On October 31, the UE National Officers published an op-ed in In These Times on Palestine and Gaza. They explain why, even beyond the prospects of a ceasefire, UE is calling for an end to US military aid to Israel — and why other unions should be working towards the same thing.
Also protesting were a couple of United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers Union Members. They were protesting the government’s decision to terminate the employment of all members at the United States Customs and Immigration System Nebraska Service Center by Black Friday.
“We’ll be laid off and we’ll be unemployed and there’ll be us looking for jobs and some of them are already trying to find jobs,” said Tim Van Boening, a member of UE Local 808.
“A lot of our work is being moved to non-union locations to places that are paid less that don’t have the capacity to do the work that we do, just shows that, especially this administration, does not care about getting this work done,” said Jackson Thomas, member of UE Local 808.
Hundreds of postdoctoral scholars and research associates at Northwestern University voted to unionize this week, nearly two months after petitioning school officials.
“It’s beyond exciting to be part of something like this,” said Julia Fadjukov, 36, a postdoctoral fellow researching ophthalmology.
Members of the Northwestern Postdoctoral Union, or NUPU-UE, said they are seeking higher wages, workplace protections and job security. The vote paves the way for the collective bargaining process with the university.
“This job is our dream job. We love to do research and science for a living, but with everything going on in the U.S. at the moment, it has definitely felt like there’s this strong sense of fear,” said Fadjukov, who is from Finland. “I think many of us feel that with (the union), we can have a safe space to do our work.”
“We’re here today to protest Antonio Gracias and all of the billionaires like him who have seized control of our government in order to rip off working people,” said Carl Rosen, general president of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, or UE, which organized the rally.
Photo: Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
Dozens of organized Northwestern University postdoctoral researchers marched through campus Tuesday, delivering a petition to formally ask school officials to recognize their new labor union.
Northwestern University Postdoc Union would represent about 1,300 scientists and academic research staff, who say they’re fighting for higher wages, better healthcare and workplace protections. Many expressed concerns that their research funding and employment could be abruptly pulled amid an environment of political uncertainty on campus.
Teachers and Researchers United (TRU-UE) Local 197, a PhD workers' union at Johns Hopkins University, joined the rallies on May Day to demand that the university's administration protect international students, workers and research funding.
“The upshot is that we want them to be proactive about protecting our workers’ rights, to protect them from ICE and to protect their research funding,” said Stephen Schmidt, a graduate worker and member of TRU-UE Local 197.
Johns Hopkins University workers and students want JHU to commit to protecting both international students and research funding amid federal government changes.
Those speaking out spent much of Thursday picketing outside the university.
“There definitely has been a lot of concern among people on campus about these actions taken by the federal administration, but we are still going to stand up and protect our members and other international, and otherwise, people on campus,” said Stephen Schmidt, a member of the Teachers and Researchers United Union [UE Local 197].
[UE Local 1103-GSU President] Evan Yamaguchi, a third-year graduate worker at the University of Chicago, was among the thousands holding signs and banners.
“Workers literally had to fight for their lives just for an eight-hour workday,” he said. “So it’s crucial now more than ever for all of us to recognize that whatever rights we have aren’t given, they’re won and hard fought for.”
The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America Local 150, the North Carolina public service workers union, is urging the state not to increase premiums or make other changes to the plan, which covers nearly 750,000 current and former state employees.
Charles Owens, a health care technician and vice president of Local 150 at Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro, said his coworkers are already feeling the effects of changes to their plans.
"They changed the plan up and so forth but didn't bother to get input from the people that it affects, and that was just outrageous," Owens stated.
“It’s good that there’s a cease-fire, but it took way too long to get there, and that is largely the fault of U.S. government policy,” UE general president Carl Rosen tells In These Times. Pointing to the continuation of settler violence and Israeli military attacks in the West Bank in the days since the Gaza cease-fire began, along with Israel’s “bellicose approach” to neighboring countries like Syria and Lebanon, Rosen says, “there’s a lot of work to do to bring peace to that area and U.S. labor continues to have an interest in making sure that happens.”