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ASU Center for Work and Democracy

@cwd-asu.bsky.social
791 followers 97 following 665 posts

Research and education supporting unions, movements, and working people’s organizations in the United States.

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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Chris Brooks features on an episode of the Dig! In it, he “urges organizers to be flexible in their methodology, explains the federal monitor’s anti-left lawfare against the UAW over Gaza, and why labor must build for 2028.” Tune in wherever you get your podcasts. thedigradio.com/podcast/conf...
thedigradio.com
Confronting Labor’s Crisis w/ Chris Brooks
Featuring Chris Brooks on labor’s crisis and the strategic, militant class struggle that can turn it all around. Brooks, former chief of staff to UAW President Shawn Fain, urges organizers to be flexi...
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Labor Economist and CWD Senior Research Fellow Teresa Ghilarducci discusses the future of social security on Open to Debate ( @opentodebate.bsky.social ). Check it out! youtu.be/XCP6SdSdRlQ
youtu.be
Should We Phase Out Social Security?
YouTube video by Open to Debate
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
“What will labor’s role be in this present conjuncture, in the crisis of legitimacy? Amazon is the test that helps us answer this broader question. Will labor stand up to this challenge, which has the potential to revive the movement, or will it remain too particularist to take advantage of it?”
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Ben Fong is back with a new contribution to his monthly “Labor & Logistics” column for @phenomenalworld.bsky.social! This time, he focuses his efforts on one key question in ground transportation: Has the Autonomous Trucking Revolution Arrived? phenomenalworld.org/analysis/has...
phenomenalworld.org
Benjamin Y. Fong | Has the Autonomous Trucking Revolution Arrived?
Startups are adamant that autonomous technology will solve the safety issues in the trucking industry, but many questions remain
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Thank you to all who joined us for our October Open House Lunch! It was fantastic to get to see both new faces and familiar ones and talk about what projects the CWD has in the works. We look forward to meeting with you all again next month!
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
In his recent contribution to @truthout.org , CWD Visiting Writer Jonathan Rosenblum reveals the scary truth about Amazon’s surveillance of their warehouse employees. Read more here:
truthout.org
Amazon Is Deploying AI to Spy on Its Workers and Bust Unions Before They Form
Internal company documents obtained by a Canadian labor board show how Amazon is tracking workers’ every move.
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
CWD Visiting Scholar Teresa Ghilarducci made her @kjzz.org debut last week! Tune in as she speaks with host Lauren Gilger about the state of working Arizonans.
kjzz.org
State of Working Arizona finds the state excels on minimum wage, falls short on worker rights
This professor has focused her career on workers, retirement, unions, inflation and more. Her most recent project analyzes the quality of work-life in Arizona and how it compares nationally.
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
New from CWD Visiting Scholar Rick McGahey for the @latimes.com : “California’s billionaire tax is imperfect but a necessary step” Read McGahey’s perspective here: www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
latimes.com
Contributor: California's billionaire tax is imperfect but a necessary step
Although the most important reason for Proposition 40 is the looming healthcare crisis, it also offers the state a chance to once again lead the nation on policy.
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
A new article from Christie Offenbacher for @jacobinmag.bsky.social highlights inter-union clashes that could impact support for CA’s Prop 40. Offenbacher argues that “A Union Feud Shouldn’t Sink California’s Billionaire Tax”. Read more here: jacobin.com/2026/09/bill...
jacobin.com
A Union Feud Shouldn’t Sink California’s Billionaire Tax
Part of California’s labor movement wants to tax billionaires to save health care for 15 million Californians. Another part, close to Gov. Gavin Newsom, doesn’t — and is promoting suspiciously timed c...
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
In Ben Fong's interview with socialist thinker Sam Gindin, Gindin emphasizes the importance of the labor movement in building power for the left. Read it here: jacobin.com/2026/09/capitalism-labor-amazon-class-socialism
jacobin.com
The Rising Left Can’t Ignore Labor’s Ongoing Crisis
Working people in America are facing a crisis of living standards, Sam Gindin argues, but this has not translated into a crisis for the capitalist system. To challenge ruling class power, the Left sti...
