There is Power in a Union As Thousands of Academic Workers Set to Strike in California

November 12, 2022Posted inLabor

Over 36,000 academic workers across the University of California’s 10-campus system held a strike authorization vote. The vote passed with nearly 98% approval. The strike will begin on November 14th. Workers are demanding include increased compensation, access to sustainable transportation, more childcare assistance, and increased job security.

Listen in: bit.ly/3A7HTjJ

Scott talks with Galen Liang, a grad student and UAW 2865 member to get an update on the looming strike.

How Union Organizing Fights the Boss w/ union organizer Daisy Pitkin

April 29, 2022Posted inLabor
We’re in the midst of a new era of momentum and militancy around labor organizing. We’re seeing headline grabbing organizing campaigns at Starbucks and Amazon shifting the political landscape. But beyond Starbucks and Amazon, union organizing has been spreading to sectors across the country.     
In our latest episode, we talk with labor organizer and writer Daisy Pitkin about her new book “On the Line: A Story of Class, Solidarity, and Two Women’s Epic Fight to Build a Union.” We talk about her work organizing a series of factory laundromats in Phoenix, AZ in the early 2000s. Pitkin worked with immigrant women working in the terrible conditions to organize a union. Most notably, she worked with a woman named Alma, who Pitkin describes as “the gutsiest worker leader I’ve ever met.”  
This was all done despite a vicious corporate backlash in the reddest of red states.   
Currently, Pitkin is organizing Starbucks workers in the Rust Belt. We discuss the Starbucks campaign and the future of labor organizing.   

Collin College strikes again! Dr. Michael Phillips, award-winning scholar, fired!

February 7, 2022Posted inPeoples' History, politics

Another professor from Collin College has been fired in retaliation for  speaking out against President Neil Matkin’s continued rejection of  their First Amendment rights and their concern for safety on campus.

Listen in: https://apple.co/34ItAFq

Michael Philips has now been fired along with Suzanne Stateler Jones,  Audra Heaslip, and Lora Burnett, all in violation of their First  Amendment righs.  Philips first was reprimanded by Collin College for  being active in a campaign to remove Confederate statues in Dallas in  2017.

BAmazon! The Amazon Union Drive in Alabama, w/ Mike Elk of “Payday Report‪”‬

April 6, 2021Posted inUncategorized

One of the most important union organizing drives in recent history is playing out in the Birmingham-Bessemer, Alabama area as Amazon workers are holding a union vote due to end next Monday.  We spoke with Mike Elk, the creator and editor of “Payday Report,” about the situation in Alabama, the impact of Joe Biden’s endorsement, the intersection of Black Lives Matter and the union efforts, and Amazon’s attempts to intimidate and defeat the organizing drive.