Working People

Hollywood writers represented by the Writers Guild of America, East, and the Writers Guild of America, West, are on strike for the first time since 2007-08. As Alex Press writes in Jacobin, "The WGA (West and East) called the strike just before midnight on May 1, with its leadership unanimously voting for a work stoppage after six weeks of negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) over a new three-year contract that covers some 11,500 film and television writers. Announcing its decision, the union said that the bargaining table responses of the AMPTP, which consists of Amazon, Apple, Discovery-Warner, Disney, NBC Universal, Netflix, Paramount, and Sony, had 'been wholly insufficient given the existential crisis writers are facing.'" Even though overall production budgets have risen in the past decade, writer pay has declined, and the rise of streaming services has translated to lower residuals for writers, shorter paid work periods and more precarious employment, etc., with studios even threatening to replace more essential creative labor with AI software.

In this mini-cast, we speak about what led to the writers' strike, and get an update from the picket line, with Sasha Stewart, a WGA-East council member and Writers Guild Award nominated TV writer, producer, and creator. With a background in improv and sketch comedy, Sasha has written for, among other productions, The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore (Comedy Central) and The Fix with Jimmy Carr (Netflix), and she contributes to McSweeney's and The New Yorker. She was also the Head Writer on the YA political thriller podcast Daughters of DC (iHeartRadio).

Additional links/info below...

• Sasha's website and Twitter page
• WGA-East website, Facebook page, Twitter page, and Instagram
• WGA-West website, Facebook page, Twitter page, and Instagram
• Entertainment Community Fund
• Josh Gondelman, The Nation, "Writers Like Me Have Shut Down Hollywood. Here's Why"
• Alex Press, Jacobin, "TV Writers Say They're Striking to Stop the Destruction of Their Profession"
• Mandalit del Barco & Becky Sullivan, NPR, "The Best Picket Signs of the Hollywood Writers' Strike"
• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "Hollywood Studios Are Making Billions Off Underpaid Animators"
• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "Entertainment Workers Discuss the Dark Side of Hollywood and Historic IATSE Strike Vote"
• Matt Pearce, The Los Angeles Times, "AI Deepfakes of Anthony Bourdain's Voice Are Only a Taste of What's Coming"

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

Announcement: Our next live show will be on Monday, May 8, from 5-7pm EST at the Canadian Labour Congress' 30th Constitutional Convention in Montreal!

We took Working People on the road and hosted another live show on March 21 in Atlanta, Georgia, in collaboration with the Action Builder / Action Network team. In this panel discussion, Max speaks with local organizers about the specific challenges workers in the South face in their workplaces and in their efforts to organize—and how they are finding creative ways to overcome those challenges today. Panelists include: Chris Daniel of the Georgia AFL-CIO; Melanie Barron of the Communications Workers of America / United Campus Workers; and Maurice "Mo" Haskins of the Union of Southern Service Workers.

Additional links/info below...

• Melanie's Twitter page
• Communications Workers of America website, Twitter page, Facebook page, and Instagram
• United Campus Workers website and Twitter page
• Georgia AFL-CIO website, Twitter page, and Facebook page
• The Union of Southern Service Workers website, Twitter page, Facebook page, and Instagram
• Action Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• Action Builder website
• Kim Kelly, Teen Vogue, "Union of Southern Service Workers Is Organizing Low-Wage Workers Across Industries"
• Saurav Sarkar, The Real News Network, "Punjabi Workers in Toronto Are Fighting Wage Theft—and They're Winning"
• Jimmy Williams (General President of IUPAT) statement on Cop City
• Working People, "A "Do or Die" Moment for the Academic Labor Movement (w/ Matt Thomas, Kristina Mensik, Bryan Sacks, & Todd Wolfson)"
• Chris Kromm, Facing South, "A New Day for Labor in the South?"

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

Max and Jules want to wish everyone out there a happy May Day (ie International Workers Day)! To commemorate this most sacred of holidays, we are sharing with our audience the audio of a special holiday crossover edition of Rattling the Bars, The Real News Network's weekly YouTube show about the violence and victims of the prison-industrial complex—and how we can fight against it. In this episode, Max sits down with Rattling the Bars host Mansa Musa, a former political prisoner who was locked up for 48 years, to talk about the history and spirit of May Day, and about how this day reminds us that the labor movement and the movement to end the brutal system of mass incarceration are fundamentally intertwined. Additional links/info below...

