Labor Radio-Podcast Weekly

Union-busting in America’s national parks

On this week’s show: An update on the Case New Holland strike from the Work Stoppage podcast. Then, reports from two education-focused podcasts: from AFT In Action, a conversation highlighting the advantages that a strong labor-management relationship can have on working conditions and student learning; and, from CTU Speaks! co-hosts Andrea Parker and Jim Staros talk with Lauren Bianchi and Chuck Stark, two teachers at Washington High School that Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot sought to fire this past summer. Their crime? Teaching their students about the city’s plan to move the toxic metal shredding corporation General Iron from wealthy Lincoln Park to the Southeast Side, which has already suffered more pollution and toxic industry than almost any other region of Chicago.
Do you get lost in all the mumbo jumbo of incentives for developers and wonder what they cost taxpayers, local government, school districts and even the public library? This week on the Heartland Labor Forum, the basics of TIFS and Star Bonds and other ways we subsidize builders.
Our last segment comes from 43-15: A Labor Lab Podcast: when tour guides at Yellowstone National Park started unionizing to bargain for higher wages, a consistent work schedule, and better housing conditions, they were quickly fired. We’ll hear from Ty Wheeler, one of the fired tour guides.

Please 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.

#LaborRadioPod @AFLCIO @WorkStoppagePod @AFTCT @CtuSpeaks @Heartland_Labor @LaborLabUS

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

Yelling at Starbucks

On this week’s show: Sasha Anisimova, Starbucks organizer from Ann Arbor MI, on Labor Vision; Bruce Allan, residential school survivor, on Apple Box Talks; Shutting down the ports with Steve Gerrard and Liverpool dockworkers on Belabored; Michael and Elliott discuss the underlying causes behind the recently averted rail strike on Labor Radio on KBOO FM; Selma City workers on strike and Alabama prison workers thinking about it on The Valley Labor Report; Liberate Westchester on Art and Labor.

Please 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.

#LaborRadioPod @AFLCIO @seelaborvision @iatse891 @DissentMag @kboo @LaborReporters @ArtandLaborPod

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

WireWomen & Organizing under the radar

Our guests at this week’s meeting of the Labor Radio Podcast Network:
Timothy Sheard, editor of Hard Ball Press, which just released "WireWomen: Lighting It Up" by Professor Sharon Szymanski, is "a vivid portrait of courageous, creative women working in a non-traditional occupation.”
Christopher Martin, Professor of Digital Journalism in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Northern Iowa; his article
“Workers at Big Brands Like Starbucks Aren’t the Only Ones Unionizing”
recently appeared in Jacobin.

#LaborRadioPod @AFLCIO @hardballpress @jacobin @chrismartin100
Edited/produced by Chris Garlock; social media guru Mr. Harold Phillips.

Putting the greed in Ingredion

Mill workers have now been out on strike for over a month in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; The Checkout Radio talks with Bakery Workers International Rep Jason Davis to find out why.

Union construction workers and members of the fire and police departments in New York City developed a strong bond working together

on New York’s 9/11 recovery mission. Years later, many of them are now retired, and they’re putting their knowledge and skills to work to help those in need. On the latest Union Strong podcast, Bill Keegan, founder and president of HEART 9/11 talks about the mission of the organization and what drives workers to pay it forward.

In June of this year, more than 100 Apple store employees in Towson, Maryland, a suburb of Baltimore, voted to unionize by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, making it the first Apple store to unionize. Their union is called the Coalition of Organized Retail Employees (or AppleCORE), and The Empathy Media Lab podcast talks with Apple Core Union’s Billy Jarboe. 

From El Cafecito del Día, “organizing while undocumented”; how undocumented workers can benefit from the higher wages, benefits and protections that come with a union contract.

Next, we go to Australia for Solidarity Breakfast’s interview with Forest Defenders against VicForests, and find out why ordinary people need to take radical action to defend nature.

Our final segment takes us to Colombia, where union activist and labor lawyer Mery Laura Perdomo told the Solidarity Center Podcast how a vibrant labor movement is the key to thriving democracies because unions reduce economic inequality, strengthen the social safety net and unite diverse groups.

Please 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.

#LaborRadioPod @AFLCIO @checkoutradio @nysaflcio @empathymedialab @3CRsolidarity @LCLAA @SolidarityCntr

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

Nurses strike, rail workers don’t

The strike that wasn’t, and one that was: from The Rick Smith Show and America’s Workforce Radio, we have two reports on the issues that nearly forced tens of thousands of rail workers out on strike this week. Early Thursday morning, the Biden administration brokered a tentative agreement that, at least for now, has averted a nationwide rail strike.
On Your Rights At Work, we hear from one of the 15,000 nurses in Minnesota who struck for three days this week over patient safety issues.
And RadioLabour is back from its summer break with an interview with Guy Ryder, Director-General of the International Labour Organization. Our final show this week, Educating from the Heart, takes a look at how even art classes are not immune from the ongoing culture wars.

