Bianca Cunningham

Understaffed and Unsafe, Bay Area Hospital Workers Strike

UPDATE, October 9: Striking workers at Alameda Health System are https://labornotes.org/blogs/2020/10/east-bay-health-care-workers-strike-forces-county-disband-bosscelebrating a victory in the midst of their strike, as the Board of Supervisors suddenly announced they would disband the unelected Board of Trustees that has long mismanaged this public safety-net health care system.

Workers at eight campuses of the Alameda Health System (AHS) in California’s East Bay will begin a five-day strike on October 7.

VIDEO: An Introduction to Just Cause

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Author(s): 
Bianca Cunningham

Labor Notes is pleased to present a series of free webinars taught by veteran Boston labor lawyer Robert M. Schwartz and hosted by Labor Notes staffer Bianca Cunningham.

This webinar is entitled "An Introduction to Just Cause" and is based on the book Just Cause: A Union Guide to Winning Disciplinary Grievances by Bob Schwartz. Among the subjects covered are lax enforcement, due process, hearsay evidence, disparate treatment, and progressive discipline.

It's Time to Make Black Lives Matter in Our Unions

The Movement for Black Lives is encouraging union members to plan "Labor for Black Lives" actions in their communities on Friday, June 19—Juneteenth. Actions will be part of M4BL's call to Defend Black Lives all across the world. Find an action in your town and join it, or organize your own and add it to the map.

Women Confront Ugly Harassment at Beauty Products Plant

At a lotion factory outside Chicago, workers endured years of sexual harassment, coercion, gender and racial discrimination, and unsafe working conditions.

Last year the women at Voyant Beauty came together to fight back.

The workers at Voyant are overwhelmingly female, and almost all long-term temps. They blend, bottle, pack, and ship beauty products for brands like Victoria’s Secret, Johnson & Johnson, and Aveeno.

BLACK WORKERS SHUT OUT

Before the organizing came a hiring discrimination lawsuit, filed in 2012.

Bus Drivers Strike Reveals Inequality on Martha’s Vineyard

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Author(s): 
Bianca Cunningham

Twenty-five Martha’s Vineyard bus drivers are striking for a first contract, exposing the inequality that exists for working people on an island known as the summer home of the rich and famous.

The Florida-based company Transit Connection Inc. (TCI) receives public funds to operate the bus system relied on by vacationers and year-round residents alike. So during the strike, taxpayers are literally paying scab wages—contrary to the progressive values often associated with Martha’s Vineyard.

Six-Month Retail Strike in Freezing Saskatchewan Didn’t Beat Two-Tier

“Three years ago I was at a union meeting and a member stood up and asked why we got such good pay and benefits as Saskatoon Co-op employees,” said Jodi Smith, a member of Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1400.

“Grant Wicks, now the general manager of the co-op, answered that the employees were worth it—they were trained well, customer service was excellent. We all left this meeting with tears in our eyes, feeling appreciated.”

VIDEO: 40 Years of Troublemaking in the Labor Movement

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Author(s): 
Alexandra Bradbury
Jane Slaughter
Bianca Cunningham

Since 1979, Labor Notes has been home to the troublemaking wing of the labor movement. The pages of our magazine are filled with the stories of workers who are working to transform their unions, to take on the boss, to fight for racial justice.

We believe that working people's best bet is on ourselves. That's why our trainings, and national conference, focus on connecting workers to one another across unions and industries and provide rank-and-file organizers with the tools they need to get the job done themselves.

VIDEO: Lessons from the Verizon Strike for L.A. Teachers

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Author(s): 
Bianca Cunningham

Four Labor Notes staff members are in Los Angeles helping out with the strike by 34,000 teachers against the billionaire-backed school board's privatization agenda.

In this speech, Labor Notes staff organizer Bianca Cunningham tells L.A. teachers about her own experience on strike against Verizon for 49 days in 2016, during the largest private-sector strike of the decade.

Strikes and the City

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Author(s): 
Bianca Cunningham

Why are some union leaders saying public sector workers shouldn’t have the right to strike?

We expect it from conservatives like former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who told the Post that ending the state’s ban on public sector strikes would “turn New York into Venezuela.”