They join thousands of professional and technical KP employees across the country organizing for a potential strike if contract negotiations continue to stall. Just this past Saturday, Oct. 30, thousands of Kaiser employees rallied and marched in Pasadena calling on Kaiser to “come to its senses.”
Pharmacy employees, who are members of six UFCW locals in Southern California, are holding strike preparation assemblies this week including picket captain and member meetings to discuss plans for a potential strike.
UFCW locals are members of the Alliance of Healthcare Unions, a coalition of 21 labor organizations with over 50,000 Kaiser Permanente employees.
On Oct. 20th, an overwhelming majority, 96% of UFCW Kaiser Permanente employees in Southern California, authorized a strike should the healthcare giant fail to reasonably address the workers’ demands.
“Kaiser has called us heroes and now they are wanting to give us contract offers that are ridiculous. In this economy that we are in today, getting a 1% increase per year for the next three years is unsustainable – in California or anywhere else Kaiser employees live and work.” says Teresa Almora-Sorosjinda, a Pharmacy Assistant at Kaiser Permanente-Antelope Valley.
Fast food workers at stores throughout California plan to leave work on Nov. 9 and demonstrate in front of McDonald’s locations in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Jose, Oakland and Sacramento.
The protest is an effort to expand legal liability beyond individual franchisees to their corporate franchisors and protesting health and safety conditions in the workplace.
The protests are aimed at pressuring state legislators to support proposed AB 257.
The bill would hold fast food corporations accountable to ensure their franchisees comply with a variety of employment and public health and safety orders, including those related to unfair business practices, employment discrimination.
The bill would make violations of labor laws by franchisees equally enforceable against the franchisor.
There are approximately 76,000 franchise establishments in California with a total of 728,900 jobs.
Low-wage workers, who have experienced decades of stagnant or declining wages and benefits, are fed up.
Franchises have also long hampered collective bargaining in the fast-food industry.
New York City taxi drivers entered their second week of hunger striking Oct. 28 outside City Hall to demand that the mayor grant debt relief for thousands of drivers impacted by the taxi medallion price crash. Many drivers purchased taxi medallions, the permits required to drive a taxi, for upwards of $1 million.
After the incursion of ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft, as well as more recent plummeting demand for taxis due to the pandemic, they are now only worth about $100,000. Faced with massive debt and financial ruin, at least nine drivers have died by suicide. So, the medallion, for decades, has been worth between $130,000 to $200,000. The medallion system is the licensing by which cabs are allowed to pick up passengers from across the five boroughs. And this was created in the early 20th century.
Taxi driver Augustine Tang, who has been on hunger strike for six days and personally knew one of the drivers who committed suicide, told Democracy Now that he is striking for medallion owners who “went into financial ruin” and saw that “there was no way out.”
“Well, I’ve been on hunger strike before the 6,000 families that has been affected by this medallion crisis. These men and women have invested in the city and drove 20, 30, 40 years of their lives, just to have their retirement taken away from them and also having – about to lose their homes and their jobs, as well, too.”
Zohran Mamdani, a New York State assemblymember who joined drivers in the hunger strike said, “It’s important for us as legislators to bring to light what it is that people are suffering from out of view of those in the political elite.”
After worker walkouts and protests denouncing low pay, staff shortages and workplace abuse, the Chicago, tortilla manufacturer El Milagro is ending its seven-day workweek giving employees Sundays off starting next month.
The people and workers of Puerto Rico are suffering the consequences of the privatization of the electricity system, which was handed over to a new company, LUMA Energy, a subsidiary of Houston-based Quanta Services and Canadian firm ATCO.
UTIER—the Puerto Rico Electric and Irrigation Industry Workers Union—has been fighting for months against the disastrous contract that the Puerto Rican government signed with LUMA to operate the grid for15 years.
Privatization has dismembered the electrical system’s workforce in a transparent attempt to break up the union.
LUMA was not required to hire employees of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority—the public company whose assets were privatized. Nor did LUMA comply with the existing collective agreements between PREPA and its unions. Instead, LUMA offered reduced benefits and job protections, so many skilled workers did not apply…leaving less trained and skilled workers and management to try and run the operation
Parents, children, students, and teachers at Trinity Elementary in South Central Los Angeles vehemently rejected the possible closure of the campus in a protest October 28. Protesters said they have already collected more than 3,000 signatures supporting their effort.
With “Save Trinity” banners; “Mónica García, ashamed of you”, “Mónica García, don’t ignore us”, “Save my school, this way you save my future”, or “Hypocrites, stop selling our schools”, the protesters denounced the probable negative effects of the closure of the educational institution.
LAUSD Central Local District superintendent, Frances Báez announced the forthcoming closing June 24. About 230 students will be affected. “I have come “to the difficult, but necessary conclusion that continuing to operate [Trinity] at current enrollment levels will not allow us to provide the quality services, supports and resources that our students and staff deserve.” “It is a lie, because in five years we have only had five fewer students,” teachers retorted.
Despite the fact that 98% of the families at Trinity Elementary are mostly Spanish-speaking, the little information they have received has been only in English.
“There is no benefit to students, parents, and teachers in closing a school that has served its community for more than 117 years. There is no benefit in displacing hundreds of students from the school they love and in which they feel safe, “Cecily-Myart Cruz, president of the Union of Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA), told La Opinion.
“There is no benefit in separating students from teachers who supported them during distance learning and are now supporting them in their return to in-person learning.” The LAUSD school district plans to turn over the building to a charter school, which is not required to admit any of the students currently attending Trinity.
Photo by Mark Satinoff
Led by Chris Smalls, fired by amazon in NYC for efforts to protect co-workers from pandemic, Amazon warehouse workers filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to hold a union election. It’s the second time this year Amazon workers attempted to form the company’s first-ever U.S. union. The Bessemer, Alabama organizing effort fell short due to company harassment of workers, illegal interventions.
“That’s it,” Smalls said. “Yeah, we did it. It’s officially done. Notice to employees will be sent out in a matter of a week. Everybody in their facilities will be notified that the petition has been filed.” Smalls was met by cheers after filing the petition with the NLRB.
The multicity amicus brief lays out the arguments for why the federalization of the National…
Over the last 50 years, the state’s clean air efforts have saved $250 billion in…
Unified command agencies have dispatched numerous vessels and aircraft to assess the situation and provide…
Since February 2022, Ethikli Sustainable Market has made it easy to buy vegan, ethically sourced,…
John Horton was murdered in Men’s Central Jail in 2009 at the age of 22—one…
The demand for this program has far outstripped available funds, further underlining the significance of…
