Working People

When faced with unlawful intimidation and interrogation from management at Trader Joe's, Alex P and his coworkers stood together and stood up for their rights in the workplace, eventually securing a crucial victory with the National Labor Relations Board. In this deep and wide-ranging conversation, we talk with Alex about his life and work—and so much more. We talk about growing up with strict immigrant parents, graduating from college into a global recession, and the imprints our past jobs leave on us. We talk about the winding road that led Alex to his current job at Trader Joe's, and we discuss the events at Alex's store that pushed him to file a complaint with the NLRB and secure a settlement from the company.

Additional links/info below...

• National Labor Relations Board, "Your Rights"
• A message from Trader Joe's crew members: "Trader Joe's crew members are organizing to make changes to the way the company does things from the local to national level right now. If you want to connect with us reach out here and you'll be contacted by other workers fighting to make change and can get paired with experienced organizers to train and support you: Join other Trader Joe's Workers Taking Action!"
• Alex Press, Jacobin, "Trader Joe's Is Once Again Accused of Violating Workers' Rights"
• Brittany Shammas & Hannah Knowles, The Washington Post, "A Trader Joe's Employee Called for Stronger Coronavirus Measures. The Company Fired Him"
• Mary Pilon, Bloomberg Law, "Trader Joe's Employees Say Virus Response Was Haphazard, Chaotic"
• Michael Sainato, The Guardian, "Trader Joe's and Other US Firms Suppress Unionization Efforts During Pandemic"
• Kim Kelly, The Baffler, "Food Fight"
• Erica Mildner, Jacobin, "Trader Joe's Put Workers Like Me at Serious Risk During the Pandemic"

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"
• Poly Action, "Black Smoke Cloud"

We cover a lot of important worker struggles on this show, but it's important to cover worker victories as well—and workers in South Dakota just landed a huge victory! After suffering one of the worst COVID workplace outbreaks in the country last year, leading to four deaths and over 1,000 infections, workers at the Smithfield pork processing plant in Sioux Falls refused to back down on demands for better pay and for a 15-minute break during the second half of their shifts. When negotiations with Smithfield stalled, UFCW Local 304A members voted overwhelmingly (98%) to authorize a strike, and the company backed down. On this extended mini-cast, we welcome back beloved friend of the show and president of the South Dakota Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, Kooper Caraway, to discuss this important victory and what lessons the labor movement should take away from it.

Additional links/info below...

• Kooper's Twitter page
• UFCW Local 304A Facebook page
• Sioux Falls AFL-CIO's website and Twitter page
• Working People, "Labor is Antifascist (w/ Kooper Caraway)"
• Kim Kelly, The New Republic, "The Future of Labor Is Growing in South Dakota"
• Makenzie Huber, Sioux Falls Argus Leader, "How COVID-19 Tore Through Smithfield's Meatpacking Plant in 17 Days"
• Chacour Koop, The Kansas City Star, "After COVID-19 Outbreak Kills 4, Smithfield Meat Plant in South Dakota Fined $13,494"
• Stephen Groves, Associated Press, "Union Vote Authorizes Strike at South Dakota Pork Plant"
• Associated Press, "South Dakota Pork Plant, Labor Union Reach 4-Year Agreement"

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"
• Meydan, "Away"

Earlier this month, No Evil Foods, a vegan meat company founded in North Carolina, notified its staff that they were closing their Asheville production plant and moving to a co-manufacturing facility in Illinois. After sticking it out and working through the COVID-19 pandemic, employees were suddenly notified that they would now be unemployed and would be receiving no severance. In this urgent episode, Jon Reynolds and Meagan Sullivan, two former NEF employees who shared their testimonies in our previous episode on NEF's union-busting campaign, join us again to discuss the plant closure and how listeners can support laid-off workers.

Additional links/info below...

• FUNDRAISER: Help Laid-Off No Evil Workers
• Working People, "Mo' Evil Foods (Part 1)"
• Meagan's Twitter page
• Mo Evil Foods website and Twitter page
• Birdie Gregson Twitter page
• No Evil Foods website, Facebook page, and Instagram
• National Labor Relations Board: No Evil Foods, Inc.
• PitchBook, No Evil Foods Overview
• Kelsey Vlamis & Charles Davis, Business Insider, "No Evil Foods, a Vegan Food Company, Laid Off All Its Production Employees After Giving Them an Ultimatum Last Year About Working Through the Pandemic"
• Paul Blest, Discourse Blog, "Leaked Memo Shows No Evil Foods Justifying Laying Off Workers With No Severance"
• Jon Reynolds, Facing South, "VOICES: Lessons from the Union Busting at No Evil Foods"
• Ben Burgis, Jacobin, "Not All Labor Actions Aid the Working Class"
• Lauren Kaori Gurley, Vice Motherboard, "Vegan Meat Company's Anti-Union Speeches Are Being Scrubbed from the Internet"
• Lauren Kaori Gurley, Vice Motherboard, "NLRB Files Complaint Against Socialist-Themed Vegan Meat Company That Fired Union Organizers"
• Anna Starostinetskaya, VegNews, "VegNews Exclusive: The Story Behind No Evil Foods and Its Major Labor Controversy"
• Alex Press, Jacobin, "Workers at No Evil Foods Say the Vegan, Progressive Company Busted Their Union Drive"
• Andrew Miller, The Industrial Worker, "Mo' Evil Foods"

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

We will be back to our regular Working People schedule next week. Until then, to tide y'all over, and to celebrate his book recently receiving Honorable Mention for the Merle Curti Intellectual History Award, we're unlocking our bonus episode conversation with historian Nate Holdren. We talk with Nate about his latest book, Injury Impoverished: Workplace Accidents, Capitalism, and Law in the Progressive Era, and about what exactly people lose when they are injured at work. (C/W: some descriptions of workplace injuries.)

