Work Stoppage workstoppage

After a few headlines touching on a vetoed farm worker bill in Maine, Amazon organizing in Canada, a life changing win by GM sanitation workers, and UFCW rank and file action updates, we begin this week with a massive protest in Argentina to defend the university system. Then we talk about striking Indiana University graduate student workers which leads us directly into talking about the resistance camps in defense of Palestine at universities around the world. We then move back to more explicitly worker news with UAW workers at Daimler Truck who won massive gains in a TA that they will now vote on.  Amazon Flex workers are way more exploited than you likely imagine but many are fighting back. Finally, we talk about how the FTC banned non compete clauses!
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The strike by textile mill workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts in January of 1912 was one of the biggest labor struggles of the era, and launched Elizabeth Gurley Flynn onto the national stage. Already famous among radical workers for her fiery speaking abilities, her role in organizing the workers in Lawrence was critical to the strikes' success. Ensuring that all workers in town, even across 25 different nationalities, were included on equal footing, Flynn helped the workers unite stronger than ever before. Even in the face of brutal physical repression, false criminal charges, and even the kidnapping of children, the Lawrence workers stayed strong and defeated the mill bosses. The lessons of this strike, both the good and the bad, would shape Flynn's organizing career for the rest of her life.
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Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

This week we are very lucky to be joined by Mel Buer, Staff Reporter for The Real News Network while Dan is away. We begin by talking about WGA workers at Sesame Street who won a TA after threatening to strike, making a conversation with children about working conditions loom over the non-profit Sesame Workshop. We celebrate 1700 performers at Disney Land filing for a union to join 21,000 other unionized workers at the park. Then we move to the story that is making international headlines where VW workers in Chattanooga won their union vote to join the UAW, making them the first non-union automaker to win a union election in the US since 1941! Google has retaliated against 50 workers for participating in or even being near bi-coastal actions in defense of Palestine. No Tech For Apartheid is demanding that Google shut down Project Nimbus which facilitates the ongoing genocide of Palestinians. We have a deep discussion about automation and how it affects workers while talking about UPS destroying sorting facility jobs with little regard for the workers. Starbucks continues its union busting campaign despite agreeing to bargaining, and finally we discuss how unionized weed workers won a great contract by threatening to strike on 4/20.
Check out Mel's work @ https://therealnews.com/author/mel-buer and follower her on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/mel_buer
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Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee
More info on the show @ http://workstoppagepod.com/

We talk about a lot of labor history on our show, and one of the organizations we've come back to again and again is the Industrial Workers of the World. We've talked about the epic struggles in the early 20th century, but where is the IWW today, a century after its peak? We're joined by IWW Organizer and Trainer Maria Cunningham for a discussion of the modern IWW. We talk recent history, some prominent campaigns the IWW has led over the last few decades, and how the organization works in the 21st century.
To check out the IWW, go to iww.org or redcard.iww.org
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Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

We've got another episode jam packed full of new labor stories this week. After a run through the headlines, we've got big news from Canada, as workers at two Amazon warehouses in British Columbia have filed for a union election. Trader Joe's workers in Chicago have also filed, fighting a vicious union busting campaign. BU Grad workers have been on strike for weeks, fighting for wages to survive in one of the most expensive cities in the country. The CTU is gearing up for their next contract fight with a vision for working class democracy by including demands to end student homelessness. In our second Canadian story of the week we discuss the potential for a major rail strike, as Canadian rail companies are just as aggressive at cutting safety measures as their American counterparts. Finally, we discuss a rare bargaining order brought on by a bribe of bourbon.

If you're not a patron you can get the full episode by visiting patreon.com/workstoppage and support us with $5 a month.
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was already an organizer before she even left High School. Traveling the industrial cities of the northeast to speak for workers, she quickly decided to dedicate her life to the cause of the working class. Her work with the IWW would take her across the whole Northern half of the country, and bring her in contact with many of the most towering figures in US labor history, like herself. Continuing her frantic pace of organizing even while pregnant, Elizabeth never backed down from a fight. 
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Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee