Over 30,000 people took to the streets with USB to demand a class-based alternative based on peace and justice.The extraordinary national demonstration organised with the Disarmiamoli coalition group concluded in Rome, with over 30,000 people participating, including workers, young people, students, activists, and trade unionists.

The crowd shouted clear messages to the country: ‘No more war! No more rearmament! No more complicity with NATO, the arms industry or the genocide of the Palestinian people!’Today’s demonstration was an integral part of the national general strike called by USB on 20 June.

This strike united the struggle against rearmament with demands for higher wages, more rights and welfare to defend public health and education and save an industrial apparatus sinking deeper every month.

While the Meloni government continues European policies by pouring billions into rearmament and militarisation, ordinary people suffer: hospitals are collapsing, schools are being closed down, and deindustrialisation is desertifying territories while rents are skyrocketing.In this context, continuing to invest in weapons, military missions and aggressive alliances such as NATO — which is complicit in the genocide currently being carried out in Gaza by the terrorist state of Israel — is a political, social and moral crime that must be strongly denounced.

Yesterday’s demonstrations and protest initiatives throughout Italy, along with today’s large rally, confirm USB’s position as a trade union and class alternative, connecting the defence of social rights with the struggle against permanent global war.

The post ITALY: USB Holds Historic Day of Protest Against War and Rearmament appeared first on Labor Today.

President Trump launched an unprovoked bombing attack on Iran this past weekend in violation of the U.S. constitution, which requires acts of war to be authorized by Congress unless there is a threat of imminent attack, which nobody has even pretended was the case. This is not only a further undermining of democracy in our country, it also is built on a set of lies for political and financial gain, just like the disastrous Iraq war 23 years ago, and will only serve to make the world, and the people of the U.S., both less safe and less economically secure.

The president ran for office pledging that he was the right person to keep the U.S. out of further military entanglements overseas, and there is strong support by the American people for that position. But faced with declining poll numbers, a trap laid by the Israeli government, and a willingness to pad the profits of both oil companies and the military industrial complex, Trump fell into the same pattern as president after president of both parties: start a shooting war and hope that the populace falls in behind you.

As rank-and-file delegates to the 78th UE Convention in 2023 declared, “The U.S. military budget — at over $877 billion, larger than those of the next ten nations combined — continues to soar out of control with bipartisan support. Threats or use of military force are still a regular feature of U.S. foreign policy, under presidents of both major parties. All of this is done at the expense of the needs of working people in the U.S. and throughout the world.” The only thing that has changed since that statement is that the upcoming military budget is expected to top $1 trillion for the first time.

The lie that was used to justify the mobilization of the U.S. military is that Iran was within weeks or months of building a nuclear weapon. That line has been trotted out by Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly over the last 20 years, every time that he wants to justify dragging the U.S. into conflict there. Yet even the U.S. intelligence forces said that Iran was not working on constructing a nuclear weapon, and we had a deal a decade ago ensuring that they could not build one. But the first Trump administration tore up that deal in subservience to the Netanyahu government and in order to parade as tough on the world stage. 

Trump had actually returned to the bargaining table with Iran in recent weeks and announced that a new deal was very close. It was at that moment that Israel started bombing Iran – arguably not because Iran wouldn’t negotiate but instead because it looked like a deal would be achieved. It is an open secret that Netanyahu is trying to maintain a constant state of war for his country so that his current stint in office, extended indefinitely due to the war footing, doesn’t end and with it his protection from likely jail time on a massive corruption case. He has already pulverized Gaza back to the stone ages, bombed Lebanon into submission, and occupied parts of Syria – he’s happy to have a new target, especially one that drags the U.S. into the conflict. So once the Israeli bombing campaign was well underway, he announced that only the U.S. could finish the job, with our more-powerful ordinance. Trump had a choice to make, tell Israel to cease and desist, especially given that Israel relies heavily on U.S. financing and arms, or throw the U.S. into yet another intractable conflict in the Mideast putting our people into harm’s way for someone else’s fight, a fight with no shining knights on any side. Trump made the wrong choice.

