Upcoming Events 🗓
What are the real reasons behind the so-called “labor shortage,” and how can workers take advantage of this singular moment to create better, fairer jobs? Join EWOC on Tuesday, Oct. 19 at 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT) for a free panel event featuring some of the labor movement’s most exciting voices: Hadas Thier, activist, journalist, and author of “A People’s Guide to Capitalism: An Introduction to Marxist Economics,” Emilio Enriquez, organizer with the Restaurant Organizing Project, and Rebecca Garelli, teacher and organizer with Arizona Educators United (AEU), who will lead a discussion exploring the underlying forces that are causing labor to react so forcefully in this moment.
Tomorrow, October 12, is the last day of the EWOC Sustaining Donor campaign — and we need your help!
EWOC was started in March 2020 to help workers organize during the pandemic. It’s a unique organization that trains and supports volunteers, to in turn support workers organizing their workplaces. In the last 18 months, we have supported nearly 750 workers taking action with their coworkers, and we have helped launch over 50 successful workplace campaigns. These have occurred across industries, workplace types, and states. The demands have varied, but there is a common outcome for these campaigns: workers improved their workplaces by taking collective action with their coworkers.
The number of successful workplace campaigns isn’t our only metric for success. We believe that every worker given the experience of trying to organize their workplace carries those lessons with them. Equipping workers with the tools they need to improve their workplaces, and restore dignity to their work, is an important part of our mission. Each worker who leaves us with these tools represents opportunity, and for us, success. Whether a campaign wins or loses, it takes hundreds of volunteer hours and dozens of hours of support from our two organizing staff members.
It costs money to run an organization, even one that’s people powered. EWOC runs on a shoestring budget of just $150,000. This covers our staff, technology, training, organizing, and program administration costs. EWOC is currently 100% funded by small-dollar, grassroots supporters, but our current costs are outpacing our fundraising.
We need to grow this base to sustain the project throughout 2021 and into 2022. Sustaining donors can help us plan the funds we’ll have available, and to build a long-lasting, unique, and people-powered organization. If you can, please become a sustaining donor — and ask a friend, too!
Opportunities 📝
The United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE) are looking for a project organizer to work on campaigns in higher education.
World of Work 🌍: Striketober Edition! 🎃
US: IATSE members in film and TV production have authorized a strike by a stunning 98% margin, meaning that at any moment, over 60,000 entertainment workers could be walking off their jobs. If the strike goes ahead, it would be the largest collective labor action in Hollywood since World War II, and would halt production on a huge number of popular shows. IASTE members are asking for humane breaks, time off on weekends, and a higher minimum wage in a notoriously grueling industry that frequently has crew members working 16- and 17-hour days.
US: Over 1,400 Kellogg’s workers in four states went on strike last week, represented by the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM), the union behind the recent successful Frito-Lay and Nabisco strikes. Workers are fighting against the expansion of a two-tier system that subjects new employees to significantly lower wages and higher healthcare costs, eroding the middle-class lifestyle afforded to legacy employees of the company.
US: Over 52,000 registered nurses and healthcare professionals could go on strike in the coming weeks. Over the weekend, the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP) held a strike authorization vote after failing to reach an agreement with Kaiser Permanente, the healthcare giant that owns several California and Oregon hospitals.
KY: The Heaven Hill distillery workers’ strike is entering its fifth week, as members of UFCW Local 23D urge the company to return to the table with a fair contract. Employees of this $500 million bourbon distillery are protesting compulsory weekend work, cuts to overtime pay, and unpredictable scheduling.
WA: The Northwest Carpenters Union strike has been on pause since last Wednesday, as union members vote on a possible new contract. The three-week strike comprises over 2,000 carpenters in the Seattle area who are demanding higher pay amidst skyrocketing living costs in the region.
New From Our Blog 🗣
Millions of workers are quitting their jobs in frustration, but this is a missed opportunity to create lasting change. EWOC’s Eric Dirnbach makes the case for organizing to improve these jobs instead.
After decades of stagnant wages and declining benefits and protections, we’ve reached a historic moment in which workers have real leverage over employers. Now is the time to use it.
Solidarity,
Team EWOC
