Working People

More than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's retaliatory assault on Gaza in the past month, including thousands of women, children, and elderly, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The real number is likely much higher… we don’t know how many people, dead and alive, are under the rubble right now. But we do know that the bombs continue to fall, every day, at rates unseen in this century. This is an absolute nightmare. For the past month, we have been trying every single day to make contact with Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, to get their stories on the show so people could hear directly from them. But, for obvious reasons, that has proven to be extremely difficult. Every single time we connected with someone and set up an interview, something would happen, we'd lose touch with them, their phone would stop working, and we'd have no idea if they safe, if they were alive. One of those people was Mohamed el Saife. Mohamed is an independent video journalist in Gaza, and the last message he sent us on October 15 said, “I am now on the ground, between life and death.” After that, we lost touch with Mohamed for over two weeks, and we feared the worst. Then, on November 9, we got another message. With the tiny amount of internet he was able to use, Mohamed sent us a three-minute voice message from Gaza. Additional links/info below… Mohamed's PayPal account Mohamed's Twitter/X page and YouTube channel Nidal Al-Mughrabi, Reuters, "Gaza Death Toll Tops 10,000; UN Calls It a Children's Graveyard" Rob Picheta, Kareem Khadder, Teele Rebane, & Zohair Zabadne, CNN, "Gaza Hospital ‘Surrounded by Tanks’ as Other Healthcare Facilities Say They’ve Been Damaged by Israeli Strikes" Marc Steiner, The Real News Network, "Chris Hedges: Israel’s Endgame Is ‘Destruction of the Idea of Palestine’" Bethank McKernan, The Guardian, "‘A New Nakba’: Settler Violence Forces Palestinians Out of West Bank Villages" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "Livestream: UK Workers Demand Ceasefire & an End to Israel’s Occupation of Palestine" Marc Steiner, The Real News Network, "‘The American Government Is the Only One That Can Stop This’: Ending the Genocide in Gaza" Marc Steiner, The Real News Network, "‘Something Is Different This Time’ Israel’s War in Gaza Continues" Chris Hedges, The Real News Network, "‘No Sanctuary’: Israel’s Long War on Gaza" 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

On the evening of Wednesday, Nov. 8, members of the Teamsters union led a picket line march outside of Amazon’s BWI5 warehouse in Baltimore. Dozens of other union workers and members of the Baltimore community joined the demonstration, which was an extension of the ongoing Unfair Labor Practice strike by unionized Amazon drivers and dispatchers at the DAX8 delivery station in Palmdale, CA.  “In April, the 84 workers in Palmdale organized with the Teamsters, becoming the first union of Amazon drivers in the country,” the Teamsters stated in a press release. “As members of Local 396, they bargained a contract with Amazon’s Delivery Service Partner (DSP), Battle-Tested Strategies (BTS). Despite the absolute control it wields over BTS and workers’ terms and conditions of employment, Amazon refuses to recognize and honor the union contract. Instead, Amazon has engaged in dozens of unfair labor practices in violation of federal labor law, including terminating the entire unit of newly organized workers…. The Amazon drivers and dispatchers began their unfair labor practice strike on June 24. They have picketed over 20 Amazon warehouses around the country, including warehouses in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Michigan, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey.” Max was on the ground at the Amazon picket on Nov. 8 and spoke to: Deion Anthony Steppes, one of the striking Amazon drivers from Palmdale, CA, and a member of Teamsters Local 396; Cristina Duncan Evans, a Baltimore City educator and member of the Baltimore Teachers Union; Taylor Boren, an art teacher for Baltimore Public Schools and a member of the Teachers Association of Baltimore County; and Mike McGuire, a plumber and community member in Baltimore. Additional links/info below… Amazon Teamsters website and Twitter/X page Donate to the Amazon Driver Worker Solidarity Fund! International Brotherhood of Teamsters website, Facebook page, and Twitter page The Teamsters, "Amazon Teamsters Strike Spreads to Two Baltimore Warehouses" Dave Jamieson, HuffPost, "Amazon Delivery Drivers In California Join Teamsters" Wes Davis, The Verge, "Amazon Insists Striking Delivery Drivers Don’t Really Work for Amazon" Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes, "Amazon Teamsters’ Rolling Pickets Hit Facilities Nationwide" 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

Every day the Palestinian civilian death toll is rising dramatically as Israel continues with its genocidal bombing and ground invasion of Gaza, and as settler and military violence towards Palestinians in the West Bank intensifies. "It's a closure, it's a curfew, in many places in the West Bank," Issa Amro says. "It's not normal life these days. Soldiers are everywhere, settlers are everywhere, people are afraid to leave their homes, they don't go to work, they don't go to school, they don't go to universities." After losing touch with Issa during the day because he was escaping from settlers who were chasing him in Hebron, we managed to reconnect over the phone and record a nine minute conversation about the hell working people in Palestine are going through right now and what their fellow workers in the US and Canada can do to stop the slaughter. Issa Amro is a Palestinian human rights defender living in Hebron, in the Occupied West Bank. He is the co-founder and former coordinator of the grassroots group Youth Against Settlements. Days prior to this recording, Issa was evicted from his home in Hebron and tortured by Israeli troops.   A note about the audio: After hours of silence and failed phone calls, Issa contacted Max to inform him that he was temporarily safe and had 10 minutes to speak over the phone. Dropping everything he was doing, Max quickly opened his computer, began a QuickTime recording, and called Issa on speakerphone. We apologize for the sub-par audio quality. Additional links/info below… Issa's Facebook page, Twitter/X page, and Instagram Youth Against Settlements website, Facebook page, Twitter/X page, and Instagram  Danya Al-Saleh, Mondoweiss, "We Are Millions, We Are Billions, We are all Palestinians: Stand with Palestine in DC on November 4th" Amy Teibel, AP, "Palestinian Activist Is Expelled by Israeli Forces from His Home in a Volatile West Bank City" Wafaa Shurafa, Jack Jeffery, & Lee Keath, AP, "Israeli Troops Advance Toward Gaza City as the Palestinian Death Toll Rises Above 9,000" Bethank McKernan, The Guardian, "‘A New Nakba’: Settler Violence Forces Palestinians Out of West Bank Villages" Taj Ali, Tribune, "Organising Against Apartheid: Why Union Solidarity With Palestine Matters" Ahmad Al-Bazz, Nadia Péridot, & Ross Domoney, The Real News Network, "Israel's West Bank Checkpoints, from the Eyes of Palestinian Workers" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "Livestream: UK Workers Demand Ceasefire & an End to Israel’s Occupation of Palestine" Marc Steiner, The Real News Network, "‘The American Government Is the Only One That Can Stop This’: Ending the Genocide in Gaza" Marc Steiner, The Real News Network, "‘Something Is Different This Time’ Israel’s War in Gaza Continues" Chris Hedges, The Real News Network, "‘No Sanctuary’: Israel’s Long War on Gaza" 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

Over the past month, United Auto Workers have continued to ramp up their strike at the Big 3 auto companies, calling workers at more plants to hit the picket line. As Keith Brower Brown recently reported at Labor Notes, “Every Friday for the past four weeks, Big 3 CEOs have waited fearfully for UAW President Shawn Fain to announce which plants will strike next. But without warning on Wednesday [October 11], the union threw a haymaker: within 10 minutes the UAW would be shutting down the vast Kentucky Truck Plant. This plant, on 500 acres outside Louisville, is one of Ford’s most profitable—cranking out full-size SUVs and the Superduty line of commercial trucks… These 8,700 strikers join the 25,000 already walking the lines at assembly plants and parts distribution centers across the country in the union’s escalating Stand-Up Strike.” While we are waiting every day for more updates on the UAW strike as it unfolds in real time, it's important to remember that the issues within the auto industry—and the economy writ large—that led this historic moment of struggle have been brewing for decades. In this episode, we talk with Sherry Cothren, who worked for 30 years at Ford Motor Company and retired just before her plant in Toledo, Ohio, closed in 2007.  We also speak with Sherry's son, Jeremiah, an architect turned visual journalist and producer whose primary focus captures vivid histories of human rights, social justice and migration. Additional links/info below… United Auto Workers website, Facebook page, and Twitter page Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD) Facebook page, Twitter page, and Instagram Keith Brower Brown, Labor Notes, "Auto Workers Escalate: Surprise Strike at Massive Kentucky Ford Truck Plant" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "‘We’re All Workers’: Striking UAW and SAG-AFTRA Members Won’t Be Pitted Against Each Other" Teddy Ostrow & Ruby Walsh, The Upsurge / The Real News Network, "With Concessions Already Won, the UAW Strike Escalates" 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

