Labor Radio

The WORT News Department has more on its investigation of University of Wisconsin payouts to consultants, particularly Huron Consulting, an arrangement that has long been under critical scrutiny by university unions. Also, Labor Radio interviews strikers as Madison joins the Christmas Eve unfair labor practices strikes held at Starbucks stores across the country.

This broadcast show has a music portion. The full show will be available for a limited time under Friday, December 27, on the WORT archives for a limited time at https://archive.wortfm.org

In the wake of a shooting at Madison's Abundant Life Christian School, Labor Radio speaks to the Madison public teachers union president and to a former teacher about what it's like working where school shootings have become normalized. Also, workers at Amazon and Starbucks get into the holiday spirit with unfair labor practice strikes across the country, with New York City cops busting Teamster Amazon picket lines. Also the faculty and academic staff union president explains how a software update at the University of Wisconsin system can cover for an attack on administrative labor, an analyst details what will happen in a few weeks when states and municipalities across the US (but not in Wisconsin) institute minimum wage increases, and we rerun a segment on last year's elf labor action at the North Pole.

An attorney addresses the immigrants rights group Voces de la Frontera ahead of the second Trump administration, the Wisconsin legislature wants to end work-at-home for state workers, the US Senate refuses to re-confirm National Labor Relations Board chair Lauren McFerran as an NLRB regional office rules that some reality show workers are employees, the Canadian government orders it striking mail employees back to work, US railroad workers promise tough negotiations after years of company- and government-enforced givebacks while Trump looms ahead, the Department of Labor is investigating child labor at an Illinois food processing facility of the food delivery company Hello Fresh, and union electricians present Madison's annual Holiday Fantasy in Lights.

This week Dane County Circuit Court Judge Jacob Frost has ordered sweeping changes to Act 10, the Wisconsin law severely restricting the rights of the state's public sector unions, and Labor Radio spoke to Jeff Mandell, an attorney for the union plaintiffs who brought the successful lawsuit, and to Barrett McIntosh of the Teaching Assistants Association, one of the seven unions filing the suit. Also, Donald Trump has designated a Secretary of Labor who isn't hated by everybody in organized labor, and we hear from labor supporters of a protest for the people of Palestine at a University of Wisconsin Board of Regents meetings that led to 19 arrests on Thursday, December 5. THIS IS A WORT BIIRTHDAY BOOST PLEDGE EDITION.

AFSCME Local 1 has a workshop on the Wisconsin state budget, Lakefront Brewery in Milwaukee is organizing a union, a Greek worker discusses the state of labor in Greece, the UE considers an independent way forward for labor after the Democrats' big presidential election loss, Whole Foods workers file for a union, a major expansion of overtime coverage ordered this year has been shot down by a federal judge, and average daycare costs now outstrip average rents.

An Iron River, Wisconsin, pizza parlor is busted by the Department of Labor for multiple child work violations, a member of Build a Fighting NALC talks about rank-and-file efforts in that union and disagreements over the national NALC tentative contract agreement, more University of California system workers sign up to join the UAW, the Teaching Assistants Association of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has a new initiative to improve the lot of UW bioscience workers, the National Labor Relations Board has ruled against employer 'captive audience' anti-union meetings, AFSCME Local 1 will help show how the state budget works at a November 21 event, and November 15, 2024, is the tenth anniversary of a deadly chemical leak at a Dupont insecticide plant in Texas.

Kevin Gundlach of the South Central Federation of Labor looks at the November 5 election results, Lambeau Field workers get their first contract, Los Volcanoes worker-owned cooperative kicks off, the president of Machinists District 751 discusses the end of the Boeing strike and the new contract, California keeps prison labor as a punishment, and the Rick Smith Show looks back on the anniversary of some early interracial union solidarity in the US.

A panel at the University of Wisconsin gives the good and bad news on organized labor in Wisconsin since Act 10, the SEIU Wisconsin president discusses endorsements and AFGE tells how a crisis in Social Security Administration staffing could get even worse under Project 2025, pension plans look to divest from investments in fossil fuels, rank-and-file letter carriers push back on a proposed contract, southeast Pennsylvania transit workers have authorized a system-wide strike for this week after contract talks break down, and nurses in Hawai'i won contract staffing ratio language even after Honolulu's leading hospital locked out nurses and arrested grandmas.

Letter carriers rally in Madison and call for legislative help against recent assaults, the policy director of the American Federation of Government Employees talks on Trump's proposed Project 2025, representatives of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2304 and of the Wisconsin Education Association Council talk about their political endorsement processes and their political priorities, the Teaching Assistants Association at the University of Wisconsin in Madison talks about its response to the UW crackdown on supporters of Palestinians, the SEIU 1199 megalocal calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and an arms embargo on Israel, Massachusetts voters get to act on the subminimum "tipped wage" in November, striking machinists at Boeing again reject a proposed agreement, and a Wisconsin chicken dinner chain is fined for overtime violations.

The annual Wisconsin Association of Retired Americans Power Lunch focuses on social Security and social programs, Machinists union negotiator Jon Holden talks to Labor Radio about the ongoing Boeing strike and the history that led to it, the International Association of Firefighters endorses neither presidential candidate, the National Labor Relations Board is swamped but funding and staffing isn't keeping pace, the State of Wisconsin reports good jobs numbers, a new book looks at American labor involvement in sketchy Cold War programs to undercut progressive unions overseas, the family of a worker killed in Tennessee during Hurricane Helene has filed a wrongful death suit against the company, and we remember Wisconsin womens pay rights activist Lily Ledbetter.