Monday, July 17: Hot Labor Summer
The streets are heating up with rebellious workers who have had enough
First it was the rail workers, then the educators, then the retail workers (shoutout REI LPK), then the writers, and now the actors: It seems it’s never been tougher to be a selfish, wealth-hoarding exploiter. Workers across industries and around the world have finally had enough and have chosen to make their voices heard.
Back in April, Germany’s Berlin Brandenburg Airport canceled all departing flights because of a work stoppage among security workers. Then, at the end of May, rail workers in the United Kingdom launched the first of three strikes to protest wages, forcing cuts in critical train service. France’s union for air traffic controllers went on strike last month, joining months of nationwide action against the country’s proposed retirement age increase.
This is just a taste of the strike action across Europe and the UK in recent months, and of the walkouts expected across the continent. Many of these stoppages are happening in the transport and travel sectors, as everyone from pilots and baggage handlers to train and public transit workers say enough is enough. That’s also part of the reason why they’re getting so much attention: these actions are actively disrupting some of those post-pandemic Eurotrips this summer.
Regardless of industry, the message is clear: workers are overworked, underpaid, and flat out tired.
Side Items
Israel Is A Racist State: Earlier this month, representative Pramila Jayapal was attending the NetRoots conference promoting progressive causes, when some audience members made their disapproval of apartheid Israel heard. Jayapal, riding the wave, made the factual statement, backed by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty and Israel's own human rights org B'tselem that Israel is a racist state. Within hours she retracted her statement while representatives of both parties united to smear her, and democratic leadership vowed total support to Israel forever. It’s wild how these people will line up to call the US a white supremacist nation founded on slavery, but somehow the ongoing occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians can be overlooked entirely
No More Ukraine Grain: Russia has decided to halt a breakthrough wartime deal that allowed grain to flow from Ukraine to countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia where hunger is a growing threat and high food prices are pushing more people into poverty. A spokesman for the Kremlin spokesman said Russia would suspend the Black Sea Grain Initiative until its demands to distribute its own food and fertilizer to the world are met. This is important because the International Rescue Committee called this grain deal a “lifeline for the 79 countries and 349 million people on the frontlines of food insecurity.”