Kayla Denker is a military veteran and a trained archaeologist who has worked in the private sector and for the US Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. She is also a trans woman living in America, and every day she navigates the difficult and increasingly dangerous terrain of living her life as an out trans person—estrangement from unaccepting family, hostile encounters in public, and a growing right-wing political crusade hellbent on scapegoating LGBTQ+ people as the ultimate evil and the source of society's ills, stripping them of their rights, and outwardly calling for the elimination of trans people from society.

Bryan Mack is a second-generation railroad worker from Florence, South Carolina, with a Masters in Music Performance. Both Bryan and his father worked for CSX Transportation, each hiring out at times when there were statistically few Black employees or employees of color working on the railroads. For 17 years, Bryan has worked as a conductor for CSX; in that time, he has seen and experienced firsthand the worsening conditions as the industry has been taken over by greedy executives and upper-level managers hellbent on cutting costs and maximizing profits for their shareholders at the expense of workers, customers, and the public at large. As part of our continuing coverage of the crisis on the nation's railroad system, we talk with Bryan about his life and work on the railroads, and about the good, bad, and ugly parts of the industry that outsiders may not see, including the discriminatory treatment that Bryan and other workers of color have faced on the job—up to CSX's recent decision to fire him under dubious circumstances.  

Additional links/info below...

• US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: “Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal” 
• Railroad Workers United website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• Eric Arnesen, Harvard University Press, Brotherhoods of Color: Black Railroad Workers and the Struggle for Equality
• Mike L., The Real News Network, "A Carman's Perspective on the East Palestine Derailment and the Railroad Industry as a Whole"
• Mel Buer, The Real News Network, "What Union Pacific and the Media Aren’t Telling You About the Baker, CA, Train Derailment"
• Mel Buer, The Real News Network, "Corporate Billionaires Are Wrecking the Supply Chain. Just Look at the Railroads"
• Working People, "Rail Workers of the World, Unite! (w/ Ross Grooters, Cat Cray, Clayton Clive, & Matthieu Bolle-Reddat)"

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

Graduate student-workers at the University of Michigan are on strike for the second time in three years, officially hitting the picket line this week. Speaking to The Michigan Daily, Amir Fleischmann, chair of the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) Contracts Committee, said, "Grad workers are very frustrated. They’re struggling to pay rent. They’re struggling to afford childcare. They lack access to gender-affirming care. And I think we’re saying enough is enough. The University needs to give us a fair contract now.” On top of that, the University of Michigan administration is once again seeking to weaponize the courts to end the strike, filing an Unfair Labor Practice Charge against the union, claiming that the strike violates the university's existing contract with the union. In this urgent mini-cast, we talk with Alejo Stark, a grad worker and rank-and-file member of GEO, to get an update on the strike, the response from the administration, and what listeners can do to show support for GEO and its members. 

Disclaimer: Max is a former GEO member and earned his PhDs from the University of Michigan. 

Additional links/info below...

• GEO website, Facebook page, Twitter page, and Instagram 
• GEO Strike Fund 
• Miles Anderson & Matthew Shanbom, The Michigan Daily, "GEO Commences Strike Against UMich at 10:24 a.m."
• Meredith Bruckner, Click On Detroit, "University of Michigan Files Unfair Labor Practice Charge Against Striking Student Workers"
• Leah Graham, Barbara Collins, Emma Stein, & Liat Weinstein, The Michigan Daily, "University of Michigan Asks Court to Issue Injunction to Halt Graduate Student Strike"

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

Things are getting very dark in Florida, and educators at all levels have found themselves on the frontlines of a reactionary political crusade led by Republican governor Ron DeSantis. "As the new semester began," Florida-based journalist Michael Sainato recently reported, "teachers throughout Florida were faced with new state laws strictly limiting curricula—prompting schools to remove droves of books from their classrooms and libraries for fear of being in violation of the draconian but opaque new laws. An already-chilling reality gripping the third most populous state is getting even chillier in the wake of controversial legislation such as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill and the Stop Woke Act, which both went into effect in July 2022." What is it like teaching in DeSantis's Florida today? For those who haven't already fled the state or left the profession altogether, what do these sweeping, draconian policy changes translate to on the day-to-day level for educators, and how can we stand in solidarity with them? In this episode, we talk with Philip Belcastro and Brennen Pickett, two public high school English teachers and union members in St. Petersburg, Florida, and the hosts of the PCTA FYRE podcast.  

