Troublemakers Blog

Workplace Safety Is Not a Game

Flipcharts on the wall list workplace hazards including combustible dust and bloodborne pathogens
August 22, 2024 / United Electrical Workers Education Department
Employer-sponsored “safety games” or “safety contests” may seem benign on the surface, but there’s a deadly motive. Employers are rediscovering an old scheme to con workers into undermining their own job safety. These games are designed to reward employees for not reporting accidents. »

Grocery Teamster Gets Job Back, Prepares to Organize for More

In a bright sunny room, a man in a black polo shirt and jeans stands on the left, speaking into mic, while about 30 people seated in chairs on the right listen. Most or all appear Latino/a.
August 14, 2024 / Luis Feliz Leon
Sixteen months after his illegal firing, Juan Vargas walked into work in June to cheers and pats on the back from his co-workers at the Anthony Marano Company, a major produce distributor in the Chicago area. He won full back pay. »

Secrets of a Successful Organizer Now Available in Seven Languages

Book covers for six translations of Secrets of a Successful Organizer, in various colors, most featuring the bullseye logo. The Spanish tenants one instead shows two hands joined by the pinkies. A graphic from inside that book shows the "bullseye" diagram adapted to an onion, with the core group in the center, activists and supporters in layers of the onion, distant people outside the onion, and hostiles represented as a knife cutting the onion.
August 13, 2024 / Dan DiMaggio
We are happy to report that Secrets of a Successful Organizer has now been translated into seven languages: Spanish, Japanese, German, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Swedish, and, most recently, Danish and Quebecois French. »

New Mexico Teachers Organize Rainbow Contingent in Pride Parade

Several people work around a table adding colorful paints to a banner. Photo: ATF
August 06, 2024 / Sarah Hughes
Jamie Shelton can’t prove that someone shot out her windshield because of her eighth-grade Queer History curriculum a few years ago, but she has a hunch. The father of one of her students had been so irate about the material that he threatened to beat her up, and co-workers started walking her to her car. »

Leadership in AFSCME DC 37 is Stifling Rank and File Engagement, Members Say

A crowd of 40 in green holds yellow and green signs saying “Fair Pay Now” and “Contract Now”
July 31, 2024 / Duncan Freeman
(Reprinted from The Chief.) Members of District Council 37's Local 3005 in New York City say that attempts to mobilize their coworkers over the last two years have been stonewalled and met with apathy by union leadership. »

Reform Caucus Wins Amazon Labor Union Officer Elections

A group of workers, diverse in race and gender, poses together on the factory floor. Most appear young; one wears a prosthetic arm. A few have fists raised and most smile or wear determined expressions. Most wear shorts and some wear blue work vests.
July 30, 2024 / Luis Feliz Leon
Amazon workers at the JFK8 fulfillment center on Staten Island, New York, voted to elect reform officers in the first-ever leadership election. »

Letter Carriers Convention Shapes Up to Be Open Bargaining Showdown

Letter carriers stand outdoors in the rain, rallying, listening to a speaker with a mic. Printed picket signs say "We deliver--how about a fair contract?" "End closed bargaining" "Harder work deserves a fair contract" and "Fair contract now."
July 29, 2024 / Tim Bash
City letter carriers have been working without a contract for more than 400 days, and leaders of the Letter Carriers (NALC) still refuse to provide any substantive updates from bargaining. As rank-and-file anger boils over, a new group called Build a Fighting NALC (BFN) is building momentum to demand a stronger and more transparent contract fight next time. »

Unions Representing Six Million Workers Demand an End to All U.S. Military Aid to Israel

A chanting crowd stands in front of the White House fence. Three people are helping hold a large cardboard sign that says "UE stands with Palestine" with the union's lightning-bolt logo and a slice of watermelon. Other printed signs say "American Postal Workers Union: Fighting for Justice" and "Biden, you are starving Gaza. Permanent ceasefire now!"
July 23, 2024 / Luis Feliz Leon
Seven national unions representing 6 million workers in the United States called on President Joe Biden today to end all military aid to Israel. The news came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a wanted war criminal, came to Washington to »

Militant Health Care Union Leader Sal Rosselli Retires

Inset photo of Sal Rosselli, a white man in red NUHW scrubs, speaking on a mic at a rally. Behind this, a black-and-white photo of a racially diverse, mostly female group of NUHW workers pose on strike. Most carry printed picket signs with messages like "Patients before profits" and "Kaiser, don't deny my patients [the rest is obscured]." One woman carries a large handpainted sign with a fist logo and the words "Huelga de NUHW," Spanish for NUHW strike.
July 23, 2024 / Cal Winslow
I get a kick watching Sal Rosselli at Labor Notes, always meeting, talking, on a panel, on the move, working, full of energy, out of the limelight, but known by many, health care workers especially. Sal talking about organizing hospitals, including, I suspect, his dream of a national “industrial” health care workers union. »

Viewpoint: I’m a Teamster Against Trump

Warmly dressed people march with LIUNA and IBEW union signs opposing "Right to work for less" in Wisconsin.
July 18, 2024 / Dan Campbell
I worked hard to elect Sean O’Brien. He is the right president for the Teamsters union. Donald Trump is the wrong president for my country—and I will work like hell to defeat him. »

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