What Happened in the Labor Movement Last Month?

0:00This is an I Heart Podcast. Guaranteed Human. Didn't catch the latest Roland Martin unfiltered podcast? Here's what you missed. There should not be a single law enforcement agency. It does not have body cameras. It's real. Black farmers have been under attack. This is just the latest example of them just slapping DEI on anything. It's raw. And I'm sitting here going. They are playing y'all for foes. Catch Roland Martin's daily commentary on the Black Information Network. And download Roland Martin unfiltered on the I Heart Radio app Apple Podcast. Oh, wherever you get your podcasts. Coolza media. Hello and welcome to It Could Happen Here. My name's Kim Kelly and I'll be your host for today's episode. To introduce myself, I'm a labor journalist. I'm the author of a book called Fight Like Hell, the Untold History American labor, and a third generation union member, based in Philly.

1:00Obviously, it go birds. And I'm just over the moon to be back here in the cool zone. Shout out to Sophie, Robert, James, and everyone else for letting me cool-layed man my way onto their network now and again. To catch you up on what's been happening in the labor movement in the US and otherwise. If you've been paying attention, you'll already know. September was a very busy month. But if you haven't, well, that's what I'm here for. So let's start off with some good news. And look, I'll throw you a bone. Here's a quick one for the gamers. In a big dub to protect organizing, 1900 video game workers and Activision Blizzard have just won their first union contract. Hell yeah. Workers at the company have been organizing in various ways since 2021. But they formally unionized with the communication workers of America in 2024. So it's been a long time coming. This shiny new contract includes a lot of good stuff. They got protections for remote workers, huge for the tech world.

2:01And against outsourcing, they got some language around AI development. They got a three-day end office hybrid work week, which, damn, I feel like the four-day work week is still a huge pipe dream. These guys are out here doing three. You need a good, you know? And they even got Mayday off as a paid holiday. It's a really great work all around. You love to see it. May a thousand more tech worker unions bloom. Speaking of contracts, this is a big one. 800 Walmart workers at a distribution center in Mrs. Saoge, Ontario, Canada have just won that company's first ever union contract in North America. Now Walmart has long been the labor movement's white whale. It's one of the largest employers in the world. It's run by evil Arkansas billionaires who hate unions. It's workers regularly make the news for the despicable low wages that those rich people pay them.

3:01But organizers in the US have yet to crack the retail giant. And look, it's not for lack of trying. In the past, Walmart has simply shut down stores who have tried to unionize. For example, back in the year 2000, which is so much further away than it really feels like it should be. Back in the year 2000, after meat cutters at a Texas location voted to unionize, the company eliminated its entire meat department in Texas. And in five other states for good measure. I'm thinking about it. I don't think we even made department in South Philly. Imagine cutting out an entire section of your store of your enormous nationwide retail chain because a handful of workers in one place were like, hey, what if you treated us a little better? I like it's petty and it's cruel and it's very unbrand for Walmart. So folks are understandably very excited to see workers in Canada sticking it to them.

4:04And when the Ontario Union Drive went public two years ago, of course, Walmart rushed to punish those workers and did its damnedest to bust their union drive. But importantly, this time, those union-busting efforts failed. So we can only assume that the Walton clan is hopping mad about the whole situation. Again, love to see it. And honestly, now that our Canadian counterparts have notched this major win, I'm really curious to see what kind of organizing efforts we might see here in the US. I mean, when Amazon workers in Staten Island unionized, they set off a little chain reaction when Starbucks workers in Buffalo unionized, they set off a big chain reaction. You know, these guys are over the border, but it's only a few hundred miles from New York. One of that far could this contract in Ontario be the beginning of a domino effect? Are we finally going to unionize Walmart?

