Workers Struggles
Striking nurses in Joliet, Illinois denounce unsafe conditions at AMITA hospital
By Benjamin Mateus, 7 August 2020
Striking nurses spoke to WSWS reporters about their demands for adequate staffing and safe working conditions.
Toledo Fiat Chrysler workers launch rank-and-file safety committee to save lives amid COVID-19 rampage
By the Toledo Assembly Rank-and-File Safety Committee, 11 July 2020
After the outbreak of at least 31 COVID-19 cases at the plant, workers at FCA’s Toledo Assembly Complex have formed a rank-and-file safety committee.
Striking Joliet, Illinois nurses should reject sellout deal
By Benjamin Mateus, 11 July 2020
AMITA Health St. Joseph Medical Center nurses in Joliet should reject the Illinois Nurses Association's deal, which does nothing to address chronic understaffing.
Massive worker participation in three-day India Coal strike
By Kranti Kumara, 11 July 2020
Last week’s strike had a huge impact on Coal India’s output, indicating that a large majority of its more than 500,000 regular and contract workers joined the walkout.
Penalty pay rates slashed for Australian retail workers
By Martin Scott, 11 July 2020
The Fair Work Commission ruled against delaying wage cuts for more than 240,000 workers.
“This is going to kill us—not coronavirus, but how broken the health care system is”
An Illinois nurse speaks out against corporate control of health care systems
By Jessica Goldstein, 10 July 2020
The nurse spoke to the WSWS after being furloughed for speaking out against a hospital’s corporate policies that discriminated against low-income patients during the pandemic.
Bath Iron Works expands strikebreaking operation as Maine shipyard walkout continues
By Shannon Jones, 10 July 2020
Management has put out a call for hundreds of additional scab replacements as the walkout by 4,300 shipbuilders is into its third week.
Fiat Chrysler ends third shift at Windsor, Ontario plant eliminating 1,375 jobs
By Carl Bronski, 10 July 2020
Talking like a corporate executive, Unifor Local 444 President Dave Cassidy said the cuts were “strictly a business decision.”
Iranian sugar plant strike enters fourth week; Israeli social workers on indefinite strike; indefinite walkout by Nigerian doctors
Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa
10 July 2020
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
United Airlines threatens to axe 36,000 jobs
By Steve Filips, 9 July 2020
The threat by United to lay off 45 percent of its workforce is part of a widespread restructuring of the US and international airline industry.
“A rank-and-file safety committee is exactly what we need”
Toledo Jeep workers demand action after dozens test positive for COVID-19
By Jerry White, 9 July 2020
Anger is reaching a breaking point at Fiat Chrysler’s Toledo Assembly Complex after reports that supervisors, union officials and workers have contracted the disease.
As it charts depths of economic crisis
OECD pushes for cuts in assistance for jobless
By Nick Beams, 9 July 2020
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development says that up to 10 times fewer hours have been worked in some countries as compared with the first months of the 2008 financial crisis.
Delta Airlines workers expose unsafe working conditions
By Tim Rivers, 9 July 2020
With the airlines increasing flights and slashing jobs, Delta flight crew members spoke to the WSWS about working conditions during the pandemic
Rutgers University announces hundreds of layoffs, intends to charge students full tuition in the fall
By Shuvu Batta, 9 July 2020
The layoffs and furloughs must be fought, and students must reject the enormous tuition and student loan debt that they are being compelled to pay for virtual courses.
Germany: Automaker Opel cuts company pensions
By Marianne Arens, 9 July 2020
W ith the help of the IG Metall union, management is passing on the costs of the coronavirus pandemic, e-mobility and digitalization to the workers.
Australia: Woolworths to slash more than 1,300 warehousing jobs
By Patrick Davies, 9 July 2020
Like other corporations, the supermarket chain is using the pandemic to restructure its operations at the expense of jobs and working conditions.
Spanish unions isolate Nissan workers’ struggle
By Alice Summers, 8 July 2020
As assaults on jobs and conditions mount across Spain, the unions are trying to suppress autoworkers’ opposition to the closure of Nissan’s Barcelona factory.
