Belabored

It’s that time of the year again, and Belabored brings you some underreported perspectives from the dark side of zombie-capitalist bonanza known as Black Friday. Walmart workers across the country are going on strike to demand a living wage and fair treatment at work. And many more are organizing, signing petitions, and reaching out to other worker groups, all rallying under the “Fight for 15” banner. We talk to a Walmart labor activist who is fighting for a fair workplace in solidarity with coworkers and other protesters in cities nationwide. And we discuss a recent investigation by Americans for Tax Fairness into Walmart’s tax dodging and shady political dealings on Capitol Hill. Also this week, the Ferguson protests are inspiring the #NotOneDime Black Friday boycott in response to the non-indictment in the case of Michael Brown; immigration groups are both excited and frustrated about Obama’s latest executive action on deportations; the port truckers’ movement kicks into high gear; fast food workers find solidarity overseas; and justice is finally served, at least a little bit, for a coal industry giant. Plus some long-weekend reading from Owen Jones on why humanity isn’t totally evil, and David Bensman on why a fair workday is a human right. News: Ferguson protesters pledge to skip Black Friday (The Daily Dot) Ferguson Michael Brown Shooting: ‘Boycott Black Friday’ Aims to Hit America Where it Hurts (International Business Times) Michelle: What Will Happen to the Immigrants Left Out of Obama’s Executive Actions? (The Nation) Michelle: Excluded and Exploited (Jacobin) Port Truck Drivers on Strike! A Dispatch from Two of the Nation’s Largest Ports (Dissent) Sarah: New Report: Port Trucking Companies Steal More Than $1 Billion in Wages From Drivers (In These Times) Why Port Truckers Are Striking: 12-Hour Shifts, Noxious Fumes and $12.90 Paychecks (In These Times) Michelle: Want a Living Wage? Work at McDonald’s… in Denmark (The Nation) “I Could Krushchev You”: 9 Shocking Allegations From the Don Blankenship Indictment (Mother Jones) Ex-Massey CEO Don Blankenship indicted for coal mine disaster that killed 29 (Washington Post) Conversation: Martha Sellers, Walmart worker Five Ways to Measure Black Friday Strikes at Wal-Mart (Businessweek) Frank Clemente, Americans for Tax Fairness Michelle: $1 Billion: That’s How Much Walmart Avoids Paying in Taxes Each Year Through Loopholes (The Nation) Sarah: Why the poor can’t catch a break on Thanksgiving (The Week) Argh! I Wish I’d Written That Sarah: David Bensman, The Battle Over Working Time: A Countermovement Against Neoliberalism (American Prospect) Michelle: Owen Jones, Grotesque inequality is not a natural part of being human (Guardian) The post Belabored Podcast #66: Seeing Red on Black Friday appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. Last week, the embattled city of Detroit heralded its “rebirth” with a landmark financial deal, purportedly designed to avert economic disaster. Facing bankruptcy, the city’s finances, infrastructure, and civil service workforce have been ripped apart and stitched back together through a series of backdoor negotiations with state officials, Wall Street creditors, and Big Philanthropy. And the people who are paying the price, as usual, are the city’s residents and civil servants. Public sector workers will see their pensions gutted, and a city with a proud history of militant unionism will be dealt yet another punishing blow by politicians who seem intent on shredding what’s left of organized labor. So what does it look like, from a worker’s perspective, to have the city “reborn” on the backs of the poor and communities of color? We talked to Michael Mulholland, president of the utilities union AFSCME Local 207, about how Detroit got into this mess, the impact on union workers, and the political forces driving what he calls a manufactured financial crisis. Our news roundup takes stock of the the midterm election results, including a number of promising pro-labor ballot initiatives in—surprise—Red states, and a fresh uprising at Whole Foods in San Francisco. Plus, recommended reading on extreme daycare and digital peonage. News Republicans Hold the Top 2 Prizes in Governor Races (New York Times) I Didn’t Vote for Pat Quinn, Because He’s Trying to Destroy My Pension (In These Times) Michelle: Higher Minimum Wages Just Passed in Four States and Two Cities (The Nation) Minimum Wage And Sick Leave Victories Buck The Conservative Voting Trend (Forbes) Michelle: Minimum-Wage Workers Just Got a Raise, but Will Bosses Steal It? (The Nation) Anchorage voters favor unions in repealing Mayor Sullivan’s labor law rewrite (Alaska Dispatch News) IWW workers take on Whole Foods in SF (48hills) Whole Foods Market Workers Unite! Conversation: Michael Mulholland, President, American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees Local 207 Bankruptcy costs Detroit retirees (Metro Times) Five Things the Mainstream Media Won’t Tell You About Detroit’s Bankruptcy (Metro Times) Detroit Emerges From Bankruptcy, Yet Pension Risks Linger (New York Times) Belabored Podcast #16: Who Bankrupted Detroit? (Dissent) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: Alissa Quart, The Rise of Extreme Daycare (Pacific Standard) Michelle: Shashank Bengali, In India, a new-generation peon at your service (Los Angeles Times) The post Belabored #65: Inside the Motor City’s Economic Crash appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. Next Tuesday is election day, and voters around the country will be deciding on candidates who will then decide whether they get a raise, get healthcare, or other job protections. While we at Belabored know that elections aren’t everything, we also know there’s a lot at stake for working people in races around the country. Here in New York, the governor’s race has been a source of unending drama; just this week, Democratic incumbent Andrew Cuomo indicated he’d like to break the “monopoly” public schools have in the state. Translation: the governor, who’s gotten lots of money from charter schools and plenty of union support himself, wants to bust unions. But there’s a teacher union activist on the ballot for statewide office next week, too: Brian Jones, a former New York City teacher running for Lieutenant Governor on the Green Party ticket. Brian joins us in studio to talk about why education is a flashpoint issue for this governor’s race, what he would do in office, and why labor shouldn’t hitch itself too tightly to the Democratic party. We also talk about strikes and protests among teachers, Uber drivers and taxi drivers, and Walmart workers’ latest actions, and what nurses and care workers are doing about the Ebola situation. News Michelle: Do You Realize How Dangerous It Is to Drive a Taxi? (The Nation) Waukegan Board Member “Truly Sorry” For Losing Temper (NBC Chicago) Waukegan Teachers Approve New Contract, Back in Classrooms Monday (NBC Chicago) Ebola galvanizes workers battling to join unions, improve safety (Reuters) Struggling workers take wage protest to upscale doorstep of Walmart heiress Alice Walton (The Guardian) Walmart Workers Demand $15 Wage in Several Protests (The New York Times) Michelle: Workers Bring $15 Hourly Wage Challenge to Walmart (The Nation) Conversation: Brian Jones for Lt. Governor Cuomo calls public school system a ‘monopoly’ he wants to bust (The Washington Post) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: David Castillo and William Egginton, Dreamboat Vampires and Zombie Capitalists (New York Times) Sarah: Adrian Chen, The Laborers Who Keep Dick Pics and Beheadings Out of Your Facebook Feed (Wired) The post Belabored Podcast #64: A Teacher on the Ballot, with Brian Jones appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. Domestic workers have struggled for generations to get people to see their work as a real job, much less persuade the government to provide formal labor protections for this sector, comprised largely of low-income women, immigrants and people of color. But today, the grievances that were once confined to chatter among nannies on the park bench, are reaching the highest legislative chambers across the country. New York City has been at the forefront the emerging domestic workers’ movement, starting with the passage of the landmark Domestic Workers Bill of Rights law in 2010, which provided major new wage and hour protections for tens of thousands of workers statewide. The grassroots organizing model of New York’s Domestic Workers United inspired a wave of similar initiatives on the state, national and even international level. This week, as advocates and labor scholars gathered for a conference on domestic worker organizing at Barnard College, Belabored spoke with Allison Julien, a New York-based domestic worker and veteran campaigner with the National Domestic Workers Alliance, on the state of the movement and new challenges in organizing this unique and often overlooked workforce. News How Can You Tell If US Hospitals Are Prepared for Ebola? Ask a Nurse. (The Nation) Nurses group slams Dallas hospital for sloppy Ebola care (USA Today) Michelle: If Airport Ebola Screening Makes You Feel Safer, You Should Know What Workers Are Saying (The Nation) Michelle: Why Aren’t the Health Workers Fighting West Africa’s Ebola Epidemic Being Given Basic Protective Gear? (The Nation) Sarah: America’s Ebola blind spot: Why this country isn’t equipped to save patients (Salon) Sarah: Philadelphia’s school reform debacle: Despised governor crosses the line (Salon) Sarah: “Poster child for tenure”: Why teacher Agustin Morales really lost his job (Salon) Michelle: Supreme Court Case Shows How Amazon Legally Cheats Workers (The Nation) Sarah: Bank of America’s horrid “customer service” scandal (Salon) Conversation with Allison Julien: National Domestic Workers Alliance Justice in the Home: Domestic Work Past, Present, and Future (Barnard Center for Research on Women) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Warwick Smith, Do we dare to question economic growth? (The Guardian) Sarah: Neil Irwin, When the Guy Making Your Sandwich Has a Noncompete Clause (The New York Times) The post Belabored Podcast #63: Domestic Workers on the Move, with Allison Julien appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. The feminist movement has been taken to task many times for being too white, too middle class, too focused on solutions that would help elite women. But in a new book, short and jam-packed with forgotten history, Dorothy Sue Cobble, Linda Gordon, and Astrid Henry argue that actually, the feminist movement has always been multiple feminist movements, and many feminists did their work within and through other social movements like labor and the civil rights movement. Michelle joined Cobble, Gordon, and Henry for the launch of Feminism Unfinished and this week we bring you excerpts from their talks at this event, plus a discussion of what feminists have accomplished in and out of the workplace, and what remains unfinished. We also bring you news from the protests and strikes in Hong Kong, a roundup of living wage initiatives, a challenge to Wisconsin’s minimum wage law, and a student protest against Teach for America. For Argh, we continue our discussion of women’s workplace history, and think a little about gentrification. News Michelle: 10,000 Workers Strike in Support of Hong Kong’s Protests (The Nation) College Students Wage Campaign to Kick Teach for America Off of Campus (ColorLines) Will de Blasio’s big raise for low-wage workers encourage other cities to follow suit? (Washington Post) Los Angeles Approves Raising Minimum Wage for Large-Hotel Workers (Wall Street Journal) Low-Wage Workers Confront Scott Walker, Accuse Wisconsin Of Breaking The Law (ThinkProgress) Conversation Feminism Unfinished: A Short, Surprising History of American Women’s Movements Dorothy Sue Cobble, Distinguished Professor of History and Labor Studies, Rutgers University Articles in Dissent Linda Gordon, University Professor of the Humanities, New York University Workers’ Rights and Women’s Rights Go Hand in Hand (The Progressive) Astrid Henry, Louise R. Noun Professor of Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies, Grinnell College From riot grrrls to “Girls”: Tina Fey, Kathleen Hanna, Lena Dunham and the birth of an inspiring new feminism (Salon) Feminism’s ugly internal clash: Why its future is not up to white women (Salon) Michelle: Romney-Rosen Firestorm Is Reminder: We Need to Redefine Gender Justice (In These Times) Sarah: Trickle-Down Feminism (Dissent) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: Bryce Covert, Here’s What Happened The One Time When The U.S. Had Universal Childcare (ThinkProgress) Michelle: Gavin Mueller, Liberalism and Gentrification (Jacobin) Special thanks to New York University for hosting the “Feminism Unfinished” panel and providing the audio recording for this episode. The post Belabored Podcast #62: The Unfinished History of Labor Feminism appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. As people around the world prepare to converge on New York City for the People’s Climate March, there seem to be more reasons than ever to despair about climate change, but perhaps also more reason than usual to be optimistic. Issues like the Keystone XL pipeline, superstorm Sandy, and California droughts have seeped into the public consciousness and shown how massive economic inequality overlaps with environmental devastation. But in the face of impending climate catastrophe, is real economic and environmental sustainability still achievable? And how do you tackle capitalism and climate change simultaneously? Belabored, in its first ever live recording at 61 Local in Brooklyn, speaks with two activists on the front lines of both the labor movement and the climate change policy debate about how society can deal with climate change in a way that protects both workers and the environment. Nastaran Mohit, a New York City-based organizer and activist, discusses how the experience of Superstorm Sandy and its economic aftermath provide vital lessons for both the labor and environmental movements. Lara Skinner, Associate Director of The Worker Institute at Cornell, speaks about her work on labor unions, sustainability and economic alternatives. Special thanks to 61 Local for hosting us, and to our wonderful audience. Conversation with with Lara Skinner and Nastaran Mohit Reports by Lara Skinner and Sean Sweeney at the Cornell Worker Institute: Pipe Dreams? Jobs Gained, Jobs Lost by the Construction of Keysone XL The Impact of Tar Sands Pipeline Spills on Employment and the Economy Nastaran Mohit on The Real News: Thousands Remain Displaced From Sandy Without Heat and Power Michelle: This Is How to Create a Green Economy That Works for All Where Have All the Green Jobs Gone? Imagining a “Just Recovery” from Superstorm Sandy How Sandy Clean-Up Brought Day Laborers Out of the Shadows Sarah: Whose Recovery? What Sandy Wrought, Part 1: Health-Care Crises Remain a Year After the Storm What Sandy Wrought, Part 2: In the Wake of Disaster, Reproductive Health Care Falls by the Wayside Community Organizers Fill a Large Gap in Superstorm Sandy Relief, but It’s Not Enough New Yorkers: Catch Nastaran Mohit and international guests tonight, Friday, September 19, at the opening plenary of the NYC Climate Convergence (St. Peter’s Church, 619 Lexington Avenue, 7 p.m.). The post Belabored Podcast #61: When Climate and Labor Converge (Live!), with Nastaran Mohit and Lara Skinner appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. “People are never quiet for long,” says labor historian James Green. But what are we to make of the unquiet employees at Massachusetts grocery store chain Market Basket, who went on strike in order to save their CEO’s job? Is it a victory for working people, or something more complicated? What does it say about the state of the labor movement? We ask these questions of Green, a former professor at the University of Massachusetts at Boston and the author of several books on labor history and social movements, including Death in the Haymarket. We also talk care work: home care workers unionizing in Minneapolis (with some thoughts from returning Belabored guest Sumer Spika), pre-K workers and inequality in New York, care workers on strike in Massachusetts, and care workers joining fast food workers on the picket line. And for “Argh,” we hope for better conditions for journalists in war zones and a better understanding of how young workers see life on the job. Belabored Live! Join us on September 17 in Brooklyn for our first-ever Belabored Live event. In the run-up to the People’s Climate March, we’ll be sitting down with labor organizer Nastaran Mohit and Lara Skinner of the Worker Institute at Cornell for a discussion of labor and the climate movement. We’ll be recording for the podcast, with a panel discussion followed by audience Q&A. Belabored Live starts at 7 p.m. at 61 Local, 61 Bergen Street (at Smith), Brooklyn. More info coming soon—watch the Dissent blog and the #Belabored hashtag on Twitter! News Michelle: Minnesota home care workers unionize (The Nation) Sarah: The Fight for Universal Pre-K (Truthout) Michelle: How did New York become the most unionized state in the country? (The Nation) LifeLinks workers on strike (Lowell Sun) Strike leads to major contract victory (SEIU Local 509) Fast-food workers seeking $15 wage planning civil disobedience (New York Times) Michelle: $15 and a Union: Fast-Food Workers Take Their Demands Nationwide (The Nation) Conversation with James Green James Green at UMass Boston James Green’s website The Good King’s Return (Jacobin) Market Basket Shows Power of Organized Labor Without Unions (WBUR) At Market Basket, the Benevolent Boss is Back. Should We Cheer? (In These Times) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: Martin Chulov, James Foley and fellow freelancers: exploited by pared-back media outlets (Guardian) Michelle: Leonard Nalencz, Kafka and the nurses (Al Jazeera America) The post Belabored Podcast #60: Whither Market Basket? with James Green appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. Unionization has always been about labor rights—but is the right to form a union also a civil right? How might the politics and culture of organized labor change if society saw unionization not simply as an exercise of collective power in the workplace, but as an individual entitlement, part of one’s economic citizenship? We explore this question with Moshe Marvit, a Century Foundation fellow who recently helped turn the idea into legislation now pending in Congress. We also discuss minority unionism, technology and labor exploitation, and how our concepts of labor rights are evolving in response to economic shifts and intensifying legal attacks on the labor movement. In our news round-up, there’s the latest on labor’s role in the movements against police brutality and in defense of Gaza, Starbucks’s lukewarm attempts at reform, and labor unity among Times Square’s costumed characters. And finally, recommended reading on why teaching is not a business, and why the workday should not be eight hours. News NYC teachers union gets behind Eric Garner protest march, rally (Staten Island Advance) 1199SEIU March For Justice For Victims of Police Brutality (1199SEIU) UFT announcement (Facebook) Michelle: What Would Real Economic Justice Look Like in Ferguson? (The Nation) “Mike Brown Is Our Son” (LaborNotes) Israeli ship is blocked from unloading in Oakland for four straight days (Electronic Intifada) Oakland Activists “Block the Boat” for Three Days Running (In These Times) Times Square costumed characters band together with goal of forming labor union (New York Daily News) Working Anything but 9 to 5: Scheduling Technology Leaves Low-Income Parents With Hours of Chaos (New York Times) Starbucks to Revise Policies to End Irregular Schedules for Its 130,000 Baristas (New York Times) Michelle: How Starbucks’s ‘Flexible’ Scheduling Is Stretching Workers to the Breaking Point (The Nation) Conversation with Moshe Marvit Richard D. Kahlenberg and Moshe Marvit: Why Labor Organizing Should Be a Civil Right: Rebuilding a Middle-Class Democracy by Enhancing Worker Voice (Century Foundation) Making workers’ rights a civil right (The Hill) Moshe Marvit: In Order to Grow, Does Labor Need to Shrink? (In These Times) How Crowdworkers Became the Ghosts in the Digital Machine (The Nation) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: Nathan Schneider, Who Stole the Four-Hour Workday? (VICE) Michelle: David Kirp, Teaching Is Not a Business (New York Times) The post Belabored Podcast #59: Labor Rights as Civil Rights, with Moshe Marvit appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. Since the first strikes hit New York City, fast-food workers have been saying that the big corporations that dominate their industry were ultimately responsible for their working conditions. In other words, it wasn’t a coincidence that McDonald’s employees from Chicago to St. Louis, Philadelphia to Seattle have the same low wages and complain of the same unfair labor practices. Now, the general counsel at the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that McDonald’s can be held responsible as a “joint employer” of those workers across the country alongside its franchisees. What does this mean for the fast food movement, for other workers who face the “Who’s the Boss” problem that we’ve talked about so often on this podcast? We hear from a worker who has faced this problem, and we ask Catherine Ruckelshaus, general counsel and program director at the National Employment Law Project, who has extensively researched the issue of outsourced labor. We also look into the issue of vacation equality, of food insecurity among food service workers, and bring you the story of a surprising union victory among charter school teachers. And of course, we address President Obama’s latest worker-related executive order on federally-contracted workers. In "Argh," we bring you some more news about Hobby Lobby and on labor’s actions in solidarity with Gaza. News Americans petition White House for paid vacation as Congress takes a break (The Guardian) The Vacation Equality Project WhiteHouse.gov vacation petition Michelle: Nearly 1 in 3 Restaurant Workers Suffers from Food Insecurity (The Nation) Charter School Teachers Turn to Union For Help (telegram.com) Executive Order Will Make It Harder For Federal Contractors To Violate Workers’ Rights (ThinkProgress) Michelle: When Federal Contracts Turn Into Corporate Welfare (In These Times) Conversation with Catherine Ruckelshaus: Richard Eiker, McDonald’s Employee Catherine Ruckelshaus, General Counsel & Program Director of the National Employment Law Project WHO’S THE BOSS: Restoring Accountability for Labor Standards in Outsourced Work (NELP) Michelle: This Ruling Just Gave Workers a Big Boost in Their Fight Against McDonald’s (The Nation) The NLRB-McDonald’s ruling could be the beginning of a franchise war (Los Angeles Times) McDonald’s franchisee says the company told her “just pay your employees less” (Washington Post) WHATEVER IT TAKES (Low Pay Is Not Ok) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Labor for Palestine Statement Sarah: Sofia Resnick, Hobby Lobby Allegedly Fired Employee Due to Pregnancy (RH Reality Check) The post Belabored Podcast #58: Holding McDonald’s Responsible, with Catherine Ruckelshaus appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. In the wake of the defeat of UAW in Chattanooga, the spread of anti-worker “Right to Work” laws and the warped Tea-Party politics of Red State America, you might wonder whether the labor movement has a future in the South. Well, this week, we ask a Southerner. Ben Speight is a veteran organizer with Teamsters 728 in Georgia and has been on the front lines of a number of successful campaigns, scoring major victories with unionization drives in traditionally non-union sectors, grassroots advocacy for low-wage workers, and coalition-building with myriad civil rights and progressive groups. He talks to us about the oft-overlooked potential of Southern workers to seed new alliances between labor and community. Our news round-up looks at the White House’s new executive order on LGBT discrimination and transgender equality at work, why workers should have a say in who runs the company, the anti-privatization showdown between the post office and the Office Superstore, and Subway Sandwich workers savoring a union victory. Plus, recommended reading on auto-parts workers getting sick in Alabama and World Cup migrant laborers dying in Qatar. News White House Says No Religious Exemptions Will Be Included In Administration’s New Anti-Discrimination Order (ThinkProgress) Michelle: Hobby Lobby Is Now Discriminating Against a Transgender Employee (The