Episode 50: Jon Allen Foster and Tristan Bock-Hughes of the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee
“I’m doing this because I want to guarantee the health and safety of my customers, my team, and myself.” - Jon Allen Foster
The Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) is a project of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) to build a distributed, grassroots organizing program to support workers organizing at the workplace.
“All labor has dignity.”-Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
This Episode features Jon Allen Foster, a shift manager at a Taco Bell franchise in Michigan who is organizing his workplace for better wages and safer working conditions. Tristan Bock-Hughes is a veteran organizer supporting EWOC campaigners in the workplace on issues such as fair scheduling, workplace safety and good compensation.
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Episode #50 Notes
1:00 - On food sector labor organizing.
5:15 - On fast food management.
7:00 - What instigated the formation of EWOC?
13:30 - What’s the day-to-day during COVID?
17:00 - On COVID’s effect on the lives of fast food workers.
19:00 - On food service low-rates of unionization.
31:00 - What’s the next 6 months looks like for the union and organizing at Taco Bell?
35:00 - Are Taco Bell employees communicating about organizing at other locations?
45:00 - On fast food as skilled vs. unskilled labor.
51:00 - If you were running the restaurant, how would you run it?
58:20 - From expendable to dignified.
1:30:00 - Book Recommendations!
The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin
Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman
There Is Power In A Union, Phillip Dray
Iron Council, China Mieville
