Labor News

Last Friday, striking oil workers and postal workers held a joint rally in Rio de Janeiro, demonstrating growing cross-sector solidarity against privatization and attacks on labor rights in Brazil. Petrobras oil workers launched a national strike last Monday, followed by postal workers at Correios, who voted to strike the next day. Both companies are state-owned and currently undergoing restructuring and privatization processes that threaten jobs, wages, and public services.

The unified action was approved in a democratic oil workers’ assembly last Wednesday, which brought together more than 300 strikers. Workers from both sectors are demanding that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva reverse the right-wing, anti-worker measures imposed under former president Jair Bolsonaro.

Despite anti-privatization rhetoric, the Lula government has maintained company leaderships that prioritize dividends and profits of shareholders, many of whom are from the United States and other imperialist countries. Both Petrobras and Correios management have responded to strikes with police repression and concessions to business interests.

Oil Workers Confront Unsafe Conditions and Strikebreaking

Petrobras is Brazil’s biggest oil producer, with an output of about 2.52 million barrels of oil per day. Workers are demanding a collective bargaining agreement with real wage increases, safer working conditions, an end to layoffs, and equal rights for contracted workers and retirees. They have also denounced exhausting work schedules and attacks on offshore workers.

Since the strike began, two serious accidents have occurred, highlighting major safety issues amid management’s use of inexperienced scabs to continue production in place of striking workers. A gas leak on the P-40 platform and a fire on the P-68 platform — one of the company’s largest — forced production stoppages and endangered workers.

The company quickly released a statement downplaying the incidents, claiming that the fire was “quickly extinguished” and that “there is no connection whatsoever with the strike.”

As Esquerda Diario notes, these incidents are not accidents but the result of cost-cutting, deteriorating infrastructure, and the company’s insistence on maintaining output at any cost. Workers emphasize that their strike is also a fight for safety, proper maintenance, and the right to strike without risking lives or the environment.

Petrobras management has escalated repression, including calling in police against pickets. Meanwhile, the leadership of the Federação Única dos Petroleiros (FUP) has actively worked to end the strike, aligning itself with company and government interests. Despite this, major oil unions across the country remain on strike, shutting down production across the Petrobras system.

Postal Workers Resist Layoffs and Corporate “Restructuring”

The postal workers, for their part, went on a national strike that has reached nine states amid deadlocked negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement for next year. They are also fighting a “restructuring plan” that Lula announced in November that will accelerate privatization in Correiros, the state-owned postal company. In an assembly on Monday, postal workers rejected the proposal presented by the company and the Superior Labor Court for failing to maintain their historical labor rights.

The plan includes a voluntary dismissal program targeting up to 10,000 workers, the closure of 1,000 post offices, and the sale of company real estate. It is paired with a massive loan intended to “modernize” the service. In reality, these plans will deepen job losses and reduce service — especially in remote areas.

The company has been facing massive deficits, which the government is using to justify these measures. While Lula has ruled out outright privatization, the government is pursuing layoffs, asset sales, and austerity measures to address company deficits. Postal workers warn that these policies shift the burden of the crisis onto workers and the public, undermining a vital public service.

Building Cross-Sector Unity from Below

Oil and postal workers are confronting the same political project: the dismantling of the public sector and the transformation of state-owned companies into instruments for private profit. Their joint mobilization is not symbolic, but a concrete step toward building unity across strategic sectors capable of confronting this agenda head-on.

Forging this unity is a fundamental task. The Rio de Janeiro rally should serve as a starting point for constructing a large, unified national mobilization bringing together the rank and file of Petrobras, Correios, and other sectors of workers. This requires breaking with passivity and pressuring union leaderships to move from a policy of accommodation of the Lula government to active mobilization against privatization and labor precarity.

At a moment when sections of the union leadership are capitulating to management or actively working to demobilize the struggle, it is urgent to build a national strike committee elected directly by the rank and file. Delegates must be accountable, and coordinate the struggle nationally. Workers cannot allow bureaucracies to act from above to disarm the strikes.

The strength the workers have already demonstrated shows that another path is possible. With unity, democratic organization, and rank-and-file self-organization, workers can push the struggle forward, defeat company offensives, and win real gains — not only for themselves, but in defense of public services for the broader population.

