Work Stoppage

2023 is showing no signs of being any less militant of a year for workers than 2022 was, so we've got another packed episode of Work Stoppage this week. After a couple brief check ins, we discuss the recent rejection of Case New Holland's "Last, Best, and Final" Offer by UAW workers.  Also this week, Microsoft surprisingly held up their end of the neutrality agreement and voluntarily recognized the new QA union at ZeniMax. Workers at Howard Brown Health in Chicago struck last week after the company fired 15% of their staff just months after workers unionized. Newspaper workers at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram finally have their first union contract after winning a month long strike. A recent horrifying near-deadly injury once again brought the extreme exploitation of NFL players to national attention. The Tory government in the UK is trying to speed run the class war, as this week they have proposed new laws banning strikes in many industries. Finally, we got rare good news from the feds, as the FTC proposed a blanket ban on non-compete agreements. 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 you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month. We're very excited to be launching a new, wide ranging series on the history of allegations levied against unions of corruption and relations with organized crime. Ever since the formation of the first labor unions, the capitalists and their media have been denouncing organized labor as corrupt, violent, led by racketeers, and in bed with the mob. This allegation remains common today, and what better way to help fight these ideological attacks on unions than by confronting these allegations head on and examining the historical record. And of course, there's no other place we could start than with the case of Jimmy Hoffa, whose reputation looms large as one of the most notorious figures in US labor history. To rigorously examine his case, we will have to go all the way back to the founding of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and follow allegations of corruption from the early days of the union up through today.  In this episode, we discuss how the ruling class attacked unions for supposedly being corrupt from the very beginning, and used the media to minimize violence by bosses and amplify stories of violence by workers. In future episodes we will go through a century of Teamster history, the rise of Jimmy Hoffa, his presidency of the union and his fight with the Kennedys, his imprisonment, his disappearance, and ultimately his legacy.  Along the way we will do our best to separate real instances of corruption from the mountain of insinuations and rumor, and discuss what lessons we can learn for our organizing today. Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX  Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

Happy New Year to all our listeners, hopefully 2023 will be another year of worker upsurge. We start our first show of the year discussing the debacle at Southwest Airlines where capitalists have once again proven they can't be trusted to manage vital infrastructure. Next we discuss the third union drive at Activision Blizzard, this time at the ironically named Proletariat Studios. California nurses just wrapped up a 10 day strike to stop assaults on their pensions, while as many as 17k nurses in NYC may soon strike over unsafe staffing and low pay as well. We belatedly check in on the strike by BCTGM workers at Ingredion in Cedar Rapids that has now gone on for over 5 months. NYC construction workers finally forced the passage of a law to hold companies liable for worker deaths caused by negligence. Workers at the Tacoma Art Museum are fighting hard for voluntary recognition of their union in order to be able to bring ALL their coworkers under one organization. Finally we check in on Starbucks, who didn't let the holidays slow down their union busting. 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 you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month. It's the last show of the year, and what better way to finish out 2022 than by reviewing some of the biggest stories in labor over the course of the year. We go back through the year's worth of stories to highlight some of the biggest trends, from the explosive growth of the Starbucks Workers United movement and the first unionized Amazon warehouse in the US to the betrayal of the rail workers by President Biden. We discuss the surge in organizing in academia, new unions that emerged in retail, and the strike wave that broke out across the UK in response to the cost of living crisis.  We review our predictions from last year, see how we did, and make some new ones for 2023.  Finally of course, we cap off 2022 discussing some of our favorite memes of the year.  Happy Holidays to all our listeners! May next year see an even bigger growth in workers organizing to fight back against their exploitation on the job! Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX  Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

Happy Holidays to all, especially workers fighting for a better world! We start this week's episode discussing the recent end of the largest strike of the year at UC as workers have ratified a new contract. Next we discuss a recent Reuters investigation that uncovered rampant use of child labor in auto manufacturing in Alabama. The lockout of workers at the WestRock paper mill (also in Alabama) has continued for months now with no end in sight, as local politicians have openly sided with the company. Nurses struck again last week across the UK, and were joined by ambulance drivers despite the use of the army as scabs. Trader Joe's workers have filed for a third union election in Louisville and are already facing union busting. NY workers including the ALU have forced the passage of a bill to make Amazon reveal the quotas they use to fire workers. Elon Musk is being sued for illegally firing workers yet again, this time at Tesla for daring to criticize him. Last month a university in Florida decided to stop recognizing their faculty union, and in a twist justified it by quoting the Bible. Finally, we've got a quick check-in with the Starbucks Workers United movement which notched its first win in Nevada this past week. Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX  Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

