Working People

Within the past two years, South Korea has seen major labor actions, including a general strike in October of 2021, and major crackdowns on organized labor, including the national intelligence agency raiding the offices of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions in January of this year. In that same time, military and geopolitical tensions in the region have been rapidly intensifying. What is going on? What is the state of organized labor in South Korea, and how have imperialist and capitalist pressures, especially from the US, shaped the terrain upon which working people across the Korean Peninsula are struggling to live and work with dignity? We talk about all of this and more with Ju-Hyun Park, author, organizer, and Engagement Editor at The Real News Network.  Additional links/info below... Ju-Hyun's Twitter page Nodutdol Twitter page Jia Hong & Ju-Hyun Park, Truthout / The Real News Network, "Half a Million South Korean Workers Walk Off Jobs in General Strike" Dongmin Yang, The Real News Network, “'The President Forced Our Comrade to Die'—South Korea’s Workers Confront Yoon Seok Yeol’s Labor Crackdown" Joonseok, Left Voice, "South Korea: Building a Powerful General Strike Is Urgent to Fight Against the Right-Wing Government’s Attacks" Tim Shorrock, The Shorrock Files / The Real News Network, " South Korea’s Yoon Launches Vicious Attack on Unions, Peace Groups" Ju-Hyun Park, The Real News Network, "Biden Needs to Accept That the US Can’t Intimidate North Korea" Kap Seol, Labor Notes, "South Korea: Intelligence Agency Raids Top Union Confederation" Sam Yang, The Real News Network, "Squid Game and the Long Shadow of American Empire" 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 world of higher education has been in shock this past week after West Virginia University President E. Gordon Gee announced plans to dramatically cut academic programs and jobs in the coming year. "West Virginia University, a crucial institution in one of the nation’s most impoverished states, is poised to jettison all of its faculty dedicated to teaching Spanish, French, Chinese and other foreign languages," Nick Anderson reports at The Washington Post. "The state’s largest public university also is moving toward elimination of a master’s degree program in creative writing and a doctoral program in mathematics, among other proposed cuts, in response to declining enrollment and what university officials call a 'structural' budget deficit of $45 million. In all, 32 of the university’s 338 majors on its Morgantown campus would be discontinued and 7 percent of its faculty eliminated under a plan made public last week." If WVU proceeds with the proposed cuts, the impact on campus workers—student employees, grad workers, faculty, staff, facilities workers—and the local economy will be massive. What brought WVU to this crisis point? And what can be done to fight back? In this urgent episode, we talk with: Leslie Wilber, an organizer with West Virginia Campus Workers who graduated with a Master of Fine Arts degree from WVU earlier this year; Morgan King, a recent graduate of WVU, a Fulbright Scholar, and a Marshall Scholar; Dr. Jessie Wilkerson, associate professor and Joyce and Stuart Robbins Chair of History at WVU, a member of the West Virginia Campus Workers union, and the author of To Live Here, You Have to Fight: How Women Led Appalachian Movements for Social Justice. Additional links/info below… Leslie's Twitter page Morgan's Twitter page Jessie's Twitter page West Virginia Campus Workers website and Twitter page West Virginia United Student Union Twitter page WVCW: "Stop the Cuts at WVU" page CALL TO ACTION: Save WVU – An Open Letter from Alumni Mya Helm, Slate, "Everyone at West Virginia University Knew Something Was Up. I Hate That We Were Right" Nick Anderson, The Washington Post, "WVU’s Plan to Cut Foreign Languages, Other Programs Draws Disbelief" Emma Pettit, The Chronicle of Higher Education, "Scholars See Dangerous Precedent in West Virginia U.’s Plan to Cut Foreign Languages" Jessie Wilkerson, University of Illinois Press, To Live Here, You Have to Fight: How Women Led Appalachian Movements for Social Justice Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "Big Pharma Leaves 1,400 Workers in the Dust with West Virginia Plant Closure" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "Duke University's Ploy to Ban Graduate Student Unions at All Private Universities" Working People, "**Jessie Wilkerson** (Bonus episode)" 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

Ana Jakopič is a lawyer, organizer, and trade union leader in Slovenia. We talk to Ana about the different kinds of workers she organizes with on a daily basis, the struggles working people across Slovenia are facing, and how connected/disconnected those struggles currently feel to the strikes taking place in Europe and beyond. But we also talk about Ana's life and her winding path into the labor movement; we talk about growing up in the post-Yugoslavian world, and about the impacts the Russo-Ukrainian War is having on Slovenians' lives today. Additional links/info below... Ana's Twitter page Maximillian Alvarez, Breaking Points, "'We Need ESCALATION': More STRIKES Coming In UK And France" The Real News Network, Workers of the World (series)  AFP, "Thousands of Nurses Strike over Wages and Poor Working Conditions in Slovenia" People's Health Dispatch, "Health Workers in Slovenia Go on Strike" 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

