Working People
319 episodes - English - Latest episode: 4 days ago - ★★★★★ - 249 ratingsWorking People: A podcast by, for, and about the working class today (now in partnership with In These Times magazine and The Real News Network).
Working People is a podcast about working-class lives in 21st-century America. In every episode, you'll hear interviews with workers from around the country, from all walks of life. We'll talk about their life stories, their jobs, politics, and families, their joys and hopes and frustrations. Overall, Working People aims to share and celebrate the diverse stories of working-class people, to remind ourselves that our stories matter, and to build a sense of shared struggle and solidarity between workers around the country.
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Episodes
Susan Simensky Bietila
April 07, 2022 03:07 - 2 hours - 247 MBHoly cow, this is Working People's 200th episode! Thank you to everyone who has listened to and supported us over the past five seasons—and, of course, thank you to every guest who has ever come on the show to share their story. To commemorate our 200th regular-season episode, we have a special installment of our series of conversations with teachers, organizers, scholars, and activists in Wisconsin that Max, Cameron Granadino (TRNN), and Hannah Faris (In These Times) recorded in the summer ...
Practice What You Preach, SPLC (w/ Lisa D. Wright & Katie Glenn)
March 29, 2022 04:58 - 28 minutes - 66.3 MBThe Southern Poverty Law Center is a historic civil rights organization that, for 50 years, has been advancing social justice through legal, educational, and advocacy efforts primarily in the Deep South. However, after overwhelmingly voting to unionize in 2019, staff at SPLC say the organization has been stalling negotiations over their first union contract and unfairly treating its lowest-paid and most marginalized workers. On Monday, March 28, SPLC Union members held an informational picke...
Al Levie
March 24, 2022 03:48 - 57 minutes - 131 MBWe are diving right back into our special series of conversations with teachers, organizers, scholars, and activists in Wisconsin that Max, Cameron Granadino (TRNN), and Hannah Faris (In These Times) recorded in the summer of 2021 as part of a special collaboration between The Real News Network and In These Times magazine. In this episode, recorded at the Racine Labor Center in Racine, Wisconsin, we talk to retired teacher and longtime organizer Al Levie about the long and coordinated assault...
Do Better, Howard (w/ Dr. Aisha Bonner Cozad & Dr. Sean Pears)
March 23, 2022 02:11 - 48 minutes - 112 MBSince full-time lecturers at Howard University originally voted to unionize, they have spent nearly four years bargaining with the university administration to get their first contract. Unless a deal is reached at the 11th hour, lecturers are set to go on strike on Wednesday, March 23, joining nearly 200 adjunct professors who are also fighting for their second contract with the university. Even if a deal is reached to avoid a strike, however, Howard has a long way to go to adequately addres...
What the F*ck Happened to Wisconsin? (w/ Harvey J. Kaye & Jon Shelton)
March 16, 2022 05:37 - 1 hour - 261 MBWe continue our series on the struggles of teachers and public sector unions in the state of Wisconsin today. 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) traveled to Wisconsin in the summer of 2021. From Madison to Appleton, they spoke to a range of educators, organizers, scholars, and activists who are fighting to rebuild worker power after the devastati...
Amanda & Jeff Frenkel
March 09, 2022 21:32 - 1 hour - 169 MBWe're back, baby! We're kicking off Season 5 of Working People with a multi-part series on teachers and public sector unions in the state of Wisconsin. 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) traveled to Wisconsin in the summer of 2021 to investigate two intertwining stories that have played a crucial role in the rightwing shift and the decades-long a...
Justice for Evan (w/ Jana Murphy)
March 08, 2022 05:03 - 1 hour - 60.5 MBWith permission from The Real News Network, we're publishing the audio of Max's most recent TRNN interview with Jana Murphy of the Justice for Evan coalition. In September 2021, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez spoke with the family of Evan Seyfried about a lawsuit they filed against grocery giant Kroger, which alleges that Evan was bullied, harassed, and sabotaged by store managers Shannon Frazee and Joseph Pigg to the point that he suffered a “transient episodic break” and took...
New York Is a Union Town (w/ Chaz Rynkiewicz)
March 03, 2022 06:33 - 32 minutes - 74.7 MBWith Laborers Local 79 leading the charge, union demolition workers, construction workers, carpenters, bricklayers, and more have rallied multiple times in the past month outside the Chelsea Terminal Warehouse in New York City to protest the mishandling of workers' pensions and the exploitation, union busting, wage theft, and hazardous conditions workers have experienced at the job site. As Dean Moses writes in The Villager, "Many of the Laborers are immigrant demolition workers, also called ...
