Working People

Latest Episodes:

Wright State Strike Feb 08, 2019

Show notes

Faculty have been on strike at Wright State University for over two weeks now, and things are coming to a head. In this special episode, we check in with Doctor Noeleen McIlvenna, a professor of early American history at Wright State and Executive Committee member of the AAUP-WSU. We talk about the strike and how the university's underhanded attempts to undercut the union fit into the larger history of the corporatization of higher education. We also talk about the incredible show of support faculty have received from students, the community, and others from around the state.

Additional links/info below...

AAUP-WSU website, Facebook, and Twitter
Working People Bonus Episode w/ Trevor Griffey
Max Filby, Dayton Daily News, "WSU Fails to Reach Faculty Union Contract Deal, Board Implements Last Best Offer"
Max Filby, Dayton Daily News, "Wright State Students Protest in Support of Faculty on Strike"
Emma Pettit, The Chronicle of Higher Education, "'Talking Is Over': Hundreds of Professors Strike at Wright State U."
Emma Pettit, The Chronicle of Higher Education, "As Faculty Strike Wears On, Wright State Seeks 'Long Term' Adjuncts in More than 80 Fields"
John Warner, Inside Higher Ed, "WTF Is Going On at Wright State?"

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

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
Guinea Worms, "Hello from Ohio"

Mini-cast: Amazon, Trump, & the NY Prison Boom (w/ Ross Barkan) Feb 06, 2019

Show notes

We talk to journalist Ross Barkan about his recent article in Gothamist, "Amazon's NYC Campus, Donald Trump's Rise, & NY's Prison Boom All Share A Common Ancestor"

Additional links/info below...

Ross Barkan's Twitter

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

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"

OC Sheraton/Hilton Workers Jan 31, 2019

Show notes

Represented by UNITE HERE Local 11, workers at hotels in Southern California have been taking bold and necessary actions to secure a contract that addresses workers' serious concerns: from receiving fairer wages that can actually allow workers to keep up with high costs of living, to mitigating the constant threat of sexual harassment and abuse workers in these hotels face every day, especially considering that the vast majority of hotel and hospitality workers are women, many of whom have to work on their own, isolated. Thanks to our friend Glynndana Shevlin (Season 1, Episode 2), we were able to talk about all of this with Maria Isabel, a hotel maid, and Ada Tamayo, an organizer for UNITE HERE Local 11. The four of us sat down and had an important chat about the struggles hotel workers face in Anaheim and elsewhere.

Additional links/info below...

UNITE HERE Local 11 website, Twitter, and Facebook
Gabriel San Román, OC Weekly, "Hotel Wars: Lawsuits, Protests, and Raises Turn Up Heat in OC, LBC"
Michael Sainato, The Guardian, "California Hotel Workers 'On the Brink' of Joining Wave of Strikes"
Michael Sainato, The Guardian, "'It Was Like Hell': California Hotel Workers Break Their Silence on Abuse"
Beige Lucianao-Adams, LA Weekly, "California's Labor Resistance"
Jeong Park, The Orange County Register, "Anaheim Councilman Arrested in Civil Disobedience with Protesting Hotel Workers"
Margot Roosevelt, The Orange County Register, "Orange County Portrait: Low Wages, Child Poverty, Costly Housing"
Alex N. Press, Jacobin, "Sexual Harassment is Everybody's Problem"
Shalayne Pulia, InStyle, "6 Women Making Sure Workplace Equality Isn't Just for the C-Suite"

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

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
Cordero, "Heart in Me"

#RedForEd - UTLA Strike Jan 22, 2019

Show notes

Working People is back for Season Two! In this #RedForEd special, we talk to Trevor, Jesenia, and Danielle, three teachers and members of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) who are currently joining their brothers and sisters in a historic strike across the LA Unified School District.

Additional links/info below...

