The Union Bug

Boycotting as a Tactic: The REI Boycott w/Ashley Hamilton

This week, we’ve got a national call to boycott the REI Co-Op Annual Sale in support of union workers. As bargaining has dragged on and REI has dragged its feet at the table, workers are looking to leverage an upcoming moneymaker of a sale at the Co-Op to force them back to bargaining with serious proposals. To that end, REI workers have asked that folks join a boycott from May 15th to 25th during the co-op’s largest sale of the year. With me to discuss this and more is Ashley, a union organizer and bargaining team member from the REI Co-Op in Greensboro, North Carolina.  ------ To sign the boycott pledge, click here. [https://www.ourrei.com/boycott?utm_source=boycottREIdotcom] Learn more about the boycott here [https://www.seattletimes.com/business/retail/rei-union-workers-call-for-boycott-of-co-ops-biggest-annual-sale/]and here. [https://www.ufcw.org/press-releases/boycott-rei-union-to-boycott-co-ops-anniversary-sale-may-15-25/]

In the New Age of Robber Barons: The UP-NS Merger w/Ron Kaminkow

Last year, news broke that two of the largest Class One Rail Carriers, Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern, announced their intention of a massive merger. The 85 billion dollar megadeal would create the nation’s first transcontinentall railroad owned by a single company, spanning 50,000 miles of track and nearly half of the nation’s rail freight traffic. As I reported on this last September, no one but the rail executives themselves are particularly happy about it. On April 30th, UP formally re-submitted its application to merge with Norfolk Southern. I brought longtime friend and union brother Ron Kaminkow back on the show to discuss updates with the merger, why it’s a bad idea for pretty much everyone, and what we can expect moving forward. Just after recording this episode with Ron, the news dropped that a coalition came out in opposition to the merger. I want to read a part of their statement at length: “A new coalition, launched [last week], unites a broad cross section of the U.S. economy in opposing the proposed merger of Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern rail lines. If allowed to move forward, the deal would create the largest consolidated railroad in U.S. history and give a single entity control over almost half of the nation’s rail traffic. The Stop the Rail Merger Coalition, which represents major railroad operators, customers, and workers, warns the merger would reduce competition, drive up costs for American manufacturers, farmers and consumers, and inject new vulnerabilities into the nation’s workforce and supply chain, at a moment when affordability and resilience matter most. The newly-formed group includes the American Chemistry Council, the American Farm Bureau Federation, Teamsters Rail Conference, BNSF Railway, CPKC Railway, Alliance for Chemical Distribution (ACD), National Industrial Transportation League (NITL), and Vinyl Institute. The Teamsters Rail Conference makes up the majority of the Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern’s unionized workforce. This new coalition joins a growing group of more than 100 state and federal policymakers, including attorneys general and agriculture secretaries, who are urging the administration to hit the brakes on this unnecessary merger.” ---- More Info: * Check out RWU here. [https://www.railroadworkersunited.org] * Stop the Rail Merger Coalition website. [https://stoptherailmerger.com] * Check out Mel's previous reporting here. [https://www.wordsaboutwork.news/an-85-billion-railroad-merger-is-in-the-works-no-ones-happy-about-it-68ed2d400dd0f6001b71cddc/]

Lessons in Solidarity from an Amazon Organizer

Fresh off the latest national victory against Amazon’s failed Unpaid Time Off retaliation [https://words-about-work.ghost.io/ghost/#/site], I was keen to check in with Amazon Teamsters about how things were going with their campaigns. I caught up with Juan Mereles, Teamsters union member and docks department worker at KSBD, and Amazon Air Hub in San Bernardino, California.  On this episode of the Union Bug, we’re talking about the working conditions at Juan’s warehouse, organizing against a giant corporation like Amazon, living in the Inland Empire, and how best to build community with your coworkers and your neighbors. Check out the Amazon Teamsters on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/amazonteamsters/]. Catch up with IE Amazon Workers here. [https://www.ieamazonworkers.org/] Host: Mel Buer Production and Editing: Mel Buer

'Unions of Our Own': In Conversation with Daniel Gross

As you may have noticed, it’s been awhile since my last episode, and I am very stoked to be back behind the mic bringing you more conversations from the labor movement and beyond.  On the show this week is Daniel Gross to talk about his forthcoming book, Unions of Our Own: 8 Building Blocks to Change Work and the World. The book provides a “radical, step-by-step framework for workers who want to fight for the better workplaces they’ve always envisioned—and dream of bigger changes too. Mark Bray, author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, said in his praise of the book, “Finally, Daniel has brought us Unions of Our Own, an immensely practical and accessible guide for building workers’ power. Daniel’s vast experience organizing with workers comes through in every page of a book that is sure to become an instant classic in an era of increasingly chaotic politics and economics. If your workplace lacks a union, this is the book to read with your fellow workers. If you are already a union member: read this book to expand your ranks and build more power from the bottom up." Daniel is a veteran labor organizer and cofounder of the IWW Starbucks Workers Union, former labor lawyer and co-author of the classic Labor Law for the Rank and Filer: Building Solidarity While Staying Clear of the Law.  Pre-order Daniel's Book here. [https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2724-unions-of-our-own]

'We Always Had a Union': In Conversation with Shaun Richman

Much of the conversations we see cropping up in today’s online labor discourse center around the labor movement’s need to create a more militant organizing framework within the established unions in the United States. In the last decade, unions have experienced a resurgence in the popular conversation, particularly since 2021, but have struggled to increase membership and create new inroads toward organizing victories, particularly in the wake of successive anti-labor administrations. What does it mean to reintroduce militant organizing strategies to organize labor’s toolbox, and can we look to examples from our own labor history to give us a blueprint? In We Always Had a Union, Shaun Richman writes a meticulously researched history of the New York Hotel Workers’ Union, and the influence of their militant communist organizers on their organizing strategy from the 1910s through the 1950s. In his introduction to the book he writes, “Indeed, the hotel workers of New York City had had a union–several of them–for decades before Local 6 and the Hotel Trades Council enrolled tens of thousands of members in some of the largest Communist-led affiliates of the American Federation of Labor. They had a union decades before their collective bargaining was protected by law, regulated by the state, and endorsed by leading politicians like New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia and Governor Thomas E. Dewey. They had their union long before AFL leaders embraced their radical local leadership during the Popular Front era, and continue to have a union decades after the international union attempted to purge the Communists during the Cold War…it is a rare example of how the Communist Party’s power and influence were so clearly and explicitly negotiated within an AFL union.” With me today to discuss this history is Shaun Richman. Shaun teaches labor history at SUNY Empire State University and is the author of this and one another book, Tell the Bosses We’re Coming: A New Action Plan for Workers in the Twenty-First Century. Editorial Note: This podcast was recorded in late December 2025. In a particular encouraging turn of events, the Minnesota AFL-CIO has endorsed a community stoppage action for TODAY Jan 23 in the wake of violent ICE raids in the Twin Cities area. We love militant organizing against repressive state forces, don't we folks? Additional Links and Resources Follow Shaun on Bluesky here. [https://bsky.app/profile/shaunrichman.org] Buy Shaun's Book here. [https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p088537]