Additional links/info below...

• PCTA FYRE podcast (listen and subscribe)
• Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association pespa.org/home"> website, Facebook page, Twitter page, and Instagram 
• Kerry Sheridan, WUSF, "Tallahassee Isn't Asking What Teachers Think. So They Started a Podcast"
• Michael Sainato, The Real News Network, "‘It’s Disrupted All of My Lesson Plans’: Florida Ramps Up Book Bans, Censorship"
• Michael Sainato, The Real News Network, "Florida’s Racist and Anti-LGBTQ Bills Are Already Having a Chilling Effect"
• McKenna Schueler, Orlando Weekly, "All the Anti-LGBTQ+ Laws Being Proposed in Florida — And How You Can Fight Back"
• McKenna Schueler, Orlando Weekly, "‘This Is Our Future’: UCF Students Join Statewide Student Protest of DeSantis’ ‘Dystopian’ Education Policies"
• Ariel Schiller, WTXL Tallahassee, "Senate Bill 256 Would Change Florida's Unions"
• Fabiola Cineas, Vox, "Ron DeSantis’s War on “Woke” in Florida Schools, Explained"

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

At colleges and universities across the country, a heated battle is playing out right now over workers' right to organize and have a say over how the institutions they keep afloat with their labor are run. From graduate student-worker unionization efforts and strikes at Temple University, the University of California, Columbia University, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern University, Northeastern University, the University of Chicago, and Indiana University, to faculty strikes (and near-strikes) at the University of Illinois at Chicago, The New School, Howard University, etc., to workers across the higher ed sector striking in the UK, the academic labor movement is one of the most explosive sites of labor struggle right now. Meanwhile, the administrative class is working overtime to not only slow down this movement, but to squash it altogether. As we speak, full-time and adjunct faculty at Rutgers University are prepared to strike for the first time in school history after months and months of bad-faith bargaining and union-busting from the university administration; at the same time, the Duke University administration has not only refused to acknowledge its graduate student-workers' right to unionize, but it has vowed to go to the National Labor Relations Board in the hopes of stripping that right from graduates at all private universities. 

In this panel episode, we talk with worker-organizers from Duke and Rutgers about the struggles taking place at their institutions and across higher ed. Panelists include: Matt Thomas, a PhD student in the English Department at Duke University and co-chair of the Duke Graduate Student Union; Kristina Mensik, a PhD student in the Political Science Department at Duke University and a member of the Duke Graduate Student Union; Bryan Sacks, an adjunct professor of Religion and Philosophy at Rutgers and vice president of the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union (PTLFC-AAUP-AFT); Todd Wolfson, associate professor of Journalism and Media Studies at Rutgers and general vice president of Rutgers AAUP-AFT

Additional links/info below...

• Duke Graduate Student Union website, Facebook page, Twitter page, and Instagram
• Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union ptlfc.org/">website and Twitter page
• Rutgers AAUP-AFT website, Facebook page, Twitter page, and Instagram
• Higher Ed Labor United (HELU) website, Facebook page, Twitter page, and Instagram
• Matt's Twitter page
• Kristina's owen-mensik.com/">website and Twitter page
• Todd's faculty page and Twitter page
• Alex Press, Jacobin, "Duke University Is Trying to Turn Back Time on Graduate Worker Unions"
• Deepa Kumar, Truthout, "One of US’s Largest Public Universities Could See First Strike in Its 257 Years"
• Nancy Solomon, Gothamist, "With 94% Vote, Rutgers Faculty Tells Union Leaders They Can Call a Strike"
• Indigo Olivier, Teen Vogue, "Graduate Unions: Why Student Workers at University of California, Temple, More Are Striking"
• Dave Kamper, Labor Notes, "What’s Fueling the Graduate Worker Union Upsurge?"

