Josh Eidelson | The Nation
Walmart Workers Plan Wednesday Scheduling Showdowns in 150 Stores
A Walmart worker on strike, October 4, 2012. (Flickr/Matt Hamilton)
On Wednesday, workers in at least 150 Walmart stores plan to confront local managers with demands for change in the retail giant’s scheduling system.
'I Jumped to Save My Body': Walmart Slammed Over Nicaragua Stabbings and Bangladesh Fire
The Tazreen Fashions garment factory, where 112 workers died in a devastating fire on November 30, 2012. (Reuters/Andrew Biraj)
Survivors of a factory fire in Bangladesh and an armed assault in Nicaragua both called this week for Walmart to crack down on abuses in its global supply chain. Former garment worker Sumi Abedin, who jumped from a third story window to escape Bangladesh’s Tazreen factory, will lead a mock “funeral procession” tonight to the New York City home of Walmart board member Michele Burns. Tomorrow, students and other supporters will converge on the New York and Los Angeles offices of SAE-A, a Walmart contractor accused of fomenting violence against union activists.
AFL-CIO's Non-Union Worker Group Headed Into Workplaces in Fifty States
Demonstrators from MoveOn.org and Working America picket against federal budget cuts outside John Boehner's office in West Chester, Ohio. (AP Photo/Al Behrman)
The country’s largest non-union workers’ group will soon announce plans to establish chapters in every state, achieve financial self-sufficiency and extend its organizing—so far focused on politics and policy—directly into the workplace.
Labor Leader Ai-jen Poo: We Are All Domestic Workers Now
Ai-jen Poo. (Flickr/Institute for Policy Studies)
The past decade has seen a surge of organizing by domestic workers in the United States. These workers, who care for children, senior citizens and disabled people in their homes, are explicitly excluded from many of the basic protections of federal labor law, including union organizing rights. Their job is characterized by low wages, long hours and meager benefits, and it’s among the fastest-growing in the US economy. Last Friday, The Nation sat down with Ai-jen Poo, a founder of New York’s Domestic Workers United, who now directs the National Domestic Workers Alliance. We discussed some disappointments dealt by Democratic politicians, the challenges of sustaining non-union labor groups and how to confront the coming care crisis. What follows is a condensed and edited version of our conversation.
Striking Guest Workers Will Take McDonald's Fight Global
Don Thompson speaks at a press conference with the International Olympic Committee. (Kerstin Joensson/AP Images for McDonald's)
Following demonstrations outside McDonald’s headquarters and CEO Don Thompson’s home, striking guest workers will hold an international day of action on June 6. The fifteen strikers, all students who came to the United States on cultural exchange visas, plan to lay the groundwork in their home countries over the next two months.
Labor Board Alleges Repeated Retaliation at Walmart's Top US Warehouse
A Walmart distribution center. (Flickr/Walmart Corporate)
The National Labor Relations Board has issued a complaint against four companies involved in staffing and managing Walmart’s largest distribution center in the United States. The NLRB complaint—similar to an indictment—alleges that the companies repeatedly threatened and punished warehouse workers for labor organizing, including by firing activists involved in a September strike that helped to inspire November’s Black Friday retail walkout.
As Striking Guest Workers Visit NYC Store, McDonald's Says It Has Cut Ties to Their Franchisee
An update, with additional comment from strikers and from McDonald’s, appears below.
New York City—Minutes after striking guest workers protested outside a Times Square McDonald’s, the company’s corporate headquarters announced that it was ending its relationship with the central Pennsylvania franchisee who had employed them.
Just after noon, striker Jorge Victor Rios entered the New York City store with about twenty fellow strikers and supporters to deliver a message to the national chain. As police escorted them out of the building, Rios read, and the crowd repeated, a statement condemning the company’s alleged abuses. “American and guest workers, our struggle is the same,” the group chanted outside the store. “We demand dignity. We demand respect for all workers. McDonald’s must pay.”
Striking McDonald's Guest Workers Headed to CEO's Chicago Home
A McDonalds store. (Flickr/Sean MacEntee)
At a New York City rally tomorrow, striking guest workers will announce major March 26 mobilizations outside McDonald’s corporate headquarters in Chicago, and at the home of company CEO Don Thompson.
McDonald's Guest Workers Stage a Surprise Strike
A McDonald’s store in the Philippines. (Flickr)
Alleging unpaid wages and repeated retaliation, McDonald’s workers in central Pennsylvania launched a surprise strike at 11 this morning. The strikers are student guest workers from Latin America and Asia, brought to the United States under the controversial J-1 cultural exchange visa program. Their employer is one of the thousands of McDonald’s franchisees with whom the company contracts to run its ubiquitous stores.
Did the DC Circuit Court Give a Green Light for Union-Busting?
Members of the Communications Workers of America rally outside Verizon’s offices in Philadelphia, August 2012. (AP Photo/ Joseph Kaczmarek)
After collective action cost twenty-two cable workers their jobs, their union is charging that a DC Circuit Appeals Court ruling has emboldened employers to break the law.
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