Holidays on the Picket Line

December 24, 2022 8:44 AM

It's never easy to go on strike, but the winter holidays are an especially tough time to fight the bosses. UMWA coal miners in Alabama have been on strike for over 600 days. Workers in various departments of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette have been out since October, and have been publishing the Pittsburgh Union Progress the whole time. Mental health professionals in Hawai'i went on strike in August against Kaiser Permanente and are still holding the line. United Auto Workers employed by Case New Holland in Iowa and Wisconsin have been on strike for nearly eight months.

Starbucks United workers at approximately 100 stores went on a three-day strike against the company's relentless union-busting. Contract janitors at Twitter struck, had their contract canceled, and continue to picket. Graduate student workers across the University of California system just ended a six-week strike.

And that's just in the United States. Nurses, postal workers, ambulance drivers, railroad workers, and others in the United Kingdom have gone (or will go) on strike. Cemetery workers in Québec are striking for higher wages. Santa Claus is joining striking Vancouver workers on their nearly 600-day-long picket line. Workers at Co-op Lanaudière in Québec have been on strike for fifteen months.

If you want to make this midwinter a little less bleak for striking workers, workers who have been retaliated against by their bosses (like the union buster of the year), or workers who want to organize, then look no further. If monetary support isn't an option, you can always send a note of solidarity, visit a picket line with coffee and snacks, or simply let others know what's happening.

(Note that this list, like the list of strikes above, is not exhaustive!)

UMWA strike fund
Fundraiser for striking UAW workers in Iowa
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette strike support
Solidarity funds for tech and Starbucks workers
National Union of Healthcare Workers Hawai'i strike fund
Royal College of Nursing Strike Fund
RMT National Dispute Fund
The Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee helps workers organize and improve their workplace.

posted by heteronym (8 comments total)

We very very narrowly averted another Minnesota Nursing Association strike here that would have run through the holidays, and only because management finally gave in at the last possible moment after refusing to bargain for literal months. My partner said people regretfully voted for the strike--it had been six months without a contract by that point and management had been incredibly insulting about bargaining--and then started en masse signing up to run Instacart and drive Uber in the hopes of managing to scrape together some kind of holiday for their kids.

No one strikes over the holidays unless they seriously, seriously need to. Much respect to the workers around the world who are holding fast to their principles in the face of managerial Scrooges.
posted by sciatrix at 9:05 AM on December 24, 2022 [10 favorites]

Are the Hawaiian psychologists organized under the NLRA, or state law? I was under the impression that psychologists were "professionals" and thus excluded from union protection (unless they're state employees, which it seems like they're not in this instance).
posted by saladin at 9:38 AM on December 24, 2022

It's sad to see that the grad students of UC Merced and UC Santa Cruz overwhelmingly voted against ratifying this contract, but have to go along with it anyway... but on the other hand, had they not been part of the much larger, UC-wide strike, they probably would have gotten even worse offers. Fundamental contradiction of bargaining units I guess.
posted by one for the books at 10:03 AM on December 24, 2022 [3 favorites]

Academics are one of the groups included under 'others' on the long list of UK workers on strike. Dispute includes pay, workload, precariousness/casualisation and equality. Surprisingly pensions is not on the list, despite that being a key area for us getting shafted in recent years.
posted by biffa at 10:24 AM on December 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

News on the UC strike. Officially over.

As usual, I don't know what to make of the results. It seems like "better than what they were getting, not exactly what they wanted, probably not enough to solve the problem, but they probably would never have gotten what they wanted if they kept going anyway."
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:45 AM on December 24, 2022 [3 favorites]

It's exciting that so many are emboldened to strike and disheartening that more than one group has been on strike for over a year with no relief.
posted by emjaybee at 11:10 AM on December 24, 2022 [3 favorites]

How the heck can you be on strike for that long? How are they surviving? How is the business surviving?!
posted by jenfullmoon at 12:36 PM on December 24, 2022 [4 favorites]

It seems like "better than what they were getting, not exactly what they wanted, probably not enough to solve the problem, but they probably would never have gotten what they wanted if they kept going anyway."

Ditto the three-week strike of part-time faculty at The New School, which ended about a week and a half ago. From the linked NYT article:

Matthew Spiegelman, a visual artist who teaches classes at the New School, said that compensation “should be better,” but that most of the issues were resolved. “Most importantly, we opened the door for many more improvements in the future and for other universities to step up and treat their faculty with respect and dignity.”

Here's hoping the UC agreement can similarly serve as a stepping stone for grad students beyond the UC system!
posted by the tartare yolk at 2:54 PM on December 24, 2022