Alexandra Bradbury

Welcome, Danielle!

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Alexandra Bradbury

Our newest staff writer/organizer, Danielle Smith, joined the Labor Notes staff in October. Danielle is a dynamo—a skilled journalist and organizer.

As a labor reporter for the legal news website Law360.com, she was a member and shop steward of the NewsGuild of New York. Later she joined the union staff as a full-time organizer, and worked on strikes at Business Insider and Law360.

Letter Carriers are Organizing Against an Insulting 1.3 Percent Raise

A wave of anger is cresting at post offices across the country. Letter carriers are looking at the big raises that other union members have won—38 percent over four years at Boeing, 62 percent in six years at the East Coast ports, $7.50 in five years at UPS.

They’re comparing those gains to the tentative agreement their president handed them in October: 1.3 percent a year for three years.

Consolidation Threatens to Rip ‘Service’ Out of Postal Service

Workers are battling an overhaul of the U.S. Postal Service that would cost thousands of jobs and slow the mail for half the country.

In the name of efficiency, a letter mailed within Cheyenne, Wyoming, would travel to Denver and back. And if you miss a package, your local post office would no longer have it. It might be 45 minutes away.

In March, Buffalo became the first place to fend off the closure of its mail processing plant, in a team effort by Letter Carriers (NALC) Branch 3 and Postal Workers (APWU) Local 374.

Work to Rule and Open Bargaining Back Down Kroger Warehouse Bosses

Teamsters in an Indiana grocery warehouse scored big this year with a contract campaign like never before.

They organized in five languages and sported a multilingual union button. They opened up bargaining sessions for any member to come observe—on the peak day, 150 showed up. They even pulled off a daring work-to-rule action the week before bargaining kicked off, to start from a position of strength.

Viewpoint: O’Brien Speech Played into Republicans’ Phony Pro-Worker Rebrand

Teamsters President Sean O’Brien spoke at Trump’s Republican National Convention on Monday. This was a bad move.

Much of the speech would have been fine if he had delivered it somewhere else. O’Brien railed against corporate greed, singling out Amazon and the private equity vultures that killed Yellow Freight. He called for stronger labor laws. Nobody says that stuff at the Republican convention, so some unionists were pleased to hear righteous themes reach a new audience.

Viewpoint: Migration Isn't Going Away. Unions Have to Get Sharper on It.

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Alexandra Bradbury

The Trump campaign is doing a great job of stirring up anti-immigrant sentiment. Maybe you’re getting an earful from co-workers. Maybe you’re worried yourself.

Sixty-two percent of voters, including two-thirds of white people and even a majority of Latinos, an Axios poll found in June, now say they support what Trump is promising: mass deportations.

Free Download of Shawn Fain's 'Other Bible,' A Troublemaker's Handbook

North Pole Elves Win Big with Escalating Strike

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Alexandra Bradbury

NEW: Listen to a wonderful radio version of this story (including additional quotes from Vixen), created by the good folks of Labor Radio on WORT in Madison, Wisconsin.

“Yes, Virginia, there is a S.A.N.T.A. clause!” shouted Elves, Reindeer, and Candy Stripers Local 1224 President Cindy Lou Who to whoops and cheers as North Pole workers celebrated their new contract, ending a two-month strike.

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