When pressed by resident sycophant Senator Rand Paul over her endorsement of the PRO Act in Congress, Ms. Chavez-DeRemer backed off her support for the provision repealing state “Right-to-Work” laws. In response, Sean O’Brien not only doubled down on the Teamsters’ endorsement of Chavez-DeRemer but stated he’s working with Senator Josh Hawley in creating a version of the PRO Act that “may not include” repealing of “Right-to-Work.”

In the same interview, ironically on anti-worker Fox News, O’Brien stated, “That’s the beauty of having conversations with people from the other side, where you can collaborate and actually find out what works for that state, what doesn’t work for it—but more importantly, what’s going to work for the American worker.” This statement insinuates that “Right-to-Work”, a notorious union-busting tool promoted by oligarchs to maintain the open shop may work in some states.

Sean O’Brien is the poster child of the modern misleaders of labor, his hollow capitulation on “Right-to-Work” is his latest abandonment of the working class. The closed shop, something our class-oriented forebears fought—and in many cases were murdered for—should be the standard we fight for. Instead of fighting the ravages the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 has leveled against the American labor movement Sean O’Brien is now falling in line with the capitalist bosses.

LUEL saw potential in the Teamster’s non-endorsement in last year’s presidential election as a potential shift towards independent labor political action. Unfortunately, without a strong rank-and-file movement leading the way for an independent labor party, the misleaders of labor, led by Sean O’Brien, are using any potential momentum towards further entrenching “labor-management cooperation” at a time when the capitalist class is intensifying its attacks on the working class.

The post EDITORIAL: Sean O’Brien Continues Selling Out Workers as He Embraces So-Called “Right-to-Work” first appeared on Labor Today.

In 2022, airline technicians bargained for an “Industry Reset Model” which would put UA techs at 102% of the industry standard. As such, during this bargaining period, workers were not given a raise, but an analysis is run every 12 months from December 2024 to ensure wages do not fall behind due to collective bargaining.

Teamsters gave an update in February stating that United “has no intention of reaching a fair deal that reflects the value of our hard work”. The airline presented a proposal to the negotiating committee to which the union urged its membership to vote “no” on February 12^th, 2025. Among the proposals was a subpar wage increase, removing retiree plans and switching to a cash balance, and raising the health care costs for technicians. While United did raise the moving allowance to $14,000, the negotiating committee stated that the current proposals are “concessionary and unacceptable”. Likewise, the membership had rejected an Extension Agreement in April 2024.

It appears there is no end in sight for negotiations as United continue to stall in providing airline technicians a sound contract. Unfortunately, due to the Railway Labor Act, airline workers are prohibited from striking, providing no remedy from companies that refuse to bargain in good faith.

The post Teamsters Continue Bargaining into 11th Round with United Airlines first appeared on Labor Today.

Sean O’Brien’s comments during his interview with Sen. Josh Hawley stating that “people are trying to protect illegal aliens that come here and commit crimes … and steal jobs” gives cover for the bosses to continue pitting workers against each other. Harold Daggett credited Trump with being a “true friend of the working class” after securing a tentative Master Contract in early January. Fain spent so much time at the DNC calling Trump a scab and how he will hurt workers to then support his tariff plan.

Right now is the time when unions need to be working towards independent political action, not tailing the Democrats or Republicans. O’Brien’s speech at the RNC in July 2024 was welcomed, not because Republicans are going to be a party for workers, but because it represented an opening in our ability to reach conservative workers with a class-oriented message.

The lack of an independent labor party in the United States means that inevitably there will be a rightward shift as more people pull away from the Democratic Party. Misleaders like O’Brien, Daggett, and Fein only encourage a rightward drift even more with their sloganeering about “protecting American jobs”. Fain’s comments may not have been xenophobic like O’Brien’s, but a tariff war and attack on immigrants both objectively help the bosses. The working class needs unity now the most, not more division.

The post EDITORIAL: Misleaders of Labor Drift Rightward Towards Trump first appeared on Labor Today.

In recent years union organizing at Amazon has increased significantly, Beginning with the defeated RWDSU campaign in Bessemer, Alabama in 2021 unions have been organized at multiple facilities, the most successful of which was the JFK8 drive that culminated in the 2022 victory by the independent Amazon Labor Union in Staten Island. Though the union, which has since been affiliated with the IBT, successfully overcame a vicious, anti-union campaign and won an NLRB-sponsored election, the union has not successfully brought the company to the negotiating table. With unions organized in eight facilities in four states, the December strike was an attempt to put pressure on the company to begin negotiations.

While the strike involved less than one percent of Amazon’s US workforce it nonetheless brought significant attention to the working conditions of Amazon warehouse workers and Delivery Service Partners (DSP) in facilities across the country. Local unions affiliated with the IBT set up picket lines comprised of union activists, shop stewards, and union officers with negligible participation from inside Amazon employees, aside from the 8 facilities with formal union memberships. Even the notable JFK8 warehouse had only 201 workers participate in the strike.

The strike nevertheless mobilized a significant segment of IBT members at bargaining units such as UPS, who have a direct interest in organizing Amazon. The greatest success of this nationwide action will most certainly be the cultivation of new contacts in facilities previously unavailable to the union, with interactions between union members and inside Amazon employees the prospects of future organizing drives are greatly improved.

The post Rank-and-File Teamster Analyzes “Historic” Amazon Christmas Strike first appeared on Labor Today.

The class struggle in the U.S. is sharpening, and the WFTU extends its complete support for the just demands of the Amazon workers and encourages all its affiliates and friends to express their solidarity the strikers. Workers at Amazon all across the world are in motion, organizing against the company and its monstrous treatment of its employees. Support the Amazon Workers! Support the Amazon Strikes!

The post WFTU Solidarity Statement with Amazon Strike in U.S. first appeared on Labor Today.

A month into their strike, there is no shortage of support from local and national politicians. Michigan Governor Gretchen Witmer, Senator Gary Peters, and Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilch all appeared on the picket line October 6^th. Senator Bernie Sanders also appeared at the picket line saying “Marathon Petroleum’s CEO made $24 million last year. The company can afford to pay its workers a decent wage.”

“Marathon only wants to give a 3% raise, which is nowhere close to inflation in this day and age, as you know, and also, they want to take away our work. So subcontracting is a major issue with us. We need the language that protects our work and our workers to keep their jobs.”

Steve Hicks, Teamsters Local 283 President

Workers have said they are fighting for a 6% pay increase as well as language that promotes work-life balance and morale at the plant. As of October 27^th, 2024, the workers at Marathon Petroleum are still on strike.

The post Teamsters Strike at Marathon Petroleum Workers in Detroit Still Ongoing a Month Later first appeared on Labor Today.

UPS workers in the region are among the most impacted by heat illnesses and injuries due to climate change in recent years. A result of the company’s ruthless exploitation of its workforce and gross negligence regarding worker safety: this was underscored by the tragic death, in June of this year, of Braden Hasselbeck, an Oklahoma City delivery driver was found, hours after returning to his building, unresponsive at the facility.

In response to multiple worker deaths in the company’s McKinney TX facility and other incidents – including a recent crash involving a fatigued driver – Oklahoma Teamsters have mobilized to take action in solidarity with the struggles of their union, brothers and sisters in North Texas.

Though the national contract, negotiated and ratified last year after a very public and contentious contract campaign, commits UPS to replace a minimum of 28,000 delivery vehicles with air-conditioned models by the expiration of the contract, no new models have been introduced to date.

Across the country, the company has ramped up its efforts to squeeze the maximum amount of production from its workforce, intensifying production harassment, speed-up, and excessive overtime for its drivers rather than taking steps to make safety protocols more effective. Much of the heat illnesses and deaths could’ve been prevented by the introduction of the air-conditioned vehicles promised by the contract. UPS seems to prioritize its stockholders over the safety of its employees.

“UPS Teamsters across the country, including our union siblings in Texas Teamsters Local 767 are facing unbearable and dangerous heat conditions,” said Zakk Flash, a representative of Oklahoma Teamsters Local 886, “we are united in our demand that UPS take immediate action to honor the contract and protect our members’ lives” he continued.

To effectively respond and counter the aggressions of the company, Teamsters will need to develop a class-oriented approach that emphasizes solidarity and militancy. This will require a resolute left-wing within the union that is capable of putting before the membership the most effective strategies and tactics appropriate to the hazards we face.

The post Oklahoma UPS Teamsters Build Solidarity Across Two States first appeared on Labor Today.

At a time when labor militancy is on the rise, Fain has continued the path of labor misleaders falling in line behind the Democratic Party. Where O’Brien went into enemy territory to give the closest thing to a class-based speech a Business Unionist can give at the RNC, Fain, while also using the language of class, showed up to play fealty to Democratic Presidential Nominee, Kamala Harris. Harris, who in her only chance to back up her pro-worker rhetoric with action, went missing in action when she had the opportunity to use her power as Vice President to override the Senate Parliamentarian’s blocking of increasing the federal minimum wage in 2021. A move that contradicts Fain’s claim that Kamala Harris is a “fighter for the working class.”

What these speeches make clear is that when push comes to shove, the misleaders of labor will fall in line with the Democrats rather than see the workers’ fight all the way through. One noticeable example was the silence of the majority of labor “leaders” as the Biden Administration brought the hammer down on railroad workers as they were about to go on strike over disastrously dangerous working conditions, increasing the possibility of a major accident like the East Palestine, OH derailment in February of last year.

While much of the substance behind O’Brien’s and Fain’s speeches is true, their coddling of the two parties of monopoly capital shows the rank-and-file members that they are not prepared for the fight against what Shawn Fain calls corporate greed. In reality, the fight is against monopoly capitalism, and their financial backers, the system which pits workers against ever-increasing profits. Without a full-on struggle via anti-monopoly labor, the working class as a whole, will continue to fall behind.

We cannot agree more with Shawn Fain when he said, “We need a defender of the working class in the White House, someone who is one of us, and someone who knows how to fight.” The only way to do this is the building of a Party built out of an anti-monopoly coalition led by a class-oriented trade union movement. Hitching our wagons to either Party owned and operated by our bosses is not a path forward for an offensive fight from labor, we need our own Party that unites all the truly progressive forces in the US.

