“I did not start out as a writer interested in organized labor,” Hamilton Nolan writes in The Hammer: Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor; “I started out as a writer interested in why America was so fucked up. Why did we have such gargantuan levels of inequality? Why were thousands of homeless people living in the streets of cities where billionaires frolicked in penthouses? Why was it that certain classes of people worked hard their entire lives and stayed poor, just as their parents had been, and just as their children seemed doomed to be? Even while labor unions had fallen almost completely out of the public mind, it turned out that they were central to all our most fundamental problems.” In this live episode of Working People, recorded at Red Emma’s cooperative bookstore, cafe, and community events space in Baltimore on Dec. 6, 2024, Max speaks with Nolan about his new book, what the ongoing war on workers’ rights and unions tells us about the “fucked up” society we’re living in, and what lessons labor can teach us now about how to fight and win, even in the darkest of times. Sara Nelson, International President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL–CIO, also makes a special guest appearance in the second half of the episode. 

Additional links/info below…

• Hamilton’s website, Facebook page, and X page

• Hamilton Nolan, Hachette Books, The Hammer: Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor

• Red Emma’s website, Facebook page, and Instagram

• David Dayen, In These Times, “Meet the militant flight attendant leader who threatened a strike—and helped stop Trump’s shutdown”

Permanent links below…

• Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show!

• Labor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page

• In These Times website, Facebook page, and Twitter page

• The Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter page

Featured Music… Jules Taylor, “Working People” Theme Song

 

Studio Production: Max Alvarez Post-Production: Jules Taylor

“In late September,” Timothy Pratt writes in Capital & Main, “a massive billow of smoke from a chemical fire spread over metro Atlanta, lingering for weeks and prompting national news coverage. The smoke has cleared, but the anger has not dissipated in Conyers, the city of 20,000 where the fire occurred, and in surrounding areas... Smoke from the blaze left some residents with breathing difficulties, headaches, dizziness and skin rashes in the days that followed, along with a deepening worry about their community’s safety... The fire was pool-chemical company BioLab’s fourth in the last two decades, a track record that has created what one observer described as “generational rage” among residents.” In this installment of our ongoing series Sacrificed—where we speak to people living, working, and fighting for justice in America’s “sacrifice zones”—we speak with Hannah Loyd, Christina O'Connor, and Jeramie Julian: three residents who live near, and have been directly affected by, the September fire at the Conyers BioLab facility.  

Additional links/info below…

• Christina’s Facebook page and TikTok

• Hannah’s Facebook page

• Conyers, GA, Facebook group: Helping Our Health

• Timothy Pratt, Capital & Main, “Chemical fire at Atlanta-area plant sparks local movement against BioLab”

• Holly Yan, CNN, “Weeks after a chemical plant inferno, nearby residents say they’re suffering prolonged illnesses and financial upheaval”

• Status Coup News, “POISONED Georgians DEMAND toxic chemical plant close after chlorine gas inferno”

• Joi Dukes, FOX 5 Atlanta, “EPA whistleblower on BioLab debris testing: 'You can’t find what you don’t look for'”

• Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / The Real News Network, ““Let’s unite!”: Poisoned residents of America’s sacrifice zones are banding together”

• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, “Trainwreck in ‘Trump Country’: Partisan politics hasn’t helped East Palestine, OH (DOCUMENTARY)”

• Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / The Real News Network, “‘Towns are gone’: In Helene-devastated Asheville, NC, volunteers battle misinformation and ‘apocalyptic’ wreckage”

• Maximillian Alvarez, In These Times / The Real News Network, “Scenes from a sacrifice zone: South Baltimore residents fight back against industrial pollution”

Permanent links below…

• Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show!

• Labor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page

• In These Times website, Facebook page, and Twitter page

• The Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter page

Featured Music… Jules Taylor, “Working People” Theme Song

“During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the US economy almost completely collapsed,” historian Dana Frank writes in her new book, What Can We Learn from the Great Depression? “By 1933 a third of all those who’d had jobs were unemployed; another third were scraping by with lesser work. Racism, far from collapsing, festered and metastasized as insecurity rippled through the country, pushing people of color even further downward... As we face our own crises today—a precarious economy, outrageous inequality and poverty, growing racism, climate change—and lie awake at night, facing our own fears, these stories from the Great Depression offer us new and often surprising insights into our own time, our own choices.” In this live episode of Working People, recorded at Red Emma’s cooperative bookstore, cafe, and community events space in Baltimore, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez speaks with Frank about her new book and what taking a fresh look at poor and working people’s struggles in the dark 1930s can teach us about navigating our own perilous moment in history. 

