Work Stoppage

Interview: No Neutrals There by Jeff Schuhrke PREVIEW

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Professor Schuhrke joins us once again to discuss his newest book No Neutrals There: US Labor, Zionism, and the Struggle for Palestine. We discuss the history of the Zionist project and how US labor leadership guided a huge amount of support for the settler colonial project, but also ways that the seeds of resistance in the imperial core were there as early as the Nakba. The book gives us a real view of the scope of what we are fighting against when it comes to the history of US labor support for Israel and provides hope in that the free Palestine movement has never been stronger than it is today. We have a long way to go to repair the harms done by people in the past but we know better than any other time in history that victory is possible. 

Check out our previous interview with Jeff on his book Blue Collar Empire: https://www.patreon.com/posts/114816687

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Follow the pod at http://instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

Ep 289 - Happy Holidays From The Picket Line

It's our last regular episode of 2025 and we've got a ton of labor news for you all. We start with headlines from Starbucks, Amazon, New Seasons Grocery, Sysco, the WNBA, the University of Maine, and the nations of Portugal, Bolivia, Mexico, and Brazil. Resident doctors in the UK have gone on strike again, this time with a Labour government in power that refuses to pay them. A recent Workday Magazine piece exposes Disney as a user of prison labor in Minnesota. New York City officials are actually standing up against corporate giants Amazon and UPS for once, following recent worker movements. Finally, we discuss the implications of the possible super merger between either Netflix or Paramount and Warner Brothers Discovery for workers in the entertainment industry.

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Ep 288 - Talkin' General Strike

With the world getting worse and worse, the cause of labor remains the hope of the world. With that in mind, we start with headlines from workers on another general strike in Italy, the nationwide Starbucks strike, nurses and Amazon drivers unionizing with the Teamsters, id software workers joining the CWA, and many more. AI is once again exposed as relying on the labor of low paid, highly exploited workers, this time at surveillance company Flock. The New School is the latest institution in higher education being actively dismantled by its administration, we discuss the student-faculty fightback. In These Times this week has an update on the fight by worker organizer Willian Giménez González against ICE attacks. Portuguese workers were the latest to launch a general strike this week, and we discuss the tactics and strategy that would be needed to actually pull one off here in the US.

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Ep 287 - Divest From Evil

2025 is winding down but the fight for workers rights never slows, we're back with another episode! This week's headlines include stories from Pakistan, Italy, the UK, Canada, France, Occupied Palestine, and Philadelphia. Several weeks ago, a massive anti-union purge was carried out by the management of Teen Vogue, we discuss the implications for our so-called "Free Press." Nurses are under attack not only from hospital admins, but the federal government which recently ended the classification of nurses as professionals, slashing availability of student loans. Teachers in Maryland are fighting not only for their students, but for the people of Palestine by launching a campaign to get the state government to divest their pension fund from Israel Bonds. Finally, we cover several recent articles on the ways that different groups of workers are coming together in cities across the country to organize resistance to ICE kidnappings and protect their neighbors.

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Ep 286 - Not In Our Name, Not With Our Work

Workers have been pummeled by an overload of customers on Black Friday, so there's a lot to catch up on as we enter the final month of 2025. We start with headlines covering Amazon, Highlander Charter School, Brown University, the University of Maryland, Columbia University, the UFW, National Park Workers, Campbell's, Uber and Lyft, and Leonardo S.p.A. Our main stories start by checking in on the nationwide Starbucks strike, that has now grown to 85 cities across the US. Workers have taken serious fire for standing up for truth and justice in many fields, we take a round up to see how workers are facing attacks on anti-genocide speech and for standing up to ICE. Finally, as neo-liberalism turns life for workers in the West into a waking nightmare, more and more are standing up, so we take a tour around major strikes launched or announced this week in Belgium, Portugal, India, Australia, and of course, Italy.

