Alliance Ouvrière (Quebec, Canada Worker Coordination)

Alliance Ouvrière (AO), a worker coordination in Quebec our comrade participated in the formation of, will be holding its first worker congress on December 8. A number of workers from different sectors are active in the coordination, divided into three caucuses: public sector, construction, and logistics / movement of goods.

The logistics / movement of goods caucus includes workers from the Amazon DXT4 warehouse union executive, workers from additional Amazon facilities, and two Canadian Postal workers. Amazon workers in the caucus recently took solidarity action with the 55,000 Canadian Postal workers (CUPW) currently on strike by joining the picket lines at the sorting center in Montreal.

The public sector caucus is the second largest and was officially launched in November. It includes around twenty workers, mainly from the health and education sectors. Our Party militant is amongst them working in public transportation. This caucus is preparing for the next round of collective bargaining, which will take place in 3 years’ time. Despite an initially interesting balance of power, the last common front, and the Autonomous Federation of Education (FEA) indefinite general strike were disastrous. Unfortunately, the Education Union Federation (FSE), the other central labor body in the education sector, left FEA to strike alone. As for the Federation of Nurses (FIQ) struck out on their own and have just signed their new contract which includes major setbacks for the workers. The public sector caucus is intended as a new common front for the rank and file (workers wishing to consult independently of the central labor bodies).

Class Struggle Action Network

Party militants continue their intervention work in the Class Struggle Action Network (CSAN). 9 workers have joined CSAN in the last two months and 10 others have come into contact. Industries present in the network include: education, health, social service, postal, railroad, hospitality, grocery, city workers, bank, tech, construction, millwrights, baristas, gig workers etc

Participation in the monthly general meetings has been increasing. The last General Meeting, 17 workers attended. Many of the participants were from Richmond, Virginia, USA, where there is a newly forming chapter of Class Struggle Action Network. We will be holding a public event in this location for both CSAN and the ICP. Many of these workers are connected with the Southern Workers Assembly, detailed later in the report.

CSAN is adopting a new constitution and bylaws to be implemented as the network’s numbers and good work grows. The constitution and bylaws further articulates CSAN’s foundational principles, positions, methods, and mission. It defines membership and its requirements. Additionally, the majority of the organizing of the network will be moved to the general meetings of the network where the membership can more deeply engage in the work of building a class union and otherwise bring proposals to the broader network.

Starbucks, New Seasons Workers & Fred Meyers Workers

As we have previously reported Party members within the The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), last year formed a workers committee on class unionist principles called the United For Class Wide Action (UFCWA). The militant caucus grew to several dozen workers across locations in the Portland area and spent a year building a united front effort with other combative currents within the union culminating in an effort to defend workers against the notorious UFCW regime union, who sought to promote pitiful wage demands. The work of the caucus forced the union leadership to put forward wage demands in excess of inflation during their contract bargain, that ultimately led to the union taking strike action; however, their collaborationist and sabotage efforts of leadership in the course of the strike and the bargain again sold workers out leaving them with pitiful gains. This only pointed towards the need for continual organizing for the UFCWA and lead the workers to breakout from the shackles of the regime union.

Through the Class Struggle Action Network, these workers have built association with class militants within the Starbucks Workers United union. Through CSAN these Starbucks workers fought for a year to oppose their own unions acceptance of a collaborationist "no strike clause" in their contract and advance the need for serious strike action. The agitational work in Starbucks against the unions collaborationist attitude over the past year, has also contributed towards leading it back onto the grounds of voting for a national strike authorization vote.

In Portland Starbucks workers and Fred Meyer’s workers have united to form a territorial congress of service workers united by class unionist principles. Already the effort has brought the two sections of workers together with others within the New Seasons Labor Union. The first action of the new association has been to pass solidarity resolutions within their respective unions to stand together in solidarity, at take labor actions in the event of a strike declaration by the others. Already such a resolution was passed unanimously in Portland, by the New Seasons Labor Union. This declaration of intent to take serious united strike action, represents a serious and positive development for the elements of combative independent unions in Portland, towards their unification, via joint action within a classist united front that can begin to seriously defend workers interests.

