Section 44
On January 26, 2023, nurses across the country held rallies to protest understaffing at a number of major hospitals. The issue, says the National Nurses Union/National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNU/NNOC), is chronic and widespread and affects the entirety of the industry. We spoke to nurses in Texas who rallied to learn more about the issues […]
The year began with some relief for abortion rights in Texas, when the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated any legal basis for Gov. Greg Abbott’s opportunistic ban on abortion during the first months of the pandemic as a “non-urgent medical procedure.” It was the latest and far from last maneuver in a decades long project of the Texas […]
On January 21, Ronald Llewellyn Jones premiered his documentary, “Again, Together: the Cumulative Impacts of Environmental Racism in Houston,” on Zoom to an audience of activists. The documentary focuses on the devastation brought to the Kashmere Gardens community in Houston’s Fifth Ward. The production and dumping of creosote at Union Pacific’s Englewood Railroad Yard released untold quantities […]
In January, the Department of State Health Services declared another cancer cluster in Houston’s Fifth Ward, with skyrocketing rates of leukemia and other illnesses in the area. Kashmere Gardens is a recently settled, historically African American neighborhood within Houston’s Greater Fifth Ward. Established as a freedman’s town following the Civil War, Texas Southern University-professor Robert Bullard describes the […]
At Albertsons’ locations in Texas, Arizona and New Mexico, union drivers represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters have been waging labor actions for basic protections. Ever since Albertsons acquired Safeway (which had also bought Randalls) It has become one of the largest and most profitable grocery store chains in the US. But that merger also allowed […]
By now, it’s obvious to just about everyone that something serious is taking place in Bessemer, Alabama. In the heart of the Deep South, a majority-Black and women workforce of about 6000 workers at an Amazon facility is marching towards unionization against all odds. After an unsuccessful attempt from Amazon to compel in-person voting during a pandemic, […]
The attacks on homelessness have been heating up in Austin in the midst of the pandemic and a breakdown in services more generally. Part of this debate has between state and municipal powers, as Governor Greg Abbott (R) has repeatedly threatened what is seen as a more tolerant Austin city leadership if the city does not […]
In an interview for Section 44, Snehal Shingavi spoke with Ken Zarifis, the President of Education Austin (a merged union local of both NEA and AFT), and Luke Amphlett, the Consultation Chair and Executive Committee member of the San Antonio Alliance of Teachers and Support Personnel. Ken is a long-time activist in Texas and has been […]
With live productions no longer safe during the pandemic, workers both in and behind the scenes of the entertainment industry are struggling. In Houston, theater unions have reported massive layoffs, approaching 100% unemployment among their memberships, with as many unmet needs in utilities, rent amnesty and social provision. Long-term problems also exist for the financial […]
As part of a continuing series of interviews with frontline workers in Texas, S.U. spoke with two anonymous Kroger workers and members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, working in different stores across Dallas. Since the onset of the pandemic, organizing in this sector, Anthony Elmo of UFCW Local 1000 told Section […]
Section 44 