As 38,000 Verizon union members enter their fifth month without a contract, crews of retirees are swinging into action to defend their own health benefits.
“A lot of our best contract-campaign tactics came from A Troublemaker’s Handbook 2,” said Blitzen, a steward in the reindeer department. “You’ve got to get your hooves on a copy.”
Twenty-two hundred Steelworkers, locked out since August 15, are refusing demands for major concessions on health care, retiree benefits, and subcontracting.
Low-wage workers are calling on fast-food and retail giants to raise wages for the workers who will harvest crops, stock shelves, and staff checkout counters this holiday season.
Teamsters who transport new cars to dealerships slammed a concessionary master agreement that "would have been the nail in the coffin of unionized carhauling."
While the Big Three rake in profits, union bargainers have quietly given up on pensions and cost-of-living raises. Workers are asking, “If we don’t get our concessions back now, when will we ever get them?”