Work Stoppage

EP 54 - Evil Foods Interview

We have a special interview episode this week as we are joined by two former employees of "No Evil" Foods, who tell us what it was like to face a fierce union busting campaign from a company supposedly founded on progressive values.  The anti-union campaign waged by Evil Foods against its employees, followed by the firing of the entire production staff, is one of the starkest recent reminders than no matter how nice your boss is, they will throw you on the street if it will make them more money.

Help out the former Evil Foods employees:  https://givebutter.com/PlVQ64

Subscribe for additional Overtime episodes at patreon.com/workstoppage

Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX

Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.

EP 53 - Use Your Collective Power

We open this week’s episode with a follow up on the Warrior Met coal miners’ strike, where striking workers have faced repeated car attacks while picketing. We also catch up on the striking ATI steelworkers, who are pushing back on company attacks on their healthcare.  Then we cover the Biden Administration’s recent betrayal of a campaign promise to extend OSHA protections to cover covid, and a fight by pilots in India for protections and fair compensation after hundreds have been hospitalized.  We discuss “No Evil” Foods recent extremely evil move of firing their entire production staff, a successful organizing drive by preschool teachers in Colorado, and finish up with Argentina’s new law to protect the rights of trans workers.  

Subscribe for additional Overtime episodes at patreon.com/workstoppage  Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX  

Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.

Overtime Episode 2 PREVIEW - AFL-CIA

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 this Overtime episode, Dan examines the long, sordid history of collaboration between the leadership of the AFL-CIO and the CIA. Working to enforce the interests of US Empire and the ruling class that controls it, the leadership of the AFL-CIO used the specter of “communist domination” to justify subverting labor movements around the world. Hoping to prevent such betrayal of the global working class in the future, here we look at why this collaboration occurred, who was behind it, and what we can do to make sure that US labor stands in solidarity with workers around the world.

Join the discord: http://discord.gg/tDvmNzX

EP 52 - "Political" Unions

This week we start out checking in on the striking Volvo Truck workers in Virginia, who have rejected a corporate-friendly tentative agreement for the second time. We then cover the demise of New York’s proposed bill to create toothless state unions for gig workers after strong opposition from Los Deliveristas Unidos and other unions.  Next, we discuss the success of the AROC/ILWU #BlocktheBoat campaign in Oakland, as well as a proposed resolution from the LA Teachers’ Union calling for an end to US aid to Israel and to support the BDS movement. Then we cover Canada’s postal workers union pushing to transform the postal service into a broader agency capable of meeting more community needs.  Also this week, while the Biden admin gets rosy media coverage, the federal government has continued to award massive contracts to companies using detained migrants as slave labor.  Finally, with the news that Jeff Bezos will be heading into space (hopefully forever), we take a look at the numbers behind his wealth, and how Amazon’s speedup based business model is taking its toll on workers’ bodies. 

Subscribe for additional Overtime episodes at patreon.com/workstoppage

Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX

Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.

EP 51 - End School Privatization

We start this week’s episode with workers from the ILWU refusing to allow an Israeli-operated ship to dock in Oakland in solidarity with labor unions in Palestine.  Then we discuss massive demonstrations across Brazil led by trade unions calling for an end to the fascist Bolsonaro regime, and a series of sit down strikes in Indian auto plants protesting unsafe working conditions during the current covid surge.  We also cover lawmakers in several states attempting to pass union busting legislation aimed at privatizing schools in the wake of recent major teachers’ strikes, and a recent wave of companies in the UK using “Fire and Rehire” tactics to cut workers’ wages and benefits.  Finally, we discuss a strike by McDonald’s highway service plaza employees in Connecticut over Memorial Day Weekend, and how the constant threats from employers to replace their workers with robots are laughable.

Subscribe for additional Overtime episode at patreon.com/workstoppage

Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX

Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.

