unions

https://www.koreajoongangdaily.com/korea/korea-state-bank-workers-strike-over-plan-to-relocate-public-institutions-from-seoul/12860471

The UFCW is a joke of a union

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/47527509

On August 26, the Seattle Education Association, which represents over 5900 education professionals throughout the city of Seattle, voted with 91% of members in favor to authorize a strike. The authorization vote followed hundreds of hours of negotiations spread over more than 20 bargaining sessions between Seattle Public Schools and SEA, after which SPS agreed to only around 12% of SEA’s demands. Workers will go on strike on September 2, the intended first day of the upcoming school year, if an agreement is not reached by then.

At the heart of SEA’s proposals is the understanding that education professionals’ working conditions are inextricably linked to students’ learning environments and outcomes. SEA’s core demands are:

Protect Special Education. SEA is fighting the district’s proposal to combine programs and cut support staffing, which would push even more onto educators already carrying too much.

Fair pay, especially for paraprofessionals and office professionals. Many SPS paraprofessionals earn below what HUD calls “very low income” for Seattle. One job should be enough!

Curb pressurization. Smaller class sizes, smaller case loads, and an end to the constant addition of duties beyond teaching.

These demands, if met, will mean students receive the effective instruction they need, while enabling staff to focus on education rather than making ends meet or doing paperwork.

Beyond these core demands, SEA is fighting for stronger protections for immigrants and LGBTQ+ members, professional autonomy, commitments around AI, and more.

Funding issues being used to push austerity agenda on Seattle schools

The district, headed up by brand-new Sup. Ben Shuldiner, is using the budget deficit as a pretext to drastically cut professional autonomy in the workplace and make sweeping austerity-based changes to the structure of schools. The budget deficit is real: Washington’s state funding for public education has declined from 52% to 43.2%, while structural obstacles like an insufficient funding formula and a state cap on how much local levies can collect have contributed to a budget deficit of about $75-87 million.

Inadequate state funding alone did not cause the deficit, though. The district’s management of its $1.3 billion annual budget has also contributed to the problem, as evidenced by administrative bloat and opaque “other” category in the budget, amont other questionable financial practices. The new superintendent himself is paid more than $400,000 annually.

A few years ago, the Seattle School Board tried to close 20 schools in response to the budget deficit and faced significant backlash. This is why they hired Shuldiner: he did the same cost-cutting in the Lansing, Michigan school district. His proposals are bad, but he was brought in by the board specifically to implement an austerity agenda. Austerity imposed for the sake of reducing the deficit will not address the issues of living wages for paraprofessionals and office workers, hard caps on class sizes/case loads, more support for multi-language learners and special education students, and respect for professional autonomy.

No matter which party is in office, federal ed policies hurt students and educators

The chasm between student needs and government policies and funding is emblematic of larger trends occurring across the nation. In the 2000s, the Bush administration used the punitive No Child Left Behind policy to defund already under-resourced schools. The 2009 Race to the Top grant program under Obama offered a carrot to promote slightly different neoliberal education reforms; in 2015, the Obama administration replaced NCLB with the Every Student Succeeds Act, which dramatically reduced the role of the federal government in public education, further exacerbating inequities between states. The second Trump administration’s Educational Choice for Children Act, passed last July, financially incentivizes parents to donate and send their children to private schools, siphoning billions away from public schools, while moving to dismantle the Dept. of Education.

These decades of austerity and neoliberal education reform under the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations have pushed our public education system to the brink and forced education unions to respond. In February 2018, roughly 20,000 members of American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association chapters across all 55 school districts in West Virginia staged a historic strike that lasted nearly two weeks and secured significant wins for workers and students. The strike in West Virginia sparked a wave of similar struggles in states throughout the nation over the following year. More recently, SEA staged a strike in 2022, and this past February, educators in San Francisco went on strike for the first time in fifty years. In authorizing this most recent strike, SEA joins the continuing resurgence of educators using the power of their labor to fight for the welfare of their students.

We applaud and stand in solidarity with the members of SEA as they campaign for their students. That being said, that education professionals in this country are forced to go on strike at all, while the government endlessly funds ICE and the military, is an indictment of the profit-driven capitalist system we live under. A worker-run socialist government would necessarily recognize the importance of, and accordingly provide for, a robust public education system. Under socialism, education professionals would have the resources they need to dedicate all their time and energy to giving their students the education they deserve.

We can’t let up! Keep growing this crucial labor defense! An injury to one is an injury to all!

General Motors has laid off more than 1,000 workers at its Factory ZERO assembly plant in Detroit while simultaneously introducing 50 AI-powered collaborative robots to the production line.

At the union’s 39th Constitutional Convention in Detroit, UAW President Shawn Fain warned, “We are in a fight for humanity.”

