Working People

Latest Episodes:

SotB + Current Affairs Super Tuesday Crossover Mar 04, 2020

Show notes

Our election-themed crossover panel collective continues to grow! We're excited to share on the Working People feed the newest installment of these ongoing panel conversations, in which our friends at the Season of the Bitch coven and Lyta Gold and Vanessa A. Bee of Current Affairs share their Super Tuesday thoughts. GET YOUR HOT TAKES WHILE THEY'RE ... UMM ... HOT!

Previous election-themed crossover panels...

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

Theme music by Brandon Payton-Carrillo

Lances for Hire Mar 01, 2020

Show notes

In this special compilation episode, we hear testimonies from 10 different freelancers—journalists, artists, musicians, designers, and more—about the pains, joys, needs, and struggles of freelance work today. (This episode is supported by The Economic Hardship Reporting Project)

Additional links/info below...

Economic Hardship Reporting Project website and Twitter page
IWW Freelance Journalists Union website and Twitter page
Freelance Solidarity Project website and Twitter page
Colleen Tighe's website and Twitter page
Lia Russell's Twitter page
Michael Sainato's Twitter page
Colin Poulton's website and Twitter page
Cal's Twitter page
Hether Fortune's Twitter page
Frida Garza's website and Twitter page
Scott Heins's website and Twitter page

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
Jon Worthy & the Bends, "Please Tell Me"
Wildlight, "Grace, Fully"
Les Hayden, "A Barefaced Lie"

Workers' Toolkit: ANTITRUST (w/ Marshall Steinbaum) Feb 28, 2020

Show notes

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 page and faculty page
Marshall Steinbaum, Law and Contemporary Problems, "Antitrust, the Gig Economy, and Labor Market Power"
Marshall Steinbaum, The American Prospect, "Uber's Antitrust Problem"
David Weil, Institute for New Economic Thinking, "Why We Should Worry About Monopsony"
Maurice E. Stucke and Ariel Ezrahi, Havard Business Review, "The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of the U.S. Antitrust Movement"

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
"Tyree Scott Speaking on Workers Rights"
Alex Mason, "The Inspiration"
Lobo Loco, "Driving to the Delta"

The Billionaires' Caucus Feb 21, 2020

Show notes

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 system that they've been able to buy their way into viability?

Additional links/info below...

Mel's Twitter page; Protean Twitter page and Patreon
Shane's Twitter page; Dwight's Twitter page; Eat the Rich Twitter page and Patreon

Reading List ...

John Surico, Brooklyn Rail, "Mike's Labor Legacy"
Libby Watson, Splinter News, "Former Staffers at Tom Steyer's Political Action Group Say It's Hell to Work For"
Nathan Robinson, Current Affairs, "A Republican Plutocrat Tries To Buy The Democratic Nomination"
Alan Singer, Huffington Post, "Union-Busting, Bloomberg-Style"
Al Baker, The New York Times, "School Bus Drivers End Strike, in Win for New York Mayor"
Melissa Petro, Business Insider, "10 years ago, Michael Bloomberg called for my removal as a teacher because of my past in sex work"
Craig Frazer, Amsterdam News, "Union Official Protests Cuts in Child Care"
Joe Maniscalco, Labor Press, "Child Care Workers Press Bloomberg for Back Pay"
Michael Howard Saul, The Wall Street Journal, "Mayor Pledges Tough Stance on Unions"
Al Baker, The New York Times, "Teachers Irate as Bloomberg Likens Union to the N.R.A."
Dana Rubinstein, Politico, "'Living Sage' Reminds Bloomberg of Soviet Communism; He Says He'll Stop It in Court If He Has To"
Color Lines, "How Does It Feel to Be Stopped and Frisked?"
Steven Malanga, City Journal, "Hudson Yards and New York's Union (or Non-Union) Future"
Janaki Chadha, Joe Anuta, & Sally Goldenberg, Politico, "Related and Construction Unions Call Truce in Bitter Hudson Yards Fight"
Kim Kelly, The Nation, "This Is a Horror Story: How Private Equity Vampires Are Killing Everything"

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
Carroll, "Billionaire"

