Despite the intimidation felt by many immigrants, FLOC activists say that community labor organizations like FLOC are going to become even more vital in the Trump era.
“There are a lot of abuses against Latinos and farmworkers,” says Floricel Morales-Cruz, one of the kale workers. “I want people to know that they shouldn’t let growers take advantage of them and that we need to be organized.”
Since buying the car in March, we have traveled over 7,000 miles covering the movement to #OrganizeTheSouth.
Traditionally, the state’s Democratic governors, including Tim Kaine and Terry McAuliffe, hesitated in calling for its repeal; thus making Perriello call to repeal it a landmark position for Virginia Democrats.
Greetings from Chattanooga, Tenn., where Payday Senior Labor Reporter Mike Elk has been doing research on how an unusual coalition of non-establishment Berniecrats and black…
“We can’t find workers this year – it’s been tough,” says Julio Rubio of the Kentucky Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association. “Most of the workers we have at the track won’t even leave to go out at night to buy groceries because they are so scared of being deported.”
Last week, the State of Tennessee signed a five-year, $330 million deal that will lead to one of the largest outsourcing efforts of public jobs in state history. While the state promised that the move wouldn’t affect current employees, labor activists have said a reading of the fine print makes it clear that the state will try to get rid of as many employees as possible.
“Having a union doesn’t mean you have to have a majority of workers or a union contract,” said veteran union organizer Saladin Muhammad, co-founder of the Southern Workers Assembly. “A union exists whenever workers come together to form an organization to build power.”
“I had time to think about my life. Like what am I doing? What am I not doing? How can I make things right. I knew I did not want to come outside of prison being the same person I was going inside prison,” Coonrod told WRCB. “I began to knock on every door. Reach out to elected officials saying hey I need some help. I need you to help me help my community.”
University of Wyoming Labor Law Professor Mike Duff tells Payday’s Mike Elk that it is likely the Trump Administration will slowly kill the investigation. Duff and Elk discuss what type of enforcement actions the Trump Administration is going to allow and why the Google investigation is unlikely to continue.
In an exclusive interview with Payday, Perez says that he wants to see Democratic politicians get more involved in building community support for labor struggles in the South, like the recent union drives at Boeing in South Carolina and Volkswagen in Chattanooga, Tenn., where Republican politicians vigorously fought against unionization. If Perez is able to get Southern Democrats to embrace the labor movement, it would be a significant reversal of practices by the Democratic Party.
Regions like Alabama’s Black Belt and the Mississippi Delta receive approximately 1/10, per capita, of the national average of funding from foundations. Between 2010 to 2014, foundations donated, on average, $41 dollars towards philanthropic causes in the regions, while nationally, foundations donated $451 per person, according to the NCRP’s research.
The emails show that Republican State Senator Todd Gardenhire met with top UTC officials on March 20 and urged the firing of Helbert. Following the meeting, UTC Chancellor Steve Angle argued that Helbert should be fired.
“The potential repercussions for the state representative and UTC are HUGE,” wrote Angle in an email obtained by the Chattanooga Times-Free Press. “We could easily lose all funding we are providing to WUTC.”