Sign this petition to send a message of support to the brave, dedicated, and skilled healthcare workers of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin who are forming a union to take better care of themselves, their patients, and their communities.
For years, Planned Parenthood and the labor movement have been under attack. All the while, the healthcare providers at these clinics across the state have been showing up and caring for their patients. Now, those workers are proudly forming their union with the sincere intent to support the long-term viability of PPWI and its mission.
If 2023 was described as having the “summer of strikes” (which stretched into the fall and winter), then 2024 may become known as the “year of union organizing drives”.
2023 saw more than 500,000 workers stage more than 400 strikes, with many more winning historic contracts with threatened strikes. From the Hollywood writers and Screen Actors Guild strikes to the six-week UAW coordinated strike against the Big Three automakers, from the Kaiser Permanente health workers strike to the threatened strike by 300,000 Teamster workers that won a historic contract with UPS, these struggles demonstrated a dramatic increase in the eagerness by our class to engage the billionaires in battle for higher wages and benefits.
This comes at a time of growing public popularity for unions, with polls showing more than 70 per cent support.
The next step: Organizing new shops.
In late September, at a crucial point in the historic UAW strike against the “Big Three” auto companies, Ford’s CEO Jim Farley complained about how he was “frustrated” by the union’s demands around the new battery plants, which manufacture the key component of the new electric vehicles (EVs):
“What’s really frustrating is that I believe we could have reached a compromise on pay and benefits, but so far, the UAW is holding the deal hostage over battery plants,” Farley told reporters in a news conference hours after the UAW announced an expanded strike on Friday.
Damn right!
UAW President Shawn Fain immediately responded by saying Farley was lying:
“(W)e are far apart on core economic proposals like retirement security and post-retirement healthcare, as well as job security in this EV transition, which Farley himself says is going to cut 40% of our members’ jobs,” Fain said in a statement, referencing a comment Farley made in November about EVs requiring fewer workers to make.
Ford and Stellantis (formerly Chrysler), along with General Motors, have set up “joint companies” with foreign firms precisely to do just that, to pay workers far less at battery plants than at their own ones. Plus, this arrangement reduces their risk in their investments in this technology. And they are often, but not always, setting up these plants in so-called “right to work” states, where laws and government officials are hostile to unions.
That is why Fain and the union’s negotiating team demanded that the new Big 3 contracts cover the battery plants.
During the strike, on October 6, sporting an “Eat the Rich” t-shirt, UAW President Shawn Fain announced on a live video to 52,000 union viewers that GM had agreed to include its battery plant workers in the national contract. By the end of the strike, Ford and Stellantis agreed to similar terms.
With the historic agreement in hand, Fain and the rest of the UAW leadership has vowed to expand the union into non-union plants across the country. As the industry web site “Tech Brew” reports:
Those contracts, which workers at Ford, GM, and Stellantis recently ratified, followed a six-week strike by the UAW across all three automakers. The deals include 27% in compounded wage increases through 2028, cost-of-living adjustments, a shorter pathway to top wages, and commitments from the companies to convert temporary workers to permanent status, among other gains.
The UAW then launched a bid to organize the rest of the industry: BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Lucid, Mazda, Mercedes, Nissan, Rivian, Subaru, Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Volvo.
“To all the autoworkers out there working without the benefits of a union: now it’s your turn,” UAW President Shawn Fain said last month.
Many of these companies, in response to the UAW announcement, have now given modest raises to their workers, hoping to forestall the unionization of their plants. But these fall short of what the Big 3 contracts offer.
The UAW has filed “unfair labor practices” charges with the National Labor Relations Board against Hyundai, Volkswagen and Honda for harassing workers trying to sign up fellow workers for holding a union recognition election.
In addition to the UAW Big 3 strike and organizing new shops, Fain is supporting a variety of social justice struggles including putting the UAW on record for a U.S.-Israel ceasefire in relation to Palestine. Fain is also participating in a variety of events including being a scheduled speaker at the 21st annual MLK Detroit event January 15, 2024. MLK Day Detroit and https://uaw.org/uaw-president-shawn-fain-to-speak-at-detroit-mlk-day-rally-and-march-on-january-15/
Tesla and Elon Musk in the crosshairs
Tesla’s owner Elon Musk has not increased his factory workers’ pay. As he told a book summit in November:
“I think it’s generally not good to have an adversarial relationship between one group at the company and another group,” Musk said. “I disagree with unions because I don’t like anything which creates a lords and peasants sort of thing. I think unions naturally try to create negativity at a company.”