An expert in industrial accidents and an advocate for justice discuss the catastrophic East Palestine train derailment caused by neglect and rushed inspections. They highlight the devastating impact on the community, ongoing health issues, and lack of accountability from Norfolk Southern. Topics include personal experience with health issues, challenges with reimbursement, pollution's detrimental effects, and advocating for justice and change.

The decade from 2010 to 2020 was one that saw more people around the world participating in protests than at any other point in human history. And yet, looking back, the results of so many of these mass protests, the societal changes that followed, were the opposite of what protestors were demanding. In his new book, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution, award-winning journalist and foreign correspondent Vincent Bevins asks: Why? In this special episode, recorded at The Real News Network studio in Baltimore, we talk to Bevins about his new book and about his own working life as a journalist covering people's uprisings around the world.  Additional links/info below... Vincent's website and Twitter/X page Vincent Bevins, Public Affairs, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution  Vincent Bevins, Public Affairs, The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World  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

It is looking increasingly likely that Congressional Republicans will bring the federal government to a shutdown starting this weekend. "U.S. government services would be disrupted and hundreds of thousands of federal workers would be furloughed without pay if Congress fails to provide funding for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1," Reuters reports. "Workers deemed essential would remain on the job, but without pay." Among the many agencies that will be furloughing workers in the event of a shutdown is the National Labor Relations Board. Not only will unionized staff workers at the NLRB itself be hurt by the government shutdown—after years of enduring chronic and politically motivated underfunding and understaffing—but so, too, will working people around the country who depend on the NLRB to enforce labor law, investigate Unfair Labor Practice charges, manage union elections, etc. In this urgent mini-cast, we talk with Michael Bilik and Colton Puckett, legislative co-chairs of the National Labor Relations Board Union and full-time NLRB staff workers, about the daily work NLRB staff do, the role that work plays in the broader labor movement, and what it will mean for workers if the government shuts down and nearly all of NLRB staff are furloughed.  Additional links/info below… National Labor Relations Board Union website, Twitter/X page, and Instagram  Jacob Bogage, Marianna Sotomayor, & Jeff Stein, The Washington Post, "Shutdown Looks More Likely, as House GOP Leaders reject Senate Plan" Reuters, "US Government Shutdown: What Is It and Who Would Be Affected?" Gay Semel, Labor Notes, "Viewpoint: The NLRB is Underfunded and Understaffed—And That’s a Big Threat to the Current Organizing Wave" Li Zhou, Vox, "The Republican vs. Republican Feud behind the Government Shutdown Fight, Explained" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "Congressional Staffers Are Demanding the Senate Let Them Unionize" 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

The United Auto Workers are striking against all of the Big Three automakers at once for the first time in the union’s history. The UAW is employing a novel “stand-up strike” strategy: rather than having over 140,000 auto workers hit the picket line at once, UAW members at three strategically targeted plants were called to strike first last Thursday, and union president Shawn Fain has announced that more plants will be called to strike by the end of this week. What are the key demands auto workers are striking over? What’s happening on the picket lines? How are active and retired members feeling about the union’s new, more militant strategy? And what role do we all have to play in ensuring they win the contract they deserve? On this worker solidarity livestream, hosted by The Real News Network, Max speaks with Martha Grevatt, a retired auto worker and UAW Local 869 member, and Auston Gore, an assembly line worker and UAW Local 12 member who is currently on strike at the Stellantis Toledo Assembly Complex. With permission from TRNN, we are sharing the audio of this livestream, recorded on Sept 20, 2023, on our podcast feed.  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