Canada’s migrant workers protest lack of COVID-19 protections
By Matthew Richter and Roger Jordan, 7 July 2020
Hundreds of migrant workers and their supporters joined protests Saturday against atrocious working and living conditions—conditions long sanctioned by government and made still worse by the pandemic.
Worker at German meat processing plant dismissed for sharing critical video
By Marianne Arens, 7 July 2020
The video shows a view into a canteen, where hundreds of employees sit and eat close to each other at the tables.
Over 700 Joliet, Illinois nurses go on strike for better wages and safe working conditions
By Benjamin Mateus and Kate Randall, 6 July 2020
Strikes of health care workers are part of a growing global response of workers across industries to the dangers posed by government back-to-work drives.
New Jersey growers refuse to test migrant farm workers for COVID-19
By Erik Schreiber, 6 July 2020
The decision not to test these laborers, many of whom have traveled from states with rising rates of infection, creates the conditions for a public health disaster.
How corporations and government finance the German trade unions
By Ulrich Rippert and Marianne Arens, 6 July 2020
With the pandemic, which has led to the deepest international economic crisis since the 1930s, the role of unions as tools of the corporations is taking on a new dimension.
Thousands of delivery workers strike across Brazil and other Latin American countries
By Brunna Machado and Letícia Silva, 4 July 2020
Thousands of delivery workers engaged in a strike on Wednesday to demand better working conditions in more than 10 Brazilian capitals, as well as in cities in Argentina and Mexico.
Zimbabwe nurses strike as economic crisis brings threat of second coup and military dictatorship
By Stephan McCoy, 4 July 2020
Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government is preparing to confront mounting opposition in the working class through dictatorial forms of rule and the abrogation of democratic rights—even as it is threatened by the possibility of a coup.
Bath Iron shipyard workers face stepped-up attacks as strike continues
By Shannon Jones, 4 July 2020
Management is mobilizing additional strikebreakers as the walkout by 4,300 workers at the Bath Iron Works heads toward its third week.
Riverside, California: HCA nurses strike continues as coronavirus takes its toll
By Alex Johnson, 4 July 2020
According to health officials, the confirmed active case count in Riverside bloated to 10,059 on Thursday, compared to 9,532 on Wednesday. The number of deaths due to COVID-19 stands at 465.
HPAE union betrays New Jersey nurses’ fight for PPE and better pay
By Erik Schreiber, 4 July 2020
New Jersey nurses must not allow their struggles to be strangled by the Health Professionals and Allied Employees union.
UAW and General Motors downplay outbreaks of COVID-19 at US auto plants
By Jessica Goldstein, 4 July 2020
As the UAW and auto corporations to play down the health crisis, workers’ anger is at breaking point as they demand the plants be shut down for their safety.
French unions collaborate with employers to impose mass layoffs as COVID-19 crisis deepens
By Will Morrow, 4 July 2020
As an international wave of layoffs and plant closures comes in France, the trade unions are working closely with the Macron government and employers to suppress workers’ opposition to this assault.
City University of New York lays off 2,800 adjuncts in wave of austerity
By Elliott Murtagh, 4 July 2020
These actions will have a devastating effect on the largest urban university system in the US, forcing faculty, students, and staff to bear the brunt of the current pandemic-triggered state and city financial crisis.
Tories resurrect cynical “Clap for Carers” on 72nd anniversary of the NHS
By Rory Woods, 4 July 2020
Sunday’s event insults the memory of hundreds of health and social care workers who died of COVID-19 trying to save the lives of others.
“Deep cleaning” in Australian schools: Image and reality
By Carolyn Kennett, 4 July 2020
As the COVID-19 pandemic spread, governments promised thoroughly cleaned classrooms, but school cleaners have neither the resources nor hours to conduct the necessary cleaning.
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
4 July 2020
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Hundreds of thousands of Indian coal miners launch three-day strike against privatisation
By Arun Kumar, 3 July 2020
Facing an economic crisis that has been greatly exacerbated by the pandemic and the ruling elite’s selfish class response, the Modi government is pushing through a “quantum jump” in pro-investor “reforms.”
Tens of thousands of jobs at risk as works council at German automaker Daimler announces layoffs
By Dietmar Gaisenkersting, 3 July 2020
The works council is repeating word for word the arguments of company management and industry analysts calling for stepped up attacks on workers.
Strike against Tower Hamlets Labour council’s “fire and rehire” of 4,000 employees
By Alice Summers, 3 July 2020
Facing massive budget shortfalls, the Labour-run London borough plans to lay off 4,000 workers before rehiring them on significantly worse pay and conditions.
Steel strike at Tata in the Netherlands against job losses; South African police fire stun grenade at workers protesting over unequal pay and conditions; nurses on strike in Zimbabwe over pay
Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa
3 July 2020
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Senate votes unanimously to extend CARES Act loan program despite businesses' plans to lay off thousands more
By Jacob Crosse, 2 July 2020
The corporate-government fraud known as the Payment Paycheck Protection program has done little to stave off massive job losses or small business closures while large banks and well-connected industries have profited handsomely
Riverside, California Nurses strike continues as ICU beds reach capacity
By Kevin Martinez, 2 July 2020
Nurses are protesting unsafe working conditions while county health officials announced this week that ICU beds were at 99 percent capacity
Germany: Verdi trade union sells out Galeria Kaufhof Karstadt workers
By Justus Leicht and Wolfgang Weber, 2 July 2020
Verdi brazenly claimed it would “ fight for every job and every store. ” In reality, the union and the general works council were involved in drawing up the closure plans.
Record 47.2 percent of working-age Americans without jobs
By Shannon Jones, 1 July 2020
According to the employment-population ratio, a more accurate measure of joblessness than the unemployment rate, a postwar record number of Americans were without work in May.
”I can get another job. I can’t get another life”
Food processing plants in Ohio and New York hit with outbreaks
By Alex Findijs, 1 July 2020
Outbreaks at salad and fruit processing plants in Springfield, Ohio, and Oswego, New York, show the vulnerability of food workers to the deadly disease.
New York City transit worker suffers miscarriage on the job
By Sam Dalton, 1 July 2020
Transit workers are outraged at the Transit Authority and the union after a conductor who was six-months pregnant lost a baby when she was forced to return to track switching.
Quebec’s hard-right premier reshuffles cabinet for stepped-up class-war assault
By Louis Girard, 1 July 2020
The cabinet shuffle inaugurates a new phase in the efforts of the Coalition Avenir Québec government to exploit the pandemic to restructure class relations at workers’ expense.
“It’s up to workers to fight this virus”
Fiat Chrysler threatens to fire workers who stop production over COVID-19 concerns
By Jerry White, 30 June 2020
FCA’s threats come just days after workers at two Detroit area assembly plants halted production and set up rank-and-file safety committees.
“Street medics” provide emergency care to US protesters injured by police
By Alex Johnson, 30 June 2020
”Street medics” have helped protesters cope with the effects of tear gas and pepper spray, broken limbs and injuries from “less-lethal” rounds of rubber bullets and bean-bag hits.
Royal Mail workers in the UK face jobs massacre
By Paul Lee, 30 June 2020
Two thousand management job cuts will be followed by at least 20,000 redundancies from the remaining workforce.
Worker opposition grows as coronavirus spirals out of control
By Andre Damon, 30 June 2020
Six months after the world first learned of COVID-19, workers across the globe are going on strike to demand measures to stop the rampant spread of the disease.
Growing protests across the America’s over coronavirus response
Workers Struggles: The Americas
30 June 2020
Film industry workers in Buenos Aires, workers at US Disneyland and warehouse workers in Quebec are just some of the thousands of workers launching protests and job actions over employers’ response to COVID-19 pandemic.
Australian paper mill workers locked out as company moves to slash wages
By Steve Strietberg, 29 June 2020
The company wants a two-tier wage system, with 15 percent lower pay rates for new employees.
