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.
276 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Alabama Amazon Workers Are Likely Getting a Second Shot at a Union
A federal official has recommended that the results of the union election at Amazon’s Bessemer, Alabama warehouse be thrown out and a second election be held, due to the company’s illegal anti-union tactics. It’s a step forward for the essential task of organizing one of the world’s most powerful companies
Amazon Is Creating Company Towns Across the United States
In more and more of the country Amazon acts like an employer in a company town, sucking up whole communities and shaping public goods and services to fit its profit-making needs.
Frito-Lay Workers Are on Strike for Their Lives
Hundreds of workers are on strike at the Frito-Lay plant in Topeka, Kansas. Many of them are working 12-hour days, seven days a week, and some haven’t had a day off in five months — conditions that are literally killing them.
The Federal Writers’ Project Fueled the Cultural Ferment of the New Deal Era
FDR’s Federal Writers’ Project employed thousands of out-of-work writers to produce guidebooks, compile local histories, and collect stories of the country at a moment of turmoil. We need an equivalent program today.
The Bezos Theory of Value Is Deeply Disturbing
In his final letter to shareholders as Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos offers a novel — and profoundly disturbing — conception of value creation: a handful of visionaries are the sole source of all “real value.” This aristocracy mercifully blesses customers, clients, and even Amazon workers with social goods.