Chris Brooks

The Auto Workers' strike against General Motors came to a close this weekend after six weeks on the picket lines, with workers voting to ratify a contract that was clearly unloved but accepted with a yes vote of 57 percent.

VIDEO: Chicago Teachers And Support Staff On Strike!

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The Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU Local 73 are on strike for class size caps, fair wages, support for homeless students, affordable and sustainable housing, a nurse in every school and more counselors and librarians – and more!

We’ve learned that they have reached a tentative agreement that includes naptime for Pre-K students. Yes, we need to strike to get little ones naptime.

This webinar was held on Thursday October 24, 2019 at 9 PM EST. Discussion was facilitated by Labor Notes staff writer and organizer Barbara Madeloni.

VIDEO: White Terror in Hong Kong; Union Leaders Fired and Beaten and... Fighting Back

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Within the massive and stunningly persistent social insurgency in Hong Kong against authoritarian domination, thousands of unionized workers are risking white terror... the threat of constant surveillance, discipline and loss of livelihood. Teachers, social workers, civil servants, and - most visibly - airline staff have joined protests and publicly shown support for the goals of political liberties. The response of the Chinese government - carried out by local agents in government, business, and organized crime gangs - has been direct suppression.

VIDEO: Rank-and-File Autoworkers Discuss the Tentative Agreement with GM

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Forty-nine thousand auto workers are on strike at General Motors in the largest private sector strike since the last time union and company clashed, in 2007. Now, there is a tentative agreement with the company.

In this webinar, rank-and-file autoworkers debated whether to support the agreement and go back to work, or vote it down and stay out on the picket lines in the hope of achieving something better.

“They always say it will take multiple agreements to reach equality—we can’t win it all in one go,” said Sean Crawford, a second-tier worker at Flint Truck Assembly in Michigan.

For Crawford, the GM strike, the longest at a Big 3 company in 50 years, was the best chance the union had to put an end to the many tiers that have fractured the workforce.

On the 31st day of the longest auto strike in 50 years, General Motors and the United Auto Workers announced a tentative agreement.

The UAW's GM Council, made up of representatives from each GM local, will meet tomorrow. If they approve the pact, as expected, it will be submitted to strikers for a ratification vote.

The Council will also decide whether workers will stay out on strike during the vote or return to work immediately, as has been the union's practice in past strikes.

GM Strike Anthems: Rap Tracks from the Picket Lines

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Let's be honest: Picket lines can be tedious, especially if strikers simply repeat the same hackneyed chants over and over again.

But not always. To break up the monotony, workers often make up their own chants, dances and songs.

In the case of the Auto Workers members below, they went so far as to record their own rap tracks and music videos, which are provided here with our immense admiration.

Labor Notes Goes to Asia

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At times it can seem like international solidarity is just a rallying cry, devoid of the oomph that would make it a force to build power among workers across borders. But this past August, we had the chance to witness international solidarity in action.

Chanting in English, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, and Tagalog, a multinational crowd of union activists rallied in the swampy heat of Taiwan’s capital in front of the headquarters of Foxconn, the notorious manufacturer of iPhones.

The UAW strike against General Motors is heating up on the picket lines as the stand-off enters its second week. The first week saw union members arrested, presidential candidates march on the lines, and rumors floated that the strike could extend beyond a tentative agreement through the ratification vote.

(Ready to lend a hand? Click here for a list of picket line locations.)

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