Additional links/info below…

• Dana Frank, Beacon Press, What Can We Learn from the Great Depression?: Stories of Ordinary People & Collective Action in Hard Times

• Dana Frank website 

• Red Emma’s website, Facebook page, and Instagram

• Dana Frank, The Los Angeles Times, “Trump Says He’ll Expel a Million Immigrants. Believe Him–It Happened Before”

• Dana Frank, History News Network, “Ohio’s Little-Known Fascist Member of Congress”

Permanent links below…

• Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show!

• Labor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page

• In These Times website, Facebook page, and Twitter page

• The Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter page

Featured Music… Jules Taylor, “Working People” Theme Song

Studio Production: Max Alvarez Post-Production: Jules Taylor

Longtime Working People listeners will be familiar with Max and Mel’s extended work discussing the supply chain, the workers who keep that system running day in and day out, and the dangerous and exploitative working conditions that many workers labor under. Our global economy relies on these workers to stay running–and bosses around the world use this pressure as a cudgel against the workers.

 

For today’s episode of Working People, we’re zooming out and taking a look at the global supply chain with Judy Gearhart, research professor with the Accountability Research Center at American University and host of the Labor Link Podcast, a podcast about “the brave individuals organizing the workers who make our stuff.” With decades of experience collaborating with organizers and rights advocates supporting worker struggles in the Global South, Judy is uniquely positioned to bring the stories of these workers forth to her listeners.

 

Additional links/info below…

• Check out the Labor Link podcast here.

• Labor Link Podcast, “S2E4 - Hariyanto Suwarno (Indonesian Migrant Workers' Union) and Charli Fritzner (Greenpeace USA)”

• Mel Buer, “Corporate billionaires are wrecking the supply chain. Just look at the railroads.”

• Teddy Ostrow and Ruby Walsh, “UPS and the Logistics Revolution”

 

Permanent links below…

• Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show!

• Labor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page

• In These Times website, Facebook page, and Twitter page

• The Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter page

 

Featured Music… Jules Taylor, “Working People” Theme Song

 

Studio Production: Mel Buer Post-Production: Jules Taylor

 

On November 12, unionized nurses at Ascension St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore held a rally in front of the Marriott Hotel downtown, where the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) was holding a meeting. St. Agnes nurses rallied with supporters from around the city, and they were even joined by fellow Ascension nurses who traveled from Wichita, Kansas, and Austin, Texas.

 

According to a press release from National Nurses Organizing Committee / National Nurses United (NNOC-NNU), the purpose of the rally was to “highlight how Ascension has failed to follow USCCB directives to Catholic health care organizations to both serve and advocate for patients ‘at the margins of society’ and ‘treat its employees respectfully and justly.’... Baltimore nurses have been in negotiations since Feb. 2024, following a successful union election in November 2023. Ascension has failed to bargain in good faith with Saint Agnes nurses on language that would improve safe staffing and protect patients from cuts to services, lawsuits for billing disputes, and surprise billing or excess charges.” In this on-the-ground episode, you’ll hear speeches and chants from the Nov. 12 rally, and we speak with Gideon Eziama, a registered nurse with over 20 years of experience who has worked at Ascension St. Agnes for the last six years, and Lisa Watson, a registered nurse at Ascension Via Christi St. Francis Hospital in Wichita, who traveled to Baltimore to stand in solidarity with her coworkers at Ascension St. Agnes.

Additional links/info below…

• National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United website, Facebook page, Twitter/X page, and Instagram

• NNOC/NNU Press Release: “Ascension nurses call on US bishops to hold Catholic hospital chain accountable to church directives”

• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, “Baltimore nurses at largest Catholic health network in US fight on for first contract”

• Aleja Hertzler-McCain, Religion News Service, “Ascension nurses receive tepid response from Catholic bishops after rally”

Permanent links below…

• Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show!

• Labor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page

• In These Times website, Facebook page, and Twitter page

• The Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter page

Featured Music… Jules Taylor, “Working People” Theme Song

Studio Production: Max Alvarez Post-Production: Jules Taylor

Sacrifice zones are areas where people have been left to live in conditions that threaten life itself, from toxic industrial pollution to the deadly, intensifying effects of man-made climate change. In a more just and less cruel society, the very concept of a “sacrifice zone” wouldn’t exist. And yet, in America, after decades of deregulation and public disinvestment, more working-class communities are becoming sacrifice zones, and more of us are being set up for sacrifice at the altars of corporate greed and government abandonment.

