Episodes
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The whole gang's back together for the first time in a month! This week, we saw faculty at both NYU and UNC-Chapel Hill, among other schools, launch grading strikes to demand amnesty for protestors brutally arrested during encampment sweeps. Also this week, train drivers in the UK launched yet another series of rolling strikes as the train operators continue to believe they can get away with not paying drivers. In another major act of corporate hubris, Boeing has locked out their in house firefighters after demanding they accept a top rate that only arrives after 19 years on the job. The UAW election at Mercedes is this week and the company is running scared, pulling out all the stops to try and halt another landslide victory. We also check in on the rampant union busting at Apple stores around the country, as they catch a lot less heat than Starbucks for using many of the same tactics. Finally, we congratulate the fight attendants of Breeze Airways for their union election win to join the AFA!
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If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
Following the Bread and Roses strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1912, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn became a national name in labor. Her organizing skills and rousing speaking were sought after by workers all over the country. Flynn helped organize many epic struggles during this period, including a 6 month confrontation between workers and mill owners in the silk capital of the US, Paterson, NJ, and a violent struggle for justice by miners in Minnesota. In all these efforts Flynn faced increasing levels of repression and persecution for her organizing. Taking up the cause of workers' legal defense, she began an effort to free workers imprisoned for fighting for their rights that would last the rest of her life.
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Missing episodes?
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We continue our host shuffle this week as Dan is back, but John is away. We do run through a bunch of headlines but our focus this week is on a few stories. The biggest story in the country, the fight by college students against the genocide waged by our government in Palestine, is also a labor story. The attack on these students is an assault on any concept of rights but also on the labor movement, because ultimately solidarity is both our greatest weapon and the ruling class's greatest fear. We discuss the fascist crackdown on dissent across the country and the ways workers are fighting back. Also this week, we discuss a new piece by Alex Press at Jacobin on the union busting at PEN America, where bosses have been slow rolling contract negotiations for over a year and a half. The UAW continues to make huge gains, with nearly 4000 workers at Penn finally winning a grad student union, and another potentially historic vote upcoming next week at Mercedes in Alabama. Finally, we close out celebrating the first win of many by the new Pharmacy Guild at CVS.
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After a few headlines touching on a vetoed farm worker bill in Maine, Amazon organizing in Canada, a life changing win by GM sanitation workers, and UFCW rank and file action updates, we begin this week with a massive protest in Argentina to defend the university system. Then we talk about striking Indiana University graduate student workers which leads us directly into talking about the resistance camps in defense of Palestine at universities around the world. We then move back to more explicitly worker news with UAW workers at Daimler Truck who won massive gains in a TA that they will now vote on. Amazon Flex workers are way more exploited than you likely imagine but many are fighting back. Finally, we talk about how the FTC banned non compete clauses!
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Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
More info on the show @ http://workstoppagepod.com/
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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 strike by textile mill workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts in January of 1912 was one of the biggest labor struggles of the era, and launched Elizabeth Gurley Flynn onto the national stage. Already famous among radical workers for her fiery speaking abilities, her role in organizing the workers in Lawrence was critical to the strikes' success. Ensuring that all workers in town, even across 25 different nationalities, were included on equal footing, Flynn helped the workers unite stronger than ever before. Even in the face of brutal physical repression, false criminal charges, and even the kidnapping of children, the Lawrence workers stayed strong and defeated the mill bosses. The lessons of this strike, both the good and the bad, would shape Flynn's organizing career for the rest of her life.
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Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
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This week we are very lucky to be joined by Mel Buer, Staff Reporter for The Real News Network while Dan is away. We begin by talking about WGA workers at Sesame Street who won a TA after threatening to strike, making a conversation with children about working conditions loom over the non-profit Sesame Workshop. We celebrate 1700 performers at Disney Land filing for a union to join 21,000 other unionized workers at the park. Then we move to the story that is making international headlines where VW workers in Chattanooga won their union vote to join the UAW, making them the first non-union automaker to win a union election in the US since 1941! Google has retaliated against 50 workers for participating in or even being near bi-coastal actions in defense of Palestine. No Tech For Apartheid is demanding that Google shut down Project Nimbus which facilitates the ongoing genocide of Palestinians. We have a deep discussion about automation and how it affects workers while talking about UPS destroying sorting facility jobs with little regard for the workers. Starbucks continues its union busting campaign despite agreeing to bargaining, and finally we discuss how unionized weed workers won a great contract by threatening to strike on 4/20.
Check out Mel's work @ https://therealnews.com/author/mel-buer and follower her on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/mel_buer
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Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
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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 joined by IWW Organizer and Trainer Maria Cunningham for a discussion of the modern IWW. We talk recent history, some prominent campaigns the IWW has led over the last few decades, and how the organization works in the 21st century.
To check out the IWW, go to iww.org or redcard.iww.org
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We've got another episode jam packed full of new labor stories this week. After a run through the headlines, we've got big news from Canada, as workers at two Amazon warehouses in British Columbia have filed for a union election. Trader Joe's workers in Chicago have also filed, fighting a vicious union busting campaign. BU Grad workers have been on strike for weeks, fighting for wages to survive in one of the most expensive cities in the country. The CTU is gearing up for their next contract fight with a vision for working class democracy by including demands to end student homelessness. In our second Canadian story of the week we discuss the potential for a major rail strike, as Canadian rail companies are just as aggressive at cutting safety measures as their American counterparts. Finally, we discuss a rare bargaining order brought on by a bribe of bourbon.
