When Jonah Furman was doing his newsletter – Who Gets the Bird – we loved getting updates about the US Labor Movement right in our inbox. Our project won’t be as ambitious – we’re just wanting to capture everything workers are doing in the South – but we hope you’ll enjoy it nevertheless! Please do…
Articles
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Illegal activities of Southern Bosses for the week ending on Friday, August 11 | BOSS WATCH
We’ve had a great reaction to our most recent recurring segment on The Valley Labor Report, so we’re going to be sending this out as a newsletter every week. It’s important that people understand how often bosses break the law – with working people as their victims – because of how skewed our media structure…
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Lessons from the longest strike in Starbucks Workers United history
The Starbucks union at 874 Commonwealth Avenue, Brookline, Massachusetts, never intended to start the longest strike in Starbucks history. It had seemed like an unlikely place for any unrest. Though the store had unionized last March, it had had a friendly relationship with its manager. Things were good until less than three months later, 874…
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Rank-and-File Teamsters React to State of UPS Contract Negotiations
It’s been an eventful several weeks for both UPS and the Teamsters union as the two entities have been embroiled in a showdown over contract negotiations, with the current contract set to expire by the end of the month, now only a handful of days away. As we reported last week, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien…
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Federal Government Finally Moves to Combat Skyrocketing Black Lung Cases Among Coal Miners
After years of workers, labor activists, journalists, and unions campaigning to raise awareness, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has proposed a federal amendment that would greatly improve overall safety and protections for mineworkers particularly in relation to Black Lung disease, an often fatal affliction that hits miners who have been exposed to respirable…
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Railroad Workers Challenge Union Leadership, Recount Underway
Back in April, The Valley Labor Report hosts Jacob Morrison and Adam Keller had the opportunity to interview two railroad union candidates seeking to challenge the current leadership in an upcoming election; both running for different leadership positions in the International Association of Machinists (IAM) District Lodge 19, which is devoted to the rail workers,…
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Negotiations resume after Teamsters make major announcements on UPS over weekend, only to fall apart again on the deadline
The conflict between UPS Corporate and UPS workers who are members of the Teamsters Union has been in the spotlight for the last few weeks as tensions continued to rise with no relief in sight, ultimately prompting the Teamsters to greenlight the use of a strike in the event that corporate did not come to…
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NLRB Confirms Warrior Met Broke the Law – So What?
The historic nearly two-year coal miner strike that took place in Brookwood, Alabama, between 2021 and 2023 may be in the “rearview mirror,” but the overall fight between the company and its workers is far from over, with Warrior Met engaging in retaliatory actions against targeted workers who were involved in the strike, even after…
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Breaking Down the Aerojet Union Loss in Huntsville
MADISON COUNTY, Alabama — We reported last week that workers at the Aerojet Rocketdyne facility here in Huntsville were gearing up for a union election, with supporters hopeful that they would secure a victory and organize with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW). However, they were met with an unpleasant shock when…
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Why Huntsville Workers Want to Unionize Aerojet Rocketdyne
MADISON COUNTY, Alabama — Workers at the Aerojet Rocketdyne facility in Huntsville, Alabama, have made an important decision to unionize, and after putting in their petition, an election will be held on Wednesday, June 28, during which workers will vote on whether or not to organize. As per the “About Us” on their website, “Aerojet…
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‘Totally unnecessary political theater’: The Debt Limit is unconstitutional
Over this past weekend, President Joe Biden finalized the debt limit deal by signing a bill that suspends the government’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling, avoiding what could have been a historic catastrophe had a default occurred within just two days. The end of this “debt limit showdown” comes after weeks of the Republican Party effectively…
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Debt Limit Charades: Republicans’ “fluff-cutting” will leave hundreds of thousands of American families cut off and helpless
For the last several weeks, the Nation has been fixated on one particular issue that has covered headlines and news tickers and dominated media discussions: the debt limit. Once again, we Americans found ourselves wondering: Is this it? Is America finally about to crash and burn? I think most of us have probably lost count…