Labor Radio-Podcast Weekly

Fighting for the Global Rights of Gig Workers

LRPN Livestream, broadcast March 10, 2021

Labor Radio Podcast Network’s Weekly Wednesday Livestream interviews labor leaders about current labor issues with rotating hosts made up of network members.

Guests: Yaseen Aslam (Uber BV v Aslam and President of the App Drivers & Couriers Union), Willy Solis (Gig Worker Collective), and Maria C. Figueroa (Cornell University-School of Industrial and Labor Relations).

LRPN Co-Hosts: Bama Athreya (The Gig Podcast) and Maximilian Alvarez (Working People Podcast and The Real News Network).

Topics: The UK Uber vs. Aslam; Organizing against Prop 22; How to build solidarity in the fight for Global Rights of Gig Workers

Additional Credits: Produced by Chris Garlock (Union City Radio); Producer, engineer, and editor is Evan Matthew Papp (Empathy Media Lab).

Additional Links
Episode 3 of The Gig Podcast: Uber vs. Alsam in Judgement Day Overview: James Farrar and Yaseen Aslam decided to challenge the premise that they were not Uber’s workers. In the UK we follow their precedent-setting lawsuit as it rises to the UK Supreme Court. In the US we talk to drivers and organizers on the eve of their historic victory in California, the passage of Assembly Bill 5 that set a standard for all gig workers to be classified as workers.

Labor History in 2 by the Rick Smith Show: March 10, 1925 The Radium Girls

Music by DC Labor Chorus Song “None of Us Are Free" written by Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, and Brenda Russell. Album Hail to the Thieves, Volume III: Songs to Take Our Country Back! Learn more at Labor Heritage Festival.

 

Your Rights At Work; The Rick Smith Show; Working People; BCGTM Voices; AFT in Action; Belabored

On Your Rights At Work, Pete Seeger sings Solidarity Forever with…Joe Biden? From the Rick Smith Show, New Republic columnist Timothy Noah discusses President Biden's strong statement earlier this week supporting the right to organize…Then we head down to Alabama with the Working People podcast, as special guest Danny Glover and Amazon worker Jennifer Bates discuss the organizing drive there…On BCGTM Voices, the podcast of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers, Jasmine White, a rank and file member of Local 149 from the Blues City Brewing Company in Memphis, discusses their recent organizing victory…And, from AFT in Action, Connecticut Congressman Jim Himes joins the show to talk about the PRO Act and the National Labor Relations Board…We wrap up with a special report from Belabored, as Rita Pasarell, former Albany legislative staffer and co-founder of the Sexual Harassment Working Group, discusses recent accusations against New York State governor Andrew Cuomo…
Plus: from Labor History in 2:00, International Unemployed Day.

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.

Also, check out our weekly livestream show, available on Facebook and YouTube, where you’ll also find profiles of members of the Network.

#LaborRadioPod @DCLabor @RickSmithShow @WorkingPod @BCTGM @AFTCT @DissentMag

Edited by Patrick Dixon and Chris Bangert-Drowns; produced by Chris Garlock; social media guru: Harold Phillips

RadioLabour; America's Workforce Radio; Grit NW; SAG-AFTRA Podcast; Welcome to Uniontown; Labor Radio Express

Radio Labour’s report on the ruling by the UK Supreme Court that Uber drivers are Uber workers…AFL-CIO Government Affairs Director Bill Samuel talks with America’s Work Force Radio Podcast about President Biden's early pro-labor actions…From Grit NorthWest: Carpenter Stories with journeyman carpenter Laurie Gonar…The SAG-AFTRA Podcast explores becoming a successful session singer…On Welcome to Uniontown, a visit with Reverend James Lawson, a leading theoretician and tactician of nonviolence within the Civil Rights movement…And Labor Radio Express mourns the passing of Karen Lewis, the legendary former president of the Chicago Teacher’s Union.
Plus: from Labor History in 2:00, the 1937 Woolworth Sit-Down.
Music this week: Twisted Sister's We're Not Gonna Take It from the Chicago Teachers Union Members and Their Hilarious Signs video.

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.

Also, check out our weekly livestream show, available on Facebook and YouTube, where you’ll also find profiles of members of the Network.

