Organizing for Help in a Pandemic

Graduate student unions, like Oregon State University’s Coalition of Graduate Employees, use collective bargaining to allow student employees to successfully negotiate for fair wages, reasonable hours, and other terms of employment.

Meatpacking workers protested Covid-19 safety concerns and a coalition of advocacy groups filed a civil rights complaint with the government accusing Tyson and JBS USA of racial discrimination during the pandemic because the safety issues disproportionately impact line workers, who are largely people of color. Nevada’s Culinary Union also sued Las Vegas Strip casinos for unsafe working conditions. Two casinos have been dropped from the suit after deciding to negotiate privately with the union and Tyson has since instituted some safety measures, but broader impacts of the complaints remain to be seen.

Employees at 7 Yakima Valley fruit packing plants, who are predominately Latinx, went on strike to protest inadequate protection and pay during the Covid-19 pandemic. Agricultural workers accounted for nearly one-fifth of the county’s positive cases. The worker initiated strikes and picket lines were supported by community members, union representatives, and non-profit legal centers. Workers returned to work after gaining concessions on better pay, safety protections, and the formation of worker advocacy committees. The state also issued new workplace safety standards for agricultural workers after protests.

After watching a documentary film about women janitors getting assaulted during the night shift, janitors began to organize around a campaign called “Ya Basta — “Enough is Enough.” They began to protest for legislation that would protect them. A bill that would require supervisors to undergo sexual harassment training was sent to the floor, and janitors participated in a five day hunger strike calling for the governor to sign it. "Not just one or two, but thousands are behind me, speaking up. Maybe our world as immigrant women will change.”

After enduring unfair working conditions, an organizing committee at a Starbucks in Tennessee, later dubbed the Memphis Seven, became the first of the state to attempt, and succeed, to unionize with help from Starbucks Workers United. Their work inspired a nationwide movement, and now over 250 Starbucks are unionized.

Iceland may be "the best country in the world for gender equality" but women get paid 30 percent less than men. Trade unions and businesses united to fix the problem. They reevaluated people's salaries through a point system, regardless of their gender. Now, the government has decided all companies in Iceland will have to implement the system, or pay a fine.

The night shift janitor is an easy target. Working in isolation, cleaners across the country say they have been harassed, assaulted and raped by supervisors and co-workers while tidying office buildings, shopping malls and universities, as our investigation exposed.

The Industrial Commons (TIC) strives to create an inclusive economy based on community between employee-owned social enterprises and industrial cooperatives, creating a more democratized, worker-centric environment. Since 2015, TIC has launched five cooperative businesses, employing more than 100 workers, and is working to grow the number of businesses to 75 by 2025.

A 42-day strike coordinated by the Temple University Graduate Students’ Association resulted in a new contract that raised wages and eliminated the previous wage system among other improvements to the student workers’ benefits.

Fight Back, Inc. is a local community-based organization that worked to get construction jobs for Blacks, Spanish-surnamed, and other minorities in New York City over the years. The organization has been very effective in integrating the skilled and construction trades and ensuring workers of color have equal opportunity and has been replicated in other cities like Seattle and Detroit.