Members of the Teamsters union in the United States were joined by other members of the Labour Alliance for Public Transit last Thursday at Union Station in Chicago, where they demanded that Illinois state legislators improve the state’s public transportation infrastructure and address the funding crisis facing state agencies.
Brandon Stewart, a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) said: ‘Every day we connect people to opportunity.
‘We deserve to be supported with the resources to do our jobs safely.
‘We’re not asking for special treatment.
‘We’re asking for the investment this system needs and the public deserves.’
Illinois currently faces a funding shortfall for its transit agencies in excess of $700 million.
Shavonn Jones, a paratransit driver and member of Teamsters Local 727 said: ‘Every day, I help seniors and people with disabilities get where they need to go.
‘For many of my passengers, I’m not just their ride, I’m the only option they have to get around the outside world.
‘Don’t leave our riders behind, don’t compromise on safety, and don’t shortchange the people who rely on us.’
- Meanwhile, more than a thousand student employees at Western Washington University went on strike for 48 hours last Wednesday.
Student employees, who include programme support staff, recreation assistants, resident advisors and lifeguards, are seeking union recognition from Western and a contract.
Since the group voted to join Western Academic Workers United in December 2023, university officials have said they will not recognise the union.
The strike comes a year after student employees on campus stopped work to demand higher wages and a fair contract.
After two days of the strike, the university and the educational student employees, who fill teaching and research positions, came to a tentative agreement.
The picket has impacted the university’s bus service and some campus services.
Anni Kamola, a graduate student and educational student employee, was on the picket line on Wednesday morning.
She said: ‘We need to know that our jobs are safe. At the moment there are no such guarantees.
‘We feel like we could be sacked at any time and won’t accept that.’
- Lecturers at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York have voted overwhelmingly in favour of forming a union branch and have joined the United Auto Workers union (UAW).
The UAW stated on Thursday that they are: ‘Joining a growing movement of academic workers organising for better working conditions.’
The newly certified SVA Faculty United-UAW bargaining unit will represent over 1,200 instructors at the art institute.
Members core concerns include pay equity, workloads that are disproportionate to compensation and the recent loss of benefits such as retirement account contributions and sabbaticals.
One of those who joined the UAW, Merlin Ural Rivera said: ‘This victory affirms that hundreds of educators and creatives across different disciplines are ready to unite around a social cause.
‘We are here to build a community of professionals who are allowed the time and resources to follow their creative practices while also helping shape the next generation of artists and inspiring them to fight for self-determination.’
- The UNITE HERE a trade union, which represents hotel and hospitality workers in the United Sates, has attacked President Trump’s Executive Order on federal workers’ collective bargaining rights.
UNITE HERE said on Friday: ‘Our right to organise is under attack.
‘The White House has issued an Executive Order that would strip the right to organise from hundreds of thousands of federal workers at more than 30 agencies.
‘If they get away with it, no union contract in this country is safe.
‘Workers have made tremendous sacrifices to win our good wages, our healthcare, our pensions, and the right to walk into work every day with our heads held high. We will not give up.
‘If we don’t fight for them, it will be our rights on the line next.
‘Winning hard fights is what our union does.
‘This Executive Order is a threat to the entire labour movement.
‘Our union is mobilising in solidarity with millions of workers across the country.
‘Standing together is where our power comes from, and it’s how we’ll win this fight, too.’
- Despite US federal reports claiming that there is a stable job market, new data from the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity (LISEP) published last Thursday reveals a different reality for American workers – particularly black and Hispanic Americans.
The institute’s April report on the True Rate of Unemployment (TRU) shows an unemployment rate of 24.3 per cent, compared to the official Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) figure of 4.2 per cent.
The numbers mark the third consecutive month that unemployment has surpassed 24 per cent, according to LISEP.
LISEP Chair Gene Ludwig said: ‘We are facing a job market where nearly one in four workers are functionally unemployed, and current trends show little sign of improvement.
‘The harsh reality is that far too many Americans are still struggling to make ends meet.
‘Racial and gender disparities remain wide.
‘Black workers saw a 1.4 percentage point increase in unemployment.
‘The rate for Hispanic workers climbed to 28.2 per cent, maintaining the highest among reported groups.
‘A persistent gender gap also emerged in the data unemployment for men which rose to 20 per cent, while women – face a significantly higher rate at 28.6 per cent.
‘Beyond labour force disparities, BLS statistics further indicate a disproportionate impact on black Americans.
‘The unemployment rate for black men remains at 6.3 per cent, more than double that of white men.’
Ludwig continued: ‘Since September, approximately 181,000 black women have dropped out of the labour force entirely, even as participation rates among women of other racial groups have increased.
‘The origins of this exodus stretch back to 2020 when millions of working mothers – particularly women of colour – left the workforce amid the collapse of childcare infrastructure during the Covid-19 pandemic.
‘Many have yet to return due to ongoing issues with affordability and accessibility.
‘LISEP outlines significant flaws in headline economic indicators such as GDP federal unemployment rates labelling them misleading and outdated.’
Ludwig added: ‘Official data excludes part-time workers who would prefer full-time employment and those earning less than $20,000 per year.
‘This approach, LISEP argues, provides policymakers with a more accurate understanding of economic wellbeing and informs better decision-making for resource allocation.
‘The public would be well served by a commitment from economic policymakers to adopt a stable course of action, based on real-world metrics, that better serves the interests of working Americans,’ Ludwig concluded.
