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Latin America

Acindar AceroMittal workers strike Villa Constitución plant in Argentina

Workers at the Acindar AceroMittal steel plant in Villa Constitución, part of the industrial belt between Buenos Aires and Rosario, Santa Fe province, began walking out of the plant on Wednesday April 30, and rallied at the plant gates.

The strike action is the result of months of wage demands that have been ignored by the company and the Union of Metal Workers (UOM) that supposedly represents them, since June 2024. Wages remain frozen despite brutal price increases.

The workers have set up camp around the plant and plan to continue the strike indefinitely. The strikers launched an appeal for workers across the industrial belt and elsewhere, to join them in the struggle for wages and jobs. Since 2024 the Acindar plant has laid off hundreds of workers, while real wages have plummeted.

Argentine ceramic workers strike over death of worker in Salta Province

In the Northwestern Salta Province, a 50-year-old temp maintenance worker died on the job, toward the end of his shift, at the Alberdi Ceramics plant. When plant managers pressed the second shift workers to stay on the job, they walked off in protest.

According to an eyewitness: “When they still could not remove his body, stuck in the machinery, a manager came in demanding that the next shift start working… It was then that the workers decided to walk out on strike.”

The accident that caused the workers death was a direct result of the poor maintenance at the plant, which workers have repeatedly complained about. When machinery is repaired, it is often with very poor-quality spare parts combined with increasing speed-up.

Protests and strikes continue in Panama against attacks on pensions

Panama’s construction union (SUNTRACS) announced on May 1 the prolongation of their national strike next week against the privatization of workers’ Social Security accounts. (Law 462). A SUNTRAC spokesperson pointed out that thousands marched on International Workers Day against the new law, in defense of their historic conquests, and in opposition to the neo-liberal ideology of the present government.

Joining the construction workers, also on strike are banana workers along the border with Costa Rica, educators, and—starting this Monday—health workers.

Among the issues in this strike is the demand for the removal of US troops from Panama.

In the last few weeks there have been marches, pickets, and protest rallies across Panama. In several instances government authorities have responded with police repression, particularly in the vicinity of the University of Panama, a violation of the University Autonomy Law that prohibits the presence of police on campus, unless called in by University authorities.

Thousands march throughout Puerto Rico against budget cuts, blackouts and Gaza genocide

On May 1, thousands of workers and students marched in the cities of San Juan, Mayagüez, Cidra and Ponce, in Puerto Rico, in protest against the budget cuts imposed by the unelected Fiscal Supervisory Board, the US federal agency charged with handling Puerto Rico’s debt of many billions of dollars.

Protesting educators denounced the Fiscal Control Board’s attacks on education, including the closure of public schools throughout the Island.

The marchers also carried signs and chanted slogans denouncing the frequent Island-wide electricity blackouts due to the mismanagement and corruption of LUMA Energy, the island’s main provider of electricity.

Many of the demonstrators carried flags of Caribbean nations, (including the Dominican Republic and Cuba) and of Palestine, voicing their opposition to fascism and imperialism.

The San Juan protest began at the University of Puerto Rico campus in Rio Piedras, where students have been campaigning against budget cuts and the possible privatization of this institution, the main university in Puerto Rico.

There was a heavy police presence during the protests. In San Juan, the business and banking district was closed off to the public.

United States

Aircraft fuelers at Seattle’s airport set to strike Swissport International

About 150 aircraft fuelers at Seattle, Washington’s SeaTac International Airport are slated to strike as early as May 6 unless Teamsters Local 174 and Swissport International can come to an agreement, not only over economic issues, but workers’ demands for clean lunchroom facilities and the ability to wash off jet fuel from their clothing at shift’s end.

After two months of bargaining and the expiration of the old agreement last month, negotiations are stalled as company negotiators ignore workers’ anger over a wage structure that according to the union “barely exceeds SeaTac minimum wage” for airport workers.

According to the Teamsters, “a majority of the aircraft passing through SeaTac International Airport would be left without a way to get fuel.” Airlines potentially affected by a strike include Delta, Alaska, Horizon, Frontier, Jetblue, United, Hawaiian, Spirit, Aeromexico, Airfrance and American Airlines.

Swissport International, based out of Zurich, Switzerland, is the largest contractor for airport ground services in the world, handling services for 850 companies at 296 locations in 44 countries and employing 57,000 workers. In 2015 China’s HNA Group began the purchase of Swissport for US$2.81 billion.

Teamsters Local 174 reports on its website that it represents workers at “United Parcel Service, UPS Freight, National Master Carhaul, DHL and those working for companies under the National Master Freight Agreement.”

County workers in Rockford, Illinois, walk off the job over wage and working conditions

Workers for the Rockford Township Highway Department in Rockford, Illinois, walked off the job May 1 after management rejected Teamsters Local 325’s contract proposal to address unsafe work conditions and wages. According to the union, county officials claim their budget is maxed out.

In a statement, the highway department called the strike an “unlawful work stoppage” and that it was “unexpected.” Workers rejected the department’s immediate 15 percent wage increase followed by an additional 10 percent stretched out over a four-year contract.

Dan Conness, Rockford Township Highway Commissioner, in a statement informed the union “that it reserves the right to recover monetary damages from the Union for any costs to taxpayers associated with the strike.”

Canada

Vancouver service workers strike millionaires Arbutus Club

More than 200 low-wage food servers, dishwashers, cleaners, lifeguards, maintenance staff and laundry attendants, members of Unifor, went on strike last week at Vancouver, British Columbia’s exclusive Arbutus Club. Workers are demanding a significant wage increase. They voted in late March by 95 percent for strike action.

The club is the social hub for Vancouver’s business and political elites. Annual membership fees run into the tens of thousands of dollars. The club offers fine dining restaurants, a full-service spa, racquet courts, an NHL sized ice rink, an Olympic sized swimming pool, plush event rooms and reception halls, physiotherapy and wellness services, and personal training opportunities.

Vancouver is one of Canada’s most expensive cities to live in, with housing costs beyond the reach of many workers. With incomes eroded by years of spiking inflation, wages at the club begin as low as $18.48 (CDN) per hour, barely above the current poverty-level provincial minimum wage of $17.40. A basic “living wage” for an individual in the city has been calculated at $27.05 per hour.