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.

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To sign the boycott pledge, click here.

Learn more about the boycott here and here.

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.”

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More Info:

• Check out RWU here.
• Stop the Rail Merger Coalition website.
• Check out Mel's previous reporting here.

Fresh off the latest national victory against Amazon’s failed Unpaid Time Off retaliation, 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.

Catch up with IE Amazon Workers here.

Host: Mel Buer

Production and Editing: Mel Buer