Belabored Podcast #89: Banking on Change, with Khalid Taha
Belabored Podcast #89: Banking on Change, with Khalid Taha
Bank worker Khalid Taha tells us why he’s standing up for better banks and better wages. Plus: Bernie Sanders on a picket line, sexual harassment at T-Mobile, and a win in the fight against on-call scheduling.
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We’re used to complaining about the big banks, especially since the 2008 financial crisis. They wrecked the economy, they pressure us to take out loans and credit cards we don’t need, they get handouts from the government while lobbying to make sure we can’t discharge our student loans in bankruptcy. Well, what if the rank and file bank workers feel the same way, and they’d rather team up with us to make the banks actually act in the public’s interest? That’s the goal of the union and community-group backed Committee for Better Banks, and they had an action this week. Bank worker Khalid Taha tells us why he’s standing up for better banks and better wages.
We also talk about the struggles of call center workers at T-Mobile, where one woman had enough of the sexual harassment she was facing, about Bernie Sanders’ appearance on a picket line, a win in the fight against on-call scheduling, and whether the Obama administration’s new plan to reduce testing is what it’s cracked up to be. For Argh, we look at the future of the job, and the life and death of a warehouse temp.
News
Sarah: For Sexually Harassed Employees, T-Mobile has Terrible Service (DAME)
J. Crew Ends On-Call Scheduling (Buzzfeed)
The End of On-Call Scheduling? (The Atlantic)
After Heavy Criticism, Urban Outfitters Kills Off On-Call Scheduling Nationwide (Buzzfeed)
Bernie Sanders Joins Verizon Picket Line (Huffington Post)
Why Verizon Workers are Standing Up (CWA)
Network for Public Education Questions Obama Test Plan (Diane Ravitch)
Here’s What the Obama Administration’s New Guidelines on Tests in Schools Mean (ThinkProgress)
Conversation:
Michelle: When Bank Workers Occupy the Banks (The Nation)
Michelle: Are Bank Tellers the Fast Food Workers of Wall Street? (The Nation)
Michelle: Can Labor Bring Wall Street Back to Main Street? (The Nation)
Big Banks and the Dismantling of the Middle Class (Center for Popular Democracy)
Sarah: Bank of America’s Horrid “Customer Service” Scandal (Salon)
Sarah: How Big Banks Shortchange Their Workers (In These Times)
Sarah: Could Teller Organizing Help Halt Bank Abuses? (In These Times)
Argh, I Wish I’d Written That!
Sarah: Bethany Moreton, The Rise and Fall of the Job (Pacific Standard)
Michelle: Dave Jamieson, The Life and Death of an Amazon Warehouse Temp (Huffington Post)