UAW Local 807 Strike Fund: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-the-striking-uaw-local-807-cnh-workers  This week's episode of Work Stoppage starts by checking in on the strike at Case New Holland, where over a thousand workers have been on strike for over 8 months. Next we update everyone on the status of the UC strike, where the bargaining team has signed a tentative agreement and some in the rank and file push back. The UK strike wave continues to grow as nurses launched their largest strike in the country's history. Rail workers unhappy with the lack of militancy in leadership responded this week as members of BLET surprisingly voted out their union president. NY Farm Workers now have the right to form unions, but we discuss a case that shows winning a first contract may be the harder challenge. We got some big NLRB news this week, as the board ruled that companies can be held liable for more than just back pay for illegally firing organizers. Also this week the Board issued a long overdue ruling that so called "student athletes" are in fact workers and have all the rights associated with being employees. Finally, we discuss the largest strike yet by Starbucks Workers United, as they Doubled Down for a three day strike over last weekend. 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 you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month. We're going back to the movies this week with two films focused on the power of women workers.  First we discuss 2010's Made in Dagenham, which chronicles the 1968 strike by women sewing machinists at Ford's largest auto plant in Europe. Standing up against not only the bosses, but also chauvinist union leaders and a reformist Labour government, the women workers held their ground to fight not just for better conditions for themselves, but for equal pay for all women workers. Our second film is the 1979 classic, Norma Rae. In one of the most famous union movies ever made, Norma Rae tells the true story of the fight to organize a textile mill in the rural south. Facing a vicious union busting campaign, racism, anti-semitism, and constant attacks by the bosses and the cops, workers led by the tenacious Norma Rae demonstrate what workers can accomplish when we don't let the bosses divide us.

We start this week's episode with some sad news, as the South Korean truckers have been forced to end their strike after weeks of vicious government repression. Also this week the NLRB ruled that Apple has been breaking the law with its Starbucks-inspired union busting campaigns at its retail stores. Minnesota nurses have called off their potential strike after tentatively agreeing to a new contract with safe staffing measures for the first time. About a quarter of the striking workers at UC ratified new contracts this week but the majority have stayed out, escalating tactics in response to the intransigence of the administration. The strike at the New School ended this weekend after solidarity between faculty and students forced the school administrators to concede to the workers' demands. Grad students at BU became the latest group of academic workers to unionize this week. Workers also voted overwhelmingly to unionize at the Ultium Cells electric car battery factory in Warren, OH this week. We are getting the first test of Microsoft's "neutrality agreement" with the CWA as QA testers at ZeniMax are aiming to build the largest union within a major games publisher in the country. Workers at Disney World are struggling for a new contract as their low wages leave a majority unable to pay their bills, causing many to have to live out of their cars. And finally, this week marks the 1 year anniversary of the first successfully unionized Starbucks, as the movement has exploded to cover over 7000 workers. 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 you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month. This year has seen a huge surge in organizing at academic institutions across the country. Academic workers have formed the five largest new bargaining units of the year AND led the country's largest strike, the ongoing 48,000 worker strike at the University of California. So we thought it would be a good idea to bring on a guest who could help us dig into the conditions that have prompted this increase in labor action in academia. We're joined by Prez, a PhD candidate based in NYC, to discuss the conditions faced by grad students, adjunct faculty, academic researchers, and other academic workers that have pushed so many into organizing. We talk about the way the pandemic has affected academic workers, how workers with disabilities are often left abandoned by their employers, and how the allure of tenure and the social status that comes with it is used to justify forcing academic workers to accept poverty wages. Check out Prez's podcast The Minyan, which you can find on Twitter @the_minyan 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 monster episode as last week was full of monumental news in the labor movement. First of course we have an extended breakdown of the move by President Biden and both capitalist parties last week to use the Railway Labor Act to make a rail strike illegal and force a contract the workers democratically rejected down their throats. We discuss how we got here, what this means for the immediate future, and what we can expect long term. Then we discuss updates on the truckers' strike in South Korea, where President Yoon has declared the strike illegal and attempted to force drivers back to work. We also check in on the HarperCollins strike, where workers have received support from many authors who are refusing to submit work to the publisher. We follow up with the QA workers of Blizzard Albany, who finally won recognition of their union. The country's largest strike of 50k academic workers at UC has hit its second month as administrators refuse to agree to provide a living wage and critical benefits. Workers at the New York Times voted to authorize their first strike in 50 years if a deal is not reached before December 8th. 15,000 workers in Minnesota are gearing up for a major strike escalation as healthcare companies continue to refuse the provide safe staffing and fair wages.  800 dockworkers in Mobile, AL have been on strike for two weeks as their employer, CSA, is refusing to pay workers the pension contributions they owe them after four years without a contract. Workers in Ontario got some relief this week as courts struck down a draconian wage law. The movement to reform the UAW made massive wins this week in the union's elections, making a near sweep, making a near sweep for the UAWD backed reform slate. And of course, Starbucks continues its war on workers while the union keeps on winning elections. Railroad Workers United Donation Fund: https://myemail.constantcontact.com/RWU-Raises-Funds-to-Wage-the-Struggle-.html?soid=1116509035139&aid=jZnP-zHBM4I Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX  Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee