Troublemakers Blog
May 13, 2020 /
Portuguese call center workers forced to come to work during the pandemic struck in March, demanding to switch to teleworking at home without loss of pay. Some workers refused to go to work, some took sick leave, some asked for vacation days, and others appeared at the call centers but refused to log in. »
May 13, 2020 / Barbara Madeloni
Join Labor Notes and the Public Higher Education Workers this Tuesday May 19 at 5 PM EDT to hear public education workers speak about organizing for fully funded public higher education in the midst of the pandemic. »
May 13, 2020 /
“I feel like I’m in the safest place in the company from the virus,” said Chris Viola, who, until April 20, was laid off from General Motors’ Cadillac and Impala assembly plant in Detroit. Now he’s working in a former transmission plant in the suburbs, making face masks along with a few dozen other GM workers. »
May 12, 2020 /
A group of early childhood educators with the Halton District School Board, near Toronto, were in the middle of a union drive when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
With schools closed and physical distancing rules in effect, workers had to quickly shift gears and experiment with new approaches. »
May 11, 2020 /
Despite all the evidence that we are nowhere near out of the woods with the coronavirus pandemic, the Detroit automakers and the United Auto Workers (UAW) have agreed to restart production at most facilities on May 18. Various part supplier facilities will restart even sooner. »
May 08, 2020 /
For decades, prisoners in American correctional facilities have worked for no wages or mere pennies an hour. As the United States attempts to reduce transmission of COVID-19, more than a dozen states are now relying on this captive labor force to manufacture personal protective equipment badly needed by health care workers and other frontline responders. »
May 07, 2020 /
May 06, 2020 /
Early general quarantine in Argentina has succeeded in stopping the massive spread of COVID-19. Alberto Fernandez’s government decreed a national quarantine on March 20 when the total number of COVID-19 cases in Argentina hadn’t reached 100. Today the number of cases has not reached 5,000 and the spread appears to be controlled. »
May 05, 2020 /
By January 2020 I was feeling disenchanted with my union. As proud as I was of my colleagues and fellow members, I believed that we had a top-down organization.
I knew we could do better but I didn’t know how to begin. »
May 04, 2020 /
Unionized faculty and staff at the Vermont state colleges are in a fight to defend their jobs and schools, which teach working class students mainly from rural parts of the state. Last month Chancellor Jeb Spaulding announced the immediate, permanent closure of three of the six state colleges. »