Working People

We're gearing up for Season 5 of the show and will be back very soon! In the meantime, if you're looking for more important coverage of worker struggles from Max, go check out the interviews he's doing for The Real News Network. With permission from TRNN, we're publishing the audio of his most recent interview with retired railroad worker and union officer Jeff Kurtz.    A crucial labor battle is...

Here we are again... With the Omicron variant spreading like wildfire, COVID-19 cases around the country have shattered previous highs. The federal government has essentially given up on trying to fight the virus and a familiar ghoulish chorus of media pundits and wealthy business executives are berating working people to suck it up and put themselves in harm's way for the sake of the economy. Wha...

Due to COVID awfulness, we're counting our 6-hour livestream fundraiser for striking Kellogg's workers as the official finale of Season Four of Working People (woo!). Thank you all for listening to and supporting our work over the past year.  We're getting some much-needed rest and gearing up for Season Five. In the meantime, we're ringing in the new year by unlocking this special bonus episode—en...

After nearly 3 months, the strike at cereal giant Kellogg's, which involved 1,400 workers at four different plants, has come to an end. On Tuesday, December 21, the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers' International Union (BCTGM) announced that its members at Kellogg's had voted to ratify the latest contract offer. We want to send all our love and solidarity to everyone who he...

After nearly 3 months, the strike at cereal giant Kellogg's, which involved 1,400 workers at four different plants, has come to an end. On Tuesday, December 21, the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers' International Union (BCTGM) announced that its members at Kellogg's had voted to ratify the latest contract offer. We want to send all our love and solidarity to everyone who he...

Hospitality workers around the country have faced some of the worst layoffs in any industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. UNITE HERE , a labor union representing over 300,000 workers, most of whom are in the hospitality, food service, and restaurant industries, reported that 98% of its members were out of work last year. At the five hotel properties in Virginia's historic Colonial Williamsburg, ho...

Election season is coming up, so you know what that means... we're re-launching our series "Working-Class Politics"! In this ongoing series, we talk to working-class people running for elected office at all levels—in their unions, in local, state, and national government, etc.—as well as candidates fighting with and for the working class. In the latest installment, we talk to Paul Prescod (aka "La...

Ending 26 years of "labor peace," Major League Baseball is in the midst of a lockout. With league owners failing to address the core contract issues raised by the Major League Baseball Players Association, the previous collective bargaining agreement expired at the beginning of this month. In an open letter to baseball fans, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred stated, "Despite the league's best efforts t...

Starbucks is the world's largest coffeehouse chain and one of the most recognizable consumer brands in existence. In the US alone, Starbucks has nearly 9,000 corporate-owned stores, and not a single one of them is unionized ... but that may be about to change. After leading an organizing campaign during the COVID-19 pandemic and facing tireless efforts by the company to delay, deflate, and defeat...

Back in the spring, we spoke with three graduate student workers at Columbia University who were on strike with other members of the Student Workers of Columbia union, UAW Local 2110. After rank-and-file members rejected the tentative agreement between the university and the bargaining committee, negotiations continued, but Columbia has still failed to meet key demands, including better wages, den...

What role does fiction have to play in the class struggle? Should the left be making a stronger case for the political importance of reading literature? In this special Working People  episode, which has been months in the making, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez talks with writer and editor Sarah Lazare about her novel  Testimony , which she co-authored with her late father, Peter Lazare....

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is having a pivotal leadership election right now, and the results will set the future course for one of the most storied unions in existence. This election officially marks the end of the Hoffa era as James P. Hoffa, son of Jimmy Hoffa, is retiring as Teamsters General President. Members have cast their votes for who they want to head the union in the ne...

35,000 members of the Alliance of Health Care Unions, a coalition of 21 local unions representing over 52,000 workers at the healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente in states around the country, have set a strike date. Unless the company addresses the serious issues that workers have raised at the bargaining table, Kaiser workers will walk off the job on Nov. 15, and thousands more may join in what cou...

In this special episode, Working People producer Jules Taylor (@realjulestaylor) speaks with working musician and farm laborer Michael Francis McCarthy.  Jules and Michael have known each other for a few years, having met during an event in Woodstock, NY where Michael was performing.  Michael paints a sobering picture of what earning a living by working as a singer/songwriter looks like. Unlock th...

We hosted our first ever Working People livestream this week! We got to chat with some special friends about Spooky Season and #Striketober, and we had a sprawling, heartfelt discussion about solidarity and togetherness. This was a special event we put on for an important cause: to raise money for our amazing producer Jules and his family so they can cover the costs of his mom's dialysis treatment...

A lot of important history is being made right now, and something potentially game-changing is unfolding among the American workforce. At this very moment, 10,000 UAW members at John Deere are on strike in Iowa, Illinois, and Kansas; 35,000 healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente have authorized a strike; 1,400 workers at cereal giant Kellogg's are on strike in Nebraska, Michigan, Pennsylvania, an...

Like Frito-Lay , Nabisco , John Deere , and Heaven Hill Distillery , cereal giant Kellogg's has seen consumer demand skyrocket during the pandemic, reporting profits of $1.25 billion in 2020. To meet this demand, many workers in Kellogg's plants around the US report pulling 12-16-hour shifts seven days a week, leaving little time for anything outside of work beyond sleep. But the creation of a two...

We conclude our series of interviews from rural Wisconsin with farmers and community members fighting to defend life as they know it from the onslaught of Big Agriculture and the factory farming industry. As part of a special collaboration between The Real News Network and  In These Times magazine for " The Wisconsin Idea ," Max, Cameron Granadino (TRNN), and Hannah Faris ( In These Times ) travel...

Tens of thousands of members of the International Association of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) are currently voting on whether or not to authorize a strike. If passed, the vote could lead 60,000 workers to walk off the job and bring the entertainment industry to a halt. As consumers, we tend to associate the entertainment industry with acting stars, elite directors and producers, and big stud...

A proposed concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) in Burnett County, Wisconsin, is slated to house 26,000 hogs and produce millions of gallons of liquid manure every year. Residents fear the irreparable damage a facility of that size could do to their air, land, and waterways, as well as to their property values and the local economy, and many fear there's nothing they can do to stop it. But...

Over the summer, Max traveled to Wisconsin to report on a crucial struggle that has been largely ignored by corporate media. Residents of rural Polk, Burnett, and Crawford counties in Western Wisconsin have been embroiled in battles over the proposed construction of industrial "hog factories" in their communities, which would collectively house roughly 34,000 hogs. These concentrated animal feedin...

Around 400 union distillery workers in Bardstown, Kentucky, hit the picket line yesterday after rejecting a contract offer from Heaven Hill Distilleries, which included healthcare price hikes that reduce take-home pay, cuts to overtime, and drastic scheduling changes. Heaven Hill produces some of the most popular bourbon brands in the world, including Evan Williams, Elijah Craig, and Old Fitzgeral...

(C/W: bullying, harassment, suicide) Evan Seyfried was a loving son, brother, friend, and a dedicated worker. For 19 years, with a virtually spotless record, Evan worked at a local Kroger grocery store in Milford, Ohio, where he eventually became the dairy department manager. From October 2020 to March 2021, however, Evan suffered a torturous litany of bullying, harassment, and sabotage, according...

For many around the country, the new school year has already begun. And many districts are pushing through with in-person schooling, even though we are in the midst of another COVID-19 spike, with new cases around the country rising to their highest point since January. With large swathes of the population still unvaccinated, including 50 million children nationwide under the age of 12, with vacci...

We're taking a much-needed break this week, but we'll be back with more worker interviews really soon! To hold y'all over, we're releasing a portion of the amazing group conversation we had on our first ever Working People Listener Hang Session last week. Thank you to everyone who joined us—and if you weren't able to join this time, be sure to call in for our second one next month. If you want to...