We start this week with a call to action as the American Gestapo are attempting to deport a student for protesting against genocide. Our headlines section this week includes the Oscars, Long Island power plant workers, a first contract for battery plant workers, and Sesame Street.  The fight for a contract with VW is heating up, and workers at a parts distribution warehouse in New Jersey are joining the fight. We've got a Canadian double header this week, as thousands of education workers strike in Alberta while picketers in Waterloo face violence on the picket line. Workers at REI are taking the fight for a union to the company's board elections. Finally, we do our best to cover the whirlwind of attacks on government workers from the Trump-Musk Administration.

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Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

More info on the show at http://workstoppagepod.com/

Ep 249 - Free Mahmoud Khalil

Eventually, some day, we may get back to shorter episodes. Today is not that day. We start with headlines from Amazon, Microsoft, Simmons and Wellesley Universities, and the Supreme Court. For our first main story we dive into the union led protests against attacks on research funding by Trump and the billionaires. Next we dive into Shawn Fain's recent Facebook Live event discussing UAW policy on tariffs and trade, and how that affects workers outside the US. Finally, we close out with the fight against deportations and abductions that is going to need to continue to accelerate.

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Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

More info on the show at http://workstoppagepod.com/

Ep 254 - Bring Them All Home

Migrant Justice Petition: https://migrantjustice.net/node/556

Headlines this week from PetSmart, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Wellesley College, Kroger,  and the Port of Casablanca. We discuss a piece this week from The American Prospect on the rampant abuse of independent contractor labels in the construction industry. Also this week, attacks on immigrant workers continued to escalate with 8 dairy workers arrested in Vermont. Trump's tariffs continue to wreak havoc on workers, with many manufacturers cutting, rather than increasing jobs. Finally, we check in with Starbucks Workers United, where workers have taken to direct action as the company continues to refuse to offer a fair contract after three years.

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Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

More info on the show at http://workstoppagepod.com/

Ep 256 - The Cows Don't Milk Themselves

We start with some check-ins Starbucks' war on workers, the fight by workers at Butler Hospital, and the continuing cruel attacks on workers by the Trump Administration. We've also got headlines this week from Duke, Western Washington University, Sutphen Corp, Golden Gate Nursing Home, and UPMC. Canadian port workers in British Columbia are fighting attempts to replace their jobs with robots. Farm workers in New York are fighting the brazen refusal of farm owners to abide by their legal contract. A recent piece in Labor Notes reports on efforts by both the SEIU and the Machinists to return their union siblings home after being abducted by ICE. Finally, video game workers have been organizing in bigger numbers every year, and this week saw workers at Zenimax reach a new milestone with a first contract.

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Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

Ep 261 - Mismanagement Disguised as Innovation

This week's headlines include stories from workers at Safeway, Fenway Park, the Louvre, Johns Hopkins, Butler Hospital, and the video game industry. For our first story, we discuss a recent report in Truthout on the massive wins made by mental health workers at Kaiser Permanente after their epic strike. Panamanian workers have continued to fight against attacks on their rights and social security, as their government turns to legal repression. Universities across the country have gone to extreme lengths to suppress Palestine protests, this week we discuss an expose of dystopian (and sloppy) surveillance at the University of Michigan. Canada Post workers are once again at a crossroads between an intransigent government and the possibility of another strike. Finally, we check in on the growing coalition in the labor movement and the broader working class to organize against ICE terrorism.

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Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

Ep 263 - Fight for Farmworkers

Workers Against Ice Petition: <https://form.jotform.com/251684939561066>

Oakland Children's Hospital Strike Fund: <https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-nuhw-members-at-childrens-hospital-oakland>

After a brief detour discussing the necessity for labor to unite against the US-Israeli war on Iran, we dive into our regular labor headlines. This week we've got followups with striking grocery workers, beverage distribution workers, tabletop game store employees, teachers, and farmworkers. Our first story returns to one of the more horrific forms of labor in this country, prison slavery, as incarcerated workers in Alabama fight to just have the state follow its own laws. Next, gig workers in India are facing dystopian new conditions of ten minute worker deliveries. Research assistants at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are on the verge of forming one of the largest single campus grad unions in the country. Finally, healthcare workers at Oakland Children's Hospital are on strike after their employers in the UC system are proposing to slash their benefits.

