Retail is a notoriously difficult industry to unionize; chaotic schedules, high turnover, and a workforce that often sees the job as a temporary stop create clear challenges for organizing. The industry relies on exactly these problems to sow apathy, especially among young workers. Since many are just working here temporarily, it’s easy for them not to care. But with nearly one in five retail workers being under 24, they represent a large demographic that must be won. While conducting unionization campaigns, a main objective needs to make young workers care about the organizing drive.

These young workers often get erratic schedules, poor training, and dismissive feedback. Their youth is taken advantage of by older bosses with false promises of promotions, pressure to accept exploitation, underpaying them for doing higher paid work, and isolating verbal abuse. Unlike older coworkers, who are dependent on the company’s paycheck to pay their mortgages, insurance, and other bills, younger workers lack these economic ties. This creates a policy that seems to emphasize deliberately burning through young comrades, replacing them as they inevitably quit, which conveniently reset their replacements at the lowest pay scale. Highlighting this particular disrespect and countering it proved to be our most useful organizing tool.

Young workers are told that they don’t deserve higher pay because they are new and have less responsibility, even though they actually have one of the largest ranges of tasks to complete. Young workers need to be reminded that their shared class position is with everyone on the floor. With just a little encouragement, young workers formed their own internal group of friends who helped keep each other informed and motivated. Together, they dispelled the company’s anti-union propaganda for both themselves and helped the other workers they were in contact with see the truth.

Younger workers voted for the union not primarily because of economic pressures, as this job was a short stop on their way to adulthood, but because the company’s systematic disrespect and manipulation made them desperate for collective power. Fortunately, the organization was able to fill the desire for camaraderie with a group that recognized their contributions as meaningful. Increasing pay was an influential part of it but showing youth they deserved respect and that their labor earned them the right to demand more was the biggest factor for getting them to care about working conditions at a job they will soon leave.

Young workers are not planning to stay here long term. Many will move on to college, trades, or other cities within a year or two. Yet once shown respect, the youth were willing to fight to improve the lives of the workers who will follow behind them. They put their jobs on the line not because they needed the raise forever, but because they understood that no one should be treated the way the company treated them. That is the lesson for unions going forward. Improving conditions will always be the main driving factor, but for some workers, especially the youngest, must show them they deserve respect before they can imagine a better future. Youth will fight for others even when they won’t be there to collect the benefits. With any luck, these skills in understanding class consciousness, and the power of solidarity will follow them as they venture out into the world.

The post Youth – A Treasure for Unions first appeared on Labor Today.

The post Youth – A Treasure for Unions appeared first on Labor Today.

By James Dugan

The working class is misinformed. The state’s “official” information is suspect. Workers are responsible for calling them out. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) “unemployment rate” is widely accepted as the standard measurement of unemployed Americans at any given time, but it’s not what you think it is. It is not the number of people filing for unemployment, as many assume. Instead, it is a composite figure based on a monthly poll of 60,000 households, taken by the Census Bureau.

Poll respondents are asked scripted questions, and their answers are tabulated into categories which somewhat overlap and are used by the BLS for its “calculation”. The BLS creates the statistic in this way, “because that’s how it’s always been done” according to one BLS source. The truth is, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) doesn’t measure the joblessness rate but it does conceal systemic racism and an economy in steep decline.

Instead of the false BLS figures, workers should refer to a valid source of information. One such source is the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity (LISEP) True Rate of Unemployment (TRU) report. While the BLS reports 4.4% unemployment, the TRU reports 24.9%.

The BLS unemployment rate ignores incarcerated unemployed workers who outnumber white workers 5:1. As this economy continues to devastate these workers, predominantly male blacks and Hispanics, the official reporting is that “all is well”. By excluding nearly 2 million locked up Americans from the official count, the real economic conditions of the working class never come to light. The TRU unemployment rate accounts for the vast numbers of nominally employed make up today’s working class. The TRU rate, by including the incarcerated sector of unemployed workers, highlights these as the most segregated sector of the working class. The racial disparities dividing workers are staggering, but the BLS would have the working class remain ignorant.

