Labor Express Radio

This is the full 12-13-2020 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. On this episode of Labor Express Radio, Democratic Socialist of America (DSA) host their own Medicare4All campaign relaunch, shortly after NNU’s kickoff.  The relaunch event includes Chicago nurse Dennis Kosuth, NNU and CTU member.  Then the CTU hosts a discussion of rising teacher union militancy nationwide.  A...

This is the full 11-29-2020 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. On tonight’s episode of Labor Express Radio, cuts in the Cook County hospital system and nurses on the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis fightback.  An interview with Stroger Hospital nurse Elizabeth Lalasz, member of National Nurses United who works with COVID patients on the likely effects of the cuts to Black and Brown...

This is the full 11-15-2020 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. On this episode of Labor Express Radio, responses to Trump’s election defeat from people celebrating the 2020 Presidential election’s outcome in the streets of Chicago and from highly respected racial justice and labor organizer Bill Fletcher Jr.  Also on the program, updates on the fight of workers in the warehouses for...

This is the full 10-25-2020 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. On this episode of Labor Express Radio, unions fight for fair, progressive taxation on two coasts.  Here in Chicago, the labor movement, especially the teachers, are working for a yes vote on the Fair Tax which would switch Illinois from a flat tax to a progressive graduated income tax.  Meanwhile, the labor movement...

This is the full 9-27-2020 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. On this episode of Labor Express Radio, victory in the strike of SEIU Local 73 members at UIC Hospital!  The Peoples Academy defeats the ICE Academy- an insidious attempt to recruit regular citizens to become part of the deportation machine.  And LVEJO and Warehouse Workers for Justice form a groundbreaking partnershi...

This is the full 9-13-2020 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. On this episode of Labor Express Radio, nurses at UIC hospital go on strike!  Members of INA (Illinois Nurses Association) launched a week-long strike on Saturday at UIC Hospital over staffing ratios and safe working conditions, especially in the context of the COVID-19 crisis (they were joined by SEIU Local 73 on Monday)....

This is the full 8-30-2020 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. On this episode of Labor Express Radio, postal workers speak out against attacks on the postal system by the Trump administration.  This is not just an election issue, this is a privatization issue and an attack on unions.  And in the second half of the program, Erek Slater fights a political firing by the Chicago Tra...

This is the full 8-9-2020 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. On this episode of Labor Express Radio, we bring you audio excerpts from one of the Chicago Teachers Union’s recent Car Caravan protests demanding that Chicago Public Schools start the 2020 school year fully remote. The CTU has claimed another victory at Mayor Lightfoot has backed down and agreed to a fully remote start to the s...

This is the full 7-26-2020 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. On this episode of Labor Express Radio, Jorge Mujica of Arise Chicago workers center talks about the new coalition called Illinois Unidos, formed to address the health care problems of the Latinx community associated with COVID-19, especially in the workplace. Also in the episode, Black Youth Project 100 and Black Lives Matter...

This is the full 7-12-2020 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. On this episode of Labor Express Radio we look at the impact of COVID-19 on workers in the meatpacking industry and the relationship between unions, Black Lives Matter and the police. But we are doing it in a unique way because this episode of Labor Express Radio is also a coast to coast tour of labor radio programs in celebrat...

This is the full 6-28-2020 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. On this episode of Labor Express Radio, Universal Basic Income (UBI), great solution to help alleviate some of the worst problems of our economy whose time has come or distraction from real solutions to the crisis we face? And what is up with the proposed Chicago UBI pilot project? A conversation with Ameya Pawar, former Chicag...

This is the full 6-14-2020 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. On this episode of Labor Express Radio, REBELLION 2020!: Uprisings against racism and police brutality erupt across the nation in response to the murder of yet another Black man, George Floyd at the hands of yet another White cop, Derek Chauvin.  But this time the African-American community and its allies have come out int...

Labor Express Radio Audio Extra: Chicago bus driver and elected ATU Local 241 board member denounces CTA management’s suspension for discussing solidarity with anti-police brutality protesters. CTA Bus Driver and elected executive board member of ATU Local 241 Erek Slater is fighting an unlawful suspension by CTA management who have repeatedly harassed him and his fellow bus drivers, denying them...

