Labor Radio-Podcast Weekly

Labor Radio/Podcast Weekly: The Dig; LaborForce; BiPartisan Buzz; Tribunus Plebis; Union Bug; Labor Notes

Labor Radio/Podcast Weekly (1/9): It’s the first week back in the New Year—and it feels like five days crammed into three. Chris, Harold, and Patrick return with a packed roundup: geopolitics, strike action, tax-policy sleight of hand, a brand-new show on worker-focused media, year-end reflections, and a fresh new intro.

Featured this week:

The Dig — Alejandro Velasco, Gabriel Hetland, and Yoletty Bracho join Daniel Denvir to analyze the U.S. attack on Venezuela, Trump’s imperial project, oil politics, and how different forces inside Venezuela are responding.
Labor Force — Mike Struan checks in on strike action at Telluride Ski Resort, spotlighting leverage, seasonal labor, and the power of unionized workers to shift the balance in a resort economy. (And: good news—workers later ratified a CBA.)
Labor Notes Podcast — Labor Notes staff share New Year’s organizing resolutions—more phone calls, fewer Zooms, better delegation, and making time to evaluate fights and build for the long haul.
Tribunus Plebis — Sean takes on Trump’s “no tax on overtime” promise, arguing it’s less a benefit than an accounting trick: a rebate structure that rewards overwork while protecting employer power.
NEW: The Union Bug — Mel Buer launches a brand-new show with a conversation on why worker-focused media matters, featuring Labor Radio Podcast Network’s Harold Phillips and Chris Garlock.
Shows You Should Know — Tariff debates, end-of-year wrap-ups, best-of episodes, and a look ahead to 2026, including: The Manufacturing Report, From A to Arbitration, Heartland Labor Forum, Canadian Union Podcast for Employees.

Credits / notes: This podcast is recorded under a SAG-AFTRA collective bargaining agreement. Edited this week by Patrick Dixon, Chris Garlock & Harold Phillips; produced by Chris Garlock; social media—always and forever—by Harold Phillips.

2025 Best of the Year Picks (Part Two)

This week on the Labor Radio Podcast Weekly, we wrap up our Best of the Year series with another round of standout episodes—chosen by producers and hosts across the Labor Radio Podcast Network.

Highlights include deep Midwest reporting from Heartland Labor Forum; urgent political and cultural conversations from The Green and Red Podcast; working-class reflection and debate from The Wealthy Ironworker; and sustained local labor reporting from Boiling Point.

We also share Best of selections from Labor History Today, connecting centuries of labor struggle to today’s fights, and we close with Work Stoppage—bringing sharp analysis, humor, and unapologetic class politics to the Network.

Find links to every episode featured this week on the Labor Radio Podcast Network socials, and 👉 Subscribe, listen, and follow us at laborradionetwork.org
#LaborRadioPod #1u #UnionStrong #WorkersVoices #SolidarityMedia @AFLCIO

Help us build sonic solidarity by clicking on the share button below.

Highlights from labor radio and podcast shows around the country, part of the national Labor Radio Podcast Network of shows focusing on working people’s issues and concerns.

Edited and produced by Chris Garlock; social media guru Mr. Harold Phillips.

2025 Best of the Year Picks (Part One)

As the year winds down, the Labor Radio Podcast Weekly takes a step back to celebrate the work coming out of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. Instead of choosing favorites ourselves, we asked Network producers and hosts to select their top five episodes of 2025—and this week, you’ll hear the first batch of those Best of the Year picks.

Highlights include Labor Jawn’s deep dives into Philadelphia labor history; Labor Force’s sharp analysis of power, precarity, and organizing in today’s economy; and selections from the Labor Heritage Power Hour exploring labor culture through music, history, and imagination. We also feature grassroots reporting from Working To Live in Southwest Washington, national political coverage from The Valley Labor Report, and on-the-ground worker stories from My Labor Radio.

Want to hear the full episodes our producers chose as their best of the year? Find them at LaborRadioNetwork.org, and follow @LaborRadioNet on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, and X for links to each episode as we roll them out over the coming weeks.

Thanks to all the producers and hosts who make the Network what it is—and to everyone who listens, shares, and supports labor radio.

Labor Radio; The Dig; Power Line Podcast; The Workers' Mic; The Heartland Labor Forum

This week’s Labor Radio Podcast Weekly takes a wide-angle look at where labor power is showing up right now—on the shop floor, in politics, in culture, and across the media landscape.

We start on The Workers’ Mic, where hosts are joined by The Labor Radio Podcast Network’s Chris Garlock and Harold Phillips to talk about why independent labor media matters and how the Network connects worker struggles across industries and regions.

From there, The Dig digs into the political moment, with Eric Blanc, Leah Greenberg, and Waleed Shahid examining the liberal resistance’s sharp left turn and what it means for organizing and strategy moving forward.

On Labor Radio from WORT in Madison, it’s a packed labor news roundup—from state worker rallies and dairy workers authorizing a strike to Starbucks organizing wins and fights over school voucher transparency.

We also hear from Heartland Labor Forum, which takes on the often-overlooked issue of mental health in the labor movement, spotlighting union-led programs that support members and their families.

Our unusual pick this week comes from the Power Line Podcast, featuring a tailgate conversation with Austin Carr—known online as “America’s Favorite Lineman”—on life in the trades and how social media is reshaping work and identity.

Plus, in our Shows You Should Know speed round, we spotlight more voices across the Network, including The Wealthy Ironworker, Boiling Point, RadioLabour Canada, El Cafecito del Día, and The CWA Hour of Power, and we pause to remember Ken Nash of Building Bridges.

👉 Subscribe, listen, and follow us at laborradionetwork.org

@thedigradio @powerlinepodcast @coalition_labor

@Heartland_Labor#LaborRadioPod #1u #UnionStrong #WorkersVoices #SolidarityMedia @AFLCIO

Help us build sonic solidarity by clicking on the share button below.

Highlights from labor radio and podcast shows around the country, part of the national Labor Radio Podcast Network of shows focusing on working people’s issues and concerns.

Produced by Chris Garlock, edited by Patrick Dixon, social media guru Mr. Harold Phillips.

LabourStart; Union or Bust; Union Strong; Labor Jawn; Reinventing Solidarity

This week on the Labor Radio/Podcast Weekly, we spotlight powerful stories from across the movement:
• LabourStart updates us on imprisoned Hong Kong union leader Lee Cheuk-yan, whose January trial underscores the escalating repression of independent unionism under the National Security Law.
• Union or Bust digs deep into the spread of high-tech surveillance—from license plate readers to smart streetlights—featuring computer scientist and organizer Lily Irani on the real-world dangers of “smart policing.”
• On Union Strong, New York Assemblymember Harry Bronson traces how growing up in poverty and experiencing workplace discrimination shaped his fight for workers’ rights.
• From Labor Jawn, a rich conversation with historian Francis Ryan about Philadelphia’s lost industrial era and the working-class neighborhoods that built the city.
• Reinventing Solidarity brings us roundtable on 100 years of Black labor activism.

We wrap with a lightning-fast Shows You Should Know speed round, featuring James Cameron on AI and acting on The SAG-AFTRA Podcast; David Rovics and labor music on The Labor Heritage Power Hour; on The Heartland Labor Forum, Randi Weingarten on why fascists fear teachers; plus holiday episodes from Economics for the People and Pipe Up; and, from OnWriting, late-night writers on comedy and free speech.

As always, stay tuned, stay active, and stay connected to the Labor Radio/Podcast Network—where the people speak.

👉 Subscribe, listen, and follow us at laborradionetwork.org
#LaborRadioPod #1u #UnionStrong #WorkersVoices #SolidarityMedia @AFLCIO@labourstart @nysaflcio @labor80132 @CunySLU

Help us build sonic solidarity by clicking on the share button below.

Highlights from labor radio and podcast shows around the country, part of the national Labor Radio Podcast Network of shows focusing on working people’s issues and concerns.

Edited by Patrick Dixon, produced by Chris Garlock; social media guru Mr. Harold Phillips.

Solidarity Breakfast; Power at Work; On Writing; Tales from the Reuther Library; On The Line: Stories of BC Workers

This Week on the Labor Radio/Podcast Weekly: From a mass climate-justice blockade in Australia to the hidden labor history of British Columbia’s fruit-packing women, this week’s episode ranges across the movement to bring you standout stories from the Labor Radio Podcast Network.

We kick things off with Solidarity Breakfast, reporting from Newcastle’s Rising Tide camp, where thousands gathered to shut down the world’s largest coal port. Then, Power at Work digs into the escalating fight over Amazon as New Jersey’s attorney general sues the company for violating worker-protection laws, with Teamsters organizer Randy Korgan connecting the legal battle to on-the-ground organizing.