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Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

Ep 264 - No War But Class War

Warehouse Workers Against ICE Petition: https://form.jotform.com/251684939561066

Petition Supporting Columbia Students: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/1d7c3280b87eb84ead62ae8750dbe02c6edfbfd4/?hash=ee7d69beeb2f8db225aa3325fd24f306

Big episode this week as the billionaire assault on workers rights isn't slowing down, nor are efforts to organize against it. We start with updates on workers at Lowe's, Costco, Amazon, Wells Fargo, Republic Services, Airgas,  GM, and Newark Airport.  Waste management workers aren't just fighting for a fair wage in the US, in Birmingham in the UK they've been on a series of strikes since March. We've got several stories this week of how educators are organizing against attacks on anti-genocide speech. The AAUP are fighting against the McCarthyite attacks in court, Rank and File members of the NEA are fighting to get the ADL's anti-Palestinian materials out of schools, and student workers at CUNY and University of Michigan are fighting to keep speech alive on their campuses. Finally, we check in on some of the impacts of ICE's reign of terror around the country, and the ways workers are coming up with new tactics of community resistance.

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Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

Ep 268 - Community Is Our Strength

Warehouse Workers Against ICE Petition: https://form.jotform.com/251684939561066

Palestinian Trade Unions Statement: https://masarbadil.org/en/2025/07/6308/

No Azure for Apartheid Pledge: https://t.co/df0U2S9P26

We're back after our brief vacation! And so much has happened in the last two weeks! We've got a supersized headline section covering workers organizing at REI, Starbucks, FedEx, UPS, Airgas, Care New England, the Wonderful Company, Canada Post, and more. For our major stories, we start with a review of how university administrators are using the Trump Administration's attacks on higher education as cover to push forward attacks on student organizers. While many workers are coming together to fight ICE, a recent Labor Notes report documents how the leadership of some parts of the building trades are failing the most basic test of a union leader: solidarity. Workers at Fenway Park have gone on strike for the first time after contracting giant Aramark refuses to pay them enough to live in one of the most expensive parts of the country. Finally, we discuss the state of ICE's attacks on the US working class and how more and more Americans are realizing the shared interests we have with our immigrant siblings.

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Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

Ep 269 - Stand Together or Fall Alone

We're back to full strength this week and have another jam packed episode for you! We start with headlines from workers at Microsoft, Uber, Amazon, Portuguese Airports, Kaiser Permanente, SpaceX, and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Then we've got a follow up on last week's landmark defiance of Canada's attempt to crush the Air Canada strike, with flight attendants winning big after standing their ground. Next we've got an update on the war on education, with stories from the University of Oregon, Columbia University, the AAUP, and public school teachers in Oklahoma. Continuing with our airport centered theme, we also have a maddening story of union busting by airport transportation contractor SkyHop, from a recent report by Amir Khafagy for Documented. Finally, after nearly four months, the workers at Butler Hospital in Providence, RI finally won their strike and ratified a new contract, we discuss what they won in the process.

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Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

Ep 272 - So Be It

It's Labor Day! Which means we're working and hopefully you aren't, because the labor news needs reporting, but everyone else needs to be at a protest, picket line, and/or barbecue. We start with headlines from Northwestern University, Arena League Football, the Offshore Wind industry, Yosemite National Park, UPMC, Activision Blizzard, and Valleyview Municipal Library in Alberta, Canada. For our main stories we discuss the continued campaign of escalations by the incredible organizers with No Azure for Apartheid, fighting Microsoft's collaboration with genocide. Next we've got a story that couldn't be more emblematic of the purpose of the nationwide campaign of ICE terror, with union organizers in upstate New York being specifically targeted for deportation. Uber and Lyft drivers in California took a major step towards official unionization this week, but the deal that made that possible comes with quite a few asterisks. Finally, the UAW notched another major win in an extremely tight election at the BOSK EV battery plant in Glendale, Kentucky.

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Follow the pod at instagram.com/workstoppage, @WorkStoppagePod on Twitter,  John @facebookvillain, and Lina @solidaritybee

New tracks tagged #university workers