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NLF Highlights

Highlights for Labor Day

Paula Finn

NLF Highlights for September

Happy Labor Day!

This has been an eventful summer. On July 14th the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA went on strike, joining the Writers Guild of America whose members have been striking since May. The last time the two unions went on strike together was six decades ago. This is a fight for fair contracts that recognize the value of their work and protect their rights in the age of digital streaming and artificial intelligence, and it has brought Hollywood to a halt. Meanwhile, under the threat of a strike by the nation’s largest private sector unionized workforce, UPS workers made headlines with the approval last month of a new five-year contract which Sean O’Brien, General President, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, described as “the most lucrative agreement the Teamsters have ever negotiated at UPS.”

We are especially delighted to continue this critical discussion with Sean O’Brien himself, at a forum, Logistics Workers Rise Up: UPS, Amazon, & Long-Haul Trucking. It will be held in-person on September 22nd, 12-2pm , with O’Brien as keynote speaker, and a panel featuring Randy Korgan, Director of the Teamsters’ Amazon Division; Jane McAlevey, Senior Policy Fellow, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment; and Steve Viscelli, author of The Big Rig: Trucking and the Decline of the American Dream. Samir Sonti, New Labor Forum Book Reviews Editor and Assistant Professor at SLU will moderate.

The next episode of the Reinventing Solidarity podcast focuses on a discussion of publicly funded and operated health care in the United States. If this might seem a pipe dream with no national precedence, the authors of the recent book, Our Veterans: Winners, Losers, Friends and Enemies on the New Terrain of Veterans Affairs, suggest it’s not. They describe the current system of VA Healthcare as a model for excellence and equity worthy of support among public health care activists. Our Veterans, reviewed in the spring 2023 issue of New Labor Forum, offers a broad examination of Veterans Affairs, as well as essential information about the cost, quality, and effectiveness of healthcare provided by the Department

Table of Contents
  1. The Strike: Snatching Victory from the Jaws of Defeat – Bob Master, New Labor Forum
  2. Logistics Workers Rise Up: UPS, Amazon, & Long-Haul Trucking – CUNY SLU in person event, September 22nd, 12-2pm
  3. Reinventing Solidarity Episode 44 – “The New Terrain of Veterans Affairs”
The Strike: Snatching Victory from the Jaws of Defeat
by Bob Master, New Labor Forum
As long as there have been bosses, workers’ ability to withhold their labor and inflict economic damage on their employers has been their most powerful weapon. But the disappearance of strikes not only curtailed workers’ economic power; it also had a corrosive effect on the internal life of the labor movement. Strikes are the only activity undertaken by unions that require them to account for the disposition of every single member—when the strike begins, members either join the picket lines or join the ranks of scabs . . .
Read the full article here

Logistics Workers Rise Up: UPS, Amazon, & Long-Haul Trucking: LIVE IN PERSON EVENT

September 22nd, 12­-2pm at CUNY SLU

Keynote speaker:

Sean O’Brien, General President, International Brotherhood of Teamsters

Panelists:

Randy Korgan, Director of the Teamsters’ Amazon Division

Jane McAlevey, Senior Policy Fellow, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment

Steve Viscelli, author of The Big Rig: Trucking and the Decline of the American Dream.

Moderator:

Samir Sonti, New Labor Forum Book Reviews Editor and Assistant Professor at SLU

What prospects does the UPS workers’ groundbreaking contract victory hold for labor’s power across the logistics industry and beyond? What strategic advances are currently underway toward large scale organizing at Amazon? Join us to consider key lessons from the Teamsters’ recent organizing, and to better understand the changing landscape of the logistics industry and the global supply chain.

This episode focuses on a discussion of publicly funded and operated health care in the United States. If this might seem a pipe dream with no national precedence, the authors of the recent book, Our Veterans: Winners, Losers, Friends and Enemies on the New Terrain of Veterans Affairs, suggest it’s not. They describe the current system of VA Healthcare as a model for excellence and equity, worthy of support among public health care activists.  Our Veterans, reviewed in the spring 2023 issue of New Labor Forum, offers a broad examination of Veterans Affairs, as well as essential information about the cost, quality, and effectiveness of healthcare provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

Listen here: SLU.CUNY.EDU/PODCAST