EP 50 - Labor Peace Is Not In Our Interest

This week’s episode is a heavy one as we cover some of the harshest consequences of the pandemic faced by workers. We start on a happy note, following up on nursing home workers winning their demands and avoiding a strike in Connecticut after the governor had threatened to use the National Guard as scabs. We then move to New York for two stories on gig workers, one covering draft legislation which would force workers into two toothless state-approved unions with no ability to strike, another covering the grassroots organizing efforts of gig workers themselves to fight for better working conditions in NYC. Next we discuss an investigation into the murder by neglect of nearly a dozen migrant workers at a Seneca Foods green bean facility in Wisconsin during the height of the pandemic, and how every level of power, from the company to the legislature to the state OSHA worked together to sacrifice these workers for increased profits. Also this week, the AFL-CIO has announced their long awaited report on how to handle police unions, and finish off with the unionization of 17,000 workers in the University of California system.

 

Subscribe for additional Overtime episode at patreon.com/workstoppage

Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX

Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.

EP 49 - Overwork Exacerbates Death

John is back and this week’s episode starts with an update on the status of the ongoing uprising in Colombia, followed by a general strike in occupied Palestine and workers actions around the world standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people.  We follow up with striking workers at a Virginia Volvo Truck plant who overwhelmingly voted to reject a proposed business friendly contract, cover a series of recent dystopian moves from Amazon including the launch of a new “AmaZen mindfulness program”, and discuss the “shocking” new science linking being worked into the ground with higher risk of early death.  Finally, we close out on the ways the CDC’s recent handling of mask guidelines screws over workers, and congratulate two groups of ski patrollers who recently voted to unionize in Colorado and Montana.

Subscribe to get twice as many episodes per month at patreon.com/workstoppage

Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX

Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.

Overtime Episode 1 PREVIEW - Detroit: I Do Mind Dying

If you’re not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting www.patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.

On this solo episode, Dan reads several sections from Detroit: I Do Mind Dying, a history of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, and discusses what we can learn from a criminally under-analyzed movement. The League represented an advanced attempt to unify the class struggle on the shop floor with social struggles in broader society, and a powerful pushback against entrenched bureaucratic business friendly union leadership. The first in a future series of deep dive 'Overtime' episodes into labor history, here we examine what about the League’s practice worked, what didn’t, the historical context in which the movement took place, and what parallels can be drawn to struggles today.

Finally Got The News: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hGfZBaFHwo

Join the discord: http://discord.gg/tDvmNzX

EP 48 - Strike Breaking Soldier Scabs w/ Ethan (Invent the Future/Red Game Table)

This week’s episode has a bit of a shuffle as John is busy moving, but Lina and Dan were lucky enough to be joined by special guest Ethan from Invent the Future and Red Game Table!  We start out with a follow-up on the uprising currently happening in Colombia, then move to the governor of Connecticut calling out the National Guard to act as scabs to break a potential strike at nursing homes. Next we discuss an upcoming McDonald’s strike on May 19 for $15/hr, Amazon drivers being forced to choose between driving safely and keeping their jobs, and the nationwide push by the ruling class to end unemployment benefits to force people to work for less than a living wage.  We close out covering workers quitting a Maine Dollar General and calling to overthrow capitalism on the way out. As mentioned during the meme review, 

Gaza Fights For Freedom is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnZSaKYmP2s

Subscribe to get twice as many episodes per month at patreon.com/workstoppage  

Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX  Follow Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.  

Ethan (@utopologist) co-hosts Invent the Future (@proletarianinfo) and GMs Red Game Table (@RedGameTable)

EP 47 PREVIEW - Breakin' The Law

If you’re not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting www.patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.

On this week’s episode, John, Lina, and Dan follow up on a successful union drive at Maine’s largest hospital, and workers at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island working to build an independent union with lessons from the BAmazon drive.  Next, we discuss the president of NYU running to the parents of grad students to complain about them going on strike, and bus drivers going on wildcat strike in Mississippi.  Our main story this week is the ongoing general strike and protests across Colombia over the past week in response to regressive taxes on the working class, the attempted privatization of Colombia’s healthcare system, and violent police repression.  Finally, we applaud In These Times’ call to get rid of no-strike clauses in union contracts.

