These Mauser workers in Chicago are not only still on strike, but have extended their picket lines to California and Minnesota. They do the notoriously difficult work of using high-powered tools to clean and repaint drums used to transport chemicals, and they're demanding basic dignity and safety.

To renew democracy, we have to organize fearlessly in the face of a repressive state, despite all the reasons we have for being afraid. Every act of resistance can steel the courage of others. We have to rediscover the power of civil disobedience and solidarity. open.substack.com/pub/lowerfre...

TOMORROW AT 12PM 📆 🔥 Shut down billionaires. Fund our future. ✊ Shut down fascists. Protect migrants and the global majority. 🌍 Shut down polluters. Defend Mother Earth. 🥾 March on the billionaires. #MakeBillionairesPay RSVP at www.makebillionairespay.us/nyc

Yes, the war in Gaza is a genocide. I hope you’ll take a moment to read my op-ed here:

There should be no forgiveness for Ezra Klein, Gavin Newsom, or anyone else who whitewashed Charlie Kirk's image in the wake of his death. They participated in a cleanup job that is facilitating Kirk's status as a "martyr." They have had a hand in the harm the administration will do in Kirk's name.

ABC doesn't want to be in the linear television business anymore because linear television is on its way out. Any pretext to dump salaries and wind down programming, they will take. I've been saying this for years. Nobody is prepared.

“If you would look away from the words of Charlie Kirk, from what else would you look away?” Important contribution.

The culprit:

Illinois State Senator Karina Villa sprang into action to protect her community from ICE raids, alerting neighbors to their rights and chasing off masked agents. This is how you stand up to authoritarianism. We should all be inspired by Sen. Villa's courage.

NEW: Recently we reported on L.A. honor student and track star Nory Sontay Ramos and her mom Estela, deported after a routine immigration check-in. Weeks after we met them in Guatemala, where they were in hiding, Estela died suddenly. www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/d...

Do not assume that everything they set out to do is inevitable. They have been successfully fought on multiple fronts, from courtroom wins that have actually stuck to city and state governments that haven't backed down, to activists in the streets organizing against their violence.

Every Dem official and centrist who has compared Kirk to MLK or his death to 9/11, or said his work should continue, or otherwise whitewashed his legacy of hate, dehumanization, and harassment has had a hand in enabling this administration's weaponization of Kirk's death against critics & opponents.

I hope people understand that the anomaly here aren’t the conditions—the conditions are very typical—the anomaly is that they put a number of documented workers from a high-income country in those conditions. This is how people are treated in custody routinely

"Even though President Trump says he is pivoting from plans to deploy the National Guard in Chicago — now eyeing Memphis as his next target — ICE officers appear to still be escalating operations throughout the area, with devastating consequences."

Read it while listening to this song for a complete immersive experience: youtu.be/CtVyl402W5s?...

Willian Gimenez was abducted by ICE yesterday in Chicago. He had been part of a lawsuit against off-duty police and Home Depot employees for abusing day laborers. Latino Union says he was targeted for advocating for his rights as a worker. @bloomekatz.bsky.social and I report.

Meanwhile. Workers are dying on the job. The smooth functioning of capitalism ravages lives. We need the democratization of economic life. labornotes.org/2025/09/geor...

Here is the @uaw.org statement on the arrests at Hyundai (h/t @lfelizleon.bsky.social)

Breaking: Support the Hyundai workers in Georgia. Press conference on Monday, September 8 at 11 am.

Breaking: The FTC has reversed its ban on non-compete the contracts. The announcement by Student Borrower Protection Center to compares Training Repayment Agreement Provisions (TRAPs) to “modern-day indentured servitude—forcing low-wage workers to pay their bosses just to quit.”

Two of the largest workplace raids of Trump’s second administration happened this week in Georgia and New York. We must do what is morally right instead of what is legally wrong. We have to disobey the diktats of the Trump regime and refuse to go along with injustice.

Black employment and unemployment can be a bit of a leading indicator, so the fact that Black EPOP has been falling steadily might mean a lot.

Been thinking a lot about Fort Sheridan, north of Chicago. It was built on land donated by Chicago's wealthy elite to have a nearby army base so troops would be around to break strikes and respond to labor unrest. Sheridan Road existed in large part to transport troops to Chicago's south side.

Today's episode of Good News For Lefties addresses - among other stories - the great news article (jacobin.com/2025/08/batt...) brought to us by @lfelizleon.bsky.social at @jacobinmag.bsky.social about progress in unionizing the South. LISTEN: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/m...

Labor Day weekend wasn’t what it was cracked up to be. Instead of a 1,000 rallies and protests, there were hundreds. Meanwhile in Indonesia, there’s some inspiration for mass action. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNDQ...

