Greetings from the Burgh,
Payday has just returned to Pittsburgh from Huntington, West Virginia. We’ll be here for a few days while we work on more stories about our Huntington trip and take care of some business.
With your donations, we hope to get back on the road soon. Thank you to everyone who has chipped in.
Payday Records Its 1,650th Retail Worker Walkout in Richmond
Today, Payday Report recorded its 1,650th walkout since the beginning of the pandemic: Retail workers at the non-profit Diversity Thrift store in Richmond, Virginia, went on strike.
With pay of $11 an hour, the workers demanded a raise to $16 an hour. The workers also demanded the store improve its sexual harassment policy after a manager was rehired at the facility, even after sexual harassment allegations were made against him.
“We’re all terrified that this is going to result in us losing our job,” Diversity Thrift employee Aurora Higgs told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “A lot of us are paycheck-to-paycheck.”
For more, check out the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Suburban New Orleans Garbage Workers Strike
In the New Orleans suburb of Metairie, sanitation workers, members of the Teamsters, and employed by Republic Services went on strike last Friday over low pay and unsafe working conditions.
“Man, we got some of these guys out here pulling asbestos cans, with dust masks and that’s not good,” veteran garbage worker Ron Martinez told WGNO. “Our trucks are always breaking down, leaking oil. It’s just a bad situation.”
350 Sutter Healthcare Workers Walkout in California
In Antioch, California, more than 350 healthcare workers, members of SEIU, have gone on strike today over the company’s unfair labor practices and chronic understaffing.
“We voted to strike because we want to put a stop to Sutter’s unfair labor practices and because we care about patient safety, and we want safe staffing levels,” Stefanye Sartain, a respiratory therapist at Sutter Delta Medical Center, said in a statement released by the union. “Our hospital has multiple job openings that haven’t been posted because management feels they don’t need the positions filled. But we are so short-staffed, it’s hard to provide adequate care. Sutter is eroding the staff and it’s not safe for patients or workers.”
For more, check out the statement released by SEIU.
Burnsville, North Carolina Bojangle Workers Strike
In rural northeast North East Carolina, workers at Bojangle in Burnsville, North Carolina, went on strike Saturday over unsafe conditions.
“After workers at @Bojangles in Burnsville, NC notified management that they had been exposed to COVID, we were pressured to still come to work. We’re striking to demand COVID protections, PAID sick days & a $15 min wage,” the North Carolina Fight for $15 said in a statement on Twitter, released on behalf of the workers.
For more, check out the Fight for $15 North Carolina’s Twitter feed.
Strikes & News Happening Elsewhere
- HelloFresh forced Twitter to remove union-busting HelloFresh videos made by the labor media outlet More Perfect Union.
- Rochester, Minnesota Hot Topic workers walk out to quit, leaving a note that states, “You cannot pay your workers in passion.”
- The St. Vincent nurses’ strike in Worcester, Massachusetts, has reached the 8-month mark.
- Newberg, Oregon teachers’ union sues district over BLM, Pride flag ban.
- Finally, Matt Stoller has a long look at the growing pharmacists’ walkout movement called #PizzaIsNotWorking.
Alright, folks, that’s all for today. Donate to our travel fund to cover the Huntington, West Virginia strikes.
Also, please consider signing up as one of our 631 recurring donors.
Hear about walkout? Email me melk@paydayreport.com to let us know.
Love & Solidarity,
Melk
