Help Us Travel to Cover the Strike Wave

Help Meet Our Travel Fund Goal

Folks, 

Across the nation this month, we have been seeing a massive strike wave and we’re build a travel fund to get on the road to cover it. 

Strikes of 10,000 workers at John Deere, thousands of workers on strike at Kellogg, and retail workers walking off every day without the assistance of unions have led commentators to label this month #Strikotober.

But while commentators suddenly started dubbing October #Striketober, for a year and a half we at Payday have been reporting this unprecedented wave of strikes.

More than a year and a half ago, Payday was the first outlet to identify a massive strike wave, beginning when we launched our Payday Report Strike Tracker in March of 2020. Since then, we have recorded more than 1,600 strikes and walkouts. 

Many commentators and journalists failed to pick up on the strike waves because the walkouts were fundamentally different from walkouts in the past. Instead of calling upon unions and going on traditional strikes, many non-union workers organized on social media and simply walked out. 

(See our July 2020 longform piece “How Black & Brown Workers Are Redefining Strikes in the Digital COVID Age,” which outlined how the mainstream media and even left-wing outlets were failing to pick up on the strike wave.)

Our work covering these walkouts has had an enormous impact, with NPR to The Economist to The Washington Post citing our reporting. 

Boots Riley, who directed the hit film “Sorry to Bother You,” also extensively praised our work in noting the strike wave when few people did. 

“You could count on one hand the number of outlets, whether they’re mainstream or radical, that pushed this fact,” Riley said of our work tracking more than 1,600 strikes since the beginning of the pandemic. 

Just this month, Esquire called our work tracking the strike wave “invaluable” and PBS American Portraits, Vice, and Columbia Journalism Review have all profiled our trailblazing work tracking the strike wave. 

As a small crowdfunded publication, we have had a huge impact, and now we want to do even more in covering these strikes. 

We’re asking for donations to create a travel fund to get on the road and cover these crucial struggles, all while continuing to track strikes. Donate to help us pay for air fare, hotels, gas, rental cars and so much so that we can cover this strike wave. 

Please sign up as one of our 629 recurring donors today or consider donating one time today. 

Love & Solidarity,

Melk