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A weekly labor news podcast covering workers‘ struggles around the world from a revolutionary left perspective.
Episodes
2 hours ago
2 hours ago
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 the Paul Cuffee Charter School in Providence, RI are unionizing to secure the conditions their students need. We also cover a roundup of the impacts of the billionaire agenda from the Trump Administration on the working class. The Louisville Courier-Journal recently investigated continued safety problems at Ford's BOSK battery plant workers have been pointing out for months. Finally, California mental health workers reached an agreement to end the nearly 9 month long strike at Kaiser Permanente.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
More info on the show at http://workstoppagepod.com/
Tuesday May 06, 2025
Tuesday May 06, 2025
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 testimony. Hotel workers in Buffalo are fighting back against illegal firings and racist retaliation in their struggle for a union. This week also saw May Day, and we discuss the history of International Workers Day and some of the many events held to commemorate it and continue the struggle around the world. Finally, public workers in LA organized with the SEIU held a massive two day strike this week in their fight to afford the soaring cost of living.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
More info on the show at http://workstoppagepod.com/
Tuesday Apr 29, 2025
Tuesday Apr 29, 2025
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 workers arrested in Vermont. Trump's tariffs continue to wreak havoc on workers, with many manufacturers cutting, rather than increasing jobs. Finally, we check in with Starbucks Workers United, where workers have taken to direct action as the company continues to refuse to offer a fair contract after three years.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
More info on the show at http://workstoppagepod.com/
Tuesday Apr 22, 2025
Tuesday Apr 22, 2025
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 calling for unity in the fightback. Zenimax workers are standing up and preparing for one of the first strikes in the video game industry's history. Finally, workers with independent Mexican union SINTTIA have once again won major gains through militant action, raising standards for autoworkers across the country.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
More info on the show at http://workstoppagepod.com/
Tuesday Apr 15, 2025
Tuesday Apr 15, 2025
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 tariffs and trade, and how that affects workers outside the US. Finally, we close out with the fight against deportations and abductions that is going to need to continue to accelerate.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
More info on the show at http://workstoppagepod.com/
Tuesday Apr 08, 2025
Tuesday Apr 08, 2025
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 announcement and how it's already hurting the working class both here in the US and abroad. Also this week, RFK Jr ramped up massive layoffs at HHS, threatening the health of everyone in the country. Finally, we discuss the intersection of the war on workers and the war on Palestine, as thousands marched on Washington both to demand an end to the genocide and to demand and end to attacks on social programs.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
More info on the show at http://workstoppagepod.com/
Friday Apr 04, 2025
Friday Apr 04, 2025
We were very excited to be joined this week for a special interview episode by Dr. Erik 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 ideology of the individual business owner charting their own course, being their own boss, and "making their own job" has also had deep impacts on the labor movement through mechanisms such as independent contracting. So it was wonderful to get a chance to discuss this history, how it has impacted the union struggle, and how we see it manifesting today!
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
More info on the show at http://workstoppagepod.com/
Tuesday Apr 01, 2025
Tuesday Apr 01, 2025
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 from official NALC Correspondent Cea Moline on both the state of the NALC contract and the fight against privatization.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
More info on the show at http://workstoppagepod.com/
Tuesday Mar 25, 2025
Tuesday Mar 25, 2025
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 fighting to make the century old system a safe place to work. Tennessee gig drivers are fighting algorithmic attacks with collective action. The CWA have launched a new industrial union in video games for all to join. And of course we've got our weekly roundup of the attacks from the Trump-Musk administration.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
More info on the show at http://workstoppagepod.com/
Thursday Mar 20, 2025
Thursday Mar 20, 2025
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. Erik 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 ideology of the individual business owner charting their own course, being their own boss, and "making their own job" has also had deep impacts on the labor movement through mechanisms such as independent contracting. So it was wonderful to get a chance to discuss this history, how it has impacted the union struggle, and how we see it manifesting today!
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
More info on the show at http://workstoppagepod.com/
Tuesday Mar 18, 2025
Tuesday Mar 18, 2025
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 workers escalated again this week as Columbia works with the Trump Administration to attack anti-genocide speech. Finally, we close with a roundup on the attacks on federal workers, attempts to shut the Department of Education and gut the Department of Labor, and the growing fight back against the gutting of the government.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
More info on the show at http://workstoppagepod.com/
Tuesday Mar 11, 2025
Tuesday Mar 11, 2025
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 joining the fight. We've got a Canadian double header this week, as thousands of education workers strike in Alberta while picketers in Waterloo face violence on the picket line. Workers at REI are taking the fight for a union to the company's board elections. Finally, we do our best to cover the whirlwind of attacks on government workers from the Trump-Musk Administration.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
More info on the show at http://workstoppagepod.com/
Friday Mar 07, 2025
Friday Mar 07, 2025
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, this film covers so many aspects of what it means to be working class in the 21st century that we couldn't possibly have covered a second film in the same time. Zwigato is one of the best pieces of working class film to come out in years, and it was a great discussion breaking down its insights into working class struggle and the oppressive systems crushing our lives.
