Dear friends,
Happy Friday! It has certainly been a challenging week here on earth. Hopefully, you are looking ahead to a three-day weekend.
Today’s post is dedicated to the workers and organizers who continue the struggle for fair compensation, dignity, and humanity in the workplace.
Mondelez International, which owns Nabisco, is pushing to cut overtime pay (time-and-a-half) and Sunday pay (double), which would cost some workers as much as $10,000 per year. At the same time, the company wants to introduce a lesser tier of health coverage for newer employees.
April Flowers-Lewis, one of the workers on strike in Chicago, explained why she and her co-workers joined the strike:
They don’t care about our safety or health. During the pandemic, we were forced into sixteen hours every day — everybody was, every day. Our regular hours are forty a week, but you might end up doing eighty a week. During the pandemic, every day was sixteen hours.
The workers want Mondelez to restore their pensions, which were replaced by a 401(k) plan in 2018.
Two US factories — one in Georgia and one in New Jersey — were closed earlier this year, and workers fear that the company plans to continue to close other sites to shift production to Mexico.
Mondelez International’s net income climbed 98% in the quarter ended in June to $1.1 billion, while sales climbed 12.4% to $6.6 billion, compared to the same time a year ago.
Support striking workers: Forgo Oreos! Other Nabisco products are Chips Ahoy!, Ritz crackers, Teddy Grahams, Triscuits, Fig Newtons, and Wheat Thins.
Starbucks workers are organizing, shop by shop!
Last week, an organizing committee of nearly 50 Buffalo-area Starbucks workers, under the banner of “Starbucks Workers United” (who are organizing with the union Workers United), released a letter announcing their intention to unionize, and calling on the company to embrace “Fair Election Principles” that forswear common union-busting techniques.
There are 20 Starbucks in Buffalo and the organizing committee of Starbucks Workers United are employed in all but two of the shops. India Walton, who won the Democratic mayoral primary in an upset, is supporting the effort, which is not surprising, since she is a democratic socialist.
“We vigorously support the rights of all workers to organize for good pay, good work conditions, and respect on the job. Two years ago, the baristas at Buffalo’s own SPoT Coffee organized for union protections, and we hope the Starbucks baristas will enjoy those same protections soon. Buffalo has a strong history of union organizing, and growing unions will be a vital component of building the safe, healthy city our communities deserve.”
Still, this is not the first effort to organize workers at Starbucks. Organizers anticipate that the company will follow the corporate playbook to discredit the union and intimidate workers, especially once union elections are underway.
The PRO Act is an important piece of federal legislation that will protect the right to organize, penalize employers that violate workers’ rights, and eliminate the exceptions that prevent some workers from joining unions when they are misclassified as managers or independent contractors. This bill has already passed the House of Representatives.
Contact your Senators to pass the PRO Act.
Teamsters are popping up in city halls around the country, joining forces with community groups as they seek to persuade local officials to ask more of the tech giant or reject its expansion plans outright. They are training members at logistics companies on how to talk to Amazon drivers about the benefits of unionizing. In New York, the Teamsters weighed in on an antitrust bill passed by the state senate that would make it easier for regulators to pursue companies for anticompetitive conduct, and they have also backed antitrust bills in the U.S. House of Representatives.
If unions are what we call workers acting collectively, Amazonians United is certainly a union, but it’s not filing for National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) elections. Its focus is waging fights on the shop floor and building up strength there while coordinating across warehouses.
The AU is organizing against the company’s newest form of treachery: a shift that begins at 1:20 AM and ends at 11:50 AM.
A lot of workers were pissed, especially women coworkers, because this change was effectively a sexist mass firing of workers — in a patriarchal society, a lot of the childcare and eldercare falls on women, especially in this country, and that schedule means you can’t be with your kids in the morning.
The shift, which is called a megacycle, facilitates next-day delivery even when people order by midnight. Thus far, the workers have fought successfully for a slight pay increase, but they are still demanding transportation benefits and scheduling accommodations.
Learn more about Amazonians United and become a solidarity volunteer.
All of this comes down to care. Unlike many low-wage workers, who earn a $15 minimum wage in NYC, care workers average around $12 per hour and frequently work 12-hour shifts.
Caregivers are essential workers who make it possible for people with disabilities and older adults who need assistance to remain in their homes and communities.
Please watch the PSA from Caring Majority and sign the petition to convince NYS leadership to bring home care workers' wages to 150% of minimum wage.
One of the new initiatives in the Caring Majority’s campaign is to create rapid response teams that will show up wherever legislators and the governor are to get them on the record in support of a living wage for essential home care workers.
Some savvy folks captured soon-to-be Lieutenant Governor Brian Benjamin’s statement on Fair Pay for Home Care.
If you’re on Twitter, please retweet Brian Benjamin’s statement and call on him to encourage Governor Hochul to lead on on Fair Pay for Home Care.
Sign up to join a Caring Majority rapid response squad to engage key decision-makers. Training and support will be provided to you if you join a squad!
In solidarity with workers and unionists everywhere, I’m taking Labor Day off. I’ll be back on Tuesday.
Have a great weekend!
with love,
L