"Can the Working Class Speak?" (w/ Billy Saas, Sophia Badame, & Sophie Harris)
February 23, 2022 05:49 - 2 hours - 310 MBLate last year, Max had the honor of getting to speak to a class at Tulane University called "Introduction to Podcasting and Social Justice" taught by Dr. Billy Saas, cohost and producer of the podcast Money on the Left, as well as the cofounder and codirector of the Money on the Left Editorial Collective. The students in the class talked to Max about how and why he started Working People, how the show has grown over the years, and they also had a deep conversation about the political importa...
Railroad Worker Strike Blocked by US Court (w/ Jeff Kurtz)
February 02, 2022 20:29 - 47 minutes - 65.3 MBWe'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 currently unfolding between railroad workers and BNSF Railway, the largest freight railroad netw...
Teachers Are not the Enemy (w/ Ana & Quetzalli Castro)
January 07, 2022 03:58 - 1 hour - 173 MBHere 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. What's worse, workers who are standing up for themselves are being viciously vilified and scapegoat...
(Unlocked) BONUS EPISODE - Kickin' Ass for the Working Class (w/ Puja Datta, Margaret McLaughlin, & Diana Hussein)
January 01, 2022 18:16 - 1 hour - 160 MBDue 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—enjoy! And happy 2022! All power to the workers! 2021 was an energizing year for a labor moveme...
"Keep the Fire Burning" Livestream
December 24, 2021 04:52After 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 held strong on the picket line and congratulate them on their new contract. We also want to thank ...
"Keep the Fire Burning" Livestream
December 24, 2021 04:52After 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 held strong on the picket line and congratulate them on their new contract. We also want to thank ...
Hospitality Workers at Colonial Williamsburg Need Help (w/ Agatha Hilt, Willie Brown, & John Boardman)
December 22, 2021 06:20 - 28 minutes - 40.2 MBHospitality 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, however, workers who did get their jobs back are being chronically overworked and underpaid, resu...
Working-Class Politics: Paul Prescod
December 17, 2021 07:41 - 55 minutes - 103 MBElection 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 "Labor Paul"), a socialist, high school teacher, and member of the Philadelphia Federation of Tea...
Foul Ball (w/ Alex Bazeley & Bobby Wagner)
December 14, 2021 07:32 - 51 minutes - 95.3 MBEnding 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 to make a deal with the Players Association, we were unable to extend our 26 year-long history of...
Starbucks Workers United (w/ Brian Murray & Jordan Chariton)
December 09, 2021 06:29 - 51 minutes - 70.5 MBStarbucks 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 union elections with the National Labor Relations Board, workers at three Starbucks locations in...
Columbia Is Still a Bully (w/ Joanna Lee, Tamara Hache, & Caroline Smith)
November 30, 2021 06:17 - 37 minutes - 52.6 MBBack 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, dental and vision healthcare coverage, and third-party arbitration for cases involving harassment a...
Fiction is a beautiful weapon in the class war - we should use it (w/ Sarah Lazare)
November 23, 2021 19:36 - 1 hour - 256 MBWhat 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. Testimony is a leftist crime thriller that takes place in Springfield, Illinois, at the height of ...
Fiction is a beautiful weapon in the class war - we should use it
November 23, 2021 19:36 - 1 hour - 256 MBWhat 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. Testimony is a leftist crime thriller that takes place in Springfield, Illinois, at the height of ...
**A Pivotal Moment for the Teamsters (w/ Indigo Olivier)**
November 18, 2021 05:19 - 58 minutes - 81.4 MBThe 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 new era, and the ballots are being counted as we speak. We will be bringing you a rank-and-file br...
(Unlocked) BONUS EPISODE - A Pivotal Moment for the Teamsters (w/ Indigo Olivier)
November 18, 2021 05:19 - 58 minutes - 81.4 MBThe 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 new era, and the ballots are being counted as we speak. We will be bringing you a rank-and-file br...
35,000 Kaiser Permanente Workers Are Set to Strike (w/ Hannah Winchester & Nick Eng)
November 10, 2021 21:40 - 59 minutes - 109 MB35,000 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 could become one of the largest strikes ever in the healthcare sector. The core issues that led to ...
35,000 Kaiser Permanente workers are set to strike, and the future of healthcare is at stake
November 10, 2021 21:40 - 59 minutes - 109 MB35,000 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 could become one of the largest strikes ever in the healthcare sector. The core issues that led to ...
Michael Francis McCarthy
November 09, 2021 01:16 - 1 hour - 163 MBIn 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 the video for this episode here: Patreon About Michael Francis McCarthy - Twitter, Facebook,...
