Live Show: Organize, Fight, Win (w/ Michelle Valentin Nieves & Harry Marino)

Jan 7, 2023

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Earlier this month Working People hit a new milestone: We recorded our first live episode in front of an audience! Organized by the Action Builder / Action Network team and hosted by Busboys & Poets in Washington, DC, we got to speak with Michelle Valentin Nieves of the Amazon Labor Union and Harry Marino of the Major League Baseball Players Association about the incredible worker organizing victories for Amazon workers and minor league baseball players, and about lessons we have learned from an intense year of grassroots struggle that we will be carrying into 2023.

Michelle Valentin Nieves is the Executive Secretary and a founding member of the Amazon Labor Union. Harry Marino is an assistant general counsel at the Major League Baseball Players Association. He is formerly the Executive Director of Advocates for Minor Leaguers, the nonprofit organization that joined with the MLBPA to unionize Minor League players. Harry pitched in the Minor League systems of the Baltimore Orioles and Arizona Diamondbacks.

Since launching in 2012, Action Network tools have helped the Women’s March mobilize huge rallies across the globe, helped the DNC raise millions for candidates and organizations, and more. The Action Builder toolset, launched in 2019, helps dozens of unions and progressive organizations empower leaders and build strong organizing campaigns.

Additional links/info below...

Michelle's Twitter page
Harry's Twitter page
Amazon Labor Union website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
Major League Baseball Players Association website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
Action Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
Action Builder website
Advocates for Minor Leaguers website
Working People, "Amazon Labor Union"
Eric Blanc, Jacobin, "The Workers Behind Amazon’s Historic First Union Explain How They Did It (An Interview with Christian Smalls, Angelika Maldonado, & Michelle Valentin Nieves)"
Evan Drellich, The Athletic, "‘Hit the Go Button’: The Six Years that Made Baseball’s Minor League Union"
Tipping Pitches, "The Gang Forms a Union (feat. Trevor Hildenberger)"

Permanent links below...

Working People Patreon page
Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show!
Labor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
In These Times website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
The Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter page

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

Jules Taylor, "Working People Theme Song