Black Work Talk

Throughout this season of Black Work Talk, we've explored how black workers have shown up in many of the big labor wins that happened in 2023. This season finale brings the full picture into perspective as Carlos Jimenez, head of the special projects division of the AFL-CIO, joins host Jamala Rogers to analyze the longer history of labor organizing and movements that got us to this moment; as well...

Rashaad Pritchett and Theresa Mtles of SEIU United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) join hosts Bianca Cunningham and Jamala Rogers for this episode of  Black Work Talk . They delve into the challenges faced by Black healthcare support workers, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rashaad and Theresa recount their experiences of being on the frontlines during the pandemic, tackling fea...

In this episode,  United Teachers Los Angeles  President  Cecily Myart-Cruz  joins Bianca and Jamala to discuss the challenges she has faced as the first woman of color to head this powerhouse union, and a leader who took over during the COVID-19 pandemic. When she advocated for educators and students in 2020, she faced immediate backlash. The interview explores how she found t...

BWT co-hosts Bianca Cunningham and Jamala Rogers take time this episode to explore a few of the crises and challenges shaking the world and the Left in this moment. The recent demands by the United Auto Workers (UAW) and a few other national unions for a ceasefire in Gaza suggest an opening for a worker-led movement for peace. Bianca and Jamala discuss that possibility as well as how the Left is p...

Fifty-six percent  of people in the US who self-identify as Black call the South home . Today's guest, Shafeah M'Balia, explains why and how we need to focus organizing strategies on Black workers in southern states. Shafeah is a lifelong activist and organizer with  Black Workers for Justice  and Muslims for Social Change. In this episode Shafeah talks with host Jamala Rogers to he...

After the second-longest strike in Hollywood history, members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) voted to ratify a new contract in October 2023. Their 146-day walkout brought wins on some of the most pressing issues they were fighting for. These included new standards governing the use of AI for producing content and the distribution of residuals in the age of streaming. Joining host Bianca Cun...

There is a lot of momentum in the organized labor movement right now and the  National Black Worker Center  is an organization which ensures black workers are strongly advocated for as we move through these moments. NBWC is a Black worker power building and worker’s rights advocacy organization that leads with militant joyfulness and Black movement culture. There are several  local...

Around 340,000 members of the Teamsters Union who work for UPS came within days of walking off the job in July 2023 in what would have been the one of the largest strikes in US history. In August, they voted 86.3% in favor of ratification of a new five-year contract with the company. The contract provides provisions like a $21 per hour minimum wage for new part-time hires, increased wages for full...

Black Work Talk’s  third season   explores where the energy for this current wave of labor activism comes from, how it impacts Black workers, and a fresh vision for what’s next. Listeners will hear conversations with rank and file workers from unions including the UAW, Teamsters, and the Writers Guild of America. New hosts  Bianca Cunningham  and  Jamala Rogers  offer...

In this episode of Black Work Talk, Steven Pitts speaks with Bill Fletcher, long-time racial justice and labor activist. This is the last episode of this iteration of Black Work Talk, and we discuss many of the themes running through the two seasons of the podcast, including: Black worker organizing within a union context.  The limitations of the just fights for greater representation. ...

In this episode of Black Work Talk, Steven Pitts and his co-host Lauren Jacobs talk with Carroll Fife. Carroll Fife is a Councilmember at the City of Oakland. Carroll was formerly director of the Oakland chapter of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE). Given Carroll’s previous position with ACCE, we started the episode discussing what it meant to bring a Movement perspecti...

In this episode of Black Work Talk, Steven Pitts and his co-host, Lauren Jacobs, talk with Kyra Greene and Branden Snyder. Kyra is Executive Director of the Center on Policy Initiatives, and is based in San Diego. Branden is Executive Director of Detroit Action. The Center on Policy Initiatives and Detroit Action are affiliates of PowerSwitch Action, a network of local organizations dedicated to b...

In this episode of Black Work Talk’s Season Two, Steven Pitts launches the power-building mini-series with his co-host, Lauren Jacobs.  Steven and Lauren talk with Linda Burnham – long-time social justice organizer, writer, and theoretician. Linda is co-editor of a phenomenal book entitled: Power Concedes Nothing: How Grassroots Organizing Wins Elections – a collection of essays and inte...