Don't forget: We have lots more great bonus episodes like this one over on our Patreon feed! Get instant access to all of them (and help keep the show going) by subscribing for just five bucks a month.

Additional links/info below...

• Nate's faculty page and Twitter page
• Nate Holdren, Cambridge University Press, Injury Impoverished: Workplace Accidents, Capitalism, and Law in the Progressive Era
• Nate Holdren, LAWCHA, "Nate Holdren Responds: Roundtable on Injury Impoverished"
• Nate Holdren, Legal History Blog, The process of writing Injury Impoverished

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"
• Mr. & Mrs. Smith, "Dirty Laundry"

Max is traveling for The Real News Network, so Working People producer Jules Taylor hosts this episode as he interviews his stepfather about his career as a death investigator and paramedic. In a way, Ric feels like he was meant to work around death as he grew up across the street from a cemetery, and his first job was helping the grave digger before he was 10 years old. He would go on to work as the Chief Medical Investigator for Nueces County, Texas for 20 years. In this special episode, we speak with Ric Ortiz about the events in his life that lead to his career, and the way working around death influences the way one sees the world.

Additional links/info below...

• Ric Ortiz on Twitter and Facebook
• Fares Sabawi, Corpus Christi Caller Times, "Chief Forensic Investigator Retires After 20 Years"
• National Transportation Safety Board Aviation Accident Final Report

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"
• talons', "Toms"

Right now, working people in other parts of the world are being crushed by a relentless onslaught of murderous violence and dispossession, economic degradation, and inhumane exploitation—they are fighting for their lives, and they are asking for our help. In Palestine, against the ceaseless violence of occupation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing, Palestinians are rising up to resist their own erasure; in Colombia, millions have taken to the streets to fight against a corrupt system by which the government, the police, and the forces of international oligarchy have waged class war on working people. In this special episode of Working People, spanning three continents, we interview Irene Vélez Torres and Toufic Haddad, two people who are living through world-changing struggles in Colombia and Palestine that working people around the world need to know about, need to care about, and need to take up as our own.

Interview with Irene Vélez Torres begins at 20:25

Interview with Toufic Haddad begins at 46:51

Additional links/info below...

• Rally/Livestream fundraiser for striking coal miners in Brookwood, AL
• Irene's faculty page
• Toufic's Al-Shabaka author page
• Toufic Haddad, Bloomsbury, Palestine Ltd.: Neoliberalism and Nationalism in the Occupied Territory
• Al-Shabaka website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• Alliance for Global Justice website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• Christina Noriega, NACLA, "Colombian Uprising Takes Aim at Inequality"
• Estefanía Martinéz, Jacobin, "Colombians Are in the Streets Against a Violent Neoliberal Order"
• Aaron Tauss, Jacobin, "Colombia Is in Revolt Against Neoliberalism"
• Amanda Taub, The New York Times, "From Colombia to U.S., Police Violence Pushes Protests Into Mass Movements"
• Seraj Assi, Jacobin & The Real News Network, "It's Apartheid. Naked, Unabashed Apartheid"
• Abby Martin, Gaza Fights for Freedom
• Abby Martin, The Empire Files, "How Palestine Became Colonized"
• Mustafa Abu Sneineh, Middle East Eye, "Palestinian Citizens of Israel Fired for Participating in General Strike"
• Lee Yaron, Haaretz, "General Strike Highlights Israel's Dependency on Palestinian Workers"
• Citations Needed, "News Brief: Debunking the 5 Most Common Anti-Palestinian Talking Points"
• Citations Needed, "News Brief: On Palestine, It's Time for Progressives to Stop Reading From the Same Outrage Script & Support BDS"
• "Michael Brooks Takes a Question on Israel"
• Yumna Patel's coverage from Palestine for Mondoweiss
• Dominique Mosbergen, HuffPost, "Thousands Stand In Solidarity With Palestine In Rallies Held Across U.S., Cities Worldwide"
• Adam Forrest, The Independent, "Italian Port Workers Refuse to Load Shipment of Arms Headed for Israel"

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)

• Ending Satellites, "While You Are Here"
• Jules Taylor, "Working People Interlude Music"

Over the past couple years, the Vermont State AFL-CIO and its membership have embraced a more democratic, rank-and-file strategy, building up bonds of solidarity with community organizations, and bringing much-needed energy into a labor council that was on the verge of dying. Instead of commending and encouraging these efforts, however, the AFL-CIO national and AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka are monitoring, investigating, and threatening "further action" against the Vermont labor council. Why? We talk with David Van Deusen, President of the Vermont State Labor Council, AFL-CIO.

Additional links/info below...

• Vermont State Labor Council, AFL-CIO website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• Vermont AFL-CIO Ten Point Program
• "Historic Vermont General Strike Authorization Vote"
• Steve Early, CounterPunch, "Why is AFL-CIO So Worried About Its Vermont Affiliate?"
• Pacifica Radio, "MAY DAY 2021- A COVID, RACE, & DEMOCRACY SPECIAL"

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"

In this special episode, we talk with three veterans about how the military and the class system (in the U.S. and around the world) go hand in hand. How does the military market itself to the poor and marginalized (and why is that marketing so effective)? How does our broken economy ensure a constant stream of recruits who will be sent to fight endless imperialist wars just so they can pay for college or finally be accepted as a worthy citizen? What happens to these recruits when they're serving and when they leave (if they leave)? Why is it that so many features of military life and America's self-perpetuating war machine translate to an accepted status quo in which women, LGBTQ folks, and non-white recruits are subjected to vicious harassment, violent assault, or worse? In this important conversation, we're joined by Triste Ordex, Marine Corps vet and national organizer for Vets for the People; Amber Mathwig, a former 10-year Navy Master-at-Arms and organizer with About Face: Veterans Against the War; and Clarke, a Navy veteran, organizer with the Democratic Socialists of America, and commercial diver.

Additional links/info below...

• Triste's Twitter page, Instagram, and Linktree
• Amber's Twitter page
• Fundraiser: Amber's Legal Fund for Justice
• Clarke's Twitter page and past Working People appearance
• Vets for the People website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• Vets for the People: #ShutDownFortHood
• Vets for the People: It's Our Time
• About Face: Veterans Against the War website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• Gina Harkins, Military.com, "New Recruiting Ad Tells Gen Z to Ditch the Digital World and Join the Marines"
• Brittany Ramos DeBarros website and Twitter page
• Johnny Diaz, Maria Cramer, Christina Morales, The New York Times, "What to Know about the Death of Vanessa Guillen"
• Rose L. Thayer, Stars & Stripes, "Why is Fort Hood the Army's Most Crime-Ridden Post?"
• Subcommittee on Military Personnel Hearing: "Military Criminal Investigative Organization Reform Recommendations from the Fort Hood Independent Review Committee"
• Thomas J. Brennan, The War Horse, "Senior Marine Corps Counsel Ridicules Sexual Assault Survivor at Court-Martial Hearing"
• Carl Andrew Castro, Sara Kintzle, Ashley C. Schuyler, Carrie L. Lucas, & Christopher H. Warner, Current Psychiatry Reports, "Sexual Assault in the Military"
• National Veterans Foundation, "The Ugly Face of Veteran Poverty in the United States"
• Nick Martin, The New Republic, "The Military Views Poor Kids as Fodder for Its Forever Wars"

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"
• Jules Taylor and Jon Light, "Halfway Home"

Happy May Day, everyone! All power to the international working class! Celebrate this most glorious of holidays by refusing to work and listening to this special crossover episode on the history and spirit of May Day from our friends at the Srsly Wrong podcast, which our host Max participated in.

Spring is here – a time to feast, dance around the maypole, and organize the working class to achieve a more just society for everyone

This episode explores May Day, it's history, and meaning with a panel of guests made up of friends of the show Liz, Amy, Max, and Franz. It also marks our seven year anniversary of doing Srsly Wrong!

Check out the work of our guests! Amy/Liz – Rebel Steps Podcast Franz – Doomer v Bloomer Podcast Max – Working People Podcast

Further reading: The Incomplete, True, Authentic, and Wonderful History of May Day (pmpress.org) Death in the Haymarket by James Green (chron.com) Further listening: Working People – Mini-cast: May Day, Our Day (w/ Raechel Anne Jolie) (google.com) Eight Hour Day- Pete Seeger – YouTube

Donate to the show! https://www.patreon.com/srslywrong

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

In this important episode, we interview worker-organizers with the Federation of General Workers Myanmar about the brutal military coup that has been unfolding in their country since February 1 of this year, and we talk about working people's brave and dangerous efforts to stand up and fight back. Please help us spread the word, and stand in solidarity with the working people of Myanmar.

Additional links/info below...

• STRIKE FUND: Support Workers In Myanmar Under Attack
• Vox Staff, Vox, "What is happening in Myanmar?"
• AP News, "Myanmar Still Mired in Violence 2 Months after Military Coup"
• The Socialist, "Myanmar coup - For a Workers-Led Struggle for Democracy and Socialism!"
• Marlise Simons and Hannah Beech, New York Times, "Aung San Suu Kyi Defends Myanmar Against Rohingya Genocide Accusations"
• Rachel Treisman, NPR, "Coup Caught On Camera: Myanmar Woman Goes Viral For Dance Video With Surreal Backdrop"

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"
• Breath Before the Plunge, "End of All things"