Troublemakers Blog

Contest: Songs and Chants for the Strike Line

A group of people stands outside a building, singing. Edwin, a young man with guitar, has his head leaned back shouting into the sky. Several other people have fists in the air, one wears a big smile, and some hold big paper on which lyrics are written out: "Sign me up for the union, bring me my union card, We can work better with decent pay, health care, childcare, and more of a say..."
February 27, 2025 / by Kira Yeversky and Edwin Everhart
Music has special power to raise our morale in times of fear and grief. In the Pittsburgh Labor Choir we’ve learned that songs have their greatest power when everyone is participating, not just listening. »

Two Unions Strike the University of California

Two men in blue shirts that say “UPTE” play snare drums while others march in the background.
February 27, 2025 / Labor Notes staff
Picket lines formed across California Wednesday as 20,000 health care, research, and technical workers in UPTE (Communications Workers Local 9119) and 37,000 patient care workers in AFSCME Local 3299 walked out on short strikes across the University of California system. »

Viewpoint: Targeted Postal Workers Are a Bellwether for All U.S. Unions

A group of people, masked, socially distanced, and diverse in race and gender, stand outside the Old Bedford Station post office on a sunny day. They hold up handmade signs: "US Mail Not 4 Sale" and "Save USPS." Someone in the back has a camera set up on a tripod. Similar printed signs from APWU are also visible.
February 26, 2025 / Eric Chornoby
The Trump administration has set its sights on the U.S. Postal Service and its 600,000 workers, 91 percent of whom are union members. The USPS is the nation’s largest unionized employer. »

International Solidarity Is the Union Answer to Tariffs and Deportations

A group of fifty workers red hats and white shirts raise their fists and pose for the camera
February 24, 2025 / Jeffery Hermanson
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain has recently expressed the UAW’s readiness to “work with Trump on trade.” Teamsters President Sean O’Brien spoke on a podcast against “illegal immigrants that come into our country to commit crimes and steal jobs.” »

Southern California Kaiser Strikers Stay Out for Parity

Several workers sit in the street with signs saying “Kaiser Don’t Deny Mental Health”--they are surrounded by police.
February 17, 2025 / Cal Winslow
On day 110 of their strike, behavioral health care workers in Southern California sat down in the middle of Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, blocking traffic in front of Kaiser Permanente’s Los Angeles Medical Center. »

Viewpoint: After Resounding ‘No’ Vote, Letter Carriers Should Go on Offense

Seventeen uniformed letter carriers pose together in a post office, holding a big handmade "VOTE NO!" sign.
February 12, 2025 / Rob Darakjian
Members of the National Association of Letter Carriers have rejected a sellout tentative agreement by 71 percent, in a 63,680 to 26,304 vote. That’s a turnout of 48.4 percent—and more “no” votes than the total turnout of 63,452 votes for the last contract. This result is a rejection of the current national leadership and its approach. »

Oregon Nurses Reject Proposal, Keep Striking

Women stand on a sunny day, wearing big jackets, holding green printed ONA picket signs that say "Unfair Labor Practice Strike" and "Nurses on Strike." A handmade sign visible in the background says "Burnout caused this turnout."
February 12, 2025 / Kari Thompson
Nurses across Oregon remain on strike at Providence Health and Services more than a month after they first walked out. Members at all eight hospitals rejected a tentative agreement by more than 80 percent when it was put to a vote in early February. »

Amazon Lays off 4,500 Workers in Quebec to Bust Their Union

Workers, most of them Black, bundled against the cold, stand in front of an Amazon delivery facility sign. Their banner says, in French, "Without us, nothing is free" and the name of the union. Many hold CSN flags, and smile resolutely. On the right, a figure viewed from back silhouette speaks to them, one hand pointing the way forward.
February 06, 2025 / François L’Écuyer
Faced with the prospect of being forced to sign a labor contract as early as this summer, Amazon has gone to extreme lengths to evade its obligations under Quebec’s labor code. On January 22, it announced it is closing all seven of its warehouses in Quebec and outsourcing their operations. »

Viewpoint: There’s More to Amazon Organizing Strategy Than Choke Points

February 04, 2025 / Paul Blundell
As a longtime Amazon warehouse worker and union activist, I was glad to see Professor Ben Fong’s strategic analysis calling on the union movement to focus Amazon organizing on the Sortation Centers. »

Don’t Panic—Organize!

A crowd of federal workers stand outside, bundled against cold, carrying printed AFGE signs that say "EPA employees deserve respect" and "Stop the shutdown." In the foreground are a Black woman and a white woman, the latter raising a red-gloved fist in the air, both chanting or singing.
January 29, 2025 / Kari Thompson
The Trump administration has swept into office with a volley of attacks: Gutting programs that acknowledge race and gender inequality. Freezing funding for a wide swath of programs (though that order has already been rescinded). New work rules. Immigration raids. Replacing career civil servants with political lackeys. A mass email inviting federal employees to »

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