Chris Brooks
@chactivist
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Following
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Strategist for @ShawnFainUAW & members of the mighty @UAW . Formerly @nyguild & @labornotes .
Detroit, MI
Joined September 2010
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Pete Buttigieg showed up to a Fight for $15 event in South Carolina hoping for a photo op. Instead workers chant “Pete can’t be our president, where was $15 in South Bend?” Then he literally runs away. Amazing.
God bless these workers. Their cause is just, their words are true.
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Corrected headline: Union poised to win a raise for all unorganized workers at Starbucks
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Chicago city officials just did an about-face on in-person schooling because teachers were threatening to strike. City officials didn't change their minds out of the goodness of their hearts. This Strike threat has literally saved lives.
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Texas Lt Gov Dan Patrick went on national tv & argued elderly people should die for the health of the market. Capitalism is a system that priorities profits over people. This fight is literally a matter of life or death. Battle lines are being drawn. Which side are you on?
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What do Bill Lee and General Lee have in common?
The Union kicked their ass.
Today, I joined fellow governors in opposing the UAW's unionization campaign.
We want to keep good-paying jobs & continue to grow the American auto manufacturing sector. A successful unionization drive will stop this growth in its tracks, to the detriment of American workers.
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Police swarming Sunset Park this morning & making violent arrests. Neighbors & community activists on the scene told me ICE agents showed up wearing federal postal service shirts & knocked down the front door of a house, unannounced with no warrant, & rushed in and made arrests
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A panel of experts in Finland produced a summary of >4,000 international studies. The results are shocking: 1 in 2 adults and around 2% of children may experience prolonged symptoms. 20% of COVID survivors are experiencing long-term cognitive impairment
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Holy shit
*Someone* at the DC Democratic Party HQ forgot to switch from the official Twitter account to their astroturf account, where they pretend to be Chicago public school teachers who are angry at their union. 🤦🤦🤦
Anyways,
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Ford just admitted they’re losing $48,000 a minute in revenue while the Kentucky Truck Plant is on strike. That is how much value autoworkers at this one plant produce—and now they’re showing Ford how expensive it is to not come to the table and pony up.
#StandUpUAW
#FAFO
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In 2008, I tried to start a union at work, but had no idea how. I called every union in the phone book looking for help. I was fired for my efforts. No unions ever called me back. No worker should experience that. Thats why I’m a monthly sustaining donor to
@organizeworkers
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This video is amazing! The UC Santa Cruz wildcat strike to demand a cost-of-living-adjustment to offset skyrocketing housing costs has spread to campuses across Cali. Watch as hundreds of students at UC Santa Barbara hit the streets for the first day of their teaching strike!
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I was rural organizer w/ TN teachers union. Often the local school system is largest employer in county. So struggles of teachers to raise wages, benefits & conditions has deep impact on overall economic health of the state. The WV teacher strike is a serious anti-poverty program
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What is needed right now is mass action from unions (especially teachers and nurses) to drive a sane COVID response policy from the bottom-up, because it sure as hell isn’t gonna happen from the top-down. What is happening in Chicago is a powerful lesson in people power. 🧵
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Teamsters organizing Amazon workers in Iowa say they aren’t going to the Labor Board. They’re going old school: recognition strikes. ✊
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Solidarity with Netflix workers who are courageously walking off the job today to demand their employer respect trans and non-binary employees and invest in trans and non-binary talent. You can read their demands here:
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IATSE members on the set of Rust organized a walk out to protest unsafe conditions—they were then forcefully replaced by scabs. Six hours later there was a fatal accident on set. Those workers should not have been replaced, mgmt should have listened.
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100% of the
@wirecutterunion
went on strike from Black Friday through Cyber Monday—the longest strike our union has organized in decades—and today they announced they won their first contract.
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Memphis police illegally installed a hidden camera to monitor the home of a union organizer. This just happened — but this trend goes back decades.
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Video of protestor interrupting Bloomberg’s speech in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She took the stage and said “That is not democracy. That is plutocracy.” 🔥🔥🔥
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Stellantis COO Mark Stewart literally sent an email today to the company’s employees telling them they needed to tone down their bargaining demands in the name of “economic realism.” Turns out he sent the email from his second mansion in a fancy resort town in Mexico.
This is the head of bargaining for Stellantis (Jeep/Chrysler).
Instagram posts show he's spent the past two weeks at his second house in Mexico, during contract negotiations.
Meanwhile he's sending letters calling for UAW to "focus on reality."
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Reporter: are more facilities going to go on strike?
UAW President Shawn Fain: if they don’t take care of our members they will
United Auto Workers members walked off the job and joined picket lines at midnight Friday morning.
