I work for Amazon out here in Miami. Working conditions are less than optimal. We are constantly breathing in a bunch of dust all day, in the back of trailers for hours on end with no respiratory protection, just breathing it all up. Since there’s no air purification or filtration system, I’ve been asking for […]
Archives for 2020
“Right Now Everything is a Mess!”: Conversations with an MTA Train Conductor
The MTA in New York City and the surrounding suburbs employs 74,000 workers. It has disclosed that there are 23 people who have tested positive for the Covid-19. Leo is one of 7,000 workers in his division. Leo is 37 years old. He works as a train conductor for the MTA, mostly on the D […]
caring: a labor of stolen time
Pages from a CNA’s Notebook [1] JOMO wrote this about her job and her organizing at a nursing home in Washington State in 2010. Given the COVID19 crisis, we are reposting the piece with an intro from JOMO. **** In a few short days, the greater Seattle region became the epicenter of Covid 19 here […]
Regina and the Racist
“When my son was murdered, I read Job,” Regina said. Regina was my ride-share driver, fifty-something, and a seat-full of voluptuous curves. She was chatty and she talked with her hands vociferously, which was only a little scary. After each burst of information, they’d reclaim the steering wheel. Usually, Regina told me, she has a […]
The Everyday Abolitionism of 13 Reasons Why
It’s an all-too-familiar scene. An alienated young man named named Tyler Down approaches a school clad in black, strapped with guns and ammunition, and bent on cold-blooded mass murder. But unlike the tragedies making headlines across the United States, this shooting does not come to pass. Before he can act, some classmates learn of the […]
Adventures in Cruiseland
Cruise ships are big—the ships are incredibly large and the number of worldwide passengers grows steadily. Many of the big ships are four football fields long, a half football field wide and almost a football field high (imagine the field standing upright on an end zone). Estimates for 2019 are that 20 million people went on […]