Deadline: Striking Writers Rally On Social Media; “Don’t Believe The Spin That’s Already Coming Out. We’re Going To Fight”. “Minutes after the Writers Guild of America declared it was on strike, members lit up social media with vows to stay strong as they prepare to hit the picket lines on Tuesday.”
Engadget: YouTube Music workers strike at Google’s Austin offices. “YouTube Music workers in the Austin, TX area who voted to unionize are striking. The Alphabet Works Union-CWA (AWU-CWA), which represents the contractors, says this is the first time a group of Google-affiliated workers has gone on strike.”
CNET: Google Reportedly Backs Down on Office Demands as Contractors Threaten to Strike. “Google Maps contractors were told they had to return to office on June 6, but received a 90-day extension three hours after telling management they were going on strike, according to a tweet Thursday by the Alphabet Workers Union. The 200-plus contractors, working for IT consulting company Cognizant Technology Solutions, say that the current return to office demands by Google are unsafe, according to the AWU.”
BBC: Thousands of Australian nurses go on strike as Covid cases mount. “Thousands of nurses in Australia’s most populous state have gone on strike, protesting against stagnant pay and staffing shortages. It comes despite an order by the state’s industrial relations commission to call off the strike. It is the first industrial action taken by nurses in almost a decade. The Omicron variant has led to a recent surge of cases, putting the country’s testing and hospital systems under further strain.”
Cal Matters: Hospitals brace for strikes as California workers protest staff shortages. “As weary health care workers across California enter the 19th month of the pandemic, thousands are walking off the job and onto the picket line, demanding more staffing. The strikes and rallies threaten to cripple hospital operations that have been inundated by the COVID-19 Delta surge as well as patients seeking long-delayed care.”
American Independent: Teachers union supports strike over Trump’s ‘chaotic and catastrophic’ reopening plan. “The American Federation of Teachers, which represents 1.7 million school employees, issued a resolution on Tuesday saying it will support any local chapter that decides to strike over reopening plans. The group says school buildings should open only in areas where coronavirus infections are low enough and if schools enact certain safety measures.”
Detroit Free Press: Detroit teachers threaten to stay home from school: What they want before returning. “Detroit teachers say they are prepared to stay home from school next month if their concerns over COVID-19 are not addressed. ‘If the members don’t feel that it’s safe, if the union leadership doesn’t feel that it’s safe, then we won’t show up,’ Detroit Federation of Teachers President Terrence Martin said Tuesday in a conference call with media and other union leaders.”
BuzzFeed News: Teachers Are Organizing To Protest School Reopenings Before The Coronavirus Is Under Control. “Teachers across the country have begun organizing protests to voice concerns about the Trump administration’s push for schools to reopen in the fall despite the coronavirus pandemic and to pressure school districts to delay the start of face-to-face instruction. Educators who have been organizing independently in cities across the United States told BuzzFeed News they’re frustrated by the Trump administration’s campaign to return to school with no national plan to keep teachers and students from spreading the coronavirus and little to no funding for personal protective equipment.”
Larry Ferlazzo: Updated Resources On The Chicago Teachers’ Strike. “Here are new additions to THE BEST ARTICLES & VIDEOS FOR LEARNING ABOUT THE 2019 CHICAGO TEACHERS’ STRIKE.”
BBC: Wikipedia founder calls for social media strike. “People are being urged to stop using social media for up to 48 hours later this week in an effort to pressure the networks into restoring control of personal data to users. The call to strike has been issued by Dr Larry Sanger – a co-founder of the Wikipedia online encyclopaedia.”
Sydney Morning Herald: Google employees walk out to protest treatment of women. “Thousands of Google workers around the world walked off the job on Thursday to protest the internet company’s lenient treatment of executives accused of sexual misconduct. The walkout comes a week after the New York Times revealed that Google had suppressed allegations of sexual misconduct against several of its executives, including Andy Rubin, the creator of the company’s Android software.”
Smithsonian Magazine: Hundreds of Newly Found Poems Reveal the Devastation of the U.K.’s ‘Cotton Famine’. “During the first half of the 20th century, factories in Lancashire spun threads and churned out vast quantities of woven cloths using raw cotton imported from the United States. The output was such that the English county earned the moniker ‘workshop of the world.’ But after the American Civil War broke out in 1861, and the Northern army blockaded Southern ports, cotton supplies were unable to reach England. Lancashire cotton mills were forced to close, and thousands of workers were left without a source of income. After they were abruptly plunged into poverty, some workers turned to poetry to convey the devastation of the so-called ‘Lancashire Cotton Famine.’” 99% sure that’s an error in the first paragraph, and it should be first half of the 19th century.
Wayne State University has digitized the publication produced during a Detroit newspaper strike. “A weekly publication that emerged from the one of the nation’s longest-lived newspaper strikes has been digitized by the Wayne State University Libraries, and more than 200 issues are now available in a digitized, searchable format. The Detroit Sunday Journal was produced for four years by unionized workers who went on strike against The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press in July 1995.”
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