Public media writers join On Writing to break down the growing threats to free speech and funding in public broadcasting, while Tales from the Reuther Library features AFA-CWA President Sara Nelson on why labor history is a critical tool in today’s contract fights. Finally, On The Line brings us the story of the “Apple Box Belles,” the union women who powered BC’s fruit-packing plants for decades.

Plus: our “Shows You Should Know” speed-round segment highlights more excellent episodes across the Network.

👉 Subscribe, listen, and follow us at laborradionetwork.org

@3CRsolidarity @PowerAtWorkBlog @OnWritingWGAE @ReutherLibrary @BC_LHC #LaborRadioPod #1u #UnionStrong #WorkersVoices #SolidarityMedia @AFLCIO

Help us build sonic solidarity by clicking on the share button below.

Highlights from labor radio and podcast shows around the country, part of the national Labor Radio Podcast Network of shows focusing on working people’s issues and concerns. The Labor Radio Podcast Weekly is produced by the Labor Radio Podcast Network. Member podcasts are independently produced. Opinions expressed do not represent the Network.

Edited by Patrick Dixon, produced by Chris Garlock; social media guru Mr. Harold Phillips.

Holiday Special Edition: 6 shows to listen to this weekend

This week on the Labor Radio/Podcast Weekly: the crew is taking a well-earned union break for Thanksgiving — but Chris and Harold are here with a special holiday mini-edition; even during the holidays, labor shows across the Network are busy lifting up workers. This week’s highlights include:
• Fight Like Hell: Letter carriers give back with a Thanksgiving-week blood drive in Flushing, NY.

• Labor Jawn: How the Starbucks strike kitchen feeds and sustains workers fighting for their first contract.
• Say Watt: The St. Paul Electrical JATC partners with community groups to reshape outreach, recruitment, and retention.
• Working Voices: AFSCME rallies, a Black Friday Home Depot boycott, and a Building Trades perspective from LA/Orange County.
• The Manufacturing Report: How the Lost Dutchman leather goods brand scaled from a teen hobby to a thriving U.S.-made shop.
• The Dig: Roasts, toasts, and reflections as The Dig celebrates a huge milestone: 500 episodes!

👉 Subscribe, listen, and follow us at laborradionetwork.org
#LaborRadioPod #1u #UnionStrong #WorkersVoices #SolidarityMedia @AFLCIO

Help us build sonic solidarity by clicking on the share button below.

Highlights from labor radio and podcast shows around the country, part of the national Labor Radio Podcast Network of shows focusing on working people’s issues and concerns.

Edited & produced by Chris Garlock; social media guru Mr. Harold Phillips.

Working People; Work Stoppage; We Rise Fighting; Labor Notes Podcast; What's Going On Labor Mondays

On this week’s Labor Radio Podcast Weekly: Starbucks workers are fed up — and they’re walking out. This week’s show spotlights the escalating Red Cup Rebellion, with frontline stories from baristas, organizers, and labor leaders across the country.

We begin on Working People, where Max Alvarez talks with veteran barista and organizer Michelle Eisen about the urgent new strike wave hitting Starbucks stores nationwide — why workers are walking out, what the company refuses to fix, and what’s at stake for the movement.

Then over on Work Stoppage, the team unpacks Starbucks Workers United’s first open-ended strike — already underway in dozens of stores and growing — and the national call for a full boycott.

On We Rise Fighting, Madison barista Joanna breaks down why Red Cup Day has become a flashpoint for worker action, highlighting the role of community care and solidarity in sustaining the fight.

From the Labor Notes Podcast, baristas describe a workplace defined by speedups, dangerous understaffing, impossible time-standards, and corporate mandates that ignore the crisis on the shop floor — including the now-infamous “cup writing” rules.

And on WBAI’s What’s Going On, Juliana Forlano joins Brooklyn baristas on the picket line, alongside AFT President Randi Weingarten and NY Assemblymember Claire Valdéz, rallying in solidarity with the nationwide rebellion.

