Work Stoppage

Warehouse Workers Against ICE Petition: https://form.jotform.com/251684939561066 Palestinian Trade Unions Statement: https://masarbadil.org/en/2025/07/6308/ No Azure for Apartheid Pledge: https://t.co/df0U2S9P26 We're back after our brief vacation! And so much has happened in the last two weeks! We've got a supersized headline section covering workers organizing at REI, Starbucks, FedEx, UPS, Airgas, Care New England, the Wonderful Company, Canada Post, and more. For our major stories, we start with a review of how university administrators are using the Trump Administration's attacks on higher education as cover to push forward attacks on student organizers. While many workers are coming together to fight ICE, a recent Labor Notes report documents how the leadership of some parts of the building trades are failing the most basic test of a union leader: solidarity. Workers at Fenway Park have gone on strike for the first time after contracting giant Aramark refuses to pay them enough to live in one of the most expensive parts of the country. Finally, we discuss the state of ICE's attacks on the US working class and how more and more Americans are realizing the shared interests we have with our immigrant siblings. Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX  Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

If you're not a patron, subscribe at patreon.com/workstoppage to get full access to the episode. In the fourth episode of our series on the class struggles on the US-Mexico border, we begin a three part section on the history of struggle by Mexican farmworkers in the fields of the Southwest. At the turn of the 20th century, the center of gravity of US agricultural production shifted to California, and the demand for labor soared. This era was dominated by attempts by large landowners to split up their workforce by race, and use demonization and discrimination to keep workers from organizing and keep wages low. But while organizing has always been difficult, workers have never accepted brutal exploitation without fighting back. In this episode, we discuss efforts like the Japanese-Mexican Labor Association, the Renters Union, and Las Gorras Blancas to organize and fight against racist oppression in the first two decades of the 20th century. Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX  Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

Warehouse Workers Against ICE Petition: https://form.jotform.com/251684939561066 Petition Supporting Columbia Students: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/1d7c3280b87eb84ead62ae8750dbe02c6edfbfd4/?hash=ee7d69beeb2f8db225aa3325fd24f306 Big episode this week as the billionaire assault on workers rights isn't slowing down, nor are efforts to organize against it. We start with updates on workers at Lowe's, Costco, Amazon, Wells Fargo, Republic Services, Airgas,  GM, and Newark Airport.  Waste management workers aren't just fighting for a fair wage in the US, in Birmingham in the UK they've been on a series of strikes since March. We've got several stories this week of how educators are organizing against attacks on anti-genocide speech. The AAUP are fighting against the McCarthyite attacks in court, Rank and File members of the NEA are fighting to get the ADL's anti-Palestinian materials out of schools, and student workers at CUNY and University of Michigan are fighting to keep speech alive on their campuses. Finally, we check in on some of the impacts of ICE's reign of terror around the country, and the ways workers are coming up with new tactics of community resistance. Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX  Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

If you're not a patron, subscribe at patreon.com/workstoppage to get full access to the episode. In this third episode of our series on the class struggles on the US-Mexico border, we finish our high level overview of the political class struggle on the border from the end of the Mexican Revolution to the end of World War 2. With the consolidation of the Revolution in a liberal direction, we will discuss the attempts of workers to capitalize on their gains, and the Mexican state to control and contain their struggles. We cover the rise of nativist racism in the leadership of US trade unions and its counterproductive attacks on immigrant workers, as well as the efforts by radicals in the Communist and Socialist parties to change this and build true classwide unity. The Great Depression forced millions on both sides of the border to fight or starve and this period saw some of the greatest victories of mass working class industrial action. But without the consolidation of an independent political movement, the limitations of these efforts would become all too clear. In the next sections of our series, we will focus in on the specifics of the labor struggles waged by workers in the fields, mines, and factories. We'll discuss the long history of attempts at multi-national unity in the labor struggle and both the successes and failures of the labor movement to rise to the challenge. Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX  Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

Headlines this week from South Korea, Paris, Greece, Washington, Oregon, Chicago, New York, and Maine, including follow ups on the big Philly public worker strike, the lockout at Butler Hospital in Providence, and the ever expanding strike at Republic Services. Our main story this week is the war on the working class being unleashed against immigrants across the country, including a militarized terror raid at a farm in California where ICE murdered one worker and arrested 200. A recent report from The Guardian documents how Amazon is using AI to automate discrimination against disabled workers. Finally, the workers and farmers movement in India once again held a truly massive strike, with 250 million people hitting the streets last week. Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX  Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

