Posts Tagged ‘Organized Labor’
Seize the Beans!
Raise Your Voice Seize the Beans! By Peter Molenaar On August 1, 2022, a two-day strike commenced at the corner of Cedar Avenue and 47th Street. Starbucks workers had coalesced in their newly formed union, Starbucks Workers United (SBWU, SEIU) to demand negotiations. Here is a taste of their colorful pickets: Seize the Beans of Production! LIVING WAGE NATION NOW! and Union Coffee Tastes Better!. “This strike is a warning”, said strike captain Ethan Tinklenberg, “it sends a signal to management that we are capable of doing this.” We are told that management has systematically cut workers hours, changed opening and closing times, and has in recent memory, fired workers for resisting. Tinklenberg added: ”We are sick of management doing illegal things.” Indeed, Starbucks founder and on-again/off-again CEO Howard Shultz has a history of anti-union behavior. Naturally, this fact found its reflection [...]
Nurses Putting Patients Before Profits
Pickets ready to strike from the 2010 Nurses Strike / Photo from facebook.com/MinnesotaNurses Minnesota Nurses Association Authorizes Strike By HARRY, RN, MNA Union Steward On August 15th, the nurses of Minnesota’s union hospitals voted to authorize a strike. Here’s why: The world recognized the COVID pandemic as a war, the biggest global health crisis since the Black Plague. Healthcare workers, nurses in particular, were fighting on the front lines. But despite surviving this horror, and despite the hospitals sometimes lauding us, nurses were not given a hero’s parade. We got no GI Bill or significant wage increase for being battle-hardened survivors. Instead, we continue to face unprecedented workplace violence and a choice by hospitals to choose profits over patients. The Minnesota Nurses Association has been negotiating new contracts for nurses, the first new contracts since the pandemic. The hospitals that employ us, including Abbott Northwestern and [...]
Random alley News July ’22
SEIU mental health workers and allies on the picketline in front of Abbott Northwestern Hospital for a one-day strike on May 24, 2022 Credit- SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa Nurses at Abbott Northwestern Hospital and other metro-area hospitals held informational pickets on June 1. / Minnesota Nurses Association Written or compiled by LINDSEY FENNER 100 Percent of Cristo Rey’s Graduating Class of 2022 Accepted Into College: For the twelfth year in a row, the Jesuit High School in Phillips West will be sending all of its seniors to college. The private Roman Catholic school, which was established in 2007, is part of the “Cristo Rey Network” of 38 schools around the US that prepare low-income students of color for post-secondary education. Congratulations graduates! Minimum Wage Increases July 1 in Minneapolis: On July 1, 2022, the minimum wage in Minneapolis is going up to $13.50 at small businesses and $15 at large businesses. The Minneapolis minimum wage [...]
