Labor Express Radio

This is the full 3-8-2019 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. Erek Slater, Chicago public transit bus driver, elected shop steward and executive board member, of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), Local 241, discusses both the recent elections for leadership of both ATU Local 241 and 308 and more importantly the contract negotiations for both locals with CTA management. Their contracts expir...

Interview conducted by Labor Express reporter Michelle Burke at the “Transit Workers United 2020 Contract Speak Out” on February 25th, 2020.  Michelle speaks with Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) El train motorman Eric Basir, member of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 308 and CTA bus driver Erek Slater elected shop steward and executive board member of ATU Local 241 about the issues facin...

This is the full 2-16-2019 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. On tonight's Labor Express, we continue to remember the life and legacy of James Thindwa. First, James colleague from struggles at both Jobs with Justice and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and friend of 16 years, Carlos Fernandez offers his reflections on his years of working with James. In the second half of the pro...

This is the full 2-2-2019 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. On January 19th the Chicago labor and social justice movements lost a dedicated organizer, spokesperson and fighter. James Thindwa touched many lives in a host of vital social movements in Chicago and beyond. Whether as an African solidarity activist, the staff director of Citizen Action Coalition of Indiana and Ohio, the lead o...

This is the full 1-19-2019 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. John Ocampo, union organizer with UE (United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America) and member of the board of directors of the Alliance for Global Justice (AfGJ) and US Labor Against the War (USLAW) reports back from a recent labor delegation to Colombia.  Colombia is currently experiencing the most significan...

This is the full 1-5-2019 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. Oscar Chacón, Executive Director of Alianza Americas, discusses the current state of struggles for a just society across Latin America. It is a wide-ranging conversation about the current situation in Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and the rest of the hemisphere and the history of h...

This is the full 12-22-2019 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. Chilean human rights activist Mario Venegas, a victim of the Pinochet regime who has made Chicago his home for the last 30 years, talks about his recent visit to Chile and the ongoing uprising there challenging the very foundations of the neoliberal state. Plus, Angela Davis speaks at the refounding convention of the National...

This is the full 12-8-2019 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. This episode includes a speech given by presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders to the Chicago Teachers Union as they voted to launch their historic 2019 strike.  It also includes an interview with Shaun Richman, an In These Times contributing writer and the Program Director of the Harry Van Arsdale Jr. Center for Labor...

This is the full 11-24-2019 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. This episode features an interview with veteran Chicago Public Schools (CPS) teacher, Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) bargaining team member and one of CORE’s (Caucus of Rank and File Educators) founders, Kenzo Shibata about the recently concluded CTU/SEIU strike at CPS with an analysis of the strike, the resulting new 5 year con...

This is the full 11-3-2019 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. The Tale of Two Strikes: Labor Express examines the outcome of both the UAW strike at GM and the CTU strike at CPS, two potentially historic strikes with radically different results. Plus, strike victory at yet another Chicago charter school, Passages in the Edgewater Neighborhood.  These strikes may well set the stage for...

CTU President Jesse Sharkey and SEIU Local 73 Vice-President Jeffrey  Howard speak to the press on day 6 of the CTU-SEIU 73 Chicago Public  Schools strike.  They discuss the letter from Mayor Lori Lightfoot that  indicated that the City and the Board are not serious about making  progress in contract negotiations.  Jesse and Jeffrey discuss  outstanding issues in...

Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and SEIU Local 73 on strike!  We have been talking about it for months and now its finally here.  The two unions and the Chicago board of ed could not reach agreement and so as of Thursday, October 17th, teachers, PSRPs and other support staff including everybody from custodians to security personnel, to lunch room attendants, to bus aides, etc. went out on s...

Labor Express Radio reporter Michelle Burke interviews Von Steuben  Metropolitan Science Center biology teacher David Kaplan about why he  has joined 30,000 of his fellow coworkers on strike.  David starts by  discussing the state of contract negotiations as of Thursday Oct. 17th  the start of the strike.

Belding Elementary School special ed teacher Chris Hartwig, member of  the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and special education teacher assistant  Marnita Hayes, member of SEIU Local 73,  explain why they are on strike  with over 30,000 of their fellow workers at Chicago public schools.   The interviewer is Labor Express Radio reporter Marnie Goodfriend.

This is the full 10-6-2019 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. Interview with Scott Houldieson, Vice President of UAW Local 551 and long-time UAW reform activist about the ongoing UAW strike at GM. And in the second half of the program, the Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU Local 73 vote to strike by huge margins of their membership. Labor Express Radio is Chicago's only English language lab...

This is the full 9-22-2019 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. STRIKE! Nurses strike in Chicago, auto workers strike across the country and students strike for climate justice around the globe, as Chicago teachers get closer to a possible strike of their own. Labor Express Radio is Chicago's only English language labor news and current affairs radio program. News for working people, by wor...