Stop Forcing Workers to Stand on the Job
Many workers in the United States are forced to stand up while performing duties they could fulfill while seated. It’s pointless and mean-spirited — they deserve the right to sit down.
328 Article(s) by: Alex N. Press
Alex N. Press is a staff writer at Jacobin who covers labor organizing.
Halyna Hutchins’s Death on the Set of Rust Was “Not a Freak Accident”
Halyna Hutchins’s death during the filming of Rust is a tragic consequence of studios prioritizing profit and speed over crew members’ lives. Alec Baldwin’s culpability isn’t about him pulling the trigger on a prop gun — it’s about his and his fellow producers’ cost-cutting decisions.
Film and TV Workers Have a Tentative Deal. Will IATSE’s Rank and File Accept It?
A 60,000-person strike that would have shut down the film and television industry nationwide was averted this weekend when IATSE reached a tentative agreement with the studios. But contract ratification by the union’s members is far from guaranteed.
US Workers Are in a Militant Mood
Across the US, a more militant mood among workers is beginning to make itself felt. An uptick in private-sector strikes and record numbers of workers quitting their jobs are just two signs that the pandemic has changed workers’ willingness to accept a bad deal.
Workers at One of the Country’s Biggest Bourbon Producers Have Been on Strike for a Month
Around 420 workers at the Kentucky-based Heaven Hill Distillery have been on strike for a month. They say the company is pushing to radically change scheduling and remove a cap on health insurance premiums.
Workers at Kellogg’s Cereal Plants Across the Country Are on Strike
More than 1,400 workers at Kellogg’s cereal plants across the US are on strike. Fed up with 12- to 16-hour days, seven days a week, with mandatory overtime, they were pushed over the edge by the company’s drive to downgrade wages and benefits for new workers.
A Television Makeup Artist Explains Why IATSE Members Are Willing to Strike
IATSE members voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike today. In the television and film industry, where long hours and unpredictable schedules are the norm, crew members are being pushed to their breaking point.
Occupy Wall Street Made Me a Socialist
When I first heard about Occupy Wall Street, I thought it was goofy, even absurd. Maybe it was. But I joined its encampments anyway. Like countless others, it was the first time radical politics ever reached me.
Dirty Work Shows the Toll Bad Jobs Take on the People Who Do Them
Capitalism has created a world full of bad and brutal jobs, from meatpackers to drone operators. Capitalists created these jobs — only organized workers can get rid of them.
Dave Zirin: You Can’t Separate Sports and Politics
Over the past decade, sportswriter Dave Zirin has had a front-row seat to the upheavals sweeping professional sports. From Colin Kaepernick to the Milwaukee Bucks’ strike for Jacob Blake, athletes aren’t shutting up and playing anymore.
A Huge Unionization Vote Is Looming at the University of Pittsburgh
At the University of Pittsburgh, roughly 3,500 educators are voting on a union. If they win, it will be the largest new union in the United States this year.
Amazon Is Getting Nervous About a California Warehouse Worker Safety Bill
A warehouse safety bill proposed in the California legislature could force Amazon to be transparent about its productivity quotas — and threaten the aura of invincibility and omnipotence the company uses to intimidate and silence workers.
Amazonians United Is the Other Face of the Amazon Labor Movement
At Amazon, big organizing campaigns by established unions — like the one in Bessemer, Alabama, this year — are only the most visible face of labor organizing. The other is Amazonians United, a militant shop-floor group with a presence around the country.
No Surprise, Uber and Lyft Lied About Helping Workers
Uber and Lyft said that California’s Proposition 22 would help their drivers. We now have proof they were lying.
Amazon Is Beefing Up Its Already Dystopian Worker Surveillance Machine
Amazon is installing high-tech cameras inside supplier-owned delivery vehicles. Workers say the cameras are a shocking invasion of privacy as well as a safety hazard.
A Striking Nabisco Worker Explains Why She and 300 Coworkers Are on Strike in Chicago
Fed up with what they say are impossible schedules, disrespect, and demands for concessions, Chicago Nabisco workers joined the nationwide strike that already involves Nabisco workers from Portland, Oregon to Richmond, Virginia. We talked to one of them.
Nabisco Workers Are on Strike in Three States
A month after Frito-Lay workers walked off the job, workers who make Nabisco products like Oreos and Triscuits are on strike in Colorado, Oregon, and Virginia. They say management is trying to make already bone-grinding schedules even more intolerable.
Gig Companies Are Bringing the Disastrous Prop 22 to a State Near You
The gig companies, fresh from their Prop 22 victory in California, are seeking to repeat their success in Massachusetts, pushing a ballot measure that would strip app-based drivers of existing labor protections like the minimum wage.
Film Industry Workers Are Fed Up With Long Hours
Punishingly long hours have always been the norm in the film industry. But now, a year and a half into the pandemic, the workers behind television shows and movies are fed up and starting to organize.
Amazon’s Power Will Only Keep Expanding in the Near Future
Amazon was already gargantuan before the pandemic. Its rapid growth since then has made it one of the most powerful institutions in the country’s history — shaping our physical as much as mental landscapes, and putting more and more of our daily lives under its control.