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
“Having traded in the brass knuckles and baseball bats of the early twentieth century for the empathetic listening and fine-grained surveillance of the early twenty-first, Amazon today employs... tactics that may well be more effective precisely because they are so systematic.” -B.Y. Fong
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More Perfect Union @moreperfectunion.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Nearly 190,000 home health workers in New York could unionize in one of the biggest U.S. labor drives in decades. SEIU Local 1199 says they've gotten almost 70,000 signatures, enough to trigger a union vote, and now the union has petitioned the National Labor Relations Board to hold an election.
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
“When public investment helps create private wealth, the terms should secure public benefits from the beginning. Taxpayers pay for production inputs but do not get any of the profits.” New from Teresa Ghilarducci for @forbes.com :
forbes.com
Who Gets Rich When The Common Good Is Ditched?
Mariana Mazzucato’s common good economy asks who benefits when taxpayers finance innovation, and how public investment can deliver a public return.
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Happening tomorrow!! Register here: asu.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Want to learn even more about worker justice? Join the Civil Rights, Migration, and Workplace Law Initiative for a reception for their upcoming conference on 9/24. Professor Ruben J. Garcia will be discussing their book, "Critical Wage Theory," followed by a community reception.
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
“Labor Day should be more than a celebration. Arizona workers face challenges with wages, housing affordability and worker voice despite the state's economic growth.” Learn more about the state of working Arizonans from the CWD’s Ghilarducci and McQuarrie 👇
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
“[D]ocuments portray a company that is not hotheaded and ideological but manipulative and mathematical in its resistance to unionism and willing to deploy the kindest of gestures... in the service of corporate power.” New from Ben Fong for @jacobinmag.bsky.social : jacobin.com/2026/09/amaz...
jacobin.com
How Amazon Busts Unions, in Its Own Words
Internal documents disclosed in a British Columbia labor case give us an incredibly detailed look into how exactly Amazon carries out its union-busting operations.
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
ASU’s Future Security Initiative is hosting their Fall 2026 Speaker Series! Join us in attending Saket Soni’s talk, “The Resilience Economy: Profit and Poverty in American Disaster Zones,” on 9/23 via Zoom. Register here: asu.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
“If California's billionaires believe this tax is unwise, unfair, or unworkable, they should say so — in public, in detail, with an alternative for the 1.6 million Californians at risk of losing coverage. Make the case.” The latest from Ghilarducci on Prop 40 for @forbes.com :
forbes.com
What Are California's 200 Billionaires So Afraid Of?
This article refutes three common arguments against taxing the superrich: that they earned their wealth, will leave, or will block it.
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Ten days until the Derechos y Esperanza Labor and Employment Conference at ASU Law! Register today:
na.eventscloud.com
The Inaugural Derechos y Esperanza Labor and Employment Conference
The Inaugural Derechos y Esperanza Labor and Employment Conference
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
“A handful of billionaires... are out to prove that money can buy anything. They are pouring unprecedented resources into a political campaign to convince — or if that doesn’t work, to trick — California voters into prioritizing billionaires’ wealth over their own livelihoods”
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
“Often framed by platform owners as offering workers self-management, gig work is best understood as an instance of fissuring—part of a broader restructuring of American labor markets towards wage competition and individual bargaining.” NEW by Benjamin Y. Fong phenomenalworld.org/analysis/a-f...
phenomenalworld.org
Benjamin Y. Fong | Two Paths for Rideshare Organizing
Can rideshare drivers be successfully organized without being classified as employees?
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
In honor of Labor Day, the CWD’s Teresa Ghilarducci and Michael McQuarrie have teamed up to provide a snapshot of the current state of workers in Arizona. Read it here in @azcentral.com :
azcentral.com
On Labor Day, Arizona workers deserve more than gratitude | Opinion
Arizona's economy has grown, but many workers still face lagging wages, rising housing costs and limited bargaining power.
