Work Stoppage

This week’s episode has a bit of a shuffle as John is busy moving, but Lina and Dan were lucky enough to be joined by special guest Ethan from Invent the Future and Red Game Table!  We start out with a follow-up on the uprising currently happening in Colombia, then move to the governor of Connecticut calling out the National Guard to act as scabs to break a potential strike at nursing homes. Next we discuss an upcoming McDonald’s strike on May 19 for $15/hr, Amazon drivers being forced to choose between driving safely and keeping their jobs, and the nationwide push by the ruling class to end unemployment benefits to force people to work for less than a living wage.  We close out covering workers quitting a Maine Dollar General and calling to overthrow capitalism on the way out. As mentioned during the meme review,  Gaza Fights For Freedom is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnZSaKYmP2s Subscribe to get twice as many episodes per month at patreon.com/workstoppage   Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX  Follow Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.   Ethan (@utopologist) co-hosts Invent the Future (@proletarianinfo) and GMs Red Game Table (@RedGameTable)

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 week’s episode, John, Lina, and Dan follow up on a successful union drive at Maine’s largest hospital, and workers at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island working to build an independent union with lessons from the BAmazon drive.  Next, we discuss the president of NYU running to the parents of grad students to complain about them going on strike, and bus drivers going on wildcat strike in Mississippi.  Our main story this week is the ongoing general strike and protests across Colombia over the past week in response to regressive taxes on the working class, the attempted privatization of Colombia’s healthcare system, and violent police repression.  Finally, we applaud In These Times’ call to get rid of no-strike clauses in union contracts. Join the discord: http://discord.gg/tDvmNzX Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.

Sign the Trader Joe's Employee Petition here: https://www.coworker.org/petitions/trader-joe-s-crew-members-demand-no-cuts-to-wages-and-healthcare-coverage-be-returned?fbclid=IwAR1swxthYfSMbaVrigvusuRZEK2-Yql0QHscE-9xqFp49Rm05Xf1HBMRMuU This week’s episode starts with an update on the ongoing United Steelworkers strike against ATI in multiple states.  Then John, Lina and Dan discuss a petition by Trader Joe’s workers aimed at making benefits gained during the pandemic permanent, Joe Biden raising the minimum wage for federal contractors and starting a labor task force, and several major unions threatening to withhold funds from Democrats who don’t support the PRO Act. In our main story, we cover the awful working conditions of drivers for Walmart’s gig service, Spark, and how it seems to combine all the worst aspects of the various gig companies into one.  Finally, we close out with an update on the Indian Farmers’ Movement, staying strong five months on. 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. We start this week’s episode with a brief follow-up to our deep dive on the BAmazon election and then get right back into our regularly scheduled labor news.  We cover a strike by 2900 UAW members at a Volvo Truck manufacturing plant in Virginia, a Teamsters strike at the Port of Los Angeles with the ILWU walking out in solidarity, and a couple stories of union members resisting the police and national guard repression of protestors in the Twin Cities.  Finally, we wrap up the episode discussing the longest ongoing strike in the country, which has gone on so long the striking workers have formed their own co-operative ISP. Join the discord: http://discord.gg/tDvmNzX Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.

It’s the BAmazon episode of Work Stoppage this week, as John, Lina, and Dan dedicate the entire episode to covering Amazon in the aftermath of the workers’ loss in the recent union election in Bessemer, Alabama.  We recap the run-up to the union drive, summarize Amazon’s ferocious and underhanded anti-union campaign, and try and draw out what lessons we can take from the BAmazon union drive to improve future unionizing efforts.   We also cover a ruling that Amazon illegally fired two white collar workers for speaking out against the company’s practices, and a walkout at an Amazon facility in Chicago as part of the burgeoning Amazonians United movement. 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. This week’s episode starts with some more labor history as John, Lina, and Dan discuss a selection from Detroit: I Do Mind Dying, on working conditions in the auto industry in Detroit in the 1970s.  We then get into the week’s labor news discussing a medical marijuana dispensary unionizing in Rhode Island and the proliferation of “Labor Peace Agreements”, a federal judge throwing out a USDA rule allowing meatpacking plants to remove speed limits on pork processing lines, and another protest from inmates at the St Louis County Jail over inhumane conditions and trial delays.  Finally we cover two major strikes, one by 1100 UMWA coal miners in Alabama, the other by 1300 Steelworkers across five states in the Northeast. Join the discord: http://discord.gg/tDvmNzX Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.

John, Lina, and Dan start this week’s episode with a look back at some labor history, discussing child labor and child labor unions in Pennsylvania coal country in the early 20th century.  Then we turn to Amazon, covering the end of voting for the BAmazon union, some of Amazon’s recent aggressive social media activity, the “coincidental” unveiling of Boston Dynamics’ new warehouse robot during one of the most consequential union drives in recent memory, and discuss an interview with a worker at the Bessemer facility describing the conditions in their own words.  We also cover a lack of enforcement of covid safety protocols on the jobsite during the construction of a vaccine bottling plant, a campaign by garment workers around the world to stop the fashion industry from stealing $40 billion in already completed labor, and a 24 hour general strike in Belgium. 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. This week, John, Lina, and Dan are joined by Sam Knight, cofounder of The District Sentinel Co-op, correspondent with Means Morning News and freelance journalist, to discuss his recent piece for Truthout on a case before the Supreme Court with potentially huge consequences for workers across the country.  We also cover the NLRB ruling that Amazon violated labor law when they harassed workers for leading walkouts, a one day strike by Amazon workers across Italy, and the Teamsters’ push to organize Amazon drivers, even if that means militant action outside the confines of the NLRA.  Finally, we discuss the effort to create the largest unionized coffee shop in the US, and Spain’s proposed trial of the four day work week. Join the discord: http://discord.gg/tDvmNzX Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor. You can follow Sam @ these links: twitter.com/thedcsentinel patreon.com/districtsentinel districtsentinel.substack.com

This week, John, Lina, and Dan follow up on the results of the UK Supreme Court’s ruling against Uber, the House passing the PRO Act because they know it has no chance in the Senate, and Amazon’s nightmarish use of ‘Gamification’ in their warehouses.  We also discuss attacks on undocumented workers attempting to unionize at a bake shop in Long Island, Elon Musk getting hundreds of Tesla workers infected with covid, a walkout by Teamsters at a Coca-Cola plant in Calgary, and cover the use of “Bonded Labor”, AKA indentured servitude, in the silk industry in India.   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. John, Lina, and Dan cover an attempt to pass a Prop 22 clone in Massachusetts and the efforts of local gig workers to oppose it, workers alleging that Google forced them out of the company after they reported instances of sexism or racism, and Panda Express’ use of bizarre abusive “self-improvement seminars”.  We also discuss PepsiCo locking out workers at a Topeka Frito-Lay plant, the recent surge in unionization and “labor peace agreements” in the legal cannabis industry, and Myanmar’s unions leading the general strike movement against their recent military coup. Join the discord: http://discord.gg/tDvmNzX Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.