That’s why it’s difficult to celebrate important victories to inspire and boost the morale of fighters in our movement for justice and freedom when the larger reality is one of tremendous loss and defeat.

The crisis of democracy is one of profound social inequality. What’s happening today with the capitalist capture of the political and economic realms of society surpasses the wettest dreams of Gilded Age-era tycoons.

This week, New Yorkers won a rent freeze. @psc-cuny.org members testified after seeing students face eviction and housing insecurity. “This is a city’s crisis, and it’s not just the CUNY students who are suffering.”

Alex Press has an excellent story on the Latin refrain: Who watches the Watchmen? jacobin.com/2026/06/uaw-...

We're up to 20 immigrant detainees (by the official count) dead this year in ICE custody, and 58 since the beginning of 2025. A new report from Human Rights Watch finds a 138% increase in the annualized mortality rate under Trump, suggesting human rights violations. Here's our story.

JFC. Chad Jones, economist who'll be joining Anthropic: "In other words, with log utility it is optimal to take a 1 in 3 chance of ending human existence in exchange for a 2/3 chance of dramatically raising living standards by a factor of 55." www.ft.com/content/bb04...

Darializa only came out of nowhere if you didnt know her as one of Zohran's primary Washington Heights field leads. AOC only came out of nowhere if you didnt know her as one of Bernie's primary Bronx field leads. Will journalists start respecting field leads? Probably not!

New York City freezes rents for one million apartments in Mayor Mamdani victory reut.rs/3SkmDTT

US Postal Service tells Congress it needs help, running out of cash reut.rs/3SG9dBy

If AI isn't as valuable to end-users as they thought, then data centers aren't as valuable to construct. And if they're not valuable to construct, the financing underlying them is overvalued. Meaning some of it will go bust. And that will cascade through the financial system...

I curated a (mostly) exhaustive list of Juneteenth celebrations across the country. Chances are there’s one near you!

The federal government arrested and indicted 15 people on conspiracy charges over the protests and massive strike against ICE in Minnesota last winter. The Minneapolis 15 include union carpenters, electricians, teachers, university staff, and nursing home workers. labornotes.org/blogs/2026/0...

This month, in multiple settings, including the AFL-CIO convention, Minnesota's labor movement has been honored and given awards for standing up to ICE. Now trade unionists are among those being targeted by the federal govt, which is citing participation in worker assemblies as proof of conspiracy.

- The largest international coalition of Amazon workers in history united to share frontline organizing stories and develop strategies for taking on the global logistics behemoth. 2/5

- A sea of Knicks fans at an evening watch party erupted into cheers after the team clinched the championship! 5/5

Here is what a fact-finding team established at the scene: there was no emergency exit. There was no exhaust vent – not a single opening through which smoke could escape. There was nothing. thewire.in/rights/amazo...

Delaney Hall is a 1,000-bed private detention center in Newark where immigrants are jailed without due process. @lfelizleon.bsky.social reports that 300 detained workers are refusing food and labor to demand medical care, release for vulnerable people and freedom for all.

"The standard narrative: Beijing picked winners, poured in subsidies, and created EV champions. We show that this is largely a misperception--Central policy actually BLOCKED most cities and private firms from the auto industry for decades." Superb article! www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Much attention in recent years has focused on the negative effects of technologies like AI for consumers and white-collar workers, writes @lfelizleon.bsky.social. Less attention gets paid to warehouse workers.

Immigrants detained at Delaney Hall say they have been denied medical care, served food with worms and forced to work for as little as $1 an hour, or for no pay at all. @lfelizleon.bsky.social reports 300 detained workers are on strike demanding freedom.

UAW members at American axle are on strike. labornotes.org/2026/05/cont...

Delaney Hall is a 1,000-bed private detention center in Newark where immigrants are jailed without due process. @lfelizleon.bsky.social reports that 300 detained workers are refusing food and labor to demand medical care, release for vulnerable people and freedom for all.

Update: UAW members are on strike at American Axle. Here’s my story on the contract negotiations leading up to the strike. labornotes.org/2026/05/cont...

Since May 22, 300 detained immigrant workers at Delaney Hall in Newark have been on a work stoppage and hunger strike. “We are also doing this to demand freedom,” one worker said. “We’re not treated like people. We’re treated like animals.”

