Jenny Carson profiles some of the dynamic early leaders of the New York laundry workers union uprising of the 1930s, and how their fight for a democratic union met resistance from a notable CIO union, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers. It is a window into her longer treatment in A Matter of Moral Justice, published by University of Illinois Press –editor
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John Logan updates us on the spunky Starbucks workers campaign against the Goliath of union avoidance, asks what the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is doing or could do to help, including his perspective on how this fits into the long history of the National Labor Relations Act and union-busting tactics.
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It has been an exciting weekend for the North American labor movement with the Amazon Labor Union victory taking centre stage – adding to the victories of recent precarious service-sector workers who have organized against other corporate behemoths like Starbucks.
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In the past twenty years, I have been told time and again about how it is nearly impossible to organize Amazon, Starbucks, Wal-Mart and so many other leading workplaces until we get the Pro-Act, card-check (various government laws to make unionization easier to attain.)
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Karen Sieber tells us of the effort to honor the memory of slain union organizer Ella May Wiggins and the struggle for power by textile workers in the South.
The city of Gastonia, North Carolina, has grappled with how to remember the Loray Mill Strike of 1929 for decades.
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Editor: On March 25, 2023 a new memorial will be placed at the site where 123 women and 23 men garment workers, mostly recent immigrants, died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. Mary Anne Trasciatti tells of the long road to bring this memorial to New York City.
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At the 2022 Oscars, Guillermo del Toro’s remake of Nightmare Alley could win four awards for its portrayal of life in a Great Depression-era carnival. The story follows Stan, played by Bradley Cooper, as he moves between stages and jobs in the traveling entertainment industry.
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“Freedom” is a fickle force, especially when it is expressed in the guise of aggressive flag-waving nationalism. Recent convoys in Canada and the U.S. have claimed the word to define themselves as they descended on their nation’s capital cities in recent weeks.
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Kaisha Esty’s marvelous essay “‘I Told Him to Let Me Alone, That He Hurt Me’: Black Women and Girls and the Battle Over Labor and Sexual Consent in Union-Occupied Territory” is available for free download from Duke University Press until May 31.
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Since winning two NLRB elections at Buffalo stores last December, the remarkable Starbucks Workers United union campaign has now spread to well over 100 stores in over 26 states. In response, Starbucks management has bombarded baristas with anti-union text messages, forced them to attend “captive audience meetings,” threatened to close unionized stores and tried to drive out activists at unionized stores in Buffalo, New York, attempted to pack bargaining units with newly-hired employees and limited their contact with pro-union workers, and allegedly fired union several union activists at stores in Memphis and elsewhere.
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