Working People

Latest Episodes:

Workers' Book Club: Reconsidering Southern Labor History (w/ Keri Leigh Merritt) May 14, 2019

Show notes

We are kicking off our new series: Workers' Book Club! In this ongoing series, we will record workers chatting with authors about books that relate to the lives, jobs, dreams, and struggles of the working class. To get things started, our host, Maximillian Alvarez, sat down to chat with author, historian, and independent scholar Keri Leigh Merritt about the recent volume she co-edited with Matthew Hild, Reconsidering Southern Labor History: Race, Class, & Power(University Press of Florida).

Additional links/info below...

Keri's website and Twitter page
Keri Leigh Merritt & Matthew Hild (eds), University Press of Florida, Reconsidering Southern Labor History: Race, Class, & Power
Keri Leigh Merritt, Cambridge University Press, Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South

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

Maya Angelou reading 'Workers' Song'
Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
The Trumpeteers, "Little Wooden Church"

Mini-cast: Known Assailants (w/ John Tormey) May 13, 2019

Show notes

We chat with John Tormey, writer and track laborer for the commuter rail in Massachusetts, about his essay for The Baffler, "Known Assailants," Boston accents, and the white working class.

Additional links/info below...

John's Twitter page
John Tormey, The Baffler, "Known Assailants"
John Tormey, Covered with Fur, "Dead Things"
John Tormey, Rabble Lit, "Train Approach Warning"

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

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"

#StrikeUberLyft, Part II (w/ Alexandra Carbone) May 07, 2019

Show notes

We chat with Alexandra Carbone, gig worker and organizer with Rideshare Drivers United, about the #StrikeUberLyft strike tomorrow and how you can show solidarity with workers. (Don't cross the picket line!)

Additional links/info below...

Alexandra's Twitter page
Rideshare Drivers United website, Twitter page, and strike map
Salvo, "Striking the Gig"
Andrew J. Hawkins, The Verge, "Uber and Lyft Drivers Are Planning a Strike on Wednesday ahead of Uber's IPO"
Michael Sainato, The Guardian, "'They Treat Us Like Crap': Uber Drivers Feel Poor and Powerless on Eve of IPO"

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

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"

#StrikeUberLyft, Part I (w/ Stefanie Mezigian) May 07, 2019

Show notes

We talk to disability and health activist Stefanie Mezigian about ride-sharing company Lyft's violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and how this is connected to the #StrikeUberLyft strike scheduled for May 8th. (Don't cross the picket line on May 8th! Turn your ride-sharing apps off and show solidarity with workers.)

Additional links/info below...

Stefanie's Twitter page
For Our Future Michigan, "Stefanie Mezigian Shares a Powerful Message about Healthcare for All"
Samantha Maldonado, Politico, "Lyft Fights to Avoid Americans with Disabilities Act in Federal Court"
Disability Rights Advocates (DRA), "Lyft Sued for Illegally Excluding Bay Area Wheelchair-Users"
Andrew J. Hawkins, The Verge, "Uber and Lyft Drivers Are Planning a Strike on Wednesday ahead of Uber's IPO"

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

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"

Mini-cast: Whitewashing the Working Class (w/ Luke Savage) May 06, 2019

Show notes

We chat with writer and podcaster Luke Savage about his recent Jacobin piece on how the media and politicians alike either reduce the working class to a few simplistic stereotypes or erase us entirely.

Additional links/info below...

Luke's Twitter page and Jacobin author page
Michael and Us podcast
Luke Savage, Jacobin, "The Real Working Class Is Invisible to the Media"

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

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"

Drew Edmonds May 03, 2019

Show notes

We talk to Drew Edmonds, a Burgerville worker in Portland, Oregon, and an organizer with the Burgerville Workers Union. We talk about the fight Drew and his coworkers led to form the nation's first federally recognized fast food union (followed by workers at Little Big Burger, another Portland chain). We talk about what it was like to unionize from the ground up across Burgerville stores, about how they have used the power of their union in the push to secure better wages and fairer treatment, and about the union-busting backlash and firings that they've faced from the company in response. We also talk about how their story speaks to the effectiveness and necessity of the organizing model of the IWW (the Industrial Workers of the World), which both the Burgerville Workers Union and the Little Big Union are affiliated with.

Additional links/info below...

Boycott Burgerville
Burgerville Workers Union Facebook page and Twitter page
Little Big Union website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Wikipedia page and Twitter page
Shane Burley, ThinkProgress, "These Burgerville Employees Organized the First Official Fast Food Labor Union in the Country"
Eater Portland, Behind Portland's Fight for Unionized Fast Food Restaurants
Don McIntosh, NW Labor Press, "Burgerville Continues to Fire Pro-Union Workers"
Elise Herron, Willamette Week, "Workers at Little Big Burger Form Union, Joining Portland Fast-Food Labor Drive"
Kim Kelly, Teen Vogue, "Fast-Food Industry Workers Continue to Fight for Their Right to Unionize"
Annelise Orleck, Beacon Press, "We Are All Fast-Food Workers Now": The Global Uprising Against Poverty Wages

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

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
Cletus Got Shot, "Gravedigger"

Mini-cast: May Day, Our Day (w/ Raechel Anne Jolie) May 01, 2019

Show notes

We chat with writer, organizer, witch, and educator Raechel Anne Jolie about the spirit of May Day--a day of international worker solidarity.

Additional links/info below...

Raechel's website and Twitter page
Working Class History, "A Short History of May Day"
Kim Kelly, The Guardian, "We Need May Day MoreThan Ever. Unite to Dream and Fight for a Better Tomorrow"
Richard Seymour, The Guardian, "May Day Is Not about Maypoles: The History of International Workers' Day"
Tim Goulet, Jacobin, "Today Belongs to Workers"

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

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"

Jennifer Gates Apr 26, 2019

Show notes

We chat with Jennifer Gates, a Grocery Steward at Ralphs in Southern California and a member of UFCW 770. Jennifer is a singer, a single mom, and she's incredibly devoted to her job, her customers, and her coworkers. We talk about how she came to work at Ralphs, the relationships she's built over the years, and about the role that grocery stores play in the community. We also talk about how Jennifer and her brothers and sisters in UFCW 770 are currently fighting for a fairer contract from Ralphs-Kroger Co. at a time when the company is recording record profits but is still cutting hours/wages and raising food prices.

Additional links/info below...

UFCW 770 website and Twitter page
Food Fight website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
Food Fight, Medium, "What the Heck is Food Fight?"
Food Fight, Medium, "'Higher pay does not squeeze profits': Week 1 Contract Update"
John Logan, Truthout, "Stop & Shop Strikers are Standing up For All Grocery Workers"

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

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
Chad Crouch, "Ink"
Darkstorm Diabolik, "Hidden"

Reese Piper Apr 24, 2019

Show notes

We talk with Reese Piper, a professional stripper, writer, and journalist reporting on sex work, labor rights, and autistic culture. We talk about Reese's life, her childhood and schooldays, her love of books and getting lost in her imagination. We talk about being different, about going off to college, and we talk about Reese's long path to realizing that she was autistic, and about how she came to terms with that while working as a dancer. We also talk about the labor politics of strip clubs and what we can do to show support for our fellow workers in the sex industry.

Additional links/info below...

Reese's Twitter page and author page on Medium
Reese Piper, Narratively, "Secret Life of an Autistic Stripper"
Reese Piper, The Establishment, "Strip Club Raids and Closures Are Weapons of Gentrification"
Antonia Crane, Lenny Letter, "Stripped Bare"
Antonia Crane, Mel Magazine, "The Most Realistic Sex-Worker Portrayals in Pop Culture, According to Sex Workers"
Samuel Braslow, LA Magazine, "L.A.'s Exotic Dancers Are Launching a Labor Movement"
Susan Elizabeth Shepard, Vox, "It's International Whores' Day. Let's Talk About Why Strippers Need Better Labor Laws"
We Are Dancers (WAD) USA
Desiree Alliance
SWOP - USA

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

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
Traveling in Stereo, "What I Know"
The Impossebulls, "HaveNots Mascot Revolution (SureShot Remix)"

Mini-cast: Mexican Labor Reawakens (w/ Martha Pskowski) Apr 22, 2019

Show notes

We chat with Mexico-City-based journalist Martha Pskowski about her reporting on the maquila worker strikes just south of the U.S.-Mexico border, and about why we should all be paying attention to the recent developments in Mexican labor politics.

Additional links/info below...