60,000 film and tv workers are mobilizing to win a union contract that guarantees basic human necessities like adequate sleep, meal breaks, and living wages from the wealthiest media corporations and studios in the world, and we need your support.
Will you take two minutes to sign our petition demanding the AMPTP and its members provide equitable treatment for the unsung heroes of the entertainment industry?
Tell AMPTP to Give Film and Television Workers a Fair Deal (actionnetwork.org)
Old Dutch workers, members of BCTGM Local 22, gather outside the union's offices in Minneapolis.
Members of Bakery Confectionary, Tobacco and Grain Millers Local 22 who work at Old Dutch are gearing up for contract talks this fall, in which they intend to push the company to ease increasingly taxing workloads.
That’s the same rallying cry sounded by union members who went on strike at Frito Lay and Nabisco in other parts of the U.S. this year, drawing nationwide attention.
“We recently had over 50 members in our parking lot on a Saturday morning, their only day off of the week,” Local 22 President Wally Borgen said. “These members are angry because they’re working a lot of overtime, and they say the company doesn’t pay enough to recruit and retain workers.”
The dissatisfaction over unsafe workloads and lack of work-life balance among food-processing workers, Borgen said, “has spread to Local 22 in a big way.”
Borgen said negotiations with Old Dutch have been respectful in recent years, giving him hope Local 22 can avoid the drastic measures Nabisco and Frito Lay forced workers to take.
But Local 22 members in other bargaining units might not be so lucky.
Cub Foods’ parent company, UNFI, is threatening to stop paying into a union pension fund covering about 230 bakers at corporate-owned stores in Minnesota, according to Local 22, which began contract negotiations with UNFI last month.
Not all Cub Foods stores in the Twin Cities are owned by UNFI.
“They’re not talking about bargaining about it; their lawyer just informed us on the first day of negotiations that they are withdrawing from our pension fund the 1st of the year,” Borgen said. “Our pension is fully funded at 104%. There’s no reason to pull out of a great benefit for these workers.”
Additionally, three members of Local 22 have filed grievances accusing UNFI of stealing paid vacation hours. It’s a slap in the face, Borgen said, to workers who have kept bakery shelves stocked in grocery stores during the pandemic.
“Thousands of people were pouring in and out of those stores, putting our members at higher risk than your average worker,” he said. “They came to work knowing that they’d probably walk through a COVID cloud at some point.”
In some good news for Local 22, grain millers stood together and won significant pay raises at two General Mills elevators in Minneapolis earlier this month.
Union members voted unanimously to authorize a strike Sept. 9, after management refused to put more money into wages during negotiations that began in June. Within a week of the strike vote, General Mills had upped the offer, and Local 22 members had a new, four-year contract with 3% raises in the first and second years.
Local 22 is also in negotiations with Archer Daniels Midland on a contract covering 15 grain millers at another Minneapolis elevator, where members have voted down an offer with wage increases below 3%.
“There are places that are paying more, and everyone’s hiring,” Borgen said. “They worked every day through this pandemic. They think they deserve some respect.”
Sisters, Brothers, Kin, and Allies,
IATSE members are the working-class backbone of the TV programs, films, and streaming content that provide entertainment and comfort to millions around the world.
Now, 60,000 film and tv workers are mobilizing to win a union contract that guarantees basic human necessities like adequate sleep, meal breaks, and living wages from the wealthiest media corporations and studios in the world, and we need your support.
Will you take two minutes to sign our petition demanding that The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers provide equitable treatment for the unsung heroes of the entertainment industry?
In solidarity,
Team IATSE
Grape worker Baldomero Perez knows what political voting is like and what union voting is like. "I have supported political campaigns to get people to go out and vote. It has been a very nice experience, since all voters have the right to vote from their homes by sending their ballot in by mail. Their vote is safe and they do not receive any pressure from anyone. This would help me to have union representation, benefits, fair treatment, job security and much more."
When the Agricultural Labor Relations Act was passed in 1975, it allowed for workers to vote at their place of employment. Then, being allowed to vote at all was a big step. Political voting options have changed since 1975. It has become clear that farm workers need the same opportunities. As Baldomero points out, it's not a free choice when the supervisor who threatened to fire anyone who votes for a union is glaring at you.
We are fighting for this change through the Agricultural Labor Relations Voting Choice Act which was introduced in the California legislature. It would modernize voting for union representation giving workers the same choices voters have to submit their ballots -- including voting by mail, early ballot drop offs, the option to get help filling out their ballots and the existing in-person voting.
The bill has passed the Assembly and Senate and is on Governor Newsom's desk. However, it is facing major opposition from the $50 billion agricultural industry, which is spreading disinformation in order to try to stop the bill. That's why starting today, September 22, workers began a 19-day, 260-mile socially-distanced march from Farmersville to Sacramento.
It's a tough battle. As you can imagine, nearly all the associations of growers and agribusiness are lobbying against this bill. It's remarkable how the nationwide attacks on voting rights are being seen here too in the California fields. That's why this bill is crucial.
Your voice matters. We need your support. Click today to stand with us.
HelloFresh profited tremendously from the COVID crisis. HelloFresh sold more than 278 million meals in the US in 2020 – a more than 100% increase over 2019, while global revenues doubled to $4.4 billion.
We know what happens when thousands of new jobs are created in new industries overnight with little regard to workers like us. We don’t want today’s meal kit factory kitchens to be like yesterday’s garment factories.
