Belabored Podcast #76: May Day Special! Labor Shuts It Down From Baltimore to Long Beach
Belabored Podcast #76: May Day Special! Labor Shuts It Down From Baltimore to Long Beach
This May Day, we bring you voices from the streets of Baltimore and Long Beach—where unions are helping mobilize their communities against police terror and for economic justice—and from a West Coast Walmart, where activist Venanzi Luna has been leading the fight against union-busting. Plus: Whatever happened to the eight-hour day?
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This May Day, we bring you voices from two labor frontlines. First, we hear from the streets of Baltimore, where United Workers organizer Todd Cherkis is helping mobilize community members against police terror and for economic justice. Then, OUR Walmart activist Venanzi Luna talks about her experience organizing coworkers and confronting anti-union hostility at her store, which was recently abruptly shuttered in a move that activists call retaliation. We also bring you a slew of strikes—the ILWU’s May 1 port shutdown to protest police brutality, West Coast port truck drivers battling wage theft, federal contract workers demanding $15 and a union—plus the latest on the Trans Pacific Partnership. With recommended reading on embattled nurses and the decline of the eight-hour day.
News
ILWU announces it will shut down Bay Area ports to protest police brutality (Daily Kos)
Live stream of the event at KPFA
The Battle Over the Trans-Pacific Partnership and “Fast Track” Gets Hot (Truthout)
Michelle and Sarah: Belabored #73 with Celeste Drake
Alleging Millions in Wage Theft, West Coast Port Truckers Strike (In These Times)
Sarah: Port Trucking Companies Steal More Than $1 Billion in Wages From Drivers (In These Times)
Michelle: Federal Contract Workers Just Went on Strike in DC (The Nation)
Conversation:
Michelle: Baltimore’s Inescapable Inequality (The Nation)
Sarah: What’s the Real Reason Behind Walmart’s Store Shutdowns? (DAME)
Argh, I Wish I’d Written That!
Michelle: Alexandra Robbins, “Doctors Throwing Fits,” Slate
Sarah: Nathan Schneider, “Have We Seen the End of the 8-Hour Day?” The Nation
