Working People

Activist Arielle Cohen shares her abortion story and some words of wisdom to guide us through these dark times.    Additional links/info below... Arielle's Twitter page National Network of Abortion Funds website and Twitter page Planned Parenthood Action website and Twitter page The Yellowhammer Fund website and Twitter page Center for Reproductive Rights website and Twitter page The National Wome...

We chat with Walter Vicente, a Guatemalan immigrant and textile worker in North Carolina. But Walter isn't just a worker … he is also a proud co-owner at a worker co-op called Opportunity Threads, a cut-and-sew factory in Morganton, North Carolina. As it says on the Opportunity Threads website: "Everyone in our plant is hired with the expectation of becoming a worker-owner. Worker-ownership means...

We are kicking off our new series: Workers' Book Club ! In this ongoing series, we will record workers chatting with authors about books that relate to the lives, jobs, dreams, and struggles of the working class. To get things started, our host, Maximillian Alvarez, sat down to chat with author, historian, and independent scholar Keri Leigh Merritt about the recent volume she co-edited with Matthe...

We chat with John Tormey, writer and track laborer for the commuter rail in Massachusetts, about his essay for The Baffler , "Known Assailants," Boston accents, and the white working class.    Additional links/info below... John's Twitter page John Tormey, The Baffler , " Known Assailants "  John Tormey, Covered with Fur , " Dead Things " John Tormey, Rabble Lit , " Train Approach Warning "   Feat...

We chat with Alexandra Carbone, gig worker and organizer with Rideshare Drivers United, about the #StrikeUberLyft strike tomorrow and how you can show solidarity with workers. (Don't cross the picket line!)     Additional links/info below... Alexandra's Twitter page Rideshare Drivers United website ,   Twitter page, and strike map   Salvo , " Striking the Gig " Andrew J. Hawkins, The Verge , " Ube...

We talk to disability and health activist Stefanie Mezigian about ride-sharing company Lyft's violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and how this is connected to the #StrikeUberLyft strike scheduled for May 8th. (Don't cross the picket line on May 8th! Turn your ride-sharing apps off and show solidarity with workers.)   Additional links/info below... Stefanie's Twitter page For Our Futu...

We chat with writer and podcaster Luke Savage about his recent Jacobin piece on how the media and politicians alike either reduce the working class to a few simplistic stereotypes or erase us entirely.    Additional links/info below... Luke's Twitter page and Jacobin author page   Michael and Us podcast Luke Savage, Jacobin , " The Real Working Class Is Invisible to the Media "   Featured Music (a...

We talk to Drew Edmonds, a Burgerville worker in Portland, Oregon, and an organizer with the Burgerville Workers Union. We talk about the fight Drew and his coworkers led to form the nation's first federally recognized fast food union (followed by workers at Little Big Burger, another Portland chain). We talk about what it was like to unionize from the ground up across Burgerville stores, about ho...

We chat with writer, organizer, witch, and educator Raechel Anne Jolie about the spirit of May Day--a day of international worker solidarity.    Additional links/info below... Raechel's website and Twitter page Working Class History , " A Short History of May Day " Kim Kelly, The Guardian , " We Need May Day MoreThan Ever. Unite to Dream and Fight for a Better Tomorrow "  Richard Seymour, The Guar...

We chat with Jennifer Gates, a Grocery Steward at Ralphs in Southern California and a member of UFCW 770. Jennifer is a singer, a single mom, and she's incredibly devoted to her job, her customers, and her coworkers. We talk about how she came to work at Ralphs, the relationships she's built over the years, and about the role that grocery stores play in the community. We also talk about how Jennif...

We talk with Reese Piper, a professional stripper, writer, and journalist reporting on sex work, labor rights, and autistic culture. We talk about Reese's life, her childhood and schooldays, her love of books and getting lost in her imagination. We talk about being different, about going off to college, and we talk about Reese's long path to realizing that she was autistic, and about how she came...

We chat with Mexico-City-based journalist Martha Pskowski about her reporting on the maquila worker strikes just south of the U.S.-Mexico border, and about why we should all be paying attention to the recent developments in Mexican labor politics.   Additional links/info below... Martha's website and Twitter page Martha Pskowski, Dissent , " Mexican Labor Reawakens "  Lauren Kaori Gurley, The New...

