Folks,
Greetings from the Burgh, where it’s a Code Orange Air Quality Action Day and I am in a lot of respiratory pain. Big thanks to everyone who donated to help pay our $435-a-month healthcare premium.
Kamala & Biden Coming to Pittsburgh on Labor Day
On Monday, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have announced that they will be in Pittsburgh on Labor Day to campaign. Payday wants to be there once again to cover this high-profile moment on Labor Day.
Our story on Kamala Harris and Tim Walz’s last visit to Pittsburgh garnered over 200,000 views and went viral (See our story “Poll: PA Union Members Flip for Harris in Stunning Fashion”)
Donate to help us cover their visit this weekend. Please, if you can, sign up as one of our 773 recurring donors today.
4,500 Fred Meyer Workers to Strike in Pacific Northwest
In Oregon, over 4,500 Fred Meyer grocery store workers, members of UFCW local 555, are slated to strike at 28 stores around Portland. The union says that the grocery chain has failed to deliver on legal obligations.
“Our members are united in demanding fair treatment, which can only be reached if Fred Meyer actually stands behind its public statements and is willing to fulfill all their obligations and legal requirements,” the local’s president Dan Clay said in a statement.
For more information on the strike, check out Northwest Labor Press.
Unionbusters Sue UE Over Support for Ceasefire in Gaza
Earlier this month, Payday reported on how the Zionist group the Anti-Defamation League had threatened to sue the UAW over its opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza.
Now, groups like the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, which had previously expressed no position on Palestine, are suing unions on behalf of Zionist union members. The members are objecting to having to pay union dues to support ceasefire advocacy.
Earlier this year, the anti-union group helped workers sue the United Electrical Workers, the first union in the country to call for a ceasefire, and is seeking to sue more unions. From Inside Higher Ed:
“In his written request for a religious exemption, Sussman cited his Jewish faith and the UE’s support of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. He and other Jewish MIT grad workers who opposed paying dues received free legal representation from a conservative group, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, as they took their complaints to the National Labor Relations Board and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
They’ve now won concessions. The foundation shared with Inside Higher Ed an NLRB settlement agreement from earlier this month that says the MIT union must tell grad workers they can object to paying for the union’s “nonrepresentational activities” and can “obtain a reduction in fees for such nonrepresentational activities.”
That likely means they won’t have to pay for any union activities that protest Israel—but neither UE nor National Right to Work would tell Inside Higher Ed on Monday how much of a savings that would be. The settlement says the union has already reimbursed one grad worker for all dues she paid after the date on which she filed her objection.”
For more, check out Inside Higher Ed.
(Full Disclosure:y father served as the Director of Organization of UE until his retirement in 2021)
Texas AG Raids Latino Activists’ Homes
Last week, the Texas State Attorney General executed warrants to search the homes of Latino elected officials and activists in three counties in Texas. The right-wing state Attorney General claims that the warrants are being carried out as part of an investigation into voter fraud.
However, Latino activists and elected officials claim that the early morning raids were carried out as part of retaliation for their political activism.
“It was horrible, gestapo-style,” Lidia Martinez, an 87-year old retired educator told The Washington Post. “I thought we lived in a free country, not Russia.”
Now, the activists are calling on the US Department of Justice to investigate the raids as part of continuing retaliation against Latino activists by the state of Texas.
For more, check out The Washington Post.
Chicago Countertop Maker Fined $1 Million for Giving Workers Incurable Lung Disease
In Chicago, the countertop maker, Florenza Marble & Granite Corp, was fined $1 million for exposing workers to illegal levels of silica dust. Two workers now have incurable lung disease and one 31-year-old worker even required a double lung transplant.
“Our compliance officers found silica dust levels nearly six times higher than permissible levels and the owner made little or no effort to protect his employees from exposure,” said OSHA Regional Administrator Bill Donovan in a statement. “To make matters worse, Karp was indifferent to his employees’ suffering and refused to accept any responsibility for protecting them, even after two insurance carriers dropped the company for its egregious defiance of workplace safety standards.”
For interviews with the workers, check out Moneywatch.
Korean Nurses Join 6-Month Long Junior Doctors Walkout
Finally, in Korea, nurses have joined a 6-month long walkout by junior doctors.
This week, over 24,000 nurses at 61 different facilities voted by a margin of 91% to strike in Korea. The nurses say that the refusal to resolve the 6-month long strike by junior doctors and physicians has stretched them to their limit.
“This March, I was suddenly assigned PA [physician assistant] duties,” a nurse working at a hospital in Busan told Hankyoreh. “It’s been troubling to go into operations and do duties I haven’t been trained in, and the scope of my duties has been gradually expanding.”
For more, check out Hankyoreh.
News & Headlines Elsewhere
- Stone Brewing workers in Virginia go union
- Kobach leads multi-state effort to keep ag workers from unionizing
- Hundreds of public defenders walk off the job in Sacramento.
- Cornell strike leads to negative move-in experience for many first-year students
- Worker coops bring undocumented workers into the labor movement
- A Trial Asks: If Grocery Rivals Merge, Do Workers Suffer?
- Doctors strike in Nigeria over kidnapped colleague
- Finally, the LA Times has a long look with set artists struggling with poverty following last years’ strike.
Alright folks, that’s all for today. Keep sending tips, story ideas, comments, and complaints to melk@paydayreport.com
Donate to help us cover Kamala & Joe in Pittsburgh on Labor Day. Please, if you can, sign up as one of 772 recurring donors. Thanks again for all the support.
Love & Solidarity,
Melk
