Power At Work

Episode #8 of the Power Half-Hour has arrived!The Power Half-Hour is a livestreamed, fast-paced, bi-weekly roundtable with a rotating group of regular guests. Our guests discuss the biggest labor story of the preceding week and the labor story everyone should be talking about over the next two weeks. Joining Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris for this episode are:Kim Kelly - Labor reporter for In These Times magazine and a regular labor columnist for Teen VogueMark Gevaart - Host of the My Labor Radio podcast and an active and activist member of the United Auto WorkersAnne Lofaso - Professor of Law at the University of Cincinnati College of Law and former attorney for the National Labor Relations BoardCatch our next episode live on Power At Work's LinkedIn page on September 16th and soon after on PowerAtWork.US.Connect with Power At Work: Website: poweratwork.usTikTok: @poweratworkblog Instagram: @poweratworkblog Twitter: / poweratworkblog Facebook: poweratworkblog LinkedIn: power-at-work

In this episode, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris will recap all seven of the blogcasts that were a part of the 'What Could Happen Under Trump?' series published on Power at Work.Watch now as Seth shares clips of some of the most important insights from the 14 guests who generously participated in this series.Connect with Power At Work: Website: poweratwork.usTikTok: @poweratworkblog Instagram: @poweratworkblog Twitter: @poweratworkblog Facebook: poweratworkblog LinkedIn: power-at-workSeth D. Harris is a Distinguished Professor of Practice at Northeastern University and Affiliated Faculty and a Senior Fellow at the Burnes Center for Social Change (and its partner project The GovLab) where he runs the Initiative on Labor and Economic Justice. Prior to joining Northeastern University, Professor Harris was the Deputy Assistant to the President for Labor and the Economy and Deputy Director of the Biden White House’s National Economic Council.

In this very special blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Governor Tim Walz, the two-term governor of Minnesota and the 2024 Democratic nominee for Vice-President of the United States. Watch now to learn more about the state of worker power in America, the relationship between the Democratic Party and working-class voters after the re-election of Donald Trump, some of Gov. Walz’s pro-worker accomplishments during his seven years as Minnesota’s governor, and about the elections of 2026 and 2028.Connect with Power At Work: Website: poweratwork.usTikTok: @poweratworkblog Instagram: @poweratworkblog Twitter: @poweratworkblog Facebook: poweratworkblog LinkedIn: power-at-workTimothy James Walz is an American politician, former educator, and Army National Guard veteran serving since 2019 as the 41st governor of Minnesota. He was the Democratic nominee for vice president in the 2024 U.S. presidential election and was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 2007 to 2019.

In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Chris Griswold from American Compass, a leading pro-union conservative policy expert who has been working with Sen. Josh Hawley and others on legislation that, if enacted, may very well benefit workers, worker power, and unions.Watch now to learn more about how support for unions fits with a larger politically conservative ideology, whether there is broader support for unions in the conservative movement than might be obvious to those of us who are not a part of that movement, and legislation that is currently pending that is the product of some our guest’s policy worker and advocacy.Connect with Power At Work: Website: poweratwork.usTikTok: @poweratworkblog Instagram: @poweratworkblog Twitter: @poweratworkblog Facebook: poweratworkblog LinkedIn: power-at-workChris Griswold is the policy director at American Compass, a think tank "dedicated to restoring an economic consensus that emphasizes the importance of family, community, and industry to the nation’s liberty and prosperity". Griswold’s writing has appeared in the New York Times, National Affairs, the Dallas Morning News, Newsweek, American Affairs, Comment, and The Hill, among other publications. He was previously a senior advisor in the U.S. Senate.

Episode #7 of the Power Half-Hour has arrived!The Power Half-Hour is a livestreamed, fast-paced, bi-weekly roundtable with a rotating group of regular guests. Our guests discuss the biggest labor story of the preceding week and the labor story everyone should be talking about over the next two weeks. Joining Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris for this episode are: Ruben Garcia - Ralph Denton Professor of Law at the University of Las Vegas, NevadaMatt Alley - Creator of BlueCollarWriterBill Samuel - Pro-union consultant, former AFL-CIO Director of AdvocacyCatch our next episode live on Power At Work's LinkedIn page on September 4th and soon after on poweratwork.us.Connect with Power At Work: Website: poweratwork.usTikTok: @poweratworkblog Instagram: @poweratworkblog Twitter: / poweratworkblog Facebook: poweratworkblog LinkedIn: power-at-work

In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Lorena Gonzalez and Chrissy Lynch to discuss the new effort by the AFL-CIO’s state federations of labor to study, plan, organize, and bargain around artificial intelligence in the workplace and our society.Watch now to learn more about this initiative from the presidents of two of our country’s largest state federations of labor, who will be the national co-chairs of a new AFL-CIO task force about AI and worker power. They will discuss how artificial intelligence will affect workers and unions, the labor movement’s efforts to force government to put public policy guardrails in place that protect workers’ right and jobs, the lessons they hope to learn from unions’ experience bargaining over artificial intelligence, and how the labor movement might be able to use artificial intelligence to build worker power.Connect with Power At Work: Website: poweratwork.usTikTok: @poweratworkblog Instagram: @poweratworkblog Twitter: / poweratworkblog Facebook: poweratworkblog LinkedIn: power-at-workLorena Gonzalez is an American union leader and former politician, serving as the president of the California Labor Federation since 2022. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served in the California State Assembly from 2013 to 2022, representing the 80th Assembly district. In January 2022, Gonzalez resigned from the state assembly to assume a leadership position in the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO.Chrissy Lynch is President of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. She previously served as the Secretary-Treasurer and Chief of Staff of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, and spent 15 years running the political and legislative departments of the MA AFL-CIO. Before working for organized labor in Massachusetts, she worked on union-led electoral campaigns in California and Massachusetts.