#LaborRadioPod @radiolabour @AWFUnionPodcast @GritNw @ILLaborHistory @radiolabour @sagaftra @LALabor

Edited by Patrick Dixon; produced by Chris Garlock; social media guru: Harold Phillips

Belabored; The Rick Smith Show; RadioLabour; Solidarity Breakfast; UnionDues; Labor Radio on KBOO; Building Bridges; Empathy Media

On today’s show, a report from the frozen ground in Texas as Rick Levy, president of the Texas AFL-CIO, talks with The Rick Smith Show about the real reason the power grid failed there this week.
Then we’ve got two reports from Australia: in the first, Radio Labour on challenges facing workers in Australia’s energy sector, and then on Solidarity Breakfast we’ll hear about a new report on the health of truck drivers. It may not be that surprising but it’s certainly shocking.
Next up, we go to the UK for the UnionDues podcast, which features a fascinating Thought for the Day on employee surveillance in an age of home-working.
Back in the States, Labor Radio on KBOO explores the issue of hero pay for grocery store workers and from Building Bridges Radio, a Black History Month Special as Nikole Hannah-Jones from the “1619 Project” reminds us that there’s little that defines the United States that doesn’t somehow have the legacy of slavery at its foundation.
We wrap up this week’s show with the latest Labor Radio Podcast Network member profile from Empathy Media, this time with Tanya Hutchins, host of Activate L!VE from the Machinists union.
We start off with a couple of very short clips from the latest Belabored podcast; in the first you’ll hear Celine McNicholas of the Economic Policy Institute on Joe Biden’s labor agenda and then we’ll hear Karen Lewis of the Chicago Teachers Union, who we lost recently.
Plus: from Labor History in 2:00, Angelina Grimke is Born.

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.

Also, check out our livestream show, available on Facebook and YouTube, where you’ll also find profiles of members of the Network.

#LaborRadioPod @bbridgesradio @RickSmithShow @radiolabour @3CRsolidarity @duesunion @kboo @MachinistsUnion @ILLaborHistory @DissentMag

Edited by Patrick Dixon; produced by Chris Garlock; social media guru: Harold Phillips

LRPN Livestream (2/17): BAmazon organizing

The Labor Radio Podcast Network’s Weekly Wednesday Livestream features interviews with labor leaders, rank-and-filers and experts about current labor issues. Network members take turns co-hosting the show, which airs Wednesdays at 7p EST and is available on Facebook and YouTube.

Guests for February 17th, 2021 of LRPN Livestream included Josh Brewer (Lead organizer for RWDSU, BAmazonUnion) and Wayne Blanchard (UAW 2B Ohio and Indiana Regional Director).

LRPN Co-Hosts: Mark Gevaart (My Labor Radio) and David Story (Valley Labor Report)

Topics Discussed:

Organizing Amazon in Alabama
The size of the UAW in the US & Region 2B
The diversity of UAW represented workers
Why are politics so important for Union members to be involved in? 
Why do we give back to our communities, donating time serving, mentoring, fundraising?

This is an excerpt of the full show.

Produced by Chris Garlock (Union City Radio); Producer, engineer, and editor is Evan Matthew Papp (Empathy Media Lab). 

Additional Links
Labor History in 2 - February 17, 1936 Rubber workers sat down in Akron, Ohio

Blue Collar Gospel Hour; Building Bridges Radio; Working People; My Labor Radio; Union Strong; Black Work Talk

Your weekly guide to labor radio and podcasts: highlights from some of the more than eighty shows that make up the Labor Radio Podcast Network.

On today’s show, we start off with two takes on labor and politics that in some ways come from very different places and in other ways come from very much the same place. On the Blue Collar Gospel Hour host Dan Denton and his fellow autoworker Trey Garcia react to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last month with frustration over the failure of both parties to speak to or for working people. And on Building Bridges Radio, Fair Fight Action founder Stacey Abrams – who’s been nominated for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize -- talks about how the American working class has consistently relied on people of color and women to push for improved status for workers but has been slow to include them in the movement’s victories.
Next up, Jessie Sage interviews sex worker, activist, writer, undocumented migrant, and DACA recipient Maya Morena on the Working People podcast, about the politics of the sex industry and the history of vice.
On My Labor Radio, Indiana teacher Tim Barr discusses life in school for both teachers and students during a pandemic.
As New York State faces a multibillion-dollar budget deficit, the Union Strong podcast explores how Adult-Use Cannabis offers an opportunity to building a new industry from the ground up in a way that will raise revenue, create good union jobs, and address social, racial, and economic equity.
And, from the Black Work Talk podcast, we’ll hear about the relationship between Black unionists, the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, and the labor movement from longtime labor organizer and leader Bill Lucy, co-founder of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists.

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.

Also, check out our weekly livestream show, available on Facebook and YouTube, where you’ll also find profiles of members of the Network.

#LaborRadioPod @bbridgesradio @WorkingPod @mgevaart @nysaflcio @BlackWorkTalk

Edited by Patrick Dixon; produced by Chris Garlock; social media guru: Harold Phillips

LRPN Livestream (2/10): NAFTA 2.0; Better for workers?

The Labor Radio Podcast Network’s Weekly Wednesday Livestream features interviews with labor leaders, rank-and-filers and experts about current labor issues. Network members take turns co-hosting the show, which airs Wednesdays at 7p EST and is available on Facebook and YouTube.

