Work Stoppage

PAPER: https://ourpapernow.org/
Boycott REI! https://boycottrei.com/

May Day was the biggest it's been in years, and we spend much of the episode discussing the major protests in the US and around the world for International Workers Day. Workers in South Carolina spent their May Day picketing Elbit Systems in an effort to end their community's role in US-Israeli genocide. Bozeman mobile home residents have launched the state's first rent strike in half a century after their absentee landlords have left their communities to rot. We also have headlines from ISU, UIC, the Woodburn School District, the former Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, REI, Hachette, and Amazon.

Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX 

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

May Day is this week!  Nationwide shutdown, bring your community together and hit the ruling class where it hurts, the bottom line!

Getting to our regular headlines, we have stories from Starbucks, Harvard, REI, the University of California, Samsung, Bangladeshi gig workers, Portuguese nurses, and the workers of Brazil. For our main stories, first we discuss a strike by workers at Illinois State University, who are fighting just to afford to live where they work. A recently launched initiative, Union Now, aims to harness the energy workers have to support organizing, we discuss the possible implications.  Finally, we do a deep dive into the countrywide assault on speech on university campuses, and the ongoing war by the ruling class to silence any voice but their own.

Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX 

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

Headlines on this 20th of April start with the breaking news of the change in Labor Secretary. Then we've got stories from Amazon, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Texas Tech University, Columbia University, Long Island Concrete, Florida's hospitality industry, and NASA. Over 30,000 building workers in NYC nearly went on strike, we discuss what the strike threat won in their new contracts. We discuss more of the ever increasing indicators that our economy just...doesn't work. Finally, educators and school staff in LA just won massive contract gains after nearly following their fellow workers in San Francisco on strike.

Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX

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

This week's headlines include: Chicago nurses, Starbucks, Philz Coffee, Apple, the University of Alaska Anchorage, the University of Illinois Springfield, ProPublica, and the California Faculty Association. We start our main stories discussing the recent victorious strike at JBS in Colorado and break down what workers won. St John's University recently became the latest Catholic university in the US to try and dissolve its faculty union, but workers are fighting back. Finally, we discuss the impacts workers around the world are facing from the unprovoked US-Israeli war on Iran.

Suggested Reading: https://inthesetimes.com/article/permanent-war-state-iran-workers-struggle

Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX

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

This week we are excited to bring listeners an interview that brings together two of our most urgent areas of discussion on our show: union democracy and the fight against ICE terror. We're honored to be joined by Leo and Kevin, two organizers with CREW, the Caucus of Rank and File Electrical Workers, an internal reform caucus in the IBEW. Not only are the folks in CREW working hard to make the IBEW a democratic, fighting union, as workers in the construction industry they are on the front lines of ICE's war against the working class. We discuss their goals of internal union reform, strategies for talking to coworkers who might have absorbed right wing talking points, and how the fight against ICE terror and the fight for our rights at work can't be separated.

Contact CREW: https://www.rankandfilecrew.org/

Email: rankandfilecrew@gmail.com

Maine Solidarity Fund: https://www.mainesolidarity.org/

Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX

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

 

We've got a long one this week with so much going on. We start with an extra long headlines section checking in with Portland Community College, the University of Washington, the University of Illinois, Microsoft, the Daily Wire, Waffle House, Webasto, DHL, Grubhub, and the NFL. Following an update on the status of the strike at JBS in Colorado, we discuss a recent strike at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the refusal of even publicly funded broadcasters to pay their workers. Resident doctors in the UK have been forced to strike yet again, for the fifteenth time, in their struggle to restore their pay just to where it was 18 years ago. Finally, the union struggle at Amazon has been going on for half a decade and this week workers gained two important victories in advancing the fight.

Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX 

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

This week we are excited to bring listeners an interview that brings together two of our most urgent areas of discussion on our show: union democracy and the fight against ICE terror. We're honored to be joined by Leo and Kevin, two organizers with CREW, the Caucus of Rank and File Electrical Workers, an internal reform caucus in the IBEW. Not only are the folks in CREW working hard to make the IBEW a democratic, fighting union, as workers in the construction industry they are on the front lines of ICE's war against the working class. We discuss their goals of internal union reform, strategies for talking to coworkers who might have absorbed right wing talking points, and how the fight against ICE terror and the fight for our rights at work can't be separated.