• Rattling the Bars series page
• Working People, "(Unlocked) BONUS EPISODE: Mansa Musa"
• Working People, "The Srsly Wrong MAY DAY Crossover Special (w/ Working People, Rebel Steps, & Doomer V. Bloomer)"
• Raechel Anne Jolie, In These Times, "Why May Day Continues to Capture the Hearts and Imaginations of Workers"

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

Graduate student-workers at the University of Michigan are still on strike after hitting the picket line for the second time in three years at the end of March. In the time between the Fall 2020 and Winter 2023 strikes, according to the union, the gap between graduate workers' average pay and the cost of living in Ann Arbor has tripled. Facing a cost-of-living crisis and fighting for a slate of core demands—from a living wage and affordable childcare to better protections for international students, access to gender-affirming healthcare, and the creation of an unarmed, non-police emergency response unit on campus—graduate workers are not backing down. Meanwhile, University of Michigan President Santa Ono and the upper-level administration have continued with their attempts to break the strike through the courts and even had the cops called on striking graduates when they confronted Ono about UM's handling of the strike. In this mini-cast, a follow-up to our March 31 report at the beginning of the strike, we are joined once again by Alejo Stark, a grad worker and rank-and-file member of GEO, to give listeners an update on where things currently stand and how you can help.

Disclaimer: Max is a former GEO member and earned his PhDs from the University of Michigan.

Additional links/info below...

• GEO website, Facebook page, Twitter page, and Instagram
• GEO Strike Fund
• Working People, "University of Michigan Grads Strike for a Living Wage (w/ Alejo Stark)"
• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "Worker Solidarity Livestream: Strikes at Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, University of Michigan, and More"
• Miles Anderson, The Michigan Daily, "UMich Planning to Withhold Pay from Striking GSIs"
• Tweet thread from UM alumnus Dr. Jennifer Rubin

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

Kayla Denker is a military veteran and a trained archaeologist who has worked in the private sector and for the US Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. She is also a trans woman living in America, and every day she navigates the difficult and increasingly dangerous terrain of living her life as an out trans person—estrangement from unaccepting family, hostile encounters in public, and a growing right-wing political crusade hellbent on scapegoating LGBTQ+ people as the ultimate evil and the source of society's ills, stripping them of their rights, and outwardly calling for the elimination of trans people from society.

Until recently, Kayla was working for the Forest Service, doing a job she loved. On March 5, however, after conservative commentator Michael Knowles openly proclaimed at the Conservative Political Action Conference on March 4 that "transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely," Kayla posted a short video online featuring herself loading an assault rifle she legally owns accompanied by the following text: "While advocating just for trans people to 'arm ourselves' is not any kind of solution to the genocide we are facing, I do want to say that if you transphobes do try to come for me I'm taking a few of you with me." Then, weeks later, on March 27, Aiden Hale, who identified as a transgender man, murdered three children and three adults in a mass school shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, where Aiden had been a student. In the wake of the Nashville shooting, rightwing and tabloid media outlets and prominent social media accounts began to furiously recirculate Kayla's video, lying about the origins of the video and, instead, painting a fabricated, fear-mongering narrative that connected her and Hale to a supposed network of violent and "militant transgender activists." Immediately, Kayla's life was turned upside down—she has been flooded with death threats and, last week, she was fired from the Forest Service. In this episode, we talk with Kayla about her life and work, the events of the past two months, and the reality of being a trans person in the US today.

Additional links/info below...

• GoFundMe: Help Kayla with Legal Fees and Survival
• Kayla's Twitter page (public), TikTok, and YouTube channel
• Trans Legislation Tracker
• Peter Wade & Patrick Reis, Rolling Stone, "CPAC Speaker Calls for Eradication of 'Transgenderism'—and Somehow Claims He's Not Calling for Elimination of Transgender People"
• Adam M. Rhodes, The Appeal, "Anti-Trans Bills Flood States in 'Centrally Coordinated' Attack on Transgender Existence"
• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "The New Lavender Scare is an Attack on the Working Class"
• Lexi McMenamin, Teen Vogue, "How to Stay Safe as a Trans Student in School"
• France 24 ENG, "Activist Erin Reed on the 'Sustained fear Campaign' Behind US Anti-Transgender Laws"
• Death Panel podcast, "The Gray Lady vs. Trans Life w/ Vicky Osterweil"
• Fenit Nirappil, The Washington Post, "The Right Exploits Nashville Shooting to Escalate Anti-Trans Rhetoric"
• Madison Pauly, Mother Jones, "Inside the Secret Working Group That Helped Push Anti-Trans Laws Across the Country"
• Thaddeus Morgan, History, "The NRA Supported Gun Control When the Black Panthers Had the Weapons"

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

Bryan Mack is a second-generation railroad worker from Florence, South Carolina, with a Masters in Music Performance. Both Bryan and his father worked for CSX Transportation, each hiring out at times when there were statistically few Black employees or employees of color working on the railroads. For 17 years, Bryan has worked as a conductor for CSX; in that time, he has seen and experienced firsthand the worsening conditions as the industry has been taken over by greedy executives and upper-level managers hellbent on cutting costs and maximizing profits for their shareholders at the expense of workers, customers, and the public at large. As part of our continuing coverage of the crisis on the nation's railroad system, we talk with Bryan about his life and work on the railroads, and about the good, bad, and ugly parts of the industry that outsiders may not see, including the discriminatory treatment that Bryan and other workers of color have faced on the job—up to CSX's recent decision to fire him under dubious circumstances.

