Strike

Friday

Cockburn

Boeing workers fight for fair pay… on beach vacation

“When Boeing fails... BET ON SPORTS! #STRIKE #IAM751 #NFL #MLB,” a striking Boeing employee recently posted on Facebook, geotagging a three-star hotel and casino in Washington State. Posts in a private Facebook group purporting to belong to the striking workers of Boeing reveal that, amid the first Boeing employee strike in almost two decades, the workers of the world are uniting on vacation. The group, called “Boeing Employees (Lazy B),” contains a multitude of posts from striking members on vacation in Mexico, gambling in casinos and on fishing trips. “On strike in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco Mexico. #iam751 #boeing,” another post reads. A third reads, “strike fishing again.

Wednesday

John Pietro

Shipping company Yellow could lose Walmart, further worsening US shipping woes

Walmart has reportedly stopped using Yellow as the shipping company stares down bankruptcy and a major strike by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Craig Fuller of FreightWaves tweeted that Walmart was one of Yellow’s largest customers, meaning their exit will cost the company dearly. The implosion of Yellow could magnify the impact of any potential IBT strike against UPS, which alone could have ground the US economy to a halt. Yellow had received a $700 million federal loan during the Covid pandemic, but has run into challenges paying it back, and the New York Times reports that the company had $1.5 billion in debt in March 2023.

Teamsters

Friday

Alexander Larman

What’s happening with the SAG-WGA strike?

Christopher Nolan’s latest film, Oppenheimer, is about the second biggest bang in history. Yet at its London premiere on Thursday, there was another explosion that, in its own way, was no less seismic than anything put on screen. Its star-studded cast, including Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon and Robert Downey Jr., assembled dutifully on the red carpet for interviews and selfies, but by the time that the film itself was about to screen, none of the actors were anywhere to be seen.  As Nolan said of his “incredible cast” in his introductory talk, “You’ve seen them here earlier on the red carpet.

strike

Thursday

Jonathan Bydlak

More rail trouble could be on the horizon

Economic news over the last few months has been bleak. Whether it’s inflation, supply chain disruptions, or the threat of recession, worrying news abounds. But among the headlines, there was a topic that briefly bubbled to the surface before being all but forgotten: a potential strike by the country’s railroad workers. Amtrak, in anticipation, canceled all cross-country routes, but Labor Secretary Marty Walsh averted a strike at the eleventh hour by negotiating quite literally through the night to find an agreement with the workers. It’s easy to forget about rail. In a time when inflation and potential recession are dominating headlines, transportation issues just don’t seem as interesting.

Monday

Matt Purple

Inflation is the great destroyer

In the summer of 1981, the American air traffic controllers’ union PATCO rejected a salary and benefits deal that had been put forth by the Reagan administration. What happened next lives on in the annals of Republican lore and in labor movement horror stories: PATCO opted for an illegal strike. More than 12,000 air traffic controllers walked off the job, and in one of the most successful union-busts in history, Reagan fired almost all of them. That’s the official account anyway. But there’s much more about the strike that’s less known, or at least misunderstood. For example, did you know that PATCO had actually endorsed Reagan for president in 1980, finding Jimmy Carter too intransigent?