Working People

On June 22 of this year, workers at a Chipotle location in Augusta, Maine, made history by becoming the first store in the US to file for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board. Then, on Tuesday, July 19, Chipotle announced that it would be permanently closing the Augusta location. While spokespeople for the fast-casual dining giant deny that the closure is related to union organizing activity, workers and their supporters say the drastic move is a clear act of retaliation and "union busting 101." The Chipotle store closure coincides with a broader, aggressive escalation of anti-union actions taken by other employers who have also recently closed stores and production plants where workers were organizing, including multiple Starbucks locations across the US, Heine Brothers' Coffee in Kentucky, Amy's Kitchen in California, and G&D Integrated, LLC, in Illinois. "By closing the Augusta store," Jeffrey Neil Young, a lawyer representing the Chipotle workers, told The New York Times, "it's signaling to Chipotle workers elsewhere who are involved in or contemplating nascent organizational drives that if you organize, you might be out of job." But workers are refusing to be bullied and silenced by the company, and they are fighting back. In this extended mini-cast, we talk with Brandi McNease, a worker-organizer at the Augusta Chipotle location and a founding member of Chipotle United.

Additional links/info below...

• PETITION: Tell Chipotle CEO to Re-Open Augusta!
• Chipotle United website and Twitter page
• Noam Scheiber, The New York Times, "Chipotle Closes a Maine Store, and Workers Say It's Because of a Union Drive"
• Mike Pomranz, Food & Wine, "Chipotle Closes Store That Voted to Form Chain's First Union, Citing Staffing Issues"
• Noam Scheiber, The New York Times, "Chipotle Is Sued by New York City Over Scheduling Practices"
• Alex Press, Jacobin, "Chipotle Is a Nightmare Employer"
• Working People, "Starbucks Sinks to a New Low (w/ Nadia Vitek)"
• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "Starbucks and Other Companies Escalate War on Unions with Store Closures"
• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "'They F*cked Us': Illinois Ironworkers Laid Off after Unionizing"
• Nico Madrigal-Yankowski, SFGate, "Bay Area Frozen Foods Giant Amy's Closing Production Plant after One Year"

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 this country, and it's likely going to get worse before it gets better. At every turn—as collective society breaks down, as the ruling class continues to rob us blind, as humanity barrels towards climate catastrophe—working people are being encouraged to turn on each other and to see certain groups of their fellow workers as the enemy. From the demonization and increasingly violent attacks against LGBTQIA+ people, to an extremist-dominated Supreme Court preparing to strip away queer people's right to marry, to legislatures around the country working to eliminate trans people's right to exist, we must respond to these assaults on our neighbors and coworkers with the same spirit of solidarity that gives life to labor's eternal message: an injury to one is an injury to all. In this special and urgent episode, we speak with Gabbi Pierce and Martha Grevatt about how far the labor movement has come in defending the rights of LGBTQIA+ workers, how far we still have to go, and what role the labor movement can and must play in fighting for dignity and equality for all.

Gabbi Pierce is an organizer with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), co-chair of Pride at Work—Twin Cities, and she is the first transgender person to serve on the Minnesota AFL-CIO General Board. Martha Grevatt is a retired autoworker and member of the United Auto Workers (UAW); she formerly served as Executive Board member for UAW Locals 122 and 869 and was a founding member of Pride at Work.

Additional links/info below...

• Gabbi's Twitter page
• Communication Workers of America website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• Martha's Facebook page and Workers World author page
• United Auto Workers website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• Unite All Workers for Democracy website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• Pride at Work website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• Kelly Hayes, Movement Memos, "Attacks on Trans Rights and Abortion Rights Are 'Bound Together'"
• Kelly Hayes, Movement Memos, "Attacks on Trans Youth Are a Fascist 'Moral Battering Ram'"
• Molly Shah, The Real News Network, "Supreme Court's Hearings on Abortion Bans Are an Ominous Sign of What's Coming"
• Kim Kelly, Teen Vogue, "How LGBTQ Union Activists Transformed the Labor Movement"

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

Last month, roughly 40,000 UK rail workers with the National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport Workers (RMT) went on strike for three days, bringing major portions of the British rail system to a halt in a historic show of collective strength. This week, after receiving a contract offer from state-owned Network Rail that union leaders described as "paltry," the RMT announced that workers at Network Rail and the train operating companies will engage in another day of strike action on Wednesday, July 27. With these strikes, and in the ongoing negotiations, workers are fighting for livable wages at a time when the cost of living is spiraling out of control and corporate executives and shareholders are stuffing their pockets with cash. As Adam Bychawski writes, "Train companies paid out nearly £800m to shareholders last year before telling rail unions that employees must take a real-terms pay cut for them to stay afloat." But workers are fighting for much more; they are fighting against years of austerity policies and corporate profit-generating schemes that have led to deteriorating working conditions and quality of service on the rails; they are fighting against further job losses for the sake of "modernization"'; and they are fighting for better, safer, more accessible, and well-staffed rail services for the people who depend on them.

