Whose Safety? Our Safety!
The safety of the community as a whole requires vaccines and vaccine mandates. But conversations about mandates have stumbled over questions about the power of employers and the rights of workers.
When unions avoid taking a stand for vaccine requirements (or even support resistance to mandates) they fall into three traps.
Trap one says our priority is to represent the rights of individual workers. Trap two says we cannot abide conflict or strong disagreement among members. Trap three says only the boss can exercise the power to require safety on the job.
We Need Democracy on the Job and in the Union, Too
Democracy is on everyone’s mind, after the presidential election and transition we’ve just weathered.
There’s the democracy we had to defend. Union members participated in all kinds of ways—from postal workers making sure the ballots were delivered, to UNITE HERE members canvassing Arizona and Georgia, to central labor councils calling for the results to be respected.
Then there’s the democracy we don’t have yet. The struggle to vote and have your vote counted has a long legacy in this country.
What Are We Doing to Shift the Balance of Power at Work?
The pandemic kicked workers back on their heels—even tumbled some over. Fearing for their lives and well-being, some responded with fire and organizing, others with stunned passivity.
New York City Teachers Work Outdoors after a Co-Worker Tests Positive
UPDATE, September 18: Amid continued protests, yesterday Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the start of in-person school in New York City will be further delayed for most students. Pre-K and special ed schools will still open September 21, but elementary school reopening has been pushed back to September 29, and middle and high school to October 1. —Editors