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Working People

By: Working People
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  • Summary

  • Working People: A podcast by, for, and about the working class today (now in partnership with In These Times magazine and The Real News Network). Working People is a podcast about working-class lives in 21st-century America. In every episode, you'll hear interviews with workers from around the country, from all walks of life. We'll talk about their life stories, their jobs, politics, and families, their joys and hopes and frustrations. Overall, Working People aims to share and celebrate the diverse stories of working-class people, to remind ourselves that our stories matter, and to build a sense of shared struggle and solidarity between workers around the country.
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Episodes
  • Dispatch from Labor Notes & Railroad Workers United Conferences (Chicago, 2024)

    Dispatch from Labor Notes & Railroad Workers United Conferences (Chicago, 2024)
    Jul 8 2024
    Two months ago, from April 17-21, workers and labor organizers of all stripes convened in Chicago for the bi-annual Labor Notes conference, which overlapped with the Railroad Workers United convention. As the registration website rightly noted, “Labor Notes Conferences are the biggest gatherings of grassroots labor activists, union reformers, and all-around troublemakers out there." This is not a buttoned up convention of union officials; this is a real grassroots gathering of people on the frontlines of struggle, talking openly, honestly, and strategically about their struggles, victories, and defeats, about what we can all learn from one another as fellow workers and fighters, and about how we can all contribute to growing the labor movement as fellow members of that movement. In this on-the-ground episode, cohosted by Max and Mel Buer, we speak with attendees at the RWU convention, Labor Notes, and participants in the Labor for Palestine protest that took place outside of Labor Notes on April 19. Speakers include: Johnny Walker, a railroad worker and member of the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers—Transportation Division (SMART-TD) Local 610 in Baltimore; Matt Weaver, who has worked on the railroad since 1994, is a member of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees (BMWED-IBT) Local 2624, where he also serves as legislative director for his state; Marcie Pedraza, an electrician at Ford Chicago Assembly Plant and member of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 551; Jacob Morrison, a member of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), president of the North Alabama Labor Council, and cohost of The Valley Labor Report; Leticia Zavala, legendary farm labor organizer working with farm workers in Mexico and the United States, and a member of El Futuro Es Nuestro (It’s Our Future), a farmworker caucus within the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC, AFL-CIO); Colin Smalley, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) Local 777 in Chicago; Berenice Navarrete-Perez, vice president of the Association of Legislative Employees (ALE); Annie Shields, former journalist and union organizer with the NewsGuild of New York; and Axel Persson, a locomotive engineer in France and general secretary of the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT) Railway Workers Union in Trappes. Additional links/info below… Labor Notes website, Facebook page, and Twitter/X page Railroad Workers United website, Facebook page, and Twitter page El Futuro Es Nuestro – It's Our Future website and Facebook page Labor for Palestine website The Valley Labor Report YouTube channel, Facebook page, Twitter/X page, and Patreon Duncan Freeman, The Chief Leader: "At Labor Notes conference, a sense of mission and solidarity" Axel Persson, ML Today, "CGT leader speaks to Labor Notes conference" Martha Grevatt, Workers World, "Militant pro-Palestine demonstration during Labor Notes conference takes the street" 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... Jules Taylor, "Working People" Theme Song
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    1 hr and 29 mins
  • "Safe Staffing Now!": Baltimore Nurses at Largest Catholic Health Network in US Fight On for First Contract (w/ Nicki Horvat)

    "Safe Staffing Now!": Baltimore Nurses at Largest Catholic Health Network in US Fight On for First Contract (w/ Nicki Horvat)
    Jul 2 2024

    On the morning of Thursday, June 20, unionized nurses at Ascension St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore held a rally outside the hospital to raise awareness of their efforts to secure a first contract and to show management that they’re not backing down from their core demands for safe staffing and an operational model that puts patients and patient care first. "St. Agnes nurses are calling on Ascension to accept their proposals to improve safe staffing and, subsequently, nurse retention," a press release from National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU) stated. "Nearly 20 percent of nurses at St. Agnes began employment at the hospital after January 1 of this year. Meanwhile, just over a third of nurses have more than four years of experience at the hospital... The Catholic hospital system is one of the largest in the country with 140 hospitals in 19 states and also one of the wealthiest, with cash reserves, an investment company, and a private equity operation worth billions of dollars—and, because of its nonprofit status, is exempt from paying federal taxes." In this on-the-ground episode, we take you to the NNOC/NNU picket line and speak with Nicki Horvat, an RN in the Neonatal Intensive Care unit at Ascension St. Agnes and member of the bargaining team, about what she and her coworkers are fighting for.

    Additional links/info below…

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

    • NNOC/NNU Press Release: "Ascension Saint Agnes nurses demand hospital accept ‘Patients First,’ staffing enforcement policies"

    • Angela Roberts, The Baltimore Sun, "Saint Agnes nurses rally for better pay, more patient protections"

    • Gino Canella, The Real News Network, "An oral history of the 10-month St. Vincent Hospital strike"

    • Gino Canella, The Real News Network, "Striking nurses hold the line against investor-owned healthcare giant"

    • Robert Glatter, Peter Papadakos, & Yash Shah, Time Magazine, "American health care faces a staffing crisis and it’s affecting care"

    • Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "Kaiser workers win big after largest healthcare strike in US history"

    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...

    • Jules Taylor, "Working People" Theme Song
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    24 mins
  • In Brazil, the Climate Crisis Is Already Turning Working People into Climate Refugees (w/ Michael Fox)

    In Brazil, the Climate Crisis Is Already Turning Working People into Climate Refugees (w/ Michael Fox)
    Jun 24 2024

    “Southern Brazil is facing its worst climate tragedy ever," Latin-America-based journalist Mike Fox wrote from Brazil for the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) in early May. "Unprecedented floods have impacted 1.4 million people and forced more than 160,000 people from their homes... The images are shocking. Downtown Porto Alegre, the capital of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, is underwater... On May 2, a dam collapsed, unleashing an over 6-foot-high wave and worsening flooding in the area... Although the tragedy is a natural disaster, experts have pointed out that the lack of preparedness on the part of state and local officials may have contributed to the devastation. According to one report, Porto Alegre slashed funds for flooding prevention over the last three years and didn’t spend a cent on it in 2023.” In this episode, we talk with Mike about his reporting trip to Southern Brazil, the devastation he witnessed firsthand, and the conversations he had with poor and working-class people who have borne the worst impacts of the floods and who continue to bear the greatest costs of man-made climate chaos.

    Additional links/info below…

    • Michael Fox, The Real News Network/NACLA, Under the Shadow (podcast series)

    • Michael Fox Patreon page

    • Michael Fox, NACLA, "“They’re making it up as they go”: Inside the response to Brazil’s deadly floods"

    • Michael Fox, Al Jazeera, "‘The future is dark’: Brazilian businesses shattered by floods"

    • Michael Fox, Truthout, "Climate refugees are occupying abandoned buildings in Southern Brazil"

    • Bianca Graulau, The Real News Network, "The Puerto Ricans illegally occupying land to resist displacement"

    • Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "‘CSX has got to go!’ Industrially polluted South Baltimore residents want rail giant out of their community"

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

    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...

    • Jules Taylor, "Working People" Theme Song
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    54 mins
World Social Sciences
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