And what does this leave us with? Iran, to save face at home and abroad, felt no choice but to retaliate. While it may be contained at this point, we will all live on a knife’s edge as we see whether we end up with either open or covert warfare spinning out of control. Forty thousand U.S. troops on the ground in the Mideast are put at risk. If we and the Israelis have been actually bombing sites loaded with nuclear material, we have risked dispersing it into the atmosphere, potentially poisoning people throughout the planet, as occurred during open air nuclear testing in the 1950’s. And the message we are sending to countries is not to avoid building nuclear weapons, but instead to do it quickly since it is only nuclear-armed nations that seem to be safe from possible U.S. attack.

We also face the likelihood of increased gas prices as the conflict potentially chokes off a sizable chunk of the world oil supply. Trump’s friends in the oil industry will laugh all the way to the bank as they benefit from the higher gas prices just as his military contractor friends will benefit from the demand for more weapons and ammunition.

To top it all off, Trump is now openly floating the idea of supporting regime change in Iran, the exact policy he correctly attacked previous administrations for getting embroiled in next door in Iraq, and one certain to be just as much a quagmire, if not more so, than that one, which cost the U.S. the lives of over 4000 service people and several trillion dollars in taxpayer money. And opening up the subject just hardens the position of Iran’s leaders, figuring that their days are numbered unless they fight and win.

Lastly, the lack of political leadership from both parties is shameful. Only a small number of Democrats and very few Republicans spoke out against U.S. intervention in the run up to the bombing campaign, preferring to acquiesce to the Israeli and military industry lobbying machines. And there is nowhere near the majority needed in Congress to seize control of war-making out of the hands of the presidency and back into the control of Congress where it belongs. The founders of the U.S. knew well that going to war is too important a decision to leave in the hands of one person. It must require the consent of the 535 members of Congress, each one of whom has to go home to their constituencies and tell them why they are sending their sons and daughters into harm’s way.

No more war in the Mideast. Congress must act.

Carl Rosen
General President

Andrew Dinkelaker
Secretary-Treasurer

Mark Meinster
Director of Organization

The post UE: No More Mideast Wars appeared first on Labor Today.

The decision to back Cuomo has received harsh criticism from rank-and-file trade unionists even without his many scandals, Andrew Cuomo’s tenure as Governor saw an attack against labor that would make any Southern Republican look like a labor ally. During his time in office Cuomo, accelerated the push to privatize public education, stole money out of public transit funds and created a two-tier wage system for new hires with his “Tier 6” pension scheme. Not only did Tier 6 cut pensions for new hires starting in 2012, but it more than doubled pension contributions for many workers and increased the retirement age from 55 to 63 for the majority of the State’s workforce. Rank-and-file members have been clamoring for Tier 6 reform since, and it’s been slow-moving, the endorsement of Cuomo makes it clear that the misleaders of labor in reality support Cuomo’s signature piece of anti-union legislation.

While the misleaders of labor continue to fall in line with the monopolists in power, rank-and-file activists have stepped up to fight back against a monopoly-controlled New York City. Before Cuomo even entered the race, unions with active rank-and-file movements backed the Working Families Party slate of candidates (NYC has Ranked Choice Voting for Primaries) which includes notable candidates New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani and New York City Comptroller Brad Lander.

Later, as many of NYC’s misleaders of labor were preparing to endorse Cuomo rank-and-file leaders stepped up to fight back against this betrayal. The misleaders of AFSME DC36 and UFT, two unions who led a massive betrayal by spearheading Mayor Eric Adam’s plan to force all retirees into a privatized Medicare Advantage plan, were set to back Cuomo until rank-and-file leaders got word and organized members against Cuomo. In a surprise move, DC37 ended up endorsing Mamdani, while the UFT, in attempt to face no political backlash, would refrain from endorsing anyone in the primary. The since voted-out leadership of SEIU Local 1199 endorsed Cuomo in April, now a rank-and-file movement is fighting to rescind that endorsement as well.

Many of the labor endorsements for Cuomo’s campaign should be of no surprise, starting with the historically reactionary building trades unions. His campaign was launched at the union hall of the Carpenters’ Union, a union which is actively using dual unionism throughout the country to undercut other building trades unions. The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) and their subsidiary union the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) have endorsed Cuomo, a move that should galvanize the growing rank-and-file discontent in that union.