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If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was already an organizer before she even left High School. Traveling the industrial cities of the northeast to speak for workers, she quickly decided to dedicate her life to the cause of the working class. Her work with the IWW would take her across the whole Northern half of the country, and bring her in contact with many of the most towering figures in US labor history, like herself. Continuing her frantic pace of organizing even while pregnant, Elizabeth never backed down from a fight.
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Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
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We start our labor news updates this week with a big one from the UAW as 5000 workers at Mercedes Benz in Alabama have filed for a union election. Next we've got an update on Amazon, where illegal union busting continues at sites across the country. Also we discuss updates on union busting campaigns at REI, where even managers are getting fired for being pro union, and Trader Joe's, where managers referred to pro union workers as a "gang." We've got several stories about idiotic uses of AI this week, from a chatbot in NYC that gives people illegal advice to university admins trying to replace striking grad students with LLMs. Finally we discuss the incredible victory by thousands of hotel workers in LA winning life changing new contracts.
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Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
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If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
Normally our history series tend to focus on mass movements, on structures, on the broad forces at play in the class struggle. But just because the class struggle is the motor of history, doesn't mean that individuals don't play critical roles. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was one of those exceptional working class leaders forged in struggle who played an outsized role in many of the most pivotal labor struggles in US history. Political agitator, firebrand public speaker, labor organizer, IWW legend, Communist Party leader, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn played countless roles in the pursuit of liberation. In this series, we'll discuss her incredible life and what lessons we can learn from her lifelong devotion to the cause of the working class.
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Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
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After running down some quick headlines (boycott Molson Coors!), we jump into our first story of the week, Amazon paying restitution to migrant workers who faced abuse while working in Amazon's Saudi Arabian warehouses. Next we discuss attacks on labor rights in Finland by the new right wing government, which threaten to roll back decades of labor gains. UAW supporters at Mercedes Benz in Alabama have filed ULP charges after the company began retaliating against workers for their union support. With heavy hearts we discuss the tragic loss of 6 workers in the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, and the callous disregard much of the coverage has shown them. The ACLU recently joined the list of progressive nonprofits attacking the NLRB in the wake of a internal union drive. Finally, we celebrate SEGA workers ratifying the first union contract at a major video game firm in the US.
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Episode 1 - Women Workers in the Industrial Revolution
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 the trade union movement in this country. So in an attempt to help rectify that, we're embarking on the longest series we've ever done to discuss just a few of the incredible stories of struggle, solidarity, and success by women organizers through the 200 year history of the US labor movement. In the first episode, we start from the very beginning, the first ever factory strike in US history, led by the women of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and work our way up the Civil War. Few organizations formed in these first few decades lasted very long, but these early struggles still teach us a lot about the dual struggle waged by women workers against oppression not only by their bosses as workers, but by society as a whole through patriarchy. While victories were few in these early years, there are still a lot of parallels we can draw with our organizing fights today.
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200 episodes and the labor organizing doesn't stop. After checking in on some quick headlines, we discuss the latest major milestone in the UAW organizing drive at nonunion automakers, with workers officially filing for an election at VW. Also this week, a recent in-depth report in The Guardian documents awful, slavery-like conditions in the fishing industry. Similarly exploited workers, migrant agricultural workers, have been organizing for basic rights in Washington State. Finally, we congratulate the people of Minneapolis for standing up to Uber and Lyft's model of super-exploitation.
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Episode 8 - Feminism and Labor
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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 workplace continued to build to new levels. With organizations like CLUW and 9 to 5 formed in the 70s and 80s women workers fought for reforms to ban discrimination and sexual harassment and empower women within their unions. The impact of the pandemic, like so many other crises, has also been borne disproportionately by women workers. But at the same time, the current labor upsurge has been led by a new generation of militant women labor leaders who continue to push the struggle to new heights.
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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 are prepared for a strike, despite the restrictions of the Railway Labor Act. Texas is working to destroy the Houston Independent School District in an attempt at full scale privatization. Italy's neofascist ruling party proposed using AI to sort workers into mandatory jobs. Finally, we close by following up with the ways workers around the world are standing up and demanding an end to the genocide in Palestine.
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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 continued to break barriers. The fight by Local 1199 to organize the majority Black and Puerto Rican women hospital workers of New York City became an epic struggle part of the broader national civil rights movement. On the other side of the country, a movement to organize agricultural workers made its mark with the intervention of organizers like Dolores Huerta. The fight for basic human rights for farm workers led to a nationwide boycott and a titanic struggle that lasted nearly 5 years.
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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 workers in NYC face horrific conditions. Unions in Minneapolis came together around years of organizing for a week of action that could show a vision of rooting the resurgent labor movement deeply in our communities. QA testers at Activision formed the largest union in video games in the US this week, and animators at Nickelodeon finalized a record new contract.
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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 launched the most historic nationwide labor upsurge in US history, and a key part of their success was the organization of women. The UAW and the UE, two of our favorite unions, led the fight for women's equality in the workplace, striking for equal pay and winning it in contracts across the country. In the 1940s, World War 2 also made enormous changes for women workers, opening up countless fields that had previously been barred from them by chauvinism. While some unions were slow to accept the massive changes in the workforce during the war, this period marked the first time major unions consistently began to fight and win demands for equality on a national scale. Pushed by prominent Communist organizers, the CIO finally devoted resources to organizing women and closing the wage gap, and the gains for the labor movement as a whole were enormous.
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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. In a rare case, a boss is being held liable for killing a worker in New York. Finally, Teamsters at Anheuser-Busch reached an agreement at the last minute before a strike.
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