Labor Briefing

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Teaching Them a Lesson—The Polar Vortex failed to cool down class struggle in the Twin Cities. On the St. Paul side on Feb. 17, Workday Minnesota reported, “Parents, students and community mem­ bers rallied with members of the St. Paul Federa­ tion of Teachers outside school buildings across the city Wednesday morning, demanding progress in contract talks between SPFT and the St. Paul Public Schools. ... Wearing hats and scarves in SPFT’s signa­ ture red, participants chanted and carried signs ex­ pressing support for the teachers’ bargaining priori­ ties, including measures to improve school climate, reduce class sizes and beef up staffing among school nurses, librarians, social workers and other support positions.”

Engaging Capital at the Capitol—Also on Thurs­ day, 15 Now! brought a lot of folks to Oregon’s state capitol building in Salem to protest a bipartisan deal to water down a new state minimum wage while de­ nying cities the right to set a higher one. They also supported relief from soaring housing costs.

They began protests at the governor’s office, but she declined to meet them. From there they moved to disrupt a session of the State House, taking up the issue of S1532, a bill that establishes a phased-in tiered minimum wage, with different rates for Port­ land and smaller towns. State troopers were called to the scene but made no arrests. After making their point with the lawmakers, the protesters joined oth­ ers in a public outdoor rally.

Such a convergence of uncoordinated big, lively worker actions would be unusual anytime. They are particularly rare in an election year, when most movement leaders subordinate everything to hus­ tling votes for Democrat “friends.” They’re another example of the restlessness of workers eager to fight back against attacks by bosses and government. This is good news for our side—but not so much for per­ fidious “friends.”

From Harvard Square—The Harvard Crimson re­ ports, “Organizers of a graduate student unioniza­ tion effort confirmed the campaign has reached a critical point: a majority of graduate students em­ ployed by the University have signed authorization cards in support of unionization, which satisfies the threshold to call an election to form a union. ‘I know that we’re above 60 percent, and that major­ ity is growing,’ Chamith Y. Fonseka, a union organiz­ er and PhD student in the Biological and Biomedi­ cal Sciences, said.” The union involved is the United of a graduate student tend to go unnoticed,’ Culmer said.”

Homage to Catalonia—Metro transit workers in Barcelona, Catalonia, in the Spanish state carried out a disruptive Feb. 25 strike during a big electronics sales exhibition to protest boss plans to downgrade job openings to temporary. Larry Hanley, president of the Amal­ gamated Transit Union, the biggest transit union in North America, sent a message of international soli­ darity: “I want to express the strong support of all of our members with striking Barcelona Metro work­ ers at the Mobile World Congress. ... This attack on public transit and workers is happening across the world. It isn’t just about jobs, it’s about protecting transit service that commuters, seniors, and people with disabilities rely on each day.”

Making Vegas Great Again—The National Labor Relations Board has dismissed all objections from Donald Trump’s signature hotel in Las Vegas to a Culinary Union representation election victory for 500+ Trump workers. So far, Trump’s property, rep­ resented by a notorious union-busting law firm, still refuses to recognize the union, much less to bargain with it. n Thanks to Ann Montague for contributing to this Briefing. If you have an appropriate story, please contact [email protected] and mention Labor Briefing in the subject.

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