Greetings from the Burgh, where Payday is fundraising money to travel to nearby West Virginia to cover two major strikes that could rock Huntington, West Virginia.
Nearly 500 steelworkers are already on strike, and another 1,000 hospital workers are on strike this week. For a town of 50,000 people to have 1,500 people strike is a huge deal and we want to cover it.
Donate today to help us cover the cost of the trip.
Raleigh Bus Drivers Sickout
In Raleigh, North Carolina, and surrounding Wake County, school bus drivers have gone on a “sickout strike” to draw attention to low pay, as wages for bus drivers in North Carolina’s most populous county begin at $15 an hour.
Wake County currently has a 17% shortage of school bus drivers in September, but drivers said they felt they had no other choice but to strike to improve their jobs.
“Every day, our colleagues who love their jobs leave the school system because they just can’t make ends meet or sustain the stress of uncompensated extra duties,” wrote the driver’s union in a public statement. “Neither our students nor our staff can afford for us to lose even one more educator.”
Anderson, Indiana Teachers Sickout Strike
In Southern Indiana, teachers went on strike Friday in the town of Anderson (population: 50,000). Teachers are unhappy with contract talks in which the school district has refused to agree to a wage increase. Teachers wanted to show the school district how far they would go to push for better standards.
“Many of us work second jobs, third jobs,” teacher Ashley Loffer told WTTV. “I personally work a second job throughout the week and on my weekends just be able to make bills and pay off student debt and credit cards and everything.”
Southern New Mexico Bus Drivers Strike
Last Friday in Las Cruces, New Mexico, school bus drivers went on a one-day strike to protest understaffing that hurt both bus drivers and families as students struggled to get to school on time.
“These kids are getting in really late,” Las Cruces Transportation Federation leader Dan Abrams told the Las Cruces Sun-News. “They are packing them on the buses. The mechanics are driving, the general manager is driving. If a bus breaks down, there’s no mechanics. If mechanics are driving, who’s working on the buses?”
For more, check out the Las Cruces Sun-News.
Gopuff Delivery Workers Strike in Philly
In Philadelphia, a group of delivery drivers employed by the app platform Gopuff went on strike this past weekend to protest cuts to their pay. Some workers, many of whom worked during the pandemic, reported seeing their pay go from about $12-an-hour to $7.50-an-hour.
“Now that everything is back to normal, or almost back to normal, they want to take our pay? That’s not right,” Eric Matos told WPVI.
Strikes & News Happening Elsewhere
- Akron bus drivers may strike this Thursday.
- John Deere and UAW have reached a tentative agreement that workers will vote on Tuesday.
- Despite most Heaven Hill bourbon workers voting to continue their strike, the strike ended after the union failed to get the two-thirds vote needed to keep the strike going.
- Starbucks workers win an NLRB ruling that allows them to organize store-by-store instead of the much more difficult job of holding an election at 20 stores simultaneously as Starbucks demanded.
- Federal jury rules that GEO Group owes immigrant detainees $17 million in back pay after forcing them to work for only $1 a day while in ICE detention.
- Finally, Hector Luis Alamo at Latino Rebels has a long look at a strike of tortilla workers at the iconic El Milagro tortillería company in Chicago.
Alright, folks, that’s all for today. Donate to our travel fund to cover the two strikes in West Virginia.
Also, please consider signing up as one of our 629 recurring donors.
Hear about walkout? Email me [email protected] to let us know.
Love & Solidarity,
Melk
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