266.9K
Downloads
387
Episodes
A weekly labor news podcast covering workers‘ struggles around the world from a revolutionary left perspective.
Episodes
Tuesday Jul 25, 2023
Tuesday Jul 25, 2023
After a few quick headlines, we start this week's labor news checking in on updates from the massive nationwide actors and writers strike. Next we discuss how hotels are using gig apps to hire scab labor and blacklist workers. Yellow Freight nearly caused a nationwide strike by failing to pay $50 million they owe the Teamsters' pension fund. Several recreational cannabis companies in California have been caught signing labor peace agreements with a fake union. This week saw new union drives at Staples, Cartoon Network, and Grindr, along with the successful union election at a climbing gym in Brooklyn. Finally, we discuss the most recent updates in the fight for a fair contract at UPS, with just one week to go.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
Sunday Jul 23, 2023
Sunday Jul 23, 2023
With just a week until 350,000 Teamster workers could strike at UPS, we want to share with as many listeners as possible our great interview with several rank and file UPS workers. So we are unlocking it for everyone to hear!
If you like these sort of episodes, please support us at patreon.com/workstoppage.
Original Description:
The biggest labor story of the year has been the ongoing negotiations between UPS and the Teamsters and the possibility of 350,000 workers launching the biggest strike in the US in decades. So we're thrilled this week to be joined by three rank and file UPS workers from Teamsters Local 41 in Kansas City to talk about it. Stewards Scott, Shaine, and Ben cover the conditions facing full time package car drivers, 22.4 "hybrid" drivers, and part time workers and the fight to improve them. We discuss the tactics used to build the unity that prompted 97% of UPS Teamsters to authorize a strike, how listeners can support their local Teamsters before and during a strike, and how we can build on that solidarity to revitalize the labor movement for the future.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
Friday Jul 21, 2023
Friday Jul 21, 2023
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 our eighth and final episode (for now) in our series on the basics of Cybernetics and how it relates to the labor movement, we finally explore the details of Stafford Beer's Viable Systems Model (VSM). John walks us through the various subsystems of Beer's model for analyzing organizations, and we discuss examples of how the model would apply to an individual human being, a labor union, and even an entire nation. We discuss the various key features of organization this form of analysis reveals, like the importance of devolving at least some management functions to the lowest level parts of the system, or in the case of a union, democratically empowering each and every member.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
Monday Jul 17, 2023
Monday Jul 17, 2023
This was another major week in labor as the biggest strike of the year so far kicked off with 160,000+ actors joining the writers on picket lines across the country. Also this week, a new reform caucus was announced in the ALU, calling for leadership elections. Starbucks workers launched their nationwide organizing bus tour, hitting cities across the country and shutting down stores tom demand Starbucks return to the bargaining table. The Teamsters have expanded the concept of "flying squadrons" by launching roving pickets across the country demanding recognition of their union drivers. The UAW kicked off the negotiation process with the big three automakers in militant fashion, refusing traditional company niceties. Workers at the Leinenkugel brewery in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin are on strike fighting for a living wage. Finally, we celebrate the union victory of workers at Sega, making Sonic officially a union hedgehog.
AFSE Petition: https://form.jotform.com/231775539933064
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
Friday Jul 14, 2023
Friday Jul 14, 2023
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 biggest labor story of the year has been the ongoing negotiations between UPS and the Teamsters and the possibility of 350,000 workers launching the biggest strike in the US in decades. So we're thrilled this week to be joined by three rank and file UPS workers from Teamsters Local 41 in Kansas City to talk about it. Stewards Scott, Shaine, and Ben cover the conditions facing full time package car drivers, 22.4 "hybrid" drivers, and part time workers and the fight to improve them. We discuss the tactics used to build the unity that prompted 97% of UPS Teamsters to authorize a strike, how listeners can support their local Teamsters before and during a strike, and how we can build on that solidarity to revitalize the labor movement for the future.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
Tuesday Jul 11, 2023
Tuesday Jul 11, 2023
We start this week's episode with congratulations to workers at Powerhouse Animation, who became the first unionized animation studio in Texas last week. Next we discuss the pausing of the LA hotel strike....and its resumption. Refresco workers finally won a contract after 3 years of fighting this week, winning big pay raises and other gains. Starbucks has lost in court AGAIN this week, losing cases in Pittsburgh and Ithaca and being forced to rehire workers. We also have some tragic stories of worker deaths this week, one a labor organizer murdered for his work in Bangladesh, the other a 16 year old child forced by our economic system to work in a dangerous saw mill. The University of California has been retaliating against workers following last year's major strike, now escalating to felony charges for writing with chalk. Finally, we have some happier news on some recent victories in organizing by the UFW in New York, and by grad student workers at Stanford.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
Friday Jul 07, 2023
Friday Jul 07, 2023
If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
We're back in the world of Cybernetics for this week's Patron episode. On Part 7 of our series, John explains the admittedly very complex concepts of Autopoiesis and Eudemony, key ideas for understanding Stafford Beer's "Viable Systems Model" which stands are the core of his thought. Breaking down these concepts of how systems like machines and biological organisms reproduce themselves and how structures organize themselves towards a maximal goal also help show the parallels between Cybernetics and the study of human societies, history, and more broadly how human beings organize themselves. On our next episode, we will go into the VSM in detail and explain how Beer used it as the foundation for setting up Project Cybersyn and embarking on an attempt to radically democratize the Chilean economy.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
Tuesday Jul 04, 2023
Tuesday Jul 04, 2023