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
In the face of CA’s Prop 40, a ballot initiative seeking to tax 200 billionaires 5% of their wealth to fund healthcare, billionaires are creating their own lobby expressly to support their mega-rich interests. Read more about the “billionaire lobby” from Ben Case in @jacobinmag.bsky.social :
jacobin.com
The Rise of the Billionaire Lobby
California’s Proposition 40 would tax roughly 200 billionaires to fund health care for millions. Google cofounder Sergey Brin and friends have responded by inventing a new kind of pressure group: a lo...
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
“Can rideshare drivers be successfully organized without being classified as employees?” Ben Fong tackles this question (and more) in his new article for Labor & Logistics in @phenomenalworld.bsky.social . Check it out:
phenomenalworld.org
Benjamin Y. Fong | Two Paths for Rideshare Organizing
Can rideshare drivers be successfully organized without being classified as employees?
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
SAVE THE DATES! The Center for Work and Democracy is proud to announce our three-part Worker Dignity Speaker Series for the 2026-2027 academic year. 💪🛠️✊ More information about each event to follow.
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Register today to claim your spot for the Derechos y Esperanza Labor and Employment Conference, and be sure to tune in to CWD Director McQuarrie's panel appearance on 9/25 when he and others discuss the relationship between Workers Rights and Worker Justice.
na.eventscloud.com
The Inaugural Derechos y Esperanza Labor and Employment Conference
The Inaugural Derechos y Esperanza Labor and Employment Conference
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Mark your calendars! On 9/24 & 9/25, ASU’s Civil Rights, Migration, and Workplace Law Initiative is hosting a convening of advocates, attorneys, and academics reimagining the legal and political landscape for low-wage workers across the American West.
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
“If a permanent, annual surtax did not chase millionaires out of Massachusetts, a one-time levy is an unlikely trigger for a billionaire stampede out of California.” More from Teresa Ghilarducci on CA’s proposed Billionaire Tax: www.forbes.com/sites/teresa...
forbes.com
Why California’s 200 Billionaires Won’t Leave Over Prop 40
Nvidia’s chief, Jensen Huang, shrugged at a proposed California billion tax. Massachusetts and Sweden show the exodus threat is hollow.
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Tech Leaders Haven’t Stopped the Billionaire Tax So Far. Will Ads Work? Learn more about efforts for and against California’s most contentious 2026 ballot initiative here in the @nytimes.com . www.nytimes.com/2026/08/25/u...
nytimes.com
Tech Leaders Haven’t Stopped the Billionaire Tax So Far. Will Ads Work?
The latest opposition effort is led by Sergey Brin, a co-founder of Google, who has contributed more than $100 million this year toward California campaign efforts.
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Starbucks Workers United @sbworkersunited.org · 25/08/2026
🚨BREAKING: Our union of over 12,000 baristas are officially calling for a Starbucks boycott. Read this statement penned by Starbucks workers on why a boycott from ALL customers, allies, and organizations is necessary to fight back against corporate greed:
BOYCOTT STARBUCKS is written inside a zig-zaggy speech bubble against crumbled paper. Beside it are the Starbucks Workers United logo and an image of a coffee cup being poured out.We, the 12,000 and growing members of Starbucks Workers United, call on everyone who stands with working people to boycott Starbucks until they finalize a contract with union baristas and stop union-busting.
What we’re fighting for is simple: a minimum $17/hr wage, enough hours to live on, better staffing in our stores, and basic workplace protections. Every year, our living costs rise but our wages don’t keep up – a growing pressure many American workers are feeling as corporate greed accelerates unchecked in our country. 
Starbucks is banking on customers' blind loyalty to the integrity and values this company once stood for in order to keep squeezing them for profits. At a time when working-class people across the country are struggling in a challenging economy, it is no longer possible to be both a Starbucks customer and in support of workers; choosing to spend money at Starbucks is choosing a law breaking corporation over the baristas who make your coffee everyday exactly as you ask for it.
