Our attempt to build a stronger, more democratic union isn’t an attack on the UAW — it’s an attempt to make our union as strong as possible, to win the best contract, and to most effectively play a role in ongoing struggles for social justice. It demonstrates not weakness or a division within our ranks, but a deep well of support on campus for a stronger stance with management.
The brand new Local 42 has already begun signing up and swearing in members who work at the VW plant looking toward winning a majority.
In the auto plants of 1970s Detroit, where an all-white management and union leadership confronted a darkening workforce, grievances often assumed a racial edge. Of all the rank-and-file caucuses that formed in this tumultuous period, perhaps none was more militant than the League of Revolutionary Black Workers.
The June 27 pro-union rally by an estimated 400 students, activists, ministers and workers in front of the mile-long Nissan plant here was the perfect culmination of the Mississippi Freedom Summer 50th Anniversary Conference in nearby Jackson.
The 2,135 graduate assistants will become the largest union on the campus, followed by the faculty with about 1,700 members, and the staff union which has about 1,600 members. About 85 percent of UConn’s employees are unionized.
“The university has been, and will continue to be, neutral with regard to this effort,” Stephanie Reitz, a spokeswoman for the university, said. “Individual graduate students are free to make their own decision."
The 2,135 graduate assistants will become the largest union on the campus, followed by the faculty with about 1,700 members, and the staff union which has about 1,600 members. About 85 percent of UConn’s employees are unionized.
“The university has been, and will continue to be, neutral with regard to this effort,” Stephanie Reitz, a spokeswoman for the university, said. “Individual graduate students are free to make their own decision.
The workers at Piston Automotive factory went on strike to prove that they wanted to join the United Auto Workers Union. After 8 hours, the company agreed to recognize the Union.
Reader Comments - NLRB and UAW-Volkswagen; Supreme Court and McCutcheon decision; Full employement, jobs, trade, economic policy; Sports, gender and homophobia; NASA study and climate change;
Portside discussion - Bernie Sanders for President (Jack Kurzweil);
Announcements: Canadian Ecosocialist Ian Angus speaking in Oakland - April 25th
UAW Local 2865 has called a strike. For many grad students, the very idea of a contract governing the limits and conditions of our labor is a source of skepticism and even derision. This system is not an alternative to the working world - it is the model every employer would eagerly adopt. Far from prefiguring an emancipated society, the university offers a foretaste of the total domination of workers by management.
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