https://znetwork.org/author/luisffllln/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Thu, 29 Jan 2026 11:05:31 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.png https://znetwork.org/author/luisffllln/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-the-twin-cities-a-massive-strike-against-ice/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-the-twin-cities-a-massive-strike-against-ice/#respond Thu, 29 Jan 2026 16:51:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294141 Icicles hung from the beards of men in union beanies. The lobbies of large commercial buildings in downtown Minneapolis opened to the public for respite filled with people rubbing each other’s sore feet, peeling the sticky adhesive off foot warmers to place them under their socks, and jamming their feet into thickly insulated boots. On [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-the-twin-cities-a-massive-strike-against-ice/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-ice-ignite-a-mass-strike-in-minnesota/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-ice-ignite-a-mass-strike-in-minnesota/#respond Sat, 17 Jan 2026 14:39:27 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293588 Minnesota appears to be in gear for a mass uprising. Unions, community organizations, faith leaders, and small businesses there are calling for a statewide day of “no work (except for emergency services), no school, and no shopping” on January 23. Festering grievances swelled into a national outcry on January 7, after ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed poet and mother [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-ice-ignite-a-mass-strike-in-minnesota/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/fifteen-thousand-new-york-city-nurses-strike/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/fifteen-thousand-new-york-city-nurses-strike/#respond Wed, 14 Jan 2026 16:52:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293463 Fifteen thousand nurses across 10 campuses in New York City’s three biggest hospital systems are on an open-ended strike. It’s the city’s largest nurse strike in decades. Picket lines stretched for blocks at Mount Sinai, Montefiore, and New York Presbyterian hospitals on January 12, thronged with nurses plus Teamsters, hotel workers, and university staff showing [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/fifteen-thousand-new-york-city-nurses-strike/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/may-day-rallies-confront-billionaire-assaults/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/may-day-rallies-confront-billionaire-assaults/#respond Sat, 03 May 2025 14:50:06 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1283292 Hundreds of thousands of people across the United States rallied, engaged in civil disobedience, or struck on May 1, International Workers’ Day, joining hundreds of thousands around the world. Overall, actions organized by the May Day Strong coalition numbered more than 1,300 across all 50 states in over 1,000 cities and towns, extending into Saturday, May 3. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/may-day-rallies-confront-billionaire-assaults/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/kentucky-unions-stand-up-to-halt-deportation-of-two-hundred-workers/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/kentucky-unions-stand-up-to-halt-deportation-of-two-hundred-workers/#respond Fri, 11 Apr 2025 13:46:24 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1282286 Two hundred union workers, out of 5,700 who assemble dishwashers, refrigerators, washers, and dryers for GE Appliances-Haier at Appliance Park in Louisville, Kentucky, received notice this month that the Trump administration is revoking their work authorizations. The immigrant workers from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Venezuela have received a mixed reaction to their imminent deportation—hostility from [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/kentucky-unions-stand-up-to-halt-deportation-of-two-hundred-workers/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/assessing-the-recent-strike-at-amazon/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/assessing-the-recent-strike-at-amazon/#respond Wed, 08 Jan 2025 18:01:49 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1278122 An estimated 600 Amazon workers went on a short strike or participated in pickets from December 19 to Christmas Eve across eight warehouse locations, from Queens to San Francisco. The coordinated mobilization was an opening salvo to Amazon and a test of capacity for the Teamsters’ growing national network. The union says it represents between [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/assessing-the-recent-strike-at-amazon/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/amazon-strike-by-the-numbers/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/amazon-strike-by-the-numbers/#respond Tue, 07 Jan 2025 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1278099 An estimated 600 Amazon workers went on a short strike or participated in pickets from December 19 to Christmas Eve across eight warehouse locations, from Queens to San Francisco. The coordinated mobilization was an opening salvo to Amazon, and a test of capacity for the Teamsters’ growing national network. The union says it represents between [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/amazon-strike-by-the-numbers/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/striking-amazon-workers-aim-to-crack-an-anti-union-behemoth/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/striking-amazon-workers-aim-to-crack-an-anti-union-behemoth/#respond Thu, 26 Dec 2024 16:52:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1277602 The Amazon workers who walked off the job at warehouses across the country at peak season are trying to establish a union beachhead against one of the most important — and most anti-union — employers in the world. Amazon workers picketed their employer over the weekend through blisteringly frigid weather and, in New York, a [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/striking-amazon-workers-aim-to-crack-an-anti-union-behemoth/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-working-class-leaves-the-party/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-working-class-leaves-the-party/#comments Sat, 30 Nov 2024 15:46:06 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1276430 In the wake of the election, I’ve been thinking of Luis Buñuel’s surrealist comedy The Exterminating Angel. It stars a group of socialites dining together at the mansion of an upper- class couple hosting them after a night at the opera. As wealthy guests begin to arrive for the soiree to feast on a bear and two [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-working-class-leaves-the-party/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/kentucky-battery-plant-workers-launch-union-drive-with-uaw/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/kentucky-battery-plant-workers-launch-union-drive-with-uaw/#respond Fri, 22 Nov 2024 17:47:15 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1275785 A majority of the 1,000 auto workers at the car battery park Blue Oval in Glendale, Kentucky, have signed union cards to join the United Auto Workers. The battery park, a joint venture between Ford and South Korea’s SK On, is expected to ramp up hiring to 5,000 hourly workers by 2030. It has twin [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/kentucky-battery-plant-workers-launch-union-drive-with-uaw/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-national-movement-to-organize-amazon-takes-off/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-national-movement-to-organize-amazon-takes-off/#respond Sat, 05 Oct 2024 15:57:33 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1273293 The Teamsters are spinning off momentum from recent organizing fights to new battle fronts across Amazon’s logistics chain. A group of 100 warehouse workers at DCK6, an Amazon delivery station in San Francisco, marched on company managers October 2 demanding voluntary recognition rather than filing for a National Labor Relations Board-supervised election. In the Teamsters’ strategy to [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-national-movement-to-organize-amazon-takes-off/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/new-york-amazon-delivery-drivers-join-the-teamsters-in-surge-of-momentum/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/new-york-amazon-delivery-drivers-join-the-teamsters-in-surge-of-momentum/#respond Tue, 17 Sep 2024 16:05:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1272481 Hundreds of Amazon drivers at a delivery station in Queens, New York, marched on their bosses today to announce they are joining the Teamsters. They are demanding the logistics giant recognize their union and negotiate a contract. “To march today and walk in there with everyone behind us, all of us standing together as a [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/new-york-amazon-delivery-drivers-join-the-teamsters-in-surge-of-momentum/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/reform-caucus-wins-amazon-labor-union-officer-elections/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/reform-caucus-wins-amazon-labor-union-officer-elections/#respond Wed, 31 Jul 2024 15:45:53 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1270129 Amazon workers at the JFK8 fulfillment center on Staten Island, New York, voted to elect reform officers in the first-ever leadership election. “We are extremely excited to announce that every candidate on our reform caucus slate won decisively in our union’s leadership elections,” said Connor Spence, co-founder of the Amazon Labor Union and former treasurer, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/reform-caucus-wins-amazon-labor-union-officer-elections/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/unions-representing-six-million-workers-demand-an-end-to-all-u-s-military-aid-to-israel/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/unions-representing-six-million-workers-demand-an-end-to-all-u-s-military-aid-to-israel/#respond Wed, 24 Jul 2024 19:16:12 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1269773 Seven national unions representing 6 million workers in the United States called on President Joe Biden today to end all military aid to Israel. The news came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a wanted war criminal, came to Washington to speak to Congress tomorrow. It’s an unprecedented demand, coordinated across some of the nation’s biggest [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/unions-representing-six-million-workers-demand-an-end-to-all-u-s-military-aid-to-israel/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/illinois-amazon-drivers-just-went-on-strike-for-a-contract/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/illinois-amazon-drivers-just-went-on-strike-for-a-contract/#respond Sun, 30 Jun 2024 13:48:02 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1268623 Amazon drivers at the DIL7 delivery station in Skokie, Illinois, struck on June 26 over the company’s violations of federal labor laws. A hundred drivers have organized with Teamsters Local 705 and are demanding that Amazon recognize and bargain with their union, after presenting cards signed by a majority of the workforce. They’re nominally employed [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/illinois-amazon-drivers-just-went-on-strike-for-a-contract/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/amazon-workers-affiliate-with-the-teamsters-next-up-electing-top-officers/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/amazon-workers-affiliate-with-the-teamsters-next-up-electing-top-officers/#respond Sat, 22 Jun 2024 16:18:35 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1268239 Amazon Labor Union members voted June 17 to affiliate with the Teamsters. Workers cast 878 ballots at JFK8 Amazon fulfillment center on Staten Island, N.Y. The tally broke down to 829 votes in favor of the affiliation and 14 against it; 10 ballots were spoiled. Total turnout was 11 percent out of 8,000 workers. However, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/amazon-workers-affiliate-with-the-teamsters-next-up-electing-top-officers/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/teamsters-and-amazon-labor-union-announce-affiliation-member-vote-still-ahead/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/teamsters-and-amazon-labor-union-announce-affiliation-member-vote-still-ahead/#respond Wed, 05 Jun 2024 16:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1267432 The Amazon Labor Union and the Teamsters have signed an affiliation agreement. “Today is an historical day for labor in America as we now combine forces with one of the most powerful unions to take on Amazon together,” wrote ALU President Chris Smalls on Twitter, now called X. “We’re putting Amazon on notice that we [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/teamsters-and-amazon-labor-union-announce-affiliation-member-vote-still-ahead/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/alabama-mercedes-workers-lose-first-union-election-vow-to-fight-on/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/alabama-mercedes-workers-lose-first-union-election-vow-to-fight-on/#respond Sun, 19 May 2024 12:50:38 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1266598 A no-holds-barred campaign by Mercedes management convinced a majority of workers at its Alabama factory complex to vote against forming a union. In addition to anti-union videos and mailings, captive-audience meetings, firings, and an onslaught of pressure from state politicians and even a local pastor, the winning move was to fire the company’s U.S. CEO [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/alabama-mercedes-workers-lose-first-union-election-vow-to-fight-on/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-relay-race-to-organize-the-south-volkswagen-workers-pass-the-baton-to-mercedes-workers/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-relay-race-to-organize-the-south-volkswagen-workers-pass-the-baton-to-mercedes-workers/#respond Wed, 01 May 2024 19:39:32 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1265797 Michael Göbel, president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, stepped down from his post yesterday, according to a video message that workers were shown. Göbel had groused in an April captive-audience meeting about a worker’s claim that Mercedes had come for the “Alabama discount”: low wages. His departure is another win for Mercedes-Benz workers, who already scored pay bumps and an [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-relay-race-to-organize-the-south-volkswagen-workers-pass-the-baton-to-mercedes-workers/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-a-historic-victory-tennessee-volkswagen-workers-vote-union/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-a-historic-victory-tennessee-volkswagen-workers-vote-union/#respond Sat, 20 Apr 2024 14:55:12 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1265307 In a watershed victory, workers at the Volkswagen factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, voted tonight “UAW, yes!” The company’s sole non-union plant will finally join the rest of the world. “If Volkswagen workers at plants in Germany and Mexico have unions, why not us?” said equipment operator Briam Calderon in Spanish, ahead of the vote. “Just [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-a-historic-victory-tennessee-volkswagen-workers-vote-union/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/southern-auto-workers-are-rising/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/southern-auto-workers-are-rising/#respond Sat, 06 Apr 2024 16:36:44 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1264705 Auto workers are gearing up to smash through anti-union bulwarks in Alabama and Tennessee. In Chattanooga, Tennessee, at the only Volkswagen factory in the world without a union, votes will be counted April 19 as 4,300 workers who make the Atlas SUV and the ID.4 electric vehicle decide whether to join the United Auto Workers. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/southern-auto-workers-are-rising/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/toyota-workers-at-critical-engine-plant-launch-uaw-union-drive/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/toyota-workers-at-critical-engine-plant-launch-uaw-union-drive/#respond Tue, 26 Mar 2024 16:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1264194 Autoworkers at a Toyota engine plant in Troy, Missouri, have signed up 30 percent of their thousand coworkers to join the United Auto Workers (UAW) — a first at Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, on the heels of the union’s announcements of organizing campaigns at Volkswagen, Hyundai, and Mercedes-Benz. Workers at the plant just outside [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/toyota-workers-at-critical-engine-plant-launch-uaw-union-drive/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/tennessee-volkswagen-workers-have-filed-for-a-union-election/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/tennessee-volkswagen-workers-have-filed-for-a-union-election/#respond Tue, 19 Mar 2024 17:45:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1263843 Autoworkers will vote on whether to form a union at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the company’s only factory on the planet without a union. On Monday, the United Auto Workers (UAW) filed for an election to represent all 4,300 of the plant’s hourly employees, after the union said a “supermajority” of workers signed [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/tennessee-volkswagen-workers-have-filed-for-a-union-election/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/to-defeat-the-far-right-we-must-build-from-the-bottom-up/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/to-defeat-the-far-right-we-must-build-from-the-bottom-up/#respond Wed, 06 Mar 2024 17:00:07 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1263232 This is the first in a series of reflections on the opportunities and challenges facing the labor movement this year. How can the movement use the momentum of 2023 to keep building power? How should it set its strategic compass? What kinds of organizing can help it navigate our shifting economy and rough political terrain? [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/to-defeat-the-far-right-we-must-build-from-the-bottom-up/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-south-where-automakers-go-for-a-discount/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-south-where-automakers-go-for-a-discount/#respond Sat, 03 Feb 2024 13:52:16 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1261663 In 1978, Volkswagen became the first foreign-owned company to manufacture cars in the United States since Rolls-Royce in the 1930s, setting up shop in Westmoreland, Pennsylvania. “This is one of the most important organized victories in years for the UAW,” said United Auto Workers President Doug Fraser after VW workers voted 865 to 17 to [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-south-where-automakers-go-for-a-discount/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/hyundai-workers-roll-the-union-on-in-alabama/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/hyundai-workers-roll-the-union-on-in-alabama/#respond Fri, 02 Feb 2024 15:21:15 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1261634 Auto workers at Hyundai in Montgomery, Alabama, have signed up more than 30 percent of their nearly 4,000 co-workers in an ambitious drive to unionize. The Auto Workers (UAW) announced the organizing breakthrough with a new video, “Montgomery Can’t Wait,” where workers link the labor and civil rights movements: “Montgomery, the city where Rosa Parks sat [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/hyundai-workers-roll-the-union-on-in-alabama/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/volkswagen-workers-hope-to-launch-the-uaws-next-winning-campaign/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/volkswagen-workers-hope-to-launch-the-uaws-next-winning-campaign/#respond Mon, 11 Dec 2023 17:05:03 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1259174 Today, workers at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga, Tennessee, assembly plant announced their third bid to unionize plant-wide with the United Auto Workers (UAW). Riding the momentum of its strike of the Big Three automakers, the UAW now wants to double its numbers in the auto industry by adding 150,000 workers at companies that have long avoided unionization. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/volkswagen-workers-hope-to-launch-the-uaws-next-winning-campaign/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/auto-workers-direct-momentum-toward-organizing-plants-across-the-u-s/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/auto-workers-direct-momentum-toward-organizing-plants-across-the-u-s/#respond Fri, 01 Dec 2023 17:15:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1258630 “The company knows that Toyota workers are watching,” said Auto Workers President Shawn Fain on November 3. “And when the time comes, Toyota workers and all non-union auto workers are going to be ready to stand up.” That time has come—yesterday the UAW announced its plan, already in motion, to organize the whole auto sector. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/auto-workers-direct-momentum-toward-organizing-plants-across-the-u-s/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/auto-workers-halt-stellantiss-biggest-moneymaker/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/auto-workers-halt-stellantiss-biggest-moneymaker/#respond Tue, 24 Oct 2023 16:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1256253 Today 6,800 Auto Workers (UAW) struck the most profitable Stellantis plant in the world. At 10 a.m. workers streamed out of the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant (SHAP), near Detroit, where they build the Ram 1500 pickup. “It’s just real now,” said Crystal Pasarcik, the sergeant-at-arms at Local 1700, which represents the plant. “Some of the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/auto-workers-halt-stellantiss-biggest-moneymaker/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/its-working-auto-workers-strike-strategy-is-forcing-the-big-3-to-pony-up/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/its-working-auto-workers-strike-strategy-is-forcing-the-big-3-to-pony-up/#respond Sat, 21 Oct 2023 14:17:17 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1256095 The Auto Workers (UAW) have thrown the Big 3 on the back foot. For the first time in recent history, the union is playing the automakers against each other—departing from its tradition of choosing one target company and patterning an agreement at the other two. And its gradually escalating Stand-Up Strike strategy has multiplied the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/its-working-auto-workers-strike-strategy-is-forcing-the-big-3-to-pony-up/feed/ 0