Labor News can be a really rough beat. Our job is to chronicle despair and the structures that defend profit at the expense of worker lives.  The scenes in Kentucky and the Midwest are devastating. Finding out that workers were expected to work through a tornado is disgusting.

Nantina Vgontzas @nantarsya

In the last 6 months, Amazon has repeatedly refused to shut down warehouses in the midst of extreme weather events: the June heatwave, Ida in September, now this tornado. There are injuries and reports of deaths in the warehouse. Fucking nightmare.

PM Breaking News @PMBreakingNews

Breaking: Over 100 people are possibly trapped after a tornado caused an Amazon warehouse to partially collapse in Edwardsville, Illinois. (Via @journalismjenna) https://t.co/PnR80LsJjv

December 11th 2021

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From what I see as a labor reporter there will be no meaningful accountability for Amazon. OSHA will investigate but the most they will do is document what happened and give them a nominal fine. (If you are curious you can check out OSHA’s database.)

 Unless someone can prove overwhelming neglect there will likely not be criminal charges brought forward. Amazon has a history of leveraging its might against oversight. Amazon is clear that they see workers as disposable. This week that was blatantly obvious. 

Speaking of Amazon a report came out this week that outlined day to day safety issues. We posted Michael Moore’s piece from the St Paul Union Advocate on the Minnesota response to the report. 

Half Price Books won their union election 

Workers for Half Price Books Union @HPBUnionMN

Saint Paul location has become the first Half Price Books store to win union recognition in the WORLD 🌎 #HPBUnion #BookstoreUnion #1u #Union #UFCW #HalfPriceBooks

December 16th 2021

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CWA members picketed a union busting authorized retailer store.

AT&T workers were in the streets outside dozens of “AT&T authorized retailers” across the country last weekend, including stores in St. Cloud and Roseville. The actions drew attention to the company’s recent move convert corporate-owned stores, staffed by CWA members, to third-party dealers.

Kieran Knutson, president of CWA Local 7250, which represents AT&T wireless sales reps, technicians and call-center employees in Minnesota said that, 

“It’s an attack not just on our union and on the working conditions in those stores, but also on the communities because there are less union jobs available,” Knutson said during a protest Saturday outside the authorized retailer in Roseville. “We’re not going to let them off the hook for that.”

Read more here .

You can support St Paul teachers by signing onto the petition backing educators’ bargaining proposals, and sign up for updates from the union about future public actions.

(((MRYG))) @MAlanRyg

St. Paul educators are ready to fight for smaller class sizes, more mental health and bilingual support, and anti-racist curriculum. Got this image from one of my son’s elementary teachers at 5:07 a.m. ready to walk-in🌬❄️Standing with you @SPFE28! @SPPS_News ❤️🤍🖤

December 16th 2021

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And lastly I wrote a piece about the invisibility of migrant workers as headlines panic about a labor shortage.  Turns out if you deport migrant workers at a mass scale you get a labor problem. 

See you next year!

Filiberto