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Just broke this story
@labornotes
: Volkswagen workers were forced by management to attend an anti-union meeting led by the state’s Republican governor, Bill Lee. Local media wasn't informed about the event or allowed into the plant. But we got a recording.
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The public overwhelmingly sides with the mighty UAW in our fight against corporate greed! 💪
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PSA: An employer's demand to return to the office is a mandatory subject of bargaining. If you have a union, management cannot legally force employees back to work without negotiating with the union to impasse. COVID-19 is a deadly occupational disease. Bargain that shit!
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Stop Covid transmission in your city or state with this one weird trick.
Politicians hate it!
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Some cool working class NYC history: the Rockefeller Christmas Tree is a tradition started by construction workers. In 1931, the workers pooled their money to buy the tree. Their families decorated it with garlands. Here’s a photo of workers lining up by the tree to get paid.
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Bosses won’t voluntarily share the wealth that their employees create. This is why we have to fight.
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Very large protest in front of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park despite the rain. The protest featured moving speeches from the family of Jamel Floyd, who died of a heart attack after correctional officers pepper-sprayed him in his cell Wednesday morning.
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In occupational health and safety circles we rely on the precautionary principle: when facing the potential for significant risk and scientific uncertainty, err on the side of public safety.
Right now, the government is erring on the side of GTF back to work.
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Exit polls are saying 40% of union households voted for Trump, about the same from 2016. This means that during the largest economic downturn and the greatest health and safety crisis in 100 years, unions did nothing to effectively shift the politics of their own members.
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The union vote at VW kicks off tomorrow morning. The workers are gonna win big!
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After decades of class war being unleashed on the working class by the rich, workers are finally standing up and fighting back — and the media is taking notice
Shawn Fain, President of the
@UAW
, went on CBS.
He said that billionaires should not exist, their wealth hoarding is inhumane, and that they're engaged in class warfare on the working class.
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Alabama median household income: $59,609
Michigan median household income: $68,505
That’s a 15% difference. Imagine if every working family across Alabama got a 15% raise.
That’s what big business in Alabama is afraid of: the era of low wages and high profits coming to an end
Alabama’s new Commerce Secretary, Ellen McNair, says “the days of Alabama being a premier destination for industry investment may be coming to an end” if the United Auto Workers are able to successfully organize in the state’s auto plants.
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The NewsGuild broke its annual organizing record with 1,542 journalists across 26 workplaces joining the union.
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Q: What’s the difference between the organizing model and the service model of unionism?
A: 👇👇👇
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Media workers at Reuters are walking off the job today and hitting the picket lines for the first time in over 30 years! 💪
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Companies hire union busters to provide them expert advice on how to defeat union organizing drives. One long-standing principle in the industry is to relentlessly drill into supervisors that support for the union is a referendum on their leadership. 🧵👇
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Actual quote by a union member from a newly organized shop at tonight’s training for Guild stewards. I love it when these moments happen. ❤️🔥
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This is the last week in U.S. history that all foreign-owned Southern auto plants are non-union. The tide is turning. Southern workers are ready to stand up!
New: With record wins at the Big 3; less hostility this time around from management; & an organizing committee of hundreds of employees with relationships with over 90% of the plant, the
@UAW
is poised for a landmark win this week at VW
Unpaywalled link:
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The Mackinac Center, a rightwing anti-union organization affiliated with the State Policy Network, has created an opt-out hotline for union members to call: 1-833-33MYPAY. I'm sure it would be really annoying if that hotline was flooded & bogged down with pro-union voices.
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WSJ saying the quiet part out loud:
“Strong financial results are great for companies—except when they are negotiating with unions.”
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Photo I took of LEO standing guard in front of the home that was raided. Nothing to identify which agency they work for.
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No pay? No parts!
Striking parts depot workers are fed up and fired up! 💪
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EVERYONE SHARE THIS!
See a union leader attacking M4A? Share it.
See a candidate advocating for “Medicare for all who want it?” Share it.
Unions should not just be private welfare states, but vehicles for winning victories for the entire working class!
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Such a teacher move: Laminating song sheets for the picket lines.
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Gov Kay Ivey literally calling her own constituents who work at Mercedes “leeches” for having the audacity to fight for a better life for themselves, their families and their communities. Shameful.
The UAW is NOT the good guy here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for calling out the UAW for what it is — corrupt, shifty and a dangerous leech.
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Louisville police opened fire on a crowd and killed a local business owner who was not even protesting. All of their body cams were turned off. Just another in a long series of examples of how cops work together to cover up murder via
@WDRBNews
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More than 4,000 people have turned out to
@labornotes
and the vibe is electric.
