Alexandra Bradbury

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

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Seen from the side/back, Shawn Fain in a red hoodie holds up a battered purple copy of A Troublemaker's Handbook. Arrayed in front of him can be seen a huge seated crowd in the ballroom for the closing plenary.
April 25, 2024

North Pole Elves Win Big with Escalating Strike

Alexandra Bradbury
Illustration of the Troublemakers Union slingshot logo with a Santa hat on top

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.

Record-Setting Strike Moves Kaiser the Old-Fashioned Way

Alexandra Bradbury
Workers in purple SEIU Local 49 T-shirts march across a street. Some carry picket signs that say SEIU and some other words too small to read. A large purple banner says "We stand for our patients." The person in front is talking into a bullhorn and others appear to be chanting.

Seventy-five thousand Kaiser Permanente health care workers struck October 4-6 in what was billed as the biggest health care strike in U.S. history.

It was also the first strike in decades by the SEIU-led Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, the longtime standard-bearer for labor-management partnership. That partnership has frayed to the point of unraveling—though not for lack of interest on the union side. It’s Kaiser that has gotten mean.

To Beat the Heat, 'We Can't Rely on Management. We Have to Keep Each Other Safe'

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September 20, 2023

The death of UPS driver Chris Begley, 57, who collapsed in August while making a delivery in 103-degree Texas heat, was no isolated incident.

Monitoring co-workers for signs of heat exhaustion has become a routine feature of the job, says fellow driver Seth Pacic, a shop steward in Begley’s union, Teamsters Local 767.

Pacic has learned to discern over the phone when a co-worker needs to find air conditioning ASAP—and when they’re deteriorating so badly that he should call paramedics and brave management’s wrath.

Lessons from Lively Picket Lines

Luis Feliz Leon
Alexandra Bradbury
A crowd surrounds a large festive purple piggy-bank piñata suspended above them. It is labeled NYU and is in school colors, purple and gold.

The heat was scorching in Louisville, Kentucky, last Thursday. But what the windless day lacked in gusts, it made up in guts.

The union-made placards read: “United for a Strong Contract.” That resonated with auto workers at Ford who hadn’t been part of a contract rally for as long as anyone can remember.

And the picket line came alive when they broke away from the tedious repetition of “Who’s got the power? We’ve got the power!” and used their own chants.

Teamsters and Auto Workers Are Raising the Bar for Contract Campaigns

Alexandra Bradbury
A young slender Black man in a baseball cap smiles down at the camera with a sign saying “Just Practicing for a Just Contract.” To the left of him is a Black woman in sunglasses with a whistle in her mouth carrying the same sign..

With reformers at the helm, the Teamsters and the Auto Workers (UAW) are raising the bar for contract campaigns.

At Labor Notes we often hear from frustrated members of unions that have nothing like a contract campaign—members play no role in setting the agenda or building the momentum to win. Union leaders agree not to “bargain in the press,” squandering any chance to attract public sympathy. Sometimes the rank and file doesn’t even hear what’s going on until a deal is done.

UPS Teamsters to Vote on Contract that Ends Driver Tiers, Lifts Part-Timer Pay

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A Black woman in sunglasses smiles at the camera. She is holding a yellow and brown picket sign that says "UPS Teamsters, Just Practicing for a Just Contract." She is surrounded by matching signs, presumably held by other people who are mostly not visible in the shot.
July 27, 2023

With just a week to go before the strike deadline, UPS and the Teamsters announced a tentative agreement July 25. There will be no strike on August 1.

It’s clear their strike threat paid off in a big way—to the tune of $30 billion, the union’s calculation of how much more UPS is spending on this contract than the last one.

UPS Teamsters ‘Just Practicing’

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Workers picket with "United for a strong contract" and "Just practicing" teamsters signs. Some wear brown UPS driver uniforms. One little kid, riding on a parent's shoulders, turns to look happily directly into the camera.
July 19, 2023

The clock is ticking on the August 1 strike deadline of 340,000 UPS Teamsters. It would be the largest strike at a private employer in decades.

“People are actually paying attention,” said delivery driver Kioma Forero, a Local 804 shop steward in New York City. Customers along her route stop her to say, “I hope your negotiations go well.” The hosts are talking about it on Hot 97, the city’s top hip-hop station.

Unions Can Still Strike—Don't Let the Supreme Court Tell You Otherwise

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Three workers picket, facing slightly away from the camera, on a tree-lined road outdoors. Their picket signs say "On strike, Unfair Labor Practice, Calportland Glacier Northwest, Teamsters Local 174."
June 01, 2023

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Glacier Northwest v. Teamsters Local 174 is outrageous—valuing property over workers’ rights. But it could have been much worse.

Unions still have the right to strike. Employers still can’t generally sue unions in state court for losses caused by strikes. But the decision does open the door to whittling away those rights more in the future.

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