Working People

"Last Wednesday, a fellow rail worker was gravely injured on the job and lost his life," a Feb 6 email from Railroad Workers United reads. "Our brother Chris Wilson, who worked for Norfolk Southern, was critically injured in its Decatur rail yard Wednesday and died Thursday at Huntsville Hospital." Another email from Feb. 9 reads, "On January 15th, a fellow rail worker was killed on the job in Ohio." Then, on Feb 17, another email: "On February 13th, a fellow rail worker was killed on the job in North Carolina. Brother Randall M. Howell, 41, of Allied Federation Lodge 563, died following a road crossing incident in Roanoke Rapids, N.C." Why are railroad workers all over the country dying on the job? And what can be done to stop these needless deaths? We talk with four railroad workers and members of Railroad Workers United (RWU).  Panelists include: Nick Wurst, a freight conductor in Massachusetts, legislative rep for his union local, and currently serving on the RWU international steering committee; Matt Weaver, a member of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division-International Brotherhood of Teamsters  (BMWED-IBT) for nearly 30 years, legislative director for his union in Ohio, and a founding member of RWU: Mark Burrows, a retired locomotive engineer with 37 years in the industry, and the editor of "The Highball," RWU's quarterly newsletter: and Ross Grooters, RWU co-chair, member of Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), also serving on the BLET-IBT Iowa state legislative board, with over 20 years in the industry.  Additional links/info below… Railroad Workers United website, Facebook page, and Twitter page Ross's Twitter page Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "They Were Just Another East Palestine Family—Until Norfolk Southern Set Off a Bomb in Their Lives" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "East Palestine Residents Still Need Help—the Labor Movement Should Be an Ally" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "He Tried to Raise the Alarm about Railroad Safety. Then He Got Fired" Mike L, The Real News Network, "A Carman's Perspective on the East Palestine Derailment and the Railroad Industry as a Whole" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "US Freight Workers Say It's Time to Nationalize the Railroads" Maximillian Alvarez, Breaking Points, "Rail Worker EXPOSES Ohio Disaster COVERUP" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "“This Was Preventable”: Railroad Workers Explain How Wall St Caused the East Palestine Derailment" Working People, "East Palestine, Ohio: A Hell of Wall Street's Making (w/ Matt Weaver)" Kari Lydersen, In These Times, "The Case for Nationalizing the Railroads" 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... Jules Taylor, "Working People" Theme Song Jules Taylor, "John L. Handcox Remix" Jules Taylor, "Her Water" 

Graduate student-workers at Johns Hopkins University are fighting for fair contracts and better working conditions. They held practice pickets to show their unity and resolve. The workers emphasize the importance of union power and collective action. Challenges faced include funding insecurity and inadequate compensation. Solidarity and support are crucial in their fight for labor rights.

Baltimore has become what many consider to be ground zero in the emerging “solidarity economy” and the formation of  worker-owned, cooperatively run businesses. There’s something important going on here, and there’s a lot that we can all learn from our fellow workers who are in the cooperative space—people who are living, breathing proof that there’s another way to run a business, that there's another way to run our economy, and that there are other ways we can treat work and workers. At a recent event hosted by the Baltimore Museum of Industry titled "Work Matters: Building a Worker-Owned Co-op," Max moderated a panel including workers and representatives from Common Ground Bakery Café, Taharka Bros Ice Cream, A Few Cool Hardware Stores, and the Baltimore Roundtable for Economic Democracy (BRED). He talked to them about how they came to work at these different co-ops, how their businesses transitioned to more cooperative models, and they dig into the nitty gritty of what working at a co-op looks like, what it takes for workers to democratically run a business, and the real challenges, limitations, and rewards that come with this kind of work. Panelists include: Vince Green (Taharka Bros Ice Cream); David Evans (A Few Cool Hardware Stores); Craig Smith (A Few Cool Hardware Stores); Sierra Allen (Common Ground Bakery Café); Christa Daring (BRED).  Additional links/info below… Baltimore Museum of Industry website, Facebook page, and Instagram  Jaisal Noor, The Real News Network, "Worker Co-ops vs. COVID"  Jaisal Noor, The Real News Network, "Taharka Bros: Ice Cream with a Side of Worker Ownership" Working People, "Your Job Doesn't Have to Suck (w/ Jaisal Noor)" Lisa Elaine Held, The Washington Post, "Amid Food-Industry Upheaval, Baltimore Businesses Are Handing Workers the Keys" Rebekah Kirkman, The Real News Network, "After Beloved Baltimore Coffee Shop Abruptly Closed, Workers Reopen as Co-op" 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... Jules Taylor, "Working People" Theme Song Jules Taylor, "Working People Live Show" Theme Song Jules Taylor, "John L. Handcox I Live On Remix"  Follow Jules Taylor on Twitter and Facebook

