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#Google #AWU #unions #transparency #antitrust #GiftArticle
"The agreement is another blow to Google’s corporate policies designed to maintain secrecy, which have been scrutinized amid the search case brought by the Justice Department. It also undercut Google’s strategy to keep its business humming during the lawsuit — to have employees ignore the antitrust battle and remain focused on their work."
(Thanks Sarah Missen)
Industrial Disputes Report 9th April 2025
NSW #doctors; #KeolisDowner; #Boral; #Healthscope; #Downer; #BAE; QLD #nurses & #midwives; #Tomago; #ACL; Vic public sector mental #healthworkers; #Forensicare; Metro Tasmania & WA child protection workers
https://open.substack.com/pub/disputesreport/p/industrial-disputes-and-news-9-april?
1911, AL Banner Mine explosion killed 128 men 
Many serving time for misdemeanors — often on trumped up charges to meet st quotas for convict labor.
Today: prisons in US & El Salvador.
State colluded with mine owners to protect profits instead of WKRs' safety.
#USPol #Racism
https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/banner-mine-explosion/
"What will it take to beat Amazon? Much more of what we’ve seen this past year, escalating to disruptive actions sustained over time and coordinated systematically on a global scale.
To get there, we will need union drives that embrace three principles: First, a class-struggle organising approach, recognizing that this is a fight between two opposing interests: Amazon workers, who demand the full fruits of their labor and rights at work, versus their bosses, who want to maximize profit and control. Second, the movement must be driven by bold, concrete demands that clarify what is at stake. Amazon workers have shown they will make extraordinary sacrifices if they are strongly motivated by the prospect of changing their lives. And third, there must be thorough and democratic shop-floor organising. There are no shortcuts to building the strength and resiliency necessary to withstand the blows of Amazon’s union busters.
This must be a coordinated, global effort."
https://socialistproject.ca/2025/04/how-amazon-workers-can-organise-globally/
The Democrats Won’t Acknowledge the Scale of Trump’s Tariff Mess
I see that #Democrats need to appease #unions, but this response is wrong. We need to say that felon Trump has no plan! Tariffs need to be applied surgically, not with a sledge hammer.
NSW public sector offices can't accommodate workers, unions say
NSW public sector workers are being consulted on their willingness to work "principally" in an approved office after a memo from the NSW premier's department directed employees away from work-from-home.
Doctors in public hospitals kick-off three day strike
By Sam Nichols and Jean Kennedy
The industrial action centres around claims of unsustainable workloads, chronic understaffing and low pay, with the union expecting up to 9,000 doctors to take part.
Nothing helpful to my research in it, sadly, but a truly splendid cover for this Coat Makers Union anniversary journal from 1937. From the YIVO collection.
WONDERFUL NEWS: the Washington Post’s tech workers are unionizing! https://posttechguild.org/
A longtime union organizer here in Boston is auctioning off their frankly massive connection of t-shirts and pins, with the proceeds going to benefit Labor Notes. Some lovely bits of leftist design scattered throughout in here: https://www.ebay.com/str/fiestafolk
Doctors say 'we don't have a choice' as they prepare for three-day strike
By Brianna Parkins
The doctors' union is going ahead with it's planned action despite warnings from the Industrial Relations Commission and NSW Health.
Super exciting and inspiring to see so many people out there yesterday. Truly historic numbers of participants. And in spite of my following comments, I think demos like these are critical. If nothing else, they show the world that we are not sheep, that we oppose the fascist regime. It gives the government a taste of how strong we can be. Large demos like these provide a forum for activists to communicate with each other, share ideas, agitate for more radical changes. And it is empowering to be part of large demos, particularly for those who haven't done it before, instilling some hope in these dark times.
But here are a couple of things to consider:
(1) "Hands Off" is a liberal, not a leftist, slogan, devoid of anti-capitalist critique. Consider that the posters included "Hands Off NATO." That piece suggests that at least some organizers and participants actually support imperialist wars and interventions. NATO is one of the most anti-working-class organizations there is. Its entire purpose (contrary to the propaganda) is to pit working-class soldiers against each other in order to protect existing, and acquire new, territory, markets, and workers for the benefit of capitalists.
(2) "Hands Off Medicare, Social Security, libraries, immigrants, trans folks, etc." are necessary and existential short-term goals. But, at best, success brings us back to the pre-Trump status quo, which wasn't particularly good for most working-class people, nor for members of most marginalized communities. We need to be demanding a lot more (which many activists at yesterday’s demos were calling for).
(3) Some of the posters demanded "Fair Elections." But what does this even mean in a representative democracy? Yes, the Republicans have certainly exploited gerrymandering, the electoral college system, and voter suppression to win elections, sometimes even in spite of losing the popular vote. In fact, there are some who think Texas, with the 7th & 8th largest African American communities in the country (Dallas, Houston), would vote blue if not for gerrymandering and voter suppression. But then what? We'd still just be voting for who gets to rule over us and those rulers would still be primarily rich people, whose interests and policies align much more with the CEOs and corporate bosses than with working-class people. If the past is any indication, Democrats would still be supporting Zionism & Genocide, government suppression of strikes and worker movements (e.g., the recent train strike), imperialist & NATO interventions abroad. We'd still have millions living in the streets and millions dependent on food stamps and food pantries. We'd still have snowballing climate change and a government hamstrung by its subservience to capital. Let’s not forget, under Clinton, a Democrat, we got NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, the anti-worker NAFTA, and an “End to Welfare as We Know It.” And under Obama we got drone assassinations of U.S. citizens living abroad and a continuation of Bush’s mass deportations and imprisonment of immigrant children.
Optimistically, there were many people at yesterday’s demos who ARE thinking about these issues and fighting for far more than just a return to the pre-Trump status quo. There were lots of anti-genocide signs and posters and solidarity with Palestinians. Many demanding bodily autonomy for all, including both access to birth control and abortion, as well as access to gender affirming care. There were many demonstrators calling for a General Strike, which has far more potential to achieve results than do mass demonstrations. (Direct Action gets the Goods!)
So, let’s continue with these large mass demos. But let’s also start organizing direct actions that hurt the rulers’ bottom line. And let’s also remember that the most enduring North American General Strikes (e.g., Saint Louis, 1877; Seattle, 1919; Winnipeg, 1919; Minneapolis, 1934) all involved incredible organization and coordination, including the delivery of free food to residents; worker control of policing and emergency services; shutdown of corporate media and worker control of mass communication; worker control of transport and shipping.
Today in Labor History April 6, 1905: The Teamsters launched a sympathy strike with clothing cutters in Chicago. The strike started on December 15, 1904, at Montgomery Ward. The company locked out the workers and tried to starve them. The strike quickly spread to other unions. By April 6, 1905, there were 5,000 clothing workers on the picket lines. The teamsters added another 10,000 of their own. The bosses tried to ram through armed wagons full of scabs. The strikers fought back. Things grew increasingly violent. By the time the strike ended in May, twenty-one people were dead, mostly workers.
"Thousands turned out to the Roundhouse in Santa Fe as part of the Hands Off national protest. And they brought signs."
https://sourcenm.com/2025/04/05/hands-off-everything-we-love/
That 's why we need to organize and fight them. Politicians who take money from them will never be on our side.