And, we cannot forget the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) who under current International President John Costa—who was appointed to replace the progressive, left-leaning and Staten Island’s own labor and community leader Larry Hanley in 2019—has made a sharp rightward shift back into the control of the Democratic Party establishment and business unionism has endorsed Cuomo. This endorsement has come while ATU members are working under increasingly dangerous working conditions due to lack of maintenance, conditions that can be traced back to Cuomo’s raiding of over $400k in funds from the MTA during his tenure as Governor.

Workers are tired of the constant givebacks, cost-of-living decline and benefit cuts that has been the hallmark of both Andrew Cuomo’s time as Governor and the current crop of labor misleaders tenure in office. The rank and file have increasingly gotten on board with the Zohran Mamdani campaign for Mayor not just because of Cuomo’s anti-labor history, but Mamdani’s plans for fast and free buses, a rent freeze on all rent-stabilized apartment, universal child-care, city-run grocery stores and many others which will help restore dignity in lives of working New Yorkers. In the State Assembly, Zohran Mamdani has also been a co-sponsor of the New York Health Act which would create a single payer health plan for all New Yorkers and has fought to fix the Tier 6 pension mess created by Cuomo.

It is clear the misleaders of labor do no stand on the same side as the rank and file in this race. The so-called leadership has coalesced behind the candidate of monopoly capital in Andrew Cuomo, while the rank and file has increasingly worked for and supported the anti-monopoly candidacy of Zohran Mamdani. The NYC mayoral primary takes place on June 24^th, but due to Ranked Choice Voting the results may not be final for another week. No matter the results, this election has shown the only path forward for labor movement is an anti-monopoly movement led by the class-oriented aspects of the labor movement.

The post Misleaders of Labor Coalesce Behind Cuomo as Rank-and-File Shifts Leftward appeared first on Labor Today.

A Transtar statement said,“we are investigating the incident and are cooperating with investigations by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board”. Due to the nature of the ongoing investigations, we will not be commenting further on the incident.”

Transtar, which operates seven railroads serving U.S. Steel facilities, was sold by the steelmaker to Fortress Transportation in 2021. Its Fairfield Southern railroad provides in-plant rail service for U.S. Steel’s Fairfield Works, located approximately 10 miles west of Birmingham.

While we are saddened at the news of our brother’s death, we must double our resolve to build a safer workplace where such tragedies are not so commonplace.

The Railroad Workers United Program for Fallen Rails urges you to do the following on behalf of our fallen brother, his friends and family, co-workers and all railroad workers:

Commit yourself to following up on how and why our brother or sister was killed. What is the behind-the-scenes story? What role did unsafe conditions, including short staffing, crew fatigue, inadequate training and/or qualifying, deferred maintenance, or other factors play in this fellow worker’s death?

Get involved in the national movement against blame the worker “behavior-based safety” programs. Help build real union-based safety committees and programs that focus on hazard elimination and do not ignore the underlying causes of accidents, injuries and fatalities sustained on the job. For more information, see the RWU webpage entitled “Oppose Behavior Based Safety.”

Take part in the RWU annual Railroad Workers Memorial Day each April 28th. For more information, see the RWU webpage “Fallen Rails.”

Join RWU and fight to build solidarity and unity among all railroad workers, and make safer workplaces for all.

Thank you,
Railroad Workers United

The post RWU: Rail Fatality Alert! – Transtar Rail Worker Killed June 16th in AL appeared first on Labor Today.

President Trump signaled his hostility to workers’ rights within his first weeks of office, taking the unprecedented step of firing a sitting member of the National Labor Relations Board, Gwynne Wilcox. This left the board without a quorum, and therefore unable to issue decisions. The UE NEWS pointed out at the time that this means that “Employers who break the law, or who simply refuse to bargain with their unions, will now be able to appeal any decisions against them to a board that cannot make a ruling.” (Wilcox sued, arguing that under long-established legal precedent, the President does not have the authority to remove employees at independent agencies like the NLRB. While two lower courts ruled in her favor, her case is currently at the Supreme Court, where the Trump-appointed anti-worker majority is likely to rule against her.)

This was just a taste of things to come. In March, Trump issued an executive order which effectively shut down the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, and later that month began issuing executive orders which seek to cancel collective bargaining agreements covering over one million federal workers. Although justified with reference to “national security,” the executive orders target workers across the federal government, in agencies as disparate as Veterans Affairs, the Treasury and Energy Departments, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Health and Human Services.

