US Labor News Roundup

Unions and Community Unite to Challenge Banks and Employers during Twin Cities 'Week of Action'

Service Employees Local 26 won good new contracts for 6,000 janitors and security guards; the guards held a one-day strike. But that was only one event of the "Week of Action" in the Twin Cities February 25-March 2.

Cleaners at Target stores, who have no union, also walked off the job for 24 hours, protesting low wages. "The power of that walkout in the Latino immigrant community, the undocumented community, is enormous," said Local 26 President Javier Morillo. Seventy-five percent of Local 26's janitors are Latino and another 15 percent are immigrants from East African nations.

The walkout illustrated how workers can take collective action outside of traditional unions, said Morillo.

The idea of the Week of Action, which united dozens of unions and community organizations to hold protests and marches every day, was to put a spotlight on the Twin Cities' most important employers: Target, Wells Fargo, and US Bank. The two banks have foreclosed on many homes.

Local 26 members joined in events organized by community groups, students marched with workers, and people of all backgrounds went to the state Capitol to press for a "Homeowner's Bill of Rights."

The actions put a spotlight on "where the power is" and created trust among the organizations to work together for the future.

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In Wisconsin, Where Public Sector Bargaining Is Illegal, Unions Bargain 'Informally'

After the Wisconsin legislature banned public sector unions from most collective bargaining in 2011, the teachers union had to invent ways of dealing with management informally.

To counteract the negative image of public employees pushed by politicians, faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point gave interviews to local media about why they were forming a union and how organizing education workers would benefit the community. Their SPARC union created a show on the campus radio station highlighting how members' research and teaching contribute to society.

This visibility was crucial to their success. Even though administrators have no legal obligation to bargain, they agreed to talk with the union. In the last year SPARC has won access to budget information and a pool of money to address unequal salaries.

Direct action can be another kind of informal bargaining.

The graduate assistants at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee waged a campaign of escalating direct action after a dean canceled a benefit. First they launched a "campaign of annoyance." They used fliers to educate graduate students and faculty about the reversal, then organized members and allies.

The idea was to decrease the amount of work that could get done in the dean's office. Members and supporters flooded the office with emails, then phone calls.

Supporters filled out a card urging the dean to reinstate the benefit and delivered all the signed cards to his office. Then they held a picket outside.

The dean relented, emailing the whole college to say he wasn't making the cut and that the union had misunderstood. The union distributed a second flier pointing out that the union's direct action had caused him to back down.