Work stoppages against COVID-19 spread to FCA Sterling Heights Assembly Plant
By Jerry White, 28 June 2020
On Saturday evening, workers at the Fiat Chrysler Sterling Heights Assembly Plant, just north of Detroit, refused to work after learning that a material handler had tested positive for COVID-19.
Nurses, farmworkers, autoworkers strike for safe working conditions
Detroit Fiat Chrysler workers halt production for second day to demand COVID-19 protection
By Jessica Goldstein, 27 June 2020
The mounting struggles by workers against the back-to-work drive highlight the immense power of the working class in the fight to halt the deadly pandemic and the corporate-government attack on jobs and living standards.
Brazilian health care workers strike for PPE and risk bonus
By Brunna Machado, 27 June 2020
On Thursday, health care professionals in the Brazilian state of Piauí started an indefinite strike as their counterparts in Rio de Janeiro launched protests.
Dole Foods in Ohio hit by 230 COVID-19 cases as food processing plants globally are ravaged by infections
By Alex Findijs, 27 June 2020
Food processing plants around the world continue to be hit by mass infections, even in countries that had largely stopped the spread of the disease.
British Airways workers denounce company “offer” to slash pay and conditions
By John Newham and Laura Tiernan, 27 June 2020
BA workers must break free of the corporatist grip of the unions and fight for rank-and-file committees to organise joint action with airline workers across the globe.
Global trade unions issue empty calls for cruise and shipping seafarer action
By Tom Casey, 27 June 2020
An estimated 28,000 cruise ship crew members remain stranded at sea on ships all over the globe following restrictions implemented in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Against public opposition, Michigan Democrats and Republicans push for unsafe reopening of schools
By Mitch Marcus, 27 June 2020
Both Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the Republican-controlled legislature have fully committed to the reopening of in-person schooling, in line with the demands of automakers and other big businesses.
Expand autoworkers’ struggle to stop the coronavirus and save lives! Form rank-and-file safety committees!
By the Jefferson North Rank-and-File Safety Committee, 27 June 2020
Autoworkers at Fiat Chrysler’s Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit are taking a stand to defend our lives and the lives of our families.
Indian and Pakistani health workers strike over coronavirus safety; Australia Paper maintenance workers locked out
Workers Struggles: Asia and Australia
27 June 2020
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Riverside Community Hospital nurses strike in California
By Kevin Martinez, 26 June 2020
Nurses in the SEIU have launched a 10-day strike to protest staffing cuts while their for-profit hospital chain has received government bailouts.
Nurses and support staff at HCA Healthcare set to strike California hospital over cuts and PPE shortages
By Benjamin Mateus, 26 June 2020
One thousand nurses and support staff at HCA Healthcare are set to strike over concessions the hospital chain is demanding from frontline health care workers as the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread across the US.
No talks as Bath shipyard strike in Maine enters day five
By Shannon Jones, 26 June 2020
Management at Bath Iron Works is refusing to retreat from its demands for major concessions on subcontracting and work rules.
California Democrats collaborate with state employees union to cut workers’ wages by 11 percent
By Alan Gilman, 25 June 2020
Last week, Governor Gavin Newsom and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1000 agreed to a two-year wage cut of over 11 percent for 96,000 custodians, administrators and nurses employed by the state government.
US: Bath shipyard workers strike over subcontracting and job cuts
By Shannon Jones, 24 June 2020
Some 4,300 workers walked out Monday at the Bath Iron Works in Maine, which builds destroyers for the US Navy.
Walkout by sorting office workers at Barnsley Royal Mail after coronavirus outbreak
By Thomas Scripps, 23 June 2020
Royal Mail workers at the central post sorting office in Barnsley, England walked out yesterday after colleagues tested positive for coronavirus.
For international working class action against the COVID-19 pandemic!
