Work Stoppage

We start this week with headlines on organizing in healthcare, logistics, airlines, construction, software development, video games, and trading cards. We did a deeper dive on a set of stories from Canada last week, this week we have three big stories from workers and farmers in India fighting against neoliberal exploitation. The next major step forward for Mexico's young independent labor movemen...

We've got a Canada-centric set of headlines as the temporarily halted Canada Post strike may resume, port workers returned from a two year plus long lockout, and Alberta public workers are ready to strike if necessary. Warehouse workers in Manhattan are organizing against awful conditions and facing brazen bribery by their employers, Labor Notes reports this week. We also discuss a recent report o...

On the Line Stacy Davis Gates Interview: https://www.laborontheline.org/p/episode-26-reconstructing-chicago Headlines this week from Norway, Panama, San Francisco, Chicago, Florida, and Colorado. A recent piece in Truthout spoke with Amazon workers in Italy, some of the few to actually force the company into a contract. Charter schools exist partly as an attack on teachers unions, but teachers at...

On the Line Jimmy Williams Interview: https://www.laborontheline.org/p/episode-25-jimmy-williams-jr-labors Happy May Day everyone! We start with headlines from Starbucks, Amazon, UPS, Duolingo, and the NHS. Next we discuss the sudden dissolution of the UAW's long standing reform caucus, the UAWD. A report from the American Prospect this week details the attacks on workers at the VA from inside tes...

Migrant Justice Petition: https://migrantjustice.net/node/556 Headlines this week from PetSmart, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Wellesley College, Kroger,  and the Port of Casablanca. We discuss a piece this week from The American Prospect on the rampant abuse of independent contractor labels in the construction industry. Also this week, attacks on immigrant workers continued to escalate with 8 dairy...

Headlines this week from New Bedford, Seattle, Utah, Chicago, and Missouri. A recent piece from Amir Khafagy reveals the criminal underfunding of one of the few institutions of New York City government actually intended to help working people. The Trump and Musk assault on the NLRB continued this week with attacks on NLRB precedent, theft of sensitive NLRB data, and increasing numbers of workers c...

Eventually, some day, we may get back to shorter episodes. Today is not that day. We start with headlines from Amazon, Microsoft, Simmons and Wellesley Universities, and the Supreme Court. For our first main story we dive into the union led protests against attacks on research funding by Trump and the billionaires. Next we dive into Shawn Fain's recent Facebook Live event discussing UAW policy on...

It was a major week of protest against the billionaire assault on the working class, but not without contradictions. We start with headlines from Detroit, Chicago, California, Oregon, and Chile. Next we discuss a recent piece by friend of the show Claudia Irizarry Aponte on the surge of exploitative payday loan apps in New York City and across the country. Next we discuss Trump's gigantic tariff a...

We were very excited to be joined this week for a special interview episode by Dr. Madeleine Baker, lecturer at Harvard University and author of the great new book, Make Your Own Job: How the Entrepreneurial Work Ethic Exhausted America. The book is a fascinating intellectual history of how the concept of "entrepreneurialism" came to dominate ruling class narratives about the economy. This ideolog...

Our episode this week is one big call to action. Trump and the billionaires are trying to shred the collective bargaining rights of every worker in America and it requires the labor movement to rise to the occasion. In addition to the attack on federal workers rights, we discuss the intertwined simultaneous assault on immigrant workers and students fighting genocide. We've also got another update...

For Labor, Caution is Fatal - https://inthesetimes.com/article/trump-musk-labor-take-risks The worker fightback grows stronger every week. We start our headlines with the fight for the right to protest genocide at Columbia, UCLA, and around the country. We've also got headlines at Northwestern University, REI, Hawaiian Airlines, Amazon, and Iowa egg producers. Mexican trolleybus workers are fighti...

If you're not a patron, you can get full access to this episode by supporting us at patreon.com/workstoppage. We were very excited to be joined this week for a special interview episode by Dr. Madeleine Baker, lecturer at Harvard University and author of the great new book, Make Your Own Job: How the Entrepreneurial Work Ethic Exhausted America. The book is a fascinating intellectual history of ho...

We've got another supersized episode this week! We start with headlines from Japan, Chile, Chicago, Chattanooga, Missouri, Rhode Island, and San Jose. For our first store we discuss the fight by Indian tech workers to have a right to time outside of work.  Next, a recent report from IGN reveals how video game companies are working to cut actors out of the business with AI. The war on student worke...

