
Power At Work
Sustained and effective worker power arises out of collective action. Our goal at Power At Work is to advance actions that build power to confront power — contributing to a discourse in the United States that puts workers at the center of the conversation.
Latest episodes

Mar 18, 2025 • 1h 6min
Power At Work Blogcast #84: What Could Happen Under Trump? Tariffs, Trades, and Worker Power
In the seventh blogcast of Power At Work’s series “What Could Happen Under Trump?”, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Ambassador Katherine Tai, the 19th U.S. trade representative, to discuss the implications of President Trump’s trade policy on worker power. Ambassador Tai was the architect of the “worker-centered trade policy” during her tenure under President Biden –– watch now to hear her analysis on the current “America First Trade Policy,” the tariffs being placed by the Trump administration, and what it means to have a worker-centered trade policy.Follow us on social media:TikTokInstagramTwitterFacebookLinkedInKatherine Tai is an American lawyer who served as the 19th United States trade representative from March 18, 2021, to January 20, 2025. She is a member of the Democratic Party and previously served as the chief trade counsel for the United States House Committee on Ways and Means. Ambassador Tai is also an experienced World Trade Organization litigator. She previously developed and tried cases for the Office of the United States Trade Representative, eventually becoming the Chief Counsel for China Trade Enforcement.

Mar 12, 2025 • 48min
Power At Work Blogcast #83 (Live!): “Buy or Sell” 2025 Labor Predictions
In this live blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Sharon Block, the Executive Director of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School, Bill Samuel, the former director of government affairs at the AFL-CIO, and a live audience made up of Power At Work subscribers. For our long-term subscribers, you would know that this is the second ‘buy or sell’ blogcast Power At Work has done, this time with a live audience giving us their labor predictions. Watch now to hear what these three labor experts have to say about the future of the NLRB, potential strikes and collective bargaining agreements, union memberships, and more!Follow us on social media:TikTokInstagramTwitterFacebookLinkedInSharon Block is a Professor of Practice and Executive Director of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School. Before returning to Harvard, she served as the senior official delegated the duties of the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in President Joe Biden’s White House. She also served as a senior advisor to the Biden-Harris Transition team, providing advice to the policy, OMB and Labor Agency Review teams on labor, worker empowerment and regulatory policy, and participating in briefing and hearing preparation for nominees.Bill Samuel was the director of government affairs at the AFL-CIO before retiring. In addition to serving as the chief lobbyist for the 12.5 million-member labor federation, Samuel chaired the AFL-CIO’s Legislative Committee, which is made up of legislative representatives from the federation’s 55 affiliated unions. Samuel returned to the labor movement in January 2001 after a five-year stint in the Clinton administration, serving first as associate deputy secretary of labor under Robert Reich and then Alexis Herman. In 2000, Samuel joined the White House staff as senior policy adviser to Vice President Al Gore, serving as the vice president’s principal adviser on labor policy issues and liaison to organized labor.

Mar 4, 2025 • 1h 19min
Power At Work Special Blogcast: 2025 Labor Oscars Awards Ceremony
After all the waiting, all the anticipation, all the lobbying to get your union siblings to vote for your favorites, Power At Work is ready to announce the winners of the 2025 Labor Oscars. Who will take home The Worker? Watch this Labor Oscars Awards Ceremony blogcast to find out.In January, we published a list of 68 worker power films divided into four categories: Best Feature Film, Best Documentary, Best International Labor Film, and Best Worker Profile (small group or individual). Then, we recruited a superstar cast for Power At Work's 2025 Labor Oscars Nominating Committee. These distinguished trade unionists, film academics, film critics, labor film festival leaders, directors, actors, and former Power At Work student "co-ops" chose a shorter list of movies in each of these four categories –– and a fifth category, Worst Labor Film –– for your consideration.Then, in mid-February, we turned the decision-making over to you –– Power At Work's subscribers. And the votes poured in. Now, we are ready to make YOUR decisions public.It's the biggest reveal since, well, the Labor Grammys awards ceremony just a few weeks ago (have there been any others?)!We proudly present the 2025 Labor Oscars awards ceremony. Our guests for this very special event are:Harold Phillips - actor, host of the "Labor Week" podcast, SAG-AFTRA member, and co-coordinator of the Labor Radio Podcast Network; Jennifer Merin - journalist, film critic, and co-founder and President of the Alliance of Women Film Journalists; andTami Gold - a documentary filmmaker, visual artist and professor at Hunter College of the City University of New York in the Department of Film and Media Studies. Tami was one of the directors of Out At Work: Lesbians and Gay Men on the Job, a documentary feature that we proudly included on our 2025 Labor Oscars list of worker power films.Watch the blogcast below to enjoy our experts' commentary on our nominees, their discussion about the importance of positive representations of labor in media, and the eagerly awaited “reveal” of the winner of this year’s The Worker!Follow us on social media:TikTokInstagramTwitterFacebookLinkedIn

