Labor news with a clenched-fist rhythm.
Work Stoppage treats the news as a workplace fight. Its panel-style conversations move from jokes to hard arguments about unions, anti-war protest, immigration enforcement, bosses, and the people trying to organize from below.
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Work Stoppage is a labor news show with a revolutionary class instinct and a fast conversational engine. It is not tidy. That is part of the point. Episodes can open with cartoons, inside jokes, or a loose aside, then pivot hard into Waffle House wages, rank-and-file union reform, ICE raids, a charter school strike, or U.S. foreign policy. The show’s center of gravity is always labor. Headlines become questions about who has power, who gets paid, who gets evicted, who gets deported, and who is expected to stay quiet at work. Recent interviews with workers connected to the IBEW and a charter school put organizing practice in the foreground. The show gives space to the granular stuff: caucus building, local chapters, contract fights, coworker politics, and the difficulty of solidarity in workplaces shaped by fear and bad ideas. It can be funny. It can also get furious quickly. Work Stoppage is especially strong when it refuses to separate domestic labor struggles from international politics. Anti-ICE organizing, anti-war protest, Venezuela, Iran, and broader imperial power all sit inside the same frame as strikes and union democracy. The show is openly skeptical of bosses, landlords, corporate executives, and political actors who redirect working-class anger away from structural conflict. It also keeps returning to a practical question: how do workers organize with the coworkers they actually have? That gives the show a grounded quality even when the rhetoric runs hot. It is not detached analysis from above. It feels closer to a meeting after the meeting, where people are still arguing, clarifying, laughing, and trying to sharpen the line. Listeners looking for neutral labor headlines may find it too partisan. Listeners who want labor coverage with a point of view will find a clear one. Work Stoppage is for people who see unions as fighting organizations, not service desks. It treats solidarity as something built through conflict, not a slogan left at the end of an episode.
Made for: For listeners who follow strikes, union reform, anti-war politics, and workplace organizing from a left labor perspective. It fits people who want argument, context, and movement stakes more than polished neutrality.
What sets it apart: Work Stoppage connects workplace stories to immigration enforcement, international conflict, party politics, and class power in one continuous frame. Its interviews and panel banter keep the analysis close to workers rather than institutional labor talking points.
Weekly Labor News from a Revolutionary perspective. Deeper labor analysis and history available @ http://patreon.com/workstoppage Website: http://workstoppagepod.com
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Work Stoppage connects labor headlines to the organizing choices, political conflicts, and workplace power beneath them.
Work Stoppage treats labor as a living political struggle, moving from workplace disputes and contract fights to housing policy, immigration enforcement, and violence against striking workers.
Snidely Whiplash wanders into a Waffle House wage fight; you'll know if that's your kind of labor news.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A shop-floor case for turning union frustration into rank-and-file power.
Work Stoppage makes a grounded case for rebuilding union power from the shop floor up. It treats an organized rank-and-file caucus or group inside a union as a practical route toward internal change, then carries that frame into harder political terrain around taxes,…
A Waffle House labor discussion grows into a broader case for workplace solidarity.
The Waffle House discussion frames low-wage work as a practical case for solidarity across workplaces. Its strongest passage connects inadequate pay, unpaid bills, and the expectation that workers keep showing up anyway, then broadens that pressure to restaurant workers, Amazon…
A rank-and-file caucus shows how union organizing can become a wider solidarity network.
Work Stoppage follows a Patreon-preview conversation with two IBEW Rank and File Caucus members about what an internal caucus can build outside formal union fights.
A sharp labor-politics discussion ties messy coworker solidarity to contract wins and violence against striking workers.
Work Stoppage treats coworker politics as an organizing problem, not a test of online purity. The discussion's central point is practical: workers do not get to choose their colleagues, so solidarity depends on distinguishing actively anti-solidaristic behavior, including hard…
A milestone episode ties Minneapolis rent-strike pressure to eviction policy, delayed aid, and local political power.
Episode 300 uses its milestone lightly, opening with jokes about 300 and its lingering generational footprint before turning toward Minneapolis and the politics around eviction.
A fierce pro-worker episode turns $2 wages into a broader call for solidarity.
Work Stoppage builds a sharp labor case from a worker's account of $2-an-hour pay and dependence on tips, treating low wages as a feature of the business model rather than a flaw.
A 1933 strike camp makes a sharp case for cross-racial solidarity under repression.
Work Stoppage treats California's 1933 farm labor conflict as a story of organized solidarity meeting growers, armed vigilantes, and repression.
This Patreon preview examines a fascist period in 1930s California farm labor history, focusing on the 1933 cotton strike in the San Joaquin Valley.
Hosts John, Dan, and Lena cover labor news from a revolutionary perspective.
The hosts promote their Patreon on Giving Tuesday, discussing the extra work behind their premium content and referencing their series on the International Longshoremen's Association.
Work Stoppage hosts Lena and Dan interview Leo, a Portland, Maine apprentice inside wireman, and Kevin, a San Mateo journeyman inside wireman, about CREW, the Caucus of Rank-and-File Electrical Workers inside the IBEW.
Work Stoppage Ep.
["Work Stoppage previews an IBEW Rank and File Caucus interview about union power, immigrant defense, and internal reform.", "Kevin and Leo describe how caucus relationships reach beyond bargaining, from ICE alerts to eviction help in Southern Maine.", "They point to American Roots in Westbrook, Oakland Educators Association's rapid-response line, and the idea that model union members build credibility before a fight.", "The preview closes on the caucus's growth plan: chapters in every IBEW district, contract campaigns, strike power, apprenticeship recruitment, and support for the SFO AirTrain maintenance strike at Alstom."]
The hosts discuss the No Kings protests against Trump, addressing criticisms that they are co-opted by Democrats but arguing they still provide space for anti-imperialist organizing.
Teachers from Highlander Charter School discuss their recent unionization with IBEW and their historic strike for a fair contract.
Hosts John, Dan, and Lena of Work Stoppage open episode 301 discussing how to navigate 'fucked up coworker politics' while organizing, using John's story of a coworker who called electric cars 'bad for America.' They cover a wave of labor news: a 24-hour walkout by CBS's News Guild after Barry Weiss became station chief and CBS cut 60 jobs, a 92% strike-authorization vote by ProPublica's News Guild after two years of stalled bargaining, a boycott vote against REI over its use of union-busting firm Morgan Lewis, and a shareholder push to remove two Starbucks board members over labor disputes.
Marking their 300th episode, hosts John, Dan, and Lena of Work Stoppage open with a riff on the movie 300 before covering a wide sweep of labor news.
The hosts discuss the US intervention in Venezuela and broader imperialist policies, expressing frustration with ongoing global conflicts.
This preview episode discusses the role of Mexican workers in the U.S.
This episode preview discusses a fascist period in California farm labor history, focusing on worker strikes and their suppression.
The hosts of Work Stoppage discuss recent events and introduce a shorter episode due to time constraints.