Ben Serber
#1u Contract Enforcement Staff, @taup4531.bsky.social; @newsguild.org Local 38010 member; prev. @ndunited.bsky.social, FSU-GAU. You are not required to complete the work; neither are you free to abandon it. All opinions my own.
- Just discovered the p*nny robot and an immense list of folks who know better speaking to it like it's people. Many appear to be deeply lonely and could just talk to each other instead, but they've chosen to burn us all so they can have an imaginary friend instead.
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- Reposted by Ben SerberAfter making history as the first Southern autoworkers outside the Big Three to join the UAW, the 3,200 workers at VW Chattanooga have won a tentative agreement that provides 20 percent across-the-board wage increases, affordable health care, real job security, and more. 🔗 uaw.org/uaw-reaches-...
- Reposted by Ben Serber1/ READY TO STRIKE: More than 80% of our members signed a pledge saying we are prepared to strike unless @propublica.org agrees to a fair contract. www.propublicaguild.org/updates/the-...
- Reposted by Ben SerberIf you're an academic outside of Minnesota wanting to help folks, one way to do that is to offer a guest lecture for faculty in the Twin Cities so they can have a break. Sanctuary Campus Network is coordinating these and you can sign up here:
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- Reposted by Ben SerberIf Starbucks won’t respect workers at the bargaining table, they don’t deserve our clicks or orders. Our call to action is simple: 📱 Delete the Starbucks app. #DeleteTheApp bit.ly/deletetheapp
- Reposted by Ben SerberEpstein’s economic power among academics was made possible by a capitalist system that makes higher education dependent on the charity economy rather than a public good supported by taxing the rich
- Reposted by Ben SerberIt's near-white out conditions in Chicago as the snow comes down, and tonight's anti-ICE/CBP rally is wrapping up in front of city hall. But not before the crowd bounces and chants, "I believe that we will win!"
- Reposted by Ben SerberWhy does it matter what an action is called, so long as people are getting involved? Every time a "general strike" fizzles out, that weakens the power of the actual mechanism. A general strike is meant to send cold shivers down the state and bosses' spines. It is a threat. It is our nuclear option.
- Reposted by Ben SerberWe, the employees of the NLRB, are calling on members of Congress to reject the Senate’s proposed funding deal unless it includes meaningful reforms for ICE and CBP’s operations. Our Union has never endorsed a government shutdown before. But we believe we have no other choice.
- Reposted by Ben SerberThe college at which I'm employed, which has signed a contract with the AI firm that stole books from 131 colleagues & me, paid a student to write an op-ed for the student paper promoting AI, guided the writing of it, and did not disclose this to the paper. www.thedartmouth.com/article/2026...
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- Reposted by Ben SerberBlistering piece on ed tech in @economist.com. ‘Although ed-tech companies tout huge learning gains, independent research has made clear that technology rarely boosts learning in schools—and often impairs it.’ economist.com/united-state...
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- Reposted by Ben SerberYou know Alex Pretti & Renee Good—the 2 white people ICE killed. ICE has also killed Keith Porter, a Black man, Parady La, a Cambodian man, & 5 Latinos—Heber Sanchaz Domínguez, Victor Manuel Diaz, Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz, Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres, and Geraldo Lunas Campos. 9 TOTAL. ABOLISH ICE.
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- Reposted by Ben SerberI keep thinking “my god the people they’ve killed seem like exceptionally good folks” and I think the lesson there is that they’re not exceptional, but that wonderful people abound and that a baseline distrust in humanity is a shitty conservative trope that privileges power over collective strength
- Remember him by throwing the cop "unions" out once and for all. The repugnant cowardice the AFL-CIO displayed in 2020 cannot be repeated.
- America’s unions mourn the senseless killing by federal agents of our AFGE Local 3669 union brother and VA nurse Alex Jeffrey Pretti. We reiterate our call for ICE to immediately leave Minnesota before anyone else is hurt or killed. bit.ly/4pVTpFO
- Reposted by Ben SerberWhat a stark, horrifying demonstration of the tension a union opens itself to when it organizes security forces. If you hesitate to condemn the killing of a member, for fear of alienating the members who fired the guns, what sort of cage have you built around your union?
- Will you get fired for organizing? Yeah maybe TBH, but you can't hide from that with ~opsec~, your name will be on the voter list. The best way to not get fired is to go get your cards so you can all tell your boss to eat shit.
- Reposted by Ben SerberMy take on the Jan 23 action in Minneapolis is that I don’t really care whether it’s a “true” general strike (we could argue about that all day). What DOES matter is that it’s a bold and necessary escalation, and local labor leaders are publicly encouraging workers to join in anti-ICE resistance
- Reposted by Ben Serber1/ We are entering year 3 of bargaining for a fair contract that protects both the workers who produce our award-winning, high-impact journalism as well as the quality of that work. We are also entering year 3 of @propublica.org management fighting against a fair contract. tinyurl.com/43znke28
- Reposted by Ben Serberwe're getting all the downsides of cyberpunk (social alienation, ruthless hyper capitalism, digital mass surveillance state) but none of the promised upsides (cheap street food, cool jackets, super drugs that make you really fast and strong before they kill you)
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- Just as a point of anecdata, I remember talking about basically every point this post raises in @erikangner.com's undergrad seminar course back in 2009 or 2010. If a bunch of 22-year-olds could see these issues (w/ a good teacher!) and they haven't gone anywhere, that seems...not good.
- if i could make you read ONE (1) single post to improve your understanding of the challenges of social science in general it would be this one from @markfabian.bsky.social about wellbeing science specifically profmarkfabian.substack.com/p/airing-my-...
- Reposted by Ben SerberOn Friday, January 9, ICE arrested a member of our union, the Minnesota Newspaper and Communications Guild, as part of Operation Metro Surge. He has been transferred to a detention facility in Texas, where he is awaiting action on his petition for habeas corpus. newsguild.org/guild-member...
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- Reposted by Ben SerberThis is the sort of statement that was expected from every university president and law firm partner over the last year. That those statements weren’t made played a huge part in where we are now and people will remember.
- Reposted by Ben Serberthey didn’t leak it to make the shooter look innocent, but to make the victim look guilty. not guilty of a crime. guilty of having a visibly queer wife. guilty of liberalism. guilty of opposing the regime. they don’t seek to exonerate themselves, only to demonstrate who deserves to die.
- Reposted by Ben Serberi made a helpful reference
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- @amuly.bsky.social last I checked most fascists...liked...the race and gender ideology in Plato????
- Reposted by Ben SerberFrom an email to one of our faculty members.... Not even Plato can escape censorship at Texas A&M!
- Maybe one day Philadelphia labor will learn this lesson. (That day will probably be about 20 years after Ryan Boyer retires, so my odds of living to see it are pretty low...)
- I have gotten knee tendinitis at least once - probably twice unless this time is actually something worse! - by walking a normal distance at a normal pace on flat terrain in appropriate footwear. My crimes? Turning 30 and 35, respectively.
- The trick is to develop your skill of being annoyed by What's Actually Wrong With America - owners, bosses, and bigots. It's not hard! They're all really fuckin' annoying! They're just in a mansion while your kid's NB friend might *gasp* be in your house or *double-gasp* mocking you online.
- Reposted by Ben Serbersomeone should invent a thing that's like a university but it's goal is to facilitate learning
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