Illegally Fired Workers Fight Back

Sep 28, 2023

Labor organizing in the United States is on the rise. According to the , 鈥淛uly was one of the busiest months for strikes in three decades.鈥� But alongside the uptick in union activity is a sharp increase in employer-led retaliations against organizing workers. The Labor Department that the number of unfair labor practice charges brought against employers increased by 16% in the first half of the fiscal year. Republican Senator Tim Scott underscored this practice with his recent comment, 鈥�.鈥�

A case in point is Amazon, one of the nation鈥檚 largest employers, which contracts with thousands of smaller delivery companies. Earlier this year 84 workers with a contractor named Battle-Tested Strategies in Southern California made history by . In spite of the fact that Amazon had an active contract with the delivery company, the retailer ended the arrangement.

Claudia Maga帽a, campaigns director for Unemployed Workers United, spoke with 大象传媒 Racial Justice Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on YES Presents: Rising Up With Sonali about what is being called a 鈥�,鈥� and how her organization is responding with a new campaign called 鈥溾€�&苍产蝉辫;

Sonali Kolhatkar joined 大象传媒 in summer 2021, building on a long and decorated career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist, and host and creator of聽大象传媒 Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also Senior Correspondent with the Independent Media Institute鈥檚 Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of聽Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice聽(2023) and聽Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence聽(2005). Her forthcoming book is called聽Talking About Abolition聽(Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women鈥檚 Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master鈥檚 in Astronomy from the University of Hawai鈥檌, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on 鈥淢y Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host鈥� in her 2014聽聽of the same name.