Labor Radio

Labor Radio speaks to workers affected by federal cuts in the Americorps program and in public broadcasting, how US Labor Department cuts will affect workers, there are new directors of the Social Security system and of the postal service, a federal judge orders the release from ICE captivity of graduate student and SEIU member Rumeysa Ozturk and her union is there for her, the Rick Smith Show remembers the anniversary of the death of UAW leader Walter Reuther, and the United Way of Dane County is hiring.

Multiple May Day marches and rallies in Milwaukee, Madison, and around the state continue in Madison on May 2, the South Central Federation of Labor holds its annual Workers Memorial Day remembrance, Marquette University faculty and staff and staff are demanding recognition of their union, proposed changes to Wisconsin's unemployment insurance system pose serious risks to workers' rights, we play an excerpt from Walt Whitman's 'We Hear America Singing,' a community services position has opened in Dane County, postal workers prepare for their annual food drive, and Rick Smith speaks on the origins of May Day.

Protests are quickly called in Milwaukee as the federal government arrests Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan for not submitting to ICE, UFCW members at a Minneapolis food co-op stand up for freedom of expression while that freedom comes under attack across the country, May Day and May 2 marches and rallies include a May 1 high school student-organized event in Madison that is supported by many union teachers, the AFL-CIO has announced a new initiative to help fired federal workers organize and fight back legally against the Trump-Musk purges, a federal judge pushes back on a Trump administration claim that unions 'threaten national security,' and many events are coming up in Madison and Wisconsin, including Workers Memorial Day on Monday April 28, marches and rallies on International Workers Day (Thursday, May 1) in Milwaukee, Appleton, and Madison, and a corresponding march and rally in Madison on Friday afternoon, May 2. Also, Labor Radio remembers Tom Kozlovsky.

Madison holds rallies for a union-sponsored call to support higher education and another for child care providers on Child Care Advocacy Day, UAW Local 291 holds a rally and march in Oshkosh as its strike against Cummins continues into its second month, about a third of Internal Revenue Service workers may be gone by the end of this year, a whistleblower at the National Labor Relations Board showed how Musk's DOGE is accessing privileged data on workers and unions, and we play a performance of the labor standard Bread and Roses.

UnityPoint-Meriter nurses and their supporters rally for a fair contract and promise to strike if hospital management doesn't come through in bargaining, Labor Radio speaks to folks marching at Madison's version of the national Hands Off rally, a local worker wins a wage theft case but the company has yet to pay up, UAW President Shawn Fain address the union and the world about support for Trump's tariffs, the president of the University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty and staff union speaks on a recent resolution of the UW Faculty Senate condemning the UW administration's violent response to pro-Palestinian protests last year and on the union response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and the NLRB comes to a decision on the size of the Group Health Cooperative voting unit and sets an early May date on the union election.

Labor Radio previews the April 5 Hands Off rally against the Republican administration in Washington and talks to a local organizer, the results of the April 1 Wisconsin statewide election are in with union-backed victories, how tariffs can be expected to affect the working class, union members are prominent among some high-profile ICE detention and deportation cases, employers at religion-funded groups are looking to get exemptions from unemployment taxes, and Madison protests the Trump executive order against museums, “improper ideology,” and the teaching of history.

While Trump takes away collective bargaining rights from even more federal workers, rallies are held at the Madison Labor Temple and at the main post office, and we speak to American Federation of Government Employees Local 1732 President William Townsend. The AFL-CIO has endorsements for the April 1 election in Wisconsin, we talk to the president of UAW Local 291 in Oshkosh about their strike at Cummins, Inc., UAW International President Shawn Fain speaks out against NAFTA, Florida's answer to its purge of immigrant workers is to bring back child labor, and an arbitrator awards the National Association of Letter Carriers a win.

The Wisconsin Education Association Council talks endorsements for the April 1 statewide election, postal workers in Madison take to the street after the threatened Trump-Musk takeover, UAW Local 291 strikes Cummins Drivetrain and Braking Systems in Oshkosh, the Trump-Musk administration says that the federal collective bargaining agreement with the Transportation Security Administration just doesn't count any more so TSA workers with AFGE Local 777 and supporters speak up in Madison, the Flight Attendants Association has a nationwide Day of Action at airports around the country, Trump-Musk says the Department of Education is no more because they say they can, and Labor Radio remembers noted troublemaker Lucy Parsons.

The President of the United States or the world's richest man or somebody orders the US Postal Service to become part of the Commerce Department or even more of a private company or something, and they say that the collective bargaining agreement with workers of the Transportation Security Administration doesn't count any more because they say they can, and they keep firing people because they say they can and cutting federal programs because they say they can, while rank-and-file federal workers are organizing with their unions to fight back. Meanwhile, the fight for the right to organize at the workplace is highlighted in the struggle or the largely immigrant workforce at a Madison screen printing shop, labor voices speak to us at a rally for Palestinians at the University of Wisconsin-Madison following the capture and detainment by ICE of Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil, US Senator Bernie Sanders is touring the US including Wisconsin to speak against the ruling capitalist oligarchy, and University of Wisconsin faculty and staff demand to meet and confer with university administrators and chancellors over workplace conditions and issues like the protection of freedom of speech.

Hundreds including union members rallied and spoke at the state capitol for reproductive health rights and for electoral support of a labor-endorsed candidate in the April 1 Supreme Court race, some Democratic state legislators are holding "listening sessions" on the intricacies and problems of state budget proposals and some others have sponsored a labor-supported bill that could cover state budget gaps due to Trump-Musk federal funding cuts, and SEIU health care workers in contract talks at Columbus Health and Rehab are asking for community support in their wage proposals, THIS IS A WORT-FM PLEDGE WEEK EDITION.