Free Republic

A looming dock worker strike could throw the economy — and the presidential election — into chaos, an October surprise that would likely hurt Democrats. The International Longshoremen’s Association, which represents about 85,000 dock workers nationwide, is threatening to strike on October 1 if the union cannot reach an agreement with port ownership. Negotiations broke down in June between the union and the United States Maritime Alliance, which represents port management. The two sides are in a stalemate over both wages and the automation of port operations. A strike would shut down five of North America’s 10 busiest ports, 36...

In a monumental labor dispute, approximately 45,000 dockworkers across the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts are threatening to go on strike on October 1, potentially shutting down 36 ports that handle nearly half of the nation’s cargo from ships. The International Longshoremen’s Union (ILA) is demanding higher wages and an outright ban on the automation of cranes, gates, and container movements used in the loading and unloading of freight. A strike of this scale could have far-reaching consequences for the U.S. economy, especially if it persists for more than a few weeks. CBS News reports how experts suggest that consumers...

Other Russian Telegram channels said the attack resulted in about 50 Russian casualties. Ukrainian forces have used the Washington-supplied HIMARS on several occasions throughout the war, including in its Donetsk and Luhansk regions which are largely occupied by Russian forces. The Kremlin has been pushing for the total capture of the two regions—which together comprise the Donbas—since Russia's initial invasion of eastern Ukraine in 2014. HIMARS has allowed Ukraine to destroy Russia's most advanced anti-aircraft missile systems. Washington has supplied the Ukrainians with at least 39 HIMARS since the war began on February 24, 2022. In February, Serhiy Bratchuk, a...

Tech union workers at the New York Times have threatened to strike on Election Day over a bizarre list of demands that include pet bereavement leave, a four-day work week — and even a ban on scented products in break rooms, according to a report. The Times Tech Guild’s laundry list of demands during its protracted two-year battle for a contract has also included a call for unlimited sick time, job security for non-citizens who are in the United States on work visas in the event of layoffs and mandatory trigger warnings when discussing news events, Semafor reported. The union...

When thousands of Boeing employees rejected a new labor contract, precipitating a strike that began Friday, they were at odds not just with management but also with the leaders of their union, who backed the proposed deal. Now, any attempt to reach an agreement must take account of the demands of the rank and file of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. What they want — significantly larger pay raises and far more lucrative retirement benefits than their leaders and Boeing agreed to — may be too much for management. But labor experts said the strength of the...

Boeing factory workers went on strike early Friday morning after overwhelmingly rejecting a new union contract with the company. Around 33,000 machinists went on strike shortly after midnight on the West Coast after the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) union announced 94.6 percent of workers had voted to reject the proposal and 96 percent approved the stoppage. The work stoppage puts financial strain on the storied airplane maker, which has been struggling to repair its reputation after the door plug of a Boeing 737 Max 9 blew out during an Alaska Airlines flight in January, prompting regulatory...

Hotels in eight cities are affected by the strike. Further strikes could begin ‘at any time’ in Baltimore, New Haven, Oakland, and Providence, the union said. More than 10,000 employees associated with the Unite Here union began a multi-day strike on Sunday

More than 10,000 hotel workers at 24 hotels stretching from Boston to the West Coast to Hawaii went on strike early Sunday morning, disrupting travel during a busy Labor Day weekend. The hotels are reportedly still open but guests will deal with a skeleton staff unable to provide full services. UNITE HERE, the union representing the striking workers, says they are striking not just for better pay but also better working conditions, including the return of automatic daily room cleaning that many hotels dropped during the pandemic. “We’re on strike because the hotel industry has gotten off track,” Gwen Mills,...

Weeks after their contract expired, thousands of workers are going on strike in hopes of better pay and benefits. Nearly 17,000 AT&T workers are on strike as their union, the Communication Workers of America, accused the company of "unfair labor practices." The 17,000 workers are in the AT&T Southeast region and serve the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Striking employees include technicians, customer service representatives, and others who install, maintain, and support AT&T’s residential and business wireline telecommunications network, the union said. The Communication Workers of America filed a grievance with...

The White House is “deeply concerned” about reports of civilian deaths in Gaza related to Israel striking a school in Gaza City that killed at least 80 people, saying the strike “underscores the urgency of a ceasefire.” “We are deeply concerned about reports of civilian casualties in Gaza following a strike by the Israel Defense Forces on a compound that included a school,” NSC spokesperson Sean Savett wrote in a statement to The Hill. “We are in touch with our Israeli counterparts, who have said they targeted senior Hamas officials, and we are asking for further details.