Defending a fully state-owned Correios under workers’ control, with real public participation, points to a clear alternative to the profit-driven logic that has been hollowing out public services across Brazil. Postal workers insist that those who do the work — together with the communities that rely on the service — are best placed to determine its priorities and reorganize it to fulfill its social function in a universal, efficient way, without layoffs or precarious working conditions.

Oil workers at Petrobras show that this is not an isolated struggle. From energy to communications, workers are drawing the same conclusion: strategic sectors cannot be run in the interests of shareholders without sacrificing safety, labor rights, and the public good. The convergence of these strikes points toward a collective fight to reclaim public services from the logic of profit and place them under democratic control, in the service of workers and society as a whole.

On Wednesday, Kings County Hospital doctors, nurses, PCAs/PCTs, transporters, and others rallied outside of the hospital to demand that the administration halt an unsafe plan to decommission one of the CT scanners that would put patients at risk.

The post Kings County Healthcare Workers Rally for Patient Safety appeared first on Left Voice.

Richard Hooker Jr is running to replace Trump ally Sean O’Brien as president of the Teamsters International union

Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, who unionized with the United Auto Workers last year, announced Thursday that they will vote next week to authorize a strike after over 13 months of fruitless contract negotiations with the auto giant.

The strike authorization vote planned for October 28-29 "comes after months of unfair labor practices committed by the company, including bad faith negotiations, unlawful intimidation, and the unilateral cutting of jobs at Volkswagen’s only US assembly plant," UAW said in a statement. The union also highlighted Volkswagen's $20.6 billion in profits last year.

Company spokesperson Michael Lowder said Monday that "Volkswagen made it clear to the union that our last, best, and final offer is indeed final. We cannot in good faith prolong negotiations by continuing to bargain when we have already put our best offer on the table. It is time for the UAW to give VW employees a voice and let them decide for themselves by voting on our final offer."

However, multiple employees said Thursday that they are not happy with the company's latest offer and plan to vote for a strike.

"I'm voting yes because this is the time to show Volkswagen we are serious about receiving industry-standard treatment. Job security's essential. They could pay us $100 an hour, but it means nothing if they close the plant two weeks into the agreement," said James Robinson. "I'm hoping this process shows the company we are serious about getting a fair contract. We will show them their offer wasn't enough, show them we're willing to stand up to get what we deserve."

"I'm hoping this process shows the company we are serious about getting a fair contract."

Employee Taylor Fugate said that "I'm voting yes to get Volkswagen to come back to the table. The majority of the people I know don't want VW's 'final offer.' They want to keep negotiating, and we are willing to do what it takes to make that happen."

"We need affordable healthcare and a strong job security statement that leaves no gray area," Fugate added. "We also deserve equal standards—Southern autoworkers shouldn't be treated differently!"

One elected Republican held a press conference on Wednesday in a bid to bully the union into holding a vote on the company's latest offer. Local 3 News reported that Hamilton County Commissioner Jeff Eversole said: "Volkswagen put forward a final union contract offer over a month ago that offers significant gains for Chattanooga workers, including a 20% wage increase, a cost-of-living allowance, a $4,000 ratification bonus, lower healthcare costs, and much more. Many employees have been reaching out to the UAW to vote, and the UAW has refused."

Payday Report's Mike Elk pointed out Thursday that "the tactics used by the GOP in Chattanooga are similar to the tactics that they have used for more than a decade to sometimes successfully dissuade union votes by implying that the plant may close if the union gets 'too greedy' (their words, not my mine, as the son of a Volkswagen auto assembly line worker)."

Local 3 News noted that "during the press conference, dozens of members from both the UAW and the Chattanooga Area Central Labor Council, or CLC, began picketing outside of the VW plant."

The outlet also spoke with some employees. One of them, Dakotah Bailey, explained that "originally, it was going to be a 25% increase in wages. They didn't want to take that, and now they dropped it down to 20%. I wanted to try and get my money now. Especially right before the holidays. It would be great to have an extra $5,500 sitting in my bank account."