The executive orders seek to not only overturn existing union contracts, but strip workers’ right to be represented by a union at all. They also instruct government agencies to stop deducting union dues from members’ paychecks. Since Trump was inaugurated, the largest federal government workers’ union, the American Federation of Government Employees, had seen its membership surge by tens of thousands of members — but was then decimated by the repeal of payroll deduction, much as anti-union legislation passed in Iowa in 2017 led to a severe loss of membership for UE’s public-sector locals there.

On April 3, an anti-union trade association asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to “invalidate fifteen NLRB cases that were decided during the Biden administration.” As analyst Matt Bruenig wrote at NLRB Edge:

This sort of thing has never happened before. The NLRB is an independent agency and the AG has no statutory role in how it operates. Such a move by the AG would be illegal under prevailing understandings of administrative law, but of course Trump and the conservative legal movement are seeking to have the Supreme Court invalidate a large swath of administrative law on the theory that it unconstitutionally restricts the power of the president.

An even more disturbing and bizarre attack on the ability of the NLRB to protect workers’ rights was revealed in mid-April when a whistleblower from the NLRB’s information technology department revealed to Congress and NPR that operatives from the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), likely removed around 10 gigabytes of sensitive information from the Board’s case management system.

In addition to obvious concerns about the breach of privacy (NLRB case data includes sensitive personal information such as Social Security numbers and home addresses, as well as proprietary corporate information), if employers got ahold of this data, it would make it easier for them to fire — and blacklist — active union members.

Of particular concern is that DOGE was at the time headed by billionaire Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX has been the subject of NLRB complaints filed by its workers, and who has shown himself to be rabidly anti-union.

Wreaking Havoc on the Federal Government

Beyond stealing sensitive data from the NLRB, DOGE has been wreaking havoc on the federal government’s ability to serve the American people. Through a combination of DOGE activities and executive orders, Musk and Trump have cut or threatened to cut federal funding to services and programs from healthcare and education to scientific research and environmental protection. They have also carried out mass firings of federal workers who do everything from administering Social Security to taking care of veterans, and have announced plans to privatize the postal service.

While some of these cuts and firings have been stopped, at least temporarily, by the courts, they have created widespread uncertainty, including among tens of thousands of UE members who depend on federal funding for their jobs in higher education, scientific research, and social services. Cuts to federal agencies and federally-funded programs hit the working class with a one-two punch: direct job loss as workers are laid off, and loss of the services that working people — and especially the unemployed — depend on.

While DOGE’s activities have created widespread chaos, they have done little to achieve their stated aim of cutting government spending. Musk claimed he would cut $1 trillion; according to a study by PolitiFact, DOGE’s “wall of receipts” amounted to savings of only $8.6 billion — less than one percent of its stated goals. And federal spending continues to rise, with total federal spending amounting to $594 billion in April 2025 — $27 billion more than the same time last year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

In late May, the House of Representatives passed a budget reconciliation bill by one vote. The “big, beautiful bill,” as Trump has styled it, makes clear what Trump’s and the Republicans’ priorities are — cutting services to the American people in order to pay for tax cuts for themselves and their rich friends. Alongside cuts to Medicaid, education, and other services, the bill also includes massive increases to the military budget, to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and to military aid to Israel, to assist with their brutal assault on the Palestinian people.

Attacks on Free Speech and Due Process

Trump, Musk and the Republicans realize that their program of taking from the working class to give to the rich and the military is unpopular with the American people, and so they are also launching attacks on the right to protest and organize.

The Trump administration has been detaining and deporting immigrants who are in the country legally without a shred of due process. The right to due process, which is guaranteed to all persons by the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, is like the right to just cause in union contracts. It means that the government cannot “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property” without providing evidence and a fair hearing.

The administration is especially targeting international students and workers who have questioned U.S. support for Israel. (See the statement from the UE officers, “Attacks on Campus Protest a Grave Threat to Civil Liberties and Worker Rights.”) On March 25, six masked officers abducted Rümeysa Öztürk, a graduate student, university worker and union member, off the streets near her home in Massachusetts. The only justification offered for her imprisonment — which lasted until a federal judge freed her in May — was the fact that she signed an op-ed in the local newspaper.

Perhaps even more frightening, the administration has deported over 200 Venezuelans to a brutal prison in El Salvador which can only be described as a concentration camp. One of those imprisoned there — until he was returned to the U.S. in early June — was Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a member of the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers union. While the administration has claimed that Abrego Garcia and other deportees are members of a violent Venezuelan gang, they have produced no real evidence to back up their claims.

Efforts to deport critics of the government, and union organizers, are not new. In the 1950s, the federal government tried to deport UE’s founding Director of Organization, James Matles, an effort that was only stopped by the Supreme Court, after agitation and mobilization by UE members and allies.

UE Locals Fight Back

UE locals have fought back. Beginning in February, UE’s higher education locals joined rallies and other actions demanding that Congress reverse the DOGE cuts to funding for scientific research. Speaking at a national press conference in Washington, DC organized by Labor for Higher Education on February 25, UE General President Carl Rosen said, “Cuts to research funding are a direct theft from working people for the benefit of the billionaires who are now running the federal government.

“It’s a theft from working people because thousands and thousands will lose their jobs. But it is also stealing a better future from all working people. A future where the research of today results in health care breakthroughs that can cure the illnesses that so many Americans are afflicted with. A future where the research of today can fix the poisoned environment that so many of us are forced to live in. A future where the research of today can help address mental health issues, drug abuse, and other problems that end lives too early in this country.”

UE locals have also joined actions denouncing the administration’s attacks on immigrants and demanding that their employers take action to protect workers. When Öztürk was abducted in March, Local 256 (MIT-GSU) mobilized their members to join an emergency rally denouncing the abduction and demanding her freedom. Later that month, after a member of Local 1105 (GLU-UMN) was detained, delegates to the Western Region council meeting held an emergency rally at the federal building in Minneapolis, and on March 31 Local 1105 co-organized a rally with AFSCME Local 3800 “to speak out against the university administration’s inaction in the face of a broad range of threats from the federal government against workers, students, and faculty.” 

In mid-April, UE’s new Graduate Worker Conference Board issued a statement urging colleges and universities to form a “Mutual Academic Defense Compact” to respond to the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on higher education. The locals also urged higher education institutions to establish a common fund to support international workers, who are particularly vulnerable to attacks by the Trump administration.

UE locals and members have also joined national days of action, including rallies against the dismantling of the postal service in March, “Hands Off!” rallies against cuts to federal services on April 5, and May Day mobilizations. Meeting at the end of May, UE’s General Executive Board endorsed the “No Kings” mobilizations scheduled for June 14, and as the UE NEWS goes to press, UE members and locals were making plans to join the more than 1,400 events planned across the country.

The post UE Locals Resist Trump Administration Attacks on Union Rights, Higher Ed, and Freedom of Speech appeared first on Labor Today.

On this day, it is important not to forget the children around the world who are being robbed of their childhoods as a result of imperialist interventions and wars. Since the beginning of the Israeli aggression in Gaza, more than 16,000 children have lost their lives, while hundreds of thousands will carry the fear, trauma, and physical and emotional wounds of war for the rest of their lives.

Today, over 160 million children are still trapped in labor, many subjected to hazardous, degrading, and exhausting conditions. These children are denied their right to education, to leisure, to a healthy life, and to a dignified childhood. This is not an unfortunate accident or the result of isolated failures—it is the direct outcome of the exploitative nature of capitalism, which thrives on inequality, poverty, and imperialist domination.

Child labor worldwide has risen to alarming levels in recent years. Between 2016 and 2024—for the first time in over two decades—the number of working children globally has increased. The unprecedented economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with the deepening capitalist crisis and wars, continues to push children into ever more exploitative and dangerous labor conditions.

Meanwhile, the same forces that liberalize markets, dismantle public services, and suppress workers’ rights are the ones that drive families into despair and force children into labor. Multinational corporations, complicit governments, and international institutions may present themselves as champions of children’s rights, but in reality, they advance policies that entrench exploitation and strip working people of their dignity and protections.

For the WFTU, it is clear: the eradication of child labor can never be achieved under a system that sees human beings as tools for profit. What is needed is a radical transformation—one that guarantees free, quality public education for all children, ensures decent wages and secure employment for all adults, and strengthens public services and social protection systems. No parent should ever be forced to choose between hunger and sending their child to work.

