Labor Express Radio

This is the full 12-22-2019 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. Chilean human rights activist Mario Venegas, a victim of the Pinochet regime who has made Chicago his home for the last 30 years, talks about his recent visit to Chile and the ongoing uprising there challenging the very foundations of the neoliberal state. Plus, Angela Davis speaks at the refounding convention of the National Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression. Labor Express Radio is Chicago's only English language labor news and current affairs radio program. News for working people, by working people. Labor Express Radio airs every Sunday at 8:00 PM on WLPN in Chicago, 105.5 FM. For more information, see our Facebook page...   laborexpress.org and our homepage on Archive.org at: http://www.archive.org/details/LaborExpressRadio

This is the full 12-8-2019 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. This episode includes a speech given by presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders to the Chicago Teachers Union as they voted to launch their historic 2019 strike.  It also includes an interview with Shaun Richman, an In These Times contributing writer and the Program Director of the Harry Van Arsdale Jr. Center for Labor Studies at SUNY Empire State College analyzing Sanders labor platform conducted by Ken Nash of Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report on WBAI in New York City.  For more on Building Bridges see their website at…  http://buildingbridgesradio.blogspot.com/ Labor Express Radio is Chicago's only English language labor news and current affairs radio program. News for working people, by working people. Labor Express Radio airs every Sunday at 8:00 PM on WLPN in Chicago, 105.5 FM. For more information, see our Facebook page...   laborexpress.org and our homepage on Archive.org at: http://www.archive.org/details/LaborExpressRadio

This is the full 11-24-2019 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. This episode features an interview with veteran Chicago Public Schools (CPS) teacher, Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) bargaining team member and one of CORE’s (Caucus of Rank and File Educators) founders, Kenzo Shibata about the recently concluded CTU/SEIU strike at CPS with an analysis of the strike, the resulting new 5 year contract and its implications for the future. Labor Express Radio is Chicago's only English language labor news and current affairs radio program. News for working people, by working people. Labor Express Radio airs every Sunday at 8:00 PM on WLPN in Chicago, 105.5 FM. For more information, see our Facebook page...   laborexpress.org and our homepage on Archive.org at: http://www.archive.org/details/LaborExpressRadio

This is the full 11-3-2019 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. The Tale of Two Strikes: Labor Express examines the outcome of both the UAW strike at GM and the CTU strike at CPS, two potentially historic strikes with radically different results. Plus, strike victory at yet another Chicago charter school, Passages in the Edgewater Neighborhood.  These strikes may well set the stage for union struggles in the public and private sectors for years to come.  In the case of the CTU, the union has expanded what social justice, community based unionism is all about.  Making demands for improving public education concrete and central to their new contract.  They forced the Mayor and the Board of Education to bargain over issues like hiring more school support staff and reducing class sizes that the City in years past had deemed outside the realm of union contract bargaining.  This bodes well for the future of public sector unions which remain strong despite the Janus decision.  Will this strike like the last in 2012 inspire more teachers around the country to follow Chicago’s lead? At GM it is a different story, where the UAW ended the longest strike in a generation with a contract that largely locks in concessions made in the Great Recession.  What does this mean for private sector unions which are already in decline? Labor Express Radio is Chicago's only English language labor news and current affairs radio program. News for working people, by working people. Labor Express Radio airs every Sunday at 8:00 PM on WLPN in Chicago, 105.5 FM. For more information, see our Facebook page...   laborexpress.org and our homepage on Archive.org at: http://www.archive.org/details/LaborExpressRadio

CTU President Jesse Sharkey and SEIU Local 73 Vice-President Jeffrey  Howard speak to the press on day 6 of the CTU-SEIU 73 Chicago Public  Schools strike.  They discuss the letter from Mayor Lori Lightfoot that  indicated that the City and the Board are not serious about making  progress in contract negotiations.  Jesse and Jeffrey discuss  outstanding issues in negotiations like class sizes and prep time for  teachers and PSRPs.  The impromptu press conference followed the rally  headlined by presidential candidate, Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and SEIU Local 73 on strike!  We have been talking about it for months and now its finally here.  The two unions and the Chicago board of ed could not reach agreement and so as of Thursday, October 17th, teachers, PSRPs and other support staff including everybody from custodians to security personnel, to lunch room attendants, to bus aides, etc. went out on strike - some over 30,000 workers at over 500 schools, the 3rd largest school system in the nation.  We will hear from both union officials and rank-and-file union members out on the picket lines on tonight’s program and get an update on the state of contract negotiations as of Friday. Labor Express Radio is Chicago's only English language labor news and current affairs radio program. News for working people, by working people. Labor Express Radio airs every Sunday at 8:00 PM on WLPN in Chicago, 105.5 FM. For more information, see our Facebook page...   laborexpress.org and our homepage on Archive.org at: http://www.archive.org/details/LaborExpressRadio

Labor Express Radio reporter Michelle Burke interviews Von Steuben  Metropolitan Science Center biology teacher David Kaplan about why he  has joined 30,000 of his fellow coworkers on strike.  David starts by  discussing the state of contract negotiations as of Thursday Oct. 17th  the start of the strike.

Belding Elementary School special ed teacher Chris Hartwig, member of  the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and special education teacher assistant  Marnita Hayes, member of SEIU Local 73,  explain why they are on strike  with over 30,000 of their fellow workers at Chicago public schools.   The interviewer is Labor Express Radio reporter Marnie Goodfriend.

This is the full 10-6-2019 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. Interview with Scott Houldieson, Vice President of UAW Local 551 and long-time UAW reform activist about the ongoing UAW strike at GM. And in the second half of the program, the Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU Local 73 vote to strike by huge margins of their membership. Labor Express Radio is Chicago's only English language labor news and current affairs radio program. News for working people, by working people. Labor Express Radio airs every Sunday at 8:00 PM on WLPN in Chicago, 105.5 FM. For more information, see our Facebook page...   laborexpress.org and our homepage on Archive.org at: http://www.archive.org/details/LaborExpressRadio

This is the full 9-22-2019 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. STRIKE! Nurses strike in Chicago, auto workers strike across the country and students strike for climate justice around the globe, as Chicago teachers get closer to a possible strike of their own. Labor Express Radio is Chicago's only English language labor news and current affairs radio program. News for working people, by working people. Labor Express Radio airs every Sunday at 8:00 PM on WLPN in Chicago, 105.5 FM. For more information, see our Facebook page...   laborexpress.org and our homepage on Archive.org at: http://www.archive.org/details/LaborExpressRadio