"I've never been an organizer," Khali Jama says, "but I've always fought." As a single mother, a Muslim, and a Somali-American worker living in Minnesota, Jama has always had to fight for the life she, her family, and her fellow workers deserve. And earlier this year, after bringing that fight to the Minnesota state legislature, Khali and her coworkers achieved a major victory. "On May 16," Lisa Kwon reports in PRISM, "Minnesota lawmakers passed the nation’s strongest Amazon warehouse worker protection legislation with the Warehouse Worker Protection Act, which ensures that workers can take breaks during the workday and have access to relevant quota and performance standards and data on how fast they’re working. The bill’s passage marks a significant victory for migrant workers — especially Minnesota’s Somali immigrant population, of which the state has the largest in the country. For Khali Jama, a former worker in Amazon’s fulfillment center in Shakopee, Minnesota, the new bill offers reprieve and protections that she worked to mobilize. As a Somali and a Muslim, Jama said the Warehouse Worker Protection Act ensures some equity in Minnesota’s facilities." In this episode, we sit down and talk with Jama about moving to the midwest as a child, about her path to working in healthcare and at Amazon, and about the incredible story of how Khali, her coworkers, and the team at the Awood Center, which organizes in Minnesota’s East African communities, fought to pass the Warehouse Worker Protection Act. Additional links/info below... Khali's Twitter page Awood Center website, Facebook page, and Twitter page Isabela Escalona, WorkDay Magazine, "High Injury Rates Push Minnesota’s Amazon Workers to Organize for Safety" Lisa Kwon, PRISM, "Warehouse Worker Protection Act Grants Migrant Workers in Minnesota Landmark Safety Protections" Matt Furber, Sahan Journal, "Amazon’s Shakopee Workers Rally for Better Pay, Criticize Company for Not Giving Muslim Employees Vacation on Eid" Abdirahman Muse, Emma Greenman, & Erin Murphy, The Nation, "Minnesota Enacts Landmark Protections for Amazon Warehouse Workers" 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 Norfolk Southern train derailment and "controlled release" of toxic vinyl chloride in East Palestine, Ohio, was an avoidable catastrophe. Long before the train cars crashed on Feb. 3 and residents' lives were turned completely upside down, railroad workers had been warning anyone who would listen that the relentless cost-cutting and profit-maximizing practices implemented on the freight rail system by greedy rail executives and their Wall Street shareholders would endanger workers and the public, and they were right. In recent hearings held in East Palestine by the National Travel Safety Board (NTSB), testimonies by representatives from rail labor and even Norfolk Southern itself have revealed what workers already knew: a combination of reckless business practices by the rail carriers, including yearly staff cuts to rail maintenance workers and the outsourcing of vital safety functions to unregulated machines, and lax federal regulation of the railroads has created the conditions for catastrophes like East Palestine to happen with greater frequency. But it is not too late to reverse course and build a safer, greener, more efficient, more humane rail system. In this episode, we discuss the latest revelations to come out of the ongoing investigations into the East Palestine disaster with Jason Cox, national representative for the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen, who testified at the NTSB hearings in East Palestine in June.  Additional links/info below... KDKA News, "Union Official Says Safety of Railroads Has Been Compromised by Job Cuts and Time Constraints" Aria Bendix, NBC News, "High Levels of a Hazardous Chemical Polluted the Air Weeks After the Ohio Train Derailment, an Analysis Shows" ABC 6, "East Palestine Residents Rally for Disaster Declaration at Ohio Statehouse" 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" 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" 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

We are less than two weeks away from what could be the largest single-employer strike in US history. As of this recording, contract negotiations between United Parcel Services (UPS) and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters have reportedly "collapsed"—and the clock is ticking until the current contract expires on July 31. If a deal is not reached and a strike occurs, what will it look like for 340,000 Teamster UPSers to walk off the job? What are the key issues that workers are prepared to strike over? And what can we all do to support them, whether a strike occurs or not? In this episode, we continue our coverage of the historic UPS contract fight by talking to Rikki Schreiner, a shop steward for Teamsters Local 638 in Minnesota who has worked for UPS since 1999, and Amber Mathwig, a part-time UPS warehouse worker and member of Teamsters Local 638.  Additional links/info below... M4M4ALL fundraiser for East Palestine residents Savage Joy-Marie's Twitter page, Rokfin channel, YouTube channel, and Patreon Amber's Twitter page Teamsters Local 638 website, Facebook page, and Twitter page International Brotherhood of Teamsters website, Facebook page, and Twitter page The Upsurge podcast Spotify page, Twitter page, and Patreon Teddy Ostrow & Ruby Walsh, The Real News Network, "For Women Workers at UPS, Fighting the Bosses Means Fighting the Patriarchy" Citations Needed, "News Brief: As UPS Strike "Looms," Media Frames Working-Class Revolt as "Threat" to "The Economy"" Teddy Ostrow, Jacobin, "Part-Time UPS Workers Say Their Jobs Are Brutal" Teamsters for a Democratic Union website, Facebook page, and Twitter page Sean Orr & Elliot Lewis, Jacobin, "UPS Teamsters Are Ready to Strike" Working People, "Sean Orr" Working People, "Teamsters in Boston Have a Message for UPS (w/ Thomas Mari, Jane Fallon, Rob Atkinson, JJ Rodriguez, Fred Zuckerman, Julie, & Sean M. O'Brien)" Working People, ""If You Can't Stand the Heat, Keep Working" (w/ Zakk, Gabriela, & Steve)" Alex Press, Jacobin, "Inside the Teamsters’ Preparations for a UPS Strike" J.J. McCorvey, Adiel Kaplan, & Annie Probert, NBC News, "UPS Drivers on Track to Get Air-Conditioned Trucks for the First Time" 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

When we hear the term "whistleblower," we tend to think of names like Daniel Ellsberg, Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, Julian Assange—people who have risked their freedom, even their lives, to expose government lies, abuses of power, and state secrets that the public needs to know about. But there are a range of federal statutes designed to protect those who blow the whistle on their employers, too, especially when those employers are breaking the law and/or endangering their workers and the public. Michael Paul Lindsey II is a military veteran who has worked for Union Pacific as a trained locomotive conductor and engineer for the past 17 years, and he has maintained good standing as an employee throughout that time. Over the course of his career on the rails, however, Paul has seen and experienced firsthand how corporate greed has destroyed the railroad industry, damaged our supply chain, run workers into the ground, and put the public in danger. Even though he knew it could put his career at risk, Paul has been outspoken on these issues, using his popular TikTok channel, writing op-eds, and giving interviews in which he has exposed, with a veteran railroader's insight, the destructive business and labor practices of Union Pacific and the other Class 1 rail carriers, and how those practices have contributed to catastrophes like the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. Then the company came for him. In suspected retaliation for his whistleblowing, Paul has officially been fired from Union Pacific. In this urgent and exclusive interview, we talk with Paul about his career on the rails, the changes he's seen take hold of the industry he loves, and the dubious circumstances that led to his firing. Additional links/info below... Paul's TikTok channel Paul's TikTok video about East Palestine derailment  OSHA’s Whistleblower Protection Program Michael Paul Lindsey II, Railway Age, "The Game Has Changed" Michael Paul Lindsey II, Railway Age, "‘Dear National Carriers Conference Committee and AAR’" Maximillian Alvarez, Breaking Points, "Railway Companies Engage In 'CORPORATE TERRORISM' Ahead of Strike" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, ""This Was Preventable": Railroad Workers Explain How Wall St Caused the East Palestine Derailment" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "East Palestine, 100 Days Later" Mel Buer, The Real News Network, "What Union Pacific and the Media Aren’t Telling You About the Baker, CA, Train Derailment" Mel Buer, The Real News Network, "Corporate Billionaires Are Wrecking the Supply Chain. Just Look at the Railroads" Useful Idiots, "‘Union Joe’ Biden Sells Out Rail Workers" 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

We hosted another Working People live show, in collaboration with the Action Builder / Action Network team, on May 8 at the 30th Constitutional Convention of the Canadian Labour Congress in Montréal. In this panel discussion, Max speaks with Sarah Beth Ryther, employee-organizer with Trader Joe's United in Minneapolis, and Josh Thole, former Major League Baseball player and current Minor League Special Assistant for the MLB Players Association, about what union organizing from the ground up looks like, and about how we can scale up our local organizing efforts and build the infrastructure to sustain nationwide campaigns.  Additional links/info below... Major League Baseball Players Association website, Facebook page, and Twitter page Trader Joe's United website, Twitter page, and Instagram Trader Joe’s United Solidarity Fund Action Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page Action Builder website Jeff Schuhrke & Sarah Beth Ryther, Jacobin, "Trader Joe’s Workers Have Won Their First Unions in America" Working People, "Alex P." 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)" Working People, "2023 Canadian Labour Congress, Part 1 (w/ Emily Leedham, Guy Smith, Mary Newman, James Russwurm, & Liz Ha)" Working People, "2023 Canadian Labour Congress, Part 2 (w/ Nora Loreto, Meg Davis, Larry Rousseau, & Nicholas Marcus Thompson)" 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