@SBWorkersUnited
member
@michelleeisen
said it best in the packed Friday night plenary: if the labor movement is any one thing right now, it’s hopeful.
#LN2022
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New York Police Benovolent Association President Mike O’Meara have a fiery speech condemning the press and politicians for turning on cops. Some beautiful New Yorker gave the video the editing job it deserves.
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“It's hard to quantify how many lives have been affected by Fain and the new-philosophy UAW he leads.”
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“We'll be out here deep-frying turkeys if we need to be. We'll be singing Christmas carols if we have to be out here then." — striking Ford autoworker Sean Farnan.
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This is bonkers and a total injustice:
“Movie-house workers are exempt from federal labor laws that mandate overtime pay for nearly all other hourly workers.”
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Watch Volkswagen workers win their union in real time at the
@UAW
’s official vote count site 👇👇👇
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Mercedes workers in Alabama are next on deck to win their union. Roll tide and roll the union on!
We Got Next! VW workers just won their union. Mercedes workers in Alabama vote for their union May 13-17!
#StandUpUAW
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Amazing how Mercedes’ “Principles of Social Responsibilities and Human Rights” clearly states that if workers start to unionize, then management are obligated to remain neutral—yet those corporate commitments go right out the window when workers start organizing in the U.S.
Scoop: Mercedes held meeting where US executive told Alabama staff “I don’t believe the UAW can help us to be better,” and suggested unionizing would mean strikes, costly dues, and obstacles to fixing issues
Company has principle requiring union neutrality
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So fucking powerful. Literally thousands of autoworkers across the country are facing this level of intimidation right now. But just like Tim, they won’t back down and they won’t give up. Auto workers are ready to Stand Up. And they’re gonna change our country as a result.
We talked to Tim Smith, Director of
@UAW
Region 8, about the importance of VW workers organizing and winning, and the power of a union.
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Incredible Daimler victory rally yesterday in North Carolina. Over the past 3 weeks, 7,300
@UAW
members in 6 locals across 3 states got strike ready. We made bold demands at the bargaining table & we won a historic, record contract because of shop floor power.
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GM once again reported record profits on their earnings call this morning. 90 minutes later, the biggest GM plant in the country went out on strike. The UAW aint playing. Record profits mean a record contract.
#StandUpUAW
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This is a chilling photo by
@newschannelnine
showing a police officer in Hamilton County, Tennessee pointing a gun directly at the face of an unarmed protestor.
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Autoworkers at Mercedes-Benz are organizing to end the “Alabama discount” of paying lower wages and providing barebones benefits in the South
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Under federal labor law, it is ILLEGAL for employers to:
❌ Spy on workers’ union activities
❌ Promise better benefits or wages if workers vote down their union
❌ Interfere with workers talking about or showing support for their union
❌ Threaten workers for unionizing
Thousands of non-union workers are organizing to join the UAW! It is illegal for employers to Surveil, Promise, Interfere, or Threaten workers against forming their union. Here's how to tell when your boss may be breaking the law, and what you can do to stop it.…
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Rutgers is offering a 6-week labor history class with three leading labor historians for $90. Seems like a really cool/fun course!
Register here:
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This is hilarious.
@kroger
is blocking workers from accessing
@labornotes
on the company’s WiFi because we publish interviews with grocery workers speaking out about the horrible conditions in the stores and the company’s failure to take
#COVID19
seriously.
A worker just informed us
@kroger
has blocked access to Labor Notes on the store’s WiFi network. What is Kroger trying to hide?
🚨 Dangerous working & shopping conditions
🚨 Failure to follow CDC guidelines
Read the story Kroger doesn’t want you to see:
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To recap:
*
@cenkuygur
refuses to voluntarily recognize the union
*
@cenkuygur
admits workers who support the union have been denied promised raises & bonuses
* An outspoken pro-union worker was fired by
@cenkuygur
after the CEO returned to work from failed Congressional bid
Employees trying to unionize at The Young Turks filed labor charges today saying Cenk Uygur is withholding raises from them improperly, and fired an employee in retaliation for organizing. Uygur denies. Big escalation.
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The workers did it ❤️❤️❤️
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The budget reconciliation bill includes some exciting changes to labor law, including $50k fines for employers who break labor law (& up to $100k in cases of illegal firings). But another change that has gotten less attention: the top bosses can be held personally liable! 👇
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This is Equity’s first organizing drive of a non-union tour in two decades! 💪
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No deal, no wheels
BREAKING: The 8,700 UAW members at Ford’s iconic and extremely profitable Kentucky Truck Plant have joined the Stand Up Strike after Ford refuses to make further movement in bargaining.