Workers at Homegrown Sustainable Sandwiches in the Seattle area voted overwhelmingly to unionize with UNITE HERE LOCAL 8 in late 2022, and they have been fighting for a first contract ever since. In fact,  workers from two Homegrown stores have been on strike since late last fall in protest of the unfair termination of union leader Sydney Lankford, who was fired after speaking up at a union delegation. By the time you hear this, workers at the Redmond Homegrown location will have been on strike for over 100 days. We talk with Sydney Lankford and Perry, two members of the Homegrown workers union who are currently on strike.   Additional links/info below… Homegrown workers union Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter/X page Homegrown Sustainable Sandwiches Contact Us page PETITION: Tell Homegrown to #Bring Syd Back!  STRIKE FUND: Support Striking Homegrown Workers! #BringSydBack  Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) website  Renata Geraldo, Seattle Times, "Seattle’s Homegrown Cafe Workers Vote to Unionize" KIRO 7, "Workers at Redmond’s Homegrown Sandwich Shop Strike Over ‘Unfair’ Firing of Union Leader" 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... Jules Taylor, "Working People" Theme Song Jules Taylor, "Homegrown outro music"

Feb. 3, 2024, marks the one-year anniversary of the Norfolk Southern train derailment that changed life forever for the residents of East Palestine, Ohio, and the surrounding area. The derailment of 38 rail cars and the subsequent “controlled release” and burnoff of toxic vinyl chloride was one of the most catastrophic industrial accidents in our country’s history—and a catastrophe of equal or greater proportion could happen again tomorrow, because we have done little to substantively address the issues that caused it.    While the media and most of the country have forgotten about them, for the people still living in and around East Palestine, life will never be what it was on Feb 2, 2023. "At the one year mark," warns Christa, a resident who has lived in the area her whole life, "I want everybody across the country and across the world to know that this could happen to you... We were an invisible town, an invisible region, and we liked it that way. None of us ever wanted to be on the news... We were very happy being invisible, and then they poisoned our town, and it has changed everything forever."    To commemorate the anniversary of the East Palestine disaster, we begin Season 7 of Working People with this special compilation episode featuring firsthand testimonies of five East Palestine residents: Christa, Chris Albright, Jessica Albright, Stella Gamble, and Daren Gamble.    Additional links/info below… Jami Wallace, The Inquirer, "One Year Ago, a Train Derailment Upended My Town. I’ll Spend the Rest of My Life Worrying" Last Week Tonight, "Freight Trains: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)" Emily Baumgaertner, The New York Times, "One Family’s Toxic Train Wreck Ordeal: Illness, Exile and Debt" Working People, "12-HR LIVESTREAM: Let’s help East Palestine families have a good Christmas!" Savage Joy Marie Mann, "EAST PALESTINE OHIO MUTUAL AID FUNDRAISER" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "They Were Just Another East Palestine Family—Until Norfolk Southern Set Off a Bomb in Their Lives" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "The US Government Has Abandoned East Palestine" Maximillian Alvarez, "East Palestine Residents Still Need Help—the Labor Movement Should Be an Ally" Savage Joy Marie Mann, "My Full Recording of Meeting with Mark Durno of the East Palestine EPA" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "East Palestine Residents Still Need Help—the Labor Movement Should Be an Ally" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "East Palestine, 100 Days Later" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "East Palestine Residents Have Been Left Behind—and They're Running Out of Water" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "East Palestine, Ohio: A Hell of Wall Street's Making" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "'This Was Preventable': Railroad Workers Explain How Wall St. Caused the East Palestine Derailment" Maximillian Alvarez, Breaking Points, "Rail Worker EXPOSES Ohio Disaster COVERUP" Mike L., The Real News Network, "A Carman's Perspective on the East Palestine Derailment and the Railroad Industry as a Whole" Al Jazeera English, "What’s Behind Train Derailments in the US? | Fault Lines Documentary" 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... Jules Taylor, "Working People" Theme Song Dark and Synthy music for this episode also by Jules Taylor