This is the full 5-31-2020 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. On this episode of Labor Express Radio, we continue our ongoing examination of how unions and social movements are responding to the COVID-19 crisis and how the working class has responded to this crisis with an historic level of self-activity, militancy and creativity.  Labor Journalist Mike Elk discusses his Payday Repor...

This is the full 5-17-2020 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. On this episode of Labor Express Radio, we highlight the work of Immigrant Solidarity DuPage and their Workers Center, especially their mutual aid efforts during the COVID-19 crisis.  Cristobal Cavazos explains the history of the organization, the unique role of workers centers in the labor movement, and how they can organ...

This is the full 5-5-2020 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. On this episode of Labor Express Radio, nurses at Stroger hospital, members of NNU, protest hospital administrators refusal to follow CDC guidelines, putting employees and patients at risk.* Moises Zavala and Eric Basir are back. This time Moises is talking about organizing in the cannabis industry and Eric is discussing his own...

Labor Express Radio Audio Extra: Nurses at Stroger Hospital in Chicago hold rally protesting lack of PPE are joined by transit workers with the same complaint against the CTA. Nurses, members of National Nurses United (NNU), held a rally outside Stroger hospital in Chicago on April 27, 2020.  They were protesting practices and policies of hospital management they say is preventing the nurses...

Labor Express Radio Interview:  Marianela D'Aprile, member of the National Political Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), discusses the “Bernie bump”.  Both in 2016 and now again, in 2020, the DSA has seen massive increases in membership.  As a result, the DSA has become the closest thing to a mass socialist party we have seen in the United States in at least 70...

Interview:  This is the full, unedited interview with transit worker Eric Basir.  Excerpts were aired on the 4/19/2020 and the 5/3/2020 episodes of Labor Express Radio. Eric Basir, train motorman and member of ATU Local 308 discusses Transit Workers Unite's petition calling for workers action in the face of COVID-19 and the job action of the CTA train cleaners who were forced to work in...

This is the full 4-19-2020 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. On this episode of Labor Express Radio, we continue to look at how the labor and other social movements are responding to the coronavirus crisis.  The COVID-19 crisis is sparking worker's self-activity in a way not seen in generations. How are unions responding to this exciting development? Along with the theme of social s...

Labor Express Radio Interview: Erek Slater of Transit Workers Unite and COVID-19 survivor on the “Safety First for Transit Workers Now” Petition and the impact of COVID-19 on transit workers. Jerry Mead-Lucero of Labor Express Radio interviews Erek Slater, bus driver, elected board member of ATU Local 241 and founding member of Transit Workers Unite, recovering himself from his own bout of COVID-1...

Labor Express Radio Interview: Carl Rosen - General President of UE discusses how unions can and must organize a militant, bottom up worker fightback in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Jerry Mead-Lucero of Labor Express Radio interviews Carl Rosen, General President of United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE) about his recent article in In These Times magazine entitled “We N...

Labor Express Radio Interview: Moises Zavala - UFCW Local 881, Raymundo's Food workers walk-out over COVID-19 concerns and organizing workers in the cannabis industry. Jerry Mead-Lucero of Labor Express Radio interviews Moises Zavala, Director of Organizing for Local 881 United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) about the workers at Raymundo's Food Group in Bedford Park, Illinois, who walked out o...

This is the full 4-5-2020 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. On this episode of Labor Express Radio, we continue to look at how the labor and other social movements are responding to the coronavirus crisis. First we will hear a report from the frontlines from nurse Dennis Kosuth, member of both NNU and CTU. In the second half of the program, Shannon Lederer, Director of Immigration Policy...

This is the full 3-22-2019 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. Solidarity in the time of COVID-19 and "social distancing". This will be the theme explored on tonight's and future episodes of Labor Express Radio for the foreseeable future. It starts with tonight's program which features interviews with Chicago labor and immigrants rights activist Isaac Silver about the launching of the Face...