5:07Look, it would take a lot of doing, but you know, someone's going to be the first and now that someone's proved it can be done. Look, I'm just saying a girl can dream. Speaking of New York, a couple hundred miles south in New York state, caregivers with the state's consumer directed personal assistance program have filed for a union election with lemon 99 SCIU. CDPAP is a Medicaid program that allows folks who are eligible for home care services to train and choose and hire their own in-home caregivers, which can include family members and friends. So it's always exciting when we see overworked underpaid workers organizing and fighting for better, but the sheer scale of this particular union drive is honestly incredible and is legit historic. Nearly 70,000 caregivers have already signed union cards signifying that they're down to join the union,

6:09and if they're successful, if the union drive is successful, the union would include almost 190,000 workers across the state. This would be the largest union election in US history, like all of US history. And it's being led by workers whose labor is deeply undervalued and rendered almost invisible to those outside the walls of their unique workplaces, which they're not working in a factory, they're not working in a store, they're not in a retail setting. These are workers who are completely atomized, isolated, working people's homes. The fact that they've been able to organize an effort, this scale is so impressive, and it's long overdue. Prior to this, the records for the largest election in modern US history happened in 1999. When about 74,000 L.A. County home care workers voted to form a union with SCIU.

7:12Sound familiar? Nearly 30 years later, these caregivers in New York are following in those footsteps. As the union noted, the filing comes at a fraught moment for Karen America. Medicaid funded services face devastating federal cuts enacted under the Trump administration, which has villainized this workforce with this waste-fraud abuse campaign. At the same time, the nation's rapidly aging population is driving growing demand for care, as they run a press release. For many people, this specific program can be a lifeline. The difference between seeing your loved one left to loneliness and neglect, or to having them be cared for in their own homes, by people they trust will love and advocate for them. The difference is really stark, but don't take it for me. The union shared a few worker and client testimonies with me, and I want to share them with you now. So, the first quote comes from a worker, Angela Jimenez, who was a full-time healthcare worker and 1199 SCIU member,

8:20before she left to join the CDPAP program to care for her mom. So Angela says, I love taking care of my mother, but love doesn't pay the bills. Rent, groceries, and healthcare keep going up, while our wages aren't keeping pace. Care is essential work, but the way we're paid doesn't treat it that way. Caregivers like me shouldn't have to struggle to survive. I'm joining with caregivers across New York, because together we have the power to demand what this work is worth, and make sure we can afford to keep doing it. So, Lebi Young, who works as a caregiver for her 79-year-old mother and Alzheimer's patient, says, I need a community. I need a pay rise. A labor of love is still labor. And 68-year-old Dominique LaRouche is a former caregiver herself, who was a proud union delegate for 1199 when she was younger. Now, her daughters care for her through the CDPAP program. She says, my daughters help me get out of bed in the morning, help me get dressed and brush my hair,

9:25and help me cook meals from our culture that I enjoy eating. What they really give me is the chance to live my life. Because of my daughters, I can see the people I love, be part of my community, and experience the world around me. CDPAP has given our family safety, dignity, and peace of mind. That's why I'm proud to stand with my daughters and thousands of other CDPAP caregivers as they come together to join 1199 SEIU. So, an election day has not yet been set. Under Trump, the NLRB remains a clusterfuck. But here's hoping we get some more good news on this soon, because I don't know about you, but I feel like the working class could really use a win, and an historic union win. I don't think I'm pretty good right about now. I'm speaking of caregiving. Once again, I've got to shout out National Nurses United, the largest union of registered nurses in the US, for continuing to just be incredibly based.

10:26This time, they're leading a week of action against Peter Teals' data-gobbling Surveillance Demons at Palantir. The tech company has happily and profitably provided technology to ICE to surveil and target immigrants in the US, and to Israel's Ministry of Defense to use in its ongoing genocide of Palestinians and Gaza. As Truth Out reported, the union is pushing public institutions, including hospitals and other healthcare providers, to end contracts and partnerships with Palantir, and to divest from the company. Unlike many people in power in an outside-delabor movement, NNU has not been shy about speaking out against these atrocities. In August, they caught out Israel's bombing of hospitals, schools, and public infrastructure. And their executive director, Puneet Maharaj, said plainly that, quote, the intentional bombing of hospitals, schools, and public infrastructure necessary for basic living are war crimes against humanity.

11:27The Israeli government must be held accountable for these atrocities, and the genocide must stop. Nurses and caregivers truly are the best of us, man. Now, hold that thought. We'll take a quick little ad rate. Didn't catch the latest Roland Martin unfiltered podcast? Here's what you missed. And the argument is, do you want to win? If you don't win, you have no power. It's real. Those are the very people who I always say vote against their own economic interests, and they complained about the very thing they were seeing. It's raw. I knew that the issue of transgender athletes was not going well with a lot of black men. Roland Martin unfiltered. I went off. I said, this is exactly what I'm talking about. Y'all go scream at Chanel, but you don't want to see a black luxury company in the same bag. Catch Roland Martin's daily commentary on the black information network.