In this special panel episode, we speak with four rail workers and RMT members/officers—Mel Mullings, Clayton Clive, Cat Cray, and Gaz Jackson—about the strike and the importance of workers around the world standing in solidarity with strikers.

Additional links/info below...

• RMT Union National Dispute Fund
• RMT Union website, Facebook page, and Twitter page,
• Mel's Twitter page
• Clayton's Twitter page
• Manchester South RMT Twitter page
• Cat's Twitter page
• Gaz's Twitter page
• Rupert Pickering, Tribune, "Defend the RMT"
• Karl Hansen, Jacobin, "Britain's Rail Workers Are Poised to Strike Against Austerity"
• Ronan Burtenshaw, Jacobin, "Britain's Striking Rail Workers Are Drawing the Hatred of the Establishment"
• Matthew Weaver, The Guardian, "Mick Lynch: Rail Union Bruiser Who's More Than a Match for the Media"
• Gwyn Topham & Tom Ambrose, The Guardian, "Train Services Cut as RMT Rail Strike Enters Third Day"
• Jasper Jolly, The Guardian, "Rail Workers to Strike Across Britain on 27 July, Union Announces"
• Mel Buer, The Real News Network, "Corporate Billionaires Are Wrecking the Supply Chain. Just Look at the Railroads"

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

The "Labor On The Airwaves" panel attracted an overflow audience at this year's Labor Notes conference in Chicago. A show of hands revealed that about a third of those in attendance already had shows while another third was interested in finding out how to start their own shows, many of whom stopped by the Labor Radio-Podcast Network's booth after the panel. Working People's Maximillian Alvarez hosted a panel that included BeLabored hosts Sarah Jaffe and Michelle Chen, Heartland Labor Forum's Judy Ancel, and Jamie Partridge from Labor Radio on KBOO FM.

For the Labor Radio-Podcast Weekly, the Labor Radio-Podcast Network's weekly digest show, featuring highlights from shows in our network, Chris Garlock recorded, edited, and published a shortened version of the "Labor on the Airwaves" panel from Labor Notes. With permission from Chris, we are excited to share the episode on the Working People feed for our listeners.

NOTE: For those interested in joining the Labor Radio Podcast Network (or finding out more about us), please contact us here.

Additional links/info below...

• Judy Ancel's Twitter page
• Heartland Labor Forum website
• Sarah Jaffe's Twitter page
• Michelle Chen's Twitter page
• BeLabored's website
• Jamie Partridge's Twitter page
• Labor Radio's (KBOO FM) website

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

We wish everyone could have been in Chicago for the Labor Notes 2022 conference! But for those who couldn't make it, we convened this comradely panel with some fan-favorite guests of the show—Tevita 'Uhatafe, McKenna Schueler, and Jacob Morrison—to share our thoughts and reflections on the gathering, and to talk about the lessons and strategies we're taking from Labor Notes and applying in our daily lives.

Additional links/info below...

• Subscribe and donate to Labor Notes!
• Tevita's Twitter page
• McKenna's Twitter page and Linktree
• Jacob's Twitter page
• The Valley Labor Report Twitter page, YouTube channel, and Patreon
• Working People, "Tevita 'Uhatafe"

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"

The Amazon Labor Union victory at the JFK8 warehouse on Staten Island was historic, but right now, as we speak, Amazon is currently in court trying to throw out the results of that election, and pro-union worker-organizers keep getting fired. One of those workers is Alicia Johnson, who, as Luigi Morris writes, is "a 56-year-old Black immigrant who lives in the deep Bronx and worked at JFK8 as a Picker Packer. Her commute to work took more than two and a half hours." After Alicia exercised her right to request accommodation from Amazon that would allow her to keep working with an injured leg, along with providing the necessary medical paperwork, she was fired in a suspected act of retaliation. We talk to Alicia about her time working at Amazon, why she supports the union, and about the Kafkaesque nightmare she's faced trying to secure the unemployment benefits she's entitled to.

Additional links/info below...

