Devin Griggs wishes Murray State University had a labor studies program. “A lot of college kids don’t know much about unions,” said Griggs, a 20-year-old junior at Kentucky’s westernmost public university.
Elizabeth Boomer of the AFL-CIO International Affairs Department sends us this.
PKC, a Finnish auto parts corporation with production facilities located in more than 10 countries in Asia, South America, Europe and North America, recently acquired a subsidiary named Arneses y Accesorios de Mexico. The workers in the plants want the National Miners’ and Metalworkers Union (Los Mineros) to represent them, but PKC North America President and CEO Frank Sovis informed the workers that “to protect itself and jobs, the company has decided to sign a collective agreement with the Mexican Confederation of Workers” (CTM).
Workers at two more Southern California carwashes won their first contracts with carwash owners after they voted last year to join the United Steelworkers (USW) Local 675.
Locked-out workers from American Crystal Sugar and Cooper Tire will begin a 1,000-mile Journey for Justice tomorrow from Fargo, N.D., to Findlay, Ohio. The journey will highlight the corporate greed that marks their lockouts, and the growing drive by corporate CEOs to drive down wages and benefits to pad their own pockets.
This is a report from the Metropolitan Washington Labor Council by Chris Garlock and Julia Kann.
Hundreds of oil workers from three Philadelphia refineries slated for permanent shutdown early this year came to Capitol Hill yesterday to tell Congress “the closures threaten family-supportive jobs and will lead to persistent shortages of home heating oil and motor vehicle fuels in Pennsylvania and throughout the Northeast.” The workers—members of United Steelworkers—rallied in front of ConocoPhillips Co. and Sunoco Inc. in downtown Washington, D.C., presenting “pink slips” to management at both oil companies.
Amy Masciola, a union campaign consultant, sends us this.
More than six months ago, American Crystal Sugar Co. locked out more than 1,300 sugar beet workers in the Red River Valley of Minnesota and North Dakota. Two months ago, Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. locked out more than 1,000 workers in Findlay, Ohio. Last week, Caterpillar announced it would shut down a plant in Ontario, just over one month after locking out 500 workers. Rio Tinto Alcan locked out 750 workers in Quebec Jan. 1. HealthBridge locked out 800 nursing home workers in Connecticut in December. As Laura Clawson at the Daily Kos notes, “For evidence of a war on workers, look no further than the rise of the lockout.”
This is a cross-post from The Huffington Post.
On Dec. 18, a dozen retirees, men and women in their 60s, 70s, even 80s, began occupying a median strip along Route 33 in front of the closed Century Aluminum smelter in Ravenswood, W.Va. In tents and under tarps, a small group stays overnight, despite hypertension, arthritis and other old age ailments. One has suffered a stroke.
The United Steelworkers (USW) and the oil industry have reached a tentative three-year agreement covering 30,000 USW members at 168 production, refining, marketing, transportation, pipeline and petrochemical facilities nationwide, the union announced last night. The deal is subject to ratification by the membership.
More than 1.6 million American jobs in the nation’s auto supply chain are at risk unless China’s illegal trade practices are curtailed, according to three new reports released today. In a conference call with reporters this afternoon, United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard said:
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