Art
pastel work of art displaying grocery store workers in green aprons bagging and cashiering for customers

The Art of Forced Sacrifice

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Essential workers are expected to risk their lives when they go to work every day. I talked with artist Carolyn Olson about her portrait series documenting this perilous labor.

COVID-19
7 adults and one child stand in a row smiling holding blue, yellow, and white signs depicting a trader joe's soup can that says "union"

Trader Joe’s Union Campaign Takes Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

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Trader Joe’s workers in Minneapolis won their union in a landslide vote August 12, making theirs the second store to go with the new, independent Trader Joe’s United. The win raises the question of whether the grocer, with its 530 locations and progressive image, could be the next Starbucks. It seems that Trader Joe’s management is considering becoming the next Starbucks in a different sense: closing stores and harassing workers out of union drives. A store in Boulder, Colorado, had a vote lined up for this week, but workers seeking affiliation with Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 7 there withdrew their petition the day after filing charges against the company for coercion and intimidation. The Trader Joe’s drives reflect an emerging theme of recent new organizing: independent versus affiliated unionism.

Organizing
a diverse crowd of people wearing red shirts reading "one job is enough" hold up circular signs reading "UNITE HERE!" that have rainbow borders

After walking away from workers, Millennium gets heat from convention delegates

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Housekeepers and other hotel employees took the stage on Day 1 of the AFL-CIO’s Pride at Work convention and told delegates that the Millennium Hotel had pulled back tentative agreements with their union two months after booking the convention. Delegates didn’t take the news sitting down. They marched out of the Millennium ballroom and into the lobby, with hotel staff in the lead, and held a lively rally in their defense. When security guards demanded demonstrators move to the sidewalk outside, they refused, holding the lobby for nearly a half hour. The action marked a spirited start to the three-day convention that began Aug.