Working Life Podcast

Episode 120: In case you hadn’t heard…Bernie Sanders has entered the race for the 2020 presidential Democratic nomination. I devote the entire podcast this week to a re-airing of my in-depth conversation with Bernie just before the 2016 general election—what he had to say then is still quite relevant today. Enjoy!

Episode 119: They are back—and trying to get their hands on your mailbox. Big money interests have tried for a very long time to make a ton of money by privatizing the postal service, and now the danger is ramped up with the ideologues in the White House. Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, is back on the show to explain the threat to universal, affordable mail service—and to the security of your information. I, then, chat with Katharine Hayhoe, a leading atmospheric scientist and a co-author of the last two National Climate Assessments, about the challenges inherit in educating people about climate change, especially in the face of the media’s willingness to consider the arguments of climate change deniers as legitimate. Our Robber Baron of the week is a building contractor who stole millions from hundreds of workers.

Episode 118: Thousands of workers, and supporters, have rallied and marched for several years under the banner “Fight for 15”—a demand that fast food workers, and all workers, be paid at least $15-an-hour, almost double the poverty-level federal minimum wage, and, as important, have the right to form a union. It’s been a hard slog but a bright spot shines: workers who toil for Burgerville in Oregon have won union representation rights at three of the chain’s locations. I talk with two of the workers, Emmett Schlenz and James Curry. Then, we see through a judge’s eyes the crisis facing the immigration system—a crisis exacerbated by the racism hurled at immigrants from the Oval Office. It’s my chat with Ashley Tabaddor, an immigration judge in Los Angeles and the president of the National Association of Immigration Judges. Our Robber Baron is the CEO of Burgerville.

Episode 117: The rich are living the creed of the 1987 film “Wall Street”: Greed is good! Consider this: 26 billionaires now have a collective wealth of $1.4 trillion—equal to the wealth of the bottom 3.8 billion people on the planet. That’s just a smidgen of the immorality I discuss with Oxfam America’s Paul O’Brien, whose organization has a startling report out called “Public Good or Private Wealth?”. Then, I chat with Hind Cherrouk, regional director for North Africa and the Middle East for the Solidarity Center, about the mass uprisings by workers in Tunisia who are seeking a small raise so they can actually eat. Our Robber Barons of the week are those 26 billionaires spotlighted by Oxfam.

Episode 116: Just as we were wrapping up the podcast episode, the striking teachers in Los Angeles won a new contract. I review the highlights, and underscore the smart strategy the union used in the campaign that generated overwhelming support for the teachers. Then, I chat with climate warrior Daphne Wysham about “risk bonding”, a demand that the fossil fuel industry stop dumping the costs of environmental damage on us and start paying up, in advance, for the wreckage the industry causes. Finally, with Jennifer Dorning, the president of the AFL-CIO’s Department of Professional Employees, I dig into the interesting trend of a slight uptick in professionals who are joining unions. Our Robber Baron of the week is the CEO of ExxonMobil.

Episode 115: A lot of people are wondering: should Bernie Sanders run? Is Bernie going to run? In today’s episode, I consider the notion that Bernie would become the most powerful politician in the country, and it could be better for the progressive movement, if maybe he sidestepped running for president. Whoa! Then, I check in with the massive and important teachers’ strike in Los Angeles—you will hear from the president of the union, Alex Caputo-Pearl. I wrap up with a conversation with Eileen Appelbaum, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, about a “radical” idea: a national severance pay law. After all, if CEOs never lose a dime when they screw up and get sacked, why should workers, who actually do their jobs and create the real value for a company, not be assured of pocketing a nice hunk of cash when a company goes belly up or just fires thousands of workers just to make the bottom line look better?

Episode 114: I’ve spent a fair amount of time recently on the very bad deal made by New York and Virginia with Amazon to lure the company to build its new headquarters in those two states. Amazon is an important story because of the power it exercises over our economy—a power that grows every day. This week, I talk with Oren Teicher, the CEO of the American Booksellers Association, whose perspective goes beyond the damage Amazon has done to book stores; he and I talk specifically about the hundreds of millions of dollars states and cities lose because of Amazon’s on-going shenanigans around sales tax collections, and how the company hurts businesses and communities on just about every block in the country. In the second segment, I celebrate and discuss with Yannet Lathrop of the National Employment Law Project the extra money 22 million workers will see in their paychecks this year because of state and local hikes in the minimum wage (yes: the federal minimum wage still stands at an immoral $7.25-an-hour). Our Robber Baron of the week is the CEO of Standard & Poor’s.

Episode 113: The least surprising thing I might say is: the GOP Tax bill last year was an utter scam. We knew it. But, now we have a full year to look back at the lies and the realities of the tax cuts—where has all that money gone? I discuss all this with Richard Phillips, senior policy analyst at the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy. I, then, pick apart a great report on what can be done to win workers’ rights at the state level. That’s a discussion with Paul Sonn, state policy director of the National Employment Law Center, which co-produced the report. The Robber Baron of the week is the former CEO of Sears.

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Episode 112: I’ve loved baseball since I was a kid. But, at the same time, I don’t believe we, the people, the taxpayers, should spend a single dime to help build baseball stadiums, or any sports arena, for the rich people or corporations who own teams. Don’t believe the hype—these projects never pay back the subsidies doled out, and, in fact, the track record has been disastrous for many cities, saddling taxpayers with a pile of debt. Just a few weeks ago, the people of Portland got their first look at the design and plan for building a baseball stadium—and a con job that may be under way. I have a long chat on the topic with the national leading expert on sports stadium economics, Roger Noll, professor emeritus at Stanford University. I am, then, joined by Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, to talk about the organization’s roadmap for a progressive economic agenda. Our Robber Baron is the CEO of General Motors Mary Barra.

Episode 111: I circle back on the bad deal made by politicians in New York and Virginia with Amazon, honing in specifically on the vicious anti-unionism Amazon pursues—and, despite the hallucinating by the NYC mayor that somehow bringing Amazon to NYC will magically turn it into a fuzzy pro union company, I talk with Dave Mertz of the RWDSU about the global path littered with Amazon’s attacks against unions and against workers. Dean Baker, frequent guest and senior economist of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, talks with me about the real profit centers for corporations—control over patents and copyrights, all of which adds up to one trillion dollars more in corporate profits, and hits on the average person’s wallet. Lastly, racism is a little talked-about aspect of the GOP tax cut robbery last year—Meg Wiehe, the deputy director of the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy, talks with me about her recent excellent report called, “Race, Wealth and Taxes: How the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Supercharges the Racial Wealth Divide”.

-- Jonathan Tasini

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