• GoFundMe: ALU Member Alicia Johnson, Fired in Retaliation
• Luigi Morris, Left Voice, "Amazon Won't Stop Union Busting and Firing Organizers"
• Alex Press, Jacobin, "Amazon Is Trying to Destroy Its Staten Island Union by Firing Union Supporters"
• Andrea Hsu, NPR, "Inside the Marathon Zoom Call Where Amazon Seeks to Overturn Historic Union Victory"
• Working People, "Amazon Labor Union"
• Amazon Labor Union website, Facebook page, Twitter page, and Instagram

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

We all know that, even before the horrific, world-changing event of COVID-19, society would fall apart without hospital workers and medical staff. But as we also know, like so many other fields and sectors of work, the medical field is a very stratified one. Even though we as patients may not see it, many of the folks who make hospitals and medical facilities run are overworked, understaffed, under-protected, and paid way less than we're led to believe. This was made painfully clear last month when frontline physicians at LA county hospitals voted overwhelmingly in favor of striking over unfair labor practices. After voting to strike, LA County members of the Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR/SEIU), which is a local of the Service Employees International Union, won a historic tentative agreement with LA County, including average salary increases of 5.5% in the first year of the contract, followed by 3.25% in the following two years, a $3000 increase in annual housing stipends, a signing bonus for incoming interns, the creation of a $125,000 fund for diverse recruitment efforts and more. To talk about all of this and more, we chat with Dr. Frances Gill, a first-year resident physician at LAC/USC Medical Center who is training to be a psychiatrist.

Additional links/info below...

• Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR/SEIU) website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• CIR/SEIU Press Release: LA County Frontline Physicians and CIR Members Announce Contract Resolution After History-Making Campaign
• Dave Muoio, Fierce Healthcare, "LA County's Tentative Labor Deal Heads Off 1,300-Physician Strike at 3 Public Hospitals"

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

From Dollar General and Dollar Tree to Family Dollar, dollar stores are spreading rapidly throughout Louisiana and across the country, but dollar store workers notoriously have to endure low pay, understaffing, and hazardous working conditions. That's why Step Up Louisiana, "a community based organization committed to building power to win education and economic justice for all," is organizing employees, customers, and community members to fight for safer stores and better pay and working conditions for dollar store workers. In this episode, we speak with Kenya Slaughter, who has been an organizer and frontline worker at Dollar General for a number of years, and Curtis Williams, a dollar store customer who has gotten involved in Step Up Louisiana's campaign.

Additional links/info below...

• Step Up Louisiana's website and Twitter page
• Kenya Slaughter, The New York Times, "I Never Planned to Be a Front-Line Worker at Dollar General"

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

We've adjusted our episode publishing schedule to bring y'all an urgent episode about Starbucks' escalating retaliation against pro-union workers and Starbucks Workers United. As Rina Torchinsky writes for NPR, "Starbucks is closing a store in Ithaca, NY, in what Starbucks union organizers are calling an illegal move of retaliation after workers at the location voted to unionize. The coffee giant gave the employees at the College Ave. location near Cornell University a one-week notice of the closure, the union says, with the store slated to permanently close on June 10. The coffee giant has said the decision to close the store was unrelated to the unionization effort. The store was one of three Starbucks locations in Ithaca that voted to unionize on April 8. Workers at the College Ave. location previously went on a one-day strike in April for what the union says were unsafe working conditions—'a waste emergency caused by the overflowing grease trap.' Starbucks later cited the grease trap as reason for shuttering the location, according to the union." In this mini-cast, we talk with Nadia Vitek, a partner at the College Ave. location and a worker-organizer with Starbucks Workers United, about the sudden decision to close the store and the mounting evidence that this is an illegal act of retaliation meant to send a chilling message to pro-union workers around the country.

Additional links/info below...

• Starbucks Workers United website, Twitter page, and Instagram
• Union Election Data: Current Starbucks Statistics
• Rina Torchinsky, NPR, "Starbucks Union Says the Coffee Giant Is Closing a Store to Retaliate"
• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "The Historic, Youthful, Rank-and-File Movement to Unionize Starbucks"
• Paul Blest, VICE News, "Lateness, Cursing, a Broken Sink: Starbucks Keeps Firing Pro-Union Employees"

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

Adjunct faculty and lecturers at Santa Clara University, a private Jesuit university in Silicon Valley, have been working to organize a non-tenure-track faculty union for five years. Along with navigating the particular challenges that come with worker organizing in higher education, theirs is a historic campaign because it is taking place at a religious institution, which the National Labor Relations Board does not exercise jurisdiction over. Nevertheless, after years of organizing and union busting, NTT faculty at Santa Clara are currently voting in their long-awaited union election. In this mini-cast, we reconnect with former Working People guest Maggie Levantovskaya to talk about why NTT faculty have fought so hard for so long to get to this point and why organizing your workplace—in higher ed and beyond—is so important. Maggie is a lecturer in the English Department and member of AFLOC, the Adjunct Faculty and Lecturer Organizing Committee, at Santa Clara University.

Additional links/info below...

• Maggie's website and Twitter page
• Santa Clara University Adjunct and Lecturer Union website, Facebook page, Twitter page, and Instagram
• Working People, "Maggie Levantovskaya"
• Maggie Levantovskaya, Medium, "On 'Divisiveness'"
• Maggie Levantovskaya, Current Affairs, "Organizing Against Precarity in Higher Education"

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