According to a "Volkswagen Stories" video series published by the UAW on YouTube, wages are a primary concern for workers. Other top priorities include health and safety conditions at the plant, healthcare, paid time off, and retirement benefits.

"I don't want to strike, but if it comes to it, I will," Volkswagen worker Mitchell Harris said Thursday. "Because I feel that all my brothers and sisters of UAW Local 42 deserve respect, to provide a better life for their families, and have job security for us and generations to come."

It seemed impossible for Italy to strike for Palestine more successfully than it did the first time, yet it happened: 2 million people returned to the streets on October 3, blocking everything again. The second general strike was called by Si Cobas labor union on September 18, and circulated broadly after September 22, the date of the first strike.

After Israel attacked the Global Sumud Flotilla on the evening of October 1, CGIL (the biggest Italian union) and USB (the union that called the earlier general strike) joined the call. This landmark event marked the first time that all the leftist labor unions in the country decided to go on strike together.

The days preceding the strike were filled with constant mobilization. People took to the streets as soon as the attack on the flotilla was reported through media channels. A spontaneous rage and a will to act took over, with people rushing to the main squares in different Italian cities. After two years of genocide witnessed through phone and laptop screens, people of all ages gathered together physically in continuous and heterogeneous demonstrations. On October 2, the day after the attacks, people were in the streets again, in a diffuse vibrant and electric atmosphere that foreshadowed what would happen over the next two days.

As Marika Giati — a PhD student at the University of Pisa and part of the Women’s Assembly of the Migrants Coordination in Bologna — told Truthout, “In these demonstrations, a new consciousness could be felt — one that exploded and connected with the massive mobilizations stretching from Spain to France, Germany, the Netherlands, Greece, Tunisia, Mexico, and Morocco.”

People were enraged by the Italian government as well. Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani, speaking about Israel’s illegal control of the international waters adjacent to Gaza, said that international law is important, “but does not always matter” — justifying both the Israeli blockade, and the fact that the Italian frigate accompanying the flotilla abandoned the flotilla while it was being attacked and while Italian citizens were being illegally arrested by Israel.

In the meantime, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni openly opposed the strike and the protests, claiming that the strikers only wanted a longer weekend and didn’t want to work. Such comments purposely overlooked the conditions under which workers are striking, as if people were paid to be on strike. The Strike Guarantee Commission, the Italian regulatory authority on the right to strike, also attempted to hinder the strike, labelling it illegitimate and claiming that the unions didn’t provide enough advance notice.

Labor Notes recently released a guide to help organize for the much-anticipated May Day general strike in…2028. It’s useful information, but as the countdown clock on the site shows, still 937 days away. At the rate the Trump administration is moving, there might not be much left of unions by the scheduled date.

The criminally underreported National Security Presidential Memorandum recently issued by Trump looks to crackdown on a whole range of activities, including actions by workers. We’ve mentioned how the administration’s ICE machine is one of workforce engineering: people out and exploitable workers in.

The administration is also increasingly threatening to use conspiracy law to go after those in opposition to authoritarian capitalism in the US or Israel. Since the assasination of Charlie Kirk, Trump asked the Attorney General to investigate individuals who protested him at dinner, instructing her to “look into that in terms of RICO.” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche backed him up, saying such protesters are “part of an organized effort to inflict harm and terror and damage to the United States,” which justifies Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) investigations.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller has also vowed to “dismantle and take on the radical left” through RICO and conspiracy charges.

It might be tempting to dismiss as more of Trump’s bloviating, but the war on the home front seems like one of the few areas where the administration is moving with unified purpose and, unlike the empire’s targets abroad, a foe against which they stand a chance. For all Trump’s faults he knows weakness, and understands all our crumbling institutions can be bought or bullied. RICO is a useful tool against any holdouts, and there are recent examples of it being wielded successfully.

Perhaps the biggest was the RICO charges against Stop Cop City activists in Atlanta (this was a state case that predated Trump 2.0). The charges against the protesters were recently dismissed on jurisdictional grounds — but not before destroying many of their lives.

Trump, despite also being targeted by Georgia’s anti-racketeering law, is eager to use it against others. In Los Angeles an individual was charged with conspiracy for providing face shields to ICE protesters, and pro-Palestinian protesters, animal activists, and anti-fascist counter-protesters have also faced such charges.

