Troublemakers Blog
July 07, 2020 /
A coalition of Chicago unions and community organizations has come together around the call “Black Lives Matter, Health Care Justice Now.” The group is demanding that resources that currently go toward racist policing be redirected toward human services that improve health. »
June 30, 2020 /
After this article was published on June 30, some of those quoted in it became concerned about retaliation. Some names have been removed. »
June 26, 2020 /
Despite the pandemic, postal workers in at least 18 cities and towns rallied on foot, by car, and even by bicycle June 23 to demand federal funding to save the U.S. Postal Service.
While the House has passed a $25 billion rescue package, the Senate is not expected to take it up until after July 4. »
June 25, 2020 /
Two years ago, the Red for Ed movement swept across Arizona. Seventy thousand educators flooded the capitol demanding higher wages and lower class sizes and a stake at the bargaining table. »
June 19, 2020 / Saurav Sarkar
The Black Lives Matter uprising has prompted strong statements about racism and police accountability from top union officials, but the participation of the labor movement has been limited. Several internationals have, to their credit, encouraged their members. »
June 16, 2020 /
Update: A union coalition got the Philadelphia city council to pass the Essential Workers Protection Act described below. It forbids retaliation against any worker, public or private, for reporting public health violations in the workplace, and it enables them to decline to work in conditions they reasonably believe to be dangerous and unhealthy. »
June 15, 2020 /
The Crush Bar Workers Collective in Portland, Oregon made news in March when laid-off workers staged a sit-in, making demands around the COVID-19 closing and reopening. »
June 15, 2020 /
A strike by 33 workers at a McDonald’s in North Oakland has shut down the store since May 26. Twelve workers there have tested positive for COVID-19, and so have eight of their family members, including a 10-month-old baby. This is one of the longest recorded strikes ever by McDonald's workers. »
June 11, 2020 /
At 9 a.m. on Tuesday, ports across the U.S. West Coast ground to a halt as longshore workers stopped work to mourn the death of George Floyd. For nine minutes—the amount of time police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck—members of the Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) performed no work, from Southern California to »
June 11, 2020 /
Since the video was released of Officer Derek Chauvin pressing his knee on the neck of George Floyd for almost nine minutes as Floyd said his last words, “I can’t breathe,” protests have exploded in eighteen countries and all fifty states. The cry of Black Lives Matter can be heard in small towns and big cities throughout the United States. »