The US war on Iran continues to create an emergency for the working class worldwide, and we start by discussing the need for workers to enter the struggle to end it. We've got headlines this week from LabCorp, Mercedes, JBS, Home Depot, DHL Express, Patagonia, Crumbs & Whiskers and The Holy Donut. For our first full story, we discuss the ongoing strike by teachers in Sacramento. Next, yet another story has come out revealing a new smart device's "AI" features are actually just poorly paid remote workers. Florida is taking yet another major step in its war on public unions. Finally, we discuss how workers continue to fight against Gestapo terror here in the belly of the beast.

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Texas IBEW Member Legal Fee Funds: 

Our episode this week is a bit lighter on labor stories as the launch of yet another war by the US takes up most of our intro. When we do get back into the labor news we have headlines from Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, Texas IBEW, Twin Rivers USD, St John's University, Burger King, Panipat Refinery in India, and the nation of Mexico. The first of our two major stories this week is on an upcoming strike by contingent faculty at NYU who can barely afford to live while working at one of the country's most expensive universities. Finally, there has been yet another major strike launched by incarcerated workers in Alabama against prison slavery and the cruelty and inhumanity of the Alabama Department of Corrections.

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SWOC Hardship Fund: https://opencollective.com/student-workers-of-columbia

We start with headlines this week from Columbia University, Penn, Volkswagen, New York Presbyterian Hospital, Mission Hospital, and the nation of Argentina. For our first major story this week, we discuss recent reporting on South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang, which is mimicking not just Amazon's market share, but its worker abuses as well. Workers have been taking to the streets to fight the billionaire assault, but the AAUP has also been taking the billionaires to court, and they've been winning. Finally, we discuss the next stage of the fightback in Minneapolis, as unions and tenants have come together to organize what could be the largest rent strike in modern US history.

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Our episode begins with some silliness, but we do get to labor headlines. We've got stories from Ubisoft, Taco Bell, Kaiser Permanente, Ford, Starbucks, and big protests in Argentina and India. The nurses strike in New York *almost* came to an end this week, but nurses at NY Presbyterian are staying out. San Francisco teachers won their first strike since 1979, we break down how last week went. Meatpacking workers with JBS are on the front lines of the joint struggle for immigrant workers specifically and the working class broadly and are ready to strike despite threats of deportation. Finally, we discuss how the class struggle in Minnesota has forced the government to back down, and why more action is needed to win the struggle against ICE terror.

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In our newest series led by our Italian reporter Matteo we get to hear from a worker organizer, Romeo, of the Feb 6, 2026 international strike of Mediterranean dockworkers against war and for Palestine. CALP or the Autonomous Collective of Port Workers is a militant collective of workers who have had enough of the ruling imperialist class trying to force them into complicity with international crimes against humanity so they have become sand in the machine, shutting down weapons shipments coming through their ports. 

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We start with headlines from Waymo, Kaiser Permanente, San Francisco teachers, Los Angeles teachers, REI, Seven Stars Bakery, Starbucks, and the state of Nebraska. New York nurses have been on strike for over a month, we discuss the state of their strike and the possible deals announced on Monday. VW workers in Chattanooga won a historic victory for organizing in the South with their recent contract win, we break down the gains. Workers across Europe blocked ports for Palestine this week, even as Western governments and media outlets try to ignore it.  Finally, we discuss the targeted attacks on workers organizers by ICE and the way students and rank and file union members are organizing to stop it.

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Once again our main focus this week is the struggle against ICE's reign of terror. Beyond Minneapolis, the working class outrage at the crimes of DHS exploded into a nationwide shutdown. In our main story we discuss the implications of this growing movement for trade unionism and the broader struggle for working class political power. Before we get to that however, we start with headlines from CUNY, Ubisoft, Trader Joe's, PAME and Starbucks. Beyond the nationwide political struggle this week were two major stories we also wanted to cover. First we check in on the fight to preserve the gains of the last two decades by the working class in Bolivia. And we also check in on the largest *economic* strike in the country, as 31,000 healthcare workers walked out once again at Kaiser Permanente.

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The eyes of the nation have been on Minneapolis all week, and our main story this week is on Friday's general strike and the need to expand it. Before that, we start with headlines from the Louvre, Cayuga Medical Center, TikTok, Wafler Farms, and the AAUP. For our main regular labor stories, we start with a roundup of recent stories on attempts to replace workers with AI (and their failures). Spanish Amazon workers have been more successful than most in winning union recognition, and a recent piece in Truthout documents how they've done it. Just a few weeks into his term, new NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani has already started trying to leverage the power of city government for pro worker reforms. We close of course discussing the historic citywide general strike in Minneapolis and the critical importance of growing the movement against fascism across the entire country.

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In light of the Jan 23, 2026 Twin City general strike we are unlocking this episode so people can look at another general strike in Twin City history. We start this episode off in Toledo but in the second half we look at Minneapolis.

Folks are rising up across the country outraged by ICE's reign of terror. Our main story is on the popular fightback in Minnesota, but first we have headlines from ArcelorMittal, Ford, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Portland State University, Blinkit, Barnes and Noble, and Kaiser Permanente. We follow up on last week's historic strike by 15,000 nurses in NYC. A recent piece in Dissent Magazine details the surge in the use of robots at Amazon and the harms born by workers. Also this week, we discuss the corrosive impact on working people of having a far right government using Nazi slogans in power.

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