Starbucks has violated U.S. labor law more than any other company in modern history–the NLRB and its judges have found that Starbucks committed hundreds of labor violations and there are currently more than 550 unresolved unfair labor practice charges still pending against the company. Instead of finalizing a fair and reasonable union contract, Starbucks has repeatedly demonstrated a lack of care for the workers who fuel the company’s profits by wasting millions of dollars on AI and technology that doesn’t work, launching countless gimmicky drinks designed to distract from real problems, and inventing pointless policies that do nothing but make our jobs harder. 
This ongoing, irrational behavior by Starbucks and its refusal to settle a fair union contract with workers leaves us with no other choice than to call for a boycott. We know when working people stand up together, we win. 
No Contract? No Coffee.
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
“If a permanent, annual surtax did not chase millionaires out of Massachusetts, a one-time levy is an unlikely trigger for a billionaire stampede out of California.” More from Teresa Ghilarducci on CA’s proposed Billionaire Tax: www.forbes.com/sites/teresa...
forbes.com
Why California’s 200 Billionaires Won’t Leave Over Prop 40
Nvidia’s chief, Jensen Huang, shrugged at a proposed California billion tax. Massachusetts and Sweden show the exodus threat is hollow.
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
“If California's billionaires believe this tax is unwise, unfair, or unworkable, they should say so — in public, in detail, with an alternative for the 1.6 million Californians at risk of losing coverage. Make the case.” The latest from Ghilarducci on Prop 40 for @forbes.com :
forbes.com
What Are California's 200 Billionaires So Afraid Of?
This article refutes three common arguments against taxing the superrich: that they earned their wealth, will leave, or will block it.
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
“As the largest employer in North America and with annual gross profits of $171 billion, Walmart has tremendous resources with which to fight off unions. Yet, in May, Walmart workers in Mississauga won a two-year contract. It is a truly historic victory.” phenomenalworld.org/analysis/wal...
phenomenalworld.org
Benjamin Y. Fong | Walmart Concedes to the Union
North America's largest employer grants a first for its workers: an adversarially-bargained union contract
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Jacobin @jacobinmag.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Federally qualified health centers are an essential source of medical care for poor and working-class Americans, especially in rural areas and neighborhoods of color. Medicaid cuts in Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill could shut them down.
jacobin.com
Medicaid Cuts Could Kill Safety-Net Health Centers
Federally qualified health centers are an essential source of medical care for poor and working-class Americans, especially in rural areas and neighborhoods of color. Medicaid cuts in Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill could shut them down.
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
New for OTS: Fong explores the key points of his latest Phenomenal World piece surrounding Walmart workers’ historic win in Ontario. Check it out!
ontheseams.substack.com
Walmart Concedes to the Union
The template organization of neoliberalism has finally put pen to paper on a union contract. Why now?
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
The CWD’s Maria Esch for @jacobinmag.bsky.social : With Medicaid cuts looming, what will happen to community clinics? Is there anything we can do about it?
jacobin.com
Medicaid Cuts Could Kill Safety-Net Health Centers
Federally qualified health centers are an essential source of medical care for poor and working-class Americans, especially in rural areas and neighborhoods of color. Medicaid cuts in Donald Trump’s B...
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Project Syndicate @projectsyndicate.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
It is promising that elements of Dani Rodrik's “productivism” framework can be seen in the agenda of New York City's Economic Development Corporation under Zohran Mamdani, observes @rickmcgahey.bsky.social. But success is not guaranteed. bit.ly/4qmkQut
bit.ly
Can Progressives Deliver Economic Growth?
Rick McGahey sees Zohran Mamdani’s effort to balance redistribution and dynamism as a bellwether for the left.
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Walmart employees in Ontario just did something historic: they won a contract against the notoriously anti-union corporate giant. Learn more about their story from Ben Fong for “Labor & Logistics” in @phenomenalworld.bsky.social :
phenomenalworld.org
Benjamin Y. Fong | Walmart Concedes to the Union
North America's largest employer grants a first for its workers: an adversarially-bargained union contract
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Jacobin @jacobinmag.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Workers who are making company executives sweat by voting down bad union contracts should be saluted. But those same workers need to be serious about translating anger at concessionary bargaining into a fighting force that can win something better.
jacobin.com
What to Do When Your Union Contract Is Voted Down
The answer to union contracts being voted down is not for organizers to lower workers’ expectations. It’s to seize that vote as an opportunity to organize those expectations into collective power.
