Hardly Working

Andy and Will are back to pick through some of the disheartening news of the last month.

Stories:

5:18 - Costco, Teamsters reach tentative agreement and avert a strike

21:12 - "NOSHA" Act

25:34 - National Right to Work Act

27:57 - 10,000 workers get the goods by striking King Soopers

30:29 - Lessons from Wisconsin's recent labor history

Links:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/costco-teamsters-tentative-contract-avoid-strike/

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/86/text

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1232/text

https://apnews.com/article/king-soopers-grocery-strike-ends-denver-e3195f8b00754ec75699ae43d83aeac6

Write into the show: [email protected]

Recorded January 22, 2025

Andy and Will discuss: Trump's inauguration, Elon Musk is just another far-right billionaire, SEIU and AFL-CIO join forces, and the ski patrollers strike.

Resources mentioned:

It's a supersized episode to start 2025: Andy and Will discuss the ever-accelerating upward transfer of wealth, H-1B visas, and the overall state of union membership in the US.

Then, (at 40:30) union organizer Evan McKenzie joins the show to give an inside look at the Starbucks Workers United campaign leading up to the recent strikes in December 2024.

Write to us: [email protected]

Andy and Will are back to deliver their analysis of the 2024 election as well as some labor news from the last couple of weeks.

Chapters:

0:00 Intro

2:51 Welcome to the show

3:45 Captive audience meetings are ruled to be unlawful

8:39 New York Times Tech Guild to return to work, negotiations will go on

19:42 Boeing machinists approve contract

26:30 Massachusetts voters allow Uber, Lyft drivers to unionize

37:45 Post-election discussion

Resources:

In this episode of the Hardly Working podcast, Andy and Will talk about some of the labor news from the past month. Then, Andy interviews Will about Will's documentary, "Out of Office," the story of how office workers stood up to their employer and won.

Chapters:

0:00 Intro

1:44 Welcome to the show

2:48 Honolulu Nurses Weather Long Lockout and Win Staffing Ratio Language

17:12 Dockworkers’ union suspends strike until Jan. 15 to allow time to negotiate new contract

29:20 ‘Not Good Enough’: Striking Machinists Reject New Boeing Offer

35:22 Discussion of Will's documentary

Resources:

Videos Will made for the TruStage workers' strike: https://www.youtube.com/@trustageworkersunion/videos

Trailer for Out of Office: https://youtu.be/f4USN19AvPU

In today's episode, we discuss Andy's article for Tempest, "The RNC does the Teamsters" and break down how popular appetite for real change can be co-opted by nefarious actors looking to seize power for themselves.

But it's not all bad! We also get into the US presidential election and how we're spoilt for excellent options (I'm being told now that it is, in fact, all bad).

Andy's article: https://tempestmag.org/2024/09/the-rnc-does-the-teamsters/

Thanks for listening to the show. You can yell at us here: [email protected].

In our last episode, we talked about what unions are, why they’re important, and why you might want to join or start a union. Today, we’re continuing our unofficial “union basics” series and getting into the structure of what a union can look like. What’s a steward? What are my dues going to? What's a local?

Email the show: [email protected]

Chapters:

0:00 - Introduction

10:14 - Bungie CEO buys expensive cars as layoffs hit 17% of the workforce (https://www.vg247.com/bungie-ceo-seemigly-bought-over-2-million-dollars-classic-cars-since-acquisition)

23:35 - UAW files federal labor charges against Donald Trump and Elon Musk (https://uaw.org/uaw-files-federal-labor-charges-against-donald-trump-and-elon-musk-for-attempting-to-intimidate-and-threaten-workers/)

30:59 - Elon Musk loses fight with ex-Twitter staffer, must pay 600K (https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/08/elon-musk-loses-fight-with-ex-twitter-staffer-must-pay-600k/)

33:11 - AppleTV VFX workers unionize with IATSE (https://iatse.net/appletv-vfx-workers-unanimously-vote-to-unionize-with-iatse-in-official-labor-board-election/)

40:20 - The structure of a union

Hardly Working is a ⁠Brand New Extra Good⁠ production.

Recorded August 2, 2024

Will and Andy are back to talk about the Oxford comma and some good old-fashioned Marxism.

In this episode, we do some Unions 101 work and get into some of the personal, economic, and philosophical reasons unions are important.

Chapters:

0:00 - Introduction

15:03 - Disneyland cast members ratify contract: ⁠https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/disney-cast-members-new-contract-raise-disneyland-anaheim-unions/⁠

20:11 - Apple reaches its first-ever union contract with store employees in Maryland: ⁠https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/apple-union-towson-maryland-rcna163978⁠

24:40 - Samsung workers in South Korea continue their strike, picketing outside Samsung chairman's house: ⁠https://techxplore.com/news/2024-08-south-korea-union-pickets-samsung.html⁠

28:28 - Boeing workers authorize strike: ⁠https://nwlaborpress.org/2024/08/boeing-workers-vote-to-authorize-a-strike/⁠

31:45 - Unions 101

55:29 - This is a system working as intended

You can write in to the podcast at [email protected]

Hardly Working is a Brand New Extra Good production.

In this episode, Andy and Will talk about captive audience meetings, a common union-busting tactic.

Articles discussed:

Journalists at Australian newspapers go on strike on eve of Olympics: https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/7/26/journalists-at-australian-newspapers-go-on-strike-on-eve-of-olympics

Staff at IOC’s luxury Paris hotel go on strike: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/jul/25/olympic-breakfast-off-the-menu-staff-at-ioc-luxury-paris-hotel-go-on-strike

The threat of a strike by dancers in the Opening Ceremony got them a greater share of broadcast royalties: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/24/arts/dance/olympic-dancers-strike-opening-ceremony.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Video game performers go on strike over artificial intelligence: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4ngy53qyq8o

World of Warcraft developers form Blizzard’s largest and most inclusive union: https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/24/24205366/world-of-warcraft-developers-form-union-blizzard-entertainment

Blue states line up to ban anti-union captive audience meetings: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/captive-audience-meetings-state-bans_n_66a167d4e4b0ac6125bd0c36