Folks,
Greetings from the Burgh, where Payday is getting back into the fight. The labor movement still enjoys a 70% popularity rating according to Gallup and unions continue to organizer
Donate to help us cover the fightback.
10,000 Nurses Vote to Unionize in Michigan
Today, over 10,000 nurses employed by Corewell Health Systems in Michigan voted to unionize with the Teamsters. The victory was hailed by union leaders as a sign of the vitality of unions in the age of Trump.
“Despite Corewell waging one of the most expensive and aggressive union-busting campaigns we’ve ever seen, these nurses knew their value and were determined to become Teamsters,” said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien in a Facebook post. “Corewell nurses chose the Teamsters because they knew it was the only way to secure a strong union contract.”
For more, check out the Detroit News.
UAW Stellantis Strike Less Likely Now
For months, the UAW has threatened to strike at Stellantis over job outsourcing and layoffs. However, it remains unclear if the UAW will be able to muster the support for the strike.
In October, Stellantis sued the UAW claiming that any strike would be a violation of the contract. After the lawsuit, UAW President Shawn Fain’s home local in Kokomo, Indiana failed to pass a strike authorization vote.
Now, with the Trump Administration taking over and the threat of legal injunctions against the UAW becoming dramatically higher, it remains unclear whether the UAW will go through with their strike threat at Stellantis.
In a sign of Stellantis’s confidence in defeating the UAW’s strike threat, the company announced an additional 400 layoffs at Stellantis in Michigan.
UAW Shifts Away from Organizing in Non-Union South
In a sign that the UAW may be shifting into a more defensive mode in the Trump era, the union that they would not be pumping as much money into attempts to organize non-union automakers in the South.
“We’re in a different phase now,” UAW President Shawn Fain told the Wall Street Journal this week.
For more, check out the Wall Street Journal.
55,000 Canadian Postal Workers Strike
In Canada, more than 55,000 Canadian postal workers are on strike. Workers say that they are on strike as their wages have not caught up with inflation.
Instead of bargaining with their employees, Canadian postal workers say Canada Post has instead issued more layoff notices and unilaterally imposed new work rules.
Many Canada Post union leaders believe that the postal system is simply waiting for the Trudeau government to impose a “return-to-work” order.
"The climate seems to be that Canada Post and other employers are waiting for the government to legislate us back to work," CUPW Torotno local president Mark Lubinski told the CBC. "We want to negotiate a fair contract for our workers."
Harris Ground Game Saved Them From Catastrophic Defeat
Payday, like many publications, covered the unprecedented ground game in swing states, which was very real. Now, a new analysis by Dave Weigel of Semafor shows that without this ground game the defeat would have been far worse. From Semafor:
“In the 43 states (and D.C.) where neither campaign invested resources, there was an average 8-point shift toward the Republican ticket. In battleground states, the shift was 3 points.
The Harris campaign’s desperate strategy, of reconstituting a Biden coalition with fewer non-white voters and more college-educated white voters, came close to working — she lost by less than 2 points in the decisive Rust Belt states and only a little more in Georgia.
In four swing states, Harris was even able to win more raw votes than Joe Biden did four years ago: Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. Adjusted for population growth, that didn’t mean much in the first three states, and Black turnout was disappointing enough to Georgia Democrats that Sen. Jon Ossoff is calling for a change in party leadership. But there was no overall decline in Democratic votes.
There was one in uncompetitive states. Trump ran stronger with non-white voters in big cities than any Republican nominee in decades. That performance looks even stronger because so many Biden voters, in places where they knew she would win, didn’t come back for Harris.”
Will Immigrants Strike Like They Did in 2006?
Finally, Leon Fink at The American Prospect asks if immigrants will go on a massive nationwide strike as they did in 2006 when Congress tried to pass draconian immigration laws:
“In December 2005, a Republican-dominated House passed the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act, introduced by Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI). The bill proposed making undocumented status a felony and criminalized any person who provided assistance to undocumented immigrants, including family members and educational, health, and social service personnel. Passage of the bill touched off a veritable firestorm of reaction among Latino students, workers, and their allies. A massive spring 2006 mobilization encompassed the April 10 National Day of Action for Immigrant Justice and then May 1 demonstrations that brought an estimated 3.5 million protesters to the streets with U.S. and Mexican flags in over 200 cities and towns for what was called “la gran marcha” or “the day without immigrants.”
That mobilization effectively brought national immigration restriction to a legislative standstill that has lasted to this day. Congress took no further action on the Sensenbrenner bill, and, as the political climate shifted with election of Barack Obama to the presidency, hopes rose for major immigration reform including earned pathways to citizenship for the undocumented, or at least passage of the Dream Act to benefit the children who’d been brought to the U.S. illegally. Alas, a priority on passage of the Affordable Care Act expended the capital for immigration reform. No legislation was advanced, but the immigrant community, led by Latinos, had put the nation on notice that it would not tolerate abusive or punitive measures against the millions of migrants who had made the U.S. their home and their place of work.
There are, of course, several conceivable explanations for the difference in responses to the Sensenbrenner and Trump initiatives. One is that the deportation threat does not yet seem fully real. It was not an issue raised by the Harris-Walz campaign, as Harris and the Democrats tried to steer all talk about immigration policy to their own hard line on tightened border enforcement.
That silence, however, is not likely to keep the wolf at bay. When people are pulled from homes and workplaces and sent to Thomas Homan’s ICE detention centers, will immigrant communities, churches, human rights groups, and their political allies figure out ways to highlight and raise the social costs?”
For more, check out The American Prospect.
News & Headlines Elsewhere
- IAM union members strike at IKEA warehouse in Perryville, Maryland
- Hundreds of hotel workers go on strike at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas
- Philadelphia city employees vote to authorize a strike
- Postal workers are organizing against an insulting 1.3 percent raise
- Massachusettes Democrats threaten legal injunction against striking teachers
- Finally, Amazon makes it harder for employees with disabilities to work from home
Alright folks, that’s all for today. Keep sending tips, story ideas, comments, and complaints to melk@paydayreport.com
Donate to help us cover the fight back against fascists. Please, if you can, sign up as one of our 771 recurring donors today. Thanks again for the all support.
Love & Solidarity,
Melk
