unions

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There will always be some ineradicable incentive for unions to do things that benefit their own members even if they do some vague harm to society at large. Corporations will always try to exploit this incentive for their own benefit. It is easy to say in an abstract sense “Unions shouldn’t give in to that,” but in the real world, it is not easy at all. Should the United Mine Workers demand that coal mines shut down, because of the environment? Should the Machinists union tell Boeing to shut its factories where its members manufacture weapons that are used to blow up poor people on the other side of the world? Etc. Antitrust issues can sometimes be seen as just another big picture dilemma that does nothing to help working people put food on the table right now.

In lieu of solving this timeless tension in today’s little blog post, let’s think about the more modest goal of how antitrust and organized labor can work together more effectively. First, we all have to realize that we’re all part of one holistic policy goal. We think that allowing corporations to proceed unchecked down the road to ultimate power is a bad idea. It is bad for workers, who will be crushed, and it is bad for governments, who will be co-opted, and it is bad for all citizens, who will suffer as corporate power sweeps away regulations and rearranges all of society to benefit shareholders at the expense of everything else, like AI gone awry. Organized labor should make it a point to use its own political capital—a very real weapon, if Kamala Harris wins the White House—to support antitrust efforts and protect its enforcers. And the antitrust world should correspondingly recognize the fact that simply limiting corporate power by fighting monopolies will never be enough; unless there are unions inside of the companies to constantly exercise power on behalf of the workers, there is no actual institution that will be carrying on the fight to prevent companies from just proceeding right back down the same harmful monopolistic path over and over again. We’re peas in a pod here. Don’t want huge companies and their idiot billionaire bosses to run the world? Break them up, and unionize them. It’s the best program we have.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.myserv.one/post/9823448

Driving the news: The high court voted 8-1 in favor of Starbucks in a case the company filed against the National Labor Relations Board involving the so-called Memphis 7, a group of unionizing workers who said they were unlawfully fired after they appeared in a TV news segment.

• Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who's effectively become the court's lone labor supporter, wrote the dissent.

• The decision will make it harder for the NLRB, the agency that administers the national labor law, to go after employers for violating its rules.

The brand new Sex Workers Section of the CNT union of workers and precarious of Strasbourg (CNT - STP 67) call to mobilization for the International day of the Sex Workers Struggles. This day was chosen since the church occupation of Lyon in 1975; if french laws have changed, discriminations remain.

In some city, outside any legal frame, cops are chasing sex workers in the street. The french juridiction is supposed to "protect sex workers from pimp. In fact, it sanctions people helping sex workers, including roommates or relatives, where GAFAM and platforms that actually exploit them are not threaten in any way.

The french situation is one of many incarnation of the discrimination against sex workers internationally. On the contrary of the historical sex workers organization (the STRASS), this section is organized in an inter-professional confederation (CNT) and internationally (CIT)

Help ease the burden of inflation & the rising cost of living by opting out of your union to save hundreds every year

[Insert shopping list chart showing everything getting expensive since 2013]

Started my first union job right before Thanksgiving and elections are this week. Results will be in this weekend since contract negotiations start on Tuesday. Everyone is gearing up for a big fight and i am nervous, but excited.

Anyway, they had a trailer set up in the parking lot and the steward flagged me down to get over there and vote.

Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) and KMHD Jazz Radio on March 22 voluntarily recognized SAG-AFTRA as the bargaining representative of about 65 on-air staff, hosts, reporters, and producers.

OPB is a public, nonprofit broadcasting network that covers most of Oregon and southern Washington. It includes five television stations and 20 radio stations. OPB also operates KMHD Jazz Radio in partnership with Mt. Hood Community College. The content creators at both organizations will be represented under a joint contract negotiated by SAG-AFTRA. (SEIU Local 503 already represented 26 other workers at OPB, including studio coordinators, help desk specialists, videographers, production techs, and maintenance engineers.)

read more: https://nwlaborpress.org/2024/04/opb-reporters-unionize/

After a 16-year-old boy lost both legs last June in a preventable workplace accident in La Center, a follow-up investigation by Washington Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) found that his employer Rotschy LLC has committed dozens of child labor law violations.

Rotschy is a non-union construction excavation company based in Southwest Washington. In December, L&I fined the company more than $156,000 — the maximum penalty — for allowing a minor to operate equipment without appropriate training or experience. The boy was dragged beneath the blade of a walk-behind trencher he was using to dig a channel for fence posts — while participating in a work-based learning program that allows students to earn class credit for jobs outside the classroom. His injuries were so severe that both legs had to be amputated.

Rotschy appealed the fine. The decision on whether to overturn the fine lies with the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals, which has set a mediation conference for April 8. If the conference does not result in a settlement, the board will forward the case to a hearings judge for a trial.

read more: https://nwlaborpress.org/2024/04/vancouver-firm-fined-in-grisly-accident-is-repeat-child-labor-offender/