From October 4-6 of this year, the US experienced the largest healthcare worker strike in our history, when over 75,000 workers with the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions went on a three-day strike against the healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente. Then, on October 13, after warning that more strikes could be coming if a deal wasn’t reached at the bargaining table, healthcare workers scored a major victory and reached a tentative agreement with Kaiser, which the union membership, accounting for over 85,000 Kaiser Permanente workers across the country, voted to ratify in early November. As the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions stated in a press release upon the contract ratification, “In a historic victory for frontline healthcare workers, more than 85,000 Kaiser Permanente workers have overwhelmingly voted to ratify a new contract that will bolster patient safety, make critical investments in the healthcare workforce, and set a higher standard for the healthcare industry nationwide. Approved by a margin of 98.5%, the four-year contract is in effect from October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2027, at hundreds of Kaiser facilities across California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.” In this mini-cast, we speak with Meg Niemi, President of SEIU Local 49, and Audrey Cardenas, a benefits support specialist at a Kaiser dental office in Oregon, about how Kaiser healthcare workers took on the bosses and won this new contract, and what that is going to mean for workers and patients alike moving forward. Additional links/info below… SEIU Local 49 website, Facebook page, and Twitter/X page SEIU United Healthcare Workers West website, Facebook page, and Twitter/X page Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions website and Twitter/X page Meg's Twitter/X page SEIU-UHW Press Release: "More than 85,000 Kaiser Permanente Workers Ratify Landmark New Contract" Michael Sainato, The Guardian, "Kaiser Permanente and Unions Reach Deal after Healthcare Workers’ Strike" Reuters, "Kaiser Healthcare Workers Ratify New Contract" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "35,000 Kaiser Permanente Workers Are Set to Strike, and the Future of US Healthcare Is at Stake (from 2021)" 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... Jules Taylor, "Working People" Theme Song

Brazil's Radical Plan to Fight Slave-Like Working Conditions (w/ Marcos, John, & Vitor Filgueiras)    In this special international episode, we get the chance to talk to folks in Brazil about the farmworkers who are being trapped in slave-like conditions, and about a truly radical new government program that is trying to break the cycle of enslavement and exploitation. As Vitor Filgueiras, Professor of Economics at the Federal University of Bahia, writes, “Between 1995 and mid-2020, more than 55,000 workers were removed from conditions analogous to slavery by the Brazilian State, without any indication that there has been a reduction in this type of criminal exploitation of labour in the country. On the contrary, many workers are repeated victims of extreme exploitation.” As we discuss with Filgueiras himself in the second half of this episode, there have been numerous past efforts to liberate farmworkers from these slave-like conditions, but if workers don’t have other means or opportunities to economically sustain themselves, they are at high risk of falling right back into this exploitative system to make ends meet. And that is why the project “Vida Pós Resgate” (Life After Rescue) was created in 2017 through a partnership between the Federal University of Bahia’s Faculty of Economics and the Federal Labor Prosecution Office for the 23rd Region. The program is designed to take the fines that employers are forced to pay for violating workers rights and use that money to buy land, tools, seed, and other necessities for rescued farmworkers to develop self-sufficient farms that they own and operate themselves. While the program is still in its early stages, if it is successful, it could have wide-ranging implications for working people in Brazil and beyond. In the first half of this episode, with Vitor Filgueiras translating, we speak with Marcos and John, two farmworkers who were rescued from slave-like conditions and are now among the Life After Rescue program’s first participants. In the second half, we speak with Filgueiras about where this policy came from, what it will take to make it work, and about the fight to return the land and the means of production to the people. Special thanks to Mike Fox for editing assistance. Additional links/info below… Vitor's Twitter/X profile Vitor Filgueiras, Delta 8.7, "Slave-Like Labour in Brazil and the Vida Pós Resgate Project"Reuters, "Brazil Rescues Hundreds Held in Modern-Day Slave Conditions"Dom Phillips, The Guardian, "'Fewer People Will Be Freed': Brazil Accused of Easing Anti-Slavery Rules"Matt Sandy, Al Jazeera, "Heartache and Suffering: Slavery in Brazil" Working People YouTube channel 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... Jules Taylor, "Working People" Theme Song

It's been nearly 10 months since the derailment of a Norfolk Southern freight train and the subsequent “controlled release” and burnoff of toxic vinyl chloride changed life forever for the residents of East Palestine, Ohio. While the media, politicians, and the public have largely moved on, people living in and around East Palestine have been abandoned by Norfolk Southern, by their state and federal governments, and left to rot in the toxic fallout. We cannot forget about them.    In September of this year, Max was invited to the Harvard Law School to participate in an all-day event titled "Storytelling for Justice—East Palestine," where he conducted a live Working People interview with Chris and Jessica Albright, two residents of East Palestine whose lives have been turned upside down by the derailment. After recording and publishing that live show, we've kept in touch with the Albrights as they and their family continue to do whatever they can to pick up the pieces after Norfolk Southern shattered the life they knew before Feb. 3. In this episode, we talk once again with Chris and Jessica about their lives before the derailment, and about the hell they've been living through ever since.  Additional links/info below… GoFundMe: Help Albright Family Recover from Train Disaster Emily Baumgaertner, The New York Times, "One Family’s Toxic Train Wreck Ordeal: Illness, Exile and Debt" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "The US Government Has Abandoned East Palestine" Maximillian Alvarez, "East Palestine Residents Still Need Help—the Labor Movement Should Be an Ally" Savage Joy Marie Mann, "My Full Recording of Meeting with Mark Durno of the East Palestine EPA" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "East Palestine Residents Still Need Help—the Labor Movement Should Be an Ally" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "East Palestine, 100 Days Later" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "East Palestine Residents Have Been Left Behind—and They're Running Out of Water" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "East Palestine, Ohio: A Hell of Wall Street's Making" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "'This Was Preventable': Railroad Workers Explain How Wall St. Caused the East Palestine Derailment" Maximillian Alvarez, Breaking Points, "Rail Worker EXPOSES Ohio Disaster COVERUP" Mike L., The Real News Network, "A Carman's Perspective on the East Palestine Derailment and the Railroad Industry as a Whole" Al Jazeera English, "What’s Behind Train Derailments in the US? | Fault Lines Documentary" 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...  Jules Taylor, "Working People" Theme Song