Statement of the International Committee of the Fourth International, 23 June 2020
Only an independent political intervention by the international working class against the capitalist system can put an end to the mass deaths of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Coronavirus spreading among agriculture and seafood workers in the US
By Emma Arceneaux, 22 June 2020
While immigrant farm workers are considered essential by the federal government, there have been no nationwide mandates placed on the agriculture industry to protect them from COVID-19.
University of Chicago grad students disaffiliate from the American Federation of Teachers
By Andy Thompson, 22 June 2020
This case is only the latest in a series of bitter experiences grad students all across the country have had with AFT and other trade unions.
Companies vow no more shutdowns for COVID-19 as US auto plants resume full production
By Shannon Jones, 20 June 2020
All the major carmakers have expressed their determination to continue production without interruption even as COVID-19 cases surge in many areas of the US.
Death of two workers sparks wildcat strike by 3,200 workers at auto parts plant in Matamoros, Mexico
By Andrea Lobo, 20 June 2020
When news broke that Luciano Romero Contreras, a 48-year-old janitor at Plant 52, had died the previous day, workers downed tools and began discussions at the facility and on social media.
Around 250 workers infected with COVID-19 in three UK food processing plants
By Robert Stevens, 20 June 2020
The outbreaks underscore the criminality of the government’s decision to enforce a mass return to work and the lack of basic work safety in plants that have been operating during the pandemic.
Hundreds of new COVID-19 infections in German meat industry
By Marianne Arens, 20 June 2020
More than two-thirds of the meat packers at the Tönnies abattoir in Rheda-Wiedenbrück have been infected with COVID-19, with 730 positive initial test results out of 1,050 tested.
“How can dissent be illegal when that is how the country was started?”
Oklahoma teachers oppose Trump and his Tulsa rally
By Phyllis Steele, 20 June 2020
Educators in Oklahoma, who waged a wildcat strike in 2018, are still ranked near the bottom in the US in pay and per pupil funding.
Aviation industry workers face deep cuts to pay and hours worldwide
By Steve Filips, 20 June 2020
Airlines are slashing jobs, pay, and hours of workers in a desperate attempt to bolster profits at worker expense during the pandemic.
130,000 jobs at risk in the German auto industry
By Dietmar Gaisenkersting and Peter Schwarz, 20 June 2020
Although German auto companies received a lion’s share of the government’s €130 billion stimulus package, and are collecting billions more via the short-time working scheme, the industry plans to axe more than 100,000 jobs.
Air France-KLM prepares to slash at least 6,000 jobs
By Anthony Torres, 20 June 2020
After receiving a €7 billion public bailout, the French-Dutch airline is preparing to slash between 6,000 and 10,000 jobs amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Doctors head legal challenge to UK government on health care deaths and PPE
By Rory Woods, 20 June 2020
At least 181 health workers and 131 social care workers have died while working on the frontline.
Canada: Unifor urges acceptance of historic concessions in oil refinery lockout
By Carl Bronski, 20 June 2020
While the locked out workers have fought valiantly against an employer-government-police assault, the union has systematically isolated their struggle.
India: Bihar rural health workers demonstrate to defend jobs; Coimbatore textile workers protest over pay cuts
Workers Struggles: Asia and Australia
20 June 2020
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
British Airways workers in limbo as deadline for mass redundancies passes
By Alice Summers and John Newham, 19 June 2020
One BA worker told the WSWS, “I’ve been with BA for 25 years and was earning more than this new contract in 1996!”
Tata steel workers’ stoppage in the Netherlands over job losses; Greek health workers walk out; more strikes by Iranian sugar workers
Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa
19 June 2020
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Canadian oil refinery boss lauds George Floyd protests while employing state violence against locked-out workers
By Carl Bronski, 16 June 2020
Federated Cooperatives Ltd. CEO Scott Banda has mobilized and solidarized with racist, far-right forces in seeking to break the resistance of 750 locked-out Regina oil refinery workers.
Meatpacking workers oppose forced return to work through protests and mass absenteeism
By Christopher Davion, 16 June 2020
With meatpacking plants the epicenter of the spread of coronavirus, workers are opposing the return to work ordered by the Trump administration through protests and absenteeism.
