Belabored: Trump’s Broken Promises

Belabored: Trump’s Broken Promises

Trump and Pence claim that industrial jobs are “booming” under their leadership. In Lordstown and Indianapolis, local labor organizers tell a different story.

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Donald Trump won the presidency on naked white nationalist appeals to the worst in America; that is absolutely true. But four years ago he also ran on a message of hope: he promised to bring industrial jobs back to the places that had been shedding them for years. We followed up with some of the workers and union leaders from some of those plants to see what the feeling is. As Trump and Pence bluster about saving jobs, about Carrier and Lordstown “booming,” what’s it really like? We spoke with Chuck Jones, formerly president of United Steelworkers Local 1999 in Indianapolis, which represents workers at Carrier and  Rexnord, Shannon Mulcahy, a former Rexnord worker and now an activist with Our Revolution, and Tim O’Hara, former president of United Autoworkers Local 1112 in Ohio and former Lordstown autoworker.

We also look in at a co-op of cafe workers with barista activist Matthew Soliz of Slow Bloom and the potential for foster parents to unionize. Before the election, we discuss the latest on Uber and Lyft and California’s Proposition 22 with Nicole Moore of Rideshare Drivers United, and some thoughts from some friends of the show on what happens if there’s an attempt to steal the election. For Argh, we consider the hell that is the nursing home industry, and the struggle to parent in a pandemic.

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Coffee Workers Form Worker Co-Op in the Wake of Mass Firings (UE)

Massachusetts Foster Parents Could Be First To Unionize (CBS Boston)

Uber can continue to push pro-Prop 22 messages at drivers in its app, court says (The Verge)

Ballotpedia, Proposition 22 (Ballotpedia)

Getting Out of Tight Corners (The New York Review of Books)

Unions are Beginning to Talk About Staving Off a Possible Coup (Labor Notes)

Conversation

Sarah: Despite Trump’s ‘Jobs, Jobs, Jobs’ Bluster, the Rust Belt Is Still Reeling from Plant Closures (The Progressive)

Sarah: The Last Stand in Lordstown (The New Republic)

Sarah: The Road Not Taken (The New Republic)

Sarah: Back at the Carrier Plant, Workers are Still Fighting On Their Own (The Nation)

Argh, I wish I’d written that!

Sarah: Maureen Tkacik, “The Corporatization of Nursing Homes” (The American Prospect)

Michelle: Hadas Thier, “Parenting Is a Job. During the Pandemic, It’s Impossible.” (Jacobin)