Work Stoppage

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.

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.

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.

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.

John, Lina, and Dan cover Amazon hiring former FBI employees as “Intelligence Analysts”, teachers in Texas forming a minority union in the face of horrible Covid working conditions, a West Virginia bill aiming to ban teachers’ strikes,and taxi drivers in New York blocking the Brooklyn Bridge demanding pandemic debt relief.  In our main story, we cover a recent lawsuit over the practice of child slavery in the cocoa industry in West Africa, in which all of the world’s major chocolate producers are complicit, and how the practice of forced labor is used in the US prison system to produce superprofits for major US corporations. 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.

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. There are so many work stoppages by teachers this week that John, Lina, and Dan do a whirlwind roundup to cover the actions around the country, including Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco.  We also follow up on the Alphabet Workers Union and their first legal action, a union drive at a Pennsylvania marijuana grower being nipped in the bud by the NLRB, a brief update on the union drive at the Bessemer, Alabama Amazon facility, and a dive into Amazon’s new horrific “Megacycle” shifts being forced on warehouse workers. Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.

John, Lina, and Dan discuss a union drive at the largest hospital in Maine, a horrific workplace accident in Georgia and why OSHA is no substitute for a union, and a change to how wage theft is reported.  We also cover a massive general strike in Haiti, Amazon being fined for stealing up to a third of the tips their Flex drivers were supposed to be earning, and how lockouts have spiked during the pandemic as an anti-union measure. 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.

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 follow up on some recent communication problems between the CWA and AWU, cover a teachers strike in Bellevue, WA and the attempted union busting by the school district, as well as striking care workers at Sage Nursing Home in North London.  We also cover a corruption scandal in the UAW and the potential for democratization of the union as a result of the fallout, and discuss some critiques of co-ops vs industrial unionism. Check out the Sage Care Workers video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCvDQZqHvC4 Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.

It’s a follow up heavy episode this week as John, Lina, and Dan cover victory for the Teamsters in the Hunts Point Market strike, the NFLPA coming out in support of the Amazon workers union drive in Alabama, the Indian farmers storming the Red Fort in New Delhi, the Chicago Teachers Union refusing to work in unsafe conditions, proposed anti-union legislation in Montana, and new dystopian practices taken by Lyft.    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.

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 follow up on the major Amazon workers union vote in Alabama, look into the conditions in the trucking industry that have made strikes more difficult, cover strikes by the Teamsters in New York and fast food workers across California.  We get into why the Fight For $15 doesn’t go nearly far enough, discuss the roadblocks Democrats in Virginia have put up to stop attempts to repeal Right to Work, and go over the potential outcome of Donald Trump being kicked out of SAG-AFTRA. Join the discord: discord.gg/tDvmNzX Follow John @facebookvillain, Lina @solidaritybee and find Dan in the discord as Kelbaenor.