We start this week with a call to action as the American Gestapo are attempting to deport a student for protesting against genocide. Our headlines section this week includes the Oscars, Long Island power plant workers, a first contract for battery plant workers, and Sesame Street.  The fight for a contract with VW is heating up, and workers at a parts distribution warehouse in New Jersey are joini...

If you're not a patron, you can get full access to this episode by supporting us at patreon.com/workstoppage. After a long hiatus we are back with another Movie Time episode covering another excellent piece of Labor Cinema. This week we discuss the 2023 Indian film, Zwigato, about the crushing burden faced by workers in the modern gig economy. Though this is a rare one film episode of Movie Time,...

We have another transit heavy episode this week. First we start with our headlines including Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants, East Coast Dockworkers, Maine DOT workers, and Italian transit workers. In our main stories we start with this week's strike by 60,000 healthcare workers at the University of California. Next, we discuss this past Friday's massive one day general strike by workers in all...

The fightback against the Trump administration's war on the federal workforce continued to build this week, and the entire labor movement will need unity to overcome the billionaire's assault. We start with follow ups covering restaurant workers in DC, healthcare workers in Oregon and grocery workers in Colorado. Also this week, headlines from Finland, Cameroon, and Chattanooga. While most of the...

UFCW Solidarity Pledge: https://www.ew4d.org/blog/solidarity-pledge We start this week's episode with headlines on UnitedHealthcare, Starbucks Workers United, the SEIU, pension fights in Panama and Belgium, and port workers in Kenya. 10,000 workers in UFCW Local 7 in Colorado remain on strike at King Soopers against attempts to gut their retirement benefits. 20,000 workers at the University of Cal...

Louisiana Nurses Strike Fund: https://www.gofundme.com/f/donate-to-the-nurses-strike-fund Another whirlwind week of attacks on workers rights and the fightback from the labor movement. In our headlines we check in on the Oregon Nurses Association, the UFW, Student Workers of Columbia, the Professional Staff Congress, and more workers across the country and the world. 10,000 workers at King Soopers...

We're still drinking from the firehose of labor news this week with another massive episode. We start with some headlines on AI in healthcare, a class action lawsuit against Apple, and follow ups with DC restaurant workers, Indian Samsung workers, and Teamsters at CostCo. In our first main story we check in on the imminent union vote at the RDU1 Amazon warehouse in Garner, NC. Workers are fighting...

Petition Supporting Monterey Bay Aquarium Workers: https://mbaworkersunited.org/community-letter-support We have a supersized episode this week, with so much going on we could barely cover everything. We start with an extended headline segment covering developments in Palestine, Canada, Pakistan, Las Vegas, Milwaukee, Chicago, and Monterey Bay. We were also lucky this week to be joined for a short...

Know Your Rights Toolkit: https://assets.nationbuilder.com/arisechicago/pages/2726/attachments/original/1735833065/Toolkit_immigrant_workers_-_digital_EN.pdf Alamo Drafthouse Worker Support Fund: https://www.gofundme.com/f/mutual-fund-for-laid-off-alamo-drafthouse-employees ILWU Los Angeles Wildfire Relief Fund: https://checkout.square.site/merchant/6RSQCXFP2D8CP/checkout/EBJ3K7AK2WR2SCPQUAHP2DUB...

We're fully into the new year and bosses are doing all sorts of new horrors. We start with updates from the UFW, the Utah Ski Patrol, CIR-SEIU, NYU, and Amazon. In our first major story, the ILA have reached an agreement on a new deal just a week ahead of a new shutdown of East Coast ports. Next, in a major shift in the labor landscape, the SEIU have rejoined the AFL-CIO after 20 years independent...

It's our first episode of the new year, so let's ring it in with some class struggle! We start with some headlines on workers at Amazon, Starbucks, Milk-Bone, VW, Hilton Hotels, and the University of Southern California. For our first full story we discuss a recent investigation by The Guardian into the appalling conditions faced by the migrant workers who produce Champagne. Next, ski patrol worke...

Its our final show of the year, and we take a look back on the major union victories, industrial actions, and trends in labor that characterized 2024. Millions of workers took to the streets in opposition to the US-Israeli genocide in Palestine, which looks to shape labor relations on campus in 2025. Worker organizing has surged since 2020, and we look back on all the violence unleashed by the sup...