Labor Radio-Podcast Weekly

Elon Musk’s company town

Elon Musk plans to set up a company town; The Rick Smith Show reminds us of the dark history of company towns.

Then, on America’s Workforce Radio, Tim Burga, President of the Ohio AFL-CIO, tells us about new legislation to improve safety on the railroads.

Next we go to Brazil, for a report on 39 workers rescued from modern slavery on the Solidarity Center Podcast.

From the FairWork podcast, a discussion with Heather Berg about how the internet has changed sex work.

Our final segment today is from the new season of the America Works podcast, which introduces us to Jude Bejarano, a cement plant worker in Evansville, Pennsylvania

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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.

#LaborRadioPod @AFLCIO @RickSmithShow @AWFUnionPodcast @SolidarityCntr @TowardsFairWork @librarycongress

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

Extremism in Topeka

The Kansas Reflector’s Sherman Smith reports on extremism in Topeka on theHeartland Labor Forum.

Donna Murch and Todd Wolfson discuss Rutgers workers' industrial unionism strategy on The Dig.

The Oscars are this Sunday; actor and podcaster Harold Phillips highlights some of the more labor-focused movies and TV shows on Labor Goes To The Movies.

After a 2-year hiatus, we’re very pleased to welcome back the Working History podcast, which spotlights the work of leading labor historians, activists, and practitioners focusing especially on the U.S. and global South; today we’ll hear Jefferson Cowie on his new book Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power.

We wrap up this week’s show with The Radical Songbook podcast and a 1996 song about striking hospital workers that’s still very relevant today.

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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.

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

The Tractor Princess and The Cake Lady

April Lott, Vice President of the South Carolina AFL-CIO and President of AFGE Local 3627, joins the America’s Work Force Union podcast to talk about the uphill battle she faces, not just from the anti-labor rhetoric but also as a black female in a union in South Carolina, the state with the lowest labor density.

In the latest episode of Solidarity Works: A Podcast From The United Steelworkers, Vice President of Human Affairs Kevin Mapp and Pride at Work Co-President Brittani Murray talk about uniting workers across race, class, and gender to build a labor coalition that lasts.

Then, on the Green and Red podcast, Scott talks with Truthout’s Candice Bernd about her latest article “Armed Community Groups Are Defending Texas Drag Queens From Christian Fascists.”

Valerie Watson Johnson is better known as The Cake Lady; we hear more from the Lunch with Labor show.

In the latest episode of Re:Work, Antoinette Yvonne DeOcampo-Lechtenberg paints a picture of growing up in a rural farming community in the 1960s and 1970s, as the daughter of a Filipino immigrant from the Manong generation. “The Tractor Princess” draws on excerpts from an oral history interview that’s a part of a community archive and research initiative called Watsonville is in the Heart, which highlights the stories of Filipino families from the greater Pajaro Valley region in California.

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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.

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“A Hell of Wall Street’s Making”

Two reports focusing on the recent train derailments:
Jeff Kurtz of Railroad Workers United talks with the We Rise Fighting podcast about the roots of the problem, and then on the Working People podcast, rail worker Matt Weaver says East Palestine was “A Hell of Wall Street's Making.”

Then, “Teasing the tech,” things teachers should know about the impact of education technologies; that’s from the EdVoices podcast, put out by Education International, the voice of teachers and other education employees across the globe.

Next, why not riot? The Green and Red podcast talks with Ben Case, author of a provocative new book, “Street Rebellion: Resistance Beyond Violence and Nonviolence,” which challenges the strategy of non-violent and often non-aggressive protest and makes a case that riots are another tactic to be used by the Left. 

Our final segment today is from the SAG-AFTRA Podcast, which toured the show floors at the CES tech show last month and brings us a closer look at AI and the future of film, the latest trends and innovations that might affect the entertainment industry in the years ahead.
In a related note, the Screen Actors Guild Awards are tomorrow night and you can check out actor and labor podcaster Harold Phillips’ labor picks on today’s Labor Goes to the Movies podcast.

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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.

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

Black History Month at work

February marks Black History Month in the United States and that’s definitely been reflected this last week on the Labor Radio Podcast Network. 

On El Cafecito del Día, Janella Hinds from the United Federation of Teachers in New York discussed the importance of centering Afro-Latina voices within the contemporary labor movement, and the need to address the continued under-representation of black members within positions of union leadership.

The following two shows are really a tale of two different states:
On the OEA Grow Podcast, Natika Samuels interviewed Kevin Adams, a Colorado social studies teacher and the host of the Two Dope Teachers podcast.  Adams discusses the full gamut of activities that are on offer to students during black history month and how to create a positive environment where students feel free to explore questions of culture, politics and heritage in a lively and meaningful way.
By contrast is a new report on the stifling environment that teachers are facing in the Sunshine State on Educating From the Heart, from the Florida Education Association.  Tina and Luke spoke to Raegan Miller, Jabari Hosey, and Jen Cousins, - not professional educators themselves but rather parent advocates and activists – who describe some of the classroom realities faced by teachers when they’re attempting to teach black history, and how parents can respond in productive ways that avoid the shouting and hectoring of adversarial school board meetings.

