Labor Radio-Podcast Weekly

A striking miner’s daughter speaks

On today’s show: a different voice from the nearly year-long Warrior Met Coal strike; that of a six-year-old miner’s daughter, on the Heartland Labor Forum.

Next up we hear from a couple of new Network members: on the Baltimore Labor Report, REI workers in New York City organize, and on the AFGE Y.O.U.N.G. podcast, how being a federal employee affects AFGE members politically, what they can and cannot do.

Then, Crispin Hernandez of Workers' Central of Central New York updates For a Better World about the campaign to lower the threshold for overtime for farmers.

We have two international labor reports today: from the Solidarity Center podcast, how workers defied the odds to form a democratic union at the GM plant in Silao, Mexico, and on Work Stoppage, the difficulties of labor organizing in Colombia.

Where did the idea of a Human Resources department originate and why does it seem to always favor the employer? We find out from the Million Dollar Organizer podcast.  

We wrap up this week’s show with a fascinating interview from the 3rd & Fairfax podcast, as Weakest Link head writer Ann Slichter and writer Scott Saltzburg talk about what it takes to put together a primetime network game show.

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 @DCLabor @checkoutradio @MyPhillyLabor @UAW_Local_2209 @podcastgig @BC_LHC @ILLaborHistory @Heartland_Labor @fairworldprj @SolidarityCntr @WorkStoppagePod @boboedy @WGAWest

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

SMART’s take on Biden’s first year

Talking Smart returns after a brief hiatus; Steve Dodd and Greg Hynes offer their verdict on the first year of the Biden administration and what it’s meant to the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers. Then, meet Tina Turner Morfitt, Dr. Audrey Terrell, and Debra Hall, the new hosts of Holla for Labor on KMUZ’s Willamette Wake Up show in Oregon. Next, two episodes focus on Detroit: from Working Class History, Herb Boyd on the formation of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers and on America Works, Henrietta Ivey’s description of the pain and pride involved in her work as a home healthcare professional is amazingly poignant and affecting. Finally, the ever brilliantly original Art and Labor podcast’s discussion of how art worker organizing fits into an unorthodox place within the broader sphere of labor organizing. 

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 @smartunionworks @kmuz885 @wrkclasshistory @librarycongress @ArtandLaborPod

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

Ukraine Special Edition

A special edition of the Labor Radio Podcast Weekly, featuring coverage of the war in Ukraine.

On The Rick Smith Show, Olga Lautman shares stories from Ukraine; the Workin 4 A Livin hosts establish a personal connection with Ukrainian workers under fire, and on The Dig, Tony Wood returns to discuss the current discourse in the United States surrounding the invasion of Ukraine.

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 @RickSmithShow @4_workin @thedigradio

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

Workers react to Ukraine invasion

On Thursday, as Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, we talked with longtime labor and antiwar activist Gene Bruskin on Your Rights At Work about a working-class analysis of the crisis in Ukraine. Then, on The Check Out, Bakery Workers in Minnesota take on Cub Foods. From The Labor Show -- our newest Network member -- Tommy McKiernan, 1st Vice President of Fire Fighters Local 22 in Philadelphia, explains the presumption law and how it’s preventing access to medical care for firefighters who have cancer. On the latest episode of Trucked Up – the podcast from UAW Local 2209 in Fort Wayne Indiana -- we hear from James Dixon, an amputee who’s become an inspiration to his fellow workers at the auto plant. The Gig podcast dropped Season Two last week, and in Episode 1 -- The World’s Oldest Profession -- we learn more about what domestic and care work is, and its roots in exploitation and slavery. We wrap up this week’s show with On The Line: Stories of BC Workers; this episode examines the so-called "Dirty Thirties" during the Great Depression and the forced labour relief camps
the Federal Government of Canada set up in response.
Bonus track: Labor History in 2:00 for February 25: Remembering E.D. Nixon.

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 @DCLabor @checkoutradio @MyPhillyLabor @UAW_Local_2209 @podcastgig @BC_LHC @ILLaborHistory

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

Inside The Daily Show

The United Steelworkers has scheduled a vote for this coming Monday, February 21, on ExxonMobil’s latest ultimatum to locked out workers at its oil refinery and processing plant in Beaumont, Texas. On today’s show, we dip into the archives of the Workers Beat podcast for a report on this lockout, which started on May 1^st, 2021. Then, from the 141 Report, an update on the new contract at Hawaiian Airlines. Aung Kyaw, co-founder of Thailand’s Migrant Worker Rights Network, is featured on the latest Labor Link podcast from Empathy Media Lab, and, from the On Writing podcast, a producer, correspondent, and two writers talk about what their typical day looks like working on the set of the Daily Show. And in our final segment, Misti Rainwater-Lites talks about being an online tarot card reader, on the Blue Collar Gospel Hour.
Bonus track: Labor History in 2:00 for February 18: The Royal Indian Navy Revolt

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 @WorkStoppagePod @DCLabor @KNON893FM @IAMDistrict141 @empathymedialab @WGAEast @TheBlueCollarG1 @ILLaborHistory

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

Starbucks workers unite!

