An L.A. Story: Unions Show Signs of Life

Siragugal Bricks is a community-owned brick kiln operated by rescued bonded laborers, aiming to rehabilitate and empower them to explore business endeavors and find more sustainable, safer sources of income. Since April 2022, 100 families have worked for Siragugal and local government organizations have helped obtain funding and supplies to facilitate Siragugal’s operations, such as power supplies, a work shed and a borehole for water.

Workers at an Amazon warehouse on Staten Island voted to unionize after two years of organizing by the independent Amazon Labor Union. The union was started by a worker who was fired from the warehouse after protesting unsafe conditions during the COVID-19, and a current employee. The union raised funds through GoFundMe to carry out innovative organizing tactics, like making TikTok videos and bringing free food from diverse cultural backgrounds to feed workers coming and going from their around the clock shifts.

Worker cooperatives offer a scalable model through which to ensure and protect the rights of home care workers. The Home Care Workers Purpose Trust, started by the Bronx-based Cooperative Home Care Associates, brings the worker co-op model to other home care programs across the country. The group, which partners with multiple worker advocacy organizations, most recently began a joint venture to serve southern Washington state.

Gender Equality Funds is a tool that makes it possible for people to know if the mutual fund companies in their 401(k)’s are gender inclusive. The tools pulls data from 4,000 mutual funds companies and gives them a gender score. The aim is to empower people to invest their money in socially responsible funds. “I believe this is going to be a tsunami of capital shifting away from companies that are not responsive on gender equality.”

In an effort to achieve a true "fair work week," Philadelphia looks to Seattle's worker protection laws - which are among the best in the country. Seattle enforces a strict secure-scheduling policy, which ensures workers are compensated if an employer changes their schedule without fair warning.

France, Italy, Germany, and now the U.S. are passing “anti-stress” laws, which make it illegal or harder for workers to receive emails after work. Research shows that when employees expect to be contacted after work through email, their levels of anxiety and stress go up. "I think this will lessen a lot of the anxiety that goes with having a job in the city and allow people to draw their own lines about when work ends."

Out of the 7 million domestic employees worldwide, 1 in every 7 are employed in Brazil.” A mobile app, Laudeline, is making it easier for them to be informed of their rights. Through the app domestic workers in Brazil can access salary and benefits calculators, rights explanations, and they can even locate the nearest union. “What they often lack is familiarity with the law,” she said. “A friend of mine has said to me for years, ‘You have to open the window to see the world.’ This app is a way to open that window.”

Undervaluation of care work stems from gender bias. A labor union brought this argument to court in New Zealand and won big. The settlement nearly doubled wages for workers, which has led to the added bonus of less staff turnover. Similar claims from more female-dominated professions are in progress.

Although Iceland has ranked the most gender equal nation in the world by The Word Economic Forum, there is still a gender pay gap. A new law might change that. Iceland has become the first, and only country to punish companies that pay women less than men.

In Florida, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers found a way to end sexual harassment on the tomato fields. Through organizing, they convinced big companies like McDonald’s and Walmart to only buy tomatoes from “fields that were part of the Fair Food Program, which basically meant the tomatoes they would sell or cook came from fields where workers are treated justly.” That’s just one of the methods the coalition took to create “real world consequences.”