Contact CREW: https://www.rankandfilecrew.org/
Email: rankandfilecrew@gmail.com

Maine Solidarity Fund: https://www.mainesolidarity.org/

Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX 

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

We start out with a reportback from Dan and Lina who went to their local No Kings protests and discuss the energy behind the call for a May Day general strike. We've got headlines this week from Canada Post, AirTrain, United Airlines, TSA, Western Washington University, Starbucks, Amazon, and Patagonia. The major strike by meatpackers at JBS in Colorado has been extended as workers continue to fight for a fair deal. Non-tenure track faculty have been deeply exploited by US universities in recent years, but this week those educators won a historic contract at NYU that could set a new standard. Finally, we discuss a recent piece in the Guardian on the wave of attacks on child labor laws across the country, and how ill it bodes for our whole economy.

Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX 

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

Late last year, teachers at the Highlander Charter School in Providence, Rhode Island launched the state's first ever strike at a charter school. We have covered a lot of teachers strikes on our show, but strikes at charters have been few and far between. Just as with teachers at traditional public schools, teachers at charters are on the front lines of the struggle not only for their own working conditions, but for their students' learning conditions. So we were super excited to speak with the teachers at Highlander about their struggle, the lessons they've learned, and how teacher organizing can help build stronger communities!

Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX 

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

We start this week's episode with headlines from CBS, ProPublica, Portland Community College, REI, Starbucks, Corewell Health, the WNBA, Atlassian Software, and the Tornel Rubber Company. Our first story checks in on the strike by Colorado meatpackers at JBS in a fight for safety and dignity on the job. Workers at Kaiser Permanente both ended a major strike with a win AND started a new strike in the same week. Horrific revelations of abuse by UFW co-founder Cesar Chavez rocked the labor world this week, we discuss the impact and lessons for the future of the movement. Finally, a recent interview in Jacobin discussed the way workers in Australia are fighting a similar issue we have here in the US, the disconnect between struggle on the shop floor and political action for the working class.

Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX 

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

Somehow it's been 300 whole episodes since we started this show. But as long as work continues stopping, we will keep discussing it! We've got headlines from the MST, Belgian trade unions, Portland Community College, REI, Starbucks, Amazon, American Axle, and AFGE. JBS workers in Colorado are on strike, the biggest in meatpacking in decades. Oakland workers in logistics are trying to navigate how best they can do their part in gumming up the war machine when the boxes they move aren't even labeled. Student Workers of Columbia are poised once again to strike as their bosses in admin keep trying to drive student unions from existence. Finally, we discuss the Mamdani Administration in NYC and several stories about how policies are affecting workers in these first couple months.

Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX 

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

The US war on Iran continues to create an emergency for the working class worldwide, and we start by discussing the need for workers to enter the struggle to end it. We've got headlines this week from LabCorp, Mercedes, JBS, Home Depot, DHL Express, Patagonia, Crumbs & Whiskers and The Holy Donut. For our first full story, we discuss the ongoing strike by teachers in Sacramento. Next, yet another story has come out revealing a new smart device's "AI" features are actually just poorly paid remote workers. Florida is taking yet another major step in its war on public unions. Finally, we discuss how workers continue to fight against Gestapo terror here in the belly of the beast.

Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX 

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

Texas IBEW Member Legal Fee Funds: 
https://www.gofundme.com/f/bring-our-union-sister-home
https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-Brian-IBEW-Brother

Our episode this week is a bit lighter on labor stories as the launch of yet another war by the US takes up most of our intro. When we do get back into the labor news we have headlines from Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, Texas IBEW, Twin Rivers USD, St John's University, Burger King, Panipat Refinery in India, and the nation of Mexico. The first of our two major stories this week is on an upcoming strike by contingent faculty at NYU who can barely afford to live while working at one of the country's most expensive universities. Finally, there has been yet another major strike launched by incarcerated workers in Alabama against prison slavery and the cruelty and inhumanity of the Alabama Department of Corrections.

Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX 

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

SWOC Hardship Fund: https://opencollective.com/student-workers-of-columbia

We start with headlines this week from Columbia University, Penn, Volkswagen, New York Presbyterian Hospital, Mission Hospital, and the nation of Argentina. For our first major story this week, we discuss recent reporting on South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang, which is mimicking not just Amazon's market share, but its worker abuses as well. Workers have been taking to the streets to fight the billionaire assault, but the AAUP has also been taking the billionaires to court, and they've been winning. Finally, we discuss the next stage of the fightback in Minneapolis, as unions and tenants have come together to organize what could be the largest rent strike in modern US history.

Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX 

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

Our episode begins with some silliness, but we do get to labor headlines. We've got stories from Ubisoft, Taco Bell, Kaiser Permanente, Ford, Starbucks, and big protests in Argentina and India. The nurses strike in New York *almost* came to an end this week, but nurses at NY Presbyterian are staying out. San Francisco teachers won their first strike since 1979, we break down how last week went. Meatpacking workers with JBS are on the front lines of the joint struggle for immigrant workers specifically and the working class broadly and are ready to strike despite threats of deportation. Finally, we discuss how the class struggle in Minnesota has forced the government to back down, and why more action is needed to win the struggle against ICE terror.

Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX 

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

In our newest series led by our Italian reporter Matteo we get to hear from a worker organizer, Romeo, of the Feb 6, 2026 international strike of Mediterranean dockworkers against war and for Palestine. CALP or the Autonomous Collective of Port Workers is a militant collective of workers who have had enough of the ruling imperialist class trying to force them into complicity with international crimes against humanity so they have become sand in the machine, shutting down weapons shipments coming through their ports. 

Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX

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

We start with headlines from Waymo, Kaiser Permanente, San Francisco teachers, Los Angeles teachers, REI, Seven Stars Bakery, Starbucks, and the state of Nebraska. New York nurses have been on strike for over a month, we discuss the state of their strike and the possible deals announced on Monday. VW workers in Chattanooga won a historic victory for organizing in the South with their recent contract win, we break down the gains. Workers across Europe blocked ports for Palestine this week, even as Western governments and media outlets try to ignore it.  Finally, we discuss the targeted attacks on workers organizers by ICE and the way students and rank and file union members are organizing to stop it.

Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX 

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

Once again our main focus this week is the struggle against ICE's reign of terror. Beyond Minneapolis, the working class outrage at the crimes of DHS exploded into a nationwide shutdown. In our main story we discuss the implications of this growing movement for trade unionism and the broader struggle for working class political power. Before we get to that however, we start with headlines from CUNY, Ubisoft, Trader Joe's, PAME and Starbucks. Beyond the nationwide political struggle this week were two major stories we also wanted to cover. First we check in on the fight to preserve the gains of the last two decades by the working class in Bolivia. And we also check in on the largest *economic* strike in the country, as 31,000 healthcare workers walked out once again at Kaiser Permanente.

Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX 

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

The eyes of the nation have been on Minneapolis all week, and our main story this week is on Friday's general strike and the need to expand it. Before that, we start with headlines from the Louvre, Cayuga Medical Center, TikTok, Wafler Farms, and the AAUP. For our main regular labor stories, we start with a roundup of recent stories on attempts to replace workers with AI (and their failures). Spanish Amazon workers have been more successful than most in winning union recognition, and a recent piece in Truthout documents how they've done it. Just a few weeks into his term, new NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani has already started trying to leverage the power of city government for pro worker reforms. We close of course discussing the historic citywide general strike in Minneapolis and the critical importance of growing the movement against fascism across the entire country.

Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX 

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

In light of the Jan 23, 2026 Twin City general strike we are unlocking this episode so people can look at another general strike in Twin City history. We start this episode off in Toledo but in the second half we look at Minneapolis.

We're diving back into labor history with a return to our short series on the history of general strikes in the US. On this episode, we round out the strikes of 1934 by discussing the Toledo Auto-Lite and Minneapolis general strikes. The pitched battles fought by workers across the country terrified the ruling class into accepting some of the most pivotal labor reforms in US history. Fighting scabs, company thugs, police, and even the National Guard, workers with nothing to lose in the midst of the Great Depression struck back against their exploiters and won victories that echoed for decades. Organizing such massive endeavors is never easy or quick, but there are so many lessons we can take from our comrades of the past to help improve our efforts today.