According to the TRU, fully one quarter of the American working class straddles financial catastrophe, despite having a job. This sort of worker, known as the “functionally unemployed” are defined as workers who “don’t have a full-time job but want one, or have no job, or do not earn a living wage, conservatively pegged at $26,000 (in 2025 dollars) annually before taxes”.

The BLS unemployment rate hides prisoner unemployment to dress-up the racist American economy as racially neutral. Black men are disproportionately imprisoned in the U.S. and the BLS conceals that they’re also disproportionately unemployed. Workers should question the so-called facts, call out the lying monopolists, their cronies in office and corporate media, and use scientific means to describe their conditions.

Workers should consider their situation carefully in the United States, where the government hides the unemployed in prisons and incarcerates the highest percentage of its population in the world.

The post Bureau of Labor Statistics Hides Racist, Lagging Economy first appeared on Labor Today.

The post Bureau of Labor Statistics Hides Racist, Lagging Economy appeared first on Labor Today.

Safety, dignity and equality for all women”

On 25 November, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) renews its struggle for a world free from violence, exploitation and war, recalling that in 2025 we will also celebrate 80 years of international trade union commitment alongside workers around the world.

Violence against women is never an individual or private matter. It is rooted in the power structures of capitalism, economic and social inequalities, patriarchal culture and the militarisation of territories. Wars, occupations and armed conflicts disproportionately affect women, increasing poverty, instability and insecurity. Similarly, economic exploitation, low wages, precarious work, lack of rights and the reduction of public services fuel violence and discrimination.

The WFTU fights for a world where women’s dignity and safety are top priorities, where work is safe and fairly paid, where every woman can live free from violence and fear. On this day, we remember in particular the situation in Palestine, where women today are suffering genocide and have been suffering the consequences of war, occupation and Israel’s policies of oppression for 77 years.

Trade union organisations affiliated to the WFTU have always maintained that the fight against violence against women is closely linked to the fight for workers’ rights, decent wages, safe housing, public education, healthcare and accessible social services. No woman can be free without access to economic resources, social protection and freedom from war and systemic violence.

On this day, the WFTU reaffirms:

• The need for effective legislation against all forms of violence, discrimination and exploitation;
• The right of women to safe work, decent wages and equal opportunities;
• The fight against imperialist wars and all forms of occupation;
• The right to education, contraception, social spaces and free public services, which are fundamental tools for women’s autonomy and protection;
• The need to combat patriarchy and the culture of violence, including through trade union campaigns, information campaigns and concrete actions on the ground.

The WFTU and its affiliates call on all trade unions and workers to mobilise, build international solidarity and support concrete actions against violence against women, predatory capitalism, exploitation and wars. Only collective struggle and the participation of workers can create a world where safety, dignity, equality and freedom are a reality for all women.

80 years of international trade union struggle.

Stop violence against women. Stop exploitation and war. Freedom and justice for Palestine.    Safety, dignity and equality for all women!

The post WFTU Statement on International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women first appeared on Labor Today.

The post WFTU Statement on International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women appeared first on Labor Today.

The NALC has organized over 250 Fight Like Hell rallies across the country, all protesting against multiple threats to the union, including Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” DOGE planning to lay off ten thousand workers, and the Trump Administration’s ambitions to privatize the USPS.

A privatized USPS would create a myriad of problems for both the American people and Letter Carriers. Currently, the USPS is under the jurisdiction of Congress, which is held accountable by representatives elected by the American people. A privatized USPS would only be held responsible to private shareholders, who will most definitely reel back services in both rural and low-service areas, areas that need the USPS the most. In Seattle, a privatized USPS would mean higher shipping prices, an issue that would only contribute to Seattle’s high cost of living compared to other cities.

After speeches and remarks from representatives of multiple labor unions, the NALC Branch 79 rally attendees, both letter carriers and NALC supporters in the hundreds, marched around Westwood Center in West Seattle in the cold, dreary Seattle weather, with a resounding message:

THE US MAIL IS NOT FOR SALE!

The post NALC Branch 79 Rallies to “Fight Like Hell” in Seattle, WA first appeared on Labor Today.

The post NALC Branch 79 Rallies to “Fight Like Hell” in Seattle, WA appeared first on Labor Today.

The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Union Local 555 represents over 35,000 workers across Oregon, Southwest Washington, and Idaho. About 4,500 of those are Fred Meyer employees. The union workers voted overwhelmingly for a strike sanction on August 13^th.

Before the vote, UFCW President Dan Clay slammed Fred Meyer’s Corporate, claiming that, “Fred Meyer continues to violate the law and their commitments made to Local 555. The most outrageous examples include refusing to provide essential information for current negotiations and refusing to process grievances, despite a longstanding history of doing so over the many decades between Fred Meyer and Local 555.”

The strike comes after UFCW Local 555 revoked their endorsement of a corporate merger between Kroger (Fred Meyer’s parent company) and Albertsons due to the flagrant ULPs. UFCW Local 555 was the only UFCW chapter that supported the merger.

In a statement to KOIN 6 News, UFCW Local 555 Communications Coordinator Miles Eshaia said,

“On August 15, Kroger issued a press release, saying that ‘Fred Meyer Delivers on Their Promise to Accelerate Associate Wages.’ For Fred Meyer to say they have delivered on their promise to accelerate associate wages is misleading at best. They have not agreed to any increases other than those negotiated by UFCW 555 as a result of the 1-day strike in 2021. They have a proven track record of not living up to their obligations and are falling short at the bargaining table. We were forced to file a federal lawsuit asking the courts to force Fred Meyer to live up to their commitments in the current contracts with UFCW 555. As a result, we are no longer in support of the Kroger-Albertsons merger for Oregon, Idaho, and Washington.”

Negotiations between the union and Fred Meyer’s corporation are ongoing.

The post Portland Fred Meyer Workers Strike Amid Unfair Labor Practices first appeared on Labor Today.

The post Portland Fred Meyer Workers Strike Amid Unfair Labor Practices appeared first on Labor Today.

“We are a group of Boulder County employees who are forming a union to have a strong and positive voice at work. Like you, we work to provide crucial services to the residents of Boulder County. We are proud to work at Boulder County and want to make it the best workplace it can be. We are building a strong worker-led, democratic union which is run by and for its members.”

BCEU

In 2023, Colorado legislature enacted bill SB22-230 that allowed public employees in a county of more than 7,500 the right to collective bargaining among a number of other benefits and stipulations. The BCEU started out as the “Committee to Organize Boulder County” and in 2020 they began organizing and made a Better Boulder County survey in order to gather information on issues workers were facing. In the fall of 2022, BCEU members requested their supervisors and managers be informed of the Boulder County Neutrality Policy that was adopted in 2007.

The culmination of four years of organizing led the organizing committee to vote for affiliation with the CWA in June 2023 over the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) who was also working to organize the public employees. The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment is currently working with the union to schedule a time and date to hold the election.

The post Boulder County Workers Use New Legislation to Unionize first appeared on Labor Today.

The post Boulder County Workers Use New Legislation to Unionize appeared first on Labor Today.

All this is taking place with the tolerance and support that Israel receives from the USA, the EU and their allies to continue the bloodshed in Palestine. The suffering Palestinian people are “fed up” with announcements of support.

We repeat, however, that this is not enough. The brutality that is unfolding is to such an extent that immediate, decisive and drastic measures are required. International conventions and resolutions must finally be implemented. The international community must actively demand that Israel put an end to the massacre it is committing.

The WFTU expresses its solidarity with students in the US, Europe and elsewhere, who despite the repression, have flooded dozens of universities demanding an end to the massacre and the non-engagement of their countries in the crime against the Palestinian people. It reiterates its call to its affiliates and friends to intensify all actions in solidarity with Palestine through mass demonstrations, mobilizations, protests, strikes, initiatives and struggles of various forms, using the means of military, commercial, academic and institutional boycotts.

The post WFTU Statement on the Premeditated Attack on Rafah first appeared on Labor Today.