We're All We've Got (w/ Adam Johnson, Luis Feliz Leon, Brian "BZ" Douglas, & Jules Taylor)
October 29, 2021 02:38 - 2 hours - 203 MBWe 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 treatments. If you missed the livestream, we hope you enjoy this edited audio version of our conversation...
Justin Mayhugh
October 20, 2021 22:49 - 1 hour - 166 MBA 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, and Tennessee; 1,100 coal miners in Alabama have been on strike since April; 800 nurses in Ma...
Breakfast of Champions (w/ Dan Osborn)
October 18, 2021 06:22 - 40 minutes - 75 MBLike 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-tier employment system in 2015 has meant that newer employees in the lower “transitional tier”...
Lisa Doerr
October 11, 2021 04:31 - 42 minutes - 79.2 MBWe 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) travelled to Polk County in Western Wisconsin over the summer to speak with residents about their fight to ...
Lights, Camera, STRIKE! (w/ Marisa Shipley, David McMahon, & Fae Weichsel)
October 02, 2021 07:02 - 1 hour - 149 MBTens 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 studio executives, but hundreds and and even thousands of workers make every production possible, an...
Kristy Lynn Allen
September 30, 2021 06:08 - 50 minutes - 93 MBA 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 a diverse coalition of farmers, community members, and environmental advocates are fighting bac...
Hog Wild (w/ Lisa Doerr, Forest Jahnke, Hannah Faris, & Maeve Conran)
September 21, 2021 19:46 - 1 hour - 124 MBOver 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 feeding operations (CAFOs) would also produce millions and millions of gallons of liquid manure a year...
Work to Live (w/ Matt Aubrey)
September 14, 2021 04:49 - 29 minutes - 54.4 MBAround 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 Fitzgerald. According to Inc. Fact, the company averages annual profits of over $500 million. In this min...
Evan Seyfried (w/ Ken, Linda, & Eric Seyfried)
September 09, 2021 18:10 - 1 hour - 234 MB(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 to a lawsuit filed by the Seyfried family. As the lawsuit alleges, it was this treatment, which...
Casey Scully
September 01, 2021 14:00 - 1 hour - 132 MBFor 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 vaccine and mask mandates having become another contentious subject of culture war hysteria, and w...
Listener Hang Session #1
August 23, 2021 01:32 - 1 hour - 138 MBWe'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 watch the full video version of the Listener Hang Session, go subscribe on Patreon! Add...
End Unfair Practices against Window Cleaners (w/ Eric Crone)
August 20, 2021 03:49 - 21 minutes - 30.4 MBRepelling down skyscrapers to clean windows is already a very dangerous job. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, high-rise window cleaners with SEIU Local 26 in Minneapolis were also sent into office buildings to disinfect "hot spots" where outbreaks had occurred, resulting in many workers contracting the virus. Now, after their previous contract expired, 40 window cleaners have walked off the job, demanding pay increases, reduced health care costs, as well as a state-recognized apprenticesh...
Striking Coal Miners Won't Back Down, Part II (w/ Kim Kelly & Jacob Morrison)
August 12, 2021 20:29 - 1 hour - 104 MBOver 1,100 union coal miners in Brookwood, Alabama, have been on an unfair labor practices strike against Warrior Met Coal for over five months. And for five months, the mainstream media has barely made a peep about the strike. Instead, a small collection of independent journalists and local and progressive media outlets have been working overtime to cover this important story. Jacob Morrison, David Story, and Adam Keller at The Valley Labor Report (Alabama's only weekly labor radio talk sh...
Striking Coal Miners Won't Back Down, Part I (w/ Jacob Morrison)
August 12, 2021 20:17 - 1 hour - 92.6 MBOver 1,100 union coal miners in Brookwood, Alabama, have been on an unfair labor practices strike against Warrior Met Coal for over five months. For five months, workers and their families have been holding the line, demanding to get back what was stolen from them with their last contract, demanding to actually have time to spend with their families, demanding to be treated with the respect they deserve for making this mine more productive than ever. The UMWA's strike motto is "One day long...
When the Plant Closed (w/ Carla Shultz & Laura Flanders)
August 08, 2021 04:41 - 32 minutes - 44.8 MBThe Mylan pharmaceutical plant in Morgantown, West Virginia, has been in operation since 1965, producing low-cost generic drugs and providing good-paying jobs for generations of workers. On July 31, the plant (now owned by Viatris, Inc.) closed, upending the lives of over 1,400 workers, the economy of Morgantown, and the future of generic drug manufacturing in the U.S. In this mini-cast, we talk to Carla Shultz, who has worked at the plant for 13 years, and legendary journalist Laura Flander...
