Belabored Podcast #96: Sick of Austerity in Detroit and Flint
Joel Berger, a second-generation Detroit public school teacher, talks about teacher protests over the city’s dilapidated schools and the water crisis in Flint.
Joel Berger, a second-generation Detroit public school teacher, talks about teacher protests over the city’s dilapidated schools and the water crisis in Flint.
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have both announced plans to give workers paid family leave. Ellen Bravo of Family Values @ Work joins us to explain how this policy became central to both candidates’ campaigns.
In a special podcast dispatch, Daniel Aldana Cohen and Kate Aronoff discuss what the COP21 deal will mean for the climate movement in 2016. They hear from activists who were in the streets in Paris, and from UNFCCC veteran J. Timmons Roberts.
New legislation in Seattle could pave the way for Uber drivers to unionize. We explore the legal and political road ahead with Rebecca Smith of the National Employment Law Project and Takele Gobena of the App-Based Drivers Association.
A look back at year’s best and worst moments for labor, and what there is to look forward to in 2016, for workers from China to Chicago and everywhere in between.
A celebration of pioneering union activist and radical troubadour Joe Hill.
This Black Friday, Walmart workers and their allies have undertaken a “Fast for $15.” Belabored spoke with Dan Schlademan, co-director of OUR Walmart, and Tyfani Faulkner, who was in the middle of her fifteen days without food.
An interview with historian Erik Loomis about his new book, Out of Sight, on the labor and environmental catastrophes caused by our outsourcing of dirty jobs. Plus: the Mizzou football players, updates in the Fight for $15, and FedEx workers on strike.
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.
Recent contract negotiations at Fiat Chrysler are signaling an end to the infamous two-tier wage system. We speak with Chrysler worker Alex Wassell and Professor of Industrial Relations at Clark University Gary Chaison about the new deal.
Megan Erickson joins us to discuss her new book, Class War: The Privatization of Childhood, and how education can’t solve inequality, but can become less unequal.
Does our basic humanity suffer as we pursue our “dream jobs”? We speak with Miya Tokumitsu, who examines the dangers of the “do what you love” ethic in her new book. Plus: the Seattle teachers’ strike, LA sweatshop struggles, adjunct agony, and the latest in the campaign for workers’ rights at Walmart.
The National Labor Relations Board made news last week when it ruled to revise its definition of a joint employer to include many business owners who get their workers through a temp agency or subcontractor. We discussed what this means for workers with Larry Engelstein of SEIU 32BJ.
Premilla Nadasen joins us to talk about her new book, Household Workers Unite, on the forgotten history of black domestic workers organizing from the 1950s to the 1970s.
What’s happening in Greece? Sarah Leonard, who just returned from a reporting trip to the country, joins us to explain what just happened and what’s next for the working people of Greece and the rest of austerity-ridden Europe.