Richmond Workers Assembly (RWA)

The Richmond Workers Assembly (branch of the Southern Workers Assembly) puts on a regularly occurring monthly meeting, open to all workers, where various workers united around class union principles (often involved in rank and file caucuses) in the Richmond area congregate and share activity in their unions and promote local campaigns, as well as help,to organize the unorganized workers.

The assembly established contact with the Class Struggle Action Network last year and we have since shared joint membership and support. It has shown strong support and solidarity actions for local unionization efforts, including: a successful arborists union drive with IAM, a brewery (Sapporo-Stone) unionization drive with the Teamsters that ended in a failed vote after a bitter union busting campaign, but has developed a strong Organizing Committee that’s emboldened to continue the fight in the upcoming year. Additionally, there is a developing effort from the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden workers with IAM, where solidarity actions from the assembly are being planned.

Our Party militant’s intervention within RWA has been largely relegated to propagandizing our Party’s paper among the workers. Many workers have gone from simply accepting our press, to actively seeking out the paper. In addition to distribution of our press, there has been an effort to merge participation between assembly workers into the broader Class Struggle Action Network. At least 4 assembly members have started attending the monthly CSAN meetings and have shared positive remarks on CSAN’s work with others in the assembly, suggesting a promising future.

IAM & the Boeing Strike

Note; A TA is a tentative agreement; a proposed agreement between boss and union leadership that has not been approved or voted on by workers yet. Thus, it is an unofficial agreement that proceeds to be voted on by workers in a particular union.

Since our last report, comrades continued to intervene on the International Aerospace and Machinists (IAM) district local 751 and W24 picket lines at Boeing, distributing our party press at nearly all picket locations up until the rank and file, by a small margin, approved a tentative agreement (TA) after 53 days of striking. The TA was approved by only 59% of the rank and file, while 41% wanted to continue the hard struggle, particularly to regain their pension. Workers had spent years saving up for this strike, many of whom reported having saved to last at least 6 months of a strike. The small majority of workers who approved the TA came from the newer hires who had been recently recruited into the company and had never experienced a pension. The company had continued to work to draw away the new hires in negotiations with targeted small pay increases that would specifically increase their wages to create divisions amongst the workers.

Through our conversations on the picket lines, we learned many workers were recognizing the need to organize amongst themselves within the union to overthrow leadership and put their union on a fighting footing to actually get their demands met. As far as we could tell, there was not yet a force specifically organized amongst the rank and file prepared to drive the agitation of the workers forward. The direct actions and opposition to union leadership in voting down multiple contracts that the union had tried selling to the rank and file as "historic wins", came spontaneously as a product of the poor conditions and sellout leadership that workers knew did not represent their interests. The approval of the latest TA leaves a very agitated 41%, nearly 14,000 workers. The current contract expires in 2028, the same year which the United Auto Worker president Sean Fain has called for workers to align contracts.

Subsequently, through contacts long established through our various picket line intervention work over the years, Party members in CSAN were invited to deliver a speech to health care workers within an IAM local as they deliberated over whether or not to approve the current TA they were bargaining, and whether or not to vote to authorize a strike. There were approximately 25 workers present at the union hall at the time, along with a small handful of union leaders. Worker’s conditions and wages were appalling. Workers responded enthusiastically to what our Party’s militant proselytized about class unionism and struggle.

PSU AAUP

A Party militant has been organizing support for increasing the combative strength of workers in the Portland State University American Association of University Professors union (PSU-AAUP) as actions escalate during contract negotiations. The university president and board of trustees are all owners of property development companies. Funds generated by the university have been diverted away from workers, and towards investment opportunities that benefit their companies. Both to increase profits, and to intimidate workers into a cowering position as their contract expires, the university announced a $25 million dollar budget cut and issued 94 lay off notices. This announcement came as the university invested $300 million in concrete and steel. Our comrade has now participated in multiple worker actions that have included rallies, marches, building occupations and crowding of workers into the negotiating room.

Besides distributing both our Party and CSAN press, our comrade has played a role in emboldening the workers towards further advancing their actions, such as being the first to approach and enter the building to be occupied as workers stalled their march’s advance. During the first action while occupying the building, our comrade was asked to give a speech to the workers that resulted in an eruption of cheers by the workers present.

