Editor’s Note From Rivera Sun
This has been a tremendous year for worker strikes, union organizing, and wildcat actions (nonviolent actions done without union support). On top of that, protests erupted around the world against high fuel prices and cost-of-living. This surge of activity heralded in an accompanying wave of victories.
South Korean truckers won key demands with an 8-day strike that brought exports to a standstill and threatened the global supply chains of semiconductor chips for electronics and automobiles. Argentine oil workers won workplace safety measures. (Argentines also forced the resignation of their finance minister over debt and inflation.) Ghanians won a cost-of-living adjustment, as did Panamanians. Spain taxed rich people, banks, and energy companies and put the funds toward youth scholarships, new homes, and free rail passes for citizens. Haitians raised the minimum wage by an impressive 54%.
New unions formed in “impossible” places like Amazon, Starbucks, museum workers, tech giants, and gig economy workers like delivery drivers. Los Deliveristas Unidos (pictured) celebrated a historic victory as new (and hard-won) labor protections for delivery workers went into effect this week in New York City. In Mexico, General Motors workers formed a new, independent union and won the 8.5% wage increase that the big union told them was unachievable.
We can learn a lot from these struggles. They arise from a blend of innovation and tradition. After all, labor has been organizing with the nonviolent tactic of strikes for hundreds of years – or, actually, for thousands of years. The earliest recorded strike was in 1170 BCE when Egyptian pyramid builders laid down their tools until they were paid. Workers worldwide continue to use the bread-and-butter strategy of refusing their labor until their wages, protections, and rights are increased. These struggles are often savvy, strategic, and staggeringly effective.
My top pick from 2022? It’s hard to choose from 84 stories that make me grin from ear to ear. From Sri Lanka ousting its president in the midst of an economic crisis to Panamanian trade unions winning a 30% price reduction on essential goods, these struggles remind us that it pays to get organized. In fact, one of our stories this year was a report shows how, at a unionized job, you will likely make an additional $1.3 million USD over the course of your lifetime.
So, here’s the million dollar question: what will you win with nonviolent action in 2023?
In solidarity,
Rivera Sun
Photo Credit: Los Deliveristas Unidos rally in Times Square on Sunday, Jan. 23.
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South Korea’s Truckers Strike Wins: The victory for the truck drivers came after eight days of continued strike brought exports to a standstill and disrupted major sectors including electronics and automobiles. The strike also threatened the global supply chains of semiconductor chips. The government has agreed to extend the existing temporary rules on minimum wage guarantees for truck drivers that were due to expire in December this year. The deal also promises to continue discussions on expanding fuel subsidies for freight on additional goods. Read more>>
‘No Contract, No Matisse’ – Museum Workers Win Strike: After a 19-day strike, members of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) union voted overwhelmingly in October to approve their first contract. Daily pickets had cut into the museum’s attendance and impacted preparation for an anticipated exhibit on the works of French painter Henri Matisse. After two years of stalled negotiations, the 180 workers of AFSCME Local 397 forced the museum’s hand and attracted public support that placed the museum’s well-crafted reputation at risk. The agreement includes a 14 percent raise over three years. Read more>>
After Unrest, Foxconn Agrees to Pay Workers Willing to Leave: Tech giant Foxconn said it will give newly recruited employees at the world’s largest iPhone assembly plant in the central city of Zhengzhou an option to return home with severance pay after accusations over contract fraud and poor pandemic control measures led to worker unrest. Read more>>
How Workplace Activism Is Winning Campaigns At Google: In forcing one of the most powerful companies in the world to change its policies, Google workers offer key lessons for the labor movement. Read more>>
Massachusetts Educators’ Joint Strike Wins Historic Common Good Demands: Members of the Malden Education Association and the Haverhill Education Association have ratified new contracts won through a simultaneous strike last week. After one day on the picket line in Malden and four days in Haverhill, educators secured significant gains including higher wages, increased parental leave and commitments to housing justice. Students, community members, and workers came together in the hundreds to support striking educators across Massachusetts. Read more>>
