Work Stoppage

Ep 238 - No Contract, No Work

Amazon Teamster Strike Fund: https://www.amazonlaborunion.org/strike-fundraising

Amazon Teamster Support Petition: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/demand-amazon-come-to-the-bargaining-table-2/

We start with some quick headlines from South Korea, The Netherlands, Cana...

Ep 237 - Exploitation Superstore

After an opening discussion of the powerful response of the South Korean people and their labor movement to last week's attempted coup, we dive into out headlines. We've got updates on the organizing drive by Boston doctors, Amazon Teamsters, workers at the Noguchi Museum, and the jackass owners of Bigfoot Beverages. The Teamsters blasted Costco this week for its ramped up union busting during ongoing contract negotiations. VW workers in Germany are in the midst of a historic series of warnin...

Ep 236 - Dr. Union

Despite the holiday, workers never stop, so labor news doesn't either! After several stories of the agonizingly slow wheels of "justice" for workers in the legal system in our Headlines, we dive into our main stories. First we check in on the teachers of Beverly and Marblehead, MA, where new contracts have finally been ratified. Next we check in on the surge of organizing by the Teamsters at Amazon locations all over the country. Healthcare workers continue to unionize in big numbers, and not...

Crossover Ep: Labor Zionism (ft. The Minyan)

We're extremely excited this week that Dan was invited to sit down with Prez and Talia from The Minyan podcast to discuss the long history of support for Israel by US labor unions and how that has changed in recent years. Building off our recent interview with Professor Jeff Schuhrke, we discuss how anti-communism was used by labor leaders to justify supporting US imperialist policies around the world, including support for Israel. We dig into the ways rank and file efforts to embrace Palesti...

Ep 235 - Delivering Worker Resistance

We've got a jam packed episode, as workers all around the world are on the move. First we've got headlines covering stories in Germany, South Korea, California and Florida. For our first main story, workers at a Whole Foods in Philadelphia filed to unionize this week, in another major effort to push back against the exploitation of the Bezos empire. Also in Philly this week, city workers in three unions reached new agreements with significant wages and safety protections. We catch up with a f...

Unlocked Interview: Build a Fighting NALC

We are joined by C Moline a coordinating committee member of Build a Fighting NALC to talk about the many issues with the current TA that was presented to city postal workers by NALC national. We also go over working conditions for postal workers, international solidarity, and what the near future for NALC members looks like. From the 'Vote No' campaign to rallies in the streets, workers are organizing in the face of it being illegal for them to strike.

C Moline and others speaking in ...

Ep 234 - Northern Exposure

After updates on striking hotel workers, new UAW academic organizing, city workers in Philly and avian flu in dairy workers, we dive into our main stories. Michigan nurses won a massive union election this week as nearly 10,000 voted to join the Teamsters. The Canadian government stepped in on the side of the shipping companies this week and forced workers on both coasts into binding arbitration. Meanwhile, 55,000 striking Canada Post workers are challenging Prime Minister Trudeau to try it w...

Ep 233 - Same Threats as Yesterday

It's impossible to start this week without discussing the fallout from the big election, so we start our main stories with a roundup of statements from union leaders in response to the new era of organizing. Next, we hear from dining workers at Clarkson University on their recent victory in securing a strong contract. Teachers in three towns in Massachusetts walked out on strike this week, defying state threats in their pursuit of fair working conditions for the lowest paid paraprofessionals....

Ep 232 - Lockout Lessons

We've got headlines this week from NYC, Boston, Minneapolis, the island of Guadeloupe, and also PBS. Pepsi recently shocked workers in Chicago when they abruptly closed the region's only bottling plant with no notice. A new report shows the shocking worker death toll of US-ally Saudi Arabia's quixotic NEOM project. Philadelphia transit workers voted unanimously to authorize a potential strike. Workers at Boeing have once again forced the company to increase their "Best and Final Offer." Fina...

Ep 231 - No Diet COLA!

We start this week with a quick check-in on rideshare drivers in NYC, hotel workers in Boston, and nurses in North Carolina and Michigan. For our first major story, letter carriers across the country in the NALC are organizing a national vote no campaign in response to a concessionary contract. We continue coverage of workers under attack for speaking out against the genocide in Palestine, from universities across the country, to the ACLU, to Microsoft. A recent report from Bloomberg describe...