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
More info on the show at http://workstoppagepod.com/
Tuesday Mar 04, 2025
Tuesday Mar 04, 2025
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 sectors across Greece. Attacks on trans folks have hit a fever pitch, we discuss how healthcare workers across the country are standing up for trans rights. The mass firing of federal workers continued this week, as did the early stages of a fightback. Finally, we discuss the continued efforts by workers at Delta, both on board and on the ground, to finally unionize.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
More info on the show at http://workstoppagepod.com/
Tuesday Feb 25, 2025
Tuesday Feb 25, 2025
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 labor movement was working this week to fight Trump's agenda, Sean O'Brien of the Teamsters was working to support it; we discuss the endorsement of Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-Deremer. Meanwhile, researchers, air traffic controllers, postal workers, and thousands of others came together on different fronts this week to fight the assault on public workers. Finally, we end with the victorious struggle by teachers at a charter school in LA to win fair wages and protect their jobs.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
More info on the show at http://workstoppagepod.com/
Tuesday Feb 18, 2025
Tuesday Feb 18, 2025
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 California prepare to strike for fair pay later this month. The fight to organize Amazon continues, even after this week's disappointing election loss in North Carolina. We do our best to keep up with the flurry of attacks on federal workers and the organized fight back against them. Finally, workers are responding to massive layoffs at Alamo Drafthouse with strikes.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
More info on the show at http://workstoppagepod.com/
Wednesday Feb 12, 2025
Wednesday Feb 12, 2025
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 in Colorado are on strike, we discuss the first week of UFCW Local 7's fight for a fair contract. Nurses in New Orleans used the spotlight on the city for the Super Bowl to highlight their struggle for safe staffing. Workers in National Nurses United, the UE, AAUP, SPFE and many other unions across the country are fighting back against the twin assaults on our trans siblings and our immigrant co-workers, we discuss some of their first steps. Finally, the AFGE, AFSCME, and the AFL-CIO at large are leading the fight against Elon Musk's attempts to purge and loot the federal government.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
More info on the show at http://workstoppagepod.com/
Tuesday Feb 04, 2025
Tuesday Feb 04, 2025
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 back against the billionaire's assault on workers both at the federal and the local level, we run down some of the efforts. Once again we were so lucky to be joined by C Moline to discuss the recent rejection of the proposed contract by Letter Carriers around the country. Finally, we close celebrating the major victory by workers at Whole Foods in Philadelphia, who won the first union at the company with the UFCW.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
More info on the show at http://workstoppagepod.com/
Tuesday Jan 28, 2025
Tuesday Jan 28, 2025
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 interview with Claudia Irizarry Aponte, investigative journalist for The City, to discuss her recent investigation of unions in the home health care industry in NYC. Trump started his second turn with a flurry of attacks on workers, we discuss some of the ways unions like AFGE and the CTU are fighting back. We discuss an unusual area for us this week, fine dining, as workers at 5 of the swankiest restaurants in Washington DC are unionizing. Amazon went scorched earth on Canadian workers this week, shuttering its entire operations in Quebec rather than bargain with its workers. Finally, despite its friendly reputation, Costco is playing hardball at the bargaining table, which may force 18,000 Teamsters to strike this week!
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
More info on the show at http://workstoppagepod.com/
Tuesday Jan 21, 2025
Tuesday Jan 21, 2025
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
Trump's back, which means its time to ramp up the fight back against attacks on our fellow workers. After our headlines, we discuss how the government of the Bahamas used legal repression to crush a planned two day nationwide strike before it happened. Then we discuss a recent exposé in The City by friend of the show Claudia Irizarry Aponte on a "union" for home health workers that does more for the bosses than for its members. Also this week, we've got two stories on wage theft, union busting, and retaliation by Geo Group against immigrants detained in its privately operated concentration camps. Finally, we discuss a recent Labor Notes piece sharing the lessons from union struggles to defend immigrant workers across the country and how our unions can defend our fellow workers.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
More info on the show at http://workstoppagepod.com/