While it is too late to build an anti-monopoly coalition to affect the 2024 National elections, now is the time to start the struggle. Workers who are not regularly active politically are more engaged, now is the time to reach them. All class-oriented trade unionists need to heed this call and start pressuring your unions to steer resources away from political campaigns and toward organizing the unorganized. Step up, stand up, and organize the rank-and-file of your locals. Join the campaign started by Railroad Workers United in the struggle for nationalization of the railroads. Come, join LUEL and lead the fight, we have nothing to lose but our chains!

The post EDITORIAL: Political Conventions Show the Only Path Forward for Working Class is an Anti-Monopoly Coalition first appeared on Labor Today.

Back in 2018, Amazon launched its DSP program and has now grown to employ over 280,000 workers, but Amazon claimed the drivers were subcontractors even though the company controlled the drivers terms and conditions of employment. This led to Amazon sidestepping federal labor laws and committing dozens of unfair labor practices (ULP) in Palmdale, California including holding captive audience meetings, threatening job loss, and intimidation.

“Amazon drivers have taken their future into their own hands and won a monumental determination that makes clear Amazon has a legal obligation to bargain with its drivers over their working conditions. This strike has paved the way for every other Amazon worker in the country to demand what they deserve and to get Amazon to the bargaining table.”

• Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien.

DSP drivers from Palmdale have been on a ULP strike since June 24, 2023 after Amazon refused to recognize the newly formed union of 84 drivers, maintaining it did not employ the drivers. The Palmdale Teamsters have grown their picket line to over 50 Amazon warehouses, including Skokie, Illinois who also launched a ULP strike in June 2024, citing low pay, dangerous working conditions and their refusal to bargain with the Teamsters. Workers in the San Bernardino, California KSBD warehouse, as well as the Hebron, Kentucky KCVG Warehouse have also gone on strike recently over unfair labor practices.

“We wear Amazon uniforms, we drive Amazon vans, and Amazon controls every minute of our day. Amazon can no longer have all the benefits of their own fleet of drivers without the responsibilities that come with it. The time has come for Amazon drivers across the country to organize with the Teamsters and demand what we deserve.”

• Brandi Diaz, Amazon driver and Teamsters Local 396 member

The NLRB’s next step will be to issue a complaint against Amazon and bring the company before an NLRB judge for trial. The Teamsters are hoping the ruling from the NLRB on the Palmdale drivers will include DSP workers nationwide.

The post New NLRB Ruling States Amazon DSP Drivers are Employees, not Contractors first appeared on Labor Today.

“I just spent the day yesterday walking the picket line with locked out Teamsters Rail members in Edmonton. After listening to accounts from these frontline workers about what’s really happening at Canada’s two biggest railways, it’s clear to me that by granting CN and CPKC their wish for binding arbitration, the federal government is basically rewarding a foreign-owned cartel for its bad behaviour.

“I say this for three reasons: First, the service disruptions experienced across the country today were engineered by the companies, not the workers. The sides could have kept negotiating and the trains could have kept running: CN and CPKC just decided otherwise.

“Second, the decision by CN and CPKC to lockout their workers should be seen for what it is. It’s a temper tantrum thrown by anti-worker American corporate executives who don’t like Canadian labour laws and who just want to play by their own rules.

CN and CPKC manufactured a crisis in order to get the federal government to do what they didn’t want to do and what Canada’s evolving federal labour law says they shouldn’t do: strip workers of their constitutionally protected right to strike and bargain collectively. By giving CN and CPKC what they want, the federal government is essentially allowing two predominantly American owned companies to behave as if they are operating in Alabama, rather than Canada.

“Third, binding arbitration is the wrong way to go because it will not address the root causes of this dispute. The workers I spoke to today told stories of serious staffing shortages that are putting both service and safety at risk. But instead of addressing these shortages by making their companies more attractive places to work, both CN and CPKC want to force their already overworked staff to work even longer hours.

“The companies also refused to consider reasonable requests for wages that keep up with inflation (at a time when fees charged to shippers have increased at a rate far exceeding inflation). The two railways used to be highly prized places to work at, often with several generations of families proudly calling themselves railroaders. But that’s a thing of the past.

“Nowadays, both CN and CPKC are seeing annual employee turnover rates as high as 80 per cent. If the federal government allows CN and CPKC to impose their mean-spirited and family-unfriendly scheduling regimes, the problem of chronically under-staffed railways will only get worse, not better.

“In the end, there’s only one thing that we in the Canadian labour movement can agree with the CN and CPKC executives on: railroad workers provide a vital service. In fact, it’s too vital a service to be left in the hands of two price-gouging foreign monopoly companies. With that in mind, instead of helping American executives to screw Canadian workers, what I think the federal government should really do is consider ending our rail system’s disastrous experiment with vulture capitalism and re-nationalize our railroads.”

The post Statement from Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan on use of Binding Arbitration in Rail Dispute first appeared on Labor Today.