After 26 days of escalating actions, striking workers at the Catalonian paint manufacturer Acrylicos Vallejo have won significant victories at the negotiating table. Vallejo manufactures the Game Color and Model Color line paints that are most popularly used for miniatures and wargames. According to a post on the Catalonian labor organization CGT’s Bluesky page, a pre-agreement has been signed that would guarantee workers a salary increase, a parental aid package, new workplace harassment protocols, and occupational safety improvements.

As previously reported by Polygon, nearly all of the 85 workers had begun a 16-day partial work stoppage in late November before escalating to a full strike on Dec. 11 — a year after Vallejo had been purchased by investment firm ProA Capital for just under $53 million. In the days leading up to this announcement, CGT works council president Patricia Pérez described the alleged actions of Vallejo management over the last year in an article first published in Catalan by Poder Popular and commissioned for English translation by Rascal News.

According to Pérez, the alleged conditions at the Vallejo factory were not only dangerous, but not in compliance with Spanish law. In addition to a lack of employee showers (a requirement for companies which handle dangerous chemicals) and machinery in disrepair, Pérez claimed that panels from the factory ceiling were often broken and falling, allowing rain to fall on the factory floor. The translation describes an alleged “authoritarian” work environment, with unreasonable expectations for worker productivity that led to CGT filing a lawsuit against Vallejo management. Pérez also claimed that the company’s safety protocols are “biased” and portray “victim[s] of harassment as the perpetrator.” One employee, who filed a complaint against the company, was allegedly fired three days later on the grounds of “low productivity.”

Pérez told Poder Popular that the labor actions had pushed Vallejo management to “set aside any discussions of productivity” and begin “genuine negotiations.” Though those initial wage propositions were presented as “minimal” in the Poder Popular article, the final agreements announced in the CGT social post include: a salary increase of up to €3000 per year, a social paternity package of €500 for the birth of a child, with €200 education allowance for each child below 25 years of age — an amount which must be multiplied by 1.5 for single-parent families.

This victory follows multiple years of ongoing labor actions across sectors, including the currently ongoing SAG-AFTRA Voice Actors strike, the Amazon Teamsters strike, and the Starbucks Workers United strike.

Vallejo is a company that makes acrylic paint commonly used for hobby painting like warhammer miniatures and such.

seeing the workers win an agreement from a strike is always heartwarming to see

Today is a historic day.

For the first time, Amazon workers across the country are going on strike, starting at 7 distribution centers across the country. This action comes in the midst of the holiday shopping season, as Amazon workers are being forced to work grueling overtime to meet overwhelming demand.

In the coming days, additional Amazon facilities will join the strike: JFK8 in New York City; DGT8 in Atlanta; DFX4, DAX5, and DAX8 in Southern California; DCK6 in San Francisco; and DIL7 in Skokie, Illinois, along with other locations.

By 6 a.m. at the DBK4 facility in Queens, New York, hundreds of drivers hit the picket lines, refusing to deliver packages. They engaged in conversations with their co-workers — some of whom were entering the facility to work, others who were convinced to join the picket line. Many who were about to enter the facility instead parked outside and stood with their co-workers, joining the strike. There is growing solidarity among the workers. “We work for nothing– we don’t get protection, we don’t get money– and we work for this rich boss who is exploiting us. This strike is for our respect,” one driver said to another, convincing him to join the picket line. They were joined by healthcare workers, UPS drivers, students, and young people, all standing in solidarity with this historic strike.

The police have already arrived at the picket — specifically the Strategic Response Group, notorious for its brutal treatment of Palestinian protesters over the past year. The cops arrested both a driver and a Teamster. The driver, who was pulling out of Amazon with a truck full of packages, stopped to engage with the striking workers. In response, the police pulled him from his vehicle and arrested him — an outrageous act of intimidation. This driver has been freed by the police and the strikers are undeterred. They will not back down.

Full article

A union representing more than 11,000 Starbucks baristas in the US says its members will hold a five-day strike starting on Friday morning, in a dispute over pay and working conditions.

Workers United says the walkouts will start in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Seattle, with strike action set to spread each day and reach hundreds of stores by Christmas Eve unless a deal is reached.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/23765490

Companies in the newly formed gig-nursing industry have also been lobbying on labor rules that could allow them to shortchange nurses, further reducing the quality of patient care.

gig-nursing industry

just fuck me up, fam

Volkswagen workers in Germany have gone on strike today in the largest industrial action taken against the company since 2018. The union IG Metall, which represents about 120,000 VW workers, voted to approve the strike on November 22, describing the situation as "the toughest collective bargaining battle Volkswagen has ever seen."

IG Metall's members are striking in response to VW's plans to cut its European manufacturing costs, which are dragging on the company at the same time as the Chinese market has become more difficult due to domestic competition, as well as a softening of global demand for electric vehicles.

*The title of this article is incorrect because there was a store that won an NLRB election 20 years ago but then decertified.

Furthermore the NLRB certifies representation and bargaining units (not unions) and workers have organized unions in Whole Foods before that have not asked for exclusive bargaining rights (either because they didn't want to or didn't meet the threshold for authorization cards). Nonetheless it's exciting to see Amazon workers organizing.

Thousands of workers marched through the Greek capital Athens on Wednesday as part of a 24-hour general strike called by labor unions to protest the rising cost of living and timed to coincide with the government submitting the 2025 budget to Parliament.

Reddit link -

Someone in media claiming their entire staff waw wiped out by an AI company called Q.Ai

For context I work production in local news. Recently there’s been developments in AI driven systems that can do 100% of the production side of things which is, direct, audio operate, and graphic operate -all of those jobs are all now gone in one swoop. This has apparently been developed by the company Q ai.

For the last decade I’ve worked in local news and have garnered skills I thought I would be able to take with me until my retirement, now at almost 30 years old, all of those job opportunities for me are gone in an instant. The only person that’s keeping their job is my manager, who will overlook the system and do maintenance if needed. That’s 20 jobs lost and 0 gained for our station.

We were informed we are going to be the first station to implement this under our company. This means that as of now our entire production staff in our news station is being let go. Once the system is implemented and running smoothly then this system is going to be implemented nationwide (effectively eliminating tens of thousands of jobs.) There are going to be 0 new jobs built off of this AI platform.

There are people I work with in their 50’s, single, no college education, no family, and no other place to land a job once this kicks in. I have no idea what’s going to happen to them. This is it guys. This is what our future with AI looks like. This isn’t creating any new jobs this is knocking out entire industry level jobs without replacing them.

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If you go to the Q.Ai site it lists 3 founders - all from Pissreal