Foxwoods Rally
05.08.08
Join
the workers on May 17th at Connecticut’s Foxwoods Resort Casino as we rally to
support workers rights to organize. The event is scheduled for the same day
Foxwoods opens its new $700 million MGM Grand hotel expansion.
The UAW won an election to represent table game
dealers, but the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, which owns the casino, has
challenged the election several times, saying federal labor law does not apply
to a casino on tribal land.
The rally will be held from 9 am - 1 pm. Starting
at 8:30 am shuttle buses will be available from the UAW parking lot at 2 Cliff
Street, Norwich (across from the Otis Library).
For additional info contact Joe Calvo or Peggy
Shorey at 860.674.0143.
New Member Discount!
05.07.08
Does your body need relief from daily stress? Have
you ever wondered how massage therapy might help you? Here is your chance to
find out. Noho Bodyworks is offering discounts to Local 2322 members. To see the
details visit the
member's discount page.
Pride at Work Benefit Concert
The Jesse Molina Band will be performing a benefit
concert with proceeds going to AIDS
CARE of Hampshire County. The concert will be held at the Northampton Center for
the Arts on Saturday, June 21st at 7:00 pm. Opening act: Jackson Street
School's Zero Gravity. Suggested donation is $10.
Pride March
The annual tradition of showing our support
continues on Saturday, May 3rd noon - 5pm. Parade starts at Lampron Park in
Northampton (in front of the school & across the street from the fairgrounds) . Please meet there at 11:30 to march in solidarity with our friends
and neighbors. We hope to see many labor organization out in support!
Wear your Union shirt and hold your signs high!
Upcoming Events
04.03.08
To find out more details about the events listed
below visit our
events
page. Some events listed have limited funding available from the Local.
If you are interested in attending one of these events please contact the Local
ASAP to get on the list.
-
May 1 -May Day Rally
-
May 1 -Voices of Working People's
history
-
May 3 - Pride March
-
May 10 - NALC Food Drive
-
June 6 - Hampshire Franklin
CLC Legislative Breakfast
-
June 20-22 - Women's Institute for
Leadership Development
Support V-CAP
03.04.08
The V in V-CAP stands for voluntary, but it could
just as well stand for VICTORY. V-Cap is the UAW's political action fund. All
our contributions together give us more of a say in who gets elected than any on
e of us can accomplish with the same few dollars a month.
And it matters: Whenever an elected official
appoints a judge with the power to say we have no right to join a union or
bargain for better working conditions. Whenever an elected official sets
standards on workers' health care, safety on a job, outsourcing, labor law
reform and other issues that affect our lives.
In may UAW workplaces, V-CAP dollars can be
donated quickly and easily through voluntary paycheck deduction - and the amount
you give is up to you. Check with your local CAP representative about voluntary
checkoff raffles, events and other ways you can support the UAW V-CAP.
- reproduced from
the March-April 2008 issue of Solidarity magazine
Tell the UAW Your Story
UAW members live and
work in your community – They are your friends and neighbors. Every day, they
work to improve our workplaces and communities and at this site you can share
the stories that come out of that work. So look around -- and
submit your own story.
Lobby Day
02.21.08
Please join us at the Massachusetts CAP (Community
Action Program) Lobby
Day at the Boston Statehouse 9:00 am Wednesday, March 19, 2008.
Come join your fellow UAW members to talk to our elected officials about the
matters important to our members; issues that affect their working conditions
and lives. Among the topics we will be addressing are proposed increases in
funding for Legal Services, Higher & Early Education, Closing the Corporate Tax
Loopholes and Single Payer Healthcare.
We need to know who is going so we can give a list of names and try to
focus meetings with the reps from your area. This will also help us plan for
carpooling. We will gather at the UAW Office in Holyoke and leave at 7:00 am
sharp.
To sign up please contact Ron Patenaude, President UAW 2322 or UAW 2322
Office Manager Scott LaRochelle at 413-534-7600 or email
uaw2322@uaw2322.org (please put "Lobby Day" in the subject line).
Smithfield Foods
01.30.08
Saturday January 26th UAW 2322 joined other Jobs
with Justice (JwJ) members at the Northampton Big Y in support of the United
Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) ongoing campaign against Smithfield
Foods of Tar Heels North Carolina for their anti-worker and antiunion behavior.
