Working People

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Thank you to all the Patreon subscribers for their love, support, and generosity. <3 Max, Jules & the Working People Team.

If you don't know Luis Feliz Leon's work, you really should! In this bonus episode, we chat with Luis about his winding path to labor journalism and organizing, the intersections of immigration politics and labor organizing, and we dive into the historic Amazon union drive in Bessemer, Alabama.

Additional links/info below...

• Luis's Twitter page and author page
• Luis Feliz Leon, The American Prospect, "Union Solidarity on Eve of Historic Amazon Warehouse Election"
• Luis Feliz Leon, The Nation, "Life and Death in the Poultry Capital of the World"
• Luis Feliz Leon, The New Republic, "Unemployment Nation"

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

• Jules Taylor, "Working People Theme Song"
• Cletus Got Shot, "Union Town"

We're back with Part II of our special mini-series on work and politics in the sex industry, guest-hosted by friend of the show Jessie Sage. Jessie is a writer, podcaster, phone sex operator, clip artist, and co-owner of Peepshow Media. In this rich and expansive two-part series, Jessie interviews sex worker, activist, writer, undocumented migrant, and DACA recipient from Honduras, Maya Morena. In Part II of their conversation, Maya and Jessie pick up where they left off last week and discuss the day-to-day labor that goes into being a sex worker, the images that sex workers have to maintain, and much more.

Additional links/info below...

• Maya's Twitter page and OnlyFans page
• Jessie's website and Twitter page
• Peepshow Media website, Twitter page, and Facebook page
• Maya Morena, City Limits, "Opinion: A Sex Worker Says Decriminalization Means a Safer Workplace"
• What Women* Want podcast, "Sex Work the Write Way with Jessie Sage"
• Emily McCombs, HuffPost, "'This Bill Is Killing Us': 9 Sex Workers On Their Lives In The Wake Of FOSTA"
• Fancy Feast, Buzzfeed, "5 Sex Workers Talk About Doing Their Jobs During COVID-19"

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

• Jules Taylor, "Working People Theme Song"
• The Good Lawdz, "Preachin' Dem Blues"

We're excited to share Part I of a special mini-series guest-hosted by friend of the show Jessie Sage! Jessie is a writer, podcaster, phone sex operator, clip artist, and co-owner of Peepshow Media (which everyone should check out). In this rich and expansive two-part series, Jessie interviews sex worker, activist, writer, undocumented migrant, and DACA recipient from Honduras, Maya Morena, about the politics of the sex industry, the history of vice, and much more.

Additional links/info below...

• Maya's Twitter page and OnlyFans page
• Jessie's website and Twitter page
• Peepshow Media website, Twitter page, and Facebook page
• Samanta Helou Hernandez, Mel Magazine, "Maya Morena and the Secret Lives of Undocumented Sex Workers"
• Jessie Sage, Peepshow Media, "When Sex Workers Break the Fourth Wall"

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

• Jules Taylor, "Working People Theme Song"
• Valery & the Greedies, "Bloody Vomit"

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed many serious and dangerous challenges for workers everywhere—not just for workers on the job, but for workers trying to exercise their right to organize. But there have also been unexpected bright spots on this front over the past year, including a boom in union drives at nonprofits around the United States. One of those nonprofits is the American Civil Liberties Union, where staff workers recently voted to unionize with the Nonprofit Professional Employees Union (NPEU). In this episode, we talk with two representatives from ACLU Staff United, Gillian Ganesan and Alex Ortiz, and NPEU President Kayla Blado about the unionization effort at the ACLU and the growing nonprofit labor movement.

Additional links/info below...

• Gillian's Twitter page
• Alex's Twitter page
• Kayla's Twitter page
• ACLU Staff United website and Twitter page
• NPEU website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• NPEU, "PRESS RELEASE: ACLU Staff Ask Leadership to Voluntarily Recognize Staff Union"
• Eli Rosenberg, The Washington Post, "ACLU Workers Are Forming a Union, The Latest in a Wave of Nonprofit Staffs to Organize"
• Hamilton Nolan, In These Times, "A Quiet Frenzy of Union Organizing Has Gripped the Nonprofit World"
• Eli Rosenberg, The Washington Post, "Workers Are Forming Unions at Nonprofits and Think Tanks. Their Bosses Aren't Always Happy"
• Kayla Blado, In These Times, "The Answer To Burnout At Work Isn't "Self-Care"—It's Unionizing"
• Hamilton Nolan, In These Times, "The Animal Legal Defense Fund Is Busting Its Union With a Smile"

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

• Jules Taylor, "Working People theme song"
• Astrometrics, "I Have Heard of a Place"

Working People is excited to announce that, along with our ongoing partnership with the amazing In These Times magazine, we are now partnered with The Real News Network in Baltimore!

