There is a climate of frustration and anger among workers that is very different from the initial enthusiastic reception of the 2009 announcement that Brazil would host the World Cup.
"Workers increasingly serve businesses that do not officially 'employ' the worker — a distinction that hampers organizing, erodes labor standards and dilutes accountability," said Catherine Ruckelshaus, general counsel for the National Employment Law Project, which advocates on behalf of low-wage workers. A recent Federal Reserve study showed that nearly 7.5 million people who are working part time — contract workers included — would rather have full-time jobs.
Today is the biggest strike in fast food history and it's phenomenal. Actions in support of $15/hour wages and the right to form a union without retaliation have spread across the globe. Workers went on strike in 158 American cities, according to FastFoodGlobal.org, including in 56 U.S. cities where there had not been a strike previously, International worker solidarity actions are taking place in 93 international cities spread across 36 countries.
Fast food workers from around the world participated in a strike against McDonalds and other low-wage employers in an ongoing struggle to demand a living wage. Meanwhile, strikes erupted in Turkey in reaction to government inaction and possible complicity in a disastrous coal mine explosion that has left hundreds of miners dead.
New leadership, a Membership Action Team organizing plan, and a 22 month contract campaign that included two strikes, produce a strong bargaining agreement covering 22,000 hospital and campus workers at the University of California. The new contract offers protections against subcontracting, limits on temporary workers, wage increases, and "strong benefits," among other items.
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Andrew Gross Gaitan, director of the Service Employees International Union's airports division, which supports the measure, said unionized companies could develop labor peace agreements with the unions representing their workers or any other organization or employee committee. Non-unionized companies elsewhere have reached such agreements, he said. Mayor Eric Garcetti, who received $198,000 in contributions from SEIU in the last election, backs the proposal.
For many young workers facing a bleaker present and future than many current pensioners, advancing non-workplace issues affecting low-income and working class people of color makes the difference between joining up or observing from a distance. Some unions get that. The support Constance Malcolm, 40, received from her union exemplifies this trend, which is known as social justice unionism.
Why does a millionaire mayor and a billionaire hedge fund CEO team up to attack public pensions? Because that's where the money is.
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