Working People

In The Workers' Toolkit we take deep dives into the legal and institutional barriers that prevent workers from building collective power in the United Stated today. In this first installment, we talk with economist Marshall Steinbaum about the history of antitrust law in this country, how it shapes workers' lives, and what we can do about it.    Additional links/info below... Marshall's Twitter pa...

Our second election-themed crossover panel of the season: We team up with Mel from Protean Magazine and Dwight and Shane from Eat the Rich to break down the two billionaires running in the 2020 Democratic primary: Tom Steyer and Mike Bloomberg. Who are these men? What do we know about their records? What could we expect if they somehow became President? And what does it say about our political sys...

We talk to the one and only Sara Nelson, flight attendant, union activist, and President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, about the labor movement and the AFA-CWA's current campaign to unionize Delta flight attendants.   Additional links/info below... DeltaAFA.org   Sara's Twitter page AFA-CWA website and Twitter page Sara Nelson & Randi Weingarten, The American Prospect , " Why Americ...

We talk to professional yoga teacher Deidra Demens about the path that led her to yoga and about working in the yoga industry in New York City. We also talk about the historic campaign Deidra was involved in to form the nation's first union of yoga teachers at YogaWorks NYC, which is affiliated with the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers   Additional links/info below... De...

By popular demand, we teamed up with Protean Magazine and brought a panel of amazing people together—Ash ( Horror Vanguard ), Mel ( Protean ), Bryan ( Strikewave ), Lyta ( Current Affairs ), and Max ( Working People )—to break down the top presidential candidates from a working-class perspective and share their thoughts on how working people should approach elections.   Additional links/info below...

We're excited to launch our new, ongoing series, Working-Class Politics . In this series, we'll talk with working-class candidates who are running for elected office as well as candidates who are fighting for working-class people. In our first installment, we talk with Nabilah Islam, a millennial Democrat running for Congress in Georgia's 7th District.    Additional links/info below... Nabilah's w...

Part III of our mini-cast series on undocumented workers and the fight to repeal the employers' sanctions provision of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (1986)  (in collaboration with the Break the Chains Alliance). We talk to Shirley Lung, Professor of Law at the CUNY Law School, about the passing of IRCA, its immediate and longterm effects, and the American tradition of criminalizing margin...

We needed to take a break this week after all the work we did to put together our special episode on the French general strike, but here is a crossover episode we did with the Left Anchor podcast. Max and his brother Zak joined Alexi and Ryan to talk about our podcast, the 2008 crash, and all the ways finance capital is screwing you over.    Additional links/info below... Left Anchor Twitter page...

In this very special episode, we talk with eight workers from France about the ongoing general strike that began on December 5th.  Please donate to the CGT Solidarity Fund     Additional links/info below... Le Stream Reconductible Twitch Feed and Twitter page  Izquierda Diario/Left Voice , " France Paralyzed by Largest General Strike in Decades " Maxime Quijoux and Guillaume Gourgues, Tribune , "...

We talk with former nail salon worker and organizer Glenda Sefla about the NY Nail Salon Workers Association and their fight to secure #HealthDignityJustice for workers in and beyond the nail salon industry (translation by Leanne Tory-Murphy)   Additional links/info below... NY Nail Salon Workers Association website , Twitter page, and Facebook page Glenda's Twitter page Kim Kelly, Teen Vogue , "...

In this first installment of our new series on unpaid labor,  we chat with Bridget Huff, a stay-at-home mom and political organizer. We talk about Bridget's life and  about the pains, joys, and social pressures of being a stay-at-home parent. We also talk about how political organizations can and should make themselves accessible to folks like Bridget.    Additional links/info below... Bridget's F...

In this week's mini-cast, we talk with Veronica, Marcelo, and Justin, three grad student workers involved in the ongoing wildcat strike at the University of California – Santa Cruz.    Additional links/info below... UCSC Strike website , Twitter page, Facebook page, and Instagram   Colin Dwyer, NPR , " 'There's Really No Refuge': Santa Cruz Grad Students Strike Amid Housing Crunch " Coleen Flahert...

