 I'm not sure how many of you have noticed, but something really important is taking place all across this country. Workers are all collectively standing up and they're saying enough is enough and they're demanding better, better treatment, livable wages, and all of this activity that we've seen, the rumblings of worker frustration, has all culminated in a moment that could actually really yield change in America at the aggregate level. So we've seen those viral posts of retail workers and fast food employees quitting in mass, taping signs to the drive-through of fast food places saying we all quit, we're closed on top of that. We've seen unionization attempts at Amazon. We've seen strikes from factory workers at Nabisco. Now Kellogg's workers are on strike, 98% of the international alliance of the actual stage employees voted to strike, 10,000 John Deere workers are on strike, 37,000 healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente are on strike, according to Labour reporter Jonah Furman. I mean, I can't keep up. So much is happening. And in the month of October alone, so many employees are either on strike or they're set to strike that we've reached a number that we haven't seen in this country in a very long time to the point where it now has its own name, striketober. And as Labour reporter Dave Jameson puts it, we now have strike authorizations at John Deere strike deadline tonight IATSC Hollywood deadline October 18th and Kaiser Permanente deadline TBD that's around 90,000 workers right there. Those are the kind of numbers you don't see anymore. This phenomenon is what union power looks like in action. And for the workers who don't have unions, they're currently waking up and realizing the importance of unions. And if they're not able to go on strike because they don't have a union to back them up. Well, what they're trying to do is create unions. So we heard about the Bessemer, Alabama Union attempt earlier this year. Well now Starbucks employees are trying to create the first unions in the chain's history. There's no unions for Starbucks workers. But in Buffalo, New York, well, that could change. So Starbucks actually closed two stores in Buffalo that are trying to unionize. Now they're saying that it totally has nothing to do with the unionization attempts. One of the stores, according to them, is closed for a modeling and another is closed for hiring. But I think it's pretty obvious that they're lying. They closed these stores down because they want to shut down this unionization attempt. Because in the event Starbucks workers can unionize, then like these other workers who have unions, they have a lot more power. And you don't have all the power if you have a union, but you have more leverage. You have a bigger say. And so overall, striketober is about workers finally demanding better treatment, livable wages and to actually be taken seriously, to be respected. And it's a human rights. So I think that they should be valued and the more workers that stand up, the more that other employers are going to get worried. Now for more insight on this, we've got a Julia Connolly of Common Dreams who describes what labor leaders are saying about striketober. Labor Secretary Robert Reich observed Wednesday that with employees in industries across the spectrum set to strike in the coming days following corporate leaders' failure to meet their demands for fair pay and working conditions, the U.S. is closer than it has been in decades to experiencing a general strike. You might say workers have declared a national general strike until they get better pay and improve the working conditions, wrote Reich and The Guardian. No one calls it a general strike, but in its own disorganized way, it's related to the organized strikes breaking out across the land, Hollywood TV and film crews, John Deere workers, Alabama coal miners, Nabisco workers, Kellogg workers, nurses in California, healthcare workers and Buffalo. Corporate America wants to frame this as a labor shortage, wrote Reich. Wrong. What's really going on is more accurately described as a living wage shortage, a hazard pay shortage, a childcare shortage, a paid sick leave shortage and a healthcare shortage. Unless these shortages are rectified, many Americans won't return to work anytime soon. IITSC members' potential strike drew near. The union pointed out that some of its members, stagehands and theater tech workers at North Shore Music Theater in Beverly, Massachusetts, secured livable wages after striking for just one day this month. An SMT crew were previously paid 60% less than the industry area average, but will now be receiving wages starting at $18 an hour said the union last week. AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler told The Hill that the striketober movement shows that with economic inequality getting worse and worse, unions are the solution. This is the capitalist system that has driven us to the brink, Shuler said. And she is precisely it. It was only a matter of time until all of these frustrations bubbled up, but really it took a couple of workplaces fighting for unions, striking to get others to see and it was kind of like a domino effect. And on top of that, I think that the pandemic has exacerbated all of the terrible conditions that workers have been dealing with. So this is a really, really important moment in history. And all of the stories from workers is important. But one that I want to draw your attention to is the striking workers at Kellogg's and a more perfect union put out a really insightful video about this. I don't think I can play the clip because I believe that they have copyright and music in it. But workers explain how they've been forced to work 16 hour days and they're expected to use vacation days whenever they're sick, they can't afford to feed their families. I mean, it's a pretty common thing that we're hearing about. So it's really important. And what you can do to help these striking workers is show solidarity with them. So when they're striking, do not cross the picket line. That means that if Kellogg's workers are striking, you don't buy Kellogg's cereal. We need to let these companies know, even if it's in a really subtle, seemingly insignificant way, that we stand with workers. We don't want to buy their products if they're going to mistreat and underpay their employees. So overall, that's basically what striketober is. It is a collection of workers across this country rising up and finally demanding better. And you love to see it. I hope that this becomes an annual thing. Perhaps this might pave the way towards an actual general strike. But when you have little strikes taking place, little attempts to unionize here and there across the country altogether collectively, what you see our employers finally realize that they can't just take these workers for granted any longer. And it's encouraging. This is the first labor story that I've talked about in quite some time where I actually genuinely feel encouraged to share this news with you. I mean, of course, it's sad that it's come to this, right? But to see workers take a stand and stand up for themselves, that really is a phenomenon that I just I love to see.