Nation) The case for employees to pick their CEO (Fortune) Postal union workers to protest at Staples in Loop (Chicago Tribune) Michelle: National Teachers’ Union Expected To Join Staples Boycott (Huffington Post) Why Your Local Postal Workers Hate Staples (The Motley Fool) Workers At a Subway Sandwich Shop Vote To Unionize (Huffington Post) Conversation with Ben Speight Teamsters Local 728 Coca Cola captive audience meeting recording Another Teamster organizing victory in Georgia! Sarah: Port Trucking Companies Steal More Than $1 Billion in Wages From Drivers Sarah: Forever Temp? Michelle: Temp Nation: How Corporations Are Evading Accountability, at Workers’ Expense Sarah: New Georgia Bill Includes $10,000 Fine, Felony for “Conspiracy” for Picketing, Protest Sarah: 6 Ways to Juice Up the Labor Movement Sarah: Sharecropping on Wheels Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Priyanka Motaparthy, ‘It’s Like Jail Here’: Watching the World Cup finals in the labor camps of Qatar (Foreign Policy) Sarah: Seth Freed Wessler, What’s Making These Selma , Alabama Auto Parts Workers So Sick? (NBC News) The post Belabored Podcast #57: Organizing the South, with Ben Speight appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. The Supreme Court didn’t go nuclear on public sector unions this time around, but the decision in Harris v. Quinn was still bad enough: Justice Samuel Alito, a Bush appointee, wrote the majority decision and found that home health care workers are “partial public employees” and therefore their unions are not entitled to the protections as those of other, presumably more “full-fledged” public workers. What does all this mean for home care workers, for other public sector workers and their unions, and for any of us who care about labor? This week, Belabored asks Benjamin Sachs, the Kestnbaum Professor of Labor and Industry at Harvard Law School, former Assistant General Counsel of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and former attorney at New York community organization Make the Road. We also speak with Sumer Spika, a home care worker from Minnesota, who along with her colleagues just filed for the first post-Harris union election among home care workers. Elsewhere in the country, we bring you an update from the port truckers’ strike in California, the Metropolitan Opera’s labor issues in New York, and the dangerous precedent being set after an electrical workers’ strike in Greece. Finally, in “Argh! I Wish I’d Written That,” we look at teacher tenure and seniority rules, and the (faulty) logic of outsourcing in American manufacturing. News Not Over til Overtime’s Due? Met Labor Strife Bares Secrets (New York Times) Save the Met Opera (petition) California Truck Drivers Go on Strike (MSNBC) Sarah: Port Trucking Companies Steal More Than $1 Billion in Wages From Drivers (In These Times) SEIU, Minnesota home health care workers file for union election (Star Tribune) Greek Court Rules Strike by Electricity Workers Illegal (Reuters) Coalition Poised to Force Strike over Electricity Sell-Off to End (Ekathimerini) Conversation with Benjamin Sachs Benjamin Sachs on Harris v. Quinn at OnLabor Benjamin I. Sachs faculty page at Harvard Law School Michelle: Supreme Court Ruling in ‘Harris v. Quinn’ Will Undermine Gains Made by Low-Wage Home Healthcare Workers (The Nation) Michelle: Why the Supreme Court’s Attack on Labor Hurts Women Most (The Nation) Sarah: Why Harris and Hobby Lobby Spell Disaster for Working Women (In These Times) SCOTUS’s Quiet Expansion of Harris (In These Times) Why the Noel Canning Decision May Already Be Moot (The Century Foundation) 5 Big NLRB Cases Up for Review After Noel Canning (Law360) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Kate Bahn, “What’s So Wrong with Teacher Tenure?” (Lady Economist) and Andrew Strom,“In Defense of ‘Last-In, First-Out’” (OnLabor) Sarah: Esther Kaplan, “Losing Sparta: The Bitter Truth Behind the Gospel of Productivity” (Virginia Quarterly Review) The post Belabored Podcast #56: The Post–<em>Harris v. Quinn</em> Future appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. This week, Belabored probes the scandal behind the World Cup with author Dave Zirin, who’s been tracking the wildcat strikes, street demonstrations, and police crackdowns outside the rim of Big Football’s revelry. His new book, Brazil’s Dance with the Devil (Haymarket), shows how workers, activists, and fans all lose in the game of global capital, and how the tenuous balance of populism and neoliberalism is starting to fray in post-Lula Brazil. We also look at the White House’s new push for “family-friendly policies,” the new Massachusetts Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, a tussle over a $15 minimum wage in Democratic-run Rhode Island, and the latest teacher-bashing crusade led by ex-Obama flacks. Finally, we recommend reading on mine workers and environmental justice, along with a closer look at the economic assault on young black men. News Meet The Hotel Workers Going On Hunger Strike For A $15 Minimum Wage (ThinkProgress) Obama alums join anti teachers union case (Politico) Sarah: What’s Campbell Brown Doing Smearing Teachers All Over the Media? (Alternet) Obama pushes for family-friendly workplaces at campaign-like ‘summit’ (Reuters) Working Moms Strike, Urge Obama To Require Collective Bargaining For Contractors (Workers Independent News) Michelle: Massachusetts Nannies and Housekeepers Now Protected From Long Days, Abuse, Sexual Harassment (The Nation) Conversation with Dave Zirin Edge of Sports Brazil’s Dance with the Devil World Cup coverage at the Nation: Luis Suarez may bite, but FIFA sucks blood From the World Cup to the Washington football team, indigenous people fight to be seen Dispatches from Brazil’s World Cup: Real estate frenzy provokes ‘psychological attack’ to oust favela residents Don’t tear gas the tourists! No one lives here anymore Is a ‘systematic political campaign’ responsible for Brazil’s World Cup protests? Brazil’s Dance with the Devil on the Eve of the World Cup Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Trish Kahle, Rank-and-File Environmentalism (Jacobin) Sarah: Kai Wright, Why Young Black Men Can’t Work (ColorLines) The post Belabored Podcast #55: The Ugly Side of the Beautiful Game, with Dave Zirin appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. This week brought bad news for public schools, when a California court ruled that the laws governing teachers’ due process rights were unconstitutional. The attack on teacher tenure known as Vergara v. California was funded by wealthy tech entrepreneurs and a host of the usual corporate education reform groups. Belabored talks to Frank Wells, a former classroom teacher and now California Teachers Association staff member, about the implications of the lawsuit, the motivations behind the attacks on tenure, and why tech companies are so interested in changing schools. We also discuss strikes in Brazil in the lead-up to the World Cup, the victory of child care workers in Vermont, taxi drivers in Europe struggling to keep out Uber, and janitors at Target bringing the retail giant to the bargaining table. News Strikes threaten to disrupt Brazil’s World Cup (Al Jazeera America) Brazil is facing an unprecedented labor crisis with the World Cup just days away (Slate) Dave Zirin, Is a “Systematic Political Campaign” responsible for Brazil’s World Cup protests? (The Nation) Unions slam “slave state” Qatar World Cup (Yahoo! Sport Australia) Angry cab drivers gridlock Europe in protest at ‘unregulated’ taxi app (Guardian) Vermont child care providers win collective bargaining rights (Jobs With Justice) Early Childhood Educators Partner With Union and Workers’ Center, Score Historic Victory (Truthout) Target hands a big victory to to low-wage janitors in Minnesota (Huffington Post) Non-union Target janitors in Minneapolis go on strike (MSNBC) Conversation with Frank Wells The Vergara Trial (activist website) Why that ruling against teacher tenure won’t help your schoolchildren (Los Angeles Times) The greening of the American teacher (Al Jazeera America) Wall Street and the Schoolhouse: The Culture of Smartness (Notes on a Theory) Michelle: California Just Abolished Due Process for Public School Teachers (The Nation) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Peter Van Buren, “A Rising Tide Lifts All Yachts” (TomDispatch) Sarah: Jennifer Pan, “Pink Collar” (Jacobin) The post Belabored Podcast #54: Teacher Tenure on Trial appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. Last Saturday, a group of renegade artists staged a guerrilla exhibition at the Guggenheim, plastering the museum walls with Italian futurist–inspired posters bearing slogans demanding workers’ rights. It wasn’t just artistic mischief; the agit-prop protest was calling attention to the Guggenheim’s new development in Abu Dhabi, where legions of migrant laborers from South Asia toil with virtually no rights for unconscionably low wages. These construction workers are part of vast network of guestworkers in the Gulf governed by the kafala system, a transnational labor exchange resembling modern-day indentured servitude. As word of their conditions has spread, there has been a groundswell of activism surrounding the Guggenheim site as well as NYU’s shiny new Abu Dhabi campus. The academic and arts communities have condemned both institutions for failing to protect workers’ rights and stonewalling demands for greater transparency. This week, Belabored speaks with Andrew Ross, NYU professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and an activist with both the Gulf Labor campaign and the Coalition for Fair Labor at NYU, about global labor struggles and the role that the arts and academic communities can play in transnational movements for social justice. We also look at Sheryl Sandberg’s latest “Lean In” fail, Jeff Bezos as the World’s Worst Boss, Uber organizing, and the non-recovery for low-wage workers. Plus: recommended reading on civil rights and co-ops of color, and the politics of language of the “new” and “old” economy. News These Housekeepers Asked Sheryl Sandberg to Lean In with Them. What Happened Next Will Not Amaze You. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Wins ITUC’s World’s Worst Boss Poll Worse than Wal-Mart: Amazon’s sick brutality and secret history of ruthlessly intimidating workers Uber drivers to form association after arbitrary shift cuts The Case Against Sharing The Recession Blew A Hole In Middle-Class Jobs Conversation with Andrew Ross Andrew Ross’s website Michelle: Activists Invade the Guggenheim: Holding US Institutions Accountable for Labor Abuses in Abu Dhabi Workers at N.Y.U.’s Abu Dhabi Site Faced Harsh Conditions Human Rights Watch: The Island of Happiness Revisited Coalition for Fair Labor at NYU Gulf Labor Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Mike Rose, “The Talkin’ New Economy Blues: How Mainstream Discourse on the New Economy Diminishes Workers” (Work in Progress) Sarah: Carla Murphy, How Co-Ops Helped Produce Foot Soldiers for Civil Rights (ColorLines) Belabored at Left Forum Sarah: Cloud Labor: Working in the Digital Economy Michelle: Working in Fear: Deportation and Labor Exploitation in the Obama Age Sarah: In Defense of Bad Art The post Belabored Podcast #53: Art, Academia, and Labor Struggles in Abu Dhabi, with Andrew Ross appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. In the latest escalation of the low-wage workers’ movement, fast food workers went out on strike around the world this week, staging actions in a reported 230 cities in thirty-three countries. But though their problems may be global, the solutions often come locally. On that note, Sarah and Michelle speak with Tsedeye Gebreselassie, a staff attorney at the National Employment Law Project, about her research on low-wage work, local minimum wage ordinances, and why it’s important for workers to lead this struggle. We also report on miners’ deaths abroad and at home, teachers’ continuing resistance to the high-stakes testing regime, and unionizing workers at JFK airport. Finally, for “Argh,” we take a look at the responses to Thomas Piketty’s best-selling book on inequality and think about women, art, and domestic work. News West Virginia Mine Had History of Safety Problems Mineworkers’ Fight against Peabody Energy At Least 274 Die in Turkish Mine Disaster United: NY Area Airport Workers Join Union Sarah: Brooklyn Teachers Strike a Blow Against Excessive Testing with May Day Boycott Sarah: Reform Candidate Wins Massachusetts Teachers Association Presidency in Election Upset Michelle: #FastFoodGlobal: How the International Struggle Against McDonald’s Could Bring a $15 Minimum Wage to New York City Conversation with Tsedeye Gebreselassie Tsedeye Gebreselassie at the National Employment Law Project Tsedeye Gebreselassie on New York’s Minimum Wage Holdups Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Thomas Frank, “The Problem with Thomas Piketty” (Salon) and Robert Kuttner, “What Piketty Leaves Out”(The American Prospect) Sarah: Rose Lichter-Marck, “Vivian Maier and the Problem of Difficult Women” (The New Yorker) The post Belabored Podcast #52: Fast Food Local, with Tsedeye Gebreselassie appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. Ellen Bravo has been fighting sexism for most of her life, so she knows a thing or two about “taking on the big boys” (also the title of her pioneering guide to fighting everyday patriarchy). She sat down with Belabored this week to drop some knowledge about new challenges and milestones in the movement for gender justice; raising consciousness about social justice feminism in debates on and labor policy; and the fact that, while we’re talking more these days about women “breaking the glass ceiling” and “having it all,” the basic, structural struggles for women’s economic empowerment are still far from over. We also discuss the port truck drivers’ latest labor action, a sherpa uprising in the Mount Everest tourism industry, New York City cabbies’ fight for health and disability insurance, and the struggles of workers in the banking sector. We end with a nod to some critical reading on racial divides in public schools and basketball arenas. News Port truck drivers strike in Los Angeles ILWU joins picketing truck drivers and Long Beach, LA ports Michelle: How a Fatal Disaster at Mt. Everest Has Turned Into a Full-Blown Labor Struggle Everest’s Sherpas fear for livelihood after killer avalanche Wells Fargo moves annual meeting to Texas, but protesters follow Committee for Better Banks Michelle: How New York’s Taxi Drivers Lost Their Health Insurance Fund New York Taxi Workers Alliance Conversation with Ellen Bravo Ellen Bravo’s website Taking on the Big Boys Sarah: Paid Sick Leave Pays for Itself: So Why Is NYC’s Mayoral Hopeful Blocking It? Michelle: National Paid Family Leave May Finally Be on the Horizon Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Trymaine Lee, “Separate and unequal: The charter school pedestal the public can’t reach,” MSNBC.com Sarah: Mychal Denzel Smith, “Donald Sterling’s Impolite Racism,” The Nation Correction: The news segment of the podcast incorrectly states that a New York state appeals court struck down the health and disability fund of the Taxi Workers Alliance; in fact it was the state Supreme Court that issued the decision. The audio for this podcast has been updated. The post Belabored Podcast #51: Taking on the Big Boys, with Ellen Bravo appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. When it comes to talking about the way worked has changed in America, we tend to hear a lot about factors like technology, outsourcing, and workers’ “choice” to become “free agents.” Saket Soni, executive director of the National Guestworker Alliance and the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice, has a different view, and for Belabored’s one-year anniversary, he sits down with Michelle and Sarah to talk about the real issues: worker power, an incomplete social safety net, and the exclusion of entire categories of people from labor protections. As the conditions of the guestworkers packing seafood for Walmart or packing candy for Hershey’s become the norm for more and more of the workforce, Soni and other organizers are urgently working to turn the situation around. We also look at the victory for UPS workers in Queens and a labor uprising in China; the drug-testing of public employees; the struggle for a $15 an hour minimum wage in Seattle; and more. News: Scott v. AFSCME at the Supreme Court “Compromise” floated on Seattle minimum wage The 15 Now movement proposes a ballot measure Michelle: Can China’s Workers Get Their Government to Follow its Own Labor Laws? Workers rally to defense of labor activist Wu Guijun Sarah: How 250 UPS Workers Fired for a Wildcat Strike Won Back Their Jobs Conversation with Saket Soni National Guestworker Alliance Michelle: Court Okays Labor Department Rule: Guestworkers Must Earn Prevailing Wages Michelle: A New Door for Guestworkers? Josh Eidelson: Guest Workers as Bellwether Sarah: The End of Jobs Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Dean Baker, “Education is Not the Answer,” Jacobin Sarah: Rebecca McCray, “A Disturbing Trend in Agriculture: Prisoner-Picked Vegetables,” TakePart The post Belabored Podcast #50: The Future of Work, with Saket Soni appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. On the left, we often ask what will “save the labor movement,” but how much do we know about the day-to-day work of building labor power at the community level? A new book dives into the emerging grassroots initiatives aimed at organizing New York City’s low-wage workers. In New Labor in New York, editors Ruth Milkman and Ed Ott of the City University of New York present critical analyses of thirteen worker centers and labor groups focused on the new “precariat”: traditionally non-union sectors like street vendors, domestic workers, struggling freelance “creatives,” and restaurant workers. We speak to Milkman about what these case studies tell us about the future of labor and the work of revolutionizing communities from the bottom up. This week’s news roundup covers the struggle for justice for pregnant workers at Walmart, the politics of equal pay in Washington, a campaign to stop invasive credit checks in employment decisions, and a backhanded attempt to exclude people from healthcare by redefining the workweek. We end with a look at the labor politics surrounding the porn website Kink.com and the dilemma of solidarity and social mobility in a racially segregated world. News: Pregnant Workers At Walmart Fear The Company’s New Policy Won’t Go Far Enough To Protect Them Sarah Jaffe and Josh Eidelson: Whose Walmart? (Belabored Podcast #10) Why Obama Is Ending Pay Secrecy For Federal Contractors What’s the GOP’s Excuse for Opposing Equal Pay This Time? NYC Coalition to Stop Credit Checks in Employment House votes to change health-care law’s definition of full-time work Conversation with Ruth Milkman Ruth Milkman’s website Ruth Milkman and Ed Ott, New Labor in New York: Precarious Workers and the Future of the Labor Movement (Cornell, 2014) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: Melissa Gira Grant, "For the Love of Kink," Dissent Michelle: Jamelle Bouie, “Down and Out: The single fact that powerfully explains why black Americans have such a hard time climbing the economic ladder,” Slate and Richard Sherman, “Stardom Doesn’t Change Where You’re From,” SI.com The post Belabored Podcast #49: Mapping New York’s New Labor Movements, with Ruth Milkman appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. Is the era of the student athlete over? This week on Belabored, we discuss the groundbreaking decision by National Labor Relations Board Region 13 that Northwestern University’s football players are employees and thus eligible to form a union. We are joined to break down the decision by Lee Adler of Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations and the Worker Institute, who discusses the work college athletes do, what impact this decision will have on athletes outside of the "major" sports, and the power shifts facing the NCAA. We also look at a growing campaign to opt out of standardized testing, the difference between unemployment and retirement, the struggle against Amazon in Europe, the latest win for port truck drivers, and more. News: National Opt-Out Campaign Begins Fighting Amazon for a Living Wage Can Dropping Out of the Labor Force Make You Happier? Another Win for Port Truckers: CA Labor Office Sides with Drivers Conversation with Lee Adler The Northwestern University Football Union and the NCAA’s Death Spiral NLRB Decision very well-reasoned If Men Get Paid to Play College Sports, Title IX Says Women Do, Too Infographic: Is Your State’s Highest Paid Employee a Coach? Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: David Dayen, "Not All Democrats Share Obama’s Budget Priorities," Al Jazeera America Michelle: Lori Flores, "The Neglected Heroines of Cesar Chavez," ColorLines The post Belabored Podcast #48: Athlete-Students’ Big Win appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. Perhaps nothing demonstrates the precarity that low-wage workers experience more than the irregular work schedule. In many service jobs, workers might know what they will be paid per hour when they’re hired, but never know how many hours they will be working each week. The lack of stable hours means not just a wildly unstable income, but often, no ability to manage the time you spend with family or at school. This week on Belabored, we examine the impact of unfair scheduling on the lives of retail workers. We speak to activists with the Retail Action Project and Women Employed, who are pushing for policy changes to give workers fair schedules and just hours. We also discuss the Supreme Court drama over employer-sponsored health insurance and reproductive rights; the idea of "the end of jobs" in the context of low-wage workers’ struggles; labor protections for unpaid interns; and Wall Street’s attack on Los Angeles. Plus, recommended reading on the tyranny of the gig economy and the value of the welfare state. News: Ruling Could Have Reach Beyond Issue of Contraception Why are our employers making our health insurance choices in the first place? Sarah: Port Truckers Win/The End of Jobs? The Fight to Protect Unpaid Interns Against Sexual Harassment NY Times Raises Intern Pay To Minimum Wage No Small Fees: LA Spends More on Wall Street than Our Streets New Report Reveals How Wall Street Impoverishes Los Angeles Conversation with Sonsira Espinal, Onieka O’Kieffe, and Sasha Hammad of Retail Action Project, and Christina Warden of Women Employed Michelle: The Tyranny of the On-Call Schedule: Hourly Injustice in Retail Labor Retail Action Project Women Employed Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: Sarah Kessler, "Pixel & Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in the Gig Economy," Fast Company Michelle: Mike Konczal, "The Conservative Myth of a Social Safety Net Built on Charity," The Atlantic/Democracy The post Belabored Podcast #47: Retail Hours, Wholesale Injustice appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. University of Pennsylvania political scientist Adolph Reed created quite a stir with a recent article in Harper’s magazine that criticized the left for its over-attachment to the Democrats and electoral politics and its disconnection from the labor movement. His argument—that there has been a “narrowing of social vision” on the left—has touched off quite a few debates about where things are now. On this week’s Belabored, Reed joins Sarah and Michelle to discuss his article, the need to focus on inequality, why the labor movement matters, and why Democrats relying on big money donors is like keeping a Komodo dragon in your bedroom. We also touch on a strike in Vermont, a lawsuit at McDonald’s, a modest proposal for executive salaries, and a call for justice in retail scheduling. And in “Argh!” we look at gentrification in Brooklyn and colonialism in Ireland. News: Workers’ lawsuit against wage theft at McDonald’s New York Settles With McDonald’s Restaurants In Wage Theft Investigation Vermont bus drivers strike over dangerous conditions Michelle: The Tyranny of the On-Call Schedule: Hourly Injustice in Retail Labor Retail Action Project report on Just Hours campaign Should university presidents’ salaries be tied to those of their janitors? Conversation with Adolph Reed: Adolph Reed, "Nothing Left," Harper’s Adolph Reed interview with Thomas Frank, Salon Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: Molly Osberg, "Inside the Barista Class", The Awl Michelle: Timothy Egan, "Paul Ryan’s Irish Amnesia", New York Times The post Belabored Podcast #46: What’s Left, with Adolph Reed appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. In 2012, the Chicago Teachers Union took to the streets and jolted the public education system as well as the American labor movement. The strike marked an unprecedented challenge to the dominant education reform agenda; representing powerful grassroots coalitions between educators and the communities they served, the union demanded justice for both students and teachers. This week, Belabored examines the history and ongoing impact of that movement with Micah Uetricht, author of Strike for America: Chicago Teachers Against Austerity (Verso, 2014). We also discuss more recent uprisings by UPS workers in New York and IBM workers in China, along with labor violations by the Pentagon overseas, the White House’s plans to expand overtime pay, and the failings of neoliberal welfare policy and corporate feminism. News: After 12 years of war, labor abuses rampant on US bases in Afghanistan War Workers: Vulnerable Foreign Laborers Swindled and Exploited to Toil on U.S. Bases in Afghanistan Obama Will Seek Broad Expansion of Overtime Pay China Strike Illustrates Shift in Labor Landscape Michelle: China’s Militant Workers Embrace Collective Action Support Grows for Maspeth Drivers UPS Drivers Fired for Protesting? Conversation with Micah Uetricht: Strike for America: Chicago Teachers Against Austerity Strike for America excerpt at Jacobin Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Rebecca Winson, The New Statesman, “We mustn’t forget the revolutionary roots of International Women’s Day” Sarah: Suzy Khimm, MSNBC, “How the safety net leaves out poor, unmarried men” The post Belabored Podcast #45: The Meaning of the Chicago Teachers’ Strike, with Micah Uetricht appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. This week, we are joined by author Melissa Gira Grant, whose new book Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work dismantles the myths surrounding sex work and challenges us to think about sex work in the same framework in which we put other kinds of labor. At the heart is the question: should workers have to love their work in order to be able to demand rights and protections on the job? Michelle also brings us news of a win for labor rights for sex workers in New Zealand; we then take a look at the heated battle over charter schools in New York and nationwide, at the struggle for decent jobs as a local economy moves from manufacturing to care work, and the surprising news that McDonald’s might be raising wages after all. Finally, we wrap up with a look at what happened to the company town. News: Pittsburgh’s Largest Employer Draws Hundreds of Protesters Over Poverty Wages Mayor Peduto steps in to UPMC protests De Blasio and Operator of Charter School Empire Do Battle Success Academy school chain comes under fire as parents fight ‘zero tolerance’ disciplinary policy Teachers Want More Accountability for Charter Schools Cashing in on Kids McDonald’s Saying Wages Could Rise Michelle: Sex Workers Have Labor Rights Just Like Any Other Employee, Confirms NZ Court New Zealand Prostitutes’ Collective Conversation with Melissa Gira Grant about the work of sex work: Excerpt, Playing the Whore by Melissa Gira Grant Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work Melissa Gira Grant’s homepage For Love or Money, by Sarah and Melissa Gira Grant Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Heidi Moore, The Guardian: IBM fires small-town workers for Wall Street numbers. That’s the good part Sarah: Bernadette Hyland, Contributoria: From factory workers to care workers The post Belabored Podcast #44: The Work of Sex Work, with Melissa Gira Grant appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. This week, Belabored talks to San Francisco-based journalist Julia Carrie Wong bout the ugly side of Silicon Valley and how tech giants have unleashed a wave of gentrification across the Bay Area. It seems that, despite their cool, youthful brand image, Google and Twitter are exploiting workers and aggravating inequality much the same way the robber barons of yore did before them. In addition, we hear from Jobs with Justice organizer Kung Feng about the response of community and labor groups to the tech sector’s growing presence in the city. We also talk about an insultingly low pay raise offer for federal employees and the health fallout facing Fukushima workers, along with updates on critical education labor struggles in Oregon and Minnesota, and a community-labor coalition working to save a local hospital. We end with a nod to some much-needed coverage of gender inequities in “house work” versus the formal workplace, and the massive lack of basic labor and safety protections for temp workers. News: Labor unions disappointed at 1 percent pay raise Obama to propose for federal workers Judge OK’s Deal for Long Island College Hospital 2,000 Fukushima plant workers to be checked for thyroid cancer Plummeting morale at Fukushima Daiichi as nuclear cleanup takes its toll Portland Teachers Prove the Value of Solidarity St. Paul Teachers Contract: Smaller Class Sizes, 8.6% Compensation Increase Medford Teachers Back in Classrooms Conversation with Julia Carrie Wong about Silicon Valley gentrification: Julia Carrie Wong Tech’s “feel-good” promises: Why Silicon Valley’s charity isn’t enough San Francisco Protesters Take Aim at Twitter’s Tax Breaks Argh, I Wish I’d Written That!: Sarah: Bryce Covert, Men Are Much More Likely to Work At Home Than Women Michelle: Michael Grabell, ProPublica, “U.S. Lags Behind World in Temp Worker Protections” The post Belabored Podcast #43: Google and Gentrification, with Julia Carrie Wong appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. The big news last week was the United Auto Workers’ defeat in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and there’s been a lot of discussion since about what this means for the future of labor. Meanwhile, across the country, teachers in Oregon are proving that militant unionism isn’t dead yet, and that there’s a lot to be won if workers stand together and fight with the community by their side. Portland teacher Elizabeth Thiel gives Belabored some thoughts on what happened in her district, and what’s happening as teachers around the country decide that enough is enough when it comes to corporate education reform. Sarah and Michelle also discuss a new report on port truckers and wage theft, minor league ballplayers suing over wage violations, the U.S. government’s reliance on sweatshops, the strike by University of Illinois faculty, and why the Congressional Budget Office is wrong about the minimum wage. News: Sarah: New Report: Port Trucking Companies Steal More than $1 Billion in Wages from Drivers International Labor Rights Forum: Dangerous Silence Michelle: The U.S. Government Uses Sweatshops, Too Sarah: The cult of amateurism plaguing professional sports Minor League Baseball Players Allege Wage Violations in Lawsuit Against MLB Medford draws some hope after hearing that Portland teacher strike averted Medford Education Association Support Our Teachers – The Truth Behind the Medford Teacher’s Strike Conversation: Sarah: In Nick of Time, Portland Teachers Make a Deal to Avert a Strike Argh, I Wish I’d Written That!: Michelle: Lennard Davis & Walter Benn Michaels, Jacobin, “Faculty on Strike” Sarah: Mike Konczal, The New Republic, “That CBO Report on Obama’s Minimum-Wage Proposal is Remarkably Biased” The post Belabored Podcast #42: (Almost) Striking in Portland appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. In light of the budget problems facing the postal service, many conservatives have called for mass layoffs and privatization as a way to “modernize” the institution. But one alternative reform proposal challenges stereotypes of the postal service as a creaky old bureaucracy–and highlights its potential to challenge Wall Street’s hegemony: Postal banking. By offering basic, low-cost financial services like savings accounts, small loans, and money transfers, post offices could help bring economic equity to underbanked low-income communities, save vital civil service jobs, and drive a real public option in a sector long dominated by banking behemoths. We speak with Dave Dayen about the idea and the rising political prospects for instituting financial services in the postal system. We also discuss the latest news on teachers and nurses organizing for workplace rights, how Wal-Mart’s anti-labor actions may be undermining its bottom line, a legal victory for immigrant guestworkers, and the crowdsourced sweatshop. News: Strike action in schools: St. Paul Teachers Take Strike Vote Feb 24 St. Paul Teachers Prepare for Possible Strike Subs in Classes during Medford Teachers Strike Portland Public Schools Hiring Replacement Teachers on Craigslist Union Warns of School Bus Strike   Nurses strike in Altoona, PA Nurses Stand Up to UPMC Over Frivolous Spending   Wal-Mart’s self-sabotaging labor practices Walmart’s Labor Practices Backfire Understaffing is hurting Walmart, says equities research firm   Court ruling on prevailing wage rules for guestworkers: Court of Appeals Hands Victory to U.S. Workers Michelle: A New Door for Guestworkers? Michelle: Immigrant Supply-Chain Labor Struggles Galvanize Walmart Activism Senate Democrats Block Funding for Guest Worker Protection Rule Michelle: Court Okays Labor Department Rule: Guestworkers Must Earn Prevailing Wages Conversation with Dave Dayen: Dave Dayen: The Post Office Should Just Become a Bank: How Obama can save USPS and ding check-cashing joints Dave Dayen: Obama’s Partly to Blame for the Postal Service’s Backward Ways Dave Dayen: Signed, Sealed, Deposited US Postal Service Office of the Inspector General: “Providing Non-Bank Financial Services for the Underserved” Felix Salmon: Why the Post Office needs to compete with banks   Argh, I Wish I’d Written That!: Moshe Marvit, The Nation: How Crowdworkers Became the Ghosts in the Digital Machine Jennifer Pan, Jacobin: The Labor of Social Media The post Belabored Podcast #41: Can Postal Banking Deliver Us from Wall Street? With Dave Dayen appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. The so-called education reform movement is funded by a handful of very wealthy donors who impose their ideological views through massive infusions of cash. Dissent‘s Joanne Barkan has spent years researching and writing about the ideology of the philanthro-ed-reformers, how they are similar to and different from older philanthropists like Ford and Carnegie, and how they’re corrupting democracy. She joins Michelle and Sarah to talk about her work. In labor news this week, London’s public transit workers go on strike; Tennessee may yet see a unionized auto plant; NFL cheerleaders rise up against wage theft; and workers rise up against the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. News: Volkswagen Workers in Tennessee to Vote on Union Membership Tube Strike: London Underground Action Disrupts Commuters Why We Are Striking, from the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association Oakland Raiders Cheerleaders File Suit Alleging Wage Theft Episode 31: Relief Work Episode 25: Shutdown Free Trade and the Loss of US Jobs Stop Fast Track Conversation with Joanne Barkan: Portland Teachers Vote to Strike Joanne Barkan: They Shall Overcome Joanne Barkan: Plutocrats at Work: How Big Philanthropy Undermines Democracy Joanne Barkan: Who is Victimizing Chicago’s Kids? Joanne Barkan: Hired Guns on Astroturf: How to Buy and Sell School Reform More Joanne Barkan at Dissent Argh, I Wish I’d Written That!: Sarah: Kathleen Kuehn, Why Are So Many Journalists Willing to Write for Free? Michelle: Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, How Inequality Hollows Out the Soul The post Belabored Podcast #40: Philanthrocapitalism, with Joanne Barkan appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. This week Sarah and Michelle declare that the State of the Union is angry. The workers of Visiting Nurse Services are considering going on strike to defend their healthcare and pensions from cuts. Anti-union legislation that might put Pennsylvania on the road to becoming a right-to-work state met with fierce protests by unions. The Coalition of Immokalee workers has pulled Wal-Mart into its Fair Food program. And New York teachers are rebelling against Common Core Standards, which they say will undermine education quality and serve as a political