Workers and consumers can change history, together. Sign to support meal kit workers like us today.
With your help, we can make sure HelloFresh leads the industry in ensuring sustainable jobs in meal kit kitchens that families can live on and consumers can feel good about.
Thanks,
HelloFresh workers
P.S. Spread the word and tell your friends to help us unbox the unsustainable conditions at HelloFresh. Use this link: UnboxHelloFresh.org
By Alex Dillard
CONTACT: (408) 203-8660
On August 10th, 2021, 200 workers at the Nabisco Bakery in Portland walked out. It sparked a nationwide strike from other Nabisco factories around the country.
The strike lead to a deal made on September 18th, 2021 that lead to a new contract. In the words of BCTGM International President Anthony Shelton: “Very late last night, BCTGM negotiators reached a tentative agreement with Nabisco/Mondelez on a new contract. In the coming days, the Local Union officers on the bargaining committee will present the tentative agreement to their respective memberships who will then vote on the agreement.
This moment has shown that more can be done for workers power in the United States. This strike has also shown that it can be done no matter what the bosses or the media will say. This will lead surely to future strikes around the United States that will result in workers winning. Unions are the reason why people like you and me have the weekend, or any other benefits. So let's start unionizing our workplaces!
Dear Colleagues,
Please find below a statement in support of Palestine that was approved at our Union meeting last week.
In Solidarity,
Jim Mahler, President
AFT Guild, Local 1931
WHEREAS, the AFT Guild condemns the forced removal of Palestinian residents in West Jerusalem, the bombing of civilian areas in the besieged Gaza Strip, and the continued human rights violations committed by the Israeli government during its 73-year occupation of this land. It is unfortunate that civilians on both sides have suffered casualties, yet Israel’s use of advanced weaponry in its indiscriminate bombing of the Gaza strip has claimed a significantly greater and disproportionate number of Palestinian lives and destroyed essential infrastructure in the already oppressed occupied territories.
WHEREAS, the recent forced removal of Palestinian civilians from homes they occupied in Shaikh Jarrah for generations follows a 73-year pattern of disenfranchising Palestinians of their rights, property and the opportunity to live with dignity. Since 1967, home demolitions, land confiscations, systemic denial of building permits, and massive illegal settlement building (a violation of Article 49 of the Geneva Convention) on virtually every part of the occupied Palestinian territories, have become official Israeli policy, despite repeated condemnation by the international community.
WHEREAS, since the 1967 War, 48,488 Palestinian homes and other structures have been demolished compared to none belonging to Israelis. The United Nations has condemned Israel’s continued occupation of territory after the 1967 war. The International Court condemns the settlements, and Israel has repeatedly snubbed efforts to limit the settlements, which are viewed as an obstacle to peace.
WHEREAS, in 2018 over 40 Jewish groups worldwide signed onto a statement opposing the “dangerous conflation of anti-Jewish racism with opposition to Israel’s policies and system of occupation and apartheid.” Their statement read, “This conflation undermines both the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality and the global struggle against anti-semitism. It also serves to shield Israel from being held accountable to universal standards of human rights and international law.”
WHEREAS, although we consider the targeting of civilians by all sides to be inhumane, the absence of an evenhanded U.S. foreign policy, in addition to massive unrestricted military aid to Israel, emboldens Israeli militarism, contradicts our policy regarding the status of the occupation of the Palestinian lands, and dooms the two-state solution to failure.
WHEREAS, we condemn the recent spate of anti-semitic attacks in the United States and other parts of the world, just as we condemn white supremacy and violence against Blacks, and members of the AAPI, LatinX, and LGBTQ communities. We also unequivocally condemn anti-semitic violence wherever it occurs. However, let us be clear that condemning Israel for its ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, occupation, apartheid and war crimes is not anti-semitism.
BE IT RESOLVED, we urgently call on our government to put an end to the occupation and oppression of Palestinian people, and we call on the White House and the Department of State to hold Israel accountable for its complete disregard of international law and a prompt reassessment of military aid to Israel. Only when Israel treats Palestinians inside Israel as equal citizens, recognizes the right of the Palestinian refugees to return, and the right of the Palestinians to live free of colonization and occupation, will there be hope for peace and reconciliation in historic Palestine.
There will be a basic income march on September 25th, 2021 all across the country. We expect to have a presence there and we hope that Labor Today supporters show up to this.
https://www.basicincomemarch.com/ for more information
We're so excited to share the 2021 Fair Food Program report with you today!
Ten years in, one of many factors that continue to elevate the Fair Food Program over less rigorous “social auditing” and PR-driven corporate social responsibility schemes is the Program’s level of data collection, analysis, and transparency of results. The Fair Food Standards Council, the third-party monitor that oversees enforcement of the Program’s standards, produces the report for each season by interpreting all the quantitative and qualitative data that FFSC investigators and analysts collect from audits, hotline calls, education sessions, corrective action plans, and worker interviews. That data is enhanced by “in focus” essays that contextualize the Fair Food Program’s results in the larger landscape of agriculture and the many challenges — from Covid to climate change — of an ever-changing world.
Today over on the CIW website, we take a dive into some of the key findings of the report, which covers Seasons 8 and 9 (2018-2019, 2019-2020), plus some important highlights from 2021, but here's a quick preview:
RELEASED: 2021 Fair Food Program Report – Coalition of Immokalee Workers (ciw-online.org)