We chat with Dave G, cohost of the Mandatory OT podcast, member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and longtime State Tested Nursing Assistant (STNA) in the Ohio Valley. We talk about what it's like to work as an STNA, the low pay, the rampant injuries workers sustain, and about the difficulty of unionizing when your coworkers are reactionaries.    Additional links/info below... Mandato...

At 1:00pm on Thursday, April 11, over 31,000 Stop & Shop workers across New England walked off the job. The strike is going on at this very moment and gaining public support, even as Stop & Shop bosses try to ice out and undercut workers. We talk to Mike LaFrance, a deli worker who's been at Stop & Shop for over 20 years, about what's going on and how folks around the country can show support.   ...

We chat with Christina Clark and John Deitcher from Endorphin Films about their viral short documentary, Dish Pigs , which tracks the lives and jobs of three professional dishwashers in Montreal.    Additional links/info below... Dish Pigs Endorphin Films' website and Twitter page Tim Forster, Montreal Eater , " Refreshing New Documentary Spotlights Dishwashers in Montreal Restaurants "    Feature...

We chat with Professor Miriam Posner about her recent articles in The New Yorker and LOGIC m agazine on the global supply chain software that shapes workers' lives.     Additional links/info below... Miriam's website and Twitter page Miriam Posner, The New Yorker , " The Software that Shapes Workers' Lives " Miriam Posner, LOGIC, " See No Evil "    Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free M...

We talk with Lucy Lloyd,  a self-taught Apple product repair and support technician living in Sedan, Minnesota, a town with a population of less than fifty people. We talk about everything from growing up in a small town to setting up her independent repair business in the corner of her mom's flower shop. We also talk a lot about the right to repair , a really important political issue that direct...

We chat with Tarence Ray, writer and 1/3 of the Trillbilly Workers Party, about his recent article in The Baffle r about what liberal pundits like Paul Krugman get wrong about rural America.     Additional links/info below... Tarence's Twitter page Tarence Ray, The Baffler , " Get Real " Trillbilly Workers Party Patreon , Twitter , and Facebook page Tarence's author page on Popula and The Baffler...

We chat with with author and scholar Nate Kalman-Lamb about his extensive work on the labor politics of professional sports, and about his and Dirk Hayhurst's recent Jacobin piece on the exploitation of professional baseball players.   Additional links/info below... Nate's website and Twitter page Nate Kalman-Lamb & Dirk Hayhurst, Jacobin , " "Inside the Game, You Are Still a Commodity" "  Nate Ka...

In this special compilation episode, we talk to eight working-class scholars about loving, leaving, and being left behind by academia.   Additional links/info below... Working People , Season 1, Bonus Episode #2, Trevor Griffey   Working People , Season 1, Episode 10, John Buckley   Maximillian Alvarez, The Baffler , " Contingent No More "  Erin Bartram, " The Sublimated Grief of the Left Behind "...

A special Alvarez family sequel to the very first episode of Working People .    Additional links/info below... Working People , Season 1, Episode 1, Jesus Alvarez   Maximillian Alvarez, Current Affairs , " Can the Working Class Speak? "   Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org ) Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall" Small Tall Order, "Easily" Anamoli, "En l...

While all eyes have been on a high-profile #CollegeAdmissionScam involving super-rich people buying and bribing their kids' way into elite universities, hardly anyone noticed that an entire network of private and for-profit universities was shut down this month. Faculty and staff have been abruptly fired and tens of thousands of students have been completely abandoned with no more financial suppor...

We brought friend of the show Lauren Schandevel back on to vent about and break down last week's college admissions scandal. Lauren (whom we interviewed back in Season 1) is a brilliant, working-class student at the University of Michigan and she has some thoughts about rich people buying and bribing their kids' way into elite colleges and universities.    Additional links/info below... Working Pe...

We chat with  Katelyn O'Brien, a pipefitter working for a shipbuilding company in Virginia. Katelyn is a trans woman with a degree in History and an adorable cat named Merlyn—she's also, by her own admission, a comic book nerd.  We talk all about how she came to work as a pipefitter out of college and what exactly goes into a day's work doing this difficult and quite dangerous job. We also have a...

We talk with labor writer and activist Joe Allen about his recent Jacobin article on the death of FedEx freight driver William L. Murphy.    Additional links/info below... Joe's Facebook and Wikipedia page Joe Allen, Jacobin , " Worked to Death at FedEx " Joe Allen, The Package King: A Rank and File History of United Parcel Service   Amanda Woods, New York Post , " FedEx Worker Froze to Death Outs...