Additional links/info below...

• US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: "Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal"
• Railroad Workers United website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• Eric Arnesen, Harvard University Press, Brotherhoods of Color: Black Railroad Workers and the Struggle for Equality
• Mike L., The Real News Network, "A Carman's Perspective on the East Palestine Derailment and the Railroad Industry as a Whole"
• Mel Buer, The Real News Network, "What Union Pacific and the Media Aren't Telling You About the Baker, CA, Train Derailment"
• Mel Buer, The Real News Network, "Corporate Billionaires Are Wrecking the Supply Chain. Just Look at the Railroads"
• Working People, "Rail Workers of the World, Unite! (w/ Ross Grooters, Cat Cray, Clayton Clive, & Matthieu Bolle-Reddat)"

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

Under the new leadership team led by General President Sean M. O'Brien, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters are re-introducing themselves to the bosses and to the world as a fighting union, and they are gearing up for their biggest test yet: the impending negotiations of the IBT's contract with United Parcel Service (UPS). With UPS employing over 350,000 Teamster members around the country, theirs is the largest collective bargaining agreement in North America—and the current contract is set to expire on July 31. With national negotiations set to begin this month, Teamsters leaders are traveling to union locals around the country, mobilizing their members, and preparing UPS workers for a strike if a new contract is not reached on time. We attended an April 2 rally at Teamsters Local 25 in Boston (O'Brien's old local) and spoke with folks on the ground about this new era for the Teamsters and what's at stake in the UPS contract fight.

Episode includes interviews with and speeches from: Thomas Mari (Teamsters), Jane Fallon (Teamsters), Rob Atkinson (Teamsters), JJ Rodriguez (Teamsters), Fred Zuckerman (Teamsters), Julie (Workers United), and Sean M. O'Brien (Teamsters).

Additional links/info below...

• International Brotherhood of Teamsters website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• Teamsters for a Democratic Union website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• Working People, ""If You Can't Stand the Heat, Keep Working" (w/ Zakk, Gabriela, & Steve)"
• Working People, "(Unlocked) BONUS EPISODE - A Pivotal Moment for the Teamsters (w/ Indigo Olivier)"
• Maximillian Alvarez, Breaking Points, "The Coming UPS WORKER REVOLT Over Heat Exhaustion"
• Alex Press, Jacobin, "Inside the Teamsters' Preparations for a UPS Strike"
• Elliot Lewis & Matt Leichenger, Labor Notes, "UPS Says No to Air Conditioning, But Here's a Surveillance Camera"
• Justin Alo, Labor Notes, "'Strike Force': Building the UPS Contract Campaign, One Breakfast at a Time"
• The Upsurge: A podcast about UPS, the Teamsters & the future of the American labor movement
• Thomas Black, Bloomberg, "UPS Faces Rising Labor Costs, Strike Risk in Upcoming Union Fight"

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

Graduate student-workers at the University of Michigan are on strike for the second time in three years, officially hitting the picket line this week. Speaking to The Michigan Daily, Amir Fleischmann, chair of the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) Contracts Committee, said, "Grad workers are very frustrated. They're struggling to pay rent. They're struggling to afford childcare. They lack access to gender-affirming care. And I think we're saying enough is enough. The University needs to give us a fair contract now." On top of that, the University of Michigan administration is once again seeking to weaponize the courts to end the strike, filing an Unfair Labor Practice Charge against the union, claiming that the strike violates the university's existing contract with the union. In this urgent mini-cast, we talk with Alejo Stark, a grad worker and rank-and-file member of GEO, to get an update on the strike, the response from the administration, and what listeners can do to show support for GEO and its members.

Disclaimer: Max is a former GEO member and earned his PhDs from the University of Michigan.

Additional links/info below...