Sysco Strikers Reach Deal: This week, two Teamster locals won new contracts with the behemoth food distributor Sysco, ending a nearly monthlong strike that drew national support. In one key victory, Sysco agreed to limit the grueling six-day workweeks and the 16-hour days some drivers spoke of, and dropped a plan that would prevent new employees from taking consecutive days off. Read more>>
Sri Lankan President Agrees To Resign After Protesters Occupy Official Residence: Amidst public protests, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned on May 9, 2022. However, his brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa stayed in power despite ongoing protests. Thousands of people from all over the country marched toward the president’s official residence in the capital Colombo and occupied the president’s official residence until he resigned. Read more>>
Being in a Union Means You Could Make $1.3 Million More Over Your Lifetime: Workers who are never in a union were projected to earn around $2.1 million their whole careers, while those who were in unions for their whole careers were estimated to make $3.4 million, according to a Cornell University study. The study also found that being in a union had a bigger earnings impact than getting a college degree. Editor’s Note: To translate: being willing to engage in organized, nonviolent direct action is the most important thing you can do to improve your career. Read more>>
Michigan Nurses Win Groundbreaking Contract: On Saturday, October 1, following six months of negotiations, nurses at the University of Michigan ratified a contract that restores autonomy to nurses and places the burden on management, not workers, to fix staffing issues. In a right-to-work state, it is a pathbreaking win for the health care labor movement. Read more>>
How An Illinois City Achieved Functional Zero for Veteran and Chronically Homeless Populations: Thanks in part to developing a by-name list and a single point of entry, Rockford, Illinois, believes it can reach functional zero homelessness for all populations by next year. Read more>>
Frontier Strikes Get First Aid Kits Updated, Win Back Work: While working without a contract, Frontier telecom workers in California have been out on four unfair labor practice strikes over grievances. They’ve come out of each one with a greater sense of power and solidarity. Read more>>
Spain Passes “Solidarity” Wealth Tax on Top 0.1 Percent: Spanish taxpayers who own more than $2.9 million in assets will be subject to the new measure. Spain’s leftist coalition government on Thursday announced a series of downwardly redistributive fiscal reforms — including a temporary “solidarity” tax on the nation’s 23,000 wealthiest residents — that lawmakers hope will ease the cost-of-living crisis hurting millions of working people. Read more>>
Argentina’s Oil Workers End Strike After Signing Deal With New Safety Measures: Unions representing thousands of striking Argentine oil workers called off a strike on Friday afternoon that they began the day before after a meeting with business leaders ended in a deal on greater safety measures and training for employees. The workers launched the strike on Thursday after a fire in a storage tank caused an explosion at the New American Oil (NAO) refinery in the town of Plaza Huincul in western Neuquen province. Read more>>
Florida Letter Carriers Win Back Sunday Breaks With Direct Action: USPS management was refusing to let postal workers take their Sunday breaks together—inside, out of the heat. “A simple grievance can take many months to get results. But at the post office where I work, we got fast results defending our breaks with a different approach: direct action.” Read more>>
‘Incredible Victory’ – California Gov. Newsom Signs Farmworker Unionization Bill Into Law: After vetoing similar legislation last year and threatening to do so again last month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday signed Assembly Bill 2183 into law, making it easier for farmworkers in the state to participate in union elections. “This is your victory,” UFW president Teresa Romero told those who led and supported the fight for free and fair union elections. Read more>>
Unionized Boston Starbucks Workers Celebrate Win After 64-Day Strike: Management conceded to workers’ main demand after they picketed 24 hours a day for two months, workers say. Read more>>
Workers At Big South Florida Hotel Boost Minimum Pay To $20: Weeks after a big strike vote, 450 hotel workers at the Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood, Florida, have reached a tentative agreement on a four-year contract that boosts minimum hourly pay to $20, halts subcontracting, and restores daily housekeeping. “This is an incredible victory for workers in South Florida,” said Wendi Walsh, secretary-treasurer of UNITE HERE Local 355, in a statement. Read more>>