America’s sacrifice zones are no longer extreme outliers; they are, in fact, a harrowing model of the future that lies in store for most of us if the corporate monsters, corporate politicians, and Wall Street vampires destroying our communities aren’t stopped. And residents of different sacrifice zones across the country, fellow workers on the frontlines of all this reckless and preventable destruction, are connecting with each other, learning from one another, and working together to fight back. In this Working People liveshow, recorded on Oct. 19 at Red Emma’s worker cooperative bookstore, cafe, and community events space in Baltimore, we speak with a special panel of residents from four different sacrifice zones in the US about how the situations they’re facing in their own communities and their struggles for justice and accountability are connected.

Panelists include: Hilary Flint, communications director of Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community and a former resident of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, a few miles from the site of the Feb 2023 Norfolk Southern train derailment and chemical disaster in East Palestine, Ohio; Melanie Meade, a community organizer, educator, and life-long resident of Clairton, Pennsylvania, the site of US Steel's Clairton Coke Works, which was named the most toxic air polluter in Allegheny County in a 2021 report by PennEnvironment; Elise Keaton Wade, a real estate attorney by trade, longtime environmental justice activist, and a native of Southern West Virginia; Angela “Angie” Shaneyfelt, a resident of Curtis Bay in South Baltimore, who lives just blocks away from an open air coal terminal owned and operated by rail giant CSX Transportation, which has been polluting her community for generations.

Special thanks to Dr. Nicole Fabricant and the South Baltimore Community Land Trust for organizing this live show.

Additional links/info below…

• Coal-Free Curtis Bay Facebook page and Instagram

• South Baltimore Community Land Trust website, Twitter/X page, Facebook page, and Instagram

• Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community website, Facebook page, Instagram, and Twitter/X page

• Hilary’s Instagram

• Nicole Fabricant’s Instagram

• Melanie’s Facebook page

• Angela’s Facebook page

• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "South Baltimore residents on the toxic reality of living in a 'sacrifice zone'"

• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "East Palestine residents demand fully-funded healthcare"

• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, “One year later, East Palestine residents want Norfolk-Southern held accountable”

• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, “‘Towns are gone’: In Helene-devastated Asheville, NC, volunteers battle misinformation and ‘apocalyptic’ wreckage”

• Maximillian Alvarez, In These Times / The Real News Network, "Scenes from a sacrifice zone: South Baltimore residents fight back against industrial pollution"

• Maximillian Alvarez & Molly Crabapple, In These Times, “Wasteland warriors”

• Laura Gottesdiener, The Nation, “You can wipe out coal, but you can’t bring the mountains back”

• Nicole Fabricant, University of California Press, Fighting to Breathe: Race, Toxicity, and the Rise of Youth Activism in Baltimore

• Nicole Fabricant, The Real News Network, “Opinion | CSX explosion in Curtis Bay should alarm Baltimore City and accelerate real change”

• Adam Willis, The Baltimore Banner, "A state-backed report found coal dust across Curtis Bay. CSX isn’t convinced"

• Melanie Meade, PublicSource, “Family history, loss and hopes for a bright future fuel my fight for clean air in Clairton”

• Daniel Shailer, PublicSource, “The Mon Valley holds its breath as the latest U.S. Steel settlement promises a fresh approach”

Permanent links below…

• Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show!

• Labor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page

• In These Times website, Facebook page, and Twitter page

• The Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter page

Featured Music…

• Jules Taylor, “Working People” Theme Song

 

Studio Production: Max Alvarez Post-Production: Jules Taylor

Two years ago, the US was on the cusp of seeing its first national rail strike in decades. Then, President Joe Biden, at the urging of the rail companies, and with the help of both parties in Congress, preemptively blocked railroad workers from striking in December of 2022. Workers were forced to accept a contract that did not address the vast majority of issues that have been putting them, our communities, and our supply chain at hazard. How has this all shaped railroad workers’ attitudes and approaches to the upcoming elections? In this urgent panel discussion, we pose this question directly to three veteran railroaders, and we have an honest discussion about how working people should act strategically within and outside the electoral system to advance their interests.  Panelists include: Hugh Sawyer, a veteran locomotive engineer with 36 years of experience, a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen Division 316, and a founding member and acting treasurer of Railroad Workers United; Mark Burrows, a retired locomotive engineer with 37 of experience, who has served as co-chair and organizer for Railroad Workers United, where he still edits RWU’s quarterly newsletter “The Highball”; Ron Kaminkow, a recently retired former brakeman, conductor, and engineer who worked for many years in freight rail before working 20 years as a passenger engineer at Amtrak, a founding member of RWU and delegate in the Northern Nevada Central Labor Council.  Additional links/info below…

