Belabored Podcast #161: Workers Resist, Workers Rule

We look at two types of fights for workplace justice: the worker-owned cooperatives now mushrooming across the country, and a global protest at airports around the world.

Airport employees march at LAX as part of an international demonstration in airports worldwide, October 2, 2018 (FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images)

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In this episode we look at two types of fights for workplace justice: the landscape of worker-owned cooperatives now mushrooming across the country, and a global protest movement rising up at airports around the world.

In other news, we look at strike action bearing fruit on the picket lines of Sun-maid, Amazon getting on board with the Fight for $15, more Fight for $15 strikes in the US and UK, and workers struggling against exploitation and forced labor behind the glamorous edifice of the Twin Cities real-estate boom. With recommended reading on neoliberalism’s despair, and the socialist mind.

This week’s show was supported by our monthly sustaining members. If you think our work is worth supporting as we soldier on through Trumplandia, please consider becoming a member today. If you’re interested in advertising on the show, please email ads@dissentmagazine.org. And as always, if you have any questions, comments, or tips, email us at belabored@dissentmagazine.org.

News

Amazon Sets $15 Minimum Wage For U.S. Employees, Including Temps (BBC)

Thousands of service industry workers will strike next week to demand unions (Washington Post)

Uber Eats and Deliveroo riders to strike alongside McDonald’s, Wetherspoons and TGI Fridays employees (Independent)

Michelle: This Labor-Trafficking Case Exposes the Twin Cities’ Seedy Subcontracting Underbelly (The Nation)

Twin Cities Contractor Charged with Human Trafficking, Other Charges (CTUL)

Sun-Maid strike ends after 15 days, new contract effective immediately (The Fresno Bee)

Conversation

Melissa Hoover, Democracy at Work Institute of the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives

Historic federal legislation embeds support for employee-ownership within the SBA (Democracy at Work Institute)

The government just made it easier for workers to own a piece of their employer (CNN)

Airport Workers United with Shoeb Babu