Iran’s so-called “Supreme Leader” has called for a direct attack on Israel in response to an Israeli airstrike on Tehran, Iran’s capital city, that killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday. The New York Times reported: Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has issued an order for Iran to strike Israel directly, in retaliation for the killing in Tehran of Hamas’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh, according to three Iranian officials briefed on the order.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukraine on Sunday said it struck an oil depot in southern Russia that supplies the Kremlin’s troops as Russian strikes in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, where Moscow claimed further gains, left five civilians dead and 15 others wounded. Ukraine’s General Staff said in a statement Kyiv’s security services were responsible for a drone strike in Russia’s southern Kursk region that morning on an oil depot used to meet the needs of the Russian military, and contains 11 tanks with a total volume of 7,000 cubic meters (about 247,202 cubic feet), adding the attack prompted “powerful explosions...

Hollywood's video game performers announced they would go on strike Thursday, throwing part of the entertainment industry into another work stoppage after talks for a new contract with major game studios broke down over artificial intelligence protections. The strike — the second for video game voice actors and motion capture performers under the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists — will begin at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The move comes after nearly two years of negotiations with gaming giants, including divisions of Activision, Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Co., over a new interactive media agreement. SAG-AFTRA negotiators say...

Last Friday, the National Education Association (NEA) abruptly cancelled its annual convention, scheduled for July 4-7, after just one day of official proceedings in Philadelphia. The shutdown of the Representative Assembly (RA) was in response to a strike by the union representing NEA staffers, the National Education Association Staff Organization (NEASO). Timing a three-day strike for the convention, NEA staffers based at the union’s Washington D.C. headquarters greeted delegates arriving at the Philadelphia Convention Center with picket lines. The NEASO contract expired June 30 and the staffers’ union staged the walkout as an unfair labor practices action. The NEA informed...

The National Education Association Staff Organizations (NEASO) announced Friday it is going on strike days ahead of a speech President Biden is supposed to make at the NEA’s annual convention. The NEASO said they were on a Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike against the NEA headquarters in Washington, D.C., filing two ULP complaints with the National Labor Relations Board. The group alleges the country’s largest teachers’ union has not bargained over unilateral changes, accusing the NEA of wage theft and failing to provide information regarding outsourcing $50 million to contractors. “The National Education Association has threatened to host its convention...

U.S. — College Students protesting Israel announced an indefinite hunger strike on Monday, which they say will occur between the hours of 10 AM and 5 PM, with an hour for lunch at noon with only some light snacking permitted from time to time. "We mean business!" said Princeton University student Jezebel Bashar. "It will be hard to eat absolutely nothing for part of the day followed by an after-lunch period of a few hours of not eating again, but we are committed!" On the first day of the hunger strike, protestors appeared visibly weakened with many resorting to emergency...

Employees at an Apple store in a Baltimore suburb voted to authorize a strike on Saturday, setting up what could be the first work stoppage at any Apple retail store in the country. The Towson, Md., employees claim the tech giant isn’t bargaining in good faith as they negotiate a union contract. The group of about 100 employees are organized under the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers’ Coalition of Organized Retail Employees (IAM CORE). The location was the first Apple store to form a union in 2022 of over 270 retail locations nationwide.

The United States had implored Israel to think carefully and strategically when weighing a response to the hundreds of missiles and drones Iran launched at Israel overnight Saturday-Sunday. Amid the limited reliable information emerging Friday about Israel’s reported retaliation, insistent official silence in Jerusalem, and the military censor’s requirement that any allegation and detailing of an Israeli retaliatory strike be attributed to overseas media reports, it appeared that the government had indeed taken that advice to heart.

On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “The Story,” White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby responded to questions on how the 2021 U.S. strike in Afghanistan that killed an aid worker is different from the Israeli strike that killed World Central Kitchen workers are different by stating that it’s “imprudent to try to compare two things that happened three years apart in two different conflicts.” And there was an independent investigation of the Afghanistan strike, “and that independent investigator found that there was no need for personal accountability to be had, but did find that the U.S....

Human Rights Watch said Thursday that an Israeli strike on an apartment building in Gaza City last October was an “apparent war crime,” citing no military rationale behind the attack after a months-long investigation. The Oct. 31 strike killed at least 106 civilians, including 54 children, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in its report. The report “found no evidence of a military target in the vicinity of the building at the time of the Israeli attack, making the strike unlawfully indiscriminate under the laws of war,” the group said. “Israeli authorities have provided no justification for the attack.” The findings...