With each passing day, more Israeli bombs are falling on Gaza, more bodies are being blown apart and buried under the rubble, over a million Palestinians have been displaced from their homes. Over the past month and a half, the world has borne witness to a genocidal military campaign to clear out Gaza once and for all, and every day, every hour, it feels like the chance to stop one of humanity’s most inhumane crimes is slipping through our fingers, and the powers that be have shown no interest whatsoever in listening to the thundering calls for a ceasefire coming from governments and mass demonstrations around the world, particularly the Biden administration in the US, the increasingly fascistic Netanyahu government in Israel, and the arms manufacturers and war profiteers who are raking in billions from manufacturing mass death. This is prompting people of conscience around the world, including unions and worker-led groups, to speak out and take action to try to stop the slaughter. One of those unions is the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys – UAW Local 2325 (ALAA), whose members include legal aid workers at over 25 organizations, including the Bronx Defenders, Brooklyn Defender Services, Neighborhood Defender Service, and the Legal Aid Society of New York City. Last week, ALAA members were preparing to hold a vote on whether or not to approve the union publicly issuing a "Resolution Calling for a Ceasefire in Gaza, an End to the Israeli Occupation of Palestine, and Support for Workers’ Political Speech." In the lead-up to the vote, union members at different legal aid offices reported strong opposition from management. “These statements call for the elimination of the state of Israel and the annihilation of the Jewish people,” Twyla Carter, Chief Executive Officer of the Legal Aid Society, reportedly told staff, expressing concern that certain donors would pull funding from the Legal Aid Society if the union passed the resolution. Then, on Thursday, Nov 16, as Akela Lacy reports at The Intercept, "attorneys at the Legal Aid Society of Nassau County sued in New York State Supreme Court to stop the vote, saying it posed an ethical dilemma for attorneys that would make it “impossible for them to properly do their job as Public Defenders.” Those four attorneys were ALAA bargaining unit members. "On Friday," Lacy continues, "the court granted a temporary restraining order enjoining the vote. Voting had gotten underway at 9 a.m. and only 15 minutes were left on the clock when the injunction was issued. The tally never got underway." In this urgent mini-cast, we speak about this unprecedented attack on union democracy and workers' free speech rights with three ALAA members: Allie Goodman, an attorney in the Family Defense Practice at Bronx Defenders; Michael Letwin, a former public defender at Legal Aid in Brooklyn for 37 years who also served as president of ALAA – UAW Local 2325 for 13 years; and Dany Greene, who has worked as a public defender for six years, four of which were spent at Bronx Defenders, where they helped found and organize the BXD Union, and who now works at an appellate office focusing on criminal appeals. Additional links/info below… Labor for Palestine website and Twitter/X page Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, United Auto Workers Local 2325, "Resolution Calling for a Ceasefire in Gaza, an End to the Israeli Occupation of Palestine, and Support for Workers’ Political Speech" Akela Lacy, The Intercept, "Public Defenders Get Restraining Order to Block Their Own Union from Voting on Gaza Statement" Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, "Bar Association Urged to Fight Censorship of Pro-Palestinian Voices" 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

Back in August of 2022, we spoke with Matt Littrell, a picker at the Amazon warehouse in Campbellsville, Kentucky,  and one of the lead organizers in an effort to unionize Amazon facilities in Kentucky. When we spoke with Matt, Amazon had just fired him in suspected retaliation for his organizing activities, citing "performance" issues. Since then, Matt has been dragged through a Kafka-esque legal process to hold Amazon, the second largest private employer in the US, accountable for violating workers' rights. In this mini-cast, we check back in with Matt and discuss recent developments in that process, including reaching a settlement with Amazon, which the National Labor Relations Board is now challenging, leaving Matt in legal limbo.  Additional links/info below… Matt's Twitter/X page and LinkTree  Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network / Working People, "Amazon Fires Another Organizer to Allegedly Stop Kentucky Facilities Unionizing" 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