Broadcast on July 21, 2022 Hosted by Chris Garlock Sportswriter DAVE ZIRIN on the campaign to free women’s basketball star Brittney Griner, an active member of the Women's National Basketball Players Association who’s been detained in Russia for five months. Zirin also talks about plans to write a biography of historian – and onetime union organizer -- Howard Zinn. PLUS: ANTHONY ROMERO , UFCW 400 union rep, on getting out the union vote in Tuesday’s Maryland primary. Produced by Chris Garlock; e...
Jul 21, 2022•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on July 14, 2022 Hosted by Chris Garlock & Ed Smith Velina Brown , director of the San Francisco Mime Troupe’s new live musical, Back To The Way Things Were , playing free in San Francisco parks through Labor Day: In a country where we can finally stop wearing masks to get pizza and go to the movies, and where we again have a president who isn’t dumb as a two dollar ham, hard-working, middle-aged liberals Ralph and Alice wistfully yearn for The before Times, when things seemed norm...
Jul 17, 2022•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on July 14, 2022 Hosted by Chris Garlock & Ed Smith UFCW 1994’s Amy Millar reports on how labor is getting out the vote for the July 19 Maryland primary; UNITE HERE Local 25 Executive Secretary-Treasurer Paul Schwalb on how to find a good union hotel on fairhotel.org , plus today’s labor news headlines. Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Michael Nassella. @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod @UFCW1994 @UHLocal25 @unitehere...
Jul 14, 2022•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on July 7, 2022 Hosted by Chris Garlock & Ed Smith Sean Hendley , former president of AFSCME Local 3399, reports on how Takoma Park City Manager Jamal Fox has wasted more than $33,000 in city taxpayer funds on legal fees to fight a city employee’s request for six days of telework, which would have cost nothing. Plus labor news headlines: Americans have lost confidence in everything from organized religion to Congress, but their faith in unions is staying strong ; Production workers...
Jul 11, 2022•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on July 7, 2022 Hosted by Chris Garlock & Ed Smith Labor historian Joe McCartin reminds us that counting on the Supreme Court to uphold key rights was always a mistake, and journalist podcaster Errol Schweizer tells us Why Worker Organizing Is So Essential To The Food Industry . Plus original music from local folksinger Steve Jones . Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Michael Nassella and Kahlia Chapman. @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod @checkoutradio @George...
Jul 07, 2022•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on June 23, 2022 Hosted by Chris Garlock & Ed Smith After months of delays by the boss, Union Kitchen workers have finally won union recognition; UFCW Local 400 organizer Travis Acton reports. Then, it’s Back To The Way Things Were , a brand-new live musical from our friends at the San Francisco Mime Troupe; Resident Playwright Michael Gene Sullivan joins us for a preview . Plus, Kathy M. Newman wonders what the Van Gogh Immersive Experience can tell us about the relationship betwe...
Jun 23, 2022•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on June 9, 2022 Hosted by Chris Garlock & Ed Smith How did our movements in the south flip key states against Trump, hold the line in Virginia, and make gains states like in Florida and Texas against such great odds? The must-read book Power Concedes Nothing : How Grassroots Organizing Wins Elections” lays out the organizing work building up to the monumental 2020 election including what worked, what didn't, and how they approached the challenge of both "going broad" to win a cruci...
Jun 10, 2022•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on June 9, 2022 Hosted by Chris Garlock & Ed Smith Washington Teachers Union president Jacqueline Pogue Lyons on Saturday’s March for Our Lives against gun violence (12 noon at the Washington Memorial). “Our union has taken on this issue for years,” says the American Federation of Teacher, “fighting to keep our schools, streets and communities safe from the public health crisis that is gun violence in America.” Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Michael Nassella. @wpfw...
Jun 09, 2022•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on June 2, 2022 Hosted by Chris Garlock & Ed Smith The Great Labor Arts Exchange, usually held in Washington, DC, will be part of the annual Labor Notes conference coming up June 16th through 19th in Chicago. Judy Ancel, longtime producer/host at the Heartland Labor Forum radio show in Kansas City, and one of this year’s Joe Hill award-winners, joins us to report on both events as well as the role of labor radio and podcasts in the labor movement. Produced by Chris Garlock; ...
Jun 03, 2022•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls is coming up on June 18 and has a lot of labor support; Roz Pelles and David Mott discuss the demand for a living wage, affordable health care, housing and a democracy that guarantees dignity and respect for all. Plus labor news headlines, including Starbucks Is the Country’s Worst Labor Law Violator , Carvana cuts 12% of their workforce over email and Zoom , and CEO-Worker Pay Gap Widens—And Emp...
