Help Us Cover Union Busting in Yellowstone Park & Montana – Payday Report

In mid-December, I used to be recognized with COVID, and as an individual with bronchial asthma, I’ve been struggling mightily since then. I had been bettering slowly for almost two months, however attributable to winter climate inversion, Pittsburgh had a few of the worst air high quality within the nation for the previous a number of weeks. 

So I’ve determined to exit to Montana to stick with mates, proceed my restoration, and tackle union busting in America’s landmark nationwide park: Yellowstone. 

In Yellowstone, seasonal winter guides; pay is precariously based mostly on every day demand for excursions and unpredictable scheduling. Yellowstone guides have been attempting to union arrange now for 2 years and confronted unlawful firings and intimidations. Some Yellowstone guides even have been thrown out of firm housing in the midst of the winter. 

Blacklisting is frequent when staff converse out in opposition to guides, who get fired for organizing, have a tricky time discovering work elsewhere within the small world of journey guides that fuels tourism in Yellowstone. 

Moreover, in close by locations like Bozeman, Montana, close to the doorway to Yellowstone, rents have skyrocketed from growing Airbnb leases and second householders who reside there solely seasonally. 

The average cost of a one-bedroom apartment in Bozeman is now $1,750-a-month, according to the site Zumper. Many service staff and lecturers have needed to transfer farther away and commute greater than an hour to get to work. 

With the pandemic, there was a large upsurge of organizing in Bozeman. Restaurant staff are organizing for the primary time and demanding truthful pay whereas dealing with stiff resistance to their organizing. 

The company media round Yellowstone has utterly uncared for these struggles, and it’s time for a publication like Payday to show them. Given our previous monitor report, it’s possible that the nationwide media will comply with our lead. 

In 2021, The Washington Post cited our work tracking strikes in a front-page cover story. The New York Occasions described us as a publication with “new energy.” PBS American Portrait profiled our work monitoring the strike wave. Esquire described our work as “invaluable.” 

In 2021, our work on W. Kamau Bell’s CNN documentary “Where Do We Even Begin with White Supremacy” was also nominated for an Emmy. 

We wish to inform the story of staff preventing again within the shadows of America’s nationwide parks, however we’d like your help.

The brand new Missoula-based outlet, LaborLab, is kindly internet hosting my journey. They picked up my aircraft ticket tab and helped prepare my housing. LaborLab launched late final yr to trace the place union busters are working throughout the nation. 

To this point this yr, Labor Lab has tracked over 70 union-busting campaigns in an easy-to-use Union Buster tracker. Their tracker has already drawn the attention of publications like The Boston Globe. 

We might be working with LaborLab on ways in which we are able to collaborate and work collectively to construct new media establishments to cowl the labor motion. 

If you happen to can, please donate to offset other travel costs, including rental car, gas, food, beer, and other expenses that will occur. 

And if you happen to can, please sign up as one of 671 recurring donors. 

Thanks for all of the help. 

Love & Solidarity, 

Melk