We reaffirm our militant commitment to this struggle, and we stand in solidarity with workers across the globe who resist exploitation and fight for their rights. The battle against child labor is inseparable from the broader struggle against capitalist injustice and imperialist aggression. It is part of our vision for a society where the needs of the people—not the profits of the few—come first.

The post Statement of the World Federation of Trade Unions on the World Day Against Child Labor appeared first on Labor Today.

The Trump administration’s decision to mobilize and deploy 4,000 members of the National Guard and 700 Marines to Los Angeles is disturbing and absolutely unjustified. It is an attempt to stifle dissent through military force — something which has no place in a democracy — and a signal that if we wish to preserve our democratic freedoms, working people will have to be prepared to defend them through action in the streets, in our workplaces, and at the ballot box. Furthermore, it is clear that the administration is seeking to create physical conflict during immigration raids in order to justify a military response.

Protests against raids by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), including the mass protests in Los Angeles over the past several days, have been overwhelmingly peaceful, especially considering the deliberatively provocative behavior of ICE agents. At a protest in Chicago last week, according to an eyewitness, “When [federal law enforcement] came on the scene, they gave no orders. They didn’t ask anybody to disperse. They didn’t give any instructions. They just immediately began using their batons to push.”

According to the lawsuit filed by the State of California against Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hesgeth, ICE agents in Los Angeles “engaged in military-style operations” which included “sealing off entire streets around targeted buildings and using unmarked armored vehicles equipped with paramilitary gear.” The Los Angeles Police Department was also deliberately provocative, showing up to the peaceful protests in riot gear and paramilitary equipment, shooting journalists with rubber bullets, and arresting David Huerta, the president of SEIU California.

The recent ICE raids in Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere have targeted workplaces, reinforcing the reality that although Trump tries to portray all immigrants as criminals and terrorists, the overwhelming majority are workers. As our union and the rest of the labor movement have learned over the past half-century, the real purpose of immigration enforcement is to maintain a permanent underclass of workers afraid to stand up for their rights — which drags down wages and working conditions for all workers.

Deliberately provoking violence and then using the response to justify massive military crackdowns on civilian protest is one of the ways that democracies slide into authoritarianism. We know from the experience of other countries where the working class has defeated authoritarian governments that the labor movement, with our power to stop work, has an important role to play alongside mass mobilizations in the streets. If we prize our liberties and wish to maintain our rights, the labor movement and working people more broadly must denounce the unconscionable use of the U.S. military against our own people and prepare to engage in widespread nonviolent resistance if it continues.

Carl Rosen
General President

Andrew Dinkelaker
Secretary-Treasurer

Mark Meinster
Director of Organization

By UE Officers | Photo Courtesy of ueunion.org | UE News Reuse Policy

The post UE: Military Response to Immigration Protests a Step Towards Authoritarianism appeared first on Labor Today.

We are inspired by the courage of the people of Los Angeles and join in their call for Brother Huerta’s release, and the release of all those who have been persecuted in the Trump Administration’s vicious and hateful raids.

Make no mistake – Brother Huerta’s arrest and the ongoing violence directed at our immigrant communities constitute an attack on the entire working class. We must stand together and fight for our sisters and brothers who are being harassed, arrested, detained, and deported. An injury to one is an injury to all.

In Solidarity,
Public Rail Now

The post Public Rail Now Condemns the Arrest of David Huerta and Stands in Solidarity with Immigrant Communities appeared first on Labor Today.

In the South, the benefits of the success of such a campaign would be hard over state. By multiple means, it would inject new strength into a labor movement that is under constant open attack by the region’s political leaders and their corporate backers.

First and foremost, it would give Southerners their first taste of rightful control over a distribution system upon which the livelihoods of the entire region rely. The entire Southern economy relies on the ability to use freight rail to transfer large quantities of goods efficiently. The regular functioning of the rail system is so important that lawmakers have decided that rail workers cannot go on strike without federal approval. Despite the importance railroads play in our lives, all the decision-making on how the system works is left to a couple of monopolies.

The system as it stands not only allows a small group of corporate leaders to extract monopoly prices from their customers, but it gives them the unspoken power to bend the whole Southern economy to their will. After all, how would any sizable town function without access to rail goods? It makes no sense for all of the decisions to be in the hands of a few corporate interests. It is only right that the average Southerner has at least some say in how this system operates.

