International

Grocery Workers VS Goliath

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This article is a joint publication of Workday Magazine and In These Times. In early February, when temperatures in Denver plunged to seven degrees below zero and snow dusted the sidewalks, Martin Bonilla, bundled in two jackets and a neck warmer, walked a picket line 1,000 miles from his home of Fillmore, Calif. Bonilla works in the produce department at Vons and had flown to Colorado in the early morning after finishing an 11-and-a-half-hour shift. Over the next eight days, Bonilla picketed five of the 77 striking Kroger-owned King Soopers stores in Colorado, in support of 10,000 members of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 7, putting in 16-hour shifts each day before going back to his hotel, exhausted. On the lines, he wore new boots he had bought the night before his flight and shoved hand warmers into his gloves to protect from a cold that was so piercing he went hours without texting or calling his wife, not wanting to remove his hand from his glove. 

The main thing that stuck out to Bonilla, who is 53, were workers far older than he is, pushing walkers.

Midwest

Construction Bosses Are Using Elaborate Schemes to Harm Workers

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This article is a joint publication of Workday Magazine and The American Prospect. In 2020, Alejandro was working a construction job in the Madison, Wisconsin, metro area, doing texture, painting, and drywall on residential homes, when his boss asked him to do something strange. The boss gave Alejandro a check, and told him to go to a local bakery to cash it. He was then instructed to use that cash to pay himself and his co-worker for their labor. Alejandro, who arrived in the U.S. from Mexico in 2019 and is now 29, was unfamiliar with employment practices in this country and did as he was told, paying himself $800 every two weeks.

Minnesota

“One Job Should Be Enough”: How 9,000 Grocery Workers Are Banding Together in Minnesota

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Monica Duque never knows how many hours she is going to get in a given week. She works at the Jerry’s Cub Foods on East Lake Street at the front of the store, helping customers, overseeing cashiering, and running online shopping. She finds out her hours, she explains, “when the schedule is posted on Friday, for the week after next.” 

“There is no consistency,” says the 24 year old, which makes it hard to save money, or plan much for the future. She makes a little over $20 an hour, and even being cut 10 hours in a week can have a big impact on her finances. “I can do morning one day then night shift the next day.

International

How Healthcare Workers Are Defending Their Transgender Patients from Trump’s Attacks

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In the five years Quinn has worked as a licensed counselor, they have seen the astonishing positive impact that gender-affirming care can have on young patients’ lives. “You talk to these kids, and they can have such complicated experiences with depression and social anxiety, and then you start providing hormones and gender-affirming care, and you see this dramatic difference in how they are able to engage with the world,” explained Quinn, who is going by a pseudonym. “It’s so clear that this is what helps our trans young people to be contributing to society and fully themselves, to meet expected life milestones in ways that are healthy, and connect with community in good ways.”

Because Quinn’s clinic relies on federal funding, it is in the crosshairs of the Trump administration’s attempts to cut off access to gender-affirming healthcare for people under the age of 19. Quinn and their coworkers are worried about the future, but they’re determined not to reduce any services. 

In the wake of the executive orders threatening to cut federal funding to programs providing gender affirming care, the clinic did make some changes to its public-facing communications. “We were asked to take our pronouns out of our signature box, and information about our gender-affirming support groups and care was taken off the website,” said Quinn, who requested I not identify the location, name, or type of clinic out of fear of retribution.

International

Cómo puede el movimiento laboral luchar contra la agenda de deportaciones masivas de Trump

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Este es un momento aterrador para los trabajadores inmigrantes. El presidente electo Donald Trump hizo campaña con el lema “deportaciones masivas ahora” y nombró a un equipo de extremistas anti-inmigrantes. La dirigencia del Partido Demócrata se ha inclinado hacia la derecha en este tema, adoptando la retórica de Trump sobre “asegurar la frontera” y las políticas republicanas fundamentales. Un proyecto de ley que apuntaría a personas indocumentadas para deportación si son simplemente acusadas, no condenadas, de delitos no violentos como el hurto en tiendas fue aprobado en la Cámara de Representantes con apoyo bipartidista. Está avanzando en el Senado, donde sólo ocho demócratas se opusieron a su avance.

International

How Labor Can Fight Back Against Trump’s Mass Deportation Agenda

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This article is a joint publication of Workday Magazine and Labor Notes. This is a frightening time for immigrant workers. President-elect Donald Trump ran on the slogan “mass deportations now,” and has appointed a team of anti-immigrant hardliners. The leadership of the Democratic Party has lurched to the right on this issue, adopting Trump’s rhetoric about “securing the border,” and embracing core Republican policies. 

A bill that would target undocumented people for deportations if they are merely accused—not convicted—of nonviolent crimes like shoplifting passed in the House with bipartisan support. It’s moving forward in the Senate where only eight Democrats opposed its advance.