On the Picket Line

This week, nursing home workers narrowly avoided a statewide strike and won historic pay raises in Pennsylvania. A stunning 13,000+ nursing home residents and workers died from the coronavirus in the state. Meanwhile, workers endured poverty wages, staff shortages, and terrible conditions, which have all been plaguing the homes for decades. Hear from Kim Jackson, a 20 year-long licensed practical nurse who was set to go on strike this week at a nursing home in Pennsylvania. 

PLUS: Striking coal miners from the Warrior Met Mines in Alabama take their picket line to the front door of the company’s biggest investor, again. The UMWA members have entered their fourth month on strike and have been subjected to escalating violence at the picket line, including multiple vehicular assaults. Host Monica Cruz joins them at their massive rally this morning at the headquarters of BlackRock investment services in Manhattan.

Today, thousands of Uber and Lyft drivers are on strike across the country demanding fair pay and calling for the PRO Act. Host Monica Cruz speaks with Daniel and Esterphanie, Uber drivers and organizers with Rideshare Workers United. And while Congress stalls on passing the act, AFL-CIO members are participating in a National PRO Act Week of Action this week. PLUS Democrats and big unions are advocating for a bill that would repeal a law banning public sector worker strikes in that state. Hear from Beth Kontos, President of the American Federation of Teachers, Massachusetts.

Workers at a Frito-Lay facility in Topeka, Kansas are on strike after being forced to work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week for stagnant wages. Workers report being forced to continue working after a coworker died on the production line and management made them move the body to another room. On top of these despicable conditions, those working at the plant for decades are offered measly pay raises while being expected to ramp up production as management stalls on hiring more workers. Host Monica Cruz speaks with Mark McCarter, a worker and shop steward who has been working at the facility for 37 years.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has thrown down the gauntlet in the fight to unionize Amazon. Delegates to the Teamsters’ 30th International Convention voted to approve a resolution calling for an all-encompassing campaign to mobilize and organize Amazon workers across the US. The resolution does not go into any specifics as to how this campaign will function but generally calls for a “unified approach” to helping Amazon workers achieve a union contract and commits all members to take on this endeavor. What will this campaign look like? And what are the stakes for workers in this fight? Host Monica Cruz speaks with Randy Korgan, the Teamsters National Director for Amazon. 

Striking mine workers at the Warrior Met Mines in Alabama took their picket line to the New York City office of BlackRock this week. The multi-trillion dollar investment management service is the biggest investor in the Mines, where 1,1000 coal miners have been on strike since April. The workers have preserved despite multiple vehicular attacks, arrests, and intimidation. Host Monica Cruz joins the strikers at the picket line in midtown Manhattan. PLUS striking workers in Italy continue on after a truck drives through a picket line, killing a union leader.

OSHA finally issued guidelines to set stronger workplace protections as the pandemic continues… but only employers in the healthcare industry will be required to adhere to them. PLUS as the effects of climate change worsen, workers who toil outdoors are being left to face the deadly deadly heat waves we see from coast-to-coast. Host Monica Cruz speaks with Baldemar Velasquez, founder and president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee and Tina Gonzalez, the daytime union representative at the Smithfield meatpacking plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Employers in the service industry are panicking over fears of a “worker shortage” and some have responded by offering minuscule pay raises. At the same time, Republican lawmakers are claiming that unemployment benefits are discouraging these workers from going back to work. Why aren’t workers returning to these service jobs? And is this the moment for workers to demand more? Host Monica Cruz speaks with former food service workers and President of the South Dakota Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO Kooper Caraway.

Graduate student researchers at the University of California are set to form the largest new union in decades, representing over 17,000 workers. Last week, organizers submitted over 10,000 signed union cards to the state’s Public Employee Relations Board in Oakland. Host Monica Cruz speaks with a graduate student researcher and union organizer on this huge campaign. PLUS members of the United Educators of San Francisco vote in historic numbers, electing every candidate on the Organizing For Union Power (OUP) Slate. Hear the president-elect speak on how rank-and-file union members can take power into their own hands.

This week, the billionaire hedge fund Alden Global Capital announced that it had purchased Tribune Publishing, which owns the well-known Chicago Tribune and host of other local newspapers across the East Coast. Nicknamed the “Destroyer of Newspapers,” Alden has a terrible reputation for decimating local newspapers across the country. PLUS a proposed New York state bill, backed by gig economy giants like Uber and DoorDash, would give their workers the right to unionize. But workers and union organizers say the bill is an insidious effort to rob workers of their right to withhold their labor and would continue to misclassify them as independent contractors. 

The people of Palestine join together in a historic general strike following 12+ days of escalated terror from the settler-colonial Israeli regime. Organized workers across the globe rise up in solidarity with Palestine, while some in the US labor movement have remained silent on Israeli’s war crimes. Host Monica Cruz lays out the history of the US labor movement’s relationship with Israel and Palestine. PLUS workers at McDonald’s go on strike in 15 cities to demand a $15 minimum wage.