Author(s):
Dan La Botz

Excerpt:
Santiago Rafael Cruz, an organizer for the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, was found murdered in the union’s Monterrey, Mexico office on the morning of April 9. He had been bound hand and foot and beaten to death. Circumstances suggest labor contractors may have had him killed. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Author(s):
Christian Roselund

Excerpt:
On the Mississippi coast, cranes are moving again over Navy warships at the sprawling Ingalls shipyards. Half a mile from the sleepy town of Pascagoula, the median at the entrance to the yards where striking workers chanted, sang, and sometimes prayed is quiet, and at the end of the workday a steady stream of cars and pickup trucks flows down the four lane road towards town. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Author(s):
Steve Early

Excerpt:
How can unions tear down the wall erected by management to keep organized and unorganized workers apart within the same company? This is the central question in several campaigns involving major employers that have gone “doublebreasted.” . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Author(s):
Ben Weinthal

Excerpt:
Thousands of workers across Europe walked off the job from late February through April, protesting plans by Airbus, Europe’s largest plane manufacturer, to cut some 10,000 jobs. In four different countries, Airbus workers struck intermittently, severely disrupting the company’s production. Airbus employs 57,000 workers across Europe. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Author(s):
Marsha Niemeijer

Excerpt:
A newly elected reform leadership will take office May 1 in International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1588 in Bayonne, New Jersey. This election marks the latest chapter for a storied 450-member local with a long history of mob ties, where a former union president was murdered and work was doled out according to organized crime connections. . . .

Available Online:
No

Author(s):
Harry Kelber

Excerpt:
Change to Win, a coalition of seven unions that broke away from the AFL-CIO nearly two years ago to build a “bigger and stronger” labor movement, is racked by internal conflicts that damage its current operations and threaten its future. . . .

Available Online:
No

Author(s):
Marsha Niemeijer

Excerpt:
Nichele Fulmore has been a package car driver at UPS in Lumberton, North Carolina for over 12 years. She is a member of Teamsters Local 391 and has been a full-time steward for two years. She began organizing to reform the Teamsters when she realized that “things weren’t right, especially when members are kept in the dark.” . . .

Available Online:
No

Author(s):
Joshua Pechthalt and Julie Washington

Excerpt:
Members of the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), the union representing Los Angeles public school teachers, ratified a three-year agreement with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) on March 14 by a 90 percent margin. The vote ended a year-long campaign that won gains for Los Angeles teachers and demonstrated the effectiveness of broad, rank-and-file based organizing combined with membership mobilization.

Available Online:
No

Author(s):
Peter Olson

Excerpt:
Teachers in Hayward, California went on strike April 5, shutting down school for over 20,000 students in this urban San Francisco Bay Area school district. “It’s about getting what’s fair,” says Judy Okolie, one of the more than 1,300 members of the Hayward Education Association. . . .

Available Online:
No

Author(s):
Robert Schwartz

Excerpt:
Work stoppages in the United States are (still) plummeting. In 2004 unions took part in 17 major strikes, compared with 470 in 1952. A minefield of legal restrictions that increasingly intimidates unions from exercising their most effective weapon is partially to blame. . . .

Available Online:
No

Author(s):
Tiffany Ten Eyck

Excerpt:
Members of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) occupied the Collins & Aikman auto parts plant in Scarborough, Ontario on March 30, shutting down production for two days. . . .

Available Online:
No

Author(s):
Young Workers United

Excerpt:
Young Workers United, a multi-racial San Francisco organization of young and immigrant workers, won an historic November victory when they achieved citywide paid sick day legislation. . . .

Body:
Young Workers United (YWU), a multi-racial San Francisco organization of young and immigrant workers, won an historic November victory when they achieved citywide paid sick day legislation.

Voters approved Prop F for Paid Sick Days by 61 percent on November 7, 2007, making San Francisco the first and only place in the nation where workers are guaranteed the right to a paid sick day for themselves and their families.

The paid sick days ordinance represents another step towards raising standards in the low-wage, non-union service sector in San Francisco.

Young Workers United works with young people in restaurants and on campuses to improve their working conditions. Matt Garron, a YWU member and bartender said, “There have been times when I’ve been sick and dragged myself to work anyway. It was a choice between my health and my rent. Nobody should have to make that choice.”

Available Online:
Yes

Body:
State police in Zimbabwe brutally suppressed a mass strike planned for April 3-4 by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). In late March and early April, riot police armed with batons, attack dogs, and semi-automatic rifles stormed nightclubs, restaurants, and bars, indiscriminately attacking patrons. Police reportedly targeted these sites as possible gathering places for strikers. They also raided and ransacked ZCTU offices, beating and arresting union members and officials.

Annual inflation in Zimbabwe stands at 1,700 percent, while 80 percent of the workforce is unemployed. Average income is less than $1 a day. Unions protesting government mismanagement of the economy and the lack of access to food and medical supplies are routinely met with violent attacks.

Expiration Date:
Thu, 05/31/2007 - 11:59pm

Body:
Twelve University of Michigan (UM) students were arrested on April 3 for occupying the office of UM President Mary Sue Coleman. The students, members of Students Organizing for Labor and Economic Equality (SOLE), were demanding that the university sign on to the Designated Suppliers Program (DSP). Universities that are part of the DSP have agreed to use university-licensed apparel from suppliers that pay a living wage to their employees and respect their employees’ right to organize and bargain collectively. So far, more than 30 universities nationwide have adopted the DSP.

Following a sit-in in 2000, UM adopted a “Code of Conduct” that promised to protect workers producing university-licensed apparel from harassment and discrimination in the workplace. Students contend that the school has failed to adequately monitor the actual working conditions at supplier factories, and that a more comprehensive commitment to workers’ rights is needed.

Expiration Date:
Thu, 05/31/2007 - 11:59pm