Posts tagged Strikes
"Protests loom at Bay State Walmarts"

“Demonstrations are planned at two Massachusetts Walmarts to protest alleged company retaliation against 80 workers who went on strike in June — including two Bay Staters — and the firings of 20 others.

The union-backed protests will be staged today in Chicopee and Saturday in Chelmsford. They follow similar events scheduled yesterday in 14 other cities.

David Coulumbe, a cart pusher at the Chelmsford Walmart, and Chicopee cashier Aubretia Edick received warnings for excessive absences after their strike participation, according to Russ Davis, executive director of Massachusetts Jobs With Justice.”

Read More
NewspaperGuest UserBlack Friday, Walmart, Strikes
"SEIU Settles Sodexo’s Racketeering Suit, with Organizing Gains Uncertain"

“A long-running corporate campaign by the Service Employees to organize workers at the food-service multinational Sodexo ended shrouded in secrecy in September.

Sodexo had slapped SEIU with a lawsuit charging that the union’s attempts to pressure the company into a deal to allow organizing amounted to ‘extortion.’ A judge refused in July to dismiss the suit, filed under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

RICO was originally intended to be a tool against organized crime, but corporations have used it against unions since the late ’80s, to stop corporate campaigns that bring pressure on a company from all angles and seek to win concessions by bruising a company’s brand image.”

Read More
NewspaperGuest UserService Workers, Strikes
"Verizon Strike Turns Away Customers and Chases Scabs"

“Verizon’s strike in the Northeast is into Day Five, and big picket lines are turning away customers at Verizon’s wireless stores.

Injunctions could threaten one of the union’s most effective tactics, mass picketing at stores. But another—mobile picketing—is causing havoc for the company. Techs are chasing scab managers through the field, making them cross their very own personal picket line at the bottom of a pole or while they try to work in a manhole.

The strike covers 45,000 members of the Communications Workers and Electrical Workers (IBEW) from Massachusetts to Virginia. Verizon wants to eliminate pensions, as well as limit raises and force big health care costs onto current workers and retirees. The concessions would take $1 billion from workers, at a company which made almost $20 billion during the last four years.”

Read More
NewspaperGuest UserVerizon, Strikes