Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Striketober

Suzi talked to Crystal Hopkins, President of IATSE Local 871, just hours before a tentative agreement was reached late Saturday afternoon — ahead of the October 18 strike deadline. The contract still has to be ratified by union members and that remains a question mark. Crystal Hopkins describes the conditions and demands that are at the center of the negotiations: long working hours, low wages, and not being fairly compensated for the success of streaming service content they contribute to. IATSE workers have recounted stories like falling asleep while driving, working 17-hour days, and being unable to take time off. Listen in as we cover the issues at stake.  

Alex Press, Jacobin writer and labor podcaster, has been tracking the current strike wave that some are calling "Striketober." Ten thousand John Deere UAW workers are on strike for the first time since 1986. Two thousand nurses are on strike at a Catholic Health hospital in New York, 1400 workers at Kellogg’s cereal plants across the country, eleven hundred coal miners at Warrior Met in Alabama, and four hundred twenty United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) members at Heaven Hill Distillery in Kentucky. Sixty thousand workers at IATSE may strike on October 18; Instacart workers have an Oct 18 work action; 24,000 workers at Kaiser Permanente are poised to walk out, and there are organizing drives at Amazon, and now Starbucks. So how do we characterize and explain this militancy? Alex’s latest article, "US Workers Are in a Militant Mood," looks at these strikes and campaigns now underway and we get her take on the big picture for labor.