#workers rights

[unofficial-project-2025]

VOTE BLUE!

EDIT: This post is gaining traction, so I think it's important to show you this:

ELON IS INTERFERING WITH THE ELECTION. PLEASE CHECK YOUR VOTER'S REGISTRATION IN PERSON AND TELL PEOPLE ABOUT THIS.

EDIT 2:

IT HAS GOTTEN WORSE.

Please go check your voter's registration and tell everyone you know to do the same! I've heard some states are purging voter's regitration, so please go check!

[lazyscience]

One of our current Supreme Court Justices, Neal Gorsuch, actually ruled that a trucker who left his rig rather than literally freeze to death was in the wrong for doing so.

"It doesn't help your credibility to exaggerate, most employers wouldn't literally work you to death" like, I used to work in distribution. If booking a truck driver for back to back shifts until they fall asleep at the wheel, crash, and die counts as being worked to death, I have personally met employers who've worked employees to death and gotten away with a slap on the wrist. It may not be universal, but it's a hell of a lot more common than a lot of us would prefer to think.

[newyorkthegoldenage]

The first of May used to be a day to draw attention to workers and their rights. May 1, ca. 1936, saw this demonstration against slums.

Photo: Joe Schwartz via Artblart

[50501chicago]

Trump’s America wants workers silent. Wants immigrants invisible. Wants history erased…

Not this May Day. May 1, ALL of us are rising. 50501Chicago is endorsing Consejo De Resistencia along with 140+ orgs!

Union Park — Chicago

10:00 AM: Program begins

12:00 PM: March steps off

2:30 PM: Rally at Grant Park (Butler Field)

Bring your voice and your best signs. And bring your people.

[dewitty1]

May Day protesters plan rallies against the Trump administration : NPR

On May Day, protesters are honing their message to decry what they say are attacks on the working class and immigrants. Organizers for the effort, called May Day Strong, say the administration and its billionaire allies pose a threat to labor rights, public services, and the safety of immigrants regardless of their legal status. Organizers have stated their opposition to violent forms of protest.

"This is a war on working people," organizers said on the May Day Strong events web page.

"They're defunding our schools, privatizing public services, attacking unions, and targeting immigrant families with fear and violence," they added. "We are reclaiming our power from corporate elites, and we will not be intimidated by Trump, Musk, or their billionaire backers.

They've ruled for too long.

"The U.S. does not officially observe the labor holiday, due to what historians say is an enduring resistance to working-class unity. Despite that resistance, America's working class has found ways to commemorate May Day since the 19th century.

The tradition began with a labor strike.

Why Americans protest on May 1

Before the 8-hour workday became standard, the organization now known as the American Federation of Labor planned a nationwide strike for May 1, 1886, to demand an 8-hour workday, as many workers were doing shifts twice that long.

The Chicago strike, known as the Haymarket Affair, turned violent when police clashed with civilians, and a bomb exploded. Although the bomb's intended target was unclear, four men connected to the protests were hanged for conspiracy to commit murder and became celebrated as the Haymarket Martyrs. The Pullman railroad strike also played a significant role in establishing May Day in the U.S. Workers from the Pullman Palace Car Company initiated a widespread work stoppage in May of 1894, prompting President Grover Cleveland to send federal troops to Chicago to break the strike.This set the stage for the long history of co-opting May Day.

Inspired by the Chicago workers, the international socialist movement gained traction, with activists spreading Marxist literature. In an effort to to detach May Day from labor movements, U.S. presidents have tried to redefine its significance. President Dwight D. Eisenhower made May 1 as "Law Day" — to recognize how the rule of law protects civil liberties, and Labor Day was moved to September.

During his first term, Trump echoed his predecessors by declaring May 1 "Loyalty Day," a time to celebrate the country's loyalty to individual liberties. Previous May Days during Trump's presidency saw similar protests and boycotts by immigrants and workers who railed against the Republicans' border wall plans and mass deportations efforts.

But the protests held across the U.S. in 2006, triggered by a bill to increase penalties for illegal immigration, might serve as a better comparison. Those March protests saw some 2 million demonstrators rally in 140 cities and 39 states.

What distinguishes Thursday's planned May Day protests is the scale of the movement, said Joseph McCartin, professor of labor history at Georgetown University.

With more than 1,000 events planned for May 1 in over 1,000 cities, according to organizers, McCartin said the nationwide protests stand to become the world's most widespread May Day on record.

"These are going to be protests that bring out a broader array of people and a broader array of places, and I think that's going to be historic, at least for that reason," he said.

[plumintheicebox]

Happy May Day

[politijohn]

Source

Good

[tatersgonnatate]

We respect all types of work boots in this house. Like to charge, reblog to cast

[thatrandomblogsays]

I’m so happy for them

[Image Description: Castiel from Supernatural is saying I love you, underneath is an image of Dean Winchester with the caption: “After four months of striking the WGA has a reached a tentative agreement & finalizing the contract. If all goes well writers will get to return to work with better pay and protections. They did it. Go unions”]

(Source)

[mswyrr]

[whereserpentswalk]

I fucking hate this "capitalism is when you make money, the more money you make, the more capitalism it is" mindset people have gotten. No, an artist selling their own work is not them engaging in capitalism, it's literally a worker owning their own means of production.

Remember capitalism is someone profiting off of someone else's labor though owning capital. It is not simply the act of profiting at all.

[emperornorton47]

[thoughtportal]

join a union

the power of collection action

[fixing-bad-posts]

work leaves people with many issues and problems.

[victusinveritas]

Put not your faith in princes. Labor is where the power is.

[mxjackparker]

I see a lot of people talking about how great it would be for sex workers to unionize, so I want to point out that in the UK we have done so already!

We need to get the word out to sex workers in the UK who don't already know about the union, so sharing is appreciated particularly if you're a sex worker or you're in the UK and might have UK sex worker followers.

SWU is a branch of sex workers,  in the UK, organising with BAFWU for better working conditions and fighting to change the industry from within.

We fight for ‘Worker’ status sex workers (strippers, full-service sex workers and more) basic worker protections while allowing them to retain the label of self-employed and the associated freedoms. We seek to improve conditions through collective negotiation and individual casework. We organise to claim basic rights at work, such as annual leave, sick pay, a guaranteed basic wage for those working at venues, and the right to organise and be represented by a trade union.

This union has been immensely valuable to me. It gives us access to other sex workers who we can get safety advice from, a huge number of resources, and the ability to push for changes to the policies of escorting websites or strip clubs or porn sites.

You can learn more on SWU's website here and join the union!

Membership to the union costs roughly £6 per month and for me personally, from help with taxes and support getting money back from clients who've refused to pay me, the union has saved me far more money than I've spend on union dues.