As boats from the Global Sumud Flotilla prepared to set sail toward Gaza from the coasts of Italy, Spain, and Tunisia, a representative of Genoa’s Dockworkers’ Union (CALP), now part of Unione Sindacale di Base, declared that if anything happened to the flotilla, workers would “block everything.” “Our young women and men must come back without a scratch,” the worker said at the port…

A group of United Auto Workers members is seeking to oust President Shawn Fain ahead of an election next year, a sign of frustration among some in the two years since the labor group secured landmark contracts with U.S. automakers.

Workers at a Stellantis NV truck factory in suburban Detroit and an engine plant in southeast Michigan voted over the weekend to start the union’s process to remove its leader, said two UAW members involved with the effort. The votes join earlier ones by four other local UAW chapters, reaching the threshold needed for Fain’s opponents to bring allegations of financial mismanagement, workplace retaliation and other issues against him to the federal monitor overseeing the union for potential discipline.

Representatives for Fain and the UAW didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The move increases pressure on Fain, the bombastic labor leader who led a 2023 strike against Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Stellantis that helped secure significant wage gains for workers. Fain won a close runoff earlier that year, the first direct vote by union members in the UAW’s 90-year history.

Now, ahead of the union’s next leadership elections in 2026, Fain is facing blowback from some members for layoffs at Stellantis factories, claims he retaliated against two fellow board members who disagreed with him and accusations that the union has mismanaged its funds.

“I supported Shawn, but his spending is out of control and he’s retaliatory,” David Pillsbury, a worker at GM’s Flint, Mich., truck plant who started the petition to remove Fain, said in an interview. “The transparency Shawn promised hasn’t happened.”

Although a small fraction of the UAW’s more than 600 locals, the groups seeking to oust Fain represent a vocal contingent that have been hurt by layoffs. Fain still has strong support among the legions of graduate student teaching aides who are also members of the union, said Art Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

The effort to remove Fain was started by two UAW members who have criticized Fain for a lack of transparency. Pillsbury and Brian Keller, a Stellantis worker who intends to run against Fain next year, plan to take their proposal next to a pair of plants in Ohio and Fain’s home plant in Kokomo, Ind., Pillsbury said.

Turnout at some locals has been small. At the Sterling Heights plant that voted over the weekend, 63 workers showed up with all but one voting to oust Fain, Pillsbury said. The plant has 6,200 employees.

If the union challenges any of the victories because of low voter turnout or for any other reason, he said he wants enough wins to maintain the six victories needed to push ahead.

Some UAW workers are angry over thousands of layoffs at Stellantis factories since the 2023 contract was ratified, moves the company took to tame inventory amid declining market share. The contract that Fain negotiated allowed Stellantis to fire hundreds of temporary workers, and it has since been replacing them with part-time summer employees, said Eric Graham, president of UAW Local 140.

“They told the people that ‘this is the best contract ever,’ and it was — incentive-wise,” said Graham, who represents workers at a Stellantis assembly plant in Warren, Michigan, where more than 1,500 people are currently laid off. “But when you pressure the company the way they did and make the company spend money they didn’t want to spend,” it puts jobs at risk, he said.

Five of the six locals that voted to begin removal proceedings represent employees of the Jeep maker, where Fain worked as an electrician before moving up the ranks of UAW administration.

Dissent over Fain’s leadership also centers on his decision to strip duties from two of the union’s elected vice presidents. There were about 1,900 UAW members still on layoff at the end of July, a Stellantis spokeswoman said.

Fain retaliated against UAW Treasurer-Secretary Margaret Mock after she refused to approve certain expenses, according to a report by Neil Barofsky, the federal monitor appointed by the Justice Department to oversee UAW governance after two past presidents were convicted on corruption charges.

After the monitor issued that report, Fain and 10 other board members shot back in a letter saying Mock had obstructed funding for critical organizing efforts. They also blamed the financial management issues on her, saying the monitor is looking into management of union investments during her tenure as treasurer.

The monitor is also probing similar allegations made by the other vice president, Rich Boyer, who was the UAW’s chief negotiator with Stellantis before Fain removed him from the union’s Stellantis department.