Synopsis: US Labour Leader Sounds Alarm on Government Attacks. Sara Nelson's urgent call to action for cross-industry worker solidarity and general strikes as a powerful countermeasure against the Trump administration's plans to gut government agencies ending federal contracts is both timely and crucial. The uncut conversation includes the entire rich and inspiring discussion ringing in at 50minutes.
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Description: Sara Nelson knows how to leverage worker power — and so do the 55,000 flight attendants she represents. A union member since 1996, she’s been the International President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO since 2014. You may remember her integral role in threatening a strike, which helped pressure the Trump administration to end the 2019 government shutdown. But under the second Trump term, the administration plans to gut many government agencies and has canceled one million contracts for federal workers so far. “We have to understand that if one group is under attack, we're next,” she tells Laura Flanders in this exclusive interview. “So we have to rush to each other's sides.” In this episode, Nelson and Flanders explore labor movement tactics and strategies, wins and losses, and why general strikes and cross-industry worker solidarity are critical in this moment. What is her message and her mission for 2025? All that, plus a commentary from Laura on floods and profits.
“We have to understand that if one group is under attack, we're next. So we have to rush to each other's sides. But we can also turn this around and not just be on defense. . . We are in a crisis. Yeah. Our world is burning. We can actually set the agenda and make things better.”
Guest: Sara Nelson: International President of the Association of Flight Attendants- (AFA-CWA) (representing 55,000 Flight Attendants at 20 airlines)
Watch the episode released on YouTube July 18th 5pm ET; PBS World Channel July 20th, and on over 300 public stations across the country (check your listings, or search here via zipcode). Listen: Episode airing on community radio (check here to see if your station airs the show) & available as a podcast July 23rd.
Full Episode Notes are located HERE.
CHAPTERS:
2:44 thoughts on today, forward on your mind: 911, lay-offs, bankruptcy & crisis capitalism, fighting back, immigration issues facing colleagues
5:29 How safe is flying today? Safety: air traffic controllers, pilots, flight attendants. Attacks on the industry. Dismantling of departments that help aviation including national weather service, USAID intersecting with rising pandemics.
8:27 What is coming in this moment and the cuts to agencies and a move to privatize the national weather service or air traffic controllers. An opportunity for the labor movement in this moment.
11:22 Sara’s origin story and the importance of unions and putting a check on unchecked capitalism.
14:00 Union fights for flight attendants including no smoking, weight restrictions, sexism, high heels. Fighting for ‘rest rules (10 hours of rest)’, health care, pay and pensions. Cross-Union solidarity. Win for the labor movement, FAA Reauthorization bill.
19:06 When we fight we win. Power mapping then and now in the industry. Labor movement strategy.
21:40. The plight of Air Traffic Controllers in the Reagan years then informing the labor movement now.
23:14 The New Deal and union power to the decline of unions. Imbalance of power. The power of organizing on many levels. Call to action, ‘what you can do’. Building labor solidarity.
29:40 Union’s in the Trump era. Now is the moment to lean in, organize and pushing back.
Your not going to win if you don’t fight. Mother Jones and the Colorado miners fight.
33:56 Communities rising to the occasion. Democratic candidate, Zohran Mamdani’s run for Mayor of New York City. Working class agenda and the spirit of solidarity.
37:30 General strikes. History lessons including Iceland’s Women’s day off. The need for more women and young people to participate in union organizing.
41:29 Are there potential allies perhaps like some ICE workers who are expressing moral concerns? Systems are the problem, not the majority of workers.
44:45 What do you think the future will tell of this moment?
49:00 Bonus
RESOURCES:
*Recommended book:“The Work of Living: Working People Talk about Their Lives and the Year the World Broke” by Maximillian Alvarez, Get the Book*
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Related Laura Flanders Show Episodes:• Labor Safety, Project 2025, & the Far Right’s Plot Against Workers: What You Need to Know: Watch / Listen: Episode
• Labor Movement v. Fascism: Worker Organizers & Labor Educators Are Under Attack: Watch / Listen: Episode
• UAW President Shawn Fain: "Workers are still up against the same billionaires": Watch
• Special Report- Bernie Sanders & AOC: “Fighting Oligarchy” with People Power Watch / Listen: Special Report, Uncut Interview- Bernie Sanders
• Watch: Episode, Bernie Sanders’ Speech at the Fight Oligarchy rally, Kenosha, WI
• Special Report- Labor Movement v. Fascism: Worker Organizers & Labor Educators Are Under Attack. Watch / Listen
Related Articles and Resources:• Is America Pissed Off Enough at Trump and Musk for a General Strike? By Susan Miligan, April 24, 2025, The New Republic
• In Chicago, a Coalition of Unions, Community Organizers, and Riders Have Forced Uber to Come to the Table, by Will Tanzman and Lori Simmons, July 16, 2025, The Nation
• US aviation agency reinstating fired employees after court order, union says, by David Shepardson, March 17, 2025, Reuters
• Unions sue to stop Trump from ending collective bargaining rights for many federal employees, by Tami Luhby, April 4, 2025, CNN
• The Sleeping Giant That could Stop Trump’s Agenda in Its Tracks, by Mary Harris, April 25, 2025, SLATE
• The Call Is Out for Mass, Simultaneous Strikes in 4 Years, by Sarah Lazare, October 14, 2024, The Nation
• How Association of Flight Attendants President Sara Nelson became America’s most powerful voice for labor, by Morgan Clendaniel, September 9, 2024, Fast Company Magazine
• Sara Nelson: Let’s Show Bosses They’re Lucky to Have Our Work, by Sara Nelson, February 13, 2024, Jacobin Magazine