San Francisco Airport Workers End Strike After Pay Victory: San Francisco airport workers ended a three-day strike Thursday after reaching a tentative deal that includes “significant” pay increases and improved healthcare benefits. The deal, which still must be ratified by union members, came after around 1,000 restaurant, coffee shop, and bar workers at the San Francisco International Airport (SFO) walked off the job to demand better wages and conditions, temporarily shuttering the operations of many of the airport’s food and drink spots. Read more>>
University Of Wisconsin Health Backs Down As Nurses Threaten To Strike: The warning lights flashed – and negotiators conceded to the nurses’ demands to recognize their union, which represents 2400 nurses. That’s what strike power is all about. Read more>>
Fast Food Worker Legislation Paves The Way For $22/hr Minimum Wage: A new law not only regulates the fast-food industry, but also gives unprecedented power to the 556,000 Californians working in fast-food restaurants, including the right to organize, boycott, and strike. The Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act (aka the “FAST Recovery Act”), which enacts specific workplace rules and standards for fast-food companies with 100 or more restaurant locations nationwide, is one of the most significant pieces of employment legislation passed in a generation. Read more>>
Good News In The Financial Arena In Nicaragua: The international main-stream media rarely focuses on good news from Nicaragua, on its achievements in reducing poverty, and maternal and infant mortality, or on its expansion of health care, education, electrification, water and sewerage, renewable energy, and roadways. However, a recent article published on the web page of the Center for Strategic and International Studies conceded that Nicaragua had made major advances economically and, in spite of US sanctions, had “rebounded relatively well from Covid-19” and had ensured that Nicaraguans could feed themselves. Read more>>
Signal Names Google Walkout Organizer As President: Whittaker is a technology researcher who became widely known as one of the organizers of a mass walkout at Google in 2018 in protest of the company’s handling of sexual harassment allegations against top executives. Within Google, she also became known for her advocacy for ethical AI and co-founded the AI Now Institute at NYU while still employed by the company. Read more>>
2,000 Communications Workers Win Strike: For the past week, roughly 2,000 telecom workers at Frontier Communications in Southern California have been out on an unfair labor practice strike. As part of the settlement, Frontier agreed to adhere to a limit on subcontracting as set in the collective bargaining agreement. The company will also post job requisitions for a hundred cable-splicer openings and work with union members to backfill positions with qualified applicants, creating union jobs rather than depending on contractors. Read more>>
Teachers Union in Ohio Went on Strike for Students—and Won: “More than 4,000 of our members stood strong on the picket line, our community joined the fight, and we won victories” on multiple issues, said a Columbus Education Association spokesperson. Read more>>
Victory For Powerloom Workers In Pakistan: After more than two weeks of mass strike action, powerloom workers in Faisalabad were able to successfully secure commitments on minimum wage as well as guarantees for social security. Read more>>
‘Strong and Loving, Relentless and Fierce’ – NY Home Care Workers Win Big: Years of organizing led by home care workers, older adults, disabled people and family caregivers put home care on the map—and won much-needed raises for workers. Read more>>
Chipotle Agrees To Pay NYC Workers $20 Million Settlement Over Workplace Violations: Chipotle has agreed to pay $20 million to 13,000 workers as they were found violating laws involving employee sick time and scheduling, CNBC reports. Mayor Eric Adams announced the settlement is the largest in New York City history. Chipotle will also pay $1 million in civil penalties to the city. Read more>>
Amid Protests, Argentina’s Finance Minister Resigns: Argentina’s Economy Minister Martin Guzman, the architect of a recent debt deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has resigned. His departure, coming at the end of a week of economic turmoil, sparks more uncertainty in Argentina, Latin America’s third largest economy. The Argentinian peso has hit an all-time low against the US dollar, while inflation is running above 60 percent and truck drivers are staging protests over shortages of diesel. Read more>>
Threat of Boycott Secures High School Football Raises For Refs: In Ohio, the pay rate for referees in high school football games has barely gone up in 30 years. That changed after the refs threatened to organize a boycott among athletic organizations. Read more>>
