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Local and National Union News
US added to watchlist as attacks on workers’ freedoms accelerate erosion of democracy
June 3, 2026 | Workers’ rights are deteriorating worldwide, with leading democracies now driving a deepening global crisis, according to the 2026 ITUC Global Rights Index. Once considered stable, countries such as the United States and France are now contributing to a global surge in repression… Key findings include: The United States has been placed on the Watchlist amid mounting concerns over restrictions on collective bargaining and the use of force against workers. Learn more.Teamsters extend picket lines to additional Breakthru Beverage facilities
May 26, 2026 | Teamsters at Breakthru Beverage in Cicero, Ill. and St. Louis extended their unfair labor practice (ULP) strike to company operations in Kansas City, Mo., and Champaign, Ill. Teamsters at the Kansas City and Champaign locations exercised their individual legal and contractual right to refuse to cross the extended line. Teamsters nationwide with similar contractual picket line protections remain on standby. Over 215 drivers and warehouse workers were forced onto the picket line over the company’s numerous ULPs. Learn more1,700+ Teamsters employed at Cargill Meat Solutions demand end to lockout
May 20, 2026 | More than 1,700 Teamsters at Cargill Meat Solutions in Fort Morgan, Colorado, were locked out this morning after months of fighting for a new collective bargaining agreement. The meat-processing giant has refused to offer Teamsters Local 455 members the necessary improvements in wages, health care, and safety protections. Workers at the Cargill facility are critical to processing millions of pounds of beef for American families nationwide. In a town as small and tight-knit as Fort Morgan, Cargill Teamsters keep the economy running. Learn moreOlder posts can be found at 355 News
Elsewhere in the News
The Wake of Labor Journalism
June 4, 2026 | MEDIA | Union support in the United States is at historic highs, yet labor coverage in American newsrooms is shrinking. Over the past four years, record numbers of Teamsters have organized, struck their employers, and negotiated strong contracts. About 70 percent of Americans support unions, and polling shows younger workers are hungry to organize. But you wouldn’t necessarily know this from watching the nightly news or reading most major U.S. newspapers. The space once devoted to labor news has steadily disappeared. For decades, newspapers have cut reporters dedicated to the labor beat… Continued at Just Cause Teamsters
Congress to Vote on Major Labor Law
June 3, 2026 | LABOR LAW REFORM | It’s a rare thing: a pro-worker labor law reform bill that has bipartisan support in Congress. The bill — the Advance Faster Labor Contracts Act — would require an employer to start negotiating a collective bargaining agreement no later than 10 days after the National Labor Relations Board certifies that a union has majority support. If the two sides still haven’t reached agreement after 90 days of bargaining, they enter mediation. And if there’s still no agreement 30 days after that, either side could appeal to a three-person arbitration panel that would issue a binding ruling setting the terms for a first union contract. The bill is a response to a very common abuse of labor law. The National Labor Relations Act says an employer must bargain in good faith to try to achieve a collective bargaining agreement… Continued at Northwest Labor Press
Working People Need Power, Not Promises
June 3, 2026 | U.S. WORKERS | […] As a lifelong labor activist, I am gratified whenever people in electoral politics say they want to uplift the American worker. But I admit some skepticism—particularly since both major parties spent a generation or more embracing the neoliberal consensus that the government should surrender to giant multinational corporations and their wealthy executives and investors. Working people are not stupid; they know most prominent Democrats and all pre-MAGA Republicans advanced an agenda that eviscerated worker interests at home and sent tens of millions of jobs abroad. Continued at Common Dreams
Turning Up the Heat on Corporate America
June 1, 2026 | HEALTH & SAFETY | Two summers ago, a Texas Teamster at UPS suffered two separate heat-related injuries for which he was hospitalized and diagnosed with serious long-term health problems. “With about 20 stops left on my route, I started feeling extremely sick and experiencing cramping throughout my body,” said Cameron Bowman, an 18-year UPS driver and member of Teamsters Local 767. “It quickly escalated to lightheadedness and nausea, and I had to slow my truck down, afraid I would faint behind the wheel.” Businesses are required to report incidents like this to the government. The government is required to keep track of that information and make it publicly available. Yet Cameron Bowman’s true experience is nearly impossible to find in the official record. How is that possible? Continued at Just Cause Teamsters
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