• Railroad Workers United website, Facebook page, and Twitter/X page
• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, “Railroad workers speak out after Congress and Biden block rail strike”
• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, “Why do railroad workers keep dying on the job?”
• Maximillian Alvarez & Mel Buer, The Real News Network, “Labor militancy can't be stopped: Palestine and Labor Notes 2024”
• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, “US freight workers say it’s time to nationalize the railroads”
• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "“This was preventable”: Railroad workers explain how Wall St caused the East Palestine derailment"
• Mel Buer, The Real News Network, “Corporate billionaires are wrecking the supply chain. Just look at the railroads”
• Adam Johnson, Nima Shirazi, Maximillian Alvarez, & Mel Buer, Citations Needed / The Real News Network, “Biden and Congressional Dems partner with GOP and corporate media to discipline railroad workers”
• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, “Railroad workers are being ground to dust. Who will help them?” 

Permanent links below…

• Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show!
• Labor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• In These Times website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• The Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter page

Featured Music...

• Jules Taylor, “Working People” Theme Song

Last year, we summoned all the Alvarez siblings from the ether to record our annual Halloween episode. Sadly, we were not able to record a new Halloween episode in 2024, but to celebrate the holiday and give listeners a break from all the heavy news, we are publicly releasing last year's spooky special. Jesse, Zak, Max, and MacKenna break down THE defining horror movie of our childhood, the movie that scarred us all: John Carpenter's The Thing. From the whole Alvarez family, we're wishing everyone out there a Happy Halloween!

Permanent links below...

• Working People Patreon page

• Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show!

• Labor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page

• In These Times website, Facebook page, and Twitter page

• The Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter page

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

• Jules Taylor, "Working People Theme Song

On Monday, Oct 21, 2400 behavior health workers at Kaiser Permanente’s Southern California locations walked off the job in their ongoing struggle for a fair contract. Over the summer, negotiations between the health system and the bargaining committee, represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), failed to close the gap between their proposals, opening the door for a strike. The workers are now well into their second week on strike.

The healthcare giant refuses to bargain seriously with the workers, offering paltry raises instead of agreeing to the workers’ demands for better pay, pensions, and safer staffing levels at the Kaiser mental health clinics in and around Southern California. These gains, the union believes, would allow Kaiser to compete with other health systems, drastically improve patient care quality, and solve many of the scheduling issues that have plagued the health system since before the start of the pandemic. 

The union hopes that by striking, they can show management that they are serious about securing a fair contract for their members. Last week, on the first day of the strike, Mel sat down with Chris Reeves and Lisa Caroll, two behavioral health workers who work in Los Angeles and San Diego, respectively, to talk about the state of negotiations, what workers are demanding, and how it feels to be out on the picket line in the struggle for a fair contract.

Note: This episode was recorded on Oct 21, 2024, on the first day of the strike.

 

Additional links/info below…

• NUHW’s Strike Announcement Release

• Donate to the NUHW Mental Health Workers’ Strike Fund

• Stay up-to-date on the strike here

• Check out TRNN’s previous coverage of Kaiser workers striking in the east coast

Permanent links below…

• Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show!

• Labor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page

• In These Times website, Facebook page, and Twitter page

• The Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter page

Featured Music… Jules Taylor, “Working People” Theme Song

Studio Production: Max Alvarez

 

We’re coming up on a pretty mind-blowing anniversary in the news labor world–Two years ago, in October 2022, after the newspaper unilaterally cut off insurance benefits to production workers and newsroom workers filed ULPs for bad-faith bargaining, the workers of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette walked off the job on strike. 

 

The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh has been in negotiations for a contract with Post Gazette management for SEVEN years - since 2017 - and have battled bad faith bargaining, illegal and unilaterally imposed changes to working conditions, and loss of vacation time and insurance benefits. In October 2022, newsroom workers voted to go on strike, and strike they did.

 

Now, two years later, the workers of the Post Gazette are still on strike–and despite the NLRB upholding their Unfair Labor Practice charges against the company, still have a long way to go to total victory.

 

Today, we’ve brought some of the striking workers onto the show to talk about the last two years of striking, the welcome updates from the NLRB, and what’s next for the workers as their battle continues.

 

Additional links/info below…

• Steve Mellon, ‘This has to stop’: Pittsburgh news workers mark 2 years on strike with billboard truck that names names

• The Pittsburgh Union Progress website

• Donate to the strike fund here

Permanent links below…

• Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show!

• Labor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page

• In These Times website, Facebook page, and Twitter page

• The Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter page

Featured Music… Jules Taylor, “Working People” Theme Song

Studio Production: Max Alvarez Post-Production: Jules Taylor