In this episode, we sit down with Justin Whittaker for the first part of an ongoing series of interviews where we'll be talking to workers on all sides of the marijuana industry—in states where that work is legal and in states where it's not. Justin is originally from the Midwest, but now he lives all the way up near Fairbanks, Alaska, where he works at an organic weed-growing operation. Alaska was the second state in the U.S. to decriminalize cannabis decades ago; in 2014, it became the third state to legalize recreational use. Justin has seen different sides of the industry, in different states, both before and after legalization. We talk about his life and work, and we talk about the ways legalization has changed things in the marijuana industry for buyers, business owners, and workers.

Additional links/info below...

• The Tight Rope podcast, "Max Alvarez - The Tight Rope on The Real News"
• The Real News Network website
• In These Times magazine website
• Javier Hasse, Forbes, "Even as Overall Deals Declined, VC Investments in Cannabis Nearly Doubled Over 2019"
• Aubrey Wieber, Anchorage Daily News, "Alaska Marijuana Industry Works to Influence Local Politicians"
• Katie O'Reilly, Sierra, "A Higher Cause: Is It Possible to Consume Organic Cannabis?"
• Austa Somvichian-Clausen, National Geographic, "Organic Weed? Marijuana Growers Go Green"
• Josh Marcus, Rolling Stone, "Meet America's Most Powerful Cannabis Union"

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

• Jules Taylor, "Working People theme song"
• Robert Farmer, "This Is Our World, This Is Our Home"

Production workers at Cargill Turkey were unfairly dismissed on April 17, 2018, while trying to unionize. Listeners will probably recognize the name Cargill: based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, Cargill is the largest privately held corporation in the United States. And Cargill's reach is truly global, with operations around the world focusing on the trading, purchasing, distributing, and producing of agricultural commodities, energy, livestock, and ingredients for processed food. When workers at a Cargill starch plant in Bursa-Orhangazi tried to unionize under Tekgıda-İş (the Tobacco, Drink, Food and Allied Workers Trade Union of Turkey), they were dismissed for their union activity. Under Turkish law, companies like Cargill can simply pay fines for such human rights violations and factor it into the "cost of doing business"; however, these same companies are not required to reinstate unjustly dismissed workers, even if Turkish courts have definitively ruled that the dismissals were illegal.

For over 1000 days, these workers and Tekgıda-İş have been fighting an ongoing battle with Cargill to have their jobs reinstated. In this special episode (our first interview that is accessible to both English and Turkish speakers), we talk with Suat Karlikaya, a lead organizer with Tekgıda-İş, about Cargill Turkey's retaliatory dismissal of workers who tried to unionize—and what listeners in and beyond Turkey can do to show solidarity. English and Turkish translations are provided by Burcu Ayan of the IUF (the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations).

Additional links/info below...

• IUF Information Page: Fighting for Trade Union rights at Cargill Turkey (CARGİLL TÜRKİYE'DE SENDİKA HAKLARI MÜCADELESİ!)
• IUF website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• Tekgıda-İş website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• IUF, "January 11, 2021: 1000 days of fighting for rights at Cargill Turkey"
• IUF, "Cargill unions around the world call for an end to rights abuses at Cargill Turkey"
• Wikipedia, "Criticisms of Cargill"

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

• Jules Taylor, "Working People theme song"
• Ending Satellites, "A Place We Call Home"

This week, the first wave of children, teachers, and clinicians in the Chicago Public Schools system were required to appear at their schools for the first time in nearly a year. While COVID-19 cases and deaths have only increased (and increased dramatically) across the country since last spring, CPS officials and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot insist on reopening schools. What's worse, teachers who fear for their safety and the safety of their students and coworkers are being locked out of their employee accounts and having their pay docked if they refuse to return from teaching remotely. In this urgent mini-cast, we talk to Paula Ladin and Mariana Ruiz, two CPS special-ed educators, about the city's dangerous, reckless, and unnecessary reopening plan and the impact it is already having on students, teachers, their families, and their communities.

Additional links/info below...

