Generation Overworked Youth Against Sweatshops

Yuh-Line Niou, a self-proclaimed "progressive" Asian American politician running for Congress, was recently rumored for being involved in money-laundering related to the Panama papers. If you really wanna dig up her actual involvement in theft, corruption, and money laundering that's backed up by concrete evidence, look no further than her own district, Manhattan Chinatown...

Chinatown workers called Niou out as a defender of sweatshop bosses who stole $1 million of wages and big developers who destroyed Chinatown economy for their own interest. On July 24, in a protest against a group of wage-stealing bosses in Chinatown known as the "Gang of Four", workers condemned Yuh-Line for colluding and promoting these bosses despite knowing their law-breaking acts. Amidst the public outcry against anti-Asian violence, Yuh-Line nonetheless uses her Asian face to help maintain sweatshop bosses' exploitation of Chinese workers. Is this racism? If so, how do we fight it?

03:31 Yuh-Line protects and promotes sweatshop bosses (Link)

09:15 Yuh-Line is friend of Jonathan Chu, the notorious landlord who displaced Jing Fong Restaurant (Link)

11:46 Wage theft is a widespread issue 

16:57 SWEAT Bill, the legislation to stop wage theft (Link)

21:35 Challenges of enforcing labor laws

Mahir Rahman is a graduating college student specialized in medicine and optometry at CUNY Baruch and an organizer in Manhattan Chinatown. Fight the New York State's and its ethnic elites' racism against our workers and community by joining the March Against Displacement and Racial Violence on September 26, 11 A.M. @ 150 Elizabeth St. 

This episode is devoted to those who think of "work fewer hours a day" as a lofty ideal. While our jobs certainly don't pay us enough to survive in cities like New York, the common-place bargain for more hours actually ends up making us even poorer. Zishun Ning from the Ain't I a Woman?! Campaign explains why. 

Sam and Sarah speak to Jianela from Tia.Talks on work schedules, self care, minimum wage, and our lack of control of time and health.

Sarah speaks with Kai Wen Yang (PhD, Sociology, SUNY Binghamton) who has worked as an adjunct professor for over a decade. 

Welcome to GenO (Generation Overworked), a podcast brought to you by Youth Against Sweatshops. Why are so many of us working 60, 70, 80 hours a week? And our lives, friendships and relationships are always suffering and pushed to the side. Meanwhile so many of us are unemployed and underemployed. We face long stretches of having no income of spending hours upon hours, trying to find a job – jobs that both pay too little and demand too much freelance and part-time gigs that we piece together. So even when we aren’t working, our time does not belong to us. How do we try to overcome all this baggage? In the follow episodes, We’ll throw in some analysis and history, and we’ll share what we’ve learned from our on-the-ground organizing to improve working conditions. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive hot takes and future calls to actions.