From legislative attacks on the rights of trans people, drag performers, and queer people spreading to statehouses around the country like wildfire, to rightwing media relentlessly spewing fascistic anti-LGBTQ+ messages, to far-right groups ramping up their intimidation tactics and violent assaults to force LGBTQ+ people back into the closet, Pride month feels different in 2023. And yet, the rebellious, liberatory spirit of Pride persists, and the struggle for equality, acceptance, and the right to pursue what makes us happy continues—and the labor movement must be a source of strength in that struggle. How far has the labor movement come in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights? How far do we still have to go? And what role can and should labor play in the broader, necessary fight for LGBTQ+ liberation and against the fascist attacks on our fellow workers, our neighbors, and our loved ones? We talk to Fae Weichsel, a first assistant cameraperson and member of IATSE Local 600, where they also serve on the National Executive Board and co-chair the Young Workers Committee, and Jessica Gonzalez, who has worked in the video game industry for the past decade, is currently a lead technical test analyst for a video game company, and is a founder of A Better ABK (Activision-Blizzard-King Workers Alliance) and the Game Workers Alliance. Additional links/info below... Fae's Twitter page and Bluesky page Jessica's Twitter page and Linktree IATSE Local 600 website, Facebook page, and Twitter page ABetterABK website and Twitter page Game Workers Alliance website and Twitter page Human Rights Campaign, "LGBTQ+ Americans Under Attack: A Report and Reflection on the 2023 State Legislative Session" Amelia Hansford, PinkNews, "Trans Journalist Erin Reed on Fighting Anti-LGBTQ+ Hate and Working at the Coalface of Transphobia" Tess Owens, Vice News, "The Far Right Has Made Security a Huge Issue For Pride" William Phelps, Tag24, "Jessica Gonzalez, Former Activision Blizzard Employee, Is a Champion of Game Workers' Rights" Kellen Browning, The New York Times, "A Vote by Activision Workers Could Give Unions a Foothold in Gaming" Kellen Browning & Mike Isaac, The New York Times, "Activision, Facing Internal Turmoil, Grapples With #MeToo Reckoning" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "The New 'Lavender Scare' Is an Attack on the Working Class" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "Entertainment Workers Discuss the Dark Side of Hollywood and Historic IATSE Strike Vote" Julian Mark & Jaclyn Peiser, The Washington Post, "Starbucks Workers at 150 Stores Launch Strike Over Pride Decor" 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 largest private sector labor contract in the US is set to expire at midnight on July 31; as negotiations continue to play out, we will soon see whether or not the 350,000 Teamsters working for United Parcel Services (UPS) will hit the picket line and wage one of the largest strikes in US history. As Sean Orr, a UPS package-car driver and elected shop steward for Teamsters Local 705 in Chicago, and Elliot Lewis, a UPS package-car driver and alternate shop steward for Teamsters Local 804 in New York City, recently wrote in Jacobin, "This contract fight is about two visions of work in the twenty-first century. One is promoted by workers: equal pay for equal work, dignity and autonomy on the job, and a stable work-life balance. The other is promoted by Wall Street: hypersurveillance, low pay, subcontracting, gig work, and 'flexible' scheduling practices that hurt workers and benefit bosses." In this episode, we talk to Sean Orr about growing up in a de-industrializing Milwaukee, his path to becoming a Teamster and working for UPS, why the current contract fight is such a pivotal moment for the Teamsters and the labor movement, and what we can all do to stand in solidarity with all UPS workers.  Additional links/info below... Sean's Twitter page International Brotherhood of Teamsters website, Facebook page, and Twitter page Teamsters for a Democratic Union website, Facebook page, and Twitter page Sean Orr & Elliot Lewis, Jacobin, "UPS Teamsters Are Ready to Strike" Sean Orr & Elliot Lewis, Labor Notes, "UPS Teamsters Start Strike Authorization Vote" Working People, "Teamsters in Boston Have a Message for UPS (w/ Thomas Mari, Jane Fallon, Rob Atkinson, JJ Rodriguez, Fred Zuckerman, Julie, & Sean M. O'Brien)" Working People, ""If You Can't Stand the Heat, Keep Working" (w/ Zakk, Gabriela, & Steve)" The Upsurge podcast Spotify page, Twitter page, and Patreon  Alex Press, Jacobin, "Inside the Teamsters’ Preparations for a UPS Strike" J.J. McCorvey, Adiel Kaplan, & Annie Probert, NBC News, "UPS Drivers on Track to Get Air-Conditioned Trucks for the First Time" 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