In the second half of today’s show we go to the Heartland Labor Forum where Bloomberg News’ labor reporter Robert Lafolla brings us an update from the National Labor Relations Board.

We stay in the Midwest where WORT community radio in Madison, Wisconsin, reports on recent charges of a hostile work environment at the Henry Vilas Zoo.  It has nothing to do with the animals.

Then we visit New Zealand where Auckland union representative Justine Sachs digs into the mailbag on Red Dead Redemption and addresses the age old question of what to do when your workplace has a moldy carpet.

We began with Black History Month and that’s where we end today's show, with a trailer for AFSCME’s new I AM Podcast, a forthcoming series that explores the legacy of the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike.

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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.

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

Three from the UK

Hundreds of thousands of nurses, teachers, and transit workers have taken to the streets in the UK for living wages and against privatization of public services; we’ll hear a report from WorkWeek Radio.

Then, the secret art of negotiation -- why is it an art and not a science? -- on the latest UnionDays, a UK-based podcast that’s returning from hiatus. 

From the Reinventing Solidarity podcast, despite Walmart’s decade-long effort at reforms, the average full-time worker there earns just under $32,000 a year. Author Rick Wartzman explores what this suggests about the systemic failures of capitalism in the 21st century.

On Writing podcast host Greg Iwinski talks to screenwriter Tony Gilroy who’s currently the showrunner and executive producer of the Star Wars series ANDOR. Gilroy talks about how his music career influenced his work as a screenwriter, why empathy is the key to imagination, and the similarities between being a showrunner and a dairy farmer.

We wrap up this week’s show with a poem by Kathryn Poulsen Wood from The Radical Songbook podcast, and, from Labor History in 2:00, the day known in Great Britain as the Battle of Saltley Gate.

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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.

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

Elections matter

From Union Talk, the podcast from the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten talks to governors Michelle Lujan and J.B. Pritzker about how they've turned election wins into gains for public employees.

On America’s Workforce Radio, the daily union podcast dedicated to union news and issues, Joey Combs from SEIU Local 517M on a plan to repeal Michigan's Right to Work Law.

Next, on From A to Arbitration, the podcast that aims to provide a union rep's in-depth guide to the dispute resolution process, how do we break the cycle?

On our last show today, Workers Beat host Gene Lantz poses the big question: is it time for a revolution?

We’ve got a bonus track today, in honor of the five hundred thousand workers who struck this week in in the UK: on Labor History in 2:00, we hear about the day a half a million African American and Puerto Rican students in New York City participated in a one-day school boycott. 

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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.

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

Remembering Myrtle Witboii; Fordham strike, plus labor music and movies

The Solidarity Center Podcast remembers Myrtle Witboii, general secretary of the South African Domestic Service and Allied Workers Union, and president of the International Domestic Workers Federation.

Then we’ll hear about the strike at Fordham University from My Labor Radio: Interviews and information about working Americans broadcast weekly on WELT 95.7 FM in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Next, Evan Tuohy, the newly elected vice president of AFM Local 33, which represents musicians in Tucson, Arizona, talks with the Words and Work podcast, about what AFM can do for independent musicians. Words and Work is produced by the Tucson Chapter of the National Writers Union and Downtown Radio.

Then we have two reports involving workers and the movies: from Labor Radio on KBOO FM, Portland's Living Room Theater workers strike and unionize, forming the Cinema Workers Union. And, from the Labor Goes to the Movies podcast, a deep dive into the films “Blonde” and “Elvis” with Carnegie Mellon professor Kathy Newman, who wrote “Marilyn and Elvis: Dead Labor in the Age of Streaming.”

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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.

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

YouTubers get a union

From the FairWork podcast, YouTubers get a union. Then, Stephen Schima on the National Environmental Policy Act on El Cafecito del Día; Bo Lindell talks about being a lineman on the Power Line Podcast; Shaun Gundert, the new president of the Southwest Washington Central Labor Council shares his vision for the labor council on the Working to Live In Southwest Washington podcast. And our final segment this week comes from the Art and Labor podcast team, which offers their take on director James Cameron and Avatar.

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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.

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

Nurses strike coast to coast

Two reports on striking nurses, the first from RadioLabour, on the 7,000 nurses who walked out in New York City this week, and the second, from Work Week Radio, on the nurses who struck in California.

Then, on The Solidarity Podcast, from Teamsters Local 769, the threat Amazon poses to transportation workers.

On The Workers' Mic, a weekly show out of Chicago, Operating Engineers Local 150 General Counsel Dale Pierson talks about arbitration as a means of achieving a first contract.

Our last report comes to us from the We Rise Fighting podcast, which goes beyond Martin Luther King’s usual "I have a dream" speech to look at Dr. King's legacy with regards to unions, labor and the antiwar movements.

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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.

#LaborRadioPod @AFLCIO @radiolabour @labormedianow @TLU769 @coalition_labor

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