Upcoming Events 🗓
The eighth series of the Workplace Organizer Training Series, starts this Wednesday, August 10! In 90-minute sessions over four weeks, we will discuss the problems that workers are facing and how you can come together with your co-workers to address them. Learn some fundamental skills to help defend yourself and your co-workers from unjust working conditions! There’s still time to sign up. Register today!
Millions of workers want a union. The evidence is everywhere. Public opinion of labor unions is at its highest point since 1965. Organized labor is one of the only major US institutions that people still trust. Nearly half of American workers say they would join a union if they could.
And thanks to bold and sustained labor activity, many workers who wanted a union now have one. The organizing wave has reached workplaces which previously had no history of unionization, including Amazon, Starbucks, Apple, and Trader Joe’s, among others. More and more, workers are bringing the union to their own workplaces.
But if you want to form a union with your coworkers, how do you get started? EWOC’s Workplace Organizer Training Series offers an answer. The training series covers the fundamentals of shop floor organizing, from analyzing the workplace and bringing your co-workers together to taking action and going public. The training series has already provided thousands of workers with the skills to build a democratic organization that can take on the boss and win.
The training series returns this Wednesday, August 10, and will continue through August 31! Each of the four trainings in the series runs 90 minutes and begins at 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT). Sign up and start taking steps to come together with your co-workers and change your workplace.
World of Work 🌍
FL: Musicians at The Florida Orchestra (TFO) took a temporary pay cut during the first year of the pandemic. But now, unionized musicians have ratified a new contract with TFO that delivers a 12% raise over three years, as well as an extended orchestra season.
CA: A caravan of fast-food workers drove to the Orange County offices of state senators Dave Min and Josh Newman to demand they support AB 257, a bill workers say will give them a seat at the table when it comes to setting standards for conditions like store safety and pay.
CO: On Aug. 1, Meow Wolf Convergence Station, the Denver outpost of the popular immersive art company, formally recognized the Meow Wolf Workers Collective (MWWC).
MA: Starbucks Workers United partners in Brookline are on an unfair labor practice strike for the 22nd consecutive day.
LA, MS, VA: Hundreds of federally contracted call center workers across three states went on strike to demand better wages, affordable health insurance, and fair bathroom break and COVID-19 absence policies.
Week in Labor History 📚
August 7, 1988: The Writers Guild of America (WGA) ended its strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The strike began in March over residual payments and creative rights for writers. The compromise agreement gave writers a modest increase for hour-long shows and expanded creative rights. At 22 weeks, the strike remains the longest in WGA’s history, beating the later 2007–2008 strike by seven weeks and the earlier 1965 strike by just one week.
Solidarity,
Team EWOC
