Upcoming Events 🗓
EWOC’s Workplace Organizer Training Series is back again! The first semester of 2022 will begin March 9.
In four discussion sessions over two weeks, you will be introduced to the fundamental principles of effective shop-floor organizing: mapping and charting, leader identification, bringing co-workers together around common concerns, getting over fear, taking action, and escalating demands. Register for the training series today!
Earlier this month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics published its annual report on union membership in the United States. The report was discouraging, even if somewhat expected. Union membership is down to just 10.3%, offsetting the small increase we saw in 2020 and returning rates to where they were in 2019. The slow decline of union membership that we’ve seen over the last several decades continues.
Public opinion however, tells a different story. Right now about 70% of Americans approve of labor unions, the highest rating since 1965. Half of all nonunion workers say they would join a union if they could. The decline in labor power not because workers don’t want a union. It is because of how hard capital has fought their ability to have one.
This is the challenge that we’re facing. We have been beaten back by a long and powerful campaign of anti-union actions, and we need to turn the tide in our favor. We need to strengthen our existing unions and organize the unorganized so that we can build real working-class power. It’s going to be long and hard work, but always remember: we have the people on our side.
This is the time to do it. In the last few weeks, 116 workers at REI in New York have filed to unionize with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW). The workers, with some support from EWOC, have been organizing for safer working conditions since the early days of the pandemic. Although they have asked for the company to voluntarily recognize their union, management has already started a union-busting campaign.
And today is the first day of bargaining at Elmwood and Genesee Starbucks stores in Buffalo! Standing in solidarity on this historic day, 16 stores have filed for election all across the country in one day. Solidarity with Starbucks Workers United as the flame continues to grow.
Every worker everywhere deserves a union, and EWOC is here to offer support for exactly that. Reach out to us to be connected to an organizer and get support to win better working conditions for you and your coworkers.
World of Work 🌍
DC: A bizarre incident unfolded last week on Twitter when the account for Washington D.C.’s Democratic Party posted a tweet promoting a slate of candidates for leadership of Chicago Teachers Union, one that was critical of the recent action taken by CTU to keep their students safe from COVID. The party later put out a statement identifying communications director Josh Brown as the one who posted the tweet and promising an “investigation” into Brown and his firm’s history of anti-union work. Whether anything will come of this investigation remains to be seen.
CO: Progressives are celebrating after unionized workers at Denver-area King Soopers grocery stores approved a new three-year contract on Monday following a 10-day strike by more than 8,000 low-wage employees in Colorado. “Strikes absolutely work,” said Kim Cordova, president of UFCW Local 7, which organized the work stoppage. “It shows the company that they can’t run without workers.”
Solidarity,
Team EWOC