Read the piece by @lfelizleon.bsky.social 5/5 labornotes.org/blogs/2026/0...

Lockheed Martin Board Roll Call. The stock has been up over 45 percent in the last six months as Trump has prepped for this stupid fucking war. They're making a killing on killing.

No war with Iran. Let Cuba live. Open the concentration camps imprisoning immigrants.

The U.S. Senate must be clear: no war with Iran.

This blind man - a refugee from Burma - was dropped off by Border Patrol at a Tim Horton's in Buffalo, NY. In the middle of February. A mile from a home where he no longer lived. While his relatives were searching for him. Cops found his body 5 days later www.investigativepost.org/2026/02/25/b...

GOAL: Bruce Springsteen 🤝 Labor Notes Conference REQUEST: Dear comrades and allies, if you know someone (who knows someone) who can make the connection, please tag/DM @lfelizleon.bsky.social! 🙏

Good morning. This might be an impossible request. But we’ve done incredible things together. Who can connect me to Bruce Springsteen’s people for him to perform “Streets of Minneapolis” at the Labor Notes conference on the night of June 12?

Breaking: Volkswagen workers have voted by 96 percent to ratify their first union contract. labornotes.org/2026/02/majo...

For four decades, a federal count of union members has been the annual physical exam for the labor movement. Did we grow or shrink, and where? Read a sober assessment of union membership numbers. labornotes.org/blogs/2026/0...

MAJOR: Twin Cities Tenants joins five labor unions, together repping 25,900 members, to launch a rent strike drive, vowing to withhold rent March 1 if @governorwalz.mn.gov fails to deliver an eviction moratorium and rent relief. If launched, this would be the largest US rent strike in 100+ years.

I reported on the past, present, and future of North Carolina's Moral Mondays, for @exposedbycmd.bsky.social in conjunction with @inthesetimes.com.

The execs pushing automation are more than happy to write the obituary of workers and their movements. But there is a long history of workers who were thought to have already been defeated, only to reappear as protagonists, face off against powerful bosses—& win. dissentmagazine.org/article/amaz...

Support the nurses! therealnews.com/nurses-ny-pr...

There’s still time. Thanks for your contribution.

Amazon's size and seemingly perpetual expansion into new markets is a threat to the labor standards that workers have achieved in different jurisdictions. To stay relevant, unions must make Amazon organizing a project of the entire labor movement labornotes.org/2026/02/amaz...

The People Who Believed that "Pro Worker Republicans" Were a Real Thing Were Massive Suckers, vol. 967: www.ft.com/content/19f8...

From a statement released today by the ICE Out of Minnesota Coalition.

"Greater reductions in depression were seen when exercise was offered in group and supervised settings, while exercise of shorter duration and at lower intensity was most associated with reductions in anxiety."

Today is my birthday and my Labor Notes work anniversary. Here’s what I want for my special day: small donation to get workers in new organizing drives at Amazon and in auto to the June 2026 conference. Will you chip in to the fundraiser? secure.actblue.com/donate/lflbi...

Excellent breakdown of the UAW’s landmark tentative agreement at VW 👇

New: Volkswagen had dangled a treat: a ratification bonus of $4,000, sweetened by $1,500 if a first contract at its assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, was approved by Halloween 2025. But auto workers had a trick up their sleeves: collective action. labornotes.org/2026/02/majo...

The agreement comes with a 20 percent wage increase, equal to around a $7 wage bump for production workers, over the four-year contract. The cost-of-living adjustment is 45 cents per hour on top of the base wage, depending on inflation. @lfelizleon.bsky.social reports labornotes.org/2026/02/majo...

Remembering the Flint Sit-down Strike, from a booklet about the @uaw.org’s 1955 program for GM workers. Less than 20 years in the rear view mirror, it was clear the sit-down strike was a transformative moment for American workers. From the UAW archives at the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social.

The largest convening of Amazon workers in the world is happening at the June 2026 Labor Notes conference. Garfield Hylton is an Amazon worker in the UK who built a union with his co-workers through a series of wildcat strikes.

Former WashPost reporter @ashleyrparker.bsky.social wrote a piece this week for The Atlantic headlined, "The Murder of the Washington Post." Turns out, that was no exaggeration. Here you have a group of people offering to save the victim that Bezos was threatening. And he's killing it off anyway.

DM me if you participated. How was turnout ?