. Most people visible in the photo appear to be white.

May 21, 2026

Axles are to vehicles what joints are to human bodies: the mechanism that facilitates movement. For parts worker Rosie Dodge, who has worked on a paint line for American Axle & Manufacturing for 10 years, the metaphor is embodied in the work environment.

“They just do not treat us like people,” Dodge said. “We are often referred to as bodies, like they don’t even want to give us credit for having a pulse. They do what they call ‘manpower moves,’ and they say, ‘We just need bodies over here.’”

Korean translation Secrets of a Successful Organizer

La gerencia les cobraba 100 dólares semanales por trabajar, alegan los trabajadores. Pero están luchando por sus derechos.

Natascha Elena Uhlmann

Cuando Evelyn comenzó a trabajar en Marder Trawling, un centro de procesamiento de mariscos en New Bedford, Massachusetts, se enteró de una condición de trabajo inusual: tendría que pagar discretamente a su gerente $100 dólares semanales por el privilegio de trabajar, dijo. “Yo no tenía trabajo, y tengo a mis niños. Yo le dije, ‘Está bien. Con tal de tener un trabajo.’

Management Charged Them $100 a Week to Work, Workers Say. They’re Fighting Back.

Natascha Elena Uhlmann

When Evelyn began work at New Bedford, Massachusetts, seafood processing center Marder Trawling, she learned of an unusual condition of employment: She’d need to quietly pay her manager $100 per week for the privilege of working, she said. “I didn’t have work, and I have kids,” she said. “So I told him, ‘All right,’ just to have a job.

“There were times I didn’t have money for rent, bills, or food for my kids,” she told Labor Notes, but her manager was happy to oblige: she could skip a week’s payment, and owe $200 the next week.

Rutgers Labor Center to Celebrate Life and Legacy of Tony Mazzocchi

A bearded man speaks at a microphone with his hands wide open

In the 1960s and 70s, conservative leaders of the AFL-CIO and many national unions viewed militant activists in the civil rights, anti-war, environmental, and women’s movements with alarm. When student radicals started migrating from campus and community organizing to unionized workplaces, labor officials did not welcome them.

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