Chicago feed workers strike for better pay and conditions

Vol. 84/No. 46 - November 23, 2020

CHICAGO — Twenty-eight members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 881 at ReConserve went on strike Nov. 2 for better pay and conditions. The company takes food scraps and converts them into feed for pigs and chickens. The plant…


Quebec cement truck drivers fight for equal wages

Vol. 84/No. 45 - November 16, 2020

ST.-HUBERT, Quebec — Twenty-five cement truck drivers locked out by Demix Beton in this Montreal suburb are fighting for equal wages and benefits with drivers working for the same company in nearby Longueuil and Lasalle. The drivers belong to the…


Dominion strike continues, as workers win solidarity

Vol. 84/No. 45 - November 16, 2020

Negotiations resumed Oct. 29 between Loblaw Companies Limited, which owns the Dominion grocery store chain, and Unifor Local 597, representing 1,400 workers on strike at Dominion stores in Newfoundland. These talks, the first since the strike began Aug. 22, ended…


Laid off NY Remington workers fight for severance, vacation pay

Vol. 84/No. 45 - November 16, 2020
Laid-off members of United Mine Workers of America rally outside Remington plant in Ilion, New York, Oct. 28, as bosses use bankruptcy to deny severance pay, unused vacation benefits.

ILION, N.Y. — “We’ll be out here until we get paid what we are owed,” Jamie Rudwall, United Mine Workers of America District 2 representative, told 100 people at an Oct. 28 rally here. Most were among the 585 workers…


Northern California hospital workers strike over short staffing

Vol. 84/No. 42 - October 26, 2020
Health care workers picket in front of Fairmont Wellness Center in San Leandro, California, Oct. 8 during five-day strike at six public hospitals for safety for patients and themselves.

SAN LEANDRO, Calif. — Over 4,000 health care workers struck for five days here and at five other hospitals across Alameda and San Joaquin counties during the first week of October, in defense of health and safety for their patients…


Pennsylvania Steelworkers strike over NLMK concession contract

Vol. 84/No. 42 - October 26, 2020

FARRELL, Penn. — More than 400 United Steelworkers, members of Local 1016-03, have been on strike since Aug. 22 at the NLMK rolling mill here. A majority of workers oppose the new medical insurance plan in the company’s proposed contract,…


Central Wash. vegetable packers organize to win union, rights

Vol. 84/No. 42 - October 26, 2020

PASCO, Wash. — “Work is hard and there are a lot of accidents,” Maria Meraz Cortez said to the Militant at a rally of more than 80 people outside Twin City Foods here in central Washington Oct. 2. The workers…


After one-day strike, pharmacy workers locked out in Quebec

Vol. 84/No. 42 - October 26, 2020

VARENNES, Quebec — After a one-day strike here Sept. 23, some 700 workers, members of the Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN) at the warehouse for the Jean Coutu pharmacy chain in Quebec, found themselves locked out the next day.…


Canada Dominion workers win solidarity in six-week-long strike

Vol. 84/No. 41 - October 19, 2020
Dominion strikers, members of Unifor Local 597 in Stephenville, Newfoundland, join “Orange Shirt Day” protest to mark crimes committed against Native peoples in residential schools.

“Money, money, money — that’s Galen Weston. As long as he can take care of himself and his family that’s all he cares about,” a striking Dominion grocery store worker on the picket line in Newfoundland says in a TV…


Ky. Teamsters continue strike for contract at DSI Tunneling

Vol. 84/No. 41 - October 19, 2020

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Thirteen steel fabrication workers, who voted in the Teamsters union at DSI Tunneling here last November, have been on strike for their first contract since Aug. 4. They are hanging tough on the picket line and continue…