The Big Y carries products from the Tar Heels plant and has
refused to even meet with Jobs with Justice to discuss removing those products
from their shelves to send a message to
Smithfield to stop
mistreating their workers.
Smithfield Foods is the largest pork producer and processor
in the world, the fourth largest turkey processor and fifth largest beef
processor in the U.S."
It is headquartered in the town of
Smithfield, Virginia, but its operations stretch across the
United States, Mexico, and
much of Europe.
UFCW has made several attempts at unionizing the plant in
Tar Heels, but the workers have faced incredible opposition and pressure from
management not to join the
Union. That opposition has taken the form of numerous and
ongoing Labor Law violations by
Smithfield management at the
Tar Heels plant. The company blatantly refused to abide by National Labor
Relations Board decisions which ordered it to stop unlawfully assaulting,
firing, intimidating and threatening workers with violence and arrest. Even
after a federal appeals court in May 2006 ruled against
Smithfield and upheld the National Labor Relations Board's cease and
desist order, the company continues to disrespect the law.
(For more on
Smithfield’s poor Labor record and the workers’ campaign go to
www.smithfieldjustice.com)
Please support the workers at the Tar Heels factory by
signing up for the JwJ list serve
(http://www.unionvoice.org/massjwj/join.html)
to receive updates on the campaigns and local actions to support the workers
fight for justice.
GEO Talks Continue
12.07
For the past month, the GEO
bargaining team has been having off-the-record
discussions with the University of Massachusetts. Going off the record allows
the two sides to explore ways of reaching agreement without having to make
binding proposals. To keep up to date on the topics of discussion visit
www.geouaw.org.
Foxwoods Dealers vote YES to UAW
11.26.07
Casino dealers at Foxwoods, the largest private employer in the state of
Connecticut, voted YES in favor of union representation. The final vote
tally was 60 percent in favor and 40 percent against.
The casino dealers at Foxwoods join thousands of gaming employees who are
already UAW members in Detroit, Atlantic City, Newport, RI, and Evansville IN.
Within the past month, UAW members in Detroit have ratified new contracts at the
city’s three casinos, which are investing over $1 billion in new and renovated
facilities.
For further information, contact Peggy Shorey, UAW: 860-508-4020
New Discount for Members
11.13.07
Please visit the
member
discount page to see who's thanking UAW
2322 members for their patronage by giving them a 20% discount...
On the morning of Thursday, October 18, over 150 GEO members
and supporters picketed the entrances to several “New Dirt”
construction sites at UMass-Amherst. Work stoppages occurred
at the New Central heating Plant and at the Skinner
construction sites. The pickets were broadly supported. Many
construction workers chose to stand in solidarity with GEO
members rather than cross the picket lines. GEO was joined
by undergraduate students, members of other unions and
community members in sending the university a clear message
that graduate student employees deserve a fair contract.
You can learn more about GEO's fight for a fair contract
and stay up to date on their progress at
www.geouaw.org.
Union Brings its fight to the Board at UMass
07.21.07
President Nathaniel Johnson of the Graduate Employee Organization (GEO) at University of Massachusetts (UMass) in Amherst addressed the Board of Trustees today. The UMass System's Board of Trustees meets at UMass Amherst just once a year which made this a perfect opportunity to address these issues to speak on behalf of graduate students across campus who are fighting to gain affordable and accessible education.
Pictured above is Nate Johnson addressing the UMass Board of
Trustees at their annual meeting on the UMass Amherst Campus.
What was the message Nate was trying to get through to the Board and UMass President Jack Wilson? To support GEO's core contract demands:
transparent, accountable diversity funding
no cutbacks to health care
rollback of mandatory student fees
increased funding for childcare
Outside the UMass Mullins Center supporters of GEO and the GSS (Graduate Student Senate) held signs and leafleted Board members arriving for the meeting. Supporter wore shirts showing a "yes" vote for diversity, childcare, rolling back fees, and for a fair contract.
To see photos from this event visit the photo album section of this website (listed under the general info tab above).
ServiceNet Union Members Stand Out!
07.19.07
Union workers and supporters stood out front of ServiceNet's main office on King Street in Northampton, MA to let the public know that they want management to sit down and negotiate a fair and decent contract.
So far ServiceNet has proposed::
