Oil workers strike against subcontracting, for safety

Vol. 85/No. 5 - February 8, 2021
Teamsters Local 120 members and supporters picket road to Marathon Petroleum refinery Jan. 23 in St. Paul Park, Minnesota. The union struck over unsafe conditions, subcontracting jobs.

ST. PAUL PARK, Minn. — Two hundred members of Teamsters Local 120 went on strike against the Marathon Petroleum refinery here Jan. 21 over subcontracting their jobs and unsafe working conditions. Marathon bosses own the majority of oil refineries in…


Rolls-Royce bosses back off plan to cut jobs at Barnoldswick plant

Vol. 85/No. 5 - February 8, 2021

BARNOLDSWICK, England — After nine weeks on the picket line, the Unite union Jan. 8 suspended strike action by Rolls-Royce workers here after the company backed off threatened job cuts. Mark Porter, Unite union convener at the plant, told the…



Quebec oil terminal, airline catering workers fight lockouts

Vol. 85/No. 3 - January 25, 2021
Members of Unifor union picket at Shell oil terminal in Montreal Dec. 10. The workers, fighting Shell bosses’ union-busting lockout, held joint action with locked out Gate Gourmet workers.

MONTREAL — Locked-out Shell Canada oil terminal workers in Montreal-East and Gate Gourmet airline caterers in the Dorval suburb here, all members of the Unifor union, are joining together to fight moves by their bosses to roll back decades of…


Quebec workers fight Gate Gourmet’s union-busting lockout

Vol. 85/No. 2 - January 18, 2021
Airline catering workers organized by Unifor Local 698 protest eight-week lockout by Gate Gourmet at airport in Montreal Dec. 31. Placard on right says, “If we are on the outside, something is wrong on the inside.” One on left says, “You don’t get rich on our earnings.”

MONTREAL — After almost eight weeks on the picket line, locked-out Gate Gourmet workers here organized a march from their picket line in front of the airline-catering plant where they work to the Montreal-Trudeau international airport Dec. 31. Chanting “So,…


How the Teamsters union organized their 1934 strike to win

Vol. 85/No. 2 - January 18, 2021
Teamsters Local 574 Women’s Auxiliary volunteers serve meals during 1934 Minneapolis strike. They also treated wounded picketers in strike hospital, spoke widely in region to win support.

Teamster Rebellion by Farrell Dobbs, a Pathfinder Book of the Month in Spanish for January, is the story of the 1934 Teamster organizing drive in Minneapolis. Through hard-fought strikes, rank-and-file workers defeated strikebreaking efforts by the trucking bosses and the…


Support Alabama Constellium strike over seniority, conditions

Vol. 85/No. 2 - January 18, 2021
Jan. 2 Constellium picket line in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

MUSCLE SHOALS, Ala. — Over 400 members of United Steelworkers Local 200 here have struck major aluminum beverage can recycle company Constellium since Dec. 15. Workers on the picket line said the company wants to gut seniority, giving bosses complete…


Ala. Amazon workers win right to vote to have a union

Vol. 85/No. 1 - January 4, 2021

ATLANTA — Despite objections from Amazon, the National Labor Relations Board ruled Dec. 16 that workers at Amazon’s warehouse and distribution center in Bessemer, Alabama, have shown enough support for the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union to hold a…


New Rochelle nurses fight for more staff, new contract

Vol. 84/No. 51 - December 28, 2020

After a spirited two-day strike by 200 nurses at Montefiore Health System’s hospital in New Rochelle Dec. 1 and 2, the New York State Nurses Association and the bosses are back at the negotiating table. Front and center is the…


Teamsters show ‘with proper leadership, workers can overcome’

Vol. 84/No. 51 - December 28, 2020
In May 1934 Minneapolis Teamsters rout cops, special deputies from bosses’ Citizens Alliance that were sent to break their strike. Class-conscious leaders organized workers defense to win.

Teamster Bureaucracy, by Farrell Dobbs, is one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for December. It is the last in a four-volume series on how a class-struggle union was forged in Minneapolis and across the Midwest trucking industry in the…