But Fain, during a Dec. 1 Q&A session in Detroit, said the unionization effort that is building across the country “is a lot bigger than Elon Musk.”
“The irony is (Musk) talks about lords and peasants, and that’s the current status,” Fain said. “While he’s getting extremely wealthy off the backs of his workers and he’s building rocket ships to fly his ass into outer space, workers continue to scrape to get by.”
Musk, with a net worth of $223 billion — largely composed of Tesla stock — is the world’s richest man, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, a title he first gained in 2021.
A small group of Swedish Tesla service center workers, numbering only 120, have been engaged in a nine-week-old strike for union recognition. The incredible acts of solidarity by workers in Sweden and neighboring countries are sending a message of hope that could resonate in other countries that contain Tesla operations, including the U.S. As a CNN December 29article reports:
[A] Tesla subsidiary in Sweden refused to sign a collective agreement with IF Metall. In response, some of the 120 mechanics employed by Tesla to service its cars in the country went on strike in late October and have not returned to work.
So, a wave of “sympathy strikes” has followed. Swedish dock workers have blocked deliveries of Tesla cars at the country’s ports, electricians have refused to service charging stations, and postal workers have even stopped delivering license plates. “This is insane,” was Musk’s response to the latter development.
By early December, unions representing dockworkers in Denmark, Norway and Finland had announced plans to block all exports of Tesla cars to Sweden from their ports.
There are no Tesla factories in Sweden. But as this same article points out:
Bowing to union pressure in Sweden could embolden Tesla (TSLA) workers in Germany — home to the company’s only European factory — who, likewise, want a collective agreement on pay and other terms of employment. It could also fire up unionization efforts by Tesla’s US workforce.
The working class should not recognize national boundaries in our struggles. International solidarity is the most effective weapon we have to defeat billionaires like “Lord” Musk!
Fry, a retired auto worker, is a former UAW shop steward, bargaining committeeman, and strike vice-chairman.
UAW President Shawn Fain promoting class struggle. https://uaw.org/
Dear friends, comrades, and supporters, A new year dawns tomorrow. Introspection seems to be a requirement of the occasion, along with ample servings of black- eyed peas and greens with cornbread for those of us whose roots lie in the southern USA.
Our family has lit the Kwanzaa candles and reflected on the Seven Principles: Umoja (Unity), Kujichagulia (Self Determination), Ujima (Collective Work & Responsibility), Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics), Nia (Purpose), Kuumba (Creativity), and Imani (Faith). These are not just directives for African Americans; they form an excellent roadmap for liberation everywhere.
The idea that most resonates with me today is this: Poder es servir. Power is service.
That’s what I was taught at the family dinner table, in civics class, at Sunday school. My parents, teachers, coaches, mentors were of one voice about this: we are, each of us, free to choose our own paths but regardless of our choices, the bottom line is that we should leave the world better than we found it.
The staff and board of AFGJ have taken this to heart. We all strive to serve the people. Our resistance to oppression of all kinds is service. Our work to teach, inform, organize, build, cultivate, and resist is service.
Our quest to build people power is service, because with greater power in the hands of the people instead of the miserly grip of the financial barons, the wealth we produce through our labor can be used to serve our needs.
This power, like the other human rights we are all entitled to, is at the core of our purpose, our struggle, and if we succeed in our work for justice, it will be our future.
Thank you for your service to humanity and your dedication to building people power. Thank you for working toward a just peace in our works. Thank you for traveling this path with us. Thank you for your support, both past and future.
May the new year bring renewed hope and vigor to all of us and to our movement. May you have a healthy, productive, and purpose-filled year that brings you love, contentment, and joy.
In hopes of greater power and service, Camille Landry, Coordinator for the Lucy Parsons Human Rights School on behalf of The Staff & Board of Alliance for Global Justice
31 December 2023
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Dec. 28, Havana – Today at CENESEX, we received an emotional recognition from the National Secretariat of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the National Center for Sex Education.
In this regard, the work done to eliminate the relics of a society that kept women in a situation of subordination and their contribution through the implementation of comprehensive sexuality education to eliminate gender stereotypes and sexual prejudices that limit the full exercise of sexual rights.
On his part, the Deputy Director of our Center, Gustavo Valdés Pi, referred to the role played by the Federation of Cuban Women and its President Vilma Espín Guillois in the achievements that CENESEX shows today, as well as the work done towards social transformation.
The recognition was received from the hands of comrade Yaneydis Perez Cruz, member of the National Secretariat of the organization of Cuban women.
Please attend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. March and Rally For Black Liberation on Monday, January 15, 2024, 12:00 noon, starting at Martin Luther King Statue, 495 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard in Newark, NJ.
Join w the MLK Jr Coalition for Justice, 1927 N 4th St, as we Celebrate the Life of Dr King & the current movements for Peace & Justice. We will March to the King Statute, for an Open Mic, at 2:30 pm.
Event: 21st Annual Detroit MLK Day Rally & March Location: St. Matthew’s-St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church, 8850 Woodard Avenue at Holbrook Date & Time: Mon. Jan. 15, 2024, 12 Noon-3:00pm Sponsor: Detroit MLK Committee E-mail: panafnewswire@yahoo.com URL: mlkdetroit.org Telephone: (313) 671-3715
Join us for the 21st Annual Detroit MLK Day Rally & March in honor of the actual historic legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Jan. 15, 1929-April 4, 1968).
This year’s event comes amid a heightening struggle for labor rights and against imperialist war across the United States and the world.
Our invited speakers include Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and UAW International President Shawn Fain. The event will be co-chaired by Aurora Harris, lecturer in African American Studies at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire.
The rally and march will feature other speakers and artists including Atty. Nancy Parker, Executive Director of the Detroit Justice Center and Wardell Montgomery, Detroit poet and songwriter.
A host of speakers and artists from the Detroit area will make presentations highlighting the wealth of community organizers and cultural workers in southeastern Michigan. A broad coalition of these social forces is very much needed in the coming year to meet the challenges facing the people of the city, the country and the globe.
Beginning in 2004, the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI) held the first MLK Day Rally & March in downtown Detroit. The following year the Detroit MLK Committee was formed bringing in veteran civil rights and social justice activists as well as younger generations of organizers and artists.
Since 2019, the gathering has been held at the Historic St. Matthew’s-St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church located on Woodward Ave. at Holbrook. This venue encompasses the first independent African American Church in the city of Detroit dating back to the mid-19th century.
The current period has been characterized by widespread strikes in various sectors of the economy including unions representing autoworkers, heath care practitioners, writers, actors, entertainment workers, educators and service employees. During the last few months, Detroit has been labelled “Strike City” because of the work stoppages involving tens of thousands of workers.
We will honor the increasing militant posture of working people, a tradition in which the city was built upon. Labor unions are encouraged to participate in this event along with their rank-and-file members to symbolize the necessity of organizing and mobilizing the majority of people in order to achieve genuine democracy and economic rights.
In addition to labor activism, we will acknowledge the antiwar and peace traditions of Dr. King, who was martyred in Memphis, Tennessee during his intervention in a sanitation workers’ strike in early 1968. Dr. King in the previous year, 1967, came out strongly against the U.S. genocidal war in Vietnam.
Today we are facing yet another genocidal war against the people of Gaza in Palestine. Thousands have been killed including many children utilizing bombs and other weapons supplied by the U.S. government.
Instead of ending the war in Palestine and Ukraine, the current administration is demanding over $100 billion more for military adventures and containments from the Middle East and Eastern Europe to the Asia-Pacific and the southern border areas with the U.S.
We are rallying and marching for a cessation of militarism and economic exploitation. What is needed is a society where all people are guaranteed housing, clean water, food, energy, quality education, peace and the right to equality and self-determination.
You can contribute to the costs for this event by sending a donation to the Detroit MLK Committee at 5920 Second Ave., Detroit, MI 48202.
Wisconsin Bail Out the People Movement 