Indian cruise ship crew stage second protest in three days
By Tom Casey, 16 June 2020
Thousands of cruise ship workers—some of them infected with COVID-19—remained trapped on vessels around the world after the industry shut down last March in response to the pandemic
German unions compete to offer greater cuts at Lufthansa
By Gustav Kemper, 15 June 2020
The union leaders falsely claim employees are “ stakeholders ” in the private company, but to the owners they are mere “ unit costs ” to be sacrificed to shore up profits.
Striking Spanish Nissan workers boo unions and Podemos mayor of Barcelona
By Alejandro López, 15 June 2020
This points to the explosive conflict emerging between the working class and the pseudo-left and the unions in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and an upsurge of class struggle.
Maquiladora workers demand release of labor lawyer arrested in Matamoros, Mexico
By Andrea Lobo, 15 June 2020
Despite our sharp political differences with Susan Prieto, the World Socialist Web Site unequivocally opposes the arrest of the labor lawyer and demands her immediate release.
Over 1.4 million US education jobs slashed in April and May
By Evan Blake, 15 June 2020
The massive education-related job losses will in many cases be permanent, with devastating repercussions for both educators and an entire generation of students.
Facing anger over budget cuts and early reopening, Detroit school officials promote racial politics
By Mitch Marcus and Phyllis Steele, 15 June 2020
The Detroit Public Schools Community District called a march and rally for “Equality and Justice for All” on June 11 that attracted 2,000 teachers, parents and students.
191 Chicago grad students break with AFT
15 June 2020
Reject Australian universities-NTEU job and pay cuts!
By the Committee for Public Education and the International Youth and Students for Social Equality, 15 June 2020
Despite intense opposition to the cuts among university workers, the trade unions are collaborating with the university managements to push through ballots to impose them.
Philadelphia public workers protest poor working conditions and police violence
By Nick Barrickman, 13 June 2020
Sanitation workers and educators took to the streets this week to demonstrate against Democratic Mayor Jim Kenney’s austerity measures and increased funding for the police.
VW leadership dispute prepares way for massive job cuts and austerity
By Dietmar Gaisenkersting and Ulrich Rippert, 13 June 2020
The current leadership dispute at VW ushers in a new phase of corporatist policy, aimed at preparing the company for global trade war at the expense of the workforce.
Three months since the cruise industry shutdown
Mauritian government and cruise companies hold stranded crew for ransom
By Tom Casey, 13 June 2020
The government’s repatriation plan has incurred bitter opposition from crew members of all nationalities, as well as from the families of Mauritian crew who anxiously await their relatives’ returns.
India: Telangana coal mine workers strike against privatisation; Queensland hospital workers walkout over pay freeze
Workers Struggles: Asia and Australia
13 June 2020
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Brazilian delivery workers strike in defense of their lives
By Tomas Castanheira, 12 June 2020
Delivery workers have been carrying out strikes and protests in Brazil since April, connected to delivery workers’ strikes around the world in countries like Spain, Ecuador and Argentina.
Growing anger among US workers as COVID-19 rips through workplaces
By Tom Hall and Jerry White, 11 June 2020
As plants and factories have become major centers of COVID-19 transmission, meat processing workers in Utah and sanitation workers in Philadelphia have protested to demand safe working conditions.
Young maquiladora factory workers dying in droves in US/Mexico border towns
By Norissa Santa Cruz, 11 June 2020
Defying the myth that COVID-19 primarily kills the elderly, young people who work in US-owned maquiladora factories in border towns such as Tijuana and Juarez are dying at alarming rates.
Bridgestone tire defends safety “playbook” as infections rise at Iowa plant
By Jacob Crosse, 10 June 2020
Working with United Steelworkers Local 1301, Bridgestone has continued production despite rising infections among workers and the surrounding community.
Youth protests and worker strikes show mounting social opposition in Brazil
By Tomas Castanheira, 10 June 2020
Strikes and job actions are intersecting with protests of tens by thousands of youth who have joined the international wave of demonstrations against police violence.
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