Panamanian Trade Unions Reach Agreement With Government On Essential Commodities: After almost a month of national strike against the high cost of living, peoples’ movements win the reduction of the cost of essentials by 30%. Panamanian trade unions reach agreement with government on essential commodities. According to the agreement, the government will reduce the prices of some 72 products, including food and hygiene items, by implementing measures such as price caps, subsidies on national products, and tariff reduction with control of the marketing margin. Read more>>
Panamanian People’s Organizations And Unions Win More Victories: The organizations which called for the national strike recently signed two agreements to increase the public education budget and to establish price caps for medicines. The new agreements in addition to those won last week will increase the public education budget to 6% of the GDP as demanded by teachers’ unions, and establish price caps for around 150 medicines. Read more>>
Spain Taxes Banks & Energy Companies To Make Trains Free for 4 Months: New windfall taxes on banks and energy companies in Spain will be used to fund free train travel, boost youth scholarships and build new homes. Short and mid-distance trains will be free between September and December, an additional €100 will be given to a million scholarship holders at schools and universities, and 12,000 homes will be built in Madrid. Read more>>
How Educators In Brookline, Massachusetts, Won An Illegal Strike: Striking has been illegal for public employees in Massachusetts since 1919. But in Brookline, a small suburb of Boston, we did it anyway. Out of a membership of 1,100, more than 900 signed in on the picket lines May 16. The strike culminated with a thousand educators descending on town hall for a rally with allies from around the state. Read more>>
Restaurant Adopts A ‘No-Tipping’ Business Model By Paying A Living Wage: The owners of a San Francisco eatery have been defying the status quo for years with their “tip-free” model that offers all their staff a living wage with full benefits and even a share of the restaurant’s profits. Read more>>
Ghanaian Workers Win Cost-Of-Living Allowance: Ghana’s government has averted a planned strike by public sector workers over pay, reaching an agreement with the country’s main labour unions to increase the cost of living allowance by 15%, the finance ministry said on Friday. The trade unions, including teachers and health sectors workers had planned to strike in the coming weeks if wages were not increased as rampant inflation, currently at a record 29.8%, hits consumers in the west African country. Read more>>
After Protest, Chinese Banking Officials Promise Payments to Small Depositors First: The provincial banking regulator in the central Henan province said they would start paying depositors whose savings were frozen following a mass protest that was marred by violent assaults on protesters. Thousands of depositors from across China had been unable to withdraw their savings from at least four village banks after a shareholder fled following a “serious financial crime” in March. Read more>>
Spain Invests in Social Economy: This month, the Spanish government announced that it will be investing an unprecedented $800 million euros into the social economy around four pillars: worker buyouts, boosting digitalization, social economy hub organizing, and the care economy. The hope is that these investments serve as a model for other European countries to make major investments into the social economy. Read more>>
Frontline LA Physicians Can’t Pay Rent, So They Threatened To Strike & Won Big: Medical residents and interns in LA County have kept their hospitals running while making minimum wage and struggling to pay rent. Then they overwhelmingly voted to strike and won big. Read more>>
Mexican GM Workers Win an 8.5 Percent Wage Hike in First Union Contract: An independent union at General Motors in Silao, Mexico, has ratified its first contract, with an 8.5 percent wage hike and benefit improvements — outstripping recent wage increases at other Mexican auto plants. The contract comes after workers voted last year to oust an employer-friendly union affiliated with the Confederation of Mexican Workers. The CTM has long dominated the Mexican labor movement and signed bad contracts behind workers’ backs. Learn more>>
Iran’s Labor Minister Resigns As Economic Protests Grow: Iran’s Minister for Labor, Welfare and Social Affairs Hojjatollah Abdolmaleki publicly announced his resignation on June 14, officially confirming recent media reports and dodging an impeachment bid planned in parliament corridors. Read more>>
After Strike, Cedars-Sinai Workers Approve 3-Year Contract With 17.42% Raise, $21/hour Minimum By 2024: “Reaching an agreement was not easy. But we fought hard for better working conditions, wages and benefits that reflect the difficult yet vital work we do every day to provide the best care for our patients.” Highlights of the ratified three-year contract include access to proper personal protective equipment and testing for employees, and notification of exposures, as well as average raises of 17.46 percent at the end of three years, the union said. Read more>>
