UPS workers in Minneapolis expressed support for a city-wide general strike on Friday, January 23, to force the withdrawal of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) paramilitary forces from the city and secure the prosecution of those responsible for the killing of Minneapolis resident Renée Nicole Good.
A coalition of unions and community organizations called for a city-wide “day of action” on Friday, urging residents to participate in “no work, no school, no shopping.” Workers interpreted the call as a general strike to use the power of the working class to shut down economic activity and oppose state repression.
However, the trade union apparatus has moved swiftly to suppress any independent action by workers. Teamsters Local 638, which has over 5,000 members in Minnesota and North Dakota, circulated a letter warning members that participation in a work stoppage would violate their labor agreements with the corporate bosses. “The collective bargaining agreement that applies to you includes a no-strike provision, so you are not legally permitted to strike,” the statement declared.
Further proof as if it was needed that western unions have long been absorbed by the capitalist machine.
Yea if your uniIn has a no strike clause you’re just payIng a subscription for the company’s HR.
Not really how striking works. Most of the time you are striking after the contract has expired. Workers in Amerikkka are not organized enough for wildcat strikes. You would just have at tops 30% of the workforce ready to get fired even if they didn’t have no strike clauses. Also to strike legally you must have a ULP, anyway. Where we should be pushing labour currently is to work outside the legal framework as the NLRA is a whole system created to destroy worker power and solidarity.
Let this be a qualitative shift in the labor struggle
Hopefully the UPS drivers in twin cities will mostly be sick on Friday
I don’t even understand why they would want to run deliveries on Friday. It’s going to be dogshit weather, much of downtown will be choked by the masses of people, and most businesses won’t be open to accept deliveries anyway.
We also gotta quit with the one day bullshit.
It’s really really easy to ignore something if that thing notifies you ahead of time it’ll be over by tomorrow.
I don’t think you quit with it, but you start with it.
One-days should be commonplace and priming people to be ready for more extensive action.
butbutbut if people don’t get their treats in time they’re gonna (sniffle) be MEAN to us
We can’t even get people to come out on their lunch breaks. I would much rather have a one day strike that’s organized by coalition than some posters get put up in your neighborhood and your local commie group posts online about a 10 day strike.
Fuckin teamsters have always been pretty reactionary when it counts most.
So lazy and surly
Yeah, more proof that while unions are useful, they exist within the structure of capital and cannot conceive of standing against it wholly. They are a subservient tool that capital briefly allowed but have been bringing to heel for decades. I’ve seen this first hand in my own union and the leadership often fails to recognize their own role in perpetuating capital, often only for crumbs of the crumbs of the pie.
Modern unions protect the job not the worker
teamsters taste the boot and say “Yum!”
The ghost of Meyer Lansky still haunts the Teamsters, a sus org.
