Following more than a decade of working-class militancy and organizing successes in the 1930s, one of the first targets of the anti-union Taft-Hartley legislation in 1947 was the solidarity strike, what the great labor leader and Socialist Eugene V. Debs once characterized as the “Christ-like virtue of sympathy” among workers. Class unity expressed in sympathy and solidarity strikes that extend beyond narrow occupational categories and specific union organizations is the indispensable element in building and sustaining a strong working-class movement. And we are starting to see the first expressions of labor solidarity emerge in local struggles by low-wage workers who are fighting for better wages and working-conditions.
A recent Labor Press article reports that a group of rank-and-file fast-food and airport workers expressed their solidarity with striking Brooklyn “car washeros” by joining their picket line. “What we are doing here today is supporting car wash workers,” said one of the demonstration organizers, “but we have all kinds of workers here, from airport workers to fast food workers, and there are going to be many more activities coming up where worker solidarity between different unions is going to be the whole idea.” New York City Central Labor Council President Vinnie Alvarez summarized the critical importance of such collective actions: “We stand in solidarity with you in the fight for rights on the job, for benefits, and for the protections that each and every one of you deserves.”
Dr. Steve Brier is a Murphy Institute Consortial Faculty Member and Prof. of Urban Education at the CUNY Graduate Center.
It is important for us to remember, as members of a university community, that this is also a workplace, a place where people labor in “traditional” jobs like building maintenance, skilled trades like engineering and carpentry, food service, and, of course, as intellectual workers who teach and do research. Most of the workers in the former group are covered by union contracts and enjoy a modicum of protection in terms of their wages and working conditions. The most exploited members of the latter group — contingent or adjunct teachers — are the low wage worker base upon which much of the teaching responsibility in the contemporary university (especially in large, public institutions like CUNY) rests. Continue reading National Adjunct Walkout Day→
Happy freezing Friday! Here’s a bit of what’s been happening in the worlds of labor, the city, and beyond:
3,800 members of the United Steelworkers went on strike at 9 plants. Now in its 6th day, the strike has shut down 10% of US refining capacity and making for the union’s largest strike since 1980. At stake are workplace and community safety. In particular, the union is demanding shorter work hours and more employees.
NYC Mayor Bill Di Blasio’s State of the City address promised citywide ferry service, new housing construction, and a concerted effort to battle gentrification. How? The devil will, no doubt, be in the details.
Photo: Professor Lu Zhang speaks about labor conditions inside Chinese auto factories.
By Stephanie Luce
I recently returned from two weeks in China, where I participated in a scholar exchange sponsored by the American Sociology Association, Labor and Labor Movements section. The exchange was the third piece of an ongoing effort to increase communication and collaboration between Chinese and US scholars. There were 8 sociologists in our delegation, along with Katie Quan, the coordinator of the program.
We spent time in Beijing at a conference on labor relations, then meeting with union officials and organizers from worker centers. I then spent a week in Hong Kong meeting with more labor activists, as well as people involved in the Umbrella movement. I’ll report on what I learned about the labor movement here, and in a second post I will write about the Umbrella movement. Continue reading Observations From a Trip to China: Part I→
In Italy, a proposed change in labor laws has demonstrators taking the streets. Known as the Jobs Act, this as-yet unwritten law is seen as a “rolling back” of labor protections, that many protestors see as an erosion of rights for those living in increasingly precarious situations.
…in a country where the first article of the Constitution declares it a republic “founded on work,” rolling back labor protections is not to be taken lightly. It is particularly telling that many of those opposing Mr. Renzi’s plans are young people.
They are deeply skeptical that the proposed change would in fact open jobs to them — so many other overhaul efforts before it have failed to do so. Instead, they are demanding the same guarantees that their parents have had, something it is not at all clear Italy can still afford.
“All he’s doing is destroying the rights of full-time workers without giving rights to people in precarious job situations,” said Francesco Raparelli, 36, one of the coordinators of a nationwide strike last Friday by thousands of workers who hold temporary contracts.
Last Friday, Sarah Jaffe, Juan Gonzalez, Errol Louis, Michael Hirsch and Ed Ott participated in a panel discussion in front of a packed house here at Murphy. The panelists analyzed the 2014 midterm elections, looking at what happened this time around and discussing the implications for the future.
Miss the Forum? Check out the livestream, embedded below and archived on our new YouTube channel.
[youtube:http://youtu.be/WBFru6eFtDE?t=9m47s]
A conversation about workers, communities and social justice
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