• Chicago Teachers Union website and Twitter page
• Dawn Reiss, The Washington Post, "Chicago School System Locks Out Some Teachers, Withholds Pay for Not Returning to In-Person Instruction"
• Jermaine Nolen & Nader Issa, Chicago Sun Times, "CPS Teacher Tests Positive for COVID-19, Forcing Principal into Quarantine During 1st Week Back"
• Hannah Leone, Chicago Tribune, "As New COVID-19 Cases Emerge in Chicago Public Schools, Families Plea for Reinstatement of Locked-Out Teachers"

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

• Jules Taylor, "Working People theme song"

Well, that was ... quite a year. From the COVID-19 pandemic and the presidential election to mass protests against police violence and worker actions around the country, it's hard to even remember all that we went through in 2020. Luckily, right before New Year's Eve, we got together with four of the best young labor journalists around—Edward Ongweso Jr., Juliana Feliciano Reyes, Lauren Kaori Gurley, and Michael Sainato—to talk about the lessons we took away from the past year, and about what lies ahead.

Additional links/info below...

• Edward's Vice author page and Twitter page
• Edward's top stories from 2020: (1) "The Lockout: Why Uber Drivers in NYC Are Sleeping in Their Cars"; (2) "Proposition 22 Passes, But Uber and Lyft Are Only Delaying the Inevitable"; (3) "Uber Sells Off Sci-Fi Pipe Dreams. Exploiting Labor Is Its Only Plan"

• Juliana's Philadelphia Inquirer author page and Twitter page
• Juliana's top stories from 2020: (1) "How This Black UPS Worker Challenged Powerful Union Leaders in Philly, and Won"; (2) "Philadelphia's Labor Movement Faces a Reckoning Over the City's Powerful Police Union"; (3) "Trash Is Piling Up, But People Aren't Blaming Philly Sanitation Workers"

• Lauren's Vice author page and Twitter page
• Lauren's top stories from 2020: (1) "Target's Delivery App Workers Describe a Culture of Retaliation and Fear"; (2) "'I Could Show You Stuff You Wouldn't Believe:' Gravediggers Speak Out About Horrifying Conditions"; (3) "Secret Amazon Reports Expose the Company's Surveillance of Labor and Environmental Groups"

• Michael's Guardian author page and Twitter page
• Michael's top stories from 2020: (1) "Tesla Workers' Unemployment May Be Suspended If They Don't Return, Emails Show"; (2) "'I Cry Before Work': US Essential Workers Burned Out Amid Pandemic"; (3) "Walmart Cuts Workers' Hours but Increases Workload as Sales Rise Amid Pandemic"

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

• Jules Taylor, "Working People theme song"
• Hearse Pileup, "We're All Going to Hell"

In this special episode, we talk with three representatives of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades—Jim Williams (General Vice President), Kellie Morgan (Political Director & Community Organizer, District Council 77), and Salvador Herrera (Director of Organizing, District Council 88)—about labor's fight to pass the PRO Act. We break down what the PRO Act is, why passing it would institute a monumental shift in worker power, and how it would impact the daily realities of workers and organizers.

Additional links/info below...

• Pass the PRO Act website
• The International Union of Painters & Allied Trades website, Facebookpage and Twitter page
• IUPAT District Council 88's website
• IUPAT District Council 77's website
• Jeremy Gantz, In These Times, "House Passes Bill to Dramatically Strengthen the Power of Unions"
• Jim Williams, In These Times, "It's Time for the Democrats to Deliver for Workers. Fighting for the PRO Act Is the First Step"

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

• Jules Taylor, "Working People theme song"
• Jules Taylor, "Working People transition song"
• IUPAT, "Pass the PRO Act" (link to video)
• Doctor Turtle, "One Person Listening Now"

This is Part II of our special two-part episode with Tacoma longshore workers Zack Pattin and Brian "Skiff" Skiffington. Zack and Skiff are both members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 23 and organizing leaders with the ILWU Young Workers Committee. In Part I of our conversation with Zack and Skiff, we talked about their winding paths to working on the waterfront and about the beauty and madness of longshore work. In Part II, we take a deeper dive into the politics and history of the ILWU. We talk about what being part of the union has meant to Zack and Skiff, their families, and their coworkers—and we talk about why fixtures like union hiring halls are so important that workers fought and died for them.

Additional links/info below...

• Zack's Facebook page and Twitter page
• Brian's Facebook page
• ILWU Local 23's website and Facebook page
• The Ten Guiding Principles of the ILWU
• ILWU No. 23 Young Workers Committee Facebook page and Twitter page
• Zack Pattin & Brian Skiffington, LaborNotes, "Longshore Young Workers Come to the Aid of Tenants Facing Eviction"
• Stephen McFarland, "'With the Class-Conscious Workers Under One Roof': Union Halls and Labor Temples in American Working-Class Formation, 1880-1970 (dissertation)"
• Union Halls of the World Twitter page

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

• Jules Taylor, "Working People theme song"
• Docks, "Get Well"