Pulsing with Life: 2024 Labor Notes Conference
Video Links
Scroll down for embedded videos. Thanks to Act.tv and More Perfect Union for their work to livestream and circulate these sessions!
North Pole Elves Win Big with Escalating Strike
NEW: Listen to a wonderful radio version of this story (including additional quotes from Vixen), created by the good folks of Labor Radio on WORT in Madison, Wisconsin.
“Yes, Virginia, there is a S.A.N.T.A. clause!” shouted Elves, Reindeer, and Candy Stripers Local 1224 President Cindy Lou Who to whoops and cheers as North Pole workers celebrated their new contract, ending a two-month strike.
U.S. Unions Call for Ceasefire in Gaza
While many union members and other workers are worried and horrified at the mounting war in Israel and occupied Palestine, U.S. unions so far have mostly remained silent.
Record-Setting Strike Moves Kaiser the Old-Fashioned Way
Seventy-five thousand Kaiser Permanente health care workers struck October 4-6 in what was billed as the biggest health care strike in U.S. history.
It was also the first strike in decades by the SEIU-led Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, the longtime standard-bearer for labor-management partnership. That partnership has frayed to the point of unraveling—though not for lack of interest on the union side. It’s Kaiser that has gotten mean.
Lessons from Lively Picket Lines
The heat was scorching in Louisville, Kentucky, last Thursday. But what the windless day lacked in gusts, it made up in guts.
The union-made placards read: “United for a Strong Contract.” That resonated with auto workers at Ford who hadn’t been part of a contract rally for as long as anyone can remember.
And the picket line came alive when they broke away from the tedious repetition of “Who’s got the power? We’ve got the power!” and used their own chants.
Teamsters and Auto Workers Are Raising the Bar for Contract Campaigns
With reformers at the helm, the Teamsters and the Auto Workers (UAW) are raising the bar for contract campaigns.
At Labor Notes we often hear from frustrated members of unions that have nothing like a contract campaign—members play no role in setting the agenda or building the momentum to win. Union leaders agree not to “bargain in the press,” squandering any chance to attract public sympathy. Sometimes the rank and file doesn’t even hear what’s going on until a deal is done.