Plus: Dave Rovics’ brand-new song No Contract, No Coffee and, on Shows You Should Know, The Wealthy Ironworker on politicians pushing “right-to-work”; From A To Arbitration with cold-weather tips for CCAs; Re:Work Radio on healing, UFCW, and the cannabis industry; Labor History Today on land reform, race, and early labor conflicts; Ted talks about AFT’s organizing at BASIS charter schools on Words and Work; and we salute Concrete Gang’s Gorilla on his retirement.

Listen to all these and 200+ more shows at laborradionetwork.org
Follow #LaborRadioPod on Bluesky, X, Facebook, and Instagram.
Support the Network with union-made T-shirts — two colors, all sizes — at laborradionetwork.org.

Recorded under a SAG-AFTRA collective bargaining agreement. Edited by Patrick Dixon; produced by Chris Garlock; social media by Harold Phillips.

Boiling Point; Art and Labor; Blue Collar News; Next Generation Carriers; The SAG-AFTRA Podcast

On This Week’s Labor Radio Podcast Weekly:
Boiling Point – Grassroots democracy proves its power as Zohran Mamdani’s historic mayoral win in New York sparks a conversation about movement-based politics.
Art and Labor – Brooklyn artists take to the streets on election night with sharp, funny commentary on culture, power, and political change.
Blue Collar News – From Helena, Montana, AFGE Local 4012 President Jordan Harwell describes how the federal shutdown is hitting working families — and what unions are doing to help.
Next Generation Carriers – Host Margot opens a “Women’s Roundtable” on burnout among postal workers and union activists, with candid talk about caring for ourselves and each other.
SAG-AFTRA Podcast – New SAG-AFTRA President Sean Astin shares his vision for the union’s future, from health and pension protections to confronting the challenges of artificial intelligence.

Shows You Should Know – Tiffany Roman on the federal shutdown (El Cafecito del Día); two new Two Classes of Mail episodes on veterans and discipline; Pipe Up’s Veterans Day special with UA’s Veterans In Piping; Fight Like Hell salutes NALC veterans; We Rise Fighting breaks down labor wins and strikes; and a farewell to APWU’s Mark Dimondstein as he signs off from Communicating With You, The Member.

Listen to all these and 200+ more shows at laborradionetwork.org
Follow #LaborRadioPod on Bluesky, X, Facebook, and Instagram.
Support the Network with union-made T-shirts — two colors, all sizes — at laborradionetwork.org.

Recorded under a SAG-AFTRA collective bargaining agreement. Edited by Patrick Dixon; produced by Chris Garlock; social media by Harold Phillips.

LabourStart; Organising for a Change; Apple Box Talks; The Workers' Mic; America's Work Force Union Podcast

This week on the Labor Radio Podcast Weekly:
LabourStart talks with Serbian air traffic controllers Ranko and Igor, fired after leading a 40-day strike — part of what they describe as a growing wave of anti-union repression in Serbia.
On Organising for a Change, hosts Simon Sapper and Martin Smith join Matt Collins from Hope Not Hate to discuss how unions can counter the rise of far-right politics in workplaces.
Apple Box Talks welcomes Winnie Luk, Executive Director of the Disability Screen Office, to talk about accessibility, inclusion, and recognizing both visible and invisible disabilities in the film industry.
The Workers’ Mic gets fired up after a Chicago business owner threatens to stab Scabby the Rat, revisiting the legal fights that made Scabby a First Amendment icon.
And on America’s Workforce Union Podcast, host Ed “Flash” Ferenc talks with historian Scott Nelson about the real—and haunting—story of John Henry, the young Black convict whose tragic death inspired a legend.

Plus teasers for more Shows You Should Know: Economics For The People: David Bacon on deported workers in Tijuana; The Powerline Podcast: Steve Kopp turns “safety on paper” into real jobsite innovation; School Me: Jennifer Albert Mann brings labor history to life for teens; Union Or Bust: Kickstarter United’s Dannel Jurado talks 30 days on strike; Labor Force: Mike connects the government shutdown, SNAP cuts, and Eugene Debs’ legacy; Labor Notes Podcast: A spooky look at organizing lessons from They Live, Hill House, and Nosferatu.

Listen to all these and 200+ more shows at laborradionetwork.org
Follow #LaborRadioPod on Bluesky, X, Facebook, and Instagram.
Support the Network with union-made T-shirts — two colors, all sizes — at laborradionetwork.org.

Recorded under a SAG-AFTRA collective bargaining agreement. Edited by Patrick Dixon; produced by Chris Garlock; social media by Harold Phillips.