M🅱️u™ Maqungo
@mamelaaa-mbu57.bsky.social
Business & Labor Reporter in Southeast Texas ✍🏾📰📸 🇺🇸🇿🇦🇸🇿 prev: Rooster Teeth, Death Battle, The Ram Page & Acres Home Community Advocacy Group
NEW FROM ME: Beaumont city council set a deadline to make new corporate tax abatement policy terms this September. This update in that ongoing conversation in the community touches on city-level accountability, living wage calculators and the Sabine Area Labor Council.
Why are central labor bodies/area labor federations using AI to promote their events?!?!? SMMFH! 🤦🏽
New study! www.epi.org/publication/...
The case for tripling union membership: How rebuilding union power would strengthen workers, the economy, and our democracy
Foreword Imagine union membership tripling in the United States. It may sound radical—if you’ve forgotten history. In fact, more than 1 in 3 private-sector workers belonged to a union in the 1950s. Th...
epi.org
Gurren Lagann is correct about its central conceit that the entirety of the power of the human spirit is ignited at the intersection of hope, belief, faith & trust. And that despair not only limits imagination but is also a spiritual death that leaves us helpless when facing humanity’s adversaries.
Hobbies include: teaching people about wage theft
I promised I'd get the mod up before bed! :) Unified Front - A Dev Support Mod is out now on Bethnet and @nexusmods.com creations.bethesda.net/en/skyrim/de... www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecia... @bethesdaunion.bsky.social @zosunited.bsky.social
Microsoft is laying off 4,800 workers today. Its CEO made $96.5M in 2025, a 22% increase from the previous year. Microsoft made $101B in net income last year — and raked in up to $12.5B in tax breaks from Trump's Big Ugly Bill. This is what a rigged system looks like.
I want to re-emphasize one part of this Xbox story: Half of the 3,200 cuts are happening today and half are happening in the next 12 months. In other words, even people who survived today's layoffs will have to spend the coming year wondering if they're going to be next.
Microsoft engineered this so that it looked the least bad optically while at the same time still committing a slaughter, all so that Satya Nadella can still dick around with more useless AI horseshit. Fuck him and fuck Microsoft.
The United Videogame Workers union (UVW-CWA) has created a hardship fund for industry workers affected by layoffs in the United States and Canada www.gamesindustry.biz/union-launch...
Xbox to reduce workforce by 3,200, five studios to be divested Compulsion Games and Double Fine will become independent studios, Ninja Theory and Undead Labs to join new ownership, Arkane begins consultation www.gamesindustry.biz/xbox-to-redu...
Higher-profile labor support came to the Southeast Texas picket line ahead of the Fourth of July weekend. www.chron.com/business/art...
State and national labor leaders join Ashland worker strike
Texas and national union leaders joined the picket line on the gulf coast Thursday and say a company proposal could endanger plant workers and residents.
chron.com
M🅱️u™ Maqungo@mamelaaa-mbu57.bsky.social · last mo.“This Unfair Labor Practice strike is truly about safety - for both our members and the community.” 4 SETX unions are on strike after weeks of negotiations over sick-leave and job scope creep broke down at Ashland Specialty Chemical in Texas City. Read my latest ✍🏾: www.chron.com/news/article...
With layoffs looming, Microsoft unions plan to battle to the bitter end: "It's a fight for dignity and respect" aftermath.site/microsoft-xbox...
Today’s SCOTUS 6-3 ruling rebukes the president and reaffirms all persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens of the United States for the time being. Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch were the dissenters who ostensibly believe an executive order can override a constitutional amendment.
“This Unfair Labor Practice strike is truly about safety - for both our members and the community.” 4 SETX unions are on strike after weeks of negotiations over sick-leave and job scope creep broke down at Ashland Specialty Chemical in Texas City. Read my latest ✍🏾: www.chron.com/news/article...
Four SETX unions authorize new strike at Ashland Texas plant
70 Southeast Texans launched an unfair labor practice strike at the Ashland Specialty Chemicals plant in June.
chron.com
Joseph speaks to Jake Hanrahan all about Patreon, YouTube, and getting journalism in front of people.
Stopping Tech Company Censorship (with Jake Hanrahan)
Joseph speaks to Jake Hanrahan all about Patreon, YouTube, and getting journalism in front of people.
404media.co
The discussions on tax abatements and their return on investment continued at Beaumont city hall this week. City officials confirmed Tuesday they are entirely reliant on sparse County data to ensure industry compliance. www.chron.com/news/article...
Beaumont City Council members brainstorm abatement policy changes
The Beaumont City Council is reviewing possible changes to its tax abatement policy and revenue options.
chron.com
⚠️Oil and gas logistics giant Energy Transfer has pulled its plans for a brand-new petrochemical complex in Nederland, Texas. It was expected to respond to opponents by next week. More from me: publichealthwatch.org/2026/05/14/e...
Energy Transfer Backs Out of Texas Gulf Coast Plastics Plant - Public Health Watch
The oil and gas logistics giant withdrew its air permit application for the Nederland chemical complex two weeks before it was expected to respond to opponents.
publichealthwatch.org
Jefferson County and Port Arthur were singled out in a new economic study that attempts to do the math on the local jobs promised in exchange for multibillion $ tax breaks to industrial commercial projects. Read my latest: www.chron.com/business/art...
New five county study details the job results of government tax incentives
As most residents are working on their tax extensions and appraisals, a new study found some Jefferson County properties could get a big portion of their tax bills dismissed for $10,000 per job.
chron.com
Watched a really good video essay about libertarian socialism and anarchism this weekend from Daniel Baryon.
Happy May Day! International Workers' Day or Labour Day on May 1st began in the United States before spreading across the world, but successful efforts by capitalists to pacify militant labor movements and stamp out universal human rights initiatives caused the split in the holiday we see today.
Today’s my work anniversary! Here’s some of my thoughts, hopes, and concerns after 365 days in the fourth estate. open.substack.com/pub/mbumaqun...
My first year officially working as a journalist
An exercise in seeing the behind-the-scenes players in the Golden Triangle.
open.substack.com
Over a century ago, Black, white, & Hispanic sawmill workers secretly organized the Brotherhood of Timber Workers in East Texas. In an era of Jim Crow laws, workers demanded fair wages & basic rights for everyone – regardless of skin color or gender.
Southeast Texas and The Brotherhood of Timber Workers
How labor solidarity breaks racial and gender barriers: The untold story of Southeast Texas and The Brotherhood of Timber Workers.
beaumontenterprise.com
Happy Friday! 🙌🏾 This week, I had the chance to sit down with the @texasaflcio.org President, Secretary-Treasurer and Communications Director prior to their labor town hall with local union members in Beaumont. Read my latest: www.chron.com/business/art...
Texas AFL-CIO leadership make a stop in Beaumont to listen to workers
Check out these photos from the midweek labor town hall.
chron.com
A different type of interfaith engagement took place in Beaumont, amidst a rise in anti-Muslim rhetoric in Texas and the United States. Read my latest ☪️✝️🪯 www.chron.com/news/article...
Beaumont interfaith Ramadan dinner brings different religious groups together
Attendees discuss how interfaith dinners show people how different Abrahamic religions are related and connect with each other.
chron.com
A white supremacist group that avows the Great Replacement Theory and exploits tragedies to stir up racial animus has a few local adherents posting flyers across Southeast Texas, including in Beaumont. www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article...
White nationalist flyers appear at Parkdale Mall. Who put them up?
Here's what we know about White nationalist flyers found in Parkdale Mall parking lot.
beaumontenterprise.com
A great piece from the Observer on how to win elections by rebuilding the eroded civic foundations and third spaces of Texas. www.texasobserver.org/let-a-hundre...
In Texas Cities, Let a Hundred Mamdanis Bloom
Our state has long-term lessons to learn from the New York socialist’s rise.
texasobserver.org