Likewise, these monopolies do not have to overly concern themselves with the safety of the communities they travel through. The example of East Palestine, OH showed that the railroad monopolies care little about the fines and cleanup fees imposed on them after a derailment because these fees are small in comparison to the profits they make by cutting corners on safety. Such corner-cutting practices are also known as “precision scheduled railroading”, and it creates so much profit that it has taken over the whole industry. These problems are here to stay unless railroad workers, communities, and environmental groups are given a direct say in how the system is managed.

Additionally, the system would immediately introduce a direct experience of worker’s democracy to states that have faced the highest levels of labor repression in the country. With the low level of union membership in the region, those turning to unionism lack direct contact with union members and local examples to draw from. If all class I’s were made public with shared control from unions, every rail-yard in the South could become a fortress of support for our labor movement. Suddenly workers across the entire region would have nearby examples of how an industry can be managed by workers, perhaps even better than by private companies.

The return of class I railroads to public ownership would provide enormous benefits to the average Southerner. This goal is attainable, beneficial to the majority of Southerners, has been proven to work in other countries, and has worked successfully in the United States. Any group or advocate worth their salt will rise to the occasion, and join the campaign to have Public Rail Now.

The post The Southern Labor Movement Must Rally Behind the Public Rail Now Campaign appeared first on Labor Today.

BOLLINGBROOK, IL—On April 25, Local 1123 members ratified a new three-year agreement with their employer, National Consolidation Services (NCS). NCS is a third-party logistics company outside of Chicago that operates an inbound cross dock supplying Walgreens distribution centers across the country.

NCS demanded major concessions, attempted to gut just cause provisions and claw back holidays, and stuck to their proposal of implementing an arbitrary merit pay system until the very last day of bargaining.

Local 1123 Treasurer and bargaining team member Dave Bulwan said, “Our members took full advantage of the labor shortage three years ago when we took a strike vote which led to major improvements in wages, paid leave, improvements in the attendance system, and contract language in 2022. This round of bargaining management increased security and hired scabs from local temp agencies to intimidate members into taking concessions and giving back everything we won in the last contract. Well it didn’t work.”  

Over the course of two months, Local 1123 members stickered up with a “Will strike if provoked” message, voted to authorize their committee to call a strike vote, held rallies in the parking lot during bargaining, and signed a public strike pledge committing to walk and shut down NCS, and by extension Walgreen’s distribution system, if management refused to move off their demands for concessions.

“Every one of our members signed a public strike pledge that we presented to management, and it was that strength, that solidarity that made management sober up and drop their demands to gut seniority, just cause protections, and back off of random drug testing and arbitrary ‘merit’ pay system. ” said Local 1123 President Charles King.

Members ultimately ratified a contract that includes a $0.63 across the board raise in the first year and a wage repopener in 2026 which includes the right to strike over wages. The membership secured a drug testing policy that includes just cause protections, the right to speak to a steward before going to the testing clinic, reasonable cause before management can require drug tests, and marajuana testing levels that protect members who may use legal recreational marajuana outside of work.

At the outset of bargaining the local demanded and won the onboarding and direct hire of temporary workers who were included in the contract campaign. “Don’t let management tell you who you can organize,” said Bulwan. “After we bargained two of the temporary workers into the union, management went out and hired another temp agency and had scabs in the parking lot ready to walk in and take our jobs. We took a caucus and went out and talked to them and told them what was up, they left, and not long after we secured our new contract.”

Members maintained the right to strike mid-contract and secured raises that have kept pace with inflation over the past ten years. President King described it this way: “We made major gains in the last contract and our goal this round was to maintain those gains. We accomplished that, but with a fight. Bargaining conditions since Trump took office have shifted dramatically, companies feel emboldened to demand take-aways and our solidarity is the only thing stopping them. If you are bargaining a contract this year, get strike ready because they are coming for us, but if we stick together we can still beat them on the shop floor where our power is.”

The Local 1123 bargaining committee consisted of President Charles King and Treasurer Dave Bulwan. They were assisted by International Representative Sean Fulkerson.

The post UE Local 1123 Fights Back Attacks On Just Cause, Wages and Seniority appeared first on Labor Today.