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Latin America
Bolivian workers intensify national protest strikes against fuel price increases
On Wednesday December 31, public school teachers in the city of La Paz joined the wave of strike, hunger strikes, and mass protests demanding an end to the presidential decree that eliminated two decades of fuel subsidies (decree 5503). The strike wave began on December 22.
The decree, a way of reintroducing neo-liberal free market policies, also paves the way for the firing of public employees and teachers, freezes wages under conditions of widespread inflation, and opens the door to the privatization of public education and other sectors and the entry of multinational corporations.
The La Paz teacher’s decision takes place at the end of a week of protests and strikes by miners and other workers.
Municipal workers in Moron, Argentina fight for wages
On January 30, scores of municipal workers in the Buenos Aires Moron suburb marched, blocked streets, invaded and interrupted a City Hall meeting, in a struggle over wages and better working conditions. Many Moron workers, some of whom earn as little as US$200 a month, a hunger wage in Buenos Aires, and depend on overtime hours to make ends meet.
However, the municipality is often late paying overtime wages.
One worker described having to work 12-hour days, six days a week. “Without those hours, I die,” he declared.
The protest, which began early in the morning, ended with a rally at the municipal building, which workers entered. The demonstrators interrupted a city council budget discussion and were able to obtain an assurance from the council of unpaid overtime hours, by February 1.
The protest took place independently of the union leadership. The municipal workers protest was one of several that took place across the country the last week of the year, including bus drivers, sugar mill workers, and food workers.
United States
Flight attendants union says it is moving towards strike vote at regional carrier Horizon Air
The union representing flight attendants at Horizon Air, a regional subsidiary of Alaska Airlines, says it is moving towards a strike vote as interminable negotiations under the National Mediation Board (NMB) are enraging members of the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA). The contract for attendants became amenable in April 2024 and to date Alaska Airlines management has yet to present workers with an economic offer.
Impatience in the ranks of attendants can be discerned from reports like PYOK, which stated, “some flight attendants have reportedly been taking matters into their own hands and refusing to perform certain work functions in an effort to show their displeasure with management.”
The union has responded to rebellion in the ranks, warning, “Calls for coordinated action that interfere with work duties, including encouraging members to stop performing assigned job functions, are not something the Union can endorse, encourage, or facilitate. That kind of activity can expose individual Flight Attendants to discipline and expose the Union to significant legal risk.”
The AFA has been going along with management’s foot dragging, only discussing non-economic issues. But that list of items is coming to an end, hence the move toward a strike vote.
Nevertheless, a strike vote does not mean a strike. Further roadblocks under the Railway Labor Act will be thrown up, requiring a request by the union for an impasse in negotiations before a strike can be called. But the mediation board must grant a release, which they can refuse. And even then, a cooling off period will follow.
The AFA settled a contract with mainline Alaska Airlines flight attendants earlier in 2025. That contract became amenable in 2022. The AFA also put through a contract extension for Hawaiian Airlines flight attendants in April of 2025 that extends through 2028. A merger between Hawaiian Airlines and Alaskan Airlines in 2024 will result in a future merger of Hawaiian and mainline Alaska flight attendants.
Washington state tech health workers vote for strike by 95 percent margin
The 168 hospital tech workers at MultiCare Yakima Hospital in Washington state voted by a 95 percent margin to grant strike authorization as contract talks have stalled. “We have not been able to get the hospital to move any of the major positions,” said Teamsters Local 76 business agent David Simmons.
Disagreements over retirement benefits, healthcare and a union security clause, among other issues, have been registered by the two sides. Workers lost benefits when MultiCare took over the hospital during the pandemic in 2023.
The Teamsters say the strike will take place in January, although a 10-day strike notice needs to be given. Areas potentially affected by a strike include surgical, ultrasound and MRI technicians. Negotiations have been ongoing since early 2025.
Canada
Three hundred workers strike major Quebec ski resort
Le Massif de Charlevoix ski resort in the Laurentian Mountains just north-east of Quebec City was shut down on January 2 as a result of an indefinite strike launched by members of the Syndicat des travailleuses et travailleurs du Massif, a union affiliated with the CSN. The strike comes as the ski season at the resort moves into its peak period.
The strike has forced the resort to close its ski lifts, slopes, tobogganing areas, food services, the gift shop and the workshop. Club Med Quebec-Charlevoix, which operates an all-inclusive hotel at the base of the mountain, remains open.
The workers are in pursuit of wage increases and improvements in subcontracting protections, sick leave, safety and vacation time. Workers had initially sought only a limited 10-day strike mandate but, after resort management withdrew from negotiations, workers on Friday voted by 95 percent to launch an immediate all-out, indefinite strike.
Alberta strike activity spikes in 2025
With strike activity over the past year spiking across Canada, a recent release of industrial action statistics by the Alberta Government’s Ministry of jobs, economy, trade and immigration has shown that strikes over the first 10 months of 2025 have reached levels not seen since 2002.
However, when breaking down all strike activity according to person-days lost, the 2025 numbers far exceed all previously recorded figures. In 2025, nine major strikes in the province included a three-week walkout by 50,000 public school teachers and another months-long strike by 6,600 public school education support assistants. Other significant work stoppages occurred amongst Teamsters workers at Calgary Sobey’s retail groceries and a lockout of municipal workers in the town of Coaldale.
One of the most significant strikes was conducted by 50,000 provincial school teachers. Alberta’s right-wing United Conservative Party (UCP) government carried out a massive, unprecedented assault on the democratic rights of the strikers. After just a half-day of debate, the government adopted the draconian Back to School Act that illegalized the teachers’ strike and imposed a concessions-laden, four-year contract on teachers that they had been overwhelmingly rejected just prior to the beginning of the job action.
The legislation invoked, for only the second time in Alberta history, Canada’s anti-democratic “notwithstanding clause.” This enables Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial governments to adopt laws that violate the democratic rights supposedly guaranteed under the constitution’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, including the rights to strike and bargain collectively.