Order-Takers No More (w/ Richard D. Wolff)
August 05, 2021 06:38 - 1 hour - 107 MBIn this special episode of Working People, we chat with world-renowned economist Richard D. Wolff about how the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated changes to the terrain of work, how we define "working class," and what we need to do to build a broad, diverse, and strong working-class politics in the 21st century Additional links/info below... Join our Working People listener hang session on Monday, August 16, from 8-9:30pm ET! Here's the zoom link Professor Wolff's website, ...
Your Job Doesn't Have to Suck (w/ Jaisal Noor)
July 28, 2021 15:00 - 43 minutes - 59.6 MBFrom workers dying from lack of adequate safety measures and PPE to states viciously cutting off extended unemployment benefits to force people back to unsafe, poverty-wage work, the COVID-19 pandemic has made it horrifyingly clear just how little value the lives and wellbeing of working people have in an economic system where all that matters is the bottom line. But it doesn't have to be this way. We can organize our economy and our workplaces in a more humane way—and we have proof that it...
CA Rideshare Driver Strike (w/ Ahmad Moss)
July 21, 2021 19:53 - 45 minutes - 62.3 MBOn Wednesday, July 21, across California, rideshare drivers with Rideshare Drivers United are going on a one-day strike against the exploitative practices of tech giants Uber and Lyft (which have only gotten worse since the passage of Prop 22 in November), and to demand Congress pass the PRO Act. We talk with Ahmad Ibrahim Moss, a rideshare driver in San Francisco, about how drivers' pay, conditions, and work experience has changed since the passage of Prop 22 (and before), and we talk about...
Cheri Renfro
July 15, 2021 06:38 - 1 hour - 199 MBHundreds of workers at the Frito Lay manufacturing and distribution plant in Topeka, Kansas, have been on strike since July 5th. Workers at Frito Lay have endured years of disrespect and many at the plant have seen their wages stagnate and fall behind other employers in the area. On top of that, workers have been caught in a horrible cycle that was greatly exacerbated by COVID 19: While more people were staying home during the pandemic and eating a lot more chips, the incredibly high turnove...
Kate
July 08, 2021 13:30 - 1 hour - 140 MBIn this episode, we sit down with Kate from New Jersey. At the moment, Kate is working primarily as a caretaker for her parents, and we talk a bit about that work and what it means to care for our elders. Up until the pandemic, though, Kate was a massage therapist who loved her job. We discuss how Kate got into working as a massage therapist, all that the job entails, and we talk about the gross and unfair treatment Kate and her coworkers had to deal with when their employer wanted to push f...
Alex P.
July 06, 2021 00:56 - 2 hours - 286 MBWhen faced with unlawful intimidation and interrogation from management at Trader Joe's, Alex P and his coworkers stood together and stood up for their rights in the workplace, eventually securing a crucial victory with the National Labor Relations Board. In this deep and wide-ranging conversation, we talk with Alex about his life and work—and so much more. We talk about growing up with strict immigrant parents, graduating from college into a global recession, and the imprints our past jobs ...
Smithfield Workers in Sioux Falls Stand Strong, Win Big (w/ Kooper Caraway)
June 28, 2021 20:54 - 42 minutes - 97.3 MBWe cover a lot of important worker struggles on this show, but it's important to cover worker victories as well—and workers in South Dakota just landed a huge victory! After suffering one of the worst COVID workplace outbreaks in the country last year, leading to four deaths and over 1,000 infections, workers at the Smithfield pork processing plant in Sioux Falls refused to back down on demands for better pay and for a 15-minute break during the second half of their shifts. When negotiations...
Mo' Evil Foods, Part II
June 23, 2021 06:11 - 1 hour - 129 MBEarlier this month, No Evil Foods, a vegan meat company founded in North Carolina, notified its staff that they were closing their Asheville production plant and moving to a co-manufacturing facility in Illinois. After sticking it out and working through the COVID-19 pandemic, employees were suddenly notified that they would now be unemployed and would be receiving no severance. In this urgent episode, Jon Reynolds and Meagan Sullivan, two former NEF employees who shared their testimonies in...
(Unlocked) BONUS EPISODE - Nate Holdren
June 16, 2021 04:44 - 1 hour - 89.3 MBWe will be back to our regular Working People schedule next week. Until then, to tide y'all over, and to celebrate his book recently receiving Honorable Mention for the Merle Curti Intellectual History Award, we're unlocking our bonus episode conversation with historian Nate Holdren. We talk with Nate about his latest book, Injury Impoverished: Workplace Accidents, Capitalism, and Law in the Progressive Era, and about what exactly people lose when they are injured at work. (C/W: some descrip...