cudgel for marginalizing teachers. This week’s special guest is Heather McGhee, the new president of Demos. She talks about her take on the President’s address, policy solutions that could alleviate income inequality and joblessness, and how working people are taking action against inequality at the grassroots level. News: Visiting Nurses Potential Strike Here’s Why Florida Farmworkers Are Thrilled About Walmart’s Extra Pennies Labor Unions pack PA Capitol over paycheck bill Why support for Common Core is sinking Conversation: Demos: Introducing Heather McGhee Underwriting Bad Jobs Obama hikes minimum wage for federal contractors: How many will it help? Underwriting Executive Excess Michelle: When Federal Contracts Turn Into Corporate Welfare Full Employment: The Two Words Obama Ought to Say Tonight The Great Cost Shift End Employment Credit Checks Minimum Wage Bills Pushed in at Least 30 States Fresh Start: The Impact of Public Campaign Financing Social Mobility for Millennials Michelle: A Bailout for Jobless Millennials? Argh: Michelle Chen: Cila Warncke: Obama’s Promise Zones will do little to address inequality Sarah Jaffe: Dave Zirin, The Nation, “Right Now the NCAA is Like a Dictatorship”: Why the Northwestern Football Team Formed a Union Bonus video: Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant Responds to Obama’s State of the Union Address The post Belabored Podcast #39: The Real State of the Union, with Heather McGhee of Demos appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. This week, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Harris v. Quinn, a case that could break public-sector unions around the country. Ostensibly about whether home health care aides can be required to pay their fair share of union representation costs, in reality it’s a much bigger, much scarier story. Sarah and Michelle talk to Eileen Boris and Jennifer Klein, the authors of Caring for America: Home Health Workers in the Shadow of the Welfare State. Boris, the Hull professor and chair of the Department of Feminist Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara, and Klein, Professor of History at Yale University and a co-director of Yale’s Initiative on Labor and Culture, discuss the case, the formation of home care workers’ unions, and the potential ramifications for all public sector workers. Michelle and Sarah also discuss the NLRB’s complaint against Walmart and strikes at the Pentagon, global inequality and disaster capitalism in New Orleans, and have a spiritually-flavored “Argh! I Wish I’d Written That”. News: Pentagon Workers Strike Feds Charge Walmart With Breaking Labor Law In Black Friday Strikes Labor wins two rulings, Walmart vows to fight back 7,000 New Orleans Teachers Fired Improperly, Appeals Court Says Michelle: New Orleans Teachers Get Justice But Schools Still Imperiled By Reform The Global Elite: Rigging the Rules that Fuel Inequality Oxfam report: Working for the Few Interview with Eileen Boris and Jennifer Klein: Caring for America: Home Health Workers in the Shadow of the Welfare State Home-Care Workers Aren’t Just “Companions” Eileen Boris and Jennifer Klein’s Amicus Brief for Harris v. Quinn Areesa Johnson, Illinois Home Health Worker, on Harris v. Quinn SCOTUSBlog Recaps Arguments in Harris v. Quinn Labor Finds Unlikely Savior in Scalia Argh! I wish I’d written that: Sarah: United Church Ministers Unionize Under Unifor Banner Michelle: Workers of the World, Faint! The post Belabored Podcast #38: Caring for America, with Eileen Boris and Jennifer Klein appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. This week Sarah and Michelle talk with labor history scholar and activist Max Fraser on new directions in labor militancy, which he explores in the current issue of Dissent. What is the meaning of these one-day strikes that have rankled Wal-Mart and fast food managers over the past year? What do the direct actions undertaken by unions and grassroots workers’ groups tell us about the nature of global capital and how the union structure can facilitate or impede workplace activism? Also: this week’s news round-up tackles the standoff over unemployment benefits in Congress, changes in the ranks of the Chicago teachers’ union, expanded pre-Kindergarten in New York, and worker uprisings in Cambodia. We end with a look back at the War on Poverty and a reflection on the sham that is the so-called “labor of love.” News: Unemployment extension fails (again) CTU Seeks to Tip Balance with New Political Organization CTU Resolution for Independent Political Organization Bill de Blasio’s persuasive case for universal pre-K Michelle: Despite Violence, Cambodian Workers Vow To Continue Their Fight Interview with Max Fraser: Can the One-Day Strike Revive the Labor Movement? Sarah: How Walmart Organizers Turned the Internet Into a Shop Floor Argh, I Wish I’d Written That!: Peter Dreier: Is America Ready for a New War on Poverty? Miya Tokumitsu, In The Name of Love Extra: Michelle talks on KPFK’s Feminist Magazine about her article on fast food workers and women in the fall issue of Ms. Magazine. The post Belabored Podcast #37: The One-Day Strike, featuring Max Fraser appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. Returning from holiday break (for which we thank the labor movement), Michelle and Sarah bring you stories of workers in limbo: updates from SeaTac’s fight for $15 an hour, from the Portland teachers’ fight for a fair contract, and Congress’s fight over whether the unemployed should get their benefits, as well as an update on labor uprising in South Korea. Then, Sarah has a new investigation out on temp workers in manufacturing, and she and Michelle discuss the temping of America—how good, secure jobs became precarious, low-wage temp gigs, the role gender plays, why temps get extra screwed by the failings of labor law, and more. Finally, they cross the pond for a couple of “Argh!” stories from the UK. News: Preparing for a Test of Education Justice Portland Teachers to send latest offer by Saturday SeaTac’s minimum wage workers might not get their raise after all Showdown vote ahead on Senate Democrats’ bill to extend jobless benefits A lifeline just ran out for 1.3 million people Michelle: Angry Workers Swarm Seoul’s Streets, Demand President Resign South Korea Rail Workers Strike against Privatization Temp Work and Outsourcing: Sarah: Forever Temp? Michelle: A New Day, A New Danger: Temporary Workers Face Safety Hazards at Work Michelle: When Federal Contracts Turn Into Corporate Welfare Michelle: The U.S. Government Uses Sweatshops, Too Michelle: From Indonesia to California, Laborers Say ‘No’ to Precarious Work Temp Land: Working in the New Economy Argh, I Wish I’d Written That!: Paul Mason at Channel 4: Thatcher vs. the miners: Official papers confirm the strikers’ worst suspicions (See also Belabored Episode 2 with Paul Mason) Emily Dugan, Independent: Bucharest to London: On the bus with the Romanians taking the 52-hour ride in search of a new life in Britain EXTRA: Sarah and Michelle discuss unpaid labor on Up Front on KPFA The post Belabored Podcast #36: Forever Temp appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. As 2013 winds to a close, Sarah and Michelle look back over the year in labor: the good news and the grim, the under-the-radar stories and the big wins. They also look forward to next year and make some (hopeful) predictions. Sarah and Michelle also bring you up to date on the latest labor news, including unexpected unions gaining a toehold in fast food and Internet retail and a new bill for national paid family leave, and wind up with a holiday-themed “Argh! I wish I’d written that.” In the News: Amazon Workers in Germany Strike Again Amazon May Get its First Labor Union in the US Some Fast Food Workers Will Form Union Michelle: National Paid Family Leave May Finally Be on the Horizon Sarah: Kirsten Gillibrand’s five-point family policy plan Year in Review The Good: Michelle: California Domestic Workers Win Long-Sought Bill of Rights Michelle: Domestic Workers Sow a New Global Movement Sarah: Black Friday Protests Embolden Walmart Workers Sarah: Fast food strikes in New York Should We Raise the Minimum Wage? 11 Questions and Answers Minimum wage of $11.50? Washington DC to raise minimum wage in 2016 The Bad: Michelle: Pension Panic Fueled by Anti-Worker Politics? Straight talk about Detroit, Illinois pensions #PensionTheft: Public Workers Under Attack in Illinois Michelle: Immigration Reform: Corporate Demands Trump Human Rights (account required) Michelle: Migrant Women Bring Voices to Capital A Guide to S.744: Understanding the 2013 Senate Immigration Bill What Happened to Immigration reform? The Underreported: Michelle: A New Day, A New Danger: Temporary Workers Face Safety Hazards at Work Michelle: Farmworkers Face Silent Spring in the Fields Fertilizer Plant That Exploded in West, Texas Faces $118,300 in Fines Terror in Texas Sarah: Nurses Taste Victory in Battle that Shook NY Politics Hope for Next Year: Michelle: Minimum-Wage Hike Won’t Appease Bangladeshi Workers Michelle: From Dhaka to Broadway, Protests Target Bangladesh Factory Death Traps Sarah: Standardized testing for kindergarteners? Sarah: New York’s dissident teachers’ union caucus not giving up Stories We Wish We’d Written: Michelle: Stephanie McMillan, Common Dreams: Why Environmentalists Should Support Working Class Struggles Sarah: Kevin Hartnett, the Boston Globe: Was Dickens’s Christmas Carol borrowed from Lowell’s mill girls? The post Belabored Podcast #35: Highs and Lows of the Year in Labor appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. This week on Belabored, Sarah and Michelle round up some of the week’s labor news: Washington’s epic fail on unemployment benefits, reports of rampant labor violations by companies operating on federal contracts, Chris Hayes and the union drive at an NBC subsidiary, and a recap of last week’s #LowPayisNotOkay low-wage worker protests. Then they discuss this week’s major national labor action in the classroom, with protests in dozens of cities led by teachers and community groups, demanding fair school funding, less testing and more creativity in the curriculum, and resistance to privatization. Then they get their journo-envy on with some “Argh! I wish I’d written that!” stories. Featuring the voices of 32BJ workers and Billy Easton of the Alliance for Quality Education. Links for those reading along at home: Previous coverage of the low-wage worker actions in Belabored #33 ‘Low Pay Is Not OK’: Fast Food Workers Rise Up with Nationwide Protests Study Finds Federal Contracts Given to Flagrant Violators of Labor Laws Michelle: When Federal Contracts Turn Into Corporate Welfare Exclusive: Chris Hayes attends secret union meeting with unhappy NBC workers Sarah: A Group of Workers Corporate America Claimed Were Impossible to Organize Win Key Union Votes Michelle: Teachers Seek to ‘Reclaim’ Education Sarah: Taking the Caring Out of Teaching Michelle: While Schools Sink, NYC Teachers Get Slammed in Shame Game Sarah: How Young Is Too Young for Multiple-Choice Tests? (A) 5 (B) Never Michelle: Civil Rights Organizations File Complaint Over New York’s High Stakes Tests Sarah: What You Need to Know About the Seattle Teachers’ Rebellion and the Deeply Flawed Test That Inspired It Sarah: Bill de Blasio’s Vision For A More Equal New York What We Wish We’d Written: Anna Simonton, Alternet: How Wall Street Power Brokers Are Designing the Future of Public Education as a Money-Making Machine John Nichols, The Nation: Nelson Mandela: Union Man The post Belabored Podcast #34: Communities Rise Up For Public Ed appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. This week on Belabored, Sarah and Michelle bring you the news of the week: Justin Timberlake is “bringing unions back,” sushi workers win a settlement for wage theft, France may be cracking down on sex work, and, of course, there were strikes aplenty last week. They discuss the attacks on pensions in Illinois and the bankruptcy proceedings in Detroit, and look at the labor movement’s strategy for beating global brands like Amazon, Walmart, and Starbucks at their own game. Featuring interviews with Walmart worker organizer Colby Harris and Greg Jones of the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers, and some “Argh! I wish I’d written that!” stories that look at the big picture. Links for those following along at home: French MPs vote to impose fines on prostitutes’ customers NSWP Statement: Proposals to Criminalise the Purchase of Sex in France Justin Timberlake is bringing unions back: unionized dancers on the singer’s new tour Background on Fat Salmon Sushi: Belabored Episode 6 with Jake Blumgart Background on Detroit’s bankruptcy: Belabored Episode 16 with Marcy Wheeler Liveblog: Detroit bankruptcy proceedings #PensionTheft: Public Workers Under Attack in Illinois How Chicago Whole Foods Workers Won Back Thanksgiving Keeping Postage Public Dave Dayen on Postal Banking Sarah on Black Friday action at Walmart Stories we wish we’d written: Sarah: Robert Kuttner, “The Task Rabbit Economy” Michelle: Bruce Bennett and Imogen Tyler: “The War on Welfare: From ‘Social Security’ to ‘Social Insecurity’” The post Belabored Podcast #33: Pension Theft and Beating Big Brands appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. This week on Belabored, Michelle and Sarah bring you some good news (and, of course, some less good news), including suggestions from listeners, and look forward to the Black Friday actions at Walmart next week. Journalist and author Liza Featherstone joins the show to talk about Walmart’s corporate culture, why that’s made the company hard to organize in the past, and how it might be changing. They share their thoughts on Seattle’s new socialist city council member and revisit the idea of solidarity as a value for the left. Links for those reading along at home: Michelle: Qatar’s World Cup Spectacle Brought to You by Slavery Sarah: Why port truckers are striking:12-hour shifts, noxious fumes, and $12.90 paychecks Minimum wage of $11.50 proposed for the District States Moving Beyond U.S. Minimum Wage as Congress Stalls Machinists Defeat Boeing Proposal, Boo Union Brass Who Pushed It Ruling Doubles Paycheck for 1375 Employees at High-Grossing Queens Slot Parlor Liza Featherstone’s book Selling Women Short: The Landmark for Workers’ Rights at Wal-Mart Liza Featherstone: Walmart Workers Walk Out Liza Featherstone: Is Walmart Losing its Bipartisan Luster? Liza Featherstone: ‘Dukes v. Wal-Mart’ and the Limits of Legal Change Liza Featherstone in Dissent Josh Eidelson: Walmart Faces Warehouse Horror Allegations and Federal Labor Board Complaint OUR Walmart Website for Associates Requesting Black Friday Actions Demos, A Higher Wage is Possible What We Wish We’d Written: Michelle: Mariya Strauss, The Nation: Regulations Are Killed, and Kids Die Sarah: Kurt Newman, Dissent: Letter from Santa Barbara: Reviving the Sympathy Strike The post Belabored Podcast #32: Black Friday appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. This week on Belabored, Sarah and Michelle try to answer some tough questions: What’s happening to academic labor? Should professors’ speech be protected? What is lost when human interactions take place via video screen? What’s labor’s role in disaster relief? What happens when formerly incarcerated people can’t get jobs? What are clothes? (Seriously.) Featuring an interview with Bonnie Castillo on the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan and the last forty years of labor history in two and a half minutes. (Really.) Links for Those Following Along at Home: All in a Day’s Work: Steelworkers’ Case Highlights Shifting American Workday What are Clothes? Asks Most Delightful Supreme Court Argument in History I can’t do my job through a video screen Classroom Confidential: Should professors have any expectation of email privacy? Educators Wary of Tech Fixes for College Affordability Crisis OSHA Plans to Make Workplace Safety Reports Public Study: Immigrant construction workers more likely to die on the job in NYC National Nurses Mobilize for Philippines Relief Effort Argh! We Wish We’d Written That: Michelle: Kai Wright, “Boxed In: How a Criminal Record Keeps You Unemployed for Life” Sarah: Harold Meyerson, “The 40-Year Slump“ The post Belabored Podcast #31: Relief Work appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. This week on Belabored, Sarah and Michelle talk about this week’s elections (and what comes next), Walmart workers on strike again, and the dangers of “economic development” plans that give big companies huge tax breaks in exchange for “creating jobs.” They then take an in-depth look at the world of outsourcing: labor struggles in China and Bangladesh, the shady world of global temp agencies, and outsourcing right here at home. Featuring an interview with Bangladeshi labor organizer Kalpona Akter, executive director of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity, about the state of garment worker organizing. She points out that while changes appear to be afoot, the political situation remains “intense,” and workers often face retaliation from police in the streets. The situation is exacerbated as the political opposition tries to “take advantage” of workers’ unrest to garner power, and conflict could escalate if workers are dissatisfied with the size of the promised minimum wage increase. She then discusses how workers are driving the movement directly from the grassroots, with support from mainstream unions and international groups. She argues that supply chain worker organizing, linking Bangladeshi and U.S. workers across Wal-Mart’s production system, is key. The Bangladesh activists are planning joint campaigns with the global union coalition IndustriALL and various U.S. unions to spread solidarity protests. They need international solidarity in order to ensure that the pressure stays on Wal-Mart to sign the pending Bangladesh Fire & Building Safety Accord. Links for those following along at home: Report on day laborers and Sandy What the next mayor (of New York) should do about homelessness Sarah: Interview with Bill deBlasio Homeless shelter landlords bet big on deBlasio Laura Clawson: Union leader elected Boston mayor and other wins for workers Idaho town struggles after pinning hopes on failed factory Michelle: Through state tax breaks, bosses pilfer workers’ earnings Kshama Sawant ran for Seattles’s City Council as a socialist—and came very close to winning Josh Eidelson: Walmart workers on strike again Wildcat Walmart strike in Florida Michelle: Minimum wage hike won’t appease Bangladeshi workers Michelle: Labor steps up global fight against exploitative agencies Michelle: Bossnapped! What we can learn from China’s labor banditry. Michelle: Exploitation remains the name of the game at Dell’s Chinese factories IndustriALL union fights precarious work What We Wish We’d Written: Sarah: Heidi Moore at the Guardian on women’s favors going unnoticed at work. Michelle: Vandana Shiva,”How economic growth has become anti-life” The post Belabored Podcast #30: Out (and In) Sourcing appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. This week on Belabored, Sarah Jaffe and Michelle Chen look at New York after Superstorm Sandy through the lens of labor. Who did the work of the recovery and how has it affected them, who’s out of a job, what did Sandy teach us about what a union can do? Featuring NYSNA president Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, with her thoughts on how Sandy made people look at their union–and the world–differently. They also look at some scary stuff for Halloween: a candy factory explosion, inside an anti-union captive audience meeting, and more. Links for those following along at home: Sarah on Sandy recovery, one year later. Michelle on labor and Sandy Michelle on Sandy and inequality Sarah on Sandy and healthcare Immigrant construction workers after Sandy, from Al Jazeera America Home care aides discuss Sandy Michelle on candy factory explosion in Juarez Leaked audio of an anti-union captive audience meeting (more here) Joe Lhota, union-buster? What We Wish We’d Written Michelle: Sadibh Walshe at the Guardian on McDonald’s and food stamps Sarah: Alan Pyke at ThinkProgress talks to Detroit workers who might lose their pensions The post Belabored Podcast #29: After the Storm appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. This week on Belabored, Sarah and guest co-host Peter Frase (Jacobin magazine) talk about solidarity of all kinds. They discuss international solidarity campaigns between European and South African unions and workers here, particularly in the South; give an update on the situation in Detroit as unions fight the city’s planned bankruptcy (which Marcy Wheeler discussed on Episode 16) and the wiping out of their pensions; and more. Then, independent journalist Susie Cagle joins them to talk about labor unrest in the Bay Area, including wildcat strikes at the Port of Oakland by port truckers and the Bay Area Rapid Transit workers’ strike. Solidarity, it seems, can be hard to come by, both in the suddenly tech-enriched community and even among workers at the port itself. And for “Argh,” Sarah presents her favorite piece on solidarity, ever. Links For Those Following Along At Home: Detroit Bankruptcy Hits Pivotal Phase Grambling State University football players strike by Brendan O’Connor at Jacobin International Solidarity for Americans: South African unionists at Nissan in Mississippi, Swedes at Ikea in Virginia, Germans at Volkswagen in Tennessee Sarah on port truck drivers in Savannah Yvonne Yen Liu on wildcat port trucker strike in Oakland More on port truckers, from Los Angeles Susie Cagle on Burning Down BART Strike Strawmen Peter Frase on the BART Strike and Techno-Libertarianism Mike Elk: BART Strike Media Fail Labor Notes: Bay Area Transit Workers Beat Back Worst, End Strike Last-minute deal averts grocery strike Pieces We Wish We’d Written: Peter: Iza Kaminska at the Financial Times, World War ZIRP Sarah: Chris Hayes at In These Times, In Search of Solidarity The post Belabored Podcast #28: Solidarity appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. This week on Belabored: labor reporter, former Belabored guest, and Dissent contributor Michelle Chen joins Sarah Jaffe to share some of her reporting on the organizing campaign at Guitar Center and the difficulties of organizing large retail chains. Then, the shutdown might be over, but the problems it caused sure aren’t: Sarah and Michelle discuss the disproportionate impact on women, the other subjects pushed to the side when crisis becomes permanent (remember immigration reform?), and more. Plus: kindergarteners taking standardized tests, tenure-track faculty showing solidarity with adjuncts, and why we still don’t “Lean In.” Links for Those Reading Along at Home Michelle on migrant women speaking in D.C. for fair immigration laws Sarah on kindergarteners and standardized tests dBryce Covert and Tara Culp-Ressler on the shutdown and women Rebecca Burns on grad student union rights University of Oregon contract creates solidarity between adjuncts and tenured professors Study shows fast food restaurants depend on public subsidies to support their workers, from Laura Clawson What We Wish We’d Written Michelle: Nancy Fraser, How feminism became capitalism’s handmaiden – and how to reclaim it Sarah: Felix Salmon, The default has already begun The post Belabored Podcast #27: Retail Revolution? appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. This week Sarah is joined by guest co-host Laura Clawson, editor of Daily Kos Labor and a former Belabored guest. Sarah and Laura try to bring you some cheerful news before diving back into the subject du jour: the continuing government shutdown and with it the drive from the far right to destroy the last vestiges of the New Deal safety net. They also tackle the debt ceiling and the question of whether the right wing is still under the thumb of big business. But don’t despair—there really are a few things to be optimistic about. Really. We promise. (Just not, at the moment, coming from Washington.) Links for Those Reading Along At Home Laura Clawson on the shutdown: cutoff of WIC funding, furloughs at the Center for Disease Control, coal miners at risk, NLRB shutdown, food banks taking care of furloughed Grand Canyon workers, and more Bangladesh garment factory fire kills 10 Teamster organizing victory for public workers in Georgia Josh Eidelson and Doug Henwood discuss the debt ceiling Sarah on Kirsten Gillibrand’s forward-thinking economic agenda Bryce Covert on what Democrats should demand in the shutdown negotiations The Pieces We Wish We’d Written: Laura: Ken Ward Jr. at the Charleston Gazette‘s Coal Tattoo blog—on MSHA missing safety inspections, and why West Virginia’s coal mines aren’t safer Sarah: Steven Greenhouse on the UAW’s battle to organize Nissan in the South The post Belabored Podcast #26: The Lockout Continues appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. On Belabored’s twenty-fifth episode, Sarah is joined by guest host Bryce Covert, economics editor at ThinkProgress and contributor to The Nation and Dissent. Bryce and Sarah round up the news this week and chat about work-family policy on the federal, state, and local level. They also address the biggest news of the week—the government shutdown. For that, they’re joined by Mariya Strauss, a labor journalist whose partner is a federal employee currently locked out of his job by the shutdown. The three of them discuss the reasons to call the shutdown a lockout, what “essential” workers and work mean, and how the left can use this opportunity to present its own list of demands. Links for Those Following Along at Home Mariya Strauss at In These Times: “First they came for the federal workers…” Bryce Covert on paid sick days heading to Newark Bryce Covert on leave for workers who are victims of domestic violence Bryce Covert on the other shutdown: Congress lets welfare lapse Bryce Covert and Alan Pyke talk to federal workers about shutdown Aaron Bady on who the shutdown will hurt—and why Sarah on NYC’s Pregnant Workers Fairness Act Bryce on NYC’s Pregnant Workers Fairness Act The Pieces We Wish We’d Written Bryce: Sharon Lerner at the American Prospect on fathers taking advantage of paid parental leave Sarah: Lynn Parramore at AlterNet on professional cheerleaders’ hard work and low pay The post Belabored Podcast #25: Shutdown appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

