Upcoming Events 🗓
Solidarity is brewing! Starbucks workers around the country are organizing with Starbucks Workers United (SBWU), and DSA members are here to support them! Come Sunday, March 27, at 6 p.m. ET, to hear about the fight workers are facing from SBWU speakers, celebrity special guests, and your new Democratic Socialist Labor Commission steering committee, and how you can help them win. Register for the event here!
The Labor Notes Conference is the largest gathering of union troublemakers around, and EWOC wants you to be a part of it. Let us know if you’re planning to attend by filling out this form. The conference is June 17–19, 2022, in Chicago. The Labor Notes conference is a great opportunity to build relationships with other rank and file labor activists and unions and attend educational and informative panels. We’re looking forward to seeing you there!
Last week, EWOC celebrated its second birthday! On March 17, 2020, the first worker filled out our “Get Support” form. We’ve come far since then — more than 3,000 workers have reached out to us, and we’ve supported workers to win numerous demands, from pay increases, to extra personal protective equipment and even formal union recognition.
We’ve supported concrete campaign wins in over 60 workplaces representing thousands of workers. Over 1,300 people have volunteered with us. We’re currently talking to workers in 80 workplaces and building active campaigns in nearly 40.
EWOC is proud of the role we’ve played in getting workers the support they need and the dignity they deserve. And we want to thank you. Whether you’ve attended a training, talked to an organizer, volunteered on a campaign, you’ve helped us to build our project. EWOC gets its strength from the everyday workers who commit to building real power in their workplace — and we want to share that vision as much as possible. Here’s to another year of fighting the boss.
World of Work 🌍
US: Cafeteria staff make learning and healthy development possible by providing balanced meals to kids who otherwise might not get them. In return, they bring home some of the lowest earnings of the generally underpaid K–12 workforce.
PA: 911 dispatchers with SEIU Local 668 in Allegheny County have authorized a one-day strike for St. Patrick’s Day as the county refuses to address staffing issues that lead to long shifts and mandatory overtime.
CT: A major fight is unfolding over whether Connecticut will become the second state with a law outlawing “captive audience” meetings, one of the weapons unions say is regularly deployed to thwart organizing campaigns at a time of worker unrest and union popularity.
NY: Graduate student workers at Fordham University in the Bronx are organizing with CWA, in what would be CWA’s first private university grad worker unit, in addition to represent grad workers across the State University of New York system, and their network of United Campus Workers minority unions at public universities across the South and Southwest.
New From Our Blog 📧
What kinds of organizing actions are protected at the workplace? Is it legal to be written up for talking to a coworker about how much you make or for circulating a petition to fight for better working conditions? That’s actually a violation of your rights under the National Labor Relations Act. To learn more, read EWOC volunteer and organizer Natalie Robbins’ piece, “What are my rights as a worker?”
Week in Labor History 📚
March 17, 1968: In the 1960’s, San Francisco was a center of the youth counterculture. The civil rights movement, the Black Power movement, the Red Power movement, the feminist movement, and LGBTQ movement had all been challenging the dominance of the governing political elite. During this time, staffers at San Francisco progressive rock station KMPX-FM struck, citing corporate control over what music is played and harassment over hair and clothing styles, among other things. The Rolling Stones, Joan Baez, Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, and other musicians demand that the station not play their music as long as the station is run by strikebreakers.
Solidarity,
Team EWOC