Workers are walking off the job right now.
STAND UP!
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Workers are gonna change the South, our country, and the world.
For centuries, the Southern economy has been a rigged game—a scheme designed to enrich a select few at the expense of the many.
At Daimler Truck, Volkswagen and Mercedes, we’re building a new economic model in the South.
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A majority of auto workers at Tennessee’s Volkswagen plant have joined together to win their union!!!! LFG!!!!
#OrganizeTheSouth
The United Auto Workers union says it has signed up the majority of employees at Volkswagen’s Tennessee plant
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We aren’t going to wreck THE economy.
We are going to wreck THEIR economy.
The working class is standing up and fighting back against an economy that benefits corporate executives and Wall Street at the expense of everyone else—and we are going to win!
"UAW President Shawn Fain on Tuesday told a fired-up room of union members in North Carolina that Southern politicians 'sense that things are changing.'”
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I wrote a feature piece for
@inthesetimesmag
on how the organizing wave sweeping the country is upending the organizing rule book. Workers are leading. Unions should support them or get out of the way.
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It’s pretty funny that GM thinks “nobody wins in a strike.”
Remind me: how did autoworkers win their union at GM again? 🤔🤔🤔
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Everyone set your contract expiration date for midnight April 30, 2028 🗓️ 💪
"We want a general strike. We want everybody walking out just like they do in other countries."
-
@UAW
President Shawn Fain speaking to the union today.
The United Auto Workers set their contract to expire on May 1st, 2028. And they want other unions to join them.
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Budgets reflect an organization’s priorities and the mighty
@uaw
has just announced that organizing the unorganized and fighting for a just transition for workers in the emerging EV industry are our union’s top priority!
The United Auto Workers is committing $40 million through 2026 in new organizing funds to support non-union autoworkers and battery workers who are organizing across the country, and particularly in the South.
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Update from
@NYCCouncil38
— his office was told that the raid was not ICE, but rightfully recognizes that the climate of tension and confusion is a direct result of ICE’s ongoing campaign of terrorism in Sunset Park
Our office contacted the 72nd precinct & received confirmation that it was not ICE. The US Postal Inspector was conducting a narcotics related arrest.
We’re monitoring the situation & the the detained activist will be released in a few hours.
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The wildcat strike at the University of California is incredible. Even though the boss refuses to negotiate and continues to retaliate against them, the wildcatters aren’t backing down. They’re escalating. The strike is spreading.
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One year ago today,
@ShawnFainUAW
was sworn in as the first
@UAW
president directly elected by the membership—and he has spent every day since then fighting alongside rank-and-file UAW members to win justice on and off the job. What an incredible first year!
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UAW President Fain didn’t hold back in his picket line speech with POTUS. 👇
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Media workers in the
@newsguild
are on strike today in New York City, Pittsburgh, and Fort Worth. This is what a fighting union looks like! 💪✊
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Marquita Bradshaw, single mother who supports Medicare for All & BLM movement and raised and spent no money but was endorsed by Memphis DSA and supported by Indivisible, just beat out the TN Dem Party's establishment candidate James Mackler, who spent over 2 million dollars
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Starbucks workers in Buffalo, NY are unionizing & the company is doing all it can to stop them. In this video, a courageous employee describes how he was forced to sit in a room alone with *nine* managers while they relentlessly interrogated and cajoled him.
Unions help level the playing field for working families — which is why some companies fight so hard to keep their employees from joining one. The
#PROAct
would put a stop to their intimidation and scare tactics. Thanks to
@SBWorkersUnited
for sharing their stories with me.
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Interesting snippet from
@labornotes
: an IATSE official told union members that providing bargaining updates would be illegal. First, its not illegal. Second, why would a union agree to ground rules that weaken them?
Read the full story here:
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I’m a community college grad (Chattanooga State represent!), went on to graduate from public university (UTK, go Vols!) & still came out with nearly $50,000 in debt that over a decade later I am struggling to pay down. I’m 1st gen college grad w/ no inheritance & I own nothing.
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A national network of rank-and-file nurse activists are organizing a national day of action on April 15 to tell the world
#TheSystemIsBroken
and we need
#PPEoverProfit
More info here:
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The agreements won at Ford & Stellantis are going to be life changing for tens of thousands of workers and their families. The power of workers is so awe inspiring.
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Labor Notes has been building the militant wing of the labor movement into a self-conscious force to transform our workplaces from the bottom-up for the past 40 years. You can support the beating heart of the labor movement by becoming a sustaining donor!
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