“Queremos Vivir” – The Workers Who Wouldn’t Die for the Pentagon: Forced to work amidst the pandemic, Maquiladora workers in the border city of Mexicali went on strike. They caused Gulfstream — a U.S. aerospace company with several active contracts with the Department of Defense— to shutter for nearly a month. Though it was temporary, workers saw the closure of a prime Pentagon supplier as a victory. Read more>>
Seattle City Council Passes U.S.’s First Minimum Wage Guarantee for Gig Workers: The rules would also prevent app companies from punishing workers based on their hours or which jobs they accept. Read more>>
As Biden Cancels Corinthian Students’ Debt, They Urge Cancellation for All: The Biden administration will wipe out $5.8 billion in debt held by defrauded students who attended Corinthian Colleges. The victory for an estimated 560,000 borrowers is a product of seven years of relentless campaigning and organizing by the Corinthian 15, a group of debtors who teamed up in 2015 and refused to pay off their loans as a protest against the federal government’s inaction — and, in the case of the Trump administration, brazen efforts to block avenues toward relief. Read more>>
‘You Have to Be Very Persistent’ – Lessons from the Starbucks Union in Chile: “Today I can say that we managed to twist the arm of a colossus. After 12 years, we have a collective bargaining agreement (covering half the employees of Starbucks in Chile) and we are getting raises that exceed 12 to 20 percent of salaries.” Read more>>
DC Substitute Teachers Win Big But Continue The Struggle: Substitute teachers in District of Columbia Public Schools have won their first raise in 14 years. This comes after five months of picketing outside D.C. government offices under the banner of Washington Substitute Teachers United, demanding higher wages and benefits amid rapidly rising costs of living in the city caused by gentrification. Read more>>
South African Striking Workers Win Partial Wage Increase: South Africa’s largest metal workers union on Wednesday said it had signed a wage deal with ArcelorMittal South Africa Ltd (ACLJ.J), ending a two-week strike over a pay dispute. The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), which embarked on a strike on May 11 demanding a 10% wage hike, said it had agreed on a 6.5% increase across the board – on basic pay and allowances – backdated to April 1 2022. Read more>>
NYC Doormen Avoid Strike, Win Historic Contract: Throughout the pandemic, door attendants worked harder than ever, risking their own lives to help residents better live theirs. Just two days before the strike’s scheduled start, management and union reached a historic tentative agreement. The union’s show of power and solidarity — in step with recent labor gains elsewhere in New York City, from Columbia University to Amazon’s JFK8 warehouse — have helped protect paid time-off and employer-covered premiums and boost wages for 32,000 workers. Read more>>
Verizon Retail Workers Raise Wages To $20-An-Hour: Last week, Verizon retail workers in Everett and Lynnwood, Washington voted to unionize and announced plans to unionize at more locations. Now, Verizon is raising wages to $20-an-hour at retail stores. “These changes are the direct result of employee feedback and will help us remain an attractive employer in this competitive environment,” Krista Bourne, chief operating officer at Verizon Consumer Group told Reuters. Read more>>
Hampton University Erases Students’ Outstanding Balances: In order to assist students during the pandemic, Hampton University will erase all outstanding balances for the 2022 spring semester, according to Wavy TV 10. Last year, the school used the Federal Relief Act funds to pay off outstanding balances owed by undergraduate students from the spring semester. Hampton also stated the university will not increase tuition, fees, and room and board for the 2022-2023 school year. Read more>>
Foreclosures Moratorium Extended In Detroit And Wayne County: A Wayne County judge on March 29 granted a motion by Treasurer Eric R. Sabree extending the ban on owner-occupied homes being placed in jeopardy of seizure and public auction. This decision came in the aftermath of a campaign by the Moratorium NOW! Coalition (MNC) and other housing groups in the city of Detroit. Activists welcomed the decision, but warn that more steps are needed. Read more>>
Parents And Students Who Sit-In With Striking Teachers Win: The teacher strike that has shut down schools in the Sacramento City Unified School District for eight days is over. The tentative agreement with the teachers union includes ongoing 4% salary increases starting with the current school year; 3% one-time stipends for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years; one-time payments of $1,250 in the current school year; 25% rate increases for substitutes who filled in for absent teachers this year; and 14 more sick days for subs who test positive for or have symptoms of COVID-19. Read more>>