12:31You don't wait until 2030. You better be hitting the ground going hard in the south now. And download Roland Martin unfiltered on the iHot Radio app Apple Podcast. Wherever you get your podcasts. Hello again. You're still listening to it could happen here, and I'm still Kim Kelly. Now that we're starting off with a little treat, let's get into some of the bad news that came crawling out of the labor world this past month. So you know how oil has gotten really expensive because of the US slash Israel's fun new forever warning, Ron? Well, when oil is available, someone's got to get it from point A to point B. And I don't know about you, but I think it's probably for the best that those someone's working additions are safe and stable and decently paid. So they don't have to go drive for door to ash when they're not navigating huge tankers full of toxic and economically invaluable fossil fuels.

13:33You know, seems like common sense. Given all that and the inherent volatility of the job, we also probably want them to be protected by good union contract, right? That's what deck officers at Alaska tanker company and overseas ship holding group thought to. Which is why an overwhelming percentage of them chose to unionize with the international organization of masters, mates and pilots back in 2024. As a quick aside, I've been to a lot of union halls, but the MMP union hole is definitely one of the coolest. They have so many model ships like more than you can ever imagine, but anyway, so the mates voted to unionize. Then LRB ordered their employers to recognize the union and start bargaining and then radio silence. It's been two years and these workers are still without a first contract. As the union noted, their fight now reflects the same first contract crisis, CNN Amazon, Starbucks and other major employers.

14:34Corporations drag in their feet, knowing they're supposed to be bargaining, knowing that they should be treating their workers with respect. It's like the same old story, it just keeps repeating and repeating repeating in different industries and in different areas. And it's like, we can see you, we can see you doing this, being a bad boss, being a union buster, dragging out these union contracts, it's not a good look. And the employees are not going to just sit there and tank it. In the case these deck officers and the masters, mates and pilot union, they pointed out that the company's subsidiaries also receive millions of dollars. And federal subsidies and said pretty plainly that, quote, companies benefiting from taxpayer support should not be permitted to violate federal labor laws while denying basic bargaining rights to the American mariners risking their lives at sea. Now that latter point is important because like again, this bizarre war that we've become trapped within, that impacts them pretty significantly.

15:39Word recently broke that an Iranian military official identified one of these companies overseas ship holding group as a candidate for potential retaliatory measures, which is not what you want to hear when you're a person who works on an oil tanker. That's not like good. It's frankly terrifying, especially given how hard the US military is fucking up this entire thing. So look while we're still a little ways away from transitioning to renewable energy while we're still dependent on oil, we have the world we have right now. The folks who are working on these oil tankers and risking their lives so people can drive five minutes down the street to go to a target like let's take care of them. Let's help them out. The mates are asking folks to sign their petition that they have calling on the companies to stop stalling and start bargaining. So please sign their petition. We'll drop it in the show notes for you.

16:39So unfortunately there really is never any shortage of stories about which people being evil to workers. But the big bad villain of this past week or so comes from a rather unlikely source on September 23rd. Journalist America Foggy published a blockbuster story for documented New York titled, Cesar Arlesleun, dismantles unions. Why is he now creating them that you truly need to go read because it is just wild. And before we get into it, I want to make sure we're all on the same page. So we're going to take a minute to talk about union raids. So generally speaking, unions are supposed to play nice together. What with their shared history and stated goals and the whole solidarity thing. And a part of that is agreeing not to try and steal another union's members. Doing so is called raiding and it's a very unchill move. Back in the battle days unions went to war over stuff like that and things got real bloody.

17:44Now it's tactically legal but it's still very much frowned upon. There's a little less dynamite involved but still not a good look. So given all the risks, why would a union bother trying to go raiding? Why would they try and go to a unionized workplace and try to displace the union that was there before them and swoop in and take their members? Seems like a weird thing to do, no? Well, it usually comes down to math. More members means more dues money and more money plus bigger membership means more power politically and otherwise. Sometimes though, the math falls apart and things seem to turn upside down. In the case of Cesar Ellersson, it seems like he's purely in it for the love of the game. And that game for him is union-busting. As Gafagi uncovered, Ellersson has had a long career in quote unquote union avoidance. A sanitized term that consultants and their clients like to try to make their slimy actions seem a little less contemptible.