Workers are rising up for fair wages, with significant strikes reported in Philadelphia and victories in Colorado. The episode highlights the ongoing fight against corporate practices and the exploitation of immigrant labor, showcasing the importance of solidarity. The pressure on college administrators regarding labor rights is also examined, revealing systemic challenges in higher education. With a humorous touch, the hosts also reflect on recent heatwaves and share light-hearted Fourth of July anecdotes, blending serious topics with moments of levity.

If you're not a patron, subscribe at patreon.com/workstoppage to get full access to the episode. In this second episode of our series on the class struggles on the US-Mexico border, we explore the working class movements that helped shape the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920). Over the decade long revolutionary period, Mexican workers and peasants fought to establish rights that had been held back by the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz. Through the PLM, the IWW, the COM, and various peasant organizations, the working classes organized and fought in unprecedented numbers. The different bourgeois forces vying to replace Diaz and consolidate the state under their power sought the support of workers, as their organized strength repeatedly swung the balance of power from one group to another. We discuss the gains, losses, and occasional inspiring revolutionary victories of the Mexican working classes, and how these carry lessons for our struggles today. In future episodes, we'll discuss the consolidation of the control of the Mexican labor movement under the state, the surge in migration to the North, the fight against racist nativism, and the struggles of workers on both sides of the border during the Great Depression.  Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX  Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

Find a Sick of ICE! Event Near You: https://sickofice.org/ We start this week's headlines with follow-ups on workers at Safeway, Chiquita and Cisco, several new struggles being waged by the Teamsters, and South Korea's new train driving Minister of Labor. We've also got new possible strikes by healthcare workers in Rhode Island and municipal workers in Philly. Our first main story covers a sweeping new labor code in Colombia passed after a nationwide working class mass mobilization. Next we discuss a recent piece in the New Republic documenting the ways UPS is functionally breaking the landmark 2023 contract and workers are literally dying because of it. Finally, we close with a round up of updates on the Trump Administration's war on workers, and new ways workers are fighting back. Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX  Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

Workers Against Ice Petition: <https://form.jotform.com/251684939561066> Oakland Children's Hospital Strike Fund: <https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-nuhw-members-at-childrens-hospital-oakland> After a brief detour discussing the necessity for labor to unite against the US-Israeli war on Iran, we dive into our regular labor headlines. This week we've got followups with striking grocery workers, beverage distribution workers, tabletop game store employees, teachers, and farmworkers. Our first story returns to one of the more horrific forms of labor in this country, prison slavery, as incarcerated workers in Alabama fight to just have the state follow its own laws. Next, gig workers in India are facing dystopian new conditions of ten minute worker deliveries. Research assistants at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are on the verge of forming one of the largest single campus grad unions in the country. Finally, healthcare workers at Oakland Children's Hospital are on strike after their employers in the UC system are proposing to slash their benefits. Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX  Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

If you're not a patron, subscribe at patreon.com/workstoppage to get full access to the episode. As migrant workers across the US face an onslaught of racist state terrorism from ICE and other federal agencies, solidarity from the labor movement is more critical than ever. One of the most powerful tools of repression that the bosses have is using racist dehumanization to split workers against each other across national lines. So now more than ever, it's critical that American workers understand that these migrant workers are our brothers and sisters, and that only by uniting with them can we advance our class interests. For as long as there has been a border between the US and Mexico, workers on both sides have only ever won their struggles against oppression through unity, rather than division. In this series, using the incredible book Radicals in the Barrio by Professor Justin Akers Chacon as our core guide, we will discuss the history of shared working class struggles by Mexican and Mexican American workers on both sides of the border from the Mexican-American War to the Cold War.  In this first episode, we will begin by laying the groundwork for the politics of the Mexican Revolution, looking back through the history of colonization, independence, war with the United States, and relations with US Imperialism. In future episodes, we'll discuss the role of the working class in the Mexican Revolution, how these revolutionaries brought their ideas north across the border and influenced struggles in the US, and how multi-national unity has been critical to any labor victories won in the Southwest for over 150 years. Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX  Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee