Daniel Birchok

Dad, Associate Professor of Anthro at UM-Flint, President of the UMF AFT-AAUP (Local 5671) & someone with a lot left to figure out. This is my private account.

[Dr. Abdul El-Sayed @AbdulElSayed]

If you tax a billionaire 8%, you know what they still are?

Still a billionaire. Their kids' kids' kids' kids are gonna be rich.

Maybe they could pay a little bit more so that all of our kids can go to good schools and travel functional roads and get good healthcare.

[Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @NYCMayor]

Soccer would not exist without immigrants. Immigrants play and coach the game, work in the stadiums, fill the stands, and make celebrations like the World Cup possible. Six of the players on the US Men's National Team are immigrants.

We will not allow ICE or anyone else to sow fear in our communities — especially at this moment. As the world comes to our city, we will stand proudly with our immigrant neighbors and reject these attacks for what they are: an attempt to divide us.

[Dr. Abdul El-Sayed @AbdulElSayed]

Proud to march with workers striking at American Axle in Three Rivers! They have sacrificed to keep the company afloat and they DESERVE a fair deal of $30 by ‘30. I’ll always stand with my @UAW sisters and brothers. Solidarity Forever ✊🏼✊🏼

[UAW @UAW]

Thank you to our endorsed candidate for U.S. Senate, @AbdulElSayed, for visiting UAW Local 2093 members on strike at American Axle. Workers shared their demand — $30 by ‘30 — and are holding the line until they win a fair contract!

[Dr. Abdul El-Sayed @AbdulElSayed]

If we want nice things, we can have them. But we will not get them by voting for politicians who are bought and sold by corporations — the same corporations who wrote the rules to rig the system against us.

[Dr. Abdul El-Sayed @AbdulElSayed]

They've taken to calling me "dangerous."

Go ask children in Detroit who needed glasses if I'm dangerous.

Go ask people whose medical debt was cancelled if I'm dangerous.

Go ask the people who are breathing on the wrong end of a smokestack if I'm dangerous.

I'm not dangerous to them.

Now go ask a politician backed by corporations. For damn sure I'm dangerous to them.

Why? Because I'm coming for the system where people take money from corporations to funnel into elections so that all the politicians who get elected end up serving the corporations and not the people.

[Sen. Bernie Sanders @SenSanders]

This week, my amendment to ban billionaire-funded super PACs received unanimous support from my Democratic colleagues.

The momentum is growing. It’s time to repeal Citizens United, ban super PACs and move to the public funding of elections NOW.

[Dr. Abdul El-Sayed @AbdulElSayed]

Michigan's seniors worked, paid in, and played by the rules. They deserve Medicare that actually covers all their health needs, Social Security they can live on, and a home they can afford to stay in.

My Aging Affordably in America platform delivers all 3 — and pays for it by making the wealthy pay their fair share. Take a look.

[Dr. Abdul El-Sayed @AbdulElSayed]

ICE is not about immigration. ICE is about normalizing a paramilitary force on peaceful streets. Abolish ICE.

[SEIU @SEIU]

The @ituc’s primary mission is the promotion and defence of workers’ rights and interests, and their Global Rights Index is the only comprehensive, global annual survey of the violation of workers’ rights. The United States has landed on their watchlist for the first time amid MOUNTING CONCERNS over restrictions on collective bargaining and the use of force against workers. It’s yet another reason why we must continue our fight to win #UnionsForAll! https://t.co/IGnsFF6fhh

[Bernie Sanders @BernieSanders]

Two months ago, when @AOC and I proposed an AI data center moratorium, we were called “Luddites.”

Now New York is on the verge of passing a moratorium and dozens of localities are doing the same.

People understand: AI must work for all, not just oligarchs.

[Dr. Abdul El-Sayed @AbdulElSayed]

Medicare for All is the guarantee of healthcare from cradle to grave—without premiums, copays, or deductibles. That's it. That simple.

[Dr. Abdul El-Sayed @AbdulElSayed]

3 words:

Tax. Billionaire. Wealth.

[Dr. Abdul El-Sayed @AbdulElSayed]

I stand in solidarity with UAW Local 2093 and American Axle plant workers in their strike. The CEO has raked in $111 million while asking workers to take less pay and make sacrifices. Enough is enough. No contract, no axles.

[Dr. Abdul El-Sayed @AbdulElSayed]

Do we really think that excess money to billionaires makes jobs?

[Pramila Jayapal @PramilaJayapal]

Starbucks baristas striking all over the country. REI workers organizing. Teachers walking out for better pay.

This is what a movement looks like.

The labor movement built the middle class. It created the weekend, the 8-hour workday, and overtime pay. And it is the only force powerful enough to push back against concentrated corporate power.

I stand with every single worker fighting for dignity and I will keep fighting in Congress for union rights and for an economy that works for everyone — not just the people at the top.

[UAW @UAW]

On this day in 1937, nearly sixty UAW members from Local 174 arrived at Ford Motor Company’s River Rouge Plant to pass out leaflets, with city permit in hand, as part of a campaign to secure union representation for Rouge workers. Several neutral observers were also present, including clergy, reporters, and photographers.

In order to access the greatest number of workers, participants met at the pedestrian overpass on Miller Road at Gate 4 of the complex during a shift change. As UAW leaders Walter Reuther, Robert Kantor, Richard Frankensteen, and J.J. Kennedy posed for photographers, they were approached by members of the Ford Service Department and severely beaten. Women from UAW Local 174’s Ladies Auxiliary, reporters, and photographers standing below the overpass were also attacked.

Detroit News photographer James Kilpatrick captured the beatings in vivid detail. When men from the Service Department threatened Kilpatrick and demanded that he turn over his film, the photographer concealed the actual negatives and gave them blank plates instead.

Over the next few days, widespread publication of photos from the “Battle of the Overpass” made headlines across the country. The photos, in conjunction with testimony during the subsequent hearings from medical personnel who treated the injured, brought national attention to the brutal methods utilized by Ford and other companies to fight union organizers. This victory in public opinion was crucial for further advances by organized labor.

As one of the most famous events in the history of the American labor movement, the “Battle of the Overpass” set in motion a series of efforts that resulted in a crippling strike at the Rouge Plant and final recognition of the UAW by the Ford Motor Company in 1941. It also cemented Walter Reuther’s importance within the UAW and paved the way for his pivotal years as president.

📸 @ReutherLibrary

[Pramila Jayapal @PramilaJayapal]

People sometimes ask me why I focus so much on Medicare for All when there are so many other urgent fights. Here is my answer. The health care crisis is not separate from the economic justice crisis. They’re the same crisis. Workers stay in jobs they hate because they cannot afford to lose coverage. People don't start businesses because the insurance risk is too great. Families don't save because medical debt has consumed them. The broken health care system is an added weight to every decision working families make. Medicare for All lifts that weight. It is an economic justice policy as much as a health care one. And we are not stopping until it passes. 💜

[Pramila Jayapal @PramilaJayapal]

1.2 million people have been forced to forgo their health coverage so we can get more tax cuts for billionaires.

This is the choice the Republicans are making. In public. On the record.

Remember it.

https://t.co/mvdmex6RVC

[Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @NYCMayor]

Amazon is worth $2 trillion. But it didn't deign to pay the millions of dollars it racked up in unpaid fines as its’ trucks illegally polluted our air and forced New Yorkers to breathe in their exhaust. 

We collected every dollar they owe the people of this city — and will continue to hold them accountable. In New York, corporations are held to the same standard as everyone else. 

No company — no matter how large or powerful — is above the law.