Diptych

"Labor and community are planning more than a barbecue on Labor Day this year because we have to stop the billionaire takeover." Let me know of any creative actions or protests that break the mold.

This is a very cogent article about the plight of immigrant workers and the failed two parties. It’s far too easy for the intellectually constipated, as Lionel Trilling called conservatives, to dismiss the need for political independence from the Democrats. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/o...

Shocking to see it in the NYT: “But Democrats and Republicans colluded to let it loose, and we must reckon with the bipartisan nature of our immigration regime if we are to restrain it.” www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/o...

The oligarchs are waging a war on the working class. Now it's our turn to fight back. Starting with the billionaires who spent over $19 million trying - and failing - to defeat @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social‬ in the New York Democratic Primary 🧵

The outcome will hinge on 41 challenged ballots (as of 10 p.m. Wednesday night, an unofficial tally showed 526 yes and 515 no votes). The union called those ballots “illegitimate,” and called on Ford to “drop their anti-democratic effort to undermine the outcome of the election.”

"Kentucky battery plant workers at the BlueOval SK Battery Park (BOSK) in Glendale have voted to join the United Auto Workers." Breaking news from @lfelizleon.bsky.social!

Breaking: Kentucky battery plant workers join the UAW in a major win. But the victory comes at a time when the NLRB is hamstrung & employers are on the hunt. Will Ford accept the democratic choice of its workers? labornotes.org/2025/08/kent...

Breaking: UAW Local 647 is on strike as of midnight against GE Aerospace in Ohio. Solidarity!

Breaking: The UAW says it’s won the union election to represent battery workers at Ford joint venture BlueOval in Kentucky. There are 41 challenged ballots. Story in Labor Notes tomorrow.

Elon's DOGE Muskjugend uploaded a dataset of every Social Security number to the god damn cloud www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/u...

Seems like NABTU's statement last month saying "Mr. President, we need your help. You’re a builder. You’ve forgotten more about what it takes to develop and build a project than practically anybody in the world ever knew" (and asking him to send ICE to a construction site) didn't work, weird.

Breaking: “Let’s call the Department of the Interior’s stop-work order for Revolution Wind what it is: President Donald Trump just fired 1,000 of our members who had already labored to complete 80% of this major energy project.“ nabtu.org/press_releas...

The crypto lobbyists trying to buy elections to stop people from regulating the crypto industry are now also trying to buy elections to stop people from regulating the AI industry www.wsj.com/politics/sil...

NYC immigrant subway cleaners, hired to sanitize trains in 2020, were underpaid by contractors. Now they’ll receive millions in back wages after a New York City audit. By @lfelizleon.bsky.social

Nicolas Coronado, who's leading Teamsters 705’s negotiations with Mauser, made an important point. Mauser is being more accommodating to federal immigration authorities than it would likely be to other federal entities, like OSHA. “It’s not likely they’re letting in OSHA without a judicial warrant."

Read about A.I. Forget all the fearmongering. Automation is about power and control, the big themes of human civilization. Photo courtesy of Walter P. Reuther Library. open.substack.com/pub/lowerfre...

NEW: In a long-awaited victory, immigrant subway cleaners in NYC just won $3 million in back pay in a settlement secured by city comptroller Brad Lander. When workers get fair pay, it benefits all of us. More of this. @lfelizleon.bsky.social in @inthesetimes.com:

Workers at Mauser plant in Chicago have been on strike 11 wks and counting to demand protections against federal immigration authorities, among other demands. They want management to turn away ICE and DHS, unless they present a signed judicial warrant. My report from Teamsters Local 705 picket line.

Some justice, thanks in good part to the efforts of Comptroller Brad Lander!

ICYMI: About 450 immigrant workers hired to disinfect New York City’s subways at the height of the pandemic were given inadequate equipment and paid less than the city’s prevailing wage. They have now won more than $3 million in back pay. inthesetimes.com/article/new-...

Immigrant workers aren’t exceptional. The marvel in Washington, D.C. has the sweat & blood stains of enslaved Black labor. The West is a charnel house of defeated indigenous resistance. Many of us immigrants are here because the U.S. Marines were over there. inthesetimes.com/article/new-...

Contributor Yousef Aljaal is one of the foremost writers on Gaza. His sister, her husband & two of their three daughters were killed on August 6 in an Israeli airstrike. Their 14-year-old daughter Noor was the only survivor.

The Mauser strike is about more than wages. It’s about fighting for immigration protections and fair treatment for all workers. Learn how Teamsters are demanding that the company protect its Latino and Black workforce. @lfelizleon.bsky.social reports inthesetimes.com/article/maus...