UTLA Twitter and Facebook
UTLA website
WeArePublicSchools.Org
Sarah Jaffe, The Nation, "The Radical Organizing That Paved the Way for LA's Teachers' Strike"
Jared Sacks, ROAR, "The Radical Worker Politics of the Los Angeles Teacher Strike"
Meagan Day & Micah Uetricht, Jacobin, "A Mighty Wind"
Lois Weiner, Jacobin, "What LA Teachers Have Already Won"
Lisa Ryan, The Cut, "Why 32,000 Teachers Are on Strike in Los Angeles"
David Dayen, In These Times, "'Welcome to the Revolution': LA Teachers Strike Pits Working-Class Power Against Privatization"
Max Rivlin-Nadler & Scott Heins, Splinter, "On the Picket Line With the LA Substitute Teachers Who Refused to Scab"
Cesar Hernandez, LA Taco, " 'Tacos for Teachers' Seeks to Feed Teachers if They Hit the Picket Lines"

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

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
Benjamin Banger, "June"
Mindseye, "Up and Go"
Benjamin Banger, "New Horizons"

GM Layoffs - Solidarity Dec 15, 2018

Show notes

2018: On the Monday after Thanksgiving, General Motors workers in the U.S. and Canada learned of the company's announcement that it would be idling five plants and cutting around 14,000 jobs. In this urgent, multi-episode series, we will be talking to workers at plants in Ohio, Michigan, and Canada. In the fourth and final part of this series, we speak with activists, workers, scholars, and writers to get a range of perspectives on the GM layoffs, the plight of workers in the U.S. and beyond, and what we need to do--all of us--to collectively fight back against exploitation and to build a better world.

Guests: Will Bunch, Sherry Linkon, Dnitra Landon, Abdul El-Sayed, Herman Rosenfeld, Cynthia Thornton

We are sending a huge, heartfelt thanks to all the workers, organizers, and activists who helped us put this series together. Special thanks to: Steve Maher, Cheryl J, and Kyle Minton.

Additional links/info below...

Neal E. Boudette, New York Times, "G.M. to Idle Plants and Cut Thousands of Jobs as Sales Slow"
CBS News, "GM Layoff Announcement Sparks Outrage - and Stock Increase"
Leyland Cecco & Mike Elk, The Guardian, "'No Jobs on the Horizon': Workers Respond to General Motors' Decision to Close Plant"
Ron Jacobs, CounterPunch, "The Legacy of Lordstown"
Will Bunch, The Inquirer, "In 1970s, Workers at this GM Plant Tried to Reinvent the American Dream. Instead, They Watched It Fade Away"
Sherry Linkon & John Russo, CityLab, "With GM Job Cuts, Youngstown Faces a New 'Black Monday'"
Sam Gindin, The Bullet, "The Auto Crisis: Placing Our Own Alternative on the Table"
Kim Scipes (ed), Building Global Labor Solidarity in a Time of Accelerating Globalization
Leslie Barrett, WFMJ, "'Drive It Home' Campaign Continuing to Help Save GM Lordstown Plant"
Good Jobs Nation website
#Shame Campaign website
Southpaw Michigan website

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

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
Menhirs of Er Grah, "Some Days"
Marissa Anderson, "Cloud Corner"
Cletus Got Shot, "Work These Hands"
Tan Low, "Road Song"
Rachel Mason, "Rebel Angels"
Scott Holmes, "Together We Stand"

GM Layoffs - Oshawa Dec 12, 2018

Show notes

2018: On the Monday after Thanksgiving, General Motors workers in the U.S. and Canada learned of the company's announcement that it would be idling five plants and cutting around 14,000 jobs. In this urgent, multi-episode series, we will be talking to workers at plants in Ohio, Michigan, and Canada. In Part IIII, we talk to Cory Weir and Rebecca Keetch, two workers at the award-winning GM plant in Oshawa, Ontario. We talk about the pivotal role Oshawa has played in Canadian labor history and about what workers there (and everywhere) need to do to fight back against this system of corporate-assured destruction.

Additional links/info below...

