https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT0V-8S3xKo&list=PL3fsZgrmuTzeQ68xRTpF-QCDxxIH2nxSN&index=6

Imperialism parasitic decadent and doomed Garland Nixon and Joti Brar ep6

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwDNkscDGYE&t=4398s

Imperialism parasitic decadent and doomed Garland Nixon and Joti Brar ep7

Leslie is joined by Kevin Mapp, the USW’s International Vice President of Human Affairs.  Kevin coordinates bargaining in the union’s health care, containers, public sector and ship building sectors.

The pair discuss the power of international solidarity in the case of Bridgestone.

Multinational corporations operate globally, oftentimes attempting to pit workers in different countries against each other in a race to the bottom on wages and working conditions.
Unionized workers, however, understand that the only answer to large-scale corporate greed is global solidarity.

    - The USW works with global labor federations like IndustriALL and UNI so that they can share information about operations in different countries.
    - The USW maintains formal strategic alliances with at least six other unions in Australia, Mexico, Germany, Brazil, and the United Kingdom.

Nowhere has this been more urgent than in Liberia, where workers on Bridgestone’s massive rubber plantation have been struggling for decades to improve their working conditions.

Japanese-owned Bridgestone is one of the world’s largest tire and rubber manufacturers. It employs more than 125,000 workers worldwide, including approximately 4,000 members of the USW.

In Harbel, Liberia, Bridgestone operates the world’s largest contiguous rubber plantation, covering some 185 square miles. It’s owned by Bridgestone subsidiary, Firestone Liberia, and approximately 7,000 workers reside there with their families.

    - These workers both live and work on the plantation, buying food from the company store and sending their children to schools run by the company.
    - The work is difficult, slashing bush, tapping trees, draining latex into metal buckets that weigh 65 pounds each when full, and carrying them long distances to weigh stations.
    - This latex then goes straight into the North American supply chain, serving as the starting point for American-made tires.

In 1990, Terry Renninger, then president of Bridgestone’s Liberia operations, said, “The best way to think of it is as an old Southern plantation.”

Indeed, in the years leading up to the formation of their union, the Firestone Agricultural Workers Union of Liberia (FAWUL), workers endured what a 2005 human rights lawsuit called “forced labor, the modern equivalent of slavery.”

In 2007, workers successfully organized, and since then they’ve been making incremental progress in improving working conditions on the plantation, though serious problems remain regarding wages, health care, housing, workplace safety, and more.

On top of this, in 2019, Bridgestone fired more than 2,000 workers, forcing them instead to work for contractors, doing the same work but earning significantly lower wages without benefits or other protections provided by FAWUL’s contract.

According to the U.S.-based Solidarity Center:

    - One of the big benefits they lost was the education promised to their children, who now must walk long distances through difficult terrain to attend classes in open-air classrooms without desks or other supplies.
    - Workers struggle to afford protective glasses, boots, or gloves.
    - Living conditions are cramped, and payment for food comes out of workers’ paychecks, which can sometimes leave them with zero or negative balances on their pay slips.

Since then, these workers have pushed back, with the support of unions like the USW, as well as the Solidarity Center and others.

    - On Aug. 31, 2024, contractors voted overwhelmingly to unionize and are attempting to rejoin FAWUL.
    - FAWUL is currently in negotiations with Bridgestone, and one of the key issues is the fate of contractors.

The USW has been proud to provide strategic and bargaining support, but the true strength comes from workers themselves who have shown they’re willing to take action.

The outcome of these negotiations is still not certain, but it’s clear that workers – across the world – are strongest when they’re united.

Leslie Marshall Show -11/22/24 - The Power of International Solidarity

From salt and copper to soda ash and iron ore, members of the USW mine the many crucial resources needed to keep the U.S, Canada, and the world moving. It’s an industry that goes back 150 years, and it’s an industry that has seen exponential change over the past several decades. In the latest episode of Solidarity Works, we’re speaking with USW Vice President of Administration Emil Ramirez about all things mining. He talks about what the historic sector looks like in District 11, which he calls home, as well as what the future of the industry as a whole looks like as technology continues to expand.

Mining Matters: A Conversation with USW Vice President Emil Ramirez

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 Palestinian solidarity were often stifled from the top in the name of keeping US interests in West Asia safe from "Soviet Aggression." Finally, in light of this history,  we discuss how monumental the recent mass movement by rank and file workers to demand their unions end their collaboration with Israeli apartheid is, and why continued organizing within the union movement is our best path to making material change to US foreign policy.

Follow The Minyan on Twitter @the_minyan, and on Bluesky @minyan.bsky.social

Follow Work Stoppage at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter, and on Bluesky @workstoppage.bsky.social

Check out all of The Minyan's great episodes here: https://open.spotify.com/show/0fgRlhmbQhZpYzKOth98gq

Find all the info on Work Stoppage at http://workstoppagepod.com/

Crossover Ep: Labor Zionism (ft. The Minyan)

Mark and Clayton sit down with local actor Denise Dal Vera to learn about the SAG-AFTRA labor union. Later in the show, Mark and Clayton discuss headlines about charter schools, a labor win in Wisconsin as well as the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. 

Episode 20: SAG-AFTRA and News Roundup

It's been a new day in the United Auto Workers since the election of Shawn Fain as president in 2023, with the union carrying out an aggressive organizing and political program that has established the UAW as a major presence in American life. New Labor Forum's Micah Uetricht spoke to Jonah Furman, a top aide to Fain, about the union's strategy, its various wins and losses among nonunion auto manufacturers in the American South, its relationship to the Democratic Party under President Joe Biden, and the impact of a Donald Trump presidency on the union and labor as a whole.

Episode 54 - An Interview with the UAW's Jonah Furman

Centre for South West Asian and North African Studies at the University of Cambridge

The Palestine Lectures

Raymond Geuss - On Solidarity

The Palestine Lectures - On Solidarity

Leslie is joined by Elizabeth Brotherton-Bunch, Beth oversees communications for the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), helping to spread the word about smart public policies that guide the creation of family-supporting factory jobs.

The two discuss this year's AAM 'Made in American Holiday Gift Guide.'
They cover a mix of some of this year's incredible companies and gifts.

Here's more on it directly from AAM:

"The Alliance for American Manufacturing is thrilled to unveil the 11th edition of the Made in America Holiday Gift Guide, our annual collection of American-made gift ideas from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
We worked especially hard this year to find Made in USA companies that have not been included in the guide before, so we can shine a spotlight on even more great American makers and manufacturers. We also purposely selected an eclectic mix of items at a variety of price points, so there’s something Made in America for everyone on your list! If you still can’t find what you’re looking for, scroll to the bottom of this page for previous editions of the guide, or check out the Made in America Directory. We’ve grouped gift ideas by category on this page, but you can also navigate it by state. Happy shopping!"

Check out the gift guide at http://www.TinyURL.com/2024AAMGiftGuide.

AAM's website is www.AmericanManufacturing.org and their handle on X is @KeepItMadeInUSA. Beth's handle is @ebrotherton.

The Leslie Marshall Show - 12/10/24 - 2024 AAM 'Made in America Holiday Gift Guide'

Leslie is joined by Fred Redmond, Secretary-Treasurer of the 60 unions and 12.5 million members of the AFL-CIO.

The two discuss:

- Why there is no source that Union workers trust more for information about politics than their fellow Union workers

- How, despite the massive headwinds Democrats faced in this year's elections, Union voters turned out for Harris by a margin of 57%-41%, a slight advantage over 2020, after months of person-to-person contact focused heavily on pocketbook issues 

- How, the Union vote, almost single handedly, kept the presidential race close across the Blue Wall and other battlegrounds. It also propelled Democratic Senate candidates to victory in closely contested races

- S.T. Redmond's take on the nomination of Lori Chavez-DeRemer for Labor Secretary

- His reaction to the selection of Gwynne Wilcox to succeed Lauren McFerran as the new chair of the NLRB

- His concern and frustration at House Republicans, President-Elect Trump and Elon Musk forcing the federal government to the brink of a shutdown, and how it would leave so many hard working Americans without a paycheck right before the Holidays

In 2022, S.T. Redmond he was unanimously elected to the position as the highest ranking African American officer in the history of America’s labor movement.His path to the federation’s second-highest office began in 1973, when he went to work at Reynolds Metals Company in Chicago and became a member of the United Steelworkers (USW). He was active in his local union almost immediately, serving as shop steward and eventually vice president. He served three terms as local president.
In 2021, Redmond was elected president of the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas, a prestigious international post.

The website for the AFL-CIO is www.AFLCIO.org and their handle on Facebook, Instagram and X is @AFLCIO.  Fred's handle on X is @STRedmond.

Leslie Marshall Show - AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer on How Organized Labor is Prepping for a 2nd Trump Term

A political radio show that looks at political issues effecting working class Americans. The radio show is hosted by labor union members Mark Niehaus, Michelle Dunn and Clayton Adams. Boiling Point is based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Music played removed from recordings.

Marxist analysis of current events and scientific socialist theoretical insights from the CPGB-ML. Get educated and get organised!

The best progressive talk right here, on demand. Always Progressive, Always On!

New tracks tagged #Unions