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Ep 285 - Labor Librarians

Long drive ahead of you this week? We've got your labor news ready to go! We start with a ton of headlines checking in with Starbucks, Amazon, Nestle, New Seasons Market, the University of Pennsylvania, Sharp Healthcare, and the nightmare that is the state of Florida. For our full stories this week, we start by checking in on union busting in a place even our jaded listeners might not expect: public libraries. Then we check in on developments with the strike by workers at Canada Post and discuss the ramifications of the end of their nationwide industrial action. Finally, the LA Times released an expose this week showing the stark levels of child exploitation in US agriculture, a scourge which is directly tied to the long history of superexploitation of migrants that US agribusiness fortunes are built on.

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Ep 284 - No Coffee 'Til Contract

It's another jam packed episode, once again workers are doing so much we struggled to cover it all! We start with headlines from the University of California, Portland State University, University of Chicago, Case New Holland, GM Canada, Walgreens, the ECHL, Kickstarter, and the United States Federal Government. Starbucks workers launched their largest strike ever this past week, we check in on the first pickets and the fight for a contract. The extremely long and hard fought strike by workers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette finally came to a conclusion this week through legal action. Over 15,000 workers in Iran's oil sector went on strike recently for pay, benefits, and to preserve their country's sovereignty. Finally, we check in on the malfeasance of the Labour Party who under Keir Starmer are simultaneously attacking both Doctors and Teachers.

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Ep 283 - The Gales of November

Election day got all the coverage in the major media last week, but workers struggles don't stop so we've got our weekly roundup for you with all the news that got crowded out. We start with headlines from public workers in Memphis, students in Alberta, Teamsters in Philly, climbing gym workers in Minnesota, bartenders in Utah, and Iron Workers in Chicago. Our main stories start covering the impact on workers across the country by the government shutdown combined with the Trump Administration's attacks on the union movement. The VA has seen some of the harshest cuts, and we discuss the ripple effects this is having on veteran's healthcare. UC workers won a tentative agreement after threatening the largest strike in the university system's history, we discuss the organizing effort that made it happen. Finally, Starbucks workers have officially voted to authorize a massive nationwide strike, with the first rallies set to start this week.

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Ep 282 - "Notwithstanding" My Ass

We're back with another packed episode as John returns and people everywhere are talking about general strikes. First we start with headlines from Volkswagen, Breakthrough Beverages, Minneapolis Public Schools, Texas State University, Microsoft, Uber, and the FAA. The Trump Administration has rolled out another policy to attack workers, this time attacking our right to keep all our digits. A recent piece on On Labor raises the possibility of sectoral bargaining in higher education as a solution to intransigent administrators constantly undermining student workers. The UK hit a new low as a recent report shows that even when they rule companies are illegally refusing to pay workers, they don't even bother collecting their fines. The provincial government of Alberta is waging a scorched earth campaign to rob teachers of their right to strike, which may actually prompt a general strike across the province. Finally, we follow up with yet another report exposing that most of the companies claiming they're replacing workers with AI...aren't.

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Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

Ep 281 - No NLRB? No Problem

We start with headlines from Starbucks, Amazon, MIT, Ohio University, Harvard, UPS, Fairfax County, Allina Healthcare and Tunisia. In a possible major shift, Saudi Arabia announced the end to their system of contract slave labor known as the Kafala system, we discuss how that may play out in reality. A recent piece from In These Times spoke with unionized workers at Reuters in British Columbia who are fighting their employer's collaboration with ICE. Over 100,000 workers launched a mass strike in New Zealand against austerity policies crushing the country's education and healthcare sectors. Finally, Capital and Main put out an excellent report this week on efforts by workers at dollar stores in Louisiana to organize for better pay and conditions outside the usual NLRB process, and how that might be replicated elsewhere.

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Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

Ep 280 - Kaiser Clown Car

With millions of people taking to the streets this weekend, we've got a packed episode for you. We start with headlines from Republic Services, Blizzard Entertainment, Starbucks, Microsoft, the Royal College of Nursing, Tata, and the nation of Spain. Tens of thousands of workers just wrapped up a historic week long strike at Kaiser Permanente, we discuss their continued struggle. Peoples Dispatch reports on the fight by workers in the cotton industry of Benin against forced labor.  Volkswagen is facing a potential fight, Labor Notes breaks down the organizing effort in Chattanooga. Air traffic controllers aren't getting paid due to the shutdown, and yet their union is advocating workers not to call in sick. Finally, more and more workers are standing up to ICE kidnapping their neighbors, we recount some of their latest efforts and tactics.

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The Working Class Has No Border Ep 9: Mexican Workers Organize The Factories (1920-1950) PREVIEW

If you're not a patron, subscribe at patreon.com/workstoppage to get full access to the episode.

For the final episode in our series, we finally discuss the struggle of Mexican workers in the factories of the southwest. We've covered farmworkers, miners, oil workers, and by the 1920s, more and more jobs began to open up for Mexican workers in more stable jobs in canneries and other factories. But just as with the extractive sectors, bosses used open racism to segregate their workforce and drive conditions down for everyone. We discuss the organization of railroad workers in Los Angeles, cannery and furniture factory workers across California, and the truly epic strike by pecan shellers in San Antonio that reshaped the industry. We close out our series summarizing the lessons we've learned throughout all these struggles, and how they can be applied to rebuild our labor movement into the fighting organization of the entire working class that this moment so desperately needs.

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Ep 279 - Frogs Against Fascism

The government may be shut down, but labor never stops, so neither do we. We open with some headlines at Mauser Packaging Solutions, Hilton Hotels, Canada Post, Microsoft, the nation of Greece, and the LA Times. Home healthcare workers in Michigan won a huge union victory this week, with tens of thousands winning union representation for the first time. Thousands of healthcare workers in California and Hawaii are gearing up for what may be the largest strike at Kaiser Permanente in history this week. The Trump Administration is using its own campaign of terror against farmworkers to justify lowering their wages. Finally, Chicago has become the epicenter of ICE's attack on the working class, and even the Pope is calling for labor unions to step up their defense.

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Ep 278 - Blocchiamo Tutto!

We've got some huge international strikes and check-ins on some long running campaigns this week. We start with headlines from Iowa hospitals, Cornell University, Incheon International Airport, New Zealand primary schools, Doordash, and Amazon. Our first main story we discuss a Labor Notes piece updating us on the ongoing effort to organize one of the country's biggest banks, Wells Fargo. After the illegal seizure of the Global Sumud Flotilla, Italian workers made good on their threats to launch a massive general strike. Workers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette have been on strike for over 2 years, we discuss what's keeping them going after all this time and the importance of their struggle to a dire media landscape. Finally, a piece in the American Prospect from Sarah Lazare demonstrates clearly how the attacks on immigrants are attacks on all of us, and why the time is now for a unified fightback by organized labor.

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Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

The Working Class Has No Border Ep 8: The Real Salt of the Earth PREVIEW

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Even as the Mexican Revolution was winding down, the struggle for equal rights in their own country by Mexican miners and oil workers was still heating up. In the late 1910s and early 1920s, spurred by the forces of change in the revolution and the staunch internationalism of the IWW, Mexican miners launched some of their biggest strikes yet. Facing intransigent bosses, gunboat diplomacy by the US, and dealing with a bourgeois government dedicated to ensuring stability for investment, the challenges the miners faced were steep. But even decades of violent repression couldn't stop the struggle for a fair living by the workers facing some of the deadliest conditions in any industry. We close our survey of the struggles of Mexican miners on both sides of the border with the epic battle between Mine Mill Local 890 and Empire Zinc, a struggle so inspiring it was captured on film.