Unlocked Interview: Blue-Collar Empire by Jeff Schuhrke

We are joined by Jeff Schuhrke, Assistant Professor of Labor Studies at Empire State University to discuss his new book Blue-Collar Empire: The Untold Story of US Labor's Global Anticommunist Crusade. This incredible book documents the sordid collaboration between the highest levels of the AFL and the CIA, how to understand this history of labor officials collaborating with imperialism, and how we can point to examples of US workers fighting back against this collaboration to change our union...

Ep 230 - Winning at Walmart

After our headlines we discuss a new piece from Workday Magazine this week covering the progress in growing the coalition for a May Day 2028 general strike. Workers at GE Appliances are gearing up for a strike after years of lost benefits and stagnant wages since new owners Haier bought the company. More companies are making use of AI, effective or not, to justify cutting jobs, we discuss how some unions are fighting back. A story in The Guardian this week documents a shocking case of racist ...

Ep 229 - Goodwill Union Hunting

Tell Goodwill to Stop Union Busting: https://goodwillcolorado.org/about-us/contact-us/

We start this week with updates from academic workers, retail workers, nonprofit workers, and several organizing drives by the Teamsters.  Workers in Florida faced nightmare conditions this week after a second hurricane slammed into the already reeling region. Samsung workers in India continued their fight f...

OT Ep 77: Anti-Union Talking Points Pt1

In this episode we go over a ton of classic anti-union talking points and tear them apart. From tired points like "unions are a business" to unions "protecting lazy workers", in this first episode in the series we focus on the more reactionary arguments against unions. In future episode we will dig down on other misconceptions surrounding unions.

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Ep 228 - One Year of Resistance

After commemorating one year of the US-Israeli genocide in Palestine, we discuss the response from workers in Spain, who launched a one day nationwide strike demanding an end to all relations with Israel. After following up on several UAW stories, the Teamsters at Amazon, and striking hotel workers, we have an update on the Boeing strike as it moves into the long haul. Of course the big story this week was the first strike by the East Coast dockworkers in the ILA in nearly 50 years. We've als...

Ep 227 - "We'll Cripple You"

This week we start with messages of solidarity to workers across the South affected by Hurricane Helene, and workers across Lebanon affected by the horrific expansion of US-Israeli attacks. We also follow up with Unite Here hotel workers, The Bird Union's new contract, and the unsafe tobacco factories of NYC. Our first story this week examines the long struggle by Filipino healthcare workers for a living wage. Migrant workers are fighting against wage theft here in the US, as we discuss the ...

Ep 226 - World Class Workers

Support Striking ILWU Local 6 Workers: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-local-6-workers-in-their-fight-for-fair-wages

We start this week's episode with follow-ups at the University of Maine, Boston hotels, Trader Joe's in Manhattan, Starbucks in Ithaca, and Wonderful Nurseries in California. We follow up on the second week of the strike by over 30,000 Machinists at ...

Interview: Judy Gearhart of Labor Link

We are joined by Judy Gearhart to talk about her podcast Labor Link. On her show she interviews workers and worker advocates in many highly exploited industries in Southeast and Southern Asia. From garment workers in Bangladesh to migrant fishers in Thailand appalling working conditions and forms of modern slavery are highly present, and she talks to people trying to make a difference.

Find her show at: http://www.labor...

Ep 225 - Nationalize Boeing!

Legal Fund of Michigan Students for Palestine: https://chuffed.org/project/um-palestine-legalfund

Lina's back and there's so much news! We discuss repression of worker organizing at the SPLC, the Noguchi Museum, and Air Canada in our headlines segment, as well as following up on the strike by 17,000 CWA workers at AT&T. As the school year begins, we discuss a roundup of stories covering the cr...

Ep 224 - The Wage Theft Industry

We start with updates on The Bird Union, Unite Here hotel workers, the UAW, and AT&T workers on strike across the South. Following our headlines, we discuss the recent firing of rail engineer, and popular commentator, Gareth Dennis, in response to (true) statements he made about safety concerns. Thousands of rideshare drivers and supporters rallied in NYC this week to demand the city stop Uber and Lyft from locking them out of the app to evade fair wage laws. Protests erupted across Austr...

Ep 223 - Labor Day Means Strike!

It's Labor Day, and that can only mean workers standing up for our rights on the job. We begin this week with the launch of this weekend's national hotel strike by workers in Unite Here. After some quick stories on workers fighting for Palestine, the massive surge in unionization in academia, and more warehouse organizing by the Teamsters, we get into our main stories. We follow up with the UAW strike at Cornell, as workers have won a historic new contract. Workers at the Audubon Society have...

Ep 222 - North of the Border

UAW GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-uaw-brother-antonio-gastons-family-after-tragedy

AT&T Petition: https://www.cwa.org/attse-support

Another news packed week starts with some follow up on the Teamsters negotiations with Costco, the UAW's fight to hold Stellantis to the...

Ep 221 - Cornell Stands Up!

We start this week's episode with some quick check ins on: recent organizing wins by the Teamsters, a new strike at Samsung, ULPs filed against Donald Trump by the UAW, a new CEO at Starbucks, and flight attendants at Alaska Airlines fighting for a record contract. We also follow up on the long haul strike by workers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, as the NLRB has finally intervened. Workers stood up in cities across the country for Heat Week, demanding basic heat protections from their emplo...

OT Ep 76: Cannabis and Labor Pt 4

In this installment of “The Weed Series,” the gang discusses the conditions of the cannabis industry in New Mexico and Arizona. We cover workers who organized the first agricultural cannabis union in New Mexico, and Arizona workers who unionized with UFCW Local 99, including one group that now has a contract. We ask why New Mexico has so many dispensaries, and investigate the takeover of social justice initiatives in Arizona by gigantic multi-state operators. We round out with a discussio...

Ep 220 - Beat the Heat: Organize!

Another jam packed week of labor news! We start this week with follow-ups on workers at Samsung, REI, and Apple. We also follow up on the impact of Florida politicians' attempts to destroy the state's public unions, and how that has been devastating for academic workers. Reporters from the LA Times have documented how public pensions won through union struggle are now being used to fuel the crisis of gentrification and soaring rents across the country. In our main story, we cover a series of ...

Ep 219 - Working Below Subsistence

We start this week with workers advancing the struggle for solidarity with Palestine in the UE and AFT, along with international stories from Brazil and The Netherlands. Also this week, workers ratified major new contracts at Amtrak and Disneyland, and new unions were formed at Prism Reports and The Frick Museum. In our first major story, the ALU Democratic Reform Caucus swept the recent union elections at JFK8 in Staten Island, we discuss their victory and the path forward for the new leader...

OT Ep 75: Cannabis and Labor Pt 3

In this installment of “The Weed Series,” the gang discusses New York. We cover workers in Syracuse who unionized with RWDSU/UFCW 338, the state of employee protections in New York for lawful cannabis users, the multifaceted disaster of Hochul’s legal cannabis rollout, a cannabis product recall, and once again encounter the scourge of fake unions. John encourages maximum conjecture against the pod’s better journalistic instincts.

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Ep 218 - Unions Against Imperialism

We've got an especially internationalist show this week. After our headlines we start our main stories with some of the recent industrial action taken by French workers ahead of and during the ongoing Olympic Games. Next we discuss the mass protest last week against the speech by genocidal war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington DC, including a historic contingent from the labor movement. Workers in South Korea are fighting to pass a law against absurd fines for striking, but facing maj...

Ep 217 - Friends and Enemies

AFT 4 Palestine Petition: https://www.aft4palestine.org/take-action

We've got an absolutely packed show this week, starting off with checkins on the Samsung strike, the IATSE contract ratification vote, and the struggle to unionize workers at Wonderful Nurseries. Our first big story is discussion of Teamsters President Sean O'Brien's speech at the Republican National Convention, the fallout, and the reacti...

OT Ep 74: Cannabis and Labor Pt 2

In the second episode of this THC-infused Overtime series, the gang investigates the cannabis industry stronghold: California. We examine the status of employee protections for lawful cannabis users, the pesticide and additive issues prevalent in California cannabis, fake cannabis unions infiltrating the state's labor landscape, and the shape of the illegal weed industry across America's largest and most notable producer of sticky icky. John also learns how to say “bona fide”.

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