Folks,
Greetings from the Burgh, where we are working on some very exciting assignments. More in a few days.
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Nissan Workers in Mississippi May Try to Unionize Again
Back in 2017, Payday Report traveled to Mississippi to cover the efforts of Nissan workers there to unionize. Unfortunately, the union was defeated in a near 2-to-1 blowout.
Workers have been organizing for more than twenty years at the plant and the fight to unionize it has long looked like a pipe dream. However, workers at the heavily African-American plant have continued meeting and trying to unionize for nearly 20 years.
Now, after the successful unionization efforts of Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga in April, workers at Nissan are talking about intensifying their efforts to unionize. From WBHM 90.3 FM:
“Anti-union attitudes aren’t restricted to Mississippi, but spread across the South — which is what made the Tennessee Volkswagen plant unionizing so surprising.
“That was big time,” Nissan worker Ernest Whitfield said. “We just were hoping that we were going to be the ones to prove that back in 2017.”
The largest difference between the Nissan vote in 2017 and the latest out of Tennessee is that the Volkswagen election was its third. It often takes more than one vote for a union victory, and like the Starbucks campaign showed with its first win at Buffalo, success has a way of spreading.
Despite the Alabama Mercedes-Benz loss just a month later, that Volkswagen union win is enough to have these Nissan workers wondering if they should try next.
“Because Volkswagen proved that it can be done,” Whitfield said.”
Boeing Workers Could be Primed for a Union Election
In 2017, workers at Boeing in South Carolina also lost a union election by a 2-to-1 margin. Now, as more workers speak out about exposes at Boeing, they too could be primed for a union election.
“As far as the workload, I feel like we were definitely trying to put out too much product, right?” one Boeing worker told CNN recently. “That’s how mistakes are made. People try to work too fast. I mean, I can’t speak for anybody else, but we were busy. We were working a lot.”
For more on the brutal working conditions at Boeing in South Carolina, check out CNN.
UK Labour Party to Roll Back Anti-Strike Laws
In July, the British Labour Party won an overwhelming victory to take back the House of Commons for the first time in a decade-and-s-half. Now, they are looking to roll back anti-strike laws that prohibited public sector unions from striking.
“We’re consigning it to history,” Deputy Prime Minister Angela Angela Rayner told The Observer. “Scrapping this toxic legislation is our first step in ending the scorched-earth approach that has blocked negotiation and compromise to resolve disputes and prevent disruption.”
For more, check out The Observer.
DeSantis Invests Public Pension Funds in Risky Flood Insurance
In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis is offering to invest that state’s public pension into insurance for properties put at risk from climate change. The move has teachers union activists crying foul.
“The rampant gerrymandering since Jeb Bush’s governorship means DeSantis can hurt millions of Floridians through predatory practices with nary a peep from the legislature,” AFT president Randi Weingarten told The Prospect. “Moreover, the attack on workers and consumer freedoms that the governor and the legislature have wrought is designed to thwart any fightback.”
For more, check out The American Prospect.
Links & News Happening Elsewhere
- $1.7 Billion worth of Israel Bonds purchased with public funds since October 7th attack on Israel
- AppleTV VFX workers unanimously vote to unionize with IATSE in official Labor Board election
- First U.S. unionized Apple retail store workers overwhelmingly ratify historic labor agreement with tech giant
- US chip factory workers say it’s a ‘struggle to survive’ on their wages as industry booms
- Undocumented immigrant workers in NY pay over $3 billion in taxes, report says
- Korean Samsung union leaders order workers back to work as they transition tactics
- Finally, a big happy birthday to 106 year old Chicago teachers union activist Bea Lumpkin,
Alright folks, that’s all for today. Keep sending tips, story ideas, and comments to melk@paydayreport.com
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Love & Solidarity,
Melk