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Ep 277 - Defend the Post

No Contract, No Coffee Pledge: https://starbucksworkersunited.controlshift.app/petitions/no-contract-no-coffee-pledge-to-act-in-solidarity-with-starbucks-workers-united

We're back at full strength as John returns this week, and it was a busy one! We start with headlines from Microsoft, Apple, Volkswagen, Aricell, RISE, Northwell Health, Oklahoma Public Schools, Spirit Airlines, and Starbucks. In a wild story from friend of the show Claudia Irizarry Aponte at The City, managers at Brooklyn Defender Services tried to bribe workers to replace the UAW with a company union. We've got an update on the continuing mobilization of Italian workers in solidarity with Palestine, as dockworkers from around Europe pledge efforts to coordinate. Teamsters at the University of Minnesota brilliantly used their leverage to win the first strike in their history. Canada Post workers are on strike once again, this time as the Liberal government launches attempts to gut postal service nationwide. Finally, in the spirit of many recent worker uprisings, we check in on the struggle in Ecuador, where Indigenous-led movements are fighting IMF austerity.

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Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

Ep 276 - Palestina Libera!

Support Palestinian Families: https://lifeline4gaza.com/

The news has been...a lot lately, but there have been a ton of labor stories that have been drowned out and we are here to bring them to you! We start with headlines from Texas State University, California Public Schools, Chicago day laborers, nurses at the VA, farm workers in upstate New York, Republic Services, and Netflix Animation. Workers across Europe have been in motion this week, and our first major story covers the fight against austerity by millions of French workers who have taken to the streets. We saw another extremely cynical union busting drive under religious justification, this one at Loyola Mormont University. Finally, we discuss the historic general strike by Italian workers that shut down the entire country in solidarity with Palestine and the Global Sumud Flotilla.

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The Working Class Has No Border Ep 7: Mexican Miners Power The Second Industrial Revolution PREVIEW

If you're not a patron, subscribe at patreon.com/workstoppage to get full access to the episode.

For the first of two episodes focusing on the struggle of miners in the Southwest, we discuss the critical role played by Mexican miners in the growth of the US electrical industry at the turn of the 20th century. As demand for copper exploded, the mines of Arizona and northern Mexico became incredibly valuable, and thus demand for labor soared.  Mine owners used racial hierarchies and job segregation to split their workers against each other to prevent the power of solidarity from shutting down their isolated mining towns. Mexican miners organized in the thousands, but were often refused solidarity from the house of labor, whether the AFL or the Western Federation of Miners. We discuss the bloody struggles for fair wages and safe working conditions in the early 1900s, as Mexican miners were often forced to stand alone against the tyranny of the bosses and the state, waging heroic struggles and paying for every extra cent they earned with blood. 

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Ep 275 - Fight Outside The Lines

We're down a host this week, but Dan and Lina press on to bring you the labor headlines.  We've got stories from the CTU, Hyundai, Amazon, and Onatrio Public Colleges. For our first main story, it turns out not only is AI not intelligent, in order to be even slightly coherent, it relies on low paid human labor. Union busting law firm Littler Mendelson was exposed in an article in the American Prospect for advocating breaking labor law bosses don't like. Workers at Starbucks are continuing to devise new tactics to pressure the company to finally sign a union contract as membership has soared past 12,000. Finally, two articles this week from Jacobin and In These Times ask how labor can change tactics to respond to a crisis the NLRB process is not designed to solve.

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Ep 274 - We Can't Wait

It's back to school time so we start this week's headlines with a bunch of stories of teachers fighting for the learning conditions their students deserve all over the country, in primary, secondary, and higher education. We've also got headlines on rideshare drivers, healthcare workers, hotel workers, train drivers, and dockworkers. This week saw yet another new low for Columbia University admins, who are now trying to strip all grad workers of their right to unionize. ICE staged its largest workplace raid ever this week, abducting over 450 workers at a major Hyundai factory under construction in Georgia, halting the project and causing outrage in South Korea. The latest jobs numbers are out, so we close by taking some time to dig into the numbers showing that these racist attacks are hurting rather than helping US born workers, and leading to a recession. 

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Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee