Broadcast on June 3, 2021 Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith This week's show: MD Dems and labor leaders are denouncing Governor Hogan’s efforts to end supplemental unemployment insurance payments; we hear from UNITE HERE 25 Executive Secretary-Treasurer John Boardman…Then we get a report from Will Attig, Executive Director of the Union Veterans Council on how veterans joined the picket line at the Mineworker’s Warrior Met strike last week. And we discuss class, country music and social change...
Jun 03, 2021•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on May 27, 2021 Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith This week's show: Wednesday’s deadly shooting at the maintenance and dispatch center for the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority in San Jose, California has once again raised the issues of workplace violence and mental health. We talk with Nurse Consultant – and DCNA member -- Laverne Plater. Also, Strathmore Music Center is threatening to replace ticket-sellers there with machines; Treasurers and Ticket Sellers Union, IATSE ...
May 27, 2021•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on May 20, 2021 Hosted by Chris Garlock and David Stephen This week's show: Washington Gas workers (Teamsters 96) blow the whistle on corporate greed. Organizer Steve Lanning (LiUNA 11) on workers’ right to strike. And Brittany Scott on Ending Racial Discrimination in Industrial Temp Hiring Through Innovative Enforcement. Plus: WPFW’s Spring Pledge Drive; click here to support Jazz & Justice in the nation’s capital. Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia...
May 20, 2021•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on May 13, 2021 Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant This week's show: ATU 689 shop steward Tonia White on why MetroAccess Operations Control Center workers voted this week to authorize a strike. Alejandro Ortiz on how the ACLU staff union won voluntary recognition. The American Prospect’s Harold Meyerson on the PRO Act's prospects and "Biden’s Good-Paying Union Jobs? Here’s How to Get Them." Plus: WPFW’s Spring Pledge Drive; click here to support Your Rights At Work in the ...
May 14, 2021•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on May 6, 2021 Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith This week's show: The AFL-CIO’s 30th annual Death On The Job report…DC Labor Chorus’ annual spring concert preview… Nikko Bilitza from DC Jobs with Justice r eports on the Essential Workers Bill of Rights…and Gabriel Winant discusses his book The Next Shift: The Fall of Industry and the Rise of Health Care in Rust Belt America . PLUS: We Did Not Come This Far , by the DC Labor Chorus. Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nase...
May 07, 2021•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on April 22, 2021 Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith This week's show: David Stephen, MWC political director, on today’s historic House vote on DC statehood; Ginny Diamond, NoVA Labor president, on the Volvo worker strike in Dublin, VA; Lane Windham, Kalmanovitz Initiative Associate Director, on Constructing a New Social Compact: A Public Forum on Empowering the Post-Pandemic Working Class (April 28 – May 1, 2021). Plus: D.C. Vote by the Chopteeth Afrofunk Big Band. Produced by Chris...
Apr 22, 2021•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on April 15, 2021 Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith This week's show: Remembering the life and work of Washington Teachers Union Local 6 president Liz Davis, who died April 4. Guests: Fedrick Ingram, AFT Secretary-Treasurer; Dyana Forester, Metro Washington Council president; Jos Williams, former MWC president, currently serves on the Steering Committee of The Black Coalition against COVID; Dena Briscoe, APWU, Nation’s Capital and Southern MD Local. Plus listeners call in with their...
Apr 15, 2021•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on April 8, 2021 Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith This week's show: AFL-CIO Communications Director Tim Schlittner on the PRO Act Digital Day of Action today ( Click here to call your rep! ); Moment of Silence for WTU 6 president Liz Davis; latest labor news headlines, including our new Bad Bosses feature and peeing in bottles at Amazon (yes, it’s really true!). Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia. @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod @timschlit...
Apr 08, 2021•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on April 1, 2021 Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith Breaking news: AFL-CIO reports that the federation’s headquarters have been renamed the Scott Walker Center for Labor Solidarity, noting that “Nobody has done more to unite and galvanize the Labor Movement than the former Wisconsin Governor.” This week's show: Constant turnover, extended vacancies, low compensation, inconsistent policy enforcement and patterns of discrimination at the Duke University Press has sparked an organizing ...
Apr 01, 2021•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on March 25, 2021 Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant This week's show: Music by and about working women from Anne Feeney, Bev Grant, Etta James, Alicia Keys, Annie Lennox, the Rose City Kings, Nina Simone, Keb' Mo' & Roseanne Cash. And we celebrate the birthday of Aretha Franklin, The Queen of Soul. PLUS: Bev Grant and Ballad of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire ( March 25, 1911) and Seeds Of Freedom by the R.J. Phillips Band for Óscar Romero – the archbishop of San Salvado...