Neal E. Boudette, New York Times, "G.M. to Idle Plants and Cut Thousands of Jobs as Sales Slow"
CBS News, "GM Layoff Announcement Sparks Outrage - and Stock Increase"
Amara McLaughlin, CBC News, "'They Are Not Closing Our Damn Plant': Union Vows Fight as GM Plans Oshawa Closing"
Leyland Cecco & Mike Elk, The Guardian, "'No Jobs on the Horizon': Workers Respond to General Motors' Decision to Close Plant"
The Globe & Mail, "History of General Motors in Oshawa"
Robert Collison & Sturla Gunnarsson (directors), Final Offer
Sam Gindin, The Canadian Auto Workers: The Birth and Transformation of a Union
Sam Gindin, The Bullet, "Big Three Bargaining: Different Ways of Making History"
Sam Gindin, The Bullet, "The Auto Crisis: Placing Our Own Alternative on the Table"
Leslie Barrett, WFMJ, "'Drive It Home' Campaign Continuing to Help Save GM Lordstown Plant"
Good Jobs Nation website
#Shame Campaign website

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

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
Wasaru, "Blurred Foam"
Marwood Williams, "All Hail the Corporation"

GM Layoffs - Hamtramck/Pontiac Dec 06, 2018

Show notes

2018: On the Monday after Thanksgiving, General Motors workers in the U.S. and Canada learned of the company's announcement that it would be idling five plants and cutting around 14,000 jobs. In this urgent, multi-episode series, we will be talking to workers at plants in Ohio, Michigan, and Canada. In Part II, we talk to Lilly and Sean, Tier 2 and Tier 3 workers at the GM plant in Hamtramck, and we talk to Beau, a salaried worker at the GM Metal Center in Pontiac, about the announced closure of the historic Hamtramck plant and the ripple effects this announcement is having for workers across Michigan.

Additional links/info below...

Neal E. Boudette, New York Times, "G.M. to Idle Plants and Cut Thousands of Jobs as Sales Slow"
CBS News, "GM Layoff Announcement Sparks Outrage - and Stock Increase"
Norb Franz, Macomb Daily, "GM to Shutter Warren Transmission and Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plants, Cut 14,700 Jobs"
John Gallagher, Detroit Free Press, "GM Hamtramck Plant Closing Reopens Old Controversy in Detroit"
Detroit News, "The GM Strike that Changed the U.S. Workplace"
Heather Ann Thompson, Whose Detroit?: Politics, Labor, and Race in a Modern American City
Thomas J. Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit
Daniel J. Clark, Disruption in Detroit: Autoworkers and the Elusive Postwar Boom
Leslie Barrett, WFMJ, "'Drive It Home' Campaign Continuing to Help Save GM Lordstown Plant"
Good Jobs Nation website
#Shame Campaign website

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

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
Evie Sands, "Shine for Me"
Great White Buffalo, "Detroit"
The Tall Pines, "Fire in my Bones"

GM Layoffs - Lordstown Dec 05, 2018

Show notes

2018: On the Monday after Thanksgiving, General Motors workers in the U.S. and Canada learned of the company's announcement that it would be idling five plants and cutting around 14,000 jobs. In this urgent, multi-episode series, we will be talking to workers at plants in Ohio, Michigan, and Canada. In Part I, we talk to Rochelle Carlisle, Tommy Wolikow, and Nanette Senters, three GM workers from the iconic GM plant in Lordstown, OH.

Additional links/info below...

Neal E. Boudette, New York Times, "G.M. to Idle Plants and Cut Thousands of Jobs as Sales Slow"
CBS News, "GM Layoff Announcement Sparks Outrage - and Stock Increase"
Jamie L. LaReau, Detroit Free Press, "UAW Fights to Save Detroit, Ohio Plants, Braces for Tough Contract Talks"
Tim Rudell, WOSU Radio, "Workers, Neighbors and Friends Gather for GM Lordstown Vigil"
Ron Jacobs, CounterPunch, "The Legacy of Lordstown"
Will Bunch, The Inquirer, "In 1970s, Workers at this GM Plant Tried to Reinvent the American Dream. Instead, They Watched It Fade Away"
Sherry Linkon & John Russo, CityLab, "With GM Job Cuts, Youngstown Faces a New 'Black Monday'"
Leslie Barrett, WFMJ, "'Drive It Home' Campaign Continuing to Help Save GM Lordstown Plant"
Good Jobs Nation website
#Shame Campaign website

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

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
Breath Before the Plunge, "Black & Blue"
Derek Clegg, "The Mountains Will Collide"
Cletus Got Shot, "Charlie Jones"

Em Nov 22, 2018

Show notes

In this episode, we talk to Em, an Alaskan native who is now living and working in Jackson, Wyoming. Em is a fellow Millennial, and we talk about some of the funny and awful things that so many people in our generation have in common, like student debt, working multiple crappy jobs at once, and being stressed out from the time we're in elementary school because we're told we have to pile on more classes and extracurriculars and whatever to make ourselves stand out. But Em has also had so many unique experiences, and her life has taken so many twists and turns. We talk about growing up in Alaska, and we talk about dealing with the kids and teachers at school who always singled her out for being Native. We talk about her home in the city, and about the village where her Inupiaq relatives live. We talk about cheerleading and boyfriends. And we talk about all the jobs Em has had, from serving customers and cleaning and singing at a Cold Stone creamery to working all-day shifts in the Alaskan mines. We talk about the sexist crap she and other women had to put up with at the mine. And we talk about her move to Wyoming and her path to getting more involved in leftist politics and organizing, which ultimately led to her joining the Wyoming Red Star Coalition. The Red Star Coalition is a Marxist organization with chapters in four cities around the sparsely populated state of Wyoming, and they are doing really interesting and important work, pushing for workplace and tenant unions, talking with and addressing the needs of working-class folks in Wyoming who, like so many of us, have been left behind.

Additional links/info below...

Wyoming Red Star Coalition Facebook page and Twitter page

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

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
Handmade Moments, "Junkie"
Cletus Got Shot, "Singin' Just the Same"
Cletus Got Shot, "Mountain Top"

Kai Nov 13, 2018

Show notes

In this episode, we round off our special two-week series on sex work by talking to Kai, a sex worker and DJ in Atlanta, Georgia. Kai is a wonderful, funny person and, in our chat, he shares some really important insights about different kinds of sex work, how sex workers take care of themselves and each other, and about the disastrous real-life implications the SESTA-FOSTA bills have for sex workers. We also talk to Kai about his life story. We talk about having to move from coast to coast as a kid and make new friends in completely different kinds of cities. We talk about finding friends in different groups, and about being a total band kid. We talk about his time at college, we talk about his job delivering weed on his bike all over the city, and we talk about the time Kai met his first client as a sex worker. And we talk about the crucial need for non-sex-worker ("civilian") allies to speak up in support of sex workers, and to be as loud as possible.

Additional links/info below...

Aja Romano, Vox, "A New Law Intended to Curb Sex Trafficking Threatens the Future of the Internet as We Know It"
Emily McCombs, HuffPost, "'This Bill Is Killing Us': 9 Sex Workers on Their Lives in the wake of FOSTA"
Kitty Stryker, Teen Vogue, "What the FOSTA/SESTA Anti-Sex-Trafficking Bill Means"
Fabian Luis Fernandez, Yale University EliScholar, "Hands Up: A Systematized Review of Policing Sex Workers in the U.S."
Sirin Kale, Broadly-VICE, "Police Are Allegedly Sleeping with Sex Workers Before Arresting Them"
STOP SESTA-FOSTA: stopsesta.org

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

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
FRANKIE WAH, "Friday Is Not a Day to Have Fun"
Krackatoa, "Running with Wise Fools"
Visager, "Overgrown Labyrinth"

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