18:49It's a union avoidance consultants job to persuade workers not to unionize. When you hear about captive audience meetings and things like that, these are the people that are parachuting into workplaces to try and convince workers that unions are actually a bad thing. That's their whole job. It's a very lucrative business that rakes in about $1.5 billion a year from anxious anti-union employers who somehow have not realized that they could simply pay the workers the wage increases that they're probably going to be looking for in their first union contract and save a bunch of dough. But you know, cat is of industry are not necessarily renowned for their adherence to logic and empathy. So that's where the union avoidance consultant comes in. With that kind of background, why then did Ellersson walk into a golden crust manufacturing plant in the Bronx? Identify himself as a representative for progressive workers of the world local 3-1-1 and start trying to convince the workers there who are already unionized with IBW local union 1430 to join his group instead.

20:01And how many times has he apparently done this before? Look, you'll need to read the whole article to find out, but it includes a whole lot of twists and turns. There's corruption, there's family drama, there's union buster on union buster in fighting, there are mafia ties. Donald Trump's hatred of unions and workers comes into play. The phrase, that's just paperwork that has nothing to do with me. There's a lot of heavy lifting. The whole sorted tail shows just how low employers and their anti-union goons will stoop to assure that workers are kept underpaid, overworked and unrepresented. And tell me you got to read this thing, shout out to a mere he rules. Now let's take a minute to collect ourselves before we head into our next tale of work, wins and woe. Didn't catch the latest roll in the Martin unfiltered podcast? Here's what you missed. And the argument is, do you want to win?

21:03If you don't win, you have no power. It's real. Those are the very people who I always say vote against their own economic interests and they complained about the very thing they were seeing. It's raw. I knew that the issue of transgender athletes was not going well with a lot of black men. Rollin' Martin unfiltered. I went off, I said this is exactly what I'm talking about. Y'all go scream at Chanel, but you don't want to see a black luxury company in the same bag. Catch Rollin' Martin's daily commentary on the black information network. All right. So we got some good news.

22:04We got some bad news. And now I'm going to leave you with some news that's neither wholly good nor wholly bad, but definitely something to keep an eye on. But first, a rumor. I love gossip and I'm always down to investigate a nice juicy transportation strike rumor. This one's been flying around for the past little while, but I'm pretty sure it's a non-starter. And in a classic case of social media not actually being real life, I know I'm shocked too. And news began to spread a few weeks ago on Instagram, TikTok, and Reddit that truckers were planning a strike for October 1st to protest skyrocketing diesel prices. There's even a goofy AI flyer out there calling on drivers to quote, park it, stand together, make our voices heard. If a large-scale trucking strike or even a partial disruption were to actually happen, they could have a massive impact and grind the entire economy to a standstill. This is a nice transportation logistics worker holding incredible amount of power,

23:07which is of course why so many of them are forbidden from striking under the railway labor act. Truckers, many of whom are independent contractors or members of established unions like the teamsters, don't fall under the act and theoretically could engage in labor action if they wanted to. They just haven't done it yet. I've got to say though, if a potentially paradigm shifting nationwide strike was actually in the works, chances are that Facebook wouldn't be the first place to hear about it. Remember when Joe Biden killed off the railroad worker strike before it even had a chance to start? The corporate media was flooded for weeks with stories and statements justifying that debacle, and inadvertently showed how powerful that kind of action could be. This might not be legit. I would be really surprised if we saw any kind of strike activity or stopage activity on October 1st, but you know, that's not to say we'll never see it much to consider.