After the high-stakes contract fight between the Teamsters and UPS, the eyes of labor are now on the contract negotiations currently taking place between the United Auto Workers and the Big Three automakers: Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis (formerly Chrysler). The UAW’s master agreement with the Big Three covers around 150,000 autoworkers, and the current contract expires on September 14. If a tentative agreement is not reached by then, the auto industry could be the next to be rocked by a major strike, and UAW president Shawn Fain has stated clearly that the union is prepared to strike at all three automakers if necessary. What brought us to this point, and what's at stake in this contract fight (for autoworkers, for the UAW, and for the labor movement writ large)? What are workers demanding, and what role do we all have to play in ensuring they get the contract they deserve? In this panel discussion, we talk with three rank-and-file workers and UAW members from each of the Big Three automakers: Marcelina Pedraza, a Ford electrician in Chicago and member of UAW Local 551; Torice Sawyer, a Stellantis plant worker at the Detroit Assembly Complex–Jefferson and member of UAW Local 7; Nicholas Livick, a General Motors autoworker and rank-and-file member of UAW Local 31 in Kansas City.  Additional links/info below… United Auto Workers website, Facebook page, and Twitter page Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD) Facebook page, Twitter page, and Instagram Dan DiMaggio & Keith Brower Brown, Labor Notes, "Auto Workers Have Big Demands for the Big 3" Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes, "Kentucky Auto Workers at Ford Are Preparing for a Strike" Luis Feliz Leon, The American Prospect, "As Auto Workers Contract Talks Heat Up, Stellantis Threatens to Move South" Teddy Ostrow & Ruby Walsh, The Upsurge / The Real News Network, "Auto Workers May Strike Next Week—What Electric Vehicles Have to Do With It" Teddy Ostrow & Ruby Walsh, The Upsurge / The Real News Network, "United Auto Workers Could Strike Next After Teamsters" Maximillian Alvarez, Breaking Points, "UAW Worker SPEAKS OUT As Union Prepares For Historic Strike" Working People, "Justin Mayhugh"  Michael Wayland, CNBC, "Second UAW President Sentenced to 28 Months in Prison in Union Corruption Probe" Jonah Furman, The Real News Network / Labor Notes, "A Once-in-a_Generation Chance to Revive the UAW Is Coming" Jonah Furman, The Real News Network / Labor Notes, "Auto Workers Win Direct Democracy in Referendum" 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

At the federal level today, the subminimum wage for tipped workers is still just $2.13 an hour. That is, frankly, a disgrace. "A direct legacy of slavery," the One Fair Wage campaign notes, "the subminimum wage affects a workforce of nearly 5 million tipped workers that is 70 percent women and 43 percent people of color." In this mini-cast, we talk about the fight to end the subminimum wage with Tabina Gipson, a tipped worker in Chicago who's worked in the food industry for over 10 years, a mother of five, and an organizer with One Fair Wage.  One Fair Wage is a national organization of nearly 300,000 service workers, over 2000 restaurant employers, and dozens of organizations nationwide all working together to end all subminimum wages in the United States and improve wages and working conditions in the service sector in particular. One Fair Wage policy would require all employers to pay the full minimum wage with fair, non-discriminatory tips on top, thus lifting millions of tipped and subminimum wage workers nationally out of poverty. Additional links/info below… One Fair Wage's website, Facebook page, and Twitter page  One Fair Wage Factsheet: The Key to Saving the Restaurant Industry Post-COVID-19  David A. Fahrenthold & Talmon Joseph Smith, The New York Times, "How Restaurant Workers Help Pay for Lobbying to Keep Their Wages Low" Kim Kelly, Teen Vogue, "The Subminimum Wage for Workers With Disabilities Is a Disgrace" Bryce Covert, The New Republic, "Restaurant Workers Who Love Tips Are Learning to Love the Minimum Wage Too" 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