Guests for February 10th, 2021 of LRPN Livestream included Lori Wallach (Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch), Eric Gottwald (AFL-CIO Trade Specialist), Alejandro Villamar (Mexican Action Network Against Free Trade), and Rick Arnold (Canada’s Common Frontiers).

LRPN Hosts: Jacob Morrison (The Valley Labor Report) and Judy Ancel (The Heartland Labor Forum).

This is an excerpt of the full show. 

The LRPN Livestream pod extra is produced and edited by Evan Matthew Papp and Chris Garlock.

#LaborRadioPod

LRPN Livestream (2/3): Labor’s response to the rise of fascism

The Labor Radio Podcast Network’s Weekly Wednesday Livestream features interviews with labor leaders, rank-and-filers and experts about current labor issues. Network members take turns co-hosting the show, which airs Wednesdays at 7p EST and is available on Facebook and YouTube.

Guests for the February 3rd, 2021 edition of the LRPN Livestream included David Van Deusen (President, Vermont State Labor Council, AFL-CIO), Trent Willis, (ILWU Local 10), Carol Lang (CUNY Professor), Mehmet Bayram (Pacifica Media Workers Guild in SF).

LRPN Hosts: Steve Zeltzer (Work Week Radio) and Chris Garlock (Union City Radio).

This is an excerpt of the full show, which is available here.

The LRPN Livestream pod extra is produced and edited by Evan Matthew Papp and Chris Garlock.

#LaborRadioPod

Remembering John Sweeney and Anne Feeney

We lost two giants of the labor movement this week, former AFL-CIO president John Sweeney and labor folksinger and activist Anne Feeney; on today’s pod extra we remember them both.
In our first segment, on this week’s Your Rights At Work radio show (WPFW 89.3 FM in Washington, DC), Stephen Lerner, Marilyn Sneiderman, Harold Meyerson and Joe McCartin talked with hosts Chris Garlock and Ed Smith about Sweeney’s legacy as a visionary labor leader.
Stephen and Marilyn both worked closely with Sweeney, Harold covered him as a journalist and Joe, as our resident labor historian, provides the historical context for Sweeney’s life and work in the movement. Click here for Sweeney tributes. 
On that same show, Coalition of Labor Union Women president Elise Bryant told us about the free online screening by the DC Labor FilmFest of the new documentary, 9to5: The Story of A Movement, coming up this Tuesday at 7pm Eastern Standard Time.
The brand-new film captures the real-life fight that inspired a hit by Dolly Parton and changed the American workplace. Get your free tickets here.
Elise also shared her memories of Anne Feeney, the labor folksinger and activist who died on Wednesday, and in our second segment, we’ve got an excerpt from the interview the We Do The Work radio show did with Anne recently.
We’ll conclude with a medley of a few of Anne Feeney’s songs. You can find and order Anne’s music here.

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.

Also, check out our weekly livestream show, available on Facebook and YouTube, where you’ll also find profiles of members of the Network.

#LaborRadioPod @aflcio @annefeeney

Weekly podcast extra edited/produced by Chris Garlock; social media guru: Harold Phillips

America's Workforce Radio; Working People; Solidarity Works; Educating From the Heart; BCTGM Voices Project; Grit NW; Unify

On today’s show, former Beverly Hills 90210 star Gabrielle Carteris talks with the America’s Work Force Union Podcast about how she got involved in her union, SAG-AFTRA, where she’s now president.
On the Working People podcast, we hear about how staff at the American Civil Liberties Union are the latest non-profit employees to organize.
Steelworkers in Boston know which side Labor Secretary nominee Marty Walsh is on; we’ll hear about it on their Solidarity Works podcast.
Our mini-theme this week is voices of workers…On the Educating from the Heart podcast, we hear from an anonymous teacher about the culture of fear and intimidation in Florida schools. The BCTGM Voices Project – the podcast from the Baker’s union – talks with International Rep Lisa Gregory about growing up union, holding office at Baker’s Local 58G and what she’s learned about organizing and negotiating along the way. On GRIT Northwest, we meet Penny Painter, the supportive services coordinator for construction industry apprentices in the state of Oregon. And the Unify podcast visits with Bradley Parker, a young IBEW Local 105 member from Hamilton, Ontario, in Canada.

Finally, we lost two giants of the labor movement this week, former AFL-CIO president John Sweeney and labor folksinger and activist Anne Feeney (check out the medley of her songs on today's podcast); we’ll have a special edition of the Weekly out tomorrow honoring their memories.

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.

Also, check out our weekly livestream show, available on Facebook and YouTube, where you’ll also find profiles of members of the Network.

#LaborRadioPod @WorkingPod @AWFUnionPodcast @steelworkers @FloridaEA @BCTGM @GritNw @Unifypodcast

Edited by Patrick Dixon and Evan Papp; produced by Chris Garlock; social media guru: Harold Phillips