24:09Speaking of transportation and union busting, for our last story of the episode, it's time to get into the zone, auto zone, where workers at a location in white planes in New York just won their union. Hell yeah. 11 workers at this small, but mighty shop will join UIW Local 259, making them the first store at the country's largest auto parts retailer to successfully organize. Now, auto zone execs are not thrilled about the development, and they actually wasted over $200,000 trying to keep it from happening. That's right, tried to bust the union. They hauled out all the classic tactics. Captivonius meetings. Remember the whole union voice thing we just talked about? That's them. In addition to surveillance, threats of discipline or retaliation for supporting the union, and they also got a little funky with it by flying in 17 different managers from Memphis,

25:11from Indiana, California, Florida, to lurk around the stores, push anti-union propaganda on the workers, and keep an eye on their conversations. Honestly, this brings to mind the scenes at the first union drive back in Buffalo at Starbucks, when there was just a flood of managers and execs wandering around this doors, like trying to mop and get an underfoot, because they were terrified of the thought of having to bargain with their workers. Aside now, it's still Starbucks. We are boycotting Starbucks until Starbucks Workers United gets their first contract. Make your coffee at home or buy it from a union shop. Just not Starbucks. But back to the zone. This isn't the first time auto zone execs have locked in to crush a union drive either. Back in the early 90s, the teamsters tried to organize one of their distribution centers, but were unsuccessful. Even though the union drive failed, the NLRB still dinged the company for its unlawful conduct during their union bustings free.

26:18I guess old habits die hard, because this time around, according to Nathan DeCong, a parts equipment manager, auto zone was trying to do everything possible to destroy us, to destroy our union. It was a show of force to intimidate us to make sure we don't even think about talking about the union. That's why you told the chief a really great labor publication that you should also read, who did a great story on the whole situation. The workers vote as unionized anyway, a historic win that auto zone celebrated by promptly firing DeCong, who was the primary leader of the union drive. The company insisted that he was a supervisor and therefore, ineligible for the unit, which DeCong disputes. He says that he did not have firing, hiring or discipline power, but did try to remedy before the vote by refiling the union petition. Didn't work. The day that it went public, the manager who fired DeCong told him very bluntly that his support for the union was why he was being asked.

27:20Quote, despite repeated instruction, not to advocate for the union, you continued to participate and or facilitate union activity at the store. The har. The chief also reports that days after auto zone fired DeCong, management fired a supervisor at the store for, quote, failing to stop the union. It's just ridiculous, you know, like the whole situation, like fuck it, relax. Like government, you gotta give some workers a race. Eleven workers you gotta deal with, like, grow up. But since then, labor has rallied around DeCong. And I'm so sorry if I'm saying your name incorrectly too, Nathan. Let me know if I fucked it up and I owe you a drink. I'm gonna go fund me, has been created to support him and other fired workers. It's raised about 13 grand so far. Phenomenal. Gonna need more because he's gonna be a long fight. So we'll pop them in the show now so you can add to that number.

28:21Let's get it up as high as we can. This is a developing story, but it's really been hardening to see how much love DeCong and his co-workers have been getting. And it makes sense. His union organizing story is very modern and very relatable and very New York. Like he's gotten support from artist and director Boots Riley, whose latest film, I Love Boosters, DeCong cited as a direct influence on his decision to try to organize. Which is so cute and so timely. Damn, that John just came out. His great movie, you should go see it. And maybe he'll get some ideas. On the organizing side, he also got an early boost from the emergency workplace orgasm committee. Great project that you should look up if you are union curious. Now he connected with them through his work as a volunteer field lead for now mayor Zor Mondonis successful campaign. It just goes to show there are a million ways to get started in organizing. And the Boots Riley movie marathon might not be a bad way to start.

29:24After DeCong and the UAW, they're not back in town. As he told the chief, anybody who's interested in forming union at their auto zone, we want anybody interested in that to reach out to us. Their union busting certainly works, but not well enough. Boom! How do you know I'm going to support that dude? That's it for me. Thank you so much for tuning in. And if any of this has caught your interest, you want to do some more reading, you want to dig into it, you want to touch your coworkers a little bit. Then my job here is done. Until next time. It could happen here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcast from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, CoolzoneMedia.com. Or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can now find sources for it could happen here listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening. Didn't catch the latest Roland Martin unfiltered podcast? Here's what you missed.

30:24People wake up and go, oh, dang, wait a minute, hold up. They change all of that? Yes. It's real. This is a wholesale attack. It is targeting black people in every federal agency. It's wrong. This has never allowed that reckoning to last more than a decade. Catch Roland Martin's daily commentary on the black information network. And download Roland Martin unfiltered on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts. Or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcasts. Guaranteed Human.