ICE Kills; Labor's Massive Strike Wave w/ Keith Brower Brown | MR Live

Keith Brower Brown details that 2026 will see a significant number of major union contracts expire across various sectors, creating a high potential for strikes. Unions, including the Communication Workers of America (CWA) at Verizon and AT&T, Teamsters at DHL and school bus companies, and the United Steel Workers (USW) in manufacturing, are preparing for intense negotiations. Key issues include healthcare for retirees, wage increases, and job security amidst technological shifts.

Brown discusses specific contracts for Verizon workers (25:56), AT&T (29:52), DHL (30:43), and school bus drivers (30:45), noting that contract expiration is the most common time for strikes due to legal rights opening up.

Healthcare workers, particularly nurses, are engaged in critical contract negotiations to secure safe staffing ratios and combat the impact of funding cuts. The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) is preparing for a potential strike across 12 NYC hospitals, while Kaiser nurses in Northern California also face contract expirations. The guest notes that hospital closures, especially in rural and low-income areas, exacerbate these challenges, with unions pushing to 'chop from the top' of management profits and secure state funding.

Brown mentions NYSNA's 20,000 workers potentially striking across 12 NYC hospitals (34:28) and 25,000 Kaiser nurses in Northern California with contracts expiring in August (36:16). He links these struggles to Medicaid cuts and the end of ACA subsidies (35:24).

The United Steel Workers (USW) are utilizing 'pattern agreements' in oil, aluminum, rubber, and steel sectors to set industry standards. This strategy involves negotiating a strong contract with one major company (e.g., Chevron in oil) to establish a benchmark, then using that precedent to pressure other companies in the industry to match the terms, thereby flexing solidarity across an entire sector.

Brown explains pattern agreements (37:12), citing the example of the USW's national oil bargaining in 2022 and the strategic targeting of Chevron's Richmond refinery due to its critical role and profitability (40:28).

Unions across diverse sectors, including the Writers Guild of America (WGA), the News Guild, and the United Steel Workers, are actively negotiating contract language to limit the use of AI. This includes preventing AI from generating content based on existing creative work, protecting newsroom jobs from 'AI slap,' and restricting AI's use as a surveillance tool in industrial workplaces.

Brown discusses the WGA's previous strike wins against AI (51:02) and their current push for further limits (51:21), the News Guild's campaign (51:35), and the Steel Workers' efforts to limit AI surveillance in oil refineries (51:59).

Sam Seder and Emma Vigland strongly criticize Republican politicians, including Representative Mike Collins and Marco Rubio, for propagating a 'revisionist history' of the January 6th Capitol attack. They highlight the violent nature of the events, contrasting it with claims of 'peaceful grandmothers' on a 'self-guided tour' and presenting video evidence of the assault on the Capitol and police officers. The hosts frame this as a deliberate attempt to enable followers to live in a desired, false history.

The hosts play audio of Rep. Mike Collins describing January 6th as 'thousands of peaceful grandmothers... on a self-guided, albeit unauthorized tour' (09:57) and contrast it with Marco Rubio's original tweet calling it 'third world style anti-American anarchy' (11:43). They also show video footage of the violence (14:00).

The hosts report on the deployment of 2,000 ICE agents to Minneapolis, which they describe as 'thugs,' and detail the fatal shooting of a legal observer by an ICE agent. They present eyewitness accounts and video, criticizing ICE's actions, the lack of medical access provided to the victim, and the agency's official statement claiming 'defensive shots.' The hosts argue this is an inevitable outcome of deploying poorly trained, unaccountable agents and part of a broader demonization campaign.

Seder states 2,000 ICE agents were sent to Minneapolis (59:17), which has only 570 police officers (1:00:42). Emma Vigland reads an eyewitness account of an ICE agent shooting a woman multiple times (1:01:19), and they play video of the aftermath (1:02:28).