Work Stoppage

With the world getting worse and worse, the cause of labor remains the hope of the world. With that in mind, we start with headlines from workers on another general strike in Italy, the nationwide Starbucks strike, nurses and Amazon drivers unionizing with the Teamsters, id software workers joining the CWA, and many more. AI is once again exposed as relying on the labor of low paid, highly exploited workers, this time at surveillance company Flock. The New School is the latest institution in higher education being actively dismantled by its administration, we discuss the student-faculty fightback. In These Times this week has an update on the fight by worker organizer Willian Giménez González against ICE attacks. Portuguese workers were the latest to launch a general strike this week, and we discuss the tactics and strategy that would be needed to actually pull one off here in the US. Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX  Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

2025 is winding down but the fight for workers rights never slows, we're back with another episode! This week's headlines include stories from Pakistan, Italy, the UK, Canada, France, Occupied Palestine, and Philadelphia. Several weeks ago, a massive anti-union purge was carried out by the management of Teen Vogue, we discuss the implications for our so-called "Free Press." Nurses are under attack not only from hospital admins, but the federal government which recently ended the classification of nurses as professionals, slashing availability of student loans. Teachers in Maryland are fighting not only for their students, but for the people of Palestine by launching a campaign to get the state government to divest their pension fund from Israel Bonds. Finally, we cover several recent articles on the ways that different groups of workers are coming together in cities across the country to organize resistance to ICE kidnappings and protect their neighbors. Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX  Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

Workers have been pummeled by an overload of customers on Black Friday, so there's a lot to catch up on as we enter the final month of 2025. We start with headlines covering Amazon, Highlander Charter School, Brown University, the University of Maryland, Columbia University, the UFW, National Park Workers, Campbell's, Uber and Lyft, and Leonardo S.p.A. Our main stories start by checking in on the nationwide Starbucks strike, that has now grown to 85 cities across the US. Workers have taken serious fire for standing up for truth and justice in many fields, we take a round up to see how workers are facing attacks on anti-genocide speech and for standing up to ICE. Finally, as neo-liberalism turns life for workers in the West into a waking nightmare, more and more are standing up, so we take a tour around major strikes launched or announced this week in Belgium, Portugal, India, Australia, and of course, Italy. Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

Long drive ahead of you this week? We've got your labor news ready to go! We start with a ton of headlines checking in with Starbucks, Amazon, Nestle, New Seasons Market, the University of Pennsylvania, Sharp Healthcare, and the nightmare that is the state of Florida. For our full stories this week, we start by checking in on union busting in a place even our jaded listeners might not expect: public libraries. Then we check in on developments with the strike by workers at Canada Post and discuss the ramifications of the end of their nationwide industrial action. Finally, the LA Times released an expose this week showing the stark levels of child exploitation in US agriculture, a scourge which is directly tied to the long history of superexploitation of migrants that US agribusiness fortunes are built on. Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX  Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

It's another jam packed episode, once again workers are doing so much we struggled to cover it all! We start with headlines from the University of California, Portland State University, University of Chicago, Case New Holland, GM Canada, Walgreens, the ECHL, Kickstarter, and the United States Federal Government. Starbucks workers launched their largest strike ever this past week, we check in on the first pickets and the fight for a contract. The extremely long and hard fought strike by workers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette finally came to a conclusion this week through legal action. Over 15,000 workers in Iran's oil sector went on strike recently for pay, benefits, and to preserve their country's sovereignty. Finally, we check in on the malfeasance of the Labour Party who under Keir Starmer are simultaneously attacking both Doctors and Teachers. Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX  Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

Election day got all the coverage in the major media last week, but workers struggles don't stop so we've got our weekly roundup for you with all the news that got crowded out. We start with headlines from public workers in Memphis, students in Alberta, Teamsters in Philly, climbing gym workers in Minnesota, bartenders in Utah, and Iron Workers in Chicago. Our main stories start covering the impact on workers across the country by the government shutdown combined with the Trump Administration's attacks on the union movement. The VA has seen some of the harshest cuts, and we discuss the ripple effects this is having on veteran's healthcare. UC workers won a tentative agreement after threatening the largest strike in the university system's history, we discuss the organizing effort that made it happen. Finally, Starbucks workers have officially voted to authorize a massive nationwide strike, with the first rallies set to start this week. Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX  Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

We're back with another packed episode as John returns and people everywhere are talking about general strikes. First we start with headlines from Volkswagen, Breakthrough Beverages, Minneapolis Public Schools, Texas State University, Microsoft, Uber, and the FAA. The Trump Administration has rolled out another policy to attack workers, this time attacking our right to keep all our digits. A recent piece on On Labor raises the possibility of sectoral bargaining in higher education as a solution to intransigent administrators constantly undermining student workers. The UK hit a new low as a recent report shows that even when they rule companies are illegally refusing to pay workers, they don't even bother collecting their fines. The provincial government of Alberta is waging a scorched earth campaign to rob teachers of their right to strike, which may actually prompt a general strike across the province. Finally, we follow up with yet another report exposing that most of the companies claiming they're replacing workers with AI...aren't. Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX  Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

We start with headlines from Starbucks, Amazon, MIT, Ohio University, Harvard, UPS, Fairfax County, Allina Healthcare and Tunisia. In a possible major shift, Saudi Arabia announced the end to their system of contract slave labor known as the Kafala system, we discuss how that may play out in reality. A recent piece from In These Times spoke with unionized workers at Reuters in British Columbia who are fighting their employer's collaboration with ICE. Over 100,000 workers launched a mass strike in New Zealand against austerity policies crushing the country's education and healthcare sectors. Finally, Capital and Main put out an excellent report this week on efforts by workers at dollar stores in Louisiana to organize for better pay and conditions outside the usual NLRB process, and how that might be replicated elsewhere. Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX  Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

With millions of people taking to the streets this weekend, we've got a packed episode for you. We start with headlines from Republic Services, Blizzard Entertainment, Starbucks, Microsoft, the Royal College of Nursing, Tata, and the nation of Spain. Tens of thousands of workers just wrapped up a historic week long strike at Kaiser Permanente, we discuss their continued struggle. Peoples Dispatch reports on the fight by workers in the cotton industry of Benin against forced labor.  Volkswagen is facing a potential fight, Labor Notes breaks down the organizing effort in Chattanooga. Air traffic controllers aren't getting paid due to the shutdown, and yet their union is advocating workers not to call in sick. Finally, more and more workers are standing up to ICE kidnapping their neighbors, we recount some of their latest efforts and tactics. 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. For the final episode in our series, we finally discuss the struggle of Mexican workers in the factories of the southwest. We've covered farmworkers, miners, oil workers, and by the 1920s, more and more jobs began to open up for Mexican workers in more stable jobs in canneries and other factories. But just as with the extractive sectors, bosses used open racism to segregate their workforce and drive conditions down for everyone. We discuss the organization of railroad workers in Los Angeles, cannery and furniture factory workers across California, and the truly epic strike by pecan shellers in San Antonio that reshaped the industry. We close out our series summarizing the lessons we've learned throughout all these struggles, and how they can be applied to rebuild our labor movement into the fighting organization of the entire working class that this moment so desperately needs. Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX  Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee