Work Stoppage

It's back to school time so we start this week's headlines with a bunch of stories of teachers fighting for the learning conditions their students deserve all over the country, in primary, secondary, and higher education. We've also got headlines on rideshare drivers, healthcare workers, hotel workers, train drivers, and dockworkers. This week saw yet another new low for Columbia University admins, who are now trying to strip all grad workers of their right to unionize. ICE staged its largest workplace raid ever this week, abducting over 450 workers at a major Hyundai factory under construction in Georgia, halting the project and causing outrage in South Korea. The latest jobs numbers are out, so we close by taking some time to dig into the numbers showing that these racist attacks are hurting rather than helping US born workers, and leading to a recession.  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 our sixth episode, and final episode of our subset on the struggle of farmworkers,  we discuss the epic agricultural strikes of the 1930s.  With farm wages slashed to starvation levels during the Great Depression, organization in the fields made the slogan "Fight, Don't Starve!" a reality. While the AFL continued to refuse to organize farmworkers, the Communist Party stepped into the gap and organized the largest agricultural strike wave in US history in 1933. In response, farm owners and their allies in the state unleashed truly fascist repression, attempting to drown these struggles in blood. But the perseverance of the workers and their dedication to racial and national unity managed to extract vital wins even in the depths of the worst economic downturn in the country's history. These struggles would terrify farm owners so much, they would lobby the state to create the country's first guest worker program, the Bracero Program, to institute a legalized regime of apartheid in the fields and try to prevent the racial unity that proved so powerful. These fights and the response from the capitalist class laid the foundations for the structures of exploitation and oppression faced by farmworkers today, and carry many lessons for those who would organize for a better future. Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX  Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

It's Labor Day! Which means we're working and hopefully you aren't, because the labor news needs reporting, but everyone else needs to be at a protest, picket line, and/or barbecue. We start with headlines from Northwestern University, Arena League Football, the Offshore Wind industry, Yosemite National Park, UPMC, Activision Blizzard, and Valleyview Municipal Library in Alberta, Canada. For our main stories we discuss the continued campaign of escalations by the incredible organizers with No Azure for Apartheid, fighting Microsoft's collaboration with genocide. Next we've got a story that couldn't be more emblematic of the purpose of the nationwide campaign of ICE terror, with union organizers in upstate New York being specifically targeted for deportation. Uber and Lyft drivers in California took a major step towards official unionization this week, but the deal that made that possible comes with quite a few asterisks. Finally, the UAW notched another major win in an extremely tight election at the BOSK EV battery plant in Glendale, Kentucky. Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX  Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

This week, the discussion dives into worker struggles across major companies like Microsoft, Uber, and Amazon. A landmark victory for Air Canada flight attendants showcases the power of standing firm in negotiations. The podcast also highlights the war on education, focusing on notable protests at universities. Additionally, it uncovers the alarming union-busting tactics at SkyHop, alongside a successful strike by Butler Hospital workers in Rhode Island, emphasizing the importance of solidarity in labor movements.

If you're not a patron, subscribe at patreon.com/workstoppage to get full access to the episode. In the fifth episode of our series on the class struggles on the US-Mexico border, we continue our deep dive into the history of the fight by farmworkers in the Southwest to demand fair wages, working conditions, and dignity. The 1920s were an area of ruling class dominance in the US, and along with their surging wealth, the ideology of eugenic "race science" was developed to justify the extreme inequality and exploitation of the oppressed. In this context, Mexican workers in the fields of California and the factories of the Midwest faced explicitly racist super exploitation by their bosses. In this episode, we discuss efforts by radical organizers in the IWW, the Communist Party, and Mexican mutualistas to combat this extreme racism and unify the fightback of all farmworkers, with many lessons for us to draw from in our fight against racist ICE terrorism today. Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX  Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

We've got a shorter episode this week as all the hosts are super busy, and John's away, but the labor news never stops! We start with a check-in on the war on working people being waged by ICE terrorists, including yet another worker murdered by one of their raids. We also check in on organizing at Starbucks, Instacart, Republic Services, and Activision Blizzard. We've got just two main stories this week, the first covering a recent deep dive by Luis Feliz Leon on the strike by Teamsters at Mauser Packaging Solutions in Chicago, where workers are fighting deadly working conditions and bosses who refuse to agree not to collaborate with ICE. Finally, Air Canada workers who have seen their wages slashed over the past two decades are standing up not only to their employer, but to the Liberal government trying to use the law to force them to end the strike. Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX  Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

Student Workers of Columbia Petition: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSffy00B2Ns3ssleCKD8JIPdyav9vIIjFeydhfj2w86K1NfwYA/viewform Its another supersized episode as we try our best to catch up to the unending cascade of news in the labor world. We start with headlines from PetSmart, Airgas, Italian dock and textile workers, the WNBA, Amazon, Raven Software, and Hormel. For our main stories, this week we really focus in on the attacks on public workers, starting across the pond with the ruthless austerity facing doctors at the NHS. Next we discuss Trump's move to tear up union contracts at the VA and EPA. We also dive into the attempt to roll back reforms won through the working class struggle in the 1960s and 70s, removing crucial regulations. Finally, we dive into the specific assault on teachers, where it comes from, and whether it's really as "populist" as our media would like us to believe. 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 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