Flower Pickers Win Demands With Quick Strike: Farmworkers who plant and harvest tulips chose a strategic time to strike: shortly before the annual tulip festival. A top demand was to get paid for time spent prepping thousands of rubber bands. Here are all the gains they won. Read more>>
Minneapolis Educators Just Showed the Country How to Strike and Win: The Minneapolis teachers’ union just won a nearly three-week-long strike. The strike won significant gains on many fronts. Educational support professionals, or ESPs, an especially underpaid and disproportionately non-white workforce, will see major increases in their salaries and hours, bringing most close to the $35,000 salary initially demanded by the union. Strikers won caps on class sizes and contract language exempting educators of color from excesses and layoffs, as well as the hiring of two district mentors for non-white educators. Read more>>
Howard University Faculty Win Tentative Agreement Just Hours Before Planned Strike: Since full-time lecturers at Howard University originally voted to unionize, they have spent nearly four years bargaining with the university administration to get their first contract. On March 23, just hours before lecturers and nearly 200 adjunct professors were set to strike, the union secured a historic tentative agreement with the university. Read more>>
How A Cincinnati Preschool Became Worker-Owned: When this pre-school owner decided to go back to school and start a new phase of her life, she did something unexpected. Rather than sell her business to the highest bidder, she sold it to five of her workers, turning it into a worker cooperative. Read more>>
Wave of US Union Victories: The recent, much-publicized wave of union victories in the US at companies as varied as the giant coffee chain Starbucks, trendy outdoor outfitters REI and media group the New York Times is spurring hopes that this will somehow turn into a much larger unionization wave that lifts millions of Americans. This is an unusually promising moment for unions, labor strategists say, as they strain to figure out how best to build a larger wave, although they acknowledge it won’t be easy because US corporations fight so fiercely against unionization. Read more>>
Acme Workers End Successful Strike: After nearly three months, Acme Food & Beverage Company workers ended their strike on Feb. 17 — and most of them are vacating their positions at the restaurant. Although the strike was successful many of the strikers will redirect their work toward more broad change for workers. Read more>>
Maine Lobstermen Form Union Co-Op To Claw Back Fair Prices: As independent contractors, Maine lobstermen are denied collective bargaining rights. But they partnered with the Machinists to create both an affiliate local and a marketing cooperative. IAMAW Maine Lobsterman Local 207. Read more>>
The U.S. National Women’s Soccer Team Wins $24 million In Equal Pay Settlement: The U.S. Women’s National Soccer team has reached a proposed settlement in its class action equal pay lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation. Read more>>
School Bus Drivers In Mississippi Went On Strike And Won In An Hour: When the school district put out a want-ad for emergency bus drivers at $25/hr, the regular bus drivers were justifiably aggrieved. They’re barely making $15/hr. After a 1-hr strike, the school board raised their wages to $20/hr. Read more>>
3,000 Columbia University Student Workers End Strike With Tentative Contract Promising Raises: After a 10-week strike, student employees at Columbia University have won a tentative contract from the university that grants many of their demands for higher pay, better healthcare and stronger legal protections. Read more>>
Hotel Housekeepers Win $25/Hour: Ending a lengthy labor dispute, JW Marriott Le Merigot Santa Monica Hotel will pay its housekeepers $25 and provide free family health insurance after reaching an agreement with the local hospitality union. The agreement was announced on Wednesday by UNITE HERE Local 11, the labor union representing over 32,000 hospitality workers in Southern California and Arizona. Read more>>
Solidarity Wins in Columbia Strike Victory: The 3,000 striking student workers didn’t get everything they came for in the tentative four-year contract, but they did wrest significant concessions, including wage increases and child care stipend increases, from one of the wealthiest private universities in the country. Read more>>
Delivery Workers & Advocates Celebrate New Labor Rights Taking Effect: New labor protections for the city’s tens of thousands of delivery workers are set to take effect Monday, Jan. 24, and advocates and politicians rallied in Times Square the day before to promote the incoming laws. Read more>>
‘Strikes Absolutely Work’ – Kroger Workers Win New Contract: Unionized workers at Denver-area King Soopers grocery stores approved a new three-year contract on Monday following a 10-day strike by more than 8,000 low-wage employees in Colorado. “This victory proves that when workers stand together they can defeat corporate greed,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders. Read more>>
Striking Massachusetts Nurses Outlast Corporate Giant Tenet: Last year’s longest-running strike came to an end in early January when nurses at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts, overwhelmingly voted to ratify their new contract and return to work. Read more>>
Sanitation Workers Win Pay Raise: Close to 300 workers, many of them Latino or Black, were on strike across three different San Diego County locations. Though it falls short of what the striking workers wanted, the new contract includes wage increases and some healthcare benefits. Read more>>
Haiti Hikes Minimum Wage by Up to 54% Following Worker Protests: Workers over the years have complained that pay is too low to cover basic goods, which are often more expensive than in other countries due to weak infrastructure and gang violence. Read more>>
2,700 Artists in New York State Will Benefit from New $125M Guaranteed Income Program: A new program spearheaded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will provide guaranteed income and jobs for up to 2,700 artists living throughout New York State. The $125 million initiative, Creatives Rebuild New York (CRNY), will issue monthly, no-strings-attached payments to up to 2,400 artists with financial need over the next three years. Read more>>
Belgium Approves 4-Day Work Week And Gives Employees The Right To Ignore Bosses After Work: Workers in the gig economy will also receive stronger legal protections under the new rules, while full-time employees will be able to work flexible schedules on demand. Read more>>
Home Improvement Store Workers Win Pay Raise With All-Out Strike: Wincanton B&Q workers in the UK have won a 10.75 percent pay deal after striking since November last year.The solid action by workers for three months shows the impact walkouts can have. An all-out strike was far better than partial action. Read more>>
How Scotland’s Rent Freeze Was Won: On 6 September 2022, as part of their new program for government, the Scottish Government announced a rent freeze and eviction ban effective immediately until March 2023. Further clarity has yet to be brought in around key questions, crucially, we’re concerned that this freeze applies primarily to private tenants as social housing tenants’ rent is increased once a year, on the 1 April, missing out many tenants who are struggling. So we’ve run you through the headline victory and our many unanswered questions. But how did we get there? Read more>>
Scotland Is Freezing Rent And Rail Fares: Scotland is rolling out a combined rent freeze and eviction moratorium, designed to help people through the current cost of living crisis. The Scottish government also announced a fare freeze on ScotRail public transport until at least March 2023, along with increased social support services for children, including an extended free lunch program. Read more>>
A Microhome Village in Austin Ends Homelessness for Hundreds: It’s billed as the country’s only master-planned development for people coming out of homelessness. Residents call it the best neighborhood they’ve ever lived in. Read more>>
Unhoused Encampment Halts Evictions Sweep: Around 50 residents of a self-organized encampment known as Camp Resolution, which has been occupied since late September of this year, are now celebrating after the Sacramento City Council was pushed to pass a unanimous vote against a sweep by police, leading to a pause in a scheduled mass eviction. Read more>>
San Francisco Has Voted to Tax Corporate Landlords for Leaving Housing Vacant: The groundbreaking affordable housing victory in San Francisco could serve as a blueprint for other cities to follow. With nearly 60,000 unoccupied units, San Francisco has a significant vacancy problem, in addition to an acute affordable housing shortage. This creates something of an irony: The city simultaneously has too few and too many rooms available. Read more>>
How Oakland Tenants Forced Their Landlord To Turn Over the Keys: The city of Oakland’s longest rent strike has ended in victory for tenants. They didn’t just win necessary repairs or rent control; they decommodified their housing, getting profit-motivated landlords out of the picture altogether. Read more>>
Trailer Park Residents Take On Venture Capitalists — And Win: As gentrification sweeps the West, investors are buying up mobile home parks. Residents of this Colorado park got together and bought it themselves. Read more>>