Feb 19, 2025 • 1h 7min
Power At Work Blogcast #82: Analyzing The Labor Action Tracker Annual Report 2024
In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Professor Johnnie Kallas from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s School of Labor and Employment Relations. Professor Kallas is the project director of the Labor Action Tracker, a key piece of statistics that shows us the trends and data behind collective action and strikes within the previous year. Listen now to hear Professor Kallas analyze the trends in strikes in 2024 and his predictions for collective action in 2025.Follow us on social media:TikTokInstagramTwitterFacebookLinkedInJohnnie Kallas is an Assistant Professor at the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois. His research focuses on strikes and labor militancy in the United States. He has served as the project director of the Labor Action Tracker since its founding in late 2020.

Feb 17, 2025 • 1h 2min
Power At Work Blogcast #81: What Could Happen Under Trump?: Assault on Federal Workers with NTEU Pres. Doreen Greenwald
In the sixth blogcast of Power At Work’s series “What Could Happen Under Trump?”, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by President Doreen Greenwald of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) to discuss the attack on the rights of federal workers by the Trump administration. Watch now to hear President Greenwald’s response to this attack on dedicated civil servants who run the federal government. This discussion will also cover how President Trump’s mass firing and ‘buyouts’ of federal employees is an attempt to weaken and damage the federal government.Follow us on social media:TikTokInstagramTwitterFacebookLinkedInDoreen P. Greenwald was elected National President of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) in August 2023. She has been a frontline federal employee for 35 years. President Greenwald is the spokesperson for the union representing NTEU with the media, Congress, and agency leadership on issues important to union members and federal employees. She was previously the Special Assistant to the National President and was elected National Executive Vice President in 2022. She spent her federal career at the IRS, where she worked as a revenue officer and served for 14 years as president of NTEU Chapter 1 (IRS Wisconsin).

Feb 11, 2025 • 1h 6min
Power At Work Blogcast #80: What Could Happen Under Trump?: Worker Power and Congress
In the fifth blogcast of Power At Work’s series “What Could Happen Under Trump?”, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by all four co-chairs of the Congressional Labor Caucus: Representative Debbie Dingell of Michigan 6th DistrictRepresentative Mark Pocan of Wisconsin 2nd District, Representative Donald Norcross of New Jersey 1st District, and Representative Steve Horsford of Nevada’s 4th District. Watch now to find out the extent to which this Republican-controlled Congress will attempt to repeal or weaken laws that protect workers’ rights alongside how the Congressional Labor Caucus is ensuring that laws that protect workers rights will not be jeopardized.Follow us on social media:TikTokInstagramTwitterFacebookLinkedInDebbie Dingell represents Michigan’s 6th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. She is a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Natural Resources Committee, where she leads on critical issues including affordable and accessible health care, clean energy and water, domestic manufacturing and supply chain resilience, and protecting our wildlife and natural resources. Before being elected to Congress, Dingell worked in the auto industry for over three decades, where she was President of the General Motors Foundation and a senior executive responsible for public affairs.Mark Pocan has represented Wisconsin’s 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. since 2013, following 14 years in the Wisconsin State Assembly. In the 118th Congress, he serves on the House Appropriations Committee where he sits on the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Subcommittee; and the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee; and the Task Force on Agriculture & Nutrition in the 21st Century. He is Chair of the Equality Caucus, Co-Chair of the Labor Caucus, and Chair Emeritus of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.Donald Norcross represents New Jersey’s 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Norcross is an electrician by trade and a proud union member. As a member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, Norcross is working to raise wages, protect the middle class, strengthen workplace protections, and achieve equal pay and paid leave for those raising families. Norcross serves as the Vice Chair and Liaison to Labor for the Congressional Progressive Caucus. He is also the co-founder of the Labor Caucus and the Building Trades Caucus.Steven Horsford represents Nevada’s 4th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. For more than a decade, Rep. Horsford led the Culinary Training Academy, the largest job training program in Nevada, helping thousands of workers find quality careers in the hospitality industry. Horsford made history as Nevada’s first African-American State Senate Majority Leader and he delivered. He passed the "Clean Energy Jobs Initiative" and positioned Nevada as a leader in renewable energy. Horsford served as chair of the Congressional Black Caucus from 2023 to 2025.

Feb 3, 2025 • 1h 24min
Power At Work Blogcast #79: What Could Happen Under Trump?: The Future of Organizing
In the fourth blogcast of Power At Work’s series "What Could Happen Under Trump?”, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Steven Schwartz, LIUNA Organizing Director, Emily Stewart, SEIU Deputy Organizing Director, and David Cann, AFGE Organizing Director to discuss the future of organizing. Watch now to learn how these organizing leaders are prepared and ready to combat anti-worker policies in this administration. While the playing field is designed to be favorable towards employers, this discussion shows that unions are not phased and will continue to fight for collective action and workers’ rights.
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Steve Schwartz is the Director of Organizing for the Laborers International Union of North America. Schwartz has held a variety of organizing jobs, both in the labor movement and community organizing.
David Cann is the Director of Membership and Organization for the American Federation of Government Employees. Cann is also an attorney.
Emily Stewart is the Deputy Director of Organizing for the Service Employees International Union. Stewart has had thirty years of experience leading campaigns organizing campaigns in the steel, retail, public, and healthcare sectors.

Jan 30, 2025 • 1h
Power At Work Special Blogcast: Labor Grammys 2025 Awards Ceremony
In this special blogcast, Burnes Center Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by music and labor specialists to reveal the results of Power At Work’s #LaborGrammys2025. This awards ceremony features Elise Bryant, the founder-director of the DC Labor Chorus and co-host of the Labor Heritage Power Hour podcast; Chris Garlock, the Executive Director of the Labor Heritage Foundation and founder-coordinator of the Labor Radio Podcast Network; and Ruben Garcia, Professor of Law and Director of the Workplace Law Program at the University of Nevada.
Listen now to listen to our experts’ opinions on the nominated songs in six categories and their take on worker power songs more broadly. But most importantly, find out which nominated songs won the vaunted “Guthrie” as chosen by Power At Work’s subscribers.
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Elise Bryant is the founder-director of the DC Labor Chorus and the previous executive director of the Labor Heritage Foundation. After retiring from her professorship at the National Labor College, Bryant launched a consulting practice, the E.L.I.S.E (Education, Leadership, Inspiration, Solidarity and Excellence) Consortium. She is a co-host of the Labor Heritage Power Hour podcast with Chris Garlock, our other guest.
Chris Garlock is the Executive Director of the Labor Heritage Foundation and the founder-coordinator of the Labor Radio Podcast Network (which Power At Work is a proud member of!). Garlock co-hosts two labor podcasts, the Labor Heritage Power Hour and Labor History Today. He is also the executive director of the DC Labor FilmFest.
Ruben Garcia is a Professor of Law and the Director of the Workplace Law Program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, William S. Boyd School of Law. From 2017 to 2019 he served as Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Research at the UNLV Boyd School of Law. Prior to joining the UNLV faculty in 2011, he was Professor of Law and Director of the Labor and Employment Law Program at California Western School of Law in San Diego, where he taught for eight years.

Jan 28, 2025 • 1h 4min
Power At Work #78 (Live): 2024 BLS Union Member Survey Results
In this live blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris will review the 2024 Union Member Survey results with Aaron Sojourner, a labor economist and senior researcher at the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. Watch now to hear Harris and Sojourner interpret what these results meant for worker power and collective in the past year, and what they will mean for the upcoming year. Also hear Harris and Sojourner answer questions from a live audience made up of the Power At Work community regarding the survey results.
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Aaron Sojourner is a labor economist and senior researcher at the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. His research focuses on effects of labor-market institutions, policies to promote efficient and equitable development of human capital with a focus on early childhood and K-12 education systems, and behavioral economic approaches to consumer finance decisions. His work has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, Economic Journal, Journal of Human Resources, Journal of Public Economics, ILR Review, Industrial Relations, Journal of Policy Analysis & Management, and more. He also serves on the ILR Review international editorial board.

Jan 20, 2025 • 1h
Power At Work Blogcast #77: How Worker Power Can Defend and Strengthen Reproductive Rights
In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Nicole Anschutz, an SEIU member and Triage Registered Nurse at Planned Parenthood North Central States, and Jeffrey Hirsch, a law professor at the University of North Carolina. For the 52nd anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, join Power At Work to reconfirm the importance of access to reproductive health care and how unions can be a strengthening tool for this issue. Also hear Anschutz’s insights at the front line in this fight for women’s bodily autonomy, along with Hirsch’s knowledge of the worker’s rights to bargain and how that is relevant in this fight.
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Nicole Anschutz is a Triage Registered Nurse at Planned Parenthood North Central States, Minnesota. Anschutz is a member of SEIU, serving on the Labor Management Committee for Planned Parenthood North Central States. She has been a registered nurse since 2019, working at the Scott County jail until the Dobbs v. Jackson decision in 2022, which was when she changed course to reproductive health care.
Jeffrey Hirsch is a Geneva Yeargan Rand Distinguished Professor of Law at Carolina Law. He served as Associate Dean for Strategy from 2016-2018 and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 2013-2016. Hirsch’s teaching and research focuses on labor and employment law issues, and he has authored numerous books, book chapters, articles, and essays on topics including technology in the workplace, unions, and dismissal law.