Kaiser workers protest two-tier pay, demand more staff

Vol. 85/No. 42 - November 15, 2021
Kaiser health care workers rally in Pasadena, California, Oct. 30. “We are stretched far too thin,” said Jenny Wong Swanson, Kaiser health care workers rally in Pasadena, California, Oct. 30. “We are stretched far too thin,” said Jenny Wong Swanson, a shop steward of the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals.

PASADENA, Calif. — Chanting, “From the desert to the Bay, equal work for equal pay,” over 1,000 nurses and other health care workers marched and rallied against cutbacks demanded by Kaiser hospital bosses at facilities in Hawaii, Oregon and Southern…


Back Kellogg strike, fight against divisive wage tiers

‘Equal pay for equal work’ wins wide support
Vol. 85/No. 41 - November 8, 2021
Kellogg strikers and supporters rally in Memphis Oct. 8. Kellogg strike, like strike at John Deere and others today, is battle against bosses’ drive to put crisis of capitalist system on our backs.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — “This is my first strike,” Gerald Lawrence told this Militant worker-correspondent on the Kellogg’s picket line here Oct. 22. He has worked at the cereal plant for two years. “We’ve gotten so much support! At first I…




Stationary engineers strike 24 Kaiser hospitals in California

Vol. 85/No. 40 - November 1, 2021
Striking members of International Union of Operating Engineers Local 39 march on Kaiser headquarters in Oakland, Sept. 30, in fight for higher wages, new contract at 24 hospitals.

OAKLAND, Calif. — Some 700 members of Local 39 of the International Union of Operating Engineers continue to maintain picket lines around the clock at 24 Kaiser hospitals in Northern California. The strikers are demanding respect and a contract that…


Minnesota nurses strike 3 days over holiday pay, benefits

Vol. 85/No. 40 - November 1, 2021

PLYMOUTH, Minn. — Some 50 emergency room and urgent care nurses, members of the Minnesota Nurses Association, struck Allina WestHealth here Oct. 17-19 over holiday pay and benefits. The workers by a two-thirds majority had voted down the company’s most…


ExxonMobil strikers reject contract, boss attacks on seniority and safety

Vol. 85/No. 40 - November 1, 2021

DALLAS — The 650 members of United Steelworkers Local 13-243 locked out by ExxonMobil in Beaumont, Texas, overwhelmingly rejected  the company’s six-year contract proposal Oct. 19. “This shows we are still together, we are one group,” USW staff representative Bryan…



Kellogg strikers ‘strong, getting lots of solidarity’

Vol. 85/No. 40 - November 1, 2021
Some 1,400 members of Bakery Workers union began nationwide strike at Kellogg’s four cereal plants Oct. 5. Above, workers picket in Memphis, Tennessee. Other plants struck are in Battle Creek, Michigan; Omaha, Nebraska; and East Hempfield Township, Pennsylvania.

ATLANTA — “We’re strong and we’re getting a lot of support from other unions,” Kevin Bradshaw, vice president of Local 252G of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers union in Memphis, Tennessee, told the Militant  by phone Oct.…


Michigan auto-parts workers strike, win UAW union

Vol. 85/ No. 39 - October 25, 2021

Some 340 workers won union recognition for the United Auto Workers after a weeklong strike in September at auto-parts supplier ZF International at its Marysville, Michigan, plant. The axle factory was previously owned by Fiat Chrysler and had been under…