Tag Archives: labor

We start off this week with a statement, released today, by Alabama Confined Citizens, speaking for people striking behind the walls of the Alabama prison system. We then speak with Elizabeth, who is one of many supporting the strike because they have an imprisoned loved one. In contrast to official narratives from the Governor and prison officials, Elizabeth emphasizes what …

On Monday, the Bloomington Faculty Council passed two resolutions calling on the IU Board of Trustees to provide a pathway to unionization for the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition-United Electrical Workers. The first resolution passed with nearly 84 percent of the faculty council vote, and it insists that graduate students would not face retaliation by the university for striking. The second …

Today we discuss the work of the late Noel Ignatiev using the memoir that has just been published by Charles H. Kerr. It’s called Acceptable Men: Life in the Largest Steel Mill in the World. That steel mill is the Gary Works of US Steel which was indeed the largest steel mill in the world in 1972, the year that …

This week, we speak with a group of grassroots labor organizers formerly employed at No Evil Foods, a socialist-themed vegan foods company.  They describe their efforts to organize a union at the company’s Asheville manufacturing plant, and No Evil’s subsequent efforts to bust the union – leveraging the COVID crisis – and eventually outsource their work in order to close …

Part One of “The Automation Ruse” aired on February 9th and featured author Jason E. Smith whose new book, Smart Machines and Service Work, is subtitled “Automation in an Age of Stagnation,” and it’s that crisis of stagnation that propels us into today’s conversation with Aaron Benanav, a researcher at Humboldt University of Berlin and an economic historian whose new …

We’ll open with “Powerhouse” performed here by Don Byron off of Bug Music from 1996. Composed by Raymond Scott in 1937, “Powerhouse” was featured in over 40 Warner Bros. cartoons and perhaps best known for its use in the 1946 Looney Tunes cartoon “Baby Bottleneck” which stars Daffy Duck and Porky Pig. 1946 is also the year the word, “automation,” …

Today’s show is a “repackaging” of a program from August 2015 about service sector workers and the future of unions with a focus on the question can there be a labor movement with any strength in the service sector? Perhaps that movement needs to find new forms of organization to stay relevant. In the coming weeks we’ll feature two interviews …

Our conversation with Jasper Bernes, recorded in May of last year, might be called a delayed Part II or even Part III as it features a previous guest extending the parameters of a previous conversation and begins with a consideration of the artist, activist, and social and political critic, photographer and filmmaker, Allan Sekula, who was the subject of another …

Dockworkers have power: workers in the world’s ports can harness their role, at a strategic choke point, to promote their labor rights and social justice causes. Our guest Peter Cole brings such experiences to light in a comparative study of Durban, South Africa, and the San Francisco Bay Area, California. Cole’s research reveals how unions effected lasting change in some …

Over three million students graduate from U.S. high schools, every year. For the 65,000 students whose immigration status is under debate in Washington D.C., graduating from high school garners new adversity. Hosts Roberta Radovich and Producer Clarence Boone speak with Christine Popp, of Popp & Bullman Attorneys-At-Law, an expert on immigration issues; and a young adult, who goes by the alias …