Work Stoppage

This week’s episode starts with a follow up on the Cedar Point Nursery Supreme Court case we covered in our interview with Sam Knight, where the Court has now made it functionally illegal to do workplace organizing of agricultural workers in California.  Then we cover 2700 Chicago area nurses and other hospital staff going on strike for better wages and to stop plans to double their healthcare costs.  We also discuss a recent series of wildcat strikes by workers for delivery startup Gorillas in Germany, states using facial recognition software to deny unemployment benefits, and the Teamsters recent momentous vote to make organizing Amazon workers their top priority.  Finally, we close with a heartwarming story from Marseille, France, where workers have seized a closed McDonald’s and turned it into a food bank serving hundreds of families every week.   Subscribe for additional Overtime episodes at patreon.com/workstoppage   Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX   Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.

On this week’s episode of Work Stoppage we start out following up on the BlockTheBoat campaign, which has faced police violence after moving up the west coast to Seattle.  Then we discuss the recent Supreme Court ruling defending Nestlé and Cargill’s use of child slavery in Africa, and workers at the AFL-CIO’s offices filing a labor complaint against the Federation for its plan to force them back into the office.  We also cover union busting at a charter school named for Brazilian labor activist and educator Paulo Friere, major corporations refusing to be transparent about job salaries in Colorado, and a dystopic move to remotely monitor convenience store employees 24/7.   Subscribe for additional Overtime episodes at patreon.com/workstoppage   Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX   Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.

We have a special interview episode this week as we are joined by two former employees of "No Evil" Foods, who tell us what it was like to face a fierce union busting campaign from a company supposedly founded on progressive values.  The anti-union campaign waged by Evil Foods against its employees, followed by the firing of the entire production staff, is one of the starkest recent reminders than no matter how nice your boss is, they will throw you on the street if it will make them more money. Help out the former Evil Foods employees:  https://givebutter.com/PlVQ64 Subscribe for additional Overtime episodes at patreon.com/workstoppage Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.

We open this week’s episode with a follow up on the Warrior Met coal miners’ strike, where striking workers have faced repeated car attacks while picketing. We also catch up on the striking ATI steelworkers, who are pushing back on company attacks on their healthcare.  Then we cover the Biden Administration’s recent betrayal of a campaign promise to extend OSHA protections to cover covid, and a fight by pilots in India for protections and fair compensation after hundreds have been hospitalized.  We discuss “No Evil” Foods recent extremely evil move of firing their entire production staff, a successful organizing drive by preschool teachers in Colorado, and finish up with Argentina’s new law to protect the rights of trans workers.   Subscribe for additional Overtime episodes at patreon.com/workstoppage  Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX   Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.

If you’re not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month. On this Overtime episode, Dan examines the long, sordid history of collaboration between the leadership of the AFL-CIO and the CIA. Working to enforce the interests of US Empire and the ruling class that controls it, the leadership of the AFL-CIO used the specter of “communist domination” to justify subverting labor movements around the world. Hoping to prevent such betrayal of the global working class in the future, here we look at why this collaboration occurred, who was behind it, and what we can do to make sure that US labor stands in solidarity with workers around the world. Join the discord: http://discord.gg/tDvmNzX

This week we start out checking in on the striking Volvo Truck workers in Virginia, who have rejected a corporate-friendly tentative agreement for the second time. We then cover the demise of New York’s proposed bill to create toothless state unions for gig workers after strong opposition from Los Deliveristas Unidos and other unions.  Next, we discuss the success of the AROC/ILWU #BlocktheBoat campaign in Oakland, as well as a proposed resolution from the LA Teachers’ Union calling for an end to US aid to Israel and to support the BDS movement. Then we cover Canada’s postal workers union pushing to transform the postal service into a broader agency capable of meeting more community needs.  Also this week, while the Biden admin gets rosy media coverage, the federal government has continued to award massive contracts to companies using detained migrants as slave labor.  Finally, with the news that Jeff Bezos will be heading into space (hopefully forever), we take a look at the numbers behind his wealth, and how Amazon’s speedup based business model is taking its toll on workers’ bodies.  Subscribe for additional Overtime episodes at patreon.com/workstoppage Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.

We start this week’s episode with workers from the ILWU refusing to allow an Israeli-operated ship to dock in Oakland in solidarity with labor unions in Palestine.  Then we discuss massive demonstrations across Brazil led by trade unions calling for an end to the fascist Bolsonaro regime, and a series of sit down strikes in Indian auto plants protesting unsafe working conditions during the current covid surge.  We also cover lawmakers in several states attempting to pass union busting legislation aimed at privatizing schools in the wake of recent major teachers’ strikes, and a recent wave of companies in the UK using “Fire and Rehire” tactics to cut workers’ wages and benefits.  Finally, we discuss a strike by McDonald’s highway service plaza employees in Connecticut over Memorial Day Weekend, and how the constant threats from employers to replace their workers with robots are laughable. Subscribe for additional Overtime episode at patreon.com/workstoppage Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.

This week’s episode is a heavy one as we cover some of the harshest consequences of the pandemic faced by workers. We start on a happy note, following up on nursing home workers winning their demands and avoiding a strike in Connecticut after the governor had threatened to use the National Guard as scabs. We then move to New York for two stories on gig workers, one covering draft legislation which would force workers into two toothless state-approved unions with no ability to strike, another covering the grassroots organizing efforts of gig workers themselves to fight for better working conditions in NYC. Next we discuss an investigation into the murder by neglect of nearly a dozen migrant workers at a Seneca Foods green bean facility in Wisconsin during the height of the pandemic, and how every level of power, from the company to the legislature to the state OSHA worked together to sacrifice these workers for increased profits. Also this week, the AFL-CIO has announced their long awaited report on how to handle police unions, and finish off with the unionization of 17,000 workers in the University of California system.   Subscribe for additional Overtime episode at patreon.com/workstoppage Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.

John is back and this week’s episode starts with an update on the status of the ongoing uprising in Colombia, followed by a general strike in occupied Palestine and workers actions around the world standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people.  We follow up with striking workers at a Virginia Volvo Truck plant who overwhelmingly voted to reject a proposed business friendly contract, cover a series of recent dystopian moves from Amazon including the launch of a new “AmaZen mindfulness program”, and discuss the “shocking” new science linking being worked into the ground with higher risk of early death.  Finally, we close out on the ways the CDC’s recent handling of mask guidelines screws over workers, and congratulate two groups of ski patrollers who recently voted to unionize in Colorado and Montana. Subscribe to get twice as many episodes per month at patreon.com/workstoppage Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.

If you’re not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting www.patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month. On this solo episode, Dan reads several sections from Detroit: I Do Mind Dying, a history of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, and discusses what we can learn from a criminally under-analyzed movement. The League represented an advanced attempt to unify the class struggle on the shop floor with social struggles in broader society, and a powerful pushback against entrenched bureaucratic business friendly union leadership. The first in a future series of deep dive 'Overtime' episodes into labor history, here we examine what about the League’s practice worked, what didn’t, the historical context in which the movement took place, and what parallels can be drawn to struggles today. Finally Got The News: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hGfZBaFHwo Join the discord: http://discord.gg/tDvmNzX