We've got a super special crossover with the Wrong Boys themselves, Aaron and Shawn from the Srsly Wrong podcast! We teamed up to take a deep dive into the history and meaning of the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919, the largest labor strike in Canada's history.   Additional links/info below... Srsly Wrong website , Twitter page, and Patreon   Alberta Advantage, " General Strike! Winnipeg 1919-2019...

Working People is back and we are excited to announce our official partnership with In These Times magazine! In this episode, we chat with new father Clarke, a contract commercial diver who works on different jobs for different companies throughout the year, completing tasks from underwater welding to removing shoreline debris. Clarke is a navy veteran and a member of the IWW and DSA-LSC. We talk...

Part II of our mini-cast series on undocumented workers and the fight to repeal the employers' sanctions provision of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (1986)  (in collaboration with the Break the Chains Alliance). We talk to David Tieu, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 3, about working on the Hudson Yards project in New York City and seeing firstha...

Instacart shoppers walked off the job this Sunday in protest of the company's rampant wage/tip theft and dishonest, exploitative practices. We chat with Vanessa Bain, a full-time gig worker and one of the organizers of the protest.   Additional links/info below... Vanessa's Twitter page Vanessa Bain, Medium , " Dear Instacart Customers " Instacart Workers, Medium , " Dear Apoorva Mehta (Founder an...

In Part II of our two-part episode on workers in the Maine logging industry, we chat with Dana Garner, a veteran trucker and wood hauler from St. Francis, and an organizer with the Machinists Union. We talk about Dana's days driving his rig all over the United States and about coming back home to Maine to work full-time hauling logs out of the woods. We talk about the strains of working 20-hour sh...

Our Working People Halloween special! We talk with Jon and Ash from The Horror Vanguard  podcast about horror, the working class, and how there's nothing scarier than capitalism...   Additional links/info below... The Horror Vanguard Twitter page and Patreon page Jon's Twitter page Ash's Twitter page   Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org ) Joro Gamin...

Part I of our mini-cast series on undocumented workers and the fight to repeal the employers' sanctions provision of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (1986) and secure equal rights for all workers (in collaboration with the Break the Chains Alliance).    Additional links/info below... Break the Chains website: https://equalrightsforallworkers.org/   Break the Chains Facebook page: https://ww...

In Part I of our two-part episode on workers in the Maine logging industry, we chat with Mark Hardison, a longtime woodcutter from Eastern Maine, near the town of Ellsworth. We talk about Mark's life, getting involved in the woods industry, and about the ways that the industry has changed over the years. We also talk about efforts to organize workers in the woods industry and the long and complica...

We talk with John Jayne, a GM worker in Philadelphia and member of UAW Local 2177, about the month-long UAW strike and the new tentative contract agreement.    Additional links/info below... Jamie L. LaReau, Detroit Free Press , " GM-UAW Deal Calls for 9,000 Jobs, $9,000 Ratification Bonus, E-truck at Detroit-Hamtramck " Jamie McCallum, Jacobin , " "They Made That Money off Our Blood, Sweat, and T...

We talk with Darrow, office coordinator for Portland State University's Women, Sexuality, & Gender Studies Department and member organizer for SEIU Local 503. We talk about Darrow's involvement in the union and about the planned statewide strike that was narrowly averted soon after we recorded this episode. But we also got a chance to talk about Darrow's life as a queer millennial from the Norther...

SPECIAL EPISODE: We chat with the one and only Sarah Smarsh, author of Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard & Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth .   Additional links/info below... Sarah's Twitter page and website   Sarah Smarsh, Scribner Books, Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard & Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth   The Homecomers (podcast) Twitter page   Featured Music (all son...

In Part II of our season-opening special on indie professional wrestlers, we talk with Noah (The Sorceress), Chris Hutton (Rob Matter), and Joella (Incogneato/Chronic Pain) about their experiences at different levels of the indie wrestling scene.    Additional links/info below... Chris's Twitter Page Incogneato's Instagram page Noah's Twitter page  Wrestle Yr Friends Twitter page   Featured Music...

We kick off Season 3 with news from Andy O'Brien (AFL-CIO) about a unionization push in the Maine logging industry and we talk with indie professional wrestler Angel Blue. We talk about how Angel first got into wrestling when she was still in high school, all the work and the physical and mental stress that goes into being a professional wrestler, and what it's like when you walk through the curta...