Starbucks abruptly fired seven union supporters at a store in Memphis, Tennessee on Tuesday in what the union says is a retaliatory purge of the organizing committee. The firings mark a significant escalation in the battle between the world’s largest coffee chain and the fast-growing Starbucks Workers United campaign. Our show today features reports on that campaign from across the Labor Radio Podcast Network.
We begin with The Check Out, which back in October featured an interview with two of the Starbucks baristas who started this whole movement in Buffalo, New York. On yesterday’s Your Rights At Work, we talked with Virginia Starbucks organizer Kat Wiggers about why that state has suddenly become a hotbed of union organizing. Then, Work Stoppage, which covered the campaign back in January, when it had spread to two dozen locations, and then did an update in Thursday’s show after last week’s firings. And, on America’s Workforce Radio, labor lawyer Joyce Goldstein provides some insight into recent changes at the National Labor Relations Board that have facilitated the Starbucks organizing drive.

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 @WorkStoppagePod @DCLabor @AWFUnionPodcast @sbworkersunited @SBuxUnionFrstHl #Starbucks campaign

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

Who’s really to blame for inflation?

On this week’s show, economist Richard Wolff talks with The Heartland Labor Forum about who’s really to blame for inflation (hint, it's not the usual suspects)…What happens when teachers are out sick or on quarantine and there’s a dire shortage of subs? We find out from the CTU Speaks podcast…On the Belabored podcast, Steve Viscelli discusses his new book The Big Rig: Trucking and the Decline of the American Dream…RadioLabour reports on women’s use of WhatsApp to fight abuse…From the Union Dues podcast, author of “The Great Post Office Scandal” Nick Wallis explains the Horizon IT scandal and its’ ramifications for the future.

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 @Heartland_Labor @CtuSpeaks @DissentMag @radiolabour @DuesUnion

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

What is the working class?

On this week’s show, on the first episode of the Class Matters podcast, Adolph Reed Jr., Gordon Lafer, and Samir Sonti define the working class and discuss the eroding trust in government among workers in the United States…Black Work Talk launches Season Two with Bert Bayou, DC Chapter Director of African Communities Together (ACT) and Vice President of UNITE HERE Local 23…In August 2019, 300 workers across 19 branches of the historic Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh voted enthusiastically to join the United Steelworkers union; earlier this month, they officially became members as they ratified their first agreement. On the latest episode of Solidarity Works, two library workers talk about their monumental organizing campaign and about their roles as pillars of the community….Mario Cervantes, a skilled factory worker who makes the tools that make the planes for Boeing aircraft in Wichita, Kansas, talks with the America Works podcast – which just launched their latest season -- about his pride in his trade and his pride in working for Boeing.         

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 @BlackWorkTalk @steelworkers @librarycongress

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

Starbucks workers: “Why not us?”

BCTGM Local 37’s Cristina Lujan talks to The Check Out podcast about the working conditions that led to the strike at Rich Products frozen foods facility…
On America's Work Force Radio, labor lawyer Joyce Goldstein discussed the NLRB's role in efforts by Starbucks workers to organize…
From Work Week Radio, SEIU Local 1021 members reflect on the avoidable death of Ludwig Leota and what to do to prevent similar situations in the future…Workers Beat brings us a brief but illuminating overview of Emile Burn's history of capitalism…
On the Labor History Today podcast, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic, newly-digitized 1961 speech to the AFL-CIO convention at the Americana hotel in Miami Beach, Florida.

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 @checkoutradio @AWFUnionPodcast @labormedianow @KNON893FM @DCLabor

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

“This was a coup attempt”

On this week’s show, longtime labor activist, author and commentator Bill Fletcher, Jr. talks about January 6 and the ongoing threat to democracy by right-wing terrorism on the Black Work Talk podcast…Sharon Burrow, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, takes a global view on the challenges ahead for unions on RadioLabour… Bill Samuel, director of government affairs at the AFL-CIO, on the racist roots of the Senate filibuster on the Your Rights At Work radio show…AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Fred Redmond has been out walking picket lines across the country and he reported on those strikes on the America’s WorkForce Radio podcast…on the Educating from the Heart podcast, Representative Geraldine Thompson discussed her new legislation that will enforce laws requiring Florida schools to include Black history in their curriculum instead of just once a year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day…
A former child worker and labor activist from Bangladesh, Kalpona Akter is the founder and Executive Director of the Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity. You’ll hear more from her on The Labor Link podcast…on the latest episode of The Gig Podcast, we learn what domestic and care work is, and its roots in exploitation and slavery…Judy Ancel is the host of the Heartland Labor Forum, one of the longest-running labor radio shows in the country. She talked with Empathy Media Labs about her origins as a rank-and-file union member, organizer, and troublemaker and her work as a labor educator and radio producer

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 @BlackWorkTalk @radiolabour @DCLabor @AWFUnionPodcast @FloridaEA @empathymedialab @Heartland_Labor @podcastgig

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