Fain argued AI should improve jobs and productivity rather than leave workers behind.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/50205853

Jul 17, 2026

Detroit’s Democratic lawmaker Rashida Tlaib has called for the resignation of Neil Barofsky, the federal monitor tasked with overseeing the United Autoworkers, following reports of a call in which Barofsky hammered UAW President Shawn Fain in 2024 over the union’s call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Drop Site obtained and authenticated a recording of the conversation, which undercuts previous claims by Barofsky about his interactions with Fain. During a board meeting around the same time, Barofsky claimed, according to previously leaked minutes, that he had never said that the UAW statement crossed a line into antisemitism, but in the call he repeatedly made that claim. Barofsky also claimed he didn’t share his own opinion with Fain on the call, but in fact Barofsky does so at length.

I'm a union organizer. I talk about this on lemmy a lot. Today at 3pm, I got a call from my lawyer that the NLRB had dismissed my case on the grounds that I did not post protected speech. We never made that argument. Rather, we were charging that the company discriminated against me for being a union organizer.

Now that my case no longer exists, I can share receipts and a detailed timeline. You folks get to be the judge now.

On or about October 26, 2020, I started working at Activision Blizzard King as a Quality Assurance tester for Activision Publishing in Eden Prairie, MN on the night shift. My first project was Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Unfortunately my name is not in the credits because I started after the crediting freeze. I was immediately thrown into intense crunch working 70hr weeks, with 1 day off every 8th day. I did this for 6 weeks, before we were reduced to 60hr weeks for 5 weeks. After that, it was mostly 40hr weeks, with occasional 60hr crunch periods happening every so often.

On July 20, 2021, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit against the company for egregious sexual harassment charges. 7 days later on July 27, a work stoppage occurred in protest of the company's response. J Allen Brack from Blizzard resigned in the aftermath.

On November 2, 2021, Jen O'Neal stepped down from cochair due to sexual discrimination. On November 16, 2021, an article was released which detailed ABK CEO Bobby Kotick's extensive complicity in sexual harassment. 2 days later on the 18th, another work stoppage occurred. We petitioned the board of directors to fire Kotick, which they refused to do.

On December 3, 2021, Raven Software laid off 30% of the QA team with no announcement. 3 days later on the 6th, the QA team began a work stoppage that lasted for 6 weeks. On or about December 15, 2021, I became the first union organizer at my office while participating in this work stoppage.

Early 2022, the Communication Workers of America began negotiations for a contract with Microsoft for a historic 2 year Card-Check Neutrality Agreement, in which the company is legally obligated to voluntarily recognize any unions that form during that time period.

On or about September 8, 2023, Microsoft completes the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The Neutrality Agreement comes into effect.

On or about November 27, 2023, the company announced a Voluntary Severance Package for employees due to a mandatory requirement to work in the office, without exception for accommodations.

On March 8, 2024, 600 QA employees across Eden Prairie (MN), Austin (TX), and Los Angeles (CA) under Activision Publishing win voluntary recognition forming the largest tech union in North America. They become known as Activision Quality Assurance United, or AQAU-CWA.

October 25, 2024, a rally occurred at 12PM CST at the Eden Prairie office, at which workers protested the untenable accommodations process. Workers with disabilities were suffering due to the lack of flexibility for remote work. I was a lead organizer and the spokesperson for our union in a local news broadcast. The date is also significant due to the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.

On or about November 6, 2024, an unknown employee leaks the response of a trans coworker over the presidential election to right wing influencer Grummz. Grummz subsequently posts the picture on X (below). This is significant because any leak, including accidental, are grounds for immediate termination at Activision Blizzard.

On November 16, 2024 at approximately 7PM, I create a slack post advocating for responsible self defense and gun safety. Within the post, I provide options for less-lethal self defense. Both below.

60 hours later, the comment and post were removed by the company. 72 hours later, I attended an HR investigation with my union steward as a Weingarten representative. I was given an estimate that a decision would be reached by Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving arrives without a decision. I leave for vacation to participate in a union conference. When I returned to work on December 9, 2024, I receive notice of immediate termination for cause. See termination letter below.

On January 10, 2025, CWA submits a Request For Information regarding the complaints received about my post. We discover that despite claims of several complaints, there are only 8. Additionally, 6 complaints are from company management, including one of them submitted by the top manager of my office. Additionally, a related RFI for a different case revealed that my termination was an outlier for unprofessional conduct.

On a date unknown to me, CWA and Microsoft begin negotiations to restore my position. The company ultimately rejects the notion, with Chief People Officer Amy Baker issuing the following statement on February 5, 2025. On February 6, I provide my union with corrections to their statement.

In preparation for filing my Unfair Labor Practice, union stewards collected literally hundreds of screenshots involving the discussion of weapons that did not receive discipline. These screenshots don't mean much without appropriate context, which would balloon this already long post, so I'm declining to add them. They also collected character statements about me from multiple coworkers contradicting the company allegations that I was dangerous and that my post was inappropriate, which I have included.