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 October of last year, over 100 workers represented by five labor unions—including production, distribution, advertising, and accounts receivable staff—walked off the job on an unfair labor practice strike at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The strike began after the newspaper's management, Block Communications, which is owned by the Block family, cut off health insurance for employees on Oct. 1. As Michael Sainato reports at The Guardian, "The strike is unfolding in a US media industry that has seen widespread layoffs over the past decade with newspapers hit especially hard. Workers at the Post-Gazette have been working without a union contract since March 2017, claiming they haven’t received any pay raises in 16 years." 

Workers are approaching their sixth month on strike, and it has been a long, ugly fight. This past weekend, according to a press release from The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, "A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette scab truck driver assaulted two striking workers at a South Side picket line late Saturday night. The unprovoked assault sent one striker to the hospital with a broken jaw, which required surgery. Both workers were stripped of their health insurance by actions of the PG." In this episode, we talk with Steve Mellon, a veteran multimedia journalist and staff photographer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, whose work has been featured in The New York Times, Fortune, Forbes, Time, and USA Today. We talk with Steve about his career in journalism, how the industry has changed over the past 30 years, what it's been like to be on strike for the past five months, and what we can all do to help. 

Additional links/info below...

• Steve's Twitter and Website
• Donate to Support Striking Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Workers
• The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh website, Facebook page, Twitter page, and Instagram
• The Pittsburgh Union Progress website, Twitter page, and Instagram
• Steve Mellon, University of Pittsburgh Press, After the Smoke Clears: Struggling to Get By in Rustbelt America
• Michael Sainato, The Guardian, "Pittsburgh Newspaper Workers Go on Strike Over Unfair Labor Practice"
• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "Striking Workers Need Our Help to Keep Fighting in 2023"
• Jamie Wiggan, Pittsburgh City Paper, "Striking Worker Struck in the Face as Post-Gazette Labor Angst Spills Over"
• Jordana Rosenfeld, Pittsburgh City Paper, "Judge Finds Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Management Violated Workers' Rights"

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

While there are some stronger and broader laws in particular states, there is currently no federal standard defining, let alone outlawing, workplace bullying if the case does not involve harassment or discrimination of a member of a “protected status group” based on their race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, or disability. And yet, according to a 2021 survey commissioned by the Workplace Bullying Institute, 30% of adult Americans say they are currently being bullied or have experienced bullying at work, and that number jumps up to 39% for the currently employed Americans who were surveyed. That’s not a small, insignificant problem. That’s a lot of the working population. And the results also show that instances of bullying have actually increased in recent years with the expansion of remote work. But advocates are pushing legislators in different states to strengthen laws to protect workers from bullying in the workplace, and there are signs of hope concerning a bill in Oregon that would do just that. In this mini-cast, we speak with Misty Orlando, who has been the primary grassroots lobbyist for the bill, as well as Dr. Jennifer Fraser, author of The Bullied Brain, and Jerry Carbo, president of the National Workplace Bullying Coalition and professor of management at the Grove College of Business at Shippensburg University.

Additional links/info below...

• Misty's Twitter page
• Jennifer's website and Twitter page
• National Workplace Bullying Coalition website, Twitter page, and Facebook page
• Dr. Jennifer Fraser, Rowman & Littlefield, The Bullied Brain: Heal Your Scars and Restore Your Health 
• KMUZ, Willamette Wake Up, "Workplace Psychological Safety Act: Combating Bullying in the WorkPlace"
• Jefferson Public Radio, "Oregon Legislators Urged to Support Workplace Psychological Safety Act"
• Maximillian Alvarez, Breaking Points, "Max Alvarez: A DEADLY, Silent Epidemic of Workplace Abuse is Growing"
• Working People, "Happy Birthday, Evan (w/ Amy Chamberlin & Jana Murphy)"

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

We hosted another Working People live show on Feb. 22 in New York City, in collaboration with the Action Builder / Action Network team and The People's Forum. In this panel discussion, introduced by Amazon Labor Union president Chris Smalls, Max speaks with worker-organizers from around the country about why they and their coworkers decided not to quit their jobs but to commit to improving their workplaces, what the day-to-day work of organizing looks like, and how you—yes, you—can get involved and help grow the labor movement. Panelists include: Vince Quiles of Home Depot Workers United in Philadelphia; Tafadar Sourov of Laborers Local 79 in NYC; Sarah Beth Ryther of Trader Joe's United in Minneapolis; and Riley Fell of Starbucks Workers United in Baltimore. 

Additional links/info below...

• Vince's Twitter page and TikTok 
• Home Depot Workers United Twitter page
• Laborers Local 79 website, Twitter page, and Facebook page
• Trader Joe's United website, Twitter page, and Instagram 
• Trader Joe’s United Solidarity Fund 
• Riley's Instagram 
• Starbucks Workers United website, Twitter page, and Instagram
• Action Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• Action Builder website
• The People's Forum website, Twitter page, and Facebook page
• Amazon Labor Union website, Facebook page, Twitter page, and Instagram
• Working People, "Vince Quiles"
• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "He Tried to Organize Home Depot's First Union. Now He's Unemployed"
• Jeff Schuhrke & Sarah Beth Ryther, Jacobin, "Trader Joe’s Workers Have Won Their First Unions in America"
• Working People, "Alex P."
• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "This NYC Construction Union Is Reaching Out to Undocumented and Non-Union Workers. The Bosses Don’t Like It"
• Working People, "New York Is a Union Town (w/ Chaz Rynkiewicz)"
• Ashley Bishop, The Nation, "Immigrant Construction Workers Fight Back Against Exploitation"
• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "The Historic, Youthful, Rank-and-File Movement to Unionize Starbucks"
• Maximillian Alvarez, Breaking Points, "Starbucks Leads Corporate CRIME WAVE To Crush Union Workers"

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

The historic union election victory at the JFK8 Amazon warehouse on Staten Island sent shockwaves throughout the US and beyond, but New York is not the only place Amazon workers are organizing. In Moreno Valley, California, workers at the ONT8 warehouse have been doing the painstaking work of organizing for years, and now they are attempting to unionize with the independent Amazon Labor Union, facing the same union-busting playbook from Amazon management that workers in Staten Island, Bessemer, Chicago, etc. have faced. We talk with Nannette Plascencia, who has worked at Amazon since 2015 and has led the unionization effort at ONT8, and Ivan Baez, a member of the union organizing committee and a former ONT8 employee who was recently fired in a suspected act of retaliation for his organizing activity.  

Additional links/info below...

• Amazon Workers United4Change (ONT8) Instagram 
• GoFundMe: Amazon Workers United4Change (ONT8) 
• Amazon Labor Union website, Facebook page, Twitter page, and Instagram
• Christopher Salazar, The Frontline Observer, "observer.com/anti-union-campaign-at-amazon-ont-8-aims-to-silence-and-interrogate-amazon-workers-says-united-for-change-leader/">Anti-Union Campaign at Amazon ONT 8 Aims to Silence and Interrogate Amazon Workers, Says United 4 Change Leader"
• Noam Scheiber & Karen Weise, The New York Times, "labor-union.html">Amazon Labor Union, With Renewed Momentum, Faces Next Test"
• Suhauna Hussain, The Los Angeles Times, "Amazon Union Push at Moreno Valley Warehouse Stalls"
• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "The NLRB Ruled in Favor of Amazon Union Organizers. What's Next?" 
• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "Fired Amazon Union Organizer: 'We're Not Able to Feed Ourselves"
• Working People, "Amazon Labor Union"
• Working People, "Alicia Johnson"
• Working People, "Amazon Keeps Firing Union Organizers (w/ Matt Littrell)"

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