Mar 26, 2021•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on March 18, 2021 Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith This week's show: Labor movement unites in condemnation of murders of female Asian workers in Atlanta; fire fighters battle Virginia’s Jim Crow legacy; Who is Keolis and why are they hurting local transit workers? Fitness workers unite! APALA Grieves for the Asian Women Who Were Victims of Targeted Shootings in Georgia, and Condemns Misogyny and White Supremacy that Motivated These Murders : Virginia Rodino, Maryland coordinator of...
Mar 18, 2021•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on March 11, 2021 Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith This week's show: What’s been the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on DC-area workers and their unions? First-hand reports on the toll -- and the ongoing struggles -- from hotel workers ( John Boardman, Executive Secretary-Treasurer , UNITE HERE 25), supermarket workers ( Mark Federici , president, UFCW Local 400), DC teachers ( Elizabeth Davis , president of the Washington Teachers Union) and janitors, security guards and airport w...
Mar 12, 2021•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on March 4, 2021 Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith This week's show: Pushing to extend Unemployment Insurance benefits with Judy Conti, Government Affairs Director at the National Employment Law Project… "Essential Worker Wednesdays" and the Maryland Essential Workers Protection Act (MEWPA), with Chris Stevenson, analyst for 1199SEIU… Solidarity Forever , with Pete Seeger and special guest Joe Biden … And Re-Union: How Bold Labor Reforms Can Repair, Revitalize, and Reunite the Unite...
Mar 04, 2021•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on February 25, 2021 Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith This week's show: EPI Policy Analyst Margaret Poydock on the story behind the 2020 decline in the number of striking workers . David Paul Kuhn on his book THE HARDHAT RIOT: Nixon, New York City, and the Dawn of the White Working-Class Revolution . Music: Strike (1970 funk tune by Union). PLUS: it’s WPFW’s annual Winter Pledge Drive; pledge at 202-588-9739 or online ; be sure to scroll down to Your Rights At Work to show your sup...
Feb 25, 2021•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on February 17, 2021 Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith This week's show: Special Black Labor History Month show: Peter Cole on “ Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly ” (2nd Edition) and Dr. Laura Warren Hill on “ Strike the Hammer: The Black Freedom Struggle in Rochester, New York, 1940-1970 ” (March 2021). Peter Cole is Professor of History at Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois; Laura Warren Hill is Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies, Blo...
Feb 18, 2021•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on February 11, 2021 Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith This week's show: The AFL-CIO’s Cathy Feingold and Brian Finnegan report live from "The Sound of Democracy: A Global Noise Barrage for Myanmar" action at the Embassy of Myanmar in Washington, DC. Jamie McCallum on his new book “Worked Over: How Round-the-Clock Work Is Killing the American Dream.” He argues that labor’s next big battle may be over not wages but time. PLUS Labor news headlines and “Ampun Bang Jago” (Ease up,...
Feb 12, 2021•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on February 4, 2021 Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith This week's show: Stephen Lerner, Marilyn Sneiderman, Harold Meyerson and Joe McCartin remember John Sweeney, who led the AFL-CIO from 1995 to 2009 . John Sweeney died on Monday at his home in Bethesda, Maryland; he was 86. American labor and community organizer Stephen Lerner worked with Sweeney at SEIU to create the Justice for Janitors campaign in the mid-Eighties. Marilyn Sneiderman is Executive Director of the Center for Inn...
Feb 04, 2021•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on January 28, 2021 Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith This week's show: Labor journalist Sarah Jaffe on her new book Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone . Richard Loeb, AFGE Senior Policy Counselor on President Biden revoking Trump’s Executive Orders targeting federal workers’ rights. Sophia Miyoshi, Restaurant Opportunities Center-DC Lead Organizer on the upcoming webinar on Your Rights At Work In A Pandemic (Thursday, January...
Jan 28, 2021•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on January 21, 2021 Hosted by Chris Garlock This week's show: Joe McCartin on Biden’s firing of Peter Robb, Trump-appointed general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board, who helped Reagan bust PATCO in 1981. McCartin wrote "Collision Course: Ronald Reagan, the Air Traffic Controllers, and the Strike that Changed America." Becky Kolins Givan on “Strike For The Common Good: Fighting for the Future of Public Education” ; she’ll be discussing this online next Monday, ...
Jan 21, 2021•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on January 14, 2021 Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith This week's show: John Boardman, UNITE HERE Local 25 on calls for DC-area hotel closures and transit safety procedures to protect staff and public from right-wing violence. Anita Jenkins , Chief Executive Officer at Howard University Hospital, clears up the myths and realities about the COVID vaccine. Richard Schweid on “The Caring Class.” Plus: Maryland My Maryland : The Free State Song. Hear a proposed replacement for the state...
Jan 14, 2021•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on January 7, 2021 Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith This week's show: John Boardman (UNITE HERE 25), Jaime Contreras (SEIU 32BJ) and Mark Federici (UFCW 400) on how DC-area workers were affected by Wednesday's insurrection and how they're surviving the pandemic. Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, which is demanding an investigation into the federal and local police planning and response to yesterday's events and Harold Meyerson , American Prospect ed...
Jan 08, 2021•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on December 31, 2020 Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith This week's show: Chris and Ed say goodbye to 2020 with a dozen work-themed songs, including Gonna Vote Your Asses Out! (Emma's Revolution), A Matter of Time (Los Lobos), Factory (Bruce Springsteen), Welcome to the Working Week (Elvis Costello), Working Man's Blues (Merle Haggard), Big In The Body/All You Fascists Bound To Lose (The Selecter), Together (For King and Country), Working-Class Hero (John Lennon), Wake up Everybody (...
Dec 31, 2020•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on December 24, 2020 Chris Garlock and Ed Smith are off for the holiday; they'll be back next week with a New Year's Eve all-labor music call-in show. This week's show: "People always think this story is about you,” Bob Crachit tells Scrooge in this original radio drama based on the Charles Dickens classic "A Christmas Carol." “But it ain’t about you, it’s about us - and how we let ourselves get infected with your ideas, your greed, your lies, its you steppin’ over the hung...
Dec 26, 2020•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on December 17, 2020 Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith This week's show: A Red Carol ; Daniel Savio, Music Producer and member of the San Francisco Mime Troupe Collective , talks about the Mime Troupe's first-ever radio play A Red Carol, which airs next week on Christmas Eve at 1pm on Your Rights At Work. Workers in holiday movies: Kathy Newman, Associate Professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University, discusses the workers who make your favorite holiday movies possible. Read he...
Dec 17, 2020•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on December 10, 2020 Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith This week's show: The best labor books of 2020, with TIM SHEARD, Hardball Press publisher and author of the Lenny Moss mysteries, and PATRICK DIXON, Managing Editor at LABOR: Studies in Working-Class History. YEMISRACH WOLDE, Ethiopian Community Center on the upcoming DC Pay Stub Clinic. Plus: Fallen Heroes: Songs for Essential Workers by The Pandemics. Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Michael Nasella. @wpfwdc @aflcio #1...
Dec 11, 2020•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on December 3, 2020 Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith This week's show: Sam Epps , Unite Here Local 25 Political Director, on the “Displaced Workers Right to Reinstatement and Retention Amendment Act” or “Right to Return to Work” for DC workers. Sara Nelson , president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO, on the crisis facing American workers and the urgent need for economic relief. Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Ciera Shine. @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #l...
Dec 04, 2020•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on November 19, 2020 Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith This week's show: Metro Washington Council president Dyana Forester reports on the latest on efforts by DC school unions to keep students safe; plus why postal workers took to the streets across the country this week. Tales of the Resistance; the final episode! Will the Resistance become a Revolution, or will the fascist corporate overlords maintain their control over the workers? Find out in the last installment of this grippin...
Nov 19, 2020•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on November 12, 2020 Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith This week's show: DC City Councilmember Elissa Silverman discusses extended UI benefits, troubleshooting the latest issues, and the upcoming oversight hearing on outstanding Department of Employment Services issues. PLUS: latest labor news headlines and callers weigh in with their questions. Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Kaliah. @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod @tweetelissa...
Nov 12, 2020•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on November 5, 2020 Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith This week's show: Bill Fletcher, Jr . explains how the 2020 election proves the existence of zombies (and reveals his simple 3-step Zombie Test). Callers weigh in on this and much much more. Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Myke “The Man” Nasella. @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod @BillFletcherJr
Nov 05, 2020•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on October 29, 2020 Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith This week's show: The cliff-hanger Episode 9 of the San Francisco Mime Troupe’s Tales of the Resistance radio drama. Will the Resistance become a Revolution? Or will the fascist corporate overlords maintain their control over the workers? Plus: Metro Washington Council Political Director David Stephen on labor-endorsed DC-area candidates and why Montgomery County voters should vote against Question B. Labor headlines: Kroger work...
Oct 29, 2020•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
