Machinists

  • Machinists Strike as Caterpillar Demands Non-Union Wage Rates

    Do workers need a union to negotiate “market-based” wages? Machinists at a Caterpillar hydraulic parts factory in Joliet, Illinois, struck May 1 to tell the heavy-equipment giant they deserve better. They're hampered by the fact that Cat workers represented by the United Auto Workers accepted wages pegged to an annual employer survey back in 2004.

  • Wealthy Defense Contractor Pushes Machinists to Strike

    Lockheed Martin has seen fit to distribute nearly $20 million annually to politicians in Washington, and to pay its CEO nearly $150 million in the last five years. But executives can’t seem to find the money to pay for new hires' pensions or to maintain comprehensive health coverage at its F-35 jet plant in Fort Worth, Texas.

  • Can Labor Organize the Unemployed?
    Jenny Brown
    Feb 14 2012 - 9:20am

    Wrenching testimonies from laid-off workers are overflowing the internet, crying out from the pages of policy reports, and popping up in commercial media. But unions are still grappling with how to organize the unemployed into a political force.

  • Wisconsin Crane Strike Crumples

    Machinists at Manitowoc Crane in Wisconsin voted 112-59 yesterday to end their nine-week strike over union rights. “The outcome isn't what we wanted,” said bargaining committeeman Craig Holschbach.

  • Campaign Accelerates To Recall Wisconsin Governor
    Jane Slaughter
    Dec 15 2011 - 12:39pm

    Wisconsin unionists say a copycat attack on Machinists is one more reason to recall Governor Scott Walker. Petitioners have gathered 507,000 signatures ahead of a mid-January deadline, almost enough to force a recall vote.

  • NLRB May Lose Quorum in 2012, Suspending Progress
    Nick Johnson
    Oct 17 2011 - 12:08pm

    The Labor Board, under attack since it investigated Boeing for retaliating against union workers, could be soon crippled. That would shut one of the last avenues for expanding workers’ legal rights.

  • Furniture Workers Win Ikea Union Drive, With Help from Abroad
    Jenny Brown
    Aug 1 2011 - 6:43pm

    Union organizing won back the weekend for Tawanda Tarpley and her co-workers at an Ikea furniture plant, and showed the promise of linking unions across borders to pressure European owners.

  • With Election Rule, Labor Board Takes Half Step Forward
    Jenny Brown, Mischa Gaus
    Jun 29 2011 - 10:59am

    The typical union vote in the U.S. subjects workers to two months of interrogation, intimidation, and threats that the shop will close, along with a sprinkling of company smiley-faces. That harrowing period could be shortened this summer.

  • Relearning Solidarity in the Air Canada Strike
    Sean Smith
    Jun 27 2011 - 4:23pm

    Air Canada's customer reps survived the airlines' decade of crisis by sacrificing hard-won gains. But when they were faced with a crush of concession demands this month, they struck, and built an activist corps in the process.

  • Corporate America in a Tizzy over Labor Board’s Boeing Order
    Jane Slaughter
    May 25 2011 - 2:15pm

    When the Labor Board told Boeing it couldn’t retaliate against workers who exercise their right to strike, Republican lawmakers and the Chamber of Commerce reacted as if Stalin himself had taken over the federal government.