It may be a long weekend, but people still gotta work, and that means more labor stories. First we do a quick run through the headlines, discussing where things stand with the WGA strike, the independent labor movement in Mexico, and the fight to defend Pride at Starbucks. Next, workers in South Korea have launched a two week long mobilization to demand the far right anti worker Yoon regime resign. West Coast ports in Canada shuttered this week as negotiations with the ILWU have stalled. 15,000 hotel workers are on strike in LA, as workers fight for wages that just allow them to live where they work. Nurses in Texas and Kansas struck for one day for safe staffing and faced a week long lockout on returning. 6000 aircraft workers with Boeing supplier Spirit Aerosystems shot down multiple tentative agreements before finally winning a new contract. Amazon continues to kill workers with its frantic pace and unsafe conditions, but also keeps trying to deny responsibility. Finally, we check in on the negotiations between the Teamsters and UPS, and discuss some of the recent major wins by the union.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
Saturday Jul 01, 2023
Saturday Jul 01, 2023
If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
We've got a quick break from our series on the intersection of the study of Cybernetics and the Labor Movement for an interview! This week we were very excited to speak with AshlyRuth and Diana, two worker organizers with the Union of Southern Service Workers. The South has long stood as a bastion of Right to Work anti-labor laws, with bosses and politicians using racism to divide workers. The USSW is fighting to change that by using cross-sector organizing and drawing on whole communities to fight for better conditions for workers all over the South. AshlyRuth and Diana speak about some of the experiences they've had, both as service workers and as organizers, the awful working conditions they've faced personally, and how the USSW is helping them fight back.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
Tuesday Jun 27, 2023
Tuesday Jun 27, 2023
On this week's episode of Work Stoppage, Trader Joe's continues to drag out the process of certification at its Louisville store. Negotiations between the Teamsters and UPS have moved to discussions of economic issues, with only a month to go before a strike. Nearly 2000 nurses struck for a week in Oregon and are now demanding their employer be investigated for hiring professional scabs. Over 1000 UE locomotive makers in Erie, PA have gone on strike to protect their jobs and their working conditions as Wabtec threatens to slash the labor force. We also catch up with the longest strike in digital media which we missed on our break, with writers at Insider winning healthcare coverage the company claimed was unaffordable. Finally, workers at the University of Pittsburgh officially filed to unionize with the Steelworkers and 1100 undergraduate student workers at Western Washington voted near unanimously to join the UAW!
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
Friday Jun 23, 2023
Friday Jun 23, 2023
If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
Our series on Cybernetics and Labor continues this week as we dive into the beginning of Project Cybersyn and Stafford Beer's arrival in Chile. We discuss Beer's invitation from the government of Salvador Allende, his work with prominent government officials, and the incredible speed with which his project was assembled. We also begin breaking down Beer's concept of the Viable Systems Model as applied to a socialist government. In our next episode, we will discuss the planned deployment and testing of the project in the final months of Allende's time in power before the CIA-backed coup brought everything crashing to a halt.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
Tuesday Jun 20, 2023
Tuesday Jun 20, 2023
We're back from our break for Lina's wedding, which was wonderful and we all had an amazing time, but now it's time to catch up on two weeks of labor news! We start the show with a quick trip through as many short labor stories as we can, covering developments at Starbucks, Amazon, REI, Barnes & Noble, AT&T, Colectivo, Paizo, UPS, and more. Then we follow up with the workers at the Wharf InterContinental Hotel in Washington DC who have forced their employers to recognize their union election with UNITE HERE. We also check in on the UAW workers at Clarios, who have voted to end their strike, as well as the fallout from Florida's anti-public worker law. The past two weeks have seen diverging trends in negotiations with the Hollywood studios, with the Directors signing a tentative agreement for a new deal and SAG-AFTRA voting 98% in favor of joining the writers on strike. David Byrne's recent attempt to do a Broadway musical with no union musicians is the latest in a long history of anti-union behavior by the famed auteur. Smoke clouds choked NYC in the first week of June, forcing workers to organize for their safety. Finally, we congratulate the postdocs and researchers at the University of Washington for winning a one week strike for a new contract.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
Friday Jun 16, 2023
Friday Jun 16, 2023
If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
We're back from our week off for Lina's wedding and in the latest episode of our series on the history of Cybernetics and its relationship to labor, we've finally arrived at the work of Stafford Beer. Beer's work on complex systems revolutionized the way management operations are thought of in both the business world and in all systems of planning. His book Brain of the Firm on how to better manage complex systems like factories or even networks of them was so influential, he was invited to assist the government of Chile under the leadership of recently elected socialist Salvador Allende. Beer's work on the project of creating an automated command center for monitoring and adjusting the economy of Chile, known as Cybersyn, has become legendary for its futuristic approach to running a planned society. In this episode we discuss an overview of Beer's life and works, and in the next few episodes we will dive into the details of his thought, how Cybersyn was meant to work, and how Beer's body of work can be used by the labor movement and socialists around the world today.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
Tuesday Jun 13, 2023
Tuesday Jun 13, 2023
This week was a exciting but busy one with all of us getting together to celebrate Lina's wedding, which unfortunately made it impossible to put together the regular episode. So we've decided to unlock the first episode in our new series on the history of the field of cybernetics and how the labor movement has interacted with it. It's been a super fascinating topic learning about figures like Norbert Wiener, Ross Ashby, and Stafford Beer, so we hope you like this unlocked episode as just the first portion of what we've been covering. Our Cybernetics series will continue for patrons later this week and our weekly labor news rundown will be back at our regularly scheduled time next Tuesday!