Join the discord: http://discord.gg/tDvmNzX

Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.

EP 46 - This Week's Dailies

Sign the Trader Joe's Employee Petition here: https://www.coworker.org/petitions/trader-joe-s-crew-members-demand-no-cuts-to-wages-and-healthcare-coverage-be-returned?fbclid=IwAR1swxthYfSMbaVrigvusuRZEK2-Yql0QHscE-9xqFp49Rm05Xf1HBMRMuU

This week’s episode starts with an update on the ongoing United Steelworkers strike against ATI in multiple states.  Then John, Lina and Dan discuss a petition by Trader Joe’s workers aimed at making benefits gained during the pandemic permanent, Joe Biden raising the minimum wage for federal contractors and starting a labor task force, and several major unions threatening to withhold funds from Democrats who don’t support the PRO Act. In our main story, we cover the awful working conditions of drivers for Walmart’s gig service, Spark, and how it seems to combine all the worst aspects of the various gig companies into one.  Finally, we close out with an update on the Indian Farmers’ Movement, staying strong five months on.

Subscribe to get twice as many episodes per month at patreon.com/workstoppage

Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX

Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.

EP 45 PREVIEW - Third Amendment Rights

If you’re not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting www.patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.

We start this week’s episode with a brief follow-up to our deep dive on the BAmazon election and then get right back into our regularly scheduled labor news.  We cover a strike by 2900 UAW members at a Volvo Truck manufacturing plant in Virginia, a Teamsters strike at the Port of Los Angeles with the ILWU walking out in solidarity, and a couple stories of union members resisting the police and national guard repression of protestors in the Twin Cities.  Finally, we wrap up the episode discussing the longest ongoing strike in the country, which has gone on so long the striking workers have formed their own co-operative ISP.

Join the discord: http://discord.gg/tDvmNzX

Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.

EP 44 - BAmazon Deep Dive

It’s the BAmazon episode of Work Stoppage this week, as John, Lina, and Dan dedicate the entire episode to covering Amazon in the aftermath of the workers’ loss in the recent union election in Bessemer, Alabama.  We recap the run-up to the union drive, summarize Amazon’s ferocious and underhanded anti-union campaign, and try and draw out what lessons we can take from the BAmazon union drive to improve future unionizing efforts.   We also cover a ruling that Amazon illegally fired two white collar workers for speaking out against the company’s practices, and a walkout at an Amazon facility in Chicago as part of the burgeoning Amazonians United movement.

Subscribe to get twice as many episodes per month at patreon.com/workstoppage

Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX

Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.

EP 43 PREVIEW - Upton Sinclair Ain't Goin' Away

If you’re not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting www.patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.

This week’s episode starts with some more labor history as John, Lina, and Dan discuss a selection from Detroit: I Do Mind Dying, on working conditions in the auto industry in Detroit in the 1970s.  We then get into the week’s labor news discussing a medical marijuana dispensary unionizing in Rhode Island and the proliferation of “Labor Peace Agreements”, a federal judge throwing out a USDA rule allowing meatpacking plants to remove speed limits on pork processing lines, and another protest from inmates at the St Louis County Jail over inhumane conditions and trial delays.  Finally we cover two major strikes, one by 1100 UMWA coal miners in Alabama, the other by 1300 Steelworkers across five states in the Northeast.
Join the discord: http://discord.gg/tDvmNzX

Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.

EP 42 - Catching COVID At The Vaccine Plant

John, Lina, and Dan start this week’s episode with a look back at some labor history, discussing child labor and child labor unions in Pennsylvania coal country in the early 20th century.  Then we turn to Amazon, covering the end of voting for the BAmazon union, some of Amazon’s recent aggressive social media activity, the “coincidental” unveiling of Boston Dynamics’ new warehouse robot during one of the most consequential union drives in recent memory, and discuss an interview with a worker at the Bessemer facility describing the conditions in their own words.  We also cover a lack of enforcement of covid safety protocols on the jobsite during the construction of a vaccine bottling plant, a campaign by garment workers around the world to stop the fashion industry from stealing $40 billion in already completed labor, and a 24 hour general strike in Belgium.

Subscribe to get twice as many episodes per month at patreon.com/workstoppage

Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX

Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.

EP 41 PREVIEW - Organizing Agricultural Workers feat. Sam Knight

If you’re not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting www.patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.

This week, John, Lina, and Dan are joined by Sam Knight, cofounder of The District Sentinel Co-op, correspondent with Means Morning News and freelance journalist, to discuss his recent piece for Truthout on a case before the Supreme Court with potentially huge consequences for workers across the country.  We also cover the NLRB ruling that Amazon violated labor law when they harassed workers for leading walkouts, a one day strike by Amazon workers across Italy, and the Teamsters’ push to organize Amazon drivers, even if that means militant action outside the confines of the NLRA.  Finally, we discuss the effort to create the largest unionized coffee shop in the US, and Spain’s proposed trial of the four day work week.
Join the discord: http://discord.gg/tDvmNzX

Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.
You can follow Sam @ these links:
twitter.com/thedcsentinel
patreon.com/districtsentinel
districtsentinel.substack.com

EP 40 - Silk Servitude

This week, John, Lina, and Dan follow up on the results of the UK Supreme Court’s ruling against Uber, the House passing the PRO Act because they know it has no chance in the Senate, and Amazon’s nightmarish use of ‘Gamification’ in their warehouses.  We also discuss attacks on undocumented workers attempting to unionize at a bake shop in Long Island, Elon Musk getting hundreds of Tesla workers infected with covid, a walkout by Teamsters at a Coca-Cola plant in Calgary, and cover the use of “Bonded Labor”, AKA indentured servitude, in the silk industry in India.  

Subscribe to get twice as many episodes per month at patreon.com/workstoppage  

Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX  

Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.

EP 39 PREVIEW - Unions In Myanmar

If you’re not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting www.patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.

John, Lina, and Dan cover an attempt to pass a Prop 22 clone in Massachusetts and the efforts of local gig workers to oppose it, workers alleging that Google forced them out of the company after they reported instances of sexism or racism, and Panda Express’ use of bizarre abusive “self-improvement seminars”.  We also discuss PepsiCo locking out workers at a Topeka Frito-Lay plant, the recent surge in unionization and “labor peace agreements” in the legal cannabis industry, and Myanmar’s unions leading the general strike movement against their recent military coup.

Join the discord: http://discord.gg/tDvmNzX

Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.

EP 38 - McPinkertons

John, Lina, and Dan cover Biden’s mild comments on the BAmazon union drive, Danny Glover’s actual material support for said union, and the way Amazon has used calls for a $15/hr minimum wage as a PR move to hide how they drive wages down.  We also cover McDonald’s spying on their workers involved in Fight for $15, and a series of lawsuits accusing the company of tolerating pervasive sexual harassment.  Continuing our series on modern slavery, we cover the superexploitation of migrant domestic workers, especially from the Phillipines, and then close out the episode with an entire taproom workstaff finally having enough and quitting en masse.

Subscribe to get twice as many episodes per month at patreon.com/workstoppage

Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX

Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.

EP 37 PREVIEW - Modern Day Slavery

If you’re not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting www.patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.

Continuing the series on modern slavery we started last week, John, Lina, and Dan follow a recent story on the horrifying working conditions for migrant workers on construction work for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and how they are emblematic of a widespread use of indentured and slave labor in the region. We also follow up on Uber’s attempts to (mis)classify workers as independent contractors facing a rare defeat in the UK, several stories about Amazon’s attempts to undermine the union election at their Bessemer Alabama facility, employer retaliation against organizing janitorial workers in Florida and a hunger strike by inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary protesting long term use of solitary confinement.
The hunger-strikers are asking concerned people to call Warden Nettles LSP at 225-655-4411 to demand they be moved from solitary confinement to appropriate, safe conditions.

Join the discord: http://discord.gg/tDvmNzX

Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.