• GEO website, Facebook page, Twitter page, and Instagram
• GEO Strike Fund
• Miles Anderson & Matthew Shanbom, The Michigan Daily, "GEO Commences Strike Against UMich at 10:24 a.m."
• Meredith Bruckner, Click On Detroit, "University of Michigan Files Unfair Labor Practice Charge Against Striking Student Workers"
• Leah Graham, Barbara Collins, Emma Stein, & Liat Weinstein, The Michigan Daily, "University of Michigan Asks Court to Issue Injunction to Halt Graduate Student Strike"

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

Things are getting very dark in Florida, and educators at all levels have found themselves on the frontlines of a reactionary political crusade led by Republican governor Ron DeSantis. "As the new semester began," Florida-based journalist Michael Sainato recently reported, "teachers throughout Florida were faced with new state laws strictly limiting curricula—prompting schools to remove droves of books from their classrooms and libraries for fear of being in violation of the draconian but opaque new laws. An already-chilling reality gripping the third most populous state is getting even chillier in the wake of controversial legislation such as the "Don't Say Gay" bill and the Stop Woke Act, which both went into effect in July 2022." What is it like teaching in DeSantis's Florida today? For those who haven't already fled the state or left the profession altogether, what do these sweeping, draconian policy changes translate to on the day-to-day level for educators, and how can we stand in solidarity with them? In this episode, we talk with Philip Belcastro and Brennen Pickett, two public high school English teachers and union members in St. Petersburg, Florida, and the hosts of the PCTA FYRE podcast.

Additional links/info below...

• PCTA FYRE podcast (listen and subscribe)
• Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association website, Facebook page, Twitter page, and Instagram
• Kerry Sheridan, WUSF, "Tallahassee Isn't Asking What Teachers Think. So They Started a Podcast"
• Michael Sainato, The Real News Network, "'It's Disrupted All of My Lesson Plans': Florida Ramps Up Book Bans, Censorship"
• Michael Sainato, The Real News Network, "Florida's Racist and Anti-LGBTQ Bills Are Already Having a Chilling Effect"
• McKenna Schueler, Orlando Weekly, "All the Anti-LGBTQ+ Laws Being Proposed in Florida — And How You Can Fight Back"
• McKenna Schueler, Orlando Weekly, "'This Is Our Future': UCF Students Join Statewide Student Protest of DeSantis' 'Dystopian' Education Policies"
• Ariel Schiller, WTXL Tallahassee, "Senate Bill 256 Would Change Florida's Unions"
• Fabiola Cineas, Vox, "Ron DeSantis's War on "Woke" in Florida Schools, Explained"

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

At colleges and universities across the country, a heated battle is playing out right now over workers' right to organize and have a say over how the institutions they keep afloat with their labor are run. From graduate student-worker unionization efforts and strikes at Temple University, the University of California, Columbia University, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern University, Northeastern University, the University of Chicago, and Indiana University, to faculty strikes (and near-strikes) at the University of Illinois at Chicago, The New School, Howard University, etc., to workers across the higher ed sector striking in the UK, the academic labor movement is one of the most explosive sites of labor struggle right now. Meanwhile, the administrative class is working overtime to not only slow down this movement, but to squash it altogether. As we speak, full-time and adjunct faculty at Rutgers University are prepared to strike for the first time in school history after months and months of bad-faith bargaining and union-busting from the university administration; at the same time, the Duke University administration has not only refused to acknowledge its graduate student-workers' right to unionize, but it has vowed to go to the National Labor Relations Board in the hopes of stripping that right from graduates at all private universities.

In this panel episode, we talk with worker-organizers from Duke and Rutgers about the struggles taking place at their institutions and across higher ed. Panelists include: Matt Thomas, a PhD student in the English Department at Duke University and co-chair of the Duke Graduate Student Union; Kristina Mensik, a PhD student in the Political Science Department at Duke University and a member of the Duke Graduate Student Union; Bryan Sacks, an adjunct professor of Religion and Philosophy at Rutgers and vice president of the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union (PTLFC-AAUP-AFT); Todd Wolfson, associate professor of Journalism and Media Studies at Rutgers and general vice president of Rutgers AAUP-AFT

Additional links/info below...

• Duke Graduate Student Union website, Facebook page, Twitter page, and Instagram
• Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union website and Twitter page
• Rutgers AAUP-AFT website, Facebook page, Twitter page, and Instagram
• Higher Ed Labor United (HELU) website, Facebook page, Twitter page, and Instagram
• Matt's Twitter page
• Kristina's website and Twitter page
• Todd's faculty page and Twitter page
• Alex Press, Jacobin, "Duke University Is Trying to Turn Back Time on Graduate Worker Unions"
• Deepa Kumar, Truthout, "One of US's Largest Public Universities Could See First Strike in Its 257 Years"
• Nancy Solomon, Gothamist, "With 94% Vote, Rutgers Faculty Tells Union Leaders They Can Call a Strike"
• Indigo Olivier, Teen Vogue, "Graduate Unions: Why Student Workers at University of California, Temple, More Are Striking"
• Dave Kamper, Labor Notes, "What's Fueling the Graduate Worker Union Upsurge?"

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