At the following day of action, our militant distributed papers to the 75% of workers who accepted our press, and otherwise built individual contacts with workers from various unions who had shown up to the action in solidarity. With the contract expiring this week, more actions are planned and it is likely a strike authorization vote will soon occur. Our Party militant will continue to put forth our Party’s positions and press to the workers.

Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) in Chicago

In September when there was a strike by the rank and file of SEIU at the University of Illinois, our Party militant distributed a Party flyer denouncing the electoralist and regime union, and a CSAN quarter sheet urging walkouts and slowdowns. As a result of these efforts and the solidarity in struggle demonstrated, the rank and file members of GEO requested our comrade’s support in the organizing of a solidarity committee within the union. Originally the committee was framed in liberal terms. Our comrade collaborated with other Party militants to put forth a new framework to outline the mission of the committee along class unionist lines. The proposal was welcomed and implemented. As discussions have continued amongst those particularly excited to learn more about class unionism, it was decided to investigate the potential of building a class union caucus within the union to further agitate those positions within the broader union. Approximately 12 workers have confirmed extreme interest in developing the caucus. Our comrade recently became a formal voting member of the committee where he has continued to put forth our Party’s positions.

National Association of Letter Carriers

Via our connections with a class unionist in the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) who is sympathetic to the Party, we learned of a workers rally being held outside a Post Office in town. The rally was organized as a part of a national day of action for workers in the National American Letter Carrier (NALC) union who have been working without a contract now for nearly 550 days as negotiations stall. The NALC recently put forward an insulting TA to its membership. The day of action was organized as a part of a campaign by the rank and file to turn out a vote against a TA meant only for the port-o-potty, and to further organize workers to overtake the union’s collaborationist old guard leaders. The TA includes a laughable raise of 1.3%, an effective wage cut given inflation.

Emerging from the struggles of the over 280,000 rank and file of the NALC living with low wages that have endured a net loss in purchasing power of 13 percent, is the Build a Fighting NALC (BFN) rank and file union caucus, who organized the day of action. BFN appears to be taking some sort of lead in a coalition effort of a number of reform caucus within the union including Concerned Letter Carriers (CLC) in the vote no campaign against the TA. A TA hasn’t been voted down since 1978. BFN clarifies, this campaign is to encourage a no vote in favor of better wages, but that their caucus aims to overthrow the old guard of the union, build solidarity across the postal unions, and gain the right to strike.

The 585,000 postal workers across 4 unions and crafts making up America’s largest unionized workforce, are additionally undergoing massive threats of layoffs. To stay competitive with Amazon, UPS, and FedEx, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has a plan to close loads of post offices and create a few, far spread out, mega facilities that incorporate large scale automation, such as that seen on the huge 90 football field wide UPS facility in Kentucky, that has humans touching packages only twice, on their way into the facility and on the way out.

Long time postal rank and file organizers say that there is more movement by workers on the shop floor than they’ve seen in 30 years. The Postal worker’s history shows, should the material conditions be desperate enough, the workers will strike, regardless of any so called rights bestowed or denied by the capitalist class.

In 1970, the second year of the US war in Vietnam, political unrest, and the hardships of rising inflation took place. Federal Postal workers, despite lack of bourgeois touted "rights of collective bargaining", staged a wildcat of 210,000 workers across 30 cities in the largest strike against the Federal Government, and the first walk-out against the Federal Government in U.S. history. This 8 day strike halted the distribution of 270 million pieces of mail a day, leading to a massive buildup of government and financial documents including draft notification letters for the imperialist slaughter of workers in Vietnam. That 28% representing the militant minority of the postal workforce who went on illegal strike for wages, while the federal government tried to break them with 23,000 national armed forces, won those higher wages.

At the recent National Day of collective action rally, postal workers erupted with shouts of "I want to strike" in response to speeches recalling the great postal Wildcat of the 1970’s as an exemplar of worker power, possibility, and as an answer to their decimated wages and worsening conditions. Despite a group of members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) making a point to alienate our comrade at the rally, workers quickly devoured both our Party press and CSAN literature.