Working Life Podcast

Episode 110: Join me in choking on the following three words: Trump was right. When he criticized the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as a bad deal during the 2016 campaign, he was telling a truth that resonated for many working people—even though, of course, Trump, who defrauded thousands of people who worked for him and would pile lie after lie about workers and unions, was certainly not going to blow up NAFTA on behalf of working people.

But, there is now a draft of NAFTA 2.0. In this episode, I dig deep into what it says and means. Most of the episode is a great conversation between two trade experts who are peoples’ advocates: Lori Wallach, the director of Global Trade Watch, and Celeste Drake, the trade and globalization policy specialist at the AFL-CIO.

-- Jonathan Tasini

Follow me on Twitter @jonathantasini

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Episode 109: I’m a dog with a bone. I take on Amazon for the second straight week for its utter highway robbery, with the willing participation of politicians, of the people of New York and Virginia. Greg Leroy, executive director of Good Jobs First, kicks off our episode with a deep dive into the lies about what this deal will cost and, surprise, it’s a whole lot more than Amazon and its political allies are saying. I, then, talk to Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union, who phones in from London where he is attending a meeting of a coalition of global unions strategizing solely over the viciously anti-union Amazon. I wrap up the episode with Maritza Silva-Farrell, executive director of the Alliance for a Greater New York (ALIGN). Ok, you are all smart listeners—guess who the Robber Baron of the week is?

-- Jonathan Tasini

Follow me on Twitter @jonathantasini

Sign up for The Working Life Podcast at: www.workinglife.org

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jonathan.tasini.3

Episode 108: This week, Amazon announced which two communities, thanks to willing political cowards, it will fleece in return for siting its new HQ. I expand on the ground-breaking Amazon episode Working Life did in February with three segments on the financial, tax and community implications of the marauding corporation’s breathtaking campaign to extort billions. The Robber Baron of the week is, of course, Jeff Bezos.

-- Jonathan Tasini

Follow me on Twitter @jonathantasini

Sign up for The Working Life Podcast at: www.workinglife.org

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jonathan.tasini.3

Episode 107: If you are shaking off the cobwebs from way too much surfing, watching and texting about every bit of Election Day trivia, then, you are an elections junkie. So, buckle up: I’ve got a great episode to keep that addiction fed. Listen again to Beto O’Rourke talk about the campaign as he rode in his car around Texas. Hear from Katie Hill, a progressive almost certainly about to become a new member of Congress from California. Abdul El-Sayed comes back on the show to give his perspective about lessons progressives can learn from his own race for governor in Michigan and the broader outcomes. National pollster and general wise soul Celinda Lake is back to wrap up the analysis. And, lastly, I have a list of 5 things to be happy about from Election Day!

Episode 106: I know no more than the next person about what the mid-term election results will be. But, what I can do is bring you, exclusively, the thinking in this episode of Celinda Lake, one of the nation’s leading Democratic and issues pollsters, who tells us what is driving voters right now just days before the election. Then, I take a deep look with national economics guru Eileen Appelbaum into the bankruptcies of grocery chains across the nation, which are financial failures driven by the greed of private equity barons. Our Robber Baron of the week is Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey for his leading role in trying to defeat a ballot initiative that would tax businesses to raise a small amount of money to address the homeless crisis.

Episode 105: Thousands of drivers in the app-driven ride service business, principally those who work for Uber and Lyft, just can’t make ends meet—and the whole scramble has created a race-to-the-bottom in which companies impoverish the very people who bring in the cash (sound familiar?). To get an insight into the plight of such drivers, I speak with Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the National Taxi Workers Alliance, and economist James Parrott from The New School. Heard the conservative rhetoric about no-income tax states being the easy street place to live? It’s the big lie—because state and local sales, property and excise taxes, which try to fill the budget gaps, are a huge burden, mostly on the not-rich. I explore the issue with Carl Davis of the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy. Lastly, as I do each year as October 25th looms (tomorrow), we remember, with his own words, the late Senator Paul Wellstone, a great progressive champion, who died in a plane crash 16 years ago while running for re-election. The Robber Baron of the week is Republican U.S. Senate candidate in New Jersey Bob Hugin, a former CEO in Big Pharma.

-- Jonathan Tasini

Follow me on Twitter @jonathantasini

Sign up for The Working Life Podcast at: www.workinglife.org

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jonathan.tasini.3

Episode 104: I am devoting the entire podcast this week to Rebecca Traister’s new book, “Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger”. I rarely do books on this show because, once you start, where do you draw the line on what I *have* to read? But, this is an important topic—I had the chance to record Rebecca’s talk at one of the nation’s absolute best bookstores, Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon. In keeping with the topic, our Robber Baron of the week is the CEO of NBCUniversal for allowing a pervasive culture of sexual harassment at NBC News to thrive.

Episode 103: I’ve been featuring dozens of progressive candidates running at all levels. Many of them have not won their races, largely primaries. But, as I’ve said before, the conversation that such progressive bring to a race is so key—especially in more conservative areas. So, I talk to Mike Ellison, a working class union member, who is running for the relatively conservative Oregon’s 19th House District on a strong progressive platform. Then, I dig into a campaign by unionized riggers to bring to heel the Wal-Mart of the concert business, Rhino. Our Robber Baron of the week is—again!—Amazon’s CEO Jezz Bezos.

Episode 102: It doesn’t matter where a woman sits on the political spectrum—solid majorities of Democratic, Independent and Republican women support policies you could term “progressive”. I talk with Celinda Lake, a long-time national pollster who conducted a just-released survey, which points to a powerful wave of women voters who will shape the coming election. And they are at it again: the Republicans are, under cover of other controversies, pushing through yet another robbery of the Treasury. We knew it would happen—and Matt Gardner, from the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy, is back to break down “Tax Cuts 2.0”. The Robber Baron of the week is Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.

Episode 101: I know--you're shocked, shocked to hear that major drug companies are dodging taxes & stashing billions in tax havens around the world. Oxfam's Robbie Silverman joins me to talk about the organization's blockbuster report, and how Big Pharma's Gang of Four is hurting millions of people. Then, it's over to the nation's Capitol where the local politicians think they know better than voters--after the people voted to require higher minimum wages for tipped workers, the mayor and her cronies want to repeal the law because--get this--the voters didn't understand what they were supporting. I discuss the gory details of this perversion of democracy with David Cooper of the Economic Policy Institute who has a dynamite report on the value of higher wages for tipped workers. Our Robber Baron of the week is the CEO of Pfizer.