Category Archives: Labor Organizing

Solidarity With Striking Mine Workers in Alabama

Over 1,000 coal miners have been on strike against Warrior Met in Brookwood, Alabama since April 1. A massive solidarity rally was held in Brookwood on August 1 drawing over a thousand supporters from the South and other areas of the country.  

Southern dock workers, members of ILA (International Longshoreman’s Association)locals from Charleston, Savannah, Jacksonville and Mobile joined other union members of supporters in the massive show of solidarity. The Southern Workers Assembly interviewed two activists who participated.

Black Human Rights Organization Demonstrates Black Community Support for Southern Amazon Workers

February 20th witnessed support actions across the country in support of the efforts of Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama to be represented by the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Workers Union. In total, there were 23 across the South and between 50 – 55 nationally. The broad support for this organizing is encouraging and an indication of how much people across the country understand the need for unions and are willing to get involved.

Organizations representing and advocating for oppressed communities have historically taken a stand in support of the right to organize understanding the importance of organization for all workers in general and Black workers in particular. Black civil rights and Black Liberation organizations have always engaged in or supported efforts to build the power of workers on the job and in the community

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Rocky Mount Sanitation Workers: Paid After 40 years for Their 1978 Strike

In 1978, from July 10 to September 25, 1978 about 36 City of Rocky Mount Sanitation workers went on intermitting strikes demanding the rehiring of Alexander Evans a Sanitation workers that was unjustly fired for picking up a suit left by a trashcan that was emptied by workers.  There was policy that anything left within 10 feet of trash can be picked up by the workers. Evans was known to take clothes to people in need as part of his religious mission.  A week before being fired there was an article in the Rocky Mt newspaper honoring Evans for caring for the poor. These workers were not unionized, but acted collectively to send representatives to meet with the City Manager and community forces to build support.

The City prosecuted Evans in court and was defeated, but the City wouldn’t rehire Evans, so the workers went on strike again.

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680 Immigrant Workers in Mississippi Taken off their Jobs by ICE: An Injury to One is an Injury to All!

A Call to Labor and Community Organizations from the Southern Workers Assembly

On August 7, the US Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted raids on Workers in 7 food-processing plants in six Mississippi cities. 

These workers came to the US to try to earn an honest living, because conditions in their home countries prevented them from living in peace and supporting their families. They faced danger from military and social violence and climate change impacts.  US foreign policies in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa contribute to the conditions faced by the majority of these immigrant workers.

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A Profound Attack on Workers and Their Organizations

Viewed by many as the most serious assault on labor organizations in recent history, the Supreme Court decision in Janus vs AFSCME is a call for the unions and worker organizations to adopt more militant and aggressive tactics in dealing with employers. Following is a statement by the Southern Workers Assembly (SWA) with an analysis and ideas on the way forward.

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U.S. SUPREME COURT  DEALS BODY BLOW TO PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS, HURTS ALL

“In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans such as ‘right to work,’” Martin Luther King, Jr. said in 1964. “It is a law to rob us of our civil rights and job rights.  “Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining by which unions have improved wages and working conditions for everyone…Wherever these laws have been passed, wages are lower, job opportunities are fewer, and there are no civil rights.”

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