The post WFTU Statement on the Premeditated Attack on Rafah appeared first on Labor Today.

The issues at hand revolved around not just pay raises that make it possible for the nurses to continue to reside in Staten Island, but also safe staffing—a sufficient number of nurses on staff to give patients the best care possible—which has been an all-too-common fight in the age of for-profit medicine. Going into this fight, the SIUH nurses have talked about lack of retention seeing as wages in Staten Island haven’t kept pace with the rest of New York City.

A ratification vote will begin on April 3rd, after the bargaining committee announces the deal. Full details have not been released yet, but NYSNA has announced that the 3-year deal includes wage increases totaling 22.12% throughout the deal as well as, “improvements to safe staffing standards and stronger safe staffing enforcement. The agreement adds nurse staffing on units that need help and includes an expedited process for creating staffing standards in new units.”

SIUH nurses on the bargaining committee voice their approval including Elaine Minew, RN who in the press release announcing the Tentative Agreement said, “the safe staffing improvements we won in our tentative agreement make Staten Island a better place to live, work, and receive care.” John Vuolo, RN also said, “for too long, Staten Island University Hospital nurses have struggled to stay on our island because our pay was so much lower than what we could make for doing the same work in Brooklyn or Manhattan. Now that we’ve won pay parity, we can afford to stay here in our community where we want to be, caring for our neighbors. That’s a victory for all of Staten Island.”

It cannot be lost on us that this struggle took place shortly after Northwell announced a $19.2 billion merger with Nuvance Health while cutting costs by eliminating pharmacists on the hospital floors of SIUH, forcing nurses away from patient bedsides to find needed medications. This profit-first “healthcare” shines a light on the need for a not-for-profit National Health Service here in the United States. Labor United Educational Leagues resolutely supports the nurses at Staten Island University Hospital and calls for a just healthcare system featuring a not-for-profit National Health Service.

The post NYSNA Agrees to Tentative Agreement at Staten Island University Hospital After Nurses Authorize Strike first appeared on Labor Today.

The post NYSNA Agrees to Tentative Agreement at Staten Island University Hospital After Nurses Authorize Strike appeared first on Labor Today.

FISE, the World Federation of Teachers Union, an affiliated member of WFTU, denounces the new murderous pogrom of Israel against the Palestinians.

The murderer-state of Israel, under the pretext of “counter-terrorism” is carrying out a huge military operation in Palestine, focusing on the Jenin refugee camp, where some 18,000 Palestinians live, resulting in dozens of dead and wounded and 3,000 people already having fled.

We also denounce the unacceptable position of the US-NATO-EU-Governments who talk about the “right of self-defence” of the Israeli occupying forces.

FISE and teachers’ unions around the world support the heroic people of Palestine and their right to defend their country against foreign occupation with all the necessary means. The peoples who are fighting for their present and future are not terrorists!

THE PEOPLES WILL DEFEAT BARBARISM!

We demand:

STOP the military operation in Jenin, as well as end of the Israeli occupation.

The creation of a single independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital, on the     1967 borders, with the people to decide for their present and future.

The right of return of all Palestinian refugees to their homes, based on the relevant UN resolutions.

The immediate release of all Palestinian and other political prisoners held in Israeli prisons.

THE SECRETARIAT

The post WFTU-FISE Denounces The New Attack Of Israel Against The Palestinian People first appeared on Labor Today.

The post WFTU-FISE Denounces The New Attack Of Israel Against The Palestinian People appeared first on Labor Today.

Colleagues, we wish you great success in the 18-day strike, in different cities, which you have announced and which you plan to complete on February 8.

The struggle for the teachers’ working conditions, the struggle for stable labour relations, permanence, security, salaries that cover the needs of workers concerns the world trade union movement and it is generalized, it concerns the world working class and is unrelenting until the overthrow of the system which breeds and reproduces the exploitation of man by man.

We are on your side, we support your struggles!!

THE SECRETARIAT

The post FISE Statement of Support For Teachers Strike in Portugal first appeared on Labor Today.

The post FISE Statement of Support For Teachers Strike in Portugal appeared first on Labor Today.