In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Raj Nayak, Candace Archer, and Rebecca Reindel, three policy experts who are closely monitoring and actively opposing the Labor Department’s deregulatory agenda.Watch now to learn more about some of the labor standards and protections that are slated for elimination across the Labor Department. Seth and guests will discuss what happens next, and how the labor movement and members of the Power At Work community can make themselves heard inside the Francis Perkins Building, which is the Labor Department’s national headquarters.Connect with Power At Work: Website: poweratwork.usTikTok: @poweratworkblog Instagram: @poweratworkblog Twitter: / poweratworkblog Facebook: poweratworkblog LinkedIn: power-at-workRajesh D. Nayak is a fellow at the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School and a consultant on labor policy and organizational transitions. Most recently, Raj served as the Assistant Secretary for Policy at the United States Department of Labor, overseeing the Department’s regulatory agenda, forward-looking policy development, and evaluation offices.Candace Archer is the policy director for the AFL-CIO. She previously worked for Americans for Financial Reform, the American Federation of Government Employees, and National Labor College. Candace has a Ph.D in Political Economy and was an associate professor for more than 15 years.Rebecca Reindel is the director of occupational safety and health for the AFL-CIO, where she advocates for improved workplace safety and health policies at federal, state, and international levels. She facilitates collaboration among stakeholders to address workplace hazards, testifies before policymakers, and bridges the gap between shop-floor realities and legislative decision-making.

Episode #6 of the Power Half-Hour has arrived!The Power Half-Hour is a livestreamed, fast-paced, bi-weekly roundtable with a rotating group of regular guests. Our guests discuss the biggest labor story of the preceding week and the labor story everyone should be talking about over the next two weeks. Joining Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris for this episode are: Claudia Irizarry Aponte - Senior Reporter at THE CITYHarold Phillips - Host of Working to Live in Southwest Washington and Principal Director of the Labor Radio Podcast NetworkDavid Madland - Senior Fellow and the Senior Adviser to the American Worker Project at American ProgressCatch our next episode live on Power At Work's LinkedIn page on August 14th and soon after on poweratwork.us.Connect with Power At Work: Website: poweratwork.usTikTok: @poweratworkblog Instagram: @poweratworkblog Twitter: / poweratworkblog Facebook: poweratworkblog LinkedIn: power-at-work

In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Victor Mineros and Kathy Torres to discuss the nationwide strike by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters against Republic Services, which is a solid waste management company that collects and disposes of garbage and recycling in cities across the U.S.Watch now to learn more about the status of the strike, the kind of work the Teamsters members at Republic Services perform, the biggest issues in the negotiations, and how we can expect this strike to be resolved. Also discussed are some of the strategies the Teamsters have used in this strike to bring pressure on Republic Services to agree to their members’ bargaining demands, and how the public’s reaction to a long-lasting garbage strike had influenced those strategies.Connect with Power At Work: Website: poweratwork.usTikTok: @poweratworkblog Instagram: @poweratworkblog Twitter: / poweratworkblog Facebook: poweratworkblog LinkedIn: power-at-workVictor Mineros is the Director of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters' Solid Waste and Recycling Division. He got his start with the Teamsters as a rank-and-file UPS package car driver in Los Angeles. He served as a business agent and organizer for Teamsters Local 396 and was appointed an International Representative for the Teamsters Solid Waste and Recycling Division, which is the Teamsters Division he now leads as the Director.Kathy Torres is a Teamsters Local 179 member who has been employed by Republic Services in Ottawa, Illinois, for a year. She is a Class A Driver who has been on strike for three weeks. Kathy is originally from the South Side of Chicago and currently resides in Joliet, Illinois.

In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Javier Ramirez to discuss the future of labor mediation after President Trump shut down the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS). Ramirez takes you inside the negotiating room and explains the critical role labor mediators play.Watch now to learn about what happens next and why labor mediation is important. Also, learn from one of the nation's foremost mediators how the process works, and more broadly, why collective bargaining can be a model for dispute resolution in American society. Connect with Power At Work: Website: poweratwork.usTikTok: @poweratworkblog Instagram: @poweratworkblog Twitter: / poweratworkblog Facebook: poweratworkblog LinkedIn: power-at-workJavier Ramirez is the Executive Manager of the National Conflict Resolution Service at the Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution at Cornell University’s School of Industrial & Labor Relations. Previously, Javier served as Deputy Director of Field Operations at the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS).