Work Stoppage

Episode 8 - Feminism and Labor If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month. The last forty years have seen massive changes in the US labor movement. With the rise of neoliberalism, combined attacks from corporations and the state decimated union density across the country. But the fight for women's equality in the workplac...

For our first story this week we were lucky to be joined by labor reporter Claudia Irizarry Aponte from The City to follow up on the story she broke about alleged sweatshop conditions in a Brooklyn tobacco factory. Next we discuss the sad news that the Medieval Times union drive has been forced to disband after two years of vicious, illegal repression by the company. Boston commuter rail workers a...

Episode 7 - 1199 and the UFW If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month. In the years following the McCarthyite purges of the early 1950s, the pace of progress in the labor movement cooled from its heady heights of the CIO and the 1946 strike wave. But new struggles still emerged all over the country, and women workers co...

After several quick headlines, we start this week with the first ever successful union election of a major men's basketball team in the NCAA at Dartmouth. Then we've got a major UAW update covering the last two weeks including major developments at Mercedes in Alabama, Toyota in Missouri, and more. We also discuss the continued existence of sweatshops right here in the US, as tobacco processing wo...

Episode 6 - Women Build the CIO If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month. For the first few decades of the 20th century, the AFL consistently failed to live up to its promises to fight for equal pay for equal work. But in the 1930s, an alternate labor federation, the Congress of Industrial Organizations, broke away and...

It's March! We begin by discussing yet another horrifying story of abuse of child labor, but also a story of how one UFCW local in Minnesota is fighting against the conditions creating it.  In a huge milestone, Starbucks has agreed to a framework to move negotiations forward towards a national contract. Fast food companies are using AI, and of course it's to make their employees lives even worse....

Episode 5 - Communist Women In the Great Depression If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month. The Great Depression was one of the greatest crises in capitalism's history, throwing millions out of work and pushing them to the brink of starvation. Women workers bore the brunt of this, being the first to be fired in nearly...

A lawsuit filed in Colorado this week to block the Kroger-Albertson's merger reveals anti-union collusion. Starbucks Workers United filed for union elections at 21 stores in one day. The UAW continued making major moves, doubling their organizing budget and launching an international support effort with Mexican autoworkers. IBEW faced mold so toxic whole building a new Ford battery plant they were...

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 talk about a lot of labor history on our show, and one of the organizations we've come back to again and again is the Industrial Workers of the World. We've talked about the epic struggles in the early 20th century, but where is the IWW today, a century after its peak? We're...

After a quick discussion of Amazon joining the corporate lawsuit aimed at destroying the NLRB, we turn to the continuing efforts by workers around the world to fight to end the genocide in Palestine. Next we discuss the latest round of protests by thousands of farmers in India fighting for their livelihoods. Farm owners in this country in NY have sued to stop a law granting labor rights to farm wo...

Episode 4 - Revolutionaries Press The Issue 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 the eve of WW1, a radical new force shook the US labor movement with its vision of all the workers under one big union, running society instead of the exploiters. The IWW also had a much more advanced vision of women's equality than...

We start this week's episode with a quick rundown of new anti union repression at Starbucks and Amazon. This week workers calling for a ceasefire have reached the top of the US labor movement, with the AFL-CIO itself finally getting on board. The UAW continues its massive and ambitious nationwide union drive, hitting a critical milestone at VW in Chattanooga of a majority of workers signed up. Leg...

Episode 3 - Garment Worker Rebellion 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 the third episode of our series, we zoom in to a few years at the beginning of the 20th century. From 1909-1913, tens of thousands of women workers in the garment industry in the industrial cities of the northern US organized and went on s...

We're back to our original schedule and have a packed episode. First we follow up with the struggle against libertarian fascism in Argentina and an update on how Return to the Office policies are bullshit.  We also discuss the recent revelation of a major wage theft ring in the pacific northwest and the refusal of the government to do anything to stop the criminals. Our now weekly UAW update discu...

Episode 2 - National Labor Organizations, But For Who? If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month. For the second part of our series on the history of women workers in the US labor movement, we discuss the earliest attempts to form national labor organizations. Coming out of the Civil War, women were fighting against expl...

Workers in academia have wasted no time so far this year in launching ever larger struggles, including this week when 30,000 faculty at the California State system went on strike this week for fair pay. Contingent faculty at NYU have also been organizing to fight low wages, recently securing an election neutrality agreement. The largest union yet to call for a ceasefire joined the chorus this week...

Episode 1 - Women Workers in the Industrial Revolution 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've covered a ton of different eras and stories of the US labor movement on our show, but unfortunately much of it has been heavily focused on solely male workers, leaving out the historic role women have played in shaping...

Adda Coffee Relief Fund: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/support-abruptly-fired-adda-workers-demand-for-severance-pay/ We start this week's episode checking in on some recent victories by the UAW. Next we discuss a judge smacking down Trader Joe's ridiculous copyright lawsuit against Trader Joe's United. Also this week, Adda Coffee in Pittsburgh shut its doors rather than allow a union, while...

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 the second part of our discussion of Confessions of a Union Buster, we sit down once again with our friend Pat to talk about the incredible number of ways that union busting tactics have remained the same for nearly 50 years. Wild stunts, illegal surveillance, and above all a...

We start this week with a few quick congratulations to workers at Wells Fargo, DHL, and elsewhere before diving into a discussion of news this week that SAG-AFTRA has negotiated an agreement with an AI voice model company for video games. Then we discuss the ways AI is being used to surveil and even fire workers in many different industries. Next we have two stories on the horrific conditions of m...

If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting  patreon.com/workstoppage  and support us with $5 a month. Friend of the show and head of our discord reading group Pat joins us this week to discuss one of their recent books, Confessions of a Union Buster by Martin J. Levitt and Terry Conrow. This book chronicles the life and tactics of one of the lowest, most disgraceful occupation...

For our first episode of 2024, we've got tons new labor stories to cover. After some quick follow ups, we discuss a recent piece in Forbes about how our capitalist system is forcing elders to work longer and longer. Next we've got a bunch of UAW stories, starting with the fight for a fair contract by workers at Allison Transmission in Indianapolis. Also this week, UAW workers on Long Island fight...

If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month. 2023 was a monumental year for US labor. From the Teamsters contract fight at UPS winning historic gains, to the UAW's Stand Up strike changing the game tactically, workers fought back in huge numbers. On this episode, we run down the biggest stories we covered in the labor move...

For our final episode of 2023, despite the holidays we have a lot to cover. The longest adjunct faculty strike in US history ended with a new contract. Wells Fargo workers in Albuquerque became the first unionized branch of a major bank. Thousands of workers in Argentina have taken to the streets to protest President Milei's attempt to sell off the state by decree and destroy workers rights. Teams...

We're taking a break from new episode this week, but in the spirit of the season (such as it is this year), we're unlocking the first episode of one of our Patron series earlier this year, the history of the International Longshoremen's Association and the interference of the mafia and the federal government in worker organizing. Hope all our listeners are having a good holiday, and we'll see you...