Union Perspectives

This is the best time in the last fifty years for the union people to get better contracts and for the nonunion workers to get their first union contracts. The stars have alined in the workers’ favor with unemployment at its lowest and lots of jobs not being filled. There are lots of jobs not being filled. There are lots of low-end jobs out there ready to be filled so now is the time for the $15 to $24 hour wage to be established. If employees don’t receive this then they should strike like the food workers—essential workers—at Ralph’s, Albertsons, Vons, and Pavilions. The owners offered employees a 60 cent per hour increase. The workers want $5 per hour. This walk out would be grocery clerks, meat cutters, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. They are represented by seven locals of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union with 47,000 workers in all. Albertsons owns Safeway, which became unionized beginning in 1935. Despite Albertsons making better-than-expected qua...

Workers here in the U.S. and around the world have had enough of low pay, bad working conditions, bad healthcare and not enough working hours or too many with no overtime pay. Employers forcing employees to work faster create a safety issue, like what occurs at the Amazon warehouses, which employees report accidents, such as getting shocked by touching metal railings, and even deaths occurring. In Chile, there are 1,700 workers are on strike at Walmart due to low wages and job safety issues from forced to work faster and job cuts. This strike has closed 130 stores. In California, the grocery outlets of Albertsons, Ralphs, Vons and Pavilions, workers are rallying for higher wages and more hours. The local union is United Food and Commercial Workers, one worker said when they asked for more hours, their hours were reduced. “We are not even making minimum wage,” the person said. The London Train Cleaners joined a 48-hour work stoppage over the accelerated shift schedules and pay cuts. ...