Everybody In, Nobody Out (w/ Sara Nelson) Feb 13, 2020

Show notes

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 America Needs a Better Labor Law"
Sarah Jones, NY Mag, "Delta's Flight Attendants Are Organizing"
Eli Rosenberg, The Washington Post, "Delta Agrees to Change Uniforms Workers Said Were Toxic, After Months of Pressure"
Kim Kelly, The New Republic, "Sara Nelson's Art of War"
Meagan Day, Jacobin, "Once Again, Flight Attendants Are Leading the Way"
Chris Matyszczyk, Inc, "Congress Voted To Give Flight Attendants a Better, Safer Life. It Hasn't Happened. United Airlines Staff Blame Delta"

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"

Deidra Demens Feb 09, 2020

Show notes

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...

Deidra Demens Yoga Facebook page
Unionize Yoga website, Twitter page, and Facebook page
Press Release: "New York City YogaWorks Teachers Join the IAM"
Sarah Jones, The Cut, "Yoga Teachers Are Unionizing to Heal the Wellness Industry"
Lauren Krauze, Tricycle, "Unionizing Yoga"

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
Dee Yan Key, "Rather Slow"

The 2020 Election & Building Working-Class Power Feb 03, 2020

Show notes

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...

Ash's Twitter page; The Horror Vanguard Twitter page and Patreon
Mel's Twitter page; Protean Twitter page and Patreon
Bryan's Twitter page; Strikewave Twitter page and website
Lyta's Twitter page; Current Affairs Twitter page and website

Working-Class 2020 Reading List...

Alexia Fernández Campbell, Vox, "The Boldest and Weakest Labor Platforms of the 2020 Democratic Primary"
Sarah Jones, NY Mag, "Klobuchar's Alleged Staff Mistreatment Is a Valid Concern for American Workers"
Carly Regina and Joanna Wuest, Jacobin, "Labor Has Only One Candidate: Bernie Sanders"
Dan Solomon, Texas Monthly, "What You Should Know About Bernie Sanders And A Controversial Proposal To Bring Toxic Waste To Sierra Blanca"
Molly Redden, HuffPost, "Pete Buttigieg's McKinsey Client List And A Canadian Grocery Scandal"
Ryan Grim and Lee Fang, The Intercept, "Joe Biden Lied about His Record on Social Security"
Astead W. Herndon, The New York Times, "Elizabeth Warren Isn't Talking Much About 'Medicare for All' Anymore"
C.M. Lewis and Kevin Reuning, Strikewave, "Union Membership for 2019 Is Out. Here's How Labor Did"
Celine McNicholas, Margaret Poydock, and Lynn Rhinehart, Economic Policy Institute, "Unprecedented: The Trump NLRB's Attack on Workers' Rights"
Steven Greenhouse, NY Mag, "A to F+: Grading the Presidential Candidates on Their Labor Plans"
Eric Levitz, NY Mag, "Two More Signs Trump's 'Great' Economy Is Failing Workers"
Jane McAlevey, In These Times, "How to Elect Democrats Who Actually Answer to Workers"

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
Beethoven, "Moonlight Sonata"

Working-Class Politics: Nabilah Islam Jan 27, 2020

Show notes

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 website and Twitter page
Jonathan Allen, NBC News, "Atlanta May Have Its Own AOC"
Helainie Olen, The Washington Post, "Can 'Atlanta's own AOC' Make It Easier for Working-Class Americans to Run for Office?"

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"

Mini-cast: Break the Chains, Pt III (w/ Shirley Lung) Jan 24, 2020

Show notes

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 marginalized workers.

Additional links/info below...

Shirley's Faculty page
Shirley Lung, U. Mass Law Review, "Criminalizing Work and Non-Work: The Disciplining of Immigrant and African American Workers"
Break the Chains website: https://equalrightsforallworkers.org/
Break the Chains Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/equalrightsforallworkers/
Maximillian Alvarez & William Lopez, In These Times, "It's Not Just About Deportations: Trump Wants to Create a Permanent Underclass"

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"

Left Anchor/Working People: The Problem with Economics Jan 19, 2020

Show notes

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...