Solidarity, not slop

As we close out 2025, here are our latest stories and our favorites from this year.

Dec 22, 2025

Merriam Webster may have picked the word “slop” to be the word of the year, but our year was also filled with solidarity. It was another year of worker power and action in response to corporate and government greed and abuse. A year of collective risk taking, growing and shifting minds and movements.

We are so grateful for the workers and organizers we heard from this year, and we plan to continue this coverage next year. We picked out our favorite stories that we worked on in 2025, check them out below, after catching up on our latest.

Minnesota Labor Coalition Demands Disney Subcontractor Pay Incarcerated Workers Minimum Wage

Anagram, a subcontractor for Disney, pays prisoners as low as $0.90 per hour to package balloons in prisons across Minnesota. A coalition of formerly incarcerated workers and Minnesota unions are demanding they pay workers minimum wage.

a dozen people stand behind a Black man wearing a black shirt speaking at a podium — Jermale Kling, a formerly incarcerated worker at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Stillwater, Minn., calls on Anagram, subcontracted by Disney, to pay incarcerated workers minimum wage. Photo by Isabela Escalona.

“There Is a War Against Us”: Worker Leader, Released from ICE Custody, Speaks Out

Willian Giménez González is free, but he worries about thousands of others who were abducted from the Chicago area. This article is a joint publication of Workday Magazine and In These Times.

a brown-skinned man with short black hair and white t shirt smiles softly at the camera — Day laborer and worker organizer Willian Giménez González, in November 2025. Photo from Raise the Floor Alliance.

“No More Terrorizing Families”: Minnesota Workers Rally Against ICE Deportation Flights

Workers organizing with SEIU Local 26’s rideshare organizing committee have been demanding that the state-level agency that owns and operates the airport, the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC), provide adequate facilities for restrooms and prayer. Now, they are calling out the agency as well as various companies for operating deportation flights for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

a crowd of people wearing winter gear march on the street holding signs and a banner that reads “stop deporting our neighbors” in front of a warehouse that reads “Signature Aviation" — Around 200 union and community members from groups such as Indivisible Twin Cities, Minnesota 50501, Women’s March, and the Minnesota AFL-CIO, marched from the light rail station at Terminal 2 toward the cell phone lot on Post Road.

Our top stories of 2025

Isa’s picks

“We Cannot Water Down Our Proposals Any More”: UMN Teamsters Go on Strike

a crowd of people picket in front of the University of Minnesota medical center with signs that read “on strike at UMN for students before profits" — University of Minnesota Teamsters on the picket line as they begin the first night of the strike in the Twin Cities campuses. Photo by Isabela Escalona.

The Teamsters strike was definitely an important one because it was so visible across campus in a way that felt like it really raised public consciousness of unions. And it seemed like so many students were in support of it too!

One Grocery Worker’s Fight to Defend What Matters Most

This is also one of my favorite stories because Ryan had such a powerful and heartbreaking story. Secondly, because it was one of the more important private sector threats to strike in Minnesota this year.

Amie’s picks

Three Times Workers Resisted Fascism in Minnesota History

a black and white archival photo of people wearing suits and hats holding signs reading “tax those who can pay" — People’s Lobby members gather during their occupation of the Minnesota Capitol on April 4, 1937. Image from the Minnesota Historical Society.

This spring, I was tasked with finding historical examples of the labor movement organizing against fascism, and all the examples I found were based in Minnesota. These stories feel prescient as we continue to cover working people’s responses to fascist threats today.

Get on the Job and Organize with Inside Organizer School

A highlight of the year for me was getting to meet folks from the experimental labor organizing collective, the Inside Organizer School. It was especially amazing to learn from the organizers who launched the first successful Starbucks union campaign, just as Starbucks workers were beginning their first strike, which is ongoing and growing.

Sarah’s picks

They Worked Underground in the Uranium Mines. They’ve Been Surrounded by Death Ever Since.

I want to highlight the piece I wrote about the public health harms of uranium mining in the Navajo Nation, both for the people who work underground, and for the people who live in the area, and are exposed to pollution. I’m so grateful to my sources for trusting me with their stories, and making themselves available for multiple interviews. People like Leslie Begay, who worked in the mines without being informed of the dangers, and then developed lung disease, and had to get a double lung transplant to save his life. The people harmed by a perilous industry built disproportionately in Navajo territory deserve to be heard.

a small crowd lines up banners on the side of a street in the desert that read “uranium legacy day” and “keep uranium in the ground" — Marking the 46th anniversary of the spill, on July 19, community members continue to fight for the long-promised Superfund cleanup. Photo by Sarah Lazare.

Visible and Invisible: How ICE Is Terrorizing Chicago’s Working Class

I also want to highlight my reporting on how the crackdown on immigrants is affecting Chicago’s working class. From house cleaners to day laborers to poultry processing workers, working people are being abducted, and forced to hide in their homes. Unscrupulous employers are taking advantage of this climate to mistreat workers and steal their wages. Much of the oppression workers are facing is invisible, coming in the form of missed income, or constant fear.

Thank you for reading. See you next year! Up, up with liberation!

Discussion about this post

Ready for more?