Thank you so much for listening, we couldn't do the show without you!
Original Description:
Tuesday Jun 06, 2023
Tuesday Jun 06, 2023
We're back with another weekly roundup of the labor news. This week was a big one, and after a few quick headlines we discuss developments in the ongoing strike by grad students at the University of Michigan, now facing police harassment at home. Next we get into the biggest story of the week, the Supreme Court's ruling weakening the right to strike in the Glacier Northwest case. We discuss immediate impacts and how unions can adapt moving forward. REI ramped up union busting this week, threatening to cut pay for workers at the first union location in SoHo. Thousands of workers and even some business owners protested in cities across Florida last week against the state's new racist immigration law. Over 400 workers for TruStage in Wisconsin struck to force their employer back to the bargaining table. Finally, we close with the story of workers at Barboncino in New York who are poised to become the first union pizza shop in the city.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
Sunday Jun 04, 2023
Sunday Jun 04, 2023
If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
Tuesday May 30, 2023
Tuesday May 30, 2023
We start this week with congratulations for workers at REI, Barnes and Noble, and the Chicago Nature Museum who all won union elections last week. Our first full story covers an ongoing strike by San Diego bus drivers over being forced to work split shifts that take up 13 hours of their day. In DC, workers with UNITE HERE are protesting the move to close one of the most popular and acclaimed new restaurants in the country just to crush a union drive. An investigation by The Nation this week revealed the widespread levels of exploitation and hazardous working conditions in the legal weed business. Tech workers at Amazon have moved to escalate the class struggle at the company in response to recent layoffs. The National Eating Disorders Association decided that rather than continue to operate a helpline used by thousands every year if the workers unionized, they'd rather replace the workers with a chatbot that doesn't work. Finally, resident doctors in Queens struck this week for the first time in over three decades over low wages and disparities with other hospitals.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
Friday May 26, 2023
Friday May 26, 2023
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 the fourth episode of our series on the history of the discipline of Cybernetics and its relationship to the labor movement, we continue our discussions on the work of W Ross Ashby with his creation of the first fully self regulating machine, the Homeostat. This machine and its systems for returning itself to equilibrium provide a theoretical analogy for looking at how organizations like a labor union respond to changes to their environment. Ashby's development of the concept of variety and the regulation of systems provides a different way of examining the problems of bureaucracy, ossification, and the incredible potential in realizing true democracy. In our next episodes, we will be moving to the work of Stafford Beer and the development of Management Cybernetics and the direct relationship between Cybernetics and Socialism.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
Tuesday May 23, 2023
Tuesday May 23, 2023
Turns out the CIA has trained gremlins and is trying to disrupt our podcast by breaking John's audio setup, but we soldiered on with a tin can on some string. After a few quick congratulations, we discuss the University of Michigan's choice to sacrifice its academic integrity to try and break a strike. We also follow up with developments in the fight back by the South Korean working class against the far right Yoon government. Starbucks has extended its war on its workers to the entire town of Ithaca, prompting protests. UAW workers at the largest car battery manufacturer in the country have gone on strike in Ohio. Workers in Minnesota have used organized pressure to prompt some good legal reforms in recent weeks such as a ban on captive audience meetings. Dancers at Star Garden Topless Dive Bar in LA became the only state recognized union strippers this week, potentially opening the door for another organizing wave. Finally, a huge win in the South where 1400 workers manufacturing school buses at Blue Bird have voted to join the Steelworkers.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
Friday May 19, 2023
Friday May 19, 2023
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 the third part of our deep dive into the history of the discipline of Cybernetics and its relations to the labor movement, we discuss the life and theories of W. Ross Ashby. His work on measurement of the complexity of a system with the concept of "Variety", helps us understand the ways complex structures, like a labor union, can be set up in ways that either give it the ability to adapt to changing inputs and become a stable, successful system, or can restrict its possible responses to a given situation and leave it unable to respond. We also discuss Stafford Beer's interpretation of Ashby's work, how it applies to economics, and the ways that thinking of complex systems like an economy in terms of variety helps us point out the differences between a capitalist and socialist economic system. On the next episode of our series, we will discuss Ashby's pioneering work on his self-regulating machine, the homeostat.
Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX
Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee