Portside

As peak package season approaches, their union is gearing up for what could be the largest strike against a single company in U.S. history next year.

Teamsters won their strike at America's largest wholesale food distributor with an old-fashioned militant tactic: the mass picket line. “It was old school—unions shutting the thing down,” said a UPS driver. “It’s a magical feeling, the solidarity and the power that comes with it; the connection that’s made by standing together shoulder to shoulder, holding the line."

Around the world Amazon workers are rising up. Look for some new action on "Black Friday" (Nov. 25) coordinated by a half-dozen unions and worker organizations.

After decades in a rut, the US labor movement appears to be reinvigorated. At the Labor Notes conference in Chicago, labor leaders wanted to ensure it's a true upsurge and not just a blip.

With the victory of a coalition of reformers in the Teamsters, the union has enormous potential to organize Amazon, rebuild strength at shop floors throughout North America, and perhaps even go on strike against UPS.

Hollywood’s guilds and unions saved the film and TV business in 2021.

It’s the first time in almost a quarter-century that a coalition backed by Teamsters for a Democratic Union has taken the driver’s seat in the international union.