In this episode of Black Work Talk’s Season Two, Steven Pitts and his co-host, Sheri Davis, talk with Stacy Davis Gates, President of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU). Stacy was one of the founding members of the caucus that formed in 2008 to revitalize the union and fight for a quality education for the youth of Chicago. After 2 years of organizing, caucus leaders won elective offices in the unio...

This episode of Black Work Talk is the second of two covering the discussion held at the Labor Notes conference on June 17, 2022 titled “Black Labor Struggles Over Time: An Intergenerational Panel.” The panel moderators were Toussaint Losier of the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Bianca Cunningham of the Action Center on Race and the Economy. Panelists included Jerome Scott, a long ti...

This episode of Black Work Talk is the first of two covering the discussion held at the Labor Notes conference on June 17, 2022 titled “Black Labor Struggles Over Time: An Intergenerational Panel.” The panel moderators were Toussaint Losier of the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Bianca Cunningham of the Action Center on Race and the Economy.  Panelists included Jerome Scott, a lo...

In this episode of Black Work Talk, Steven Pitts and his co-host, Sheri Davis, talk with Erica Iheme, the Deputy Director for Jobs to Move America, an organization dedicated to ensuring that government uses the power of public funds to create a just, clean, and worker-centered economy. The conversation focuses on Erica’s critique of traditional organizing models and the need to shift to organizing...

In this episode of Black Work Talk, Steven Pitts and his co-host, Sheri Davis, talk with Danielle Phillips-Cunningham, Associate Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at Texas Woman’s University. Danielle has been at the forefront of recent scholarship highlighting the efforts of Black working-class women to control their lives. Her book, “Putting Their Hands on Race: Irish Immigrant and Souther...

This episode launches Black Work Talk’s mini-series on Black feminism. Steven Pitts’ co-host for this mini-series is Sheri Davis, Associate Director, Center for Innovation in Worker Organization (CIWO) at Rutgers University. We talk with Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Professor of Women's Studies and English at Spelman College. Beverly has been at the center of most developments of Black feminist thought s...

In this episode of Black Work Talk, Steven Pitts and his co-host, Toussaint Losier, talk with Mariame Kaba. Mariame is one of this country’s leading abolitionist thinkers and practitioners. She has founded several projects organizing around abolitionist principles including Project NIA. Many of her writings on abolition are collected in a recent book, “We Do This ‘Til We Free Us”. We talk about Ma...

In this episode of Black Work Talk, Steven Pitts and his co-host, Toussaint Losier talk with NTanya Lee, National Secretary of LeftRoots, a national organization of social movement organizers and activists. We began by reviewing the landscape of the Black Left today and continued by discussing the distinctions between the Black Left and Black Lives Matter activism.  We later talked about the...

In this episode of Black Work Talk, Steven Pitts and his co-host, Toussaint Losier, talk with Bianca Cunningham, Campaign Director at the Action Center on Race and the Economy and a co-founder of the Afrosocialists and Socialists of Color Caucus of DSA, the Democratic Socialists of America. The three of us began the episode by exploring different dimensions of the war in Ukraine. We continued with...

In this sixth episode of Black Work Talk’s Season Two, Steven Pitts and his co-host, Toussaint Losier, talk with Lester Spence, Professor of Political Science at the Johns Hopkins University. We began the episode by defining the Black Left and power. We spoke about the changes in Black politics because of the advent of neoliberalism. We also had a long conversation about policing and we used that...

In this fifth episode of Black Work Talk’s Season Two, Steven Pitts talks with Toussaint Losier, his co-host for the second mini-series of Black Work Talk on the Black Left. Toussaint is professor in the African American Studies Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. During this episode, we previewed the mini-series by presenting our definitions of the Black Left; discuss...

In this fourth episode of Black Work Talk’s Season Two, co-hosts Steven Pitts and Bill Fletcher talk with Will Jones. Will is Professor of History at the University of Minnesota. His particular emphasis is understanding the relationship between race and class in the United States during the 20th Century. His 2013 book, “The March on Washington: Jobs, Freedom and the Forgotten History of Civil...