Jun 02, 2022•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on May 26, 2022 Hosted by Chris Garlock Union Veterans Council Executive Director Will Attig on why he got arrested with fellow union vets at the Warrior Met strike. What the 1937 Memorial Day Massacre has to tell us today, with Ahmed White, professor of law at the University of Colorado-Boulder and author of “The Last Great Strike: Little Steel, the CIO, and the Struggle for Labor Rights in New Deal America.” And Harold Meyerson , Editor At Large at The American Prospect, on the retur...
May 26, 2022•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on May 19, 2022 Hosted by Chris Garlock Bill Fletcher , Mike Wilson and Mark Gaston Pearce on the racist attack on Black shoppers and workers in Buffalo: does the mainstreaming of the baseless “replacement theory” by the GOP finally debunk the equally specious “Lone Wolf” theory? Plus: Peter Dreier on Major League Rebels & Baseball Rebels. Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Michael Nassella. @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod @BillFletcherJr @MarkGPearceWRI @UF...
May 19, 2022•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on May 12, 2022 Hosted by Chris Garlock Labor journalist KIM KELLY on her new book “ Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor ”, plus NALC Branch 142 President KEITH HOOKS on the Letter Carriers’ annual "Stamp out Hunger" Food Drive, Saturday, May 14 and why longtime organizer RICHARD BENSINGER thinks Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz “will go down in history as the Al Capone of union busters”. Plus the latest labor news headlines. Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Micha...
May 12, 2022•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on May 5, 2022 Hosted by Chris Garlock & Ed Smith Hayley Brown, VP for Organizing at the Nonprofit Employees Union (NPEU) : Reproductive rights are workers rights, and abortion access is a labor issue (Read NPEU’s statement here ) ; Damon Silvers on “Labor, Climate Change, and Innovation” and why working people are central to any solution to the climate change crisis. Plus labor news headlines: D.C. Circulator drivers strike for second day amid negotiations ; Apple workers in Maryl...
May 05, 2022•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on April 28, 2022 Hosted by Chris Garlock & Ed Smith On Workers Memorial Day , National Council for Occupational Safety and Health Communications Coordinator Melissa Moriarty on the Killed at Work and Dirty Dozen reports. Monsignor George Higgins, the leading “labor priest” of his era, passed away 20 years ago; Clayton Sinyai, Executive Director of the Catholic Labor Network and member of Laborers Local 11, reports on events honoring Higgins scheduled for May 1 and May 2 ( details ...
Apr 29, 2022•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on April 21, 2022 Hosted by Chris Garlock & Ed Smith Barista J FLETCHER on this week’s vote by workers at five Richmond Starbucks to unionize; JOHN DOHERTY (Painters union) on the April 23 Fight for Our Future rally for climate, care, jobs and justice ; ROBIN RUNGE on Stopping Gender-Based Violence and Harassment at Work: The Campaign for an ILO Convention ( April 26 book talk ); labor historian and journalist MICHAEL MATEJKA on the April 28 Steve Sutton Memorial Dedication in Mars...
Apr 21, 2022•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on April 14, 2022 Hosted by Chris Garlock & Ed Smith Chris Biondi , Training Director at the Washington DC Joint Plumbing Apprenticeship Committee talks about apprentices and Plumber Local 5’s April 21 Industry Day and Open House. Then, there are real questions about the future of the office in the wake of the pandemic; we take a look at the fascinating history of office design with Jennifer Kaufmann-Buhler , author of Open Plan: A Design History of the American Office . Labor news...
Apr 14, 2022•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on April 7, 2022 Hosted by Chris Garlock & Ed Smith American Prospect editor at large HAROLD MEYERSON on the historic win at the Amazon JFK8 warehouse, plus exciting news about big changes in labor law thanks to NLRB general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. Hundreds of workers at Howard University Hospital are planning a one-day strike next Monday; YRAW co-host Ed Smith, who’s Executive Director of the District of Columbia Nurses Association (DCNA), explains why. Commercial security offic...
Apr 07, 2022•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on March 31, 2022 Hosted by Chris Garlock On today’s show, Washington Hilton housekeepers were up in arms on Tuesday; we find out why from UNITE HERE Local 25’s Paul Schwalb. Then, the Montgomery County Council last week unanimously approved an expansion of the Prevailing Wage; Stephen Courtien , president of the Baltimore-D.C. Metro Building and Construction Trades Council tells us what that will mean for local building trades workers. Our final guest is longtime union organizer Daisy...
Mar 31, 2022•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on March 24, 2022 Hosted by Chris Garlock Movement Crystal City is the first major gym in the country to unionize; organizer Gus Mason joins us to explain why … then, Sunday was the first day of Spring and strikes have been popping up all over; Johnnie Kallas from Cornell's Labor Tracker Project updates us on their latest findings … And finally, if you were glued to this week’s Senate hearing on the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court, here’s a case no o...
Mar 26, 2022•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on March 17, 2022 Hosted by Chris Garlock & Ed Smith Compilation of reports about Ukraine from shows in the Labor Radio Podcast Network , including Your Rights At Work , The Dig , Working 4 a Livin , The Rick Smith Show and Work Week Radio . Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Michael Nassella. @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod @thedigradio @4_workin @RickSmithShow @labormedianow...
Mar 17, 2022•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on March 10, 2022 Hosted by Chris Garlock & Ed Smith On Wednesday, Mayor Muriel Bowser signed an agreement with unions that represent more than 11,000 DC government employees; we find out more from AFSCME Council 20 Executive Director Robert Hollingsworth. Then, We Are Not Slaves: State Violence, Coerced Labor and Prisoners' Rights in Postwar America ; this book, first published in 2020, is now out in paperback and we’re joined by author Robert Chase and prisoner rights advocate Ku...
Mar 10, 2022•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on March 3, 2022 Hosted by Chris Garlock & Ed Smith Longtime labor reporter Steven Greenhouse on Two-Faced Anti-Unionism ; sportswriter Dave Zirin on the MLB lockout, and Doug Crandell on Twenty-Two Cents an Hour: Disability Rights and the Fight to End Subminimum Wages . Plus labor news headlines: REI Workers in New York Vote to Unionize ; Arizona Starbucks becomes first outside New York to unionize ; Union Activists Arrested at Amazon warehouse in Staten Island . Produced by Chris...
Mar 04, 2022•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on February 24, 2022 Hosted by Chris Garlock & Ed Smith The American people don't want another war. The Ukrainian people don't want a war. The Russian people don't want war. We talk with longtime labor and antiwar activist Gene Bruskin about a working-class analysis of the crisis in Ukraine. Then, what can we learn about America from Starbucks and the current explosion of organizing by their baristas? We visit with Bryant Simon, author of Everything but the Coffee: Learning about A...
Feb 25, 2022•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on February 17, 2022 Hosted by Chris Garlock & Ed Smith One Fair Wage president Saru Jayaraman with an update on the DC and U.S. Congress campaigns, plus a special 9 to 5 screening with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin on 2/25; Cathy Feingold on the Jerry Black Scholarship Fund at the TraRon Center; Timothy J. Lombardo on Blue Collar Conservatism: Frank Rizzo's Philadelphia and Populist Politics . Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Michael Nassella. @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unio...
Feb 18, 2022•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on February 10, 2022 Hosted by Chris Garlock & Ed Smith Reports from the folks who are organizing a union at, yes, Union Kitchen here in Washington, DC, and at Starbucks in Virginia. Then, with the PRO Act blocked in the U.S. Senate by Republicans, has President Biden found another way for American workers who want to organize? Actually, he’s found almost 70 ways; we hear more from Damon Silvers at the AFL-CIO. Today’s music: Union Town, by The Nightwatchman himself, Tom Morello. P...
Feb 10, 2022•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on February 3, 2022 Hosted by Chris Garlock February 4 is Transit Equity Day and ATU Local 689 President Raymond Jackson and Labor Network For Sustainability Maryland Director Elizabeth Bunn join us to talk about why transit affects working people the most. Then, Where Do Grocery Prices Come From? Corporate consolidation and profiteering, that’s where; Errol Schweizer , host of The Checkout Podcast , explains. Finally, there’s a brand-new book out this month, "Revolutionary Nonviolence...
Feb 04, 2022•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on January 27, 2022 Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith Erica Smiley (Jobs with Justice) and Sarita Gupta (Ford Foundation's Future of Work) on their new book, “ The Future We Need, Organizing for a Better Democracy in the Twenty-First Century,” plus 1199SEIU organizer James Crosby on “Low-wage workers prop up the nursing home industry. They’re quitting in droves.” Today’s music: Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5,” which hit #1 on January 28, 1981. Plus labor news headlines: King Soopers workers...
Jan 27, 2022•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on January 20, 2022 Hosted by Chris Garlock Longtime union organizer Bob Muehlenkamp, who’s written an introduction to a new “activist” edition of Confessions of a Union Buster , says a half-century of union busting has eroded American democracy. Then we’ve got a brand-new song from “the singing elevator constructor,” and SpudWrench himself drops by for a visit. Last up is Jim Russell, whose book The Labor Guide to Retirement Plans explores the damages caused by the privatization of re...
Jan 20, 2022•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Broadcast on January 13, 2022 Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith The AFL-CIO’s Bill Samuel on the racist anti-democratic roots of the filibuster, nurses hold a national day of action , Elise Bryant previews the annual MLK Gonna Take Us All Ball and Donald Cohen on The Privatization of Everything . Plus: labor news headlines and music from the DC Labor Chorus. Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Michael Nassella and Ciera Shine. @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod @AFLCIO @li...
Jan 13, 2022•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