A Note from the Editors: Today, we’re posting our twenty-fourth episode of Belabored, Dissent’s labor podcast hosted by Sarah Jaffe and Josh Eidelson. Launched in April, Belabored has quickly become vital for journalists and activists. In the words of one NEA activist, “Belabored should be on every union organizer, troublemaker, and general miscreant’s weekly to-do list. The isolation of the organizer’s work can be fierce at times…it is nice to be able to hear about what else is happening around the country and around the world.” Or in the words of the Washington Post’s James Downie, “Belabored is a must-listen for me.” Belabored is now syndicated on radio stations across the country. The show has featured guests like CTU President Karen Lewis, the Nation’s Lee Fang, and the BBC’s Paul Mason. Belabored provides the best curated labor roundup anywhere. We’re grateful to Belabored’s listeners for participating via Twitter every week with tips and requests. Visit the whole Belabored archive here. This week we have an announcement: Josh Eidelson will be stepping down as co-host of Belabored to take a full-time position at Salon.com. We encourage everyone to read his reporting here, and wish him luck in the work ahead! In the next few weeks, we’ll be inviting guest hosts to join us at Belabored. We’re excited to introduce you to some of the very journalists whose work has been featured here. Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. On Episode 24 of Belabored, we have a message from Josh to our listeners as he departs as our weekly co-host. Sarah brings you news from New York City to Bangladesh, and then is joined by longtime organizer and architect of the Justice for Janitors campaign, Stephen Lerner. Lerner makes the case that student debt is a labor issue, talks about moving from taking on service employers to taking on Wall Street, and offers his thoughts on the fast food strikes. And we have a special “Argh!” from Sarah’s longtime mentor. Links for Those Following Along at Home: Sarah on the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act in New York City Michelle Chen on Bangladeshi worker protests One hundred factories closed as a result of worker protests in Bangladesh Retailers have mixed feelings about making conditions better in Bangladesh Stephen Lerner: 5 ways to break the big banks’ death grip on the economy Stephen Lerner on “a new insurgency” in New Labor Forum in 2011 Sarah on student debt at AlterNet Tressie McMillan Cottom’s Counter Narrative column on higher education at Slate “Is Fight for 15 for Real?” A discussion hosted by Micah Uetricht at In These Times The Piece Sarah Wishes She’d Written: Laura Flanders, Domestic Workers Aren’t Members of the Family The post Belabored Podcast #24: New Insurgencies appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. The twenty-third episode of Dissent’s #Belabored podcast opens with a round-up featuring protests for Occupy’s anniversary, labor protections for domestic workers, scrutiny for worker centers, and deep cuts for food stamps. Then Josh asks Sarah about her recent In These Times reporting on the struggle over New York hospital closures. How have healthcare unions been getting traction in these fights? What does their strategy suggest about the interplay between unions, judges, and politicians? What’s happening next? Links for those following along at home: Sarah’s latest reporting on the hospital struggle Sarah’s interviews with NYC politicians Bill de Blasio and Tish James Sarah on #S17 Josh’s interview with Labor Secretary Tom Perez on the DOL’s agenda Josh on alt-labor Pieces We Wish We’d Written: “Abercrombie Dress Code Enables Discrimination, Insiders Say,” Kim Bhasin and Caroline Fairchild, The Huffington Post “Did This Little Election Strike a Big Blow to Education Reform?,” Molly Ball, The Atlantic The post Belabored Podcast #23: A Taste of Victory appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. The twenty-second episode of Dissent’s Belabored podcast opens with a round-up of good and bad news for labor: a judge’s ruling against Indiana’s “Right to Work,” a living wage law vetoed in DC, Chicago schools without air conditioning, and steps towards UAW union recognition in the South. Then Sarah and Josh discuss his trip to the AFL-CIO convention this week in Los Angeles. What was behind the controversy over tightening the federation’s ties to progressive groups? What brought a union representing prison guards to join a resolution against mass incarceration? How much leverage does the AFL-CIO have over the fifty-seven unions that make it up? Links for those following along at home: Josh’s dispatches from the AFL-CIO convention for The Nation: Preview, Day One, Day Two, Day Three, Day Four The Chicago Sun-Times on schools without A/C Kenzo Shibata on the anniversary of the Chicago Teachers Union strike NUVO on the Indiana ruling Sarah’s interviews with NYC Mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio and Public Advocate candidate Tish James Josh on retaliation at Walmart for the Washington Post Josh on “Right to Work” rhetoric in Indiana Pieces we wish we’d written: Mike Elk, “For Union Members, Defeat at Crystal Sugar Anything But Sweet,” In These Times Douglas Williams and Cato Uticensis, “A Call for a Second Operation Dixie,” The South Lawn The post Belabored Podcast #22: Resolutions appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. The twenty-first episode of Dissent’s Belabored podcast opens with a round-up of recent news: strikes by fast food workers and port truckers, anti-retaliation rallies against Walmart, and progress on silica dust safety rules. Then Sarah and Josh are joined by Daily Kos labor editor Laura Clawson for a wide-ranging interview: What’s ahead at next week’s AFL-CIO convention? Can living wage laws overcome concerted opposition? How has the relationship between bloggers and unions changed? Links for those following along at home: Daily Kos Labor Sarah and Josh on fast food strikes Micah Uetricht on a port trucker strike Josh on mobilizations against alleged Walmart retaliation Mike Elk on proposed silica dust regulations Sarah on Mike Bloomberg’s suit against living wage regulation Josh on the AFL-CIO’s pre-convention consideration of investments in Texas and alt-labor Working America Pieces we wish we’d written: Harold Meyerson, “L.A. Story,” The American Prospect David Moberg, “America’s 200-Year-Long Battle for Workplace Democracy,” In These Times The post Belabored Podcast #21: Retaliation appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. On the twentieth episode of Dissent’s Belabored podcast, Sarah and Josh discuss recent labor developments, including some good news for labor: a big raise for Walmart warehouse workers, and a judge’s reversal in the fight over New York hospital closures. Then they turn to a bleaker situation: the escalating showdown over Philadelphia’s school budget. They’re joined by City Paper reporter Daniel Denvir, who breaks down the latest in the under-covered crisis. Who are the culprits for starving city schools? How does Philly compare to Chicago? How effectively are Philly’s education unions partnering with allies and meeting the challenge? Belabored will be off next week—see you in September! Links for those following along at home: Daniel Denvir’s latest, “Amid Schools Crisis, Teachers Union Is Under Fire,” and his May feature, “Who’s Still Killing Philly Schools?” Sarah on the governors cutting schools and building prisons Sarah on nurses’ win at LICH, and the New York Times on doctors’ proposal to run the hospital themselves Michelle Chen on a new report on care workers in New York David Moberg on a Walmart warehouse win Josh on fired workers’ Labor Day deadline for Walmart Pieces we wish we’d written: Julia Carrie Wong, “What Picketing Taught Me About Feminism,” Salon Han Tang, “China’s Young Workers Fight Back at Foxconn,” Labor Notes The post Belabored Podcast #20: Who’s Killing Philly Schools? appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. The nineteenth episode of Dissent’s Belabored podcast opens with some recent labor news: students getting involved in a Nissan union drive; the United Food & Commercial Workers union returning to the AFL-CIO; Chicago issuing a request for proposals for more charter schools; and interns excluded from sexual harassment protections. Then Josh and Sarah discuss her recent In These Times feature on what the “work/life balance” debate leaves out. How do sex, race, and class shape what counts as “work” and as “life”? Why do these conversations neglect a life for women outside productive or reproductive labor? Is it time for labor to demand the right to free time? Links for those following along at home: Sarah’s In These Times piece on “Opting for Free Time” Related stories by the New York Times’ Magazine’s Judith Warner, Time’s Lauren Sandler, and The Nation’s Bryce Covert Sarah at Jacobin on “A Day Without Care” Pro Publica’s Blair Hickman and Christie Thompson on “How Unpaid Interns Aren’t Protected Against Sexual Harassment” WBEZ on Chicago’s request for charter proposals Josh’s interview with SEIU President Mary Kay Henry Roger Bybee on the Nissan plant and its fat subsidies for low wages Joe Atkins at Facing South on students’ organizing with Nissan workers. Pieces we wish we’d written: Christina Caldwell, “Abortion Heat Hits Alabama’s ‘Saturday Women,’ Women’s e-news Steven Greenhouse, “The Workers Defense Project, a Union in Spirit,” The New York Times The post Belabored Podcast #19: The Politics of Time appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. The eighteenth episode of Dissent’s Belabored podcast opens with a round-up of recent labor news: a legal defeat for prevailing wage law in New York, a potential veto of a retail living wage law in DC, a possibly imminent expansion of federal protections for domestic workers, and a contract fight over wages and job security for employees of the ACLU. Then Sarah and Josh interview historian and Dissent contributor William Jones about his new book, The March on Washington: Jobs, Freedom and the Forgotten History of Civil Rights. As the march’s fiftieth anniversary approaches, they discuss how and why the march’s politics are misremembered, the relationship between racial and economic injustice, and what the left could do to reclaim the march’s meaning and potential. Links for those following along at home: William Jones in Dissent on “The Forgotten Radical History of the March on Washington” Andrew Elrod in Dissent on the ACLU contract fight Sarah on minimum wage activism Josh on DC’s “Walmart bill” Sarah on NYC’s race for care Josh’s April interview with domestic workers labor leader Ai-Jen Poo Sarah on “A Day Without