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
In a new article for @projectsyndicate.bsky.social , the CWD’s Rick McGahey asks, with specific regard to the Mamdani administration, “Can Progressives Deliver Economic Growth?” Read his analysis here:
project-syndicate.org
Can Progressives Deliver Economic Growth?
Rick McGahey sees Zohran Mamdani’s effort to balance redistribution and dynamism as a bellwether for the left.
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
“Member participation is not merely a good idea or the right thing to do. It is the source of our power.” In his new article for @jacobinmag.bsky.social , CWD Visiting Writer, Chris Brooks, provides truly excellent insight on how to bargain a union contract that members can get behind.
jacobin.com
What to Do When Your Union Contract Is Voted Down
The answer to union contracts being voted down is not for organizers to lower workers’ expectations. It’s to seize that vote as an opportunity to organize those expectations into collective power.
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In These Times @inthesetimes.com · 03/08/2026
“Labor needs to keep organizing at Amazon.” For @randwilson.bsky.social and Peter Olney, that means building workplace committees, finding ways to disrupt operations and combining worker organizing with pressure on Amazon from the outside.
inthesetimes.com
What Amazon Organizers Can Learn From the Fight for 15
Organizers at Amazon can take lessons from the Fight for 15’s success at building pressure through a broad public campaign—and from its failure to really build an organization of, by, and for workers.
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Amazon put out their 2025 annual report in February– read Ben Fong’s reflections on it today in On the Seams. ontheseams.substack.com/p/amazons-20...
ontheseams.substack.com
Amazon’s 2025 Annual Report
Everything’s growing and Wall Street hates it
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United Farm Workers @ufw.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Yesterday's temperature topped 105° in Fresno. "Carlos" and team were working in the watermelons. "Our team is paid piece rate. The more boxes we fill the more we make. The person closest to the truck has the hardest job so we switch off. This is exhausting work." #WeFeedYou
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Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) @organizeworkers.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Federal labor rights: A sectoral guide to organizing Wondering which U.S. labor law protects your job? Learn if your sector (private, public, gig, rail, or ag) has the legal right to organize, strike, and unionize.
workerorganizing.org
Federal labor rights: A sectoral guide to organizing
Wondering which U.S. labor law protects your job? Learn if your sector (private, public, gig, rail, or ag) has the legal right to organize, strike, and unionize.
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
In May, Fong wrote about why privatization of the USPS would be a disaster. Learn more in his post for On the Seams: ontheseams.substack.com/p/why-us-pos...
ontheseams.substack.com
Why US Postal Privatization Would Wreak Social Disaster
It’s not just that private companies won’t deliver true postal service because it’s unprofitable. It’s that they are logistically incapable of doing so.
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Check out Ben Fong’s excellent monthly column, “Labor & Logistics,” for @phenomenalworld.bsky.social ! 👇👇
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
“Trump’s Australia idea will be dangerous if it becomes a substitute for Social Security. It could be useful if it becomes what America actually needs: a universal, portable, funded account layer on top of Social Security.” -CWD Senior Research Fellow, Teresa Ghilarducci
forbes.com
Trump’s Australia Retirement Idea Is Not Social Security Privatization
Trump’s Australia retirement idea should sit on top of Social Security, not replace it. The U.S. needs universal accounts and a funded floor.
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The Nation Magazine @thenation.com · 27/07/2026
What you need to know about the investigation of Shawn Fain, the upcoming elections at UAW and the backlash against the union’s support for a ceasefire in Gaza: bit.ly/4hzTwGt
bit.ly
The War on the UAW
The United Auto Workers called for a ceasefire in Gaza. The union’s federal monitor didn’t like it—and now he’s investigating Shawn Fain, just weeks before union elections.
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