Workers’ Resistance Bulletin is an overview of workers’ resistance, as well as the repression of workers, taking place all across the US, from small workplaces to large factories. The growing wave of worker mobilizations makes clear that the general crisis of imperialism will be met with greater struggle from the proletariat. If you have a tip or suggestion for worker coverage, or you are a worker interested in becoming a worker correspondent, please reach out to us at tribuneofthepeople@protonmail.com.
Louisiana School Bus Drivers Stage “Wildcat” Strike, Union Sides with District
Sixty-one school bus drivers for the St. Tammany Parish School District called out sick last Friday to protest their low wages and the lack of funding for school transportation in the district. The president of the union representing the bus drivers, the St. Tammany Federation of Teachers and School Employees, told local monopoly news outlet 4 WWL that the action was a “wildcat strike” and “extremely frustrating.” Bus drivers staged the action independently of the union after a long period of inaction where very little was done to help drivers organize to win their demands.
As one driver said at a local school board meeting concerning the poor pay and lack of funding for schools’ buses in the district, “If y’all think it’s bad now, it’s going to get worse.” Following the strike, the St. Tammany Parish School Board finally scheduled an emergency meeting to address bus drivers’ grievances for this coming Monday.
Thousands of Puerto Rican Teachers Strike to Fight Low Pay, Stagnant Wages
Since early last week, around three quarters of Puerto Rico’s 20,000 teachers have been out on strike to protest more than a decade of stagnant and low pay. Teachers in Puerto Rico are only paid a starting salary around $1,750 a month, or $20,000 a year, and haven’t received a wage increase in 13 years. Teachers on the island have been stretched thin over the last few years by a series of disasters caused by capitalist failure to rebuild from storms and earthquakes. These already poor conditions have also recently been exacerbated by a debt restructuring plan imposed on Puerto Rico by the mainland US government which limits how much public workers can be paid and cuts back on their benefits.
Despite the governor of the island, Pedro Pierluisi, encouraging teachers to quit if they didn’t like the wages, one striking English teacher told monopoly media outlet National Public Radio (NPR) that community support for the strike was high: “I’ve been sending messages to the parents to let them know that we will be on strike, and the majority have been writing saying that they are 100% backing us and that they understand our fight.”
Minnesota Sysco Drivers Strike over Unfair Pay Differences
Delivery drivers for restaurant and food logistics giant Sysco in western Minnesota staged a two-day strike last week to protest their low wages in comparison to other Sysco drivers in state. According to the union representing the drivers, Teamsters Local 120, drivers at the St. Cloud Sysco plant in western Minnesota are paid 49% less than drivers at Sysco’s center in the Twin Cities. Drivers also told local monopoly media outlet KNSI that Sysco would not let them look at their benefits package until they were already hired. The strike, which began on Wednesday, February 9, ended without an agreement two days later on Friday after the union stated it felt Sysco has been “held accountable.”
Over 100 Protest Racism of Michigan Electrical Contractor, Call for Company President’s Resignation
On February 1, around 100 people gathered outside of an Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) Greater Michigan chapter in Midland, Michigan, to call for the president’s firing for ignoring an associated company’s racist practices. This follows a federal lawsuit filed against one of the association’s contracting companies, United Electrical Workers, by a group of mostly Black and Latino former workers, named the “United Six.” The workers reported that company supervisors frequently used racial slurs against them, and made racist comments while harassing them to work faster. A worker told local monopoly media outlet Huron Daily Tribune that one supervisor told a worker, “Hurry up before I pull out my whip.” ABC’s president Jimmy Greene called the lawsuit “bogus” and used the fact that he himself was Black as a cover for why he dismissed the workers’ reports. Rallies in support of the United Six have been organized in other Michigan cities such as Ann Arbor and Lansing.
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