Labor Notes

3 weeks ago | labornotes.org | Dan DiMaggio

More than two years after voting in a union, the 220 workers at TCGplayer, the eBay-owned online marketplace for trading cards, hoped they might be getting close to securing a first contract. Instead, they’re fighting to save their jobs. On May 22, the company abruptly announced that it was shuttering its Syracuse, New York, authentication center and moving operations to Louisville, Kentucky.

3 weeks ago | labornotes.org | Dan La Botz

Forty members and supporters of Los Deliveristas, an organization of app-based delivery workers in New York City, gathered in front of City Hall on May 28 to protest what they claim is police harassment of their members. They came bearing banners in Spanish and English that read “We are Workers not Criminals.” Several New York City Council members came out of City Hall to join their protest and expressed their support.

3 weeks ago | labornotes.org | Jane Slaughter

What has happened to workers in Turkey since the country voted to concentrate power in one man, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, should be a warning flashing red to workers elsewhere. “When democracy shrinks, it hurts workers—when one man has all the power,” said Arzu Çerkezoğlu, president of Turkey’s Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions (DISK). “Parliament became useless, there’s no separation of powers. The president can control the laws that are made, and the judicial system.

1 month ago | labornotes.org | Alexandra Bradbury

The Seattle-area labor movement is rallying in defense of immigrant members seized by the Trump regime. Forklift driver Maximo Londonio and his family were on their way home from vacation in the Philippines—where he and his wife had celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary—when he was pulled aside at the airport, held there for days, then taken to a for-profit jail. Londonio has a green card; he moved here from the Philippines when he was just a kid.

1 month ago | labornotes.org | Jenny Brown

Ronald Reagan used to say the scariest nine words were “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” Wait, what? When my house was half destroyed by Hurricane Frances in 2004, a Federal Emergency Management Agency agent showed up three days later and cut us a check so we could get the giant tree off the house and do temporary repairs. Through FEMA, we were able to get a $20,000 low-interest loan from the Small Business Administration so we could rebuild. The federal government was there to help.