Please 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.

#LaborRadioPod @AFLCIO @RickSmithShow @DCLabor @AWFUnionPodcast @radiolabour @FloridaEA

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

Why 15,000 nurses struck this week

On Monday, 15,000 Minnesota nurses walked out on strike, in the largest private-sector nurses’ strike in U.S. history. The walkout came after nurses – members of the Minnesota Nurses Association -- had negotiated with hospital executives for more than five months and had worked without contracts for the last several months. Our guest was Chris Rubesch, striking Minnesota RN and MNA First VP.

#LaborRadioPod @AFLCIO  @mnnurses #SupportNurses #RNStrike #family #solidarity #patientsbeforeprofits

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

Support your local union candidate

On the Working to Live In Southwest Washington podcast, Why are so many union members running for office?

Strippers seek justice at work; Belabored talks with Velveeta.

On the Tales from the Reuther Library podcast, Louise Milone discusses how the Steelworkers pushed for an investigation into dangerous smog in the Monongahela Valley

David Jenkins discusses the new HBO series Our Flag Means Death,
on the On Writing podcast.

This is your Network, and we’re building it like a union organizing campaign, one show and one listener at a time; please help us build sonic solidarity by sharing this show; just click on the share button below. Thanks so much!

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 @DCLabor @SWWACLC @DissentMag @ReutherLibrary @WGAEast

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

“Working Nine to Five”

“We inspired Jane Fonda to make her movie and Dolly Parton to write her song. And we made countless bosses get their own coffee.” Labor Radio Podcast Network hosts chat with Ellen Cassedy, co-founder of 9 to 5, and author of a brand new book, “Working Nine to Five, A Women's Movement, A Labor Union, and the Iconic Movie,” with a forward by Jane Fonda.

#LaborRadioPod @AFLCIO @ellencassedy @9to5org
Edited/produced by Chris Garlock; social media guru Mr. Harold Phillips.

10 for Labor Day

NOTE: We’re pleased to feature ten of the Network’s shows this week for our Labor Day special show; you can also catch it on WPFW 89.3 FM’s 2022 Labor Day show at 4p ET (streaming online here) on Monday, September 5.

Essential Workers of the Pandemic were inducted into the Labor Hall of Honor on Thursday; Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh talked with Your Rights At Work about honoring these workers, and about the 71% union approval rating – the highest in nearly 50 years – reported in a Gallup poll this week.

From the BCTGM Voices Project, Bakery Workers Local 85 and the Corn Nuts Strike in California. And in another California strike, therapists walked out on Kaiser Permanente over a month ago; Building Bridges Radio talks to two of the strikers.

In the first of two reports on Starbucks organizing, the Heartland Labor Forum reports on Starbucks shutting down the only store in Kansas City to vote in a union. Our second Starbucks report this week is from the El Cafecito del Día podcast, which brings us “No Contract, No Coffee!”, a conversation with Starbucks workers -- and union organizers -- Sam Amato and Christian Miranda.

From the Solidarity Works podcast, “The Battle of Bay City”; bus drivers fight back privatization. And on Red Dead Redemption, Justine chats about the epidemic of 'Quiet Quitting'.

The New York State cannabis industry is creating tens of thousands of union jobs; America’s Workforce Radio finds out how. From the Power Line Podcast: the history of Milwaukee Tool and the things Milwaukee has done to put itself on top of the tooling industry.

Our last segment comes to us from On The Job, and it’s titled “Give us a break, Maccas”. That’s what they call McDonalds in Australia, where the podcast originates: a quarter of a million current and former McDonalds workers in Australia are suing the fast-food giant for $250 million, over alleged denial of paid breaks.

This is your Network, and we’re building it like a union organizing campaign, one show and one listener at a time; please help us build sonic solidarity by sharing this show; just click on the share button below. Thanks so much!

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 @DCLabor @BCTGM @bbridgesradio @Heartland_Labor @steelworkers @95bFM @AWFUnionPodcast @powerlinepodcast @SaintFrankly @sallyrugg

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

Bacon, LeRoy and Union Yes

Our very first pod extra! Members of the Labor Radio Podcast Network meet online every Wednesday to share information about upcoming shows, and get advice from other labor podcasters and radio producers. Often we feature special guests who we think our fellow broadcasters might want to book on their shows.
We decided to go ahead a record these sessions and share excerpts of them with our listeners, both as a preview of some of the shows in the Network, and as a behind-the-scenes look at how podcast and radio producers put together the shows you listen to.
Our guests this week are longtime photo journalist David Bacon and Good Jobs First Executive Director Greg LeRoy. Plus we’ve got a very special blast from the union communications past!

#LaborRadioPod @AFLCIO
Edited/produced by Chris Garlock; social media guru Mr. Harold Phillips.