Illegally Fired Workers Fight Back

Sep 28, 2023

Labor organizing in the United States is on the rise. According to the Washington Post, “July was one of the busiest months for strikes in three decades.” But alongside the uptick in union activity is a sharp increase in employer-led retaliations against organizing workers. The Labor Department reports 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, “You strike, you’re fired.”

A case in point is Amazon, one of the nation’s 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 joining the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. In spite of the fact that Amazon had an active contract with the delivery company, the retailer ended the arrangement.

Claudia Magaña, campaigns director for Unemployed Workers United, spoke with YES! Racial Justice Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on YES Presents: Rising Up With Sonali about what is being called a “national worker retaliation crisis,” and how her organization is responding with a new campaign called “Fired Up!”

Sonali Kolhatkar joined YES! 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 YES! 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’s Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice (2023) and Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence (2005). Her forthcoming book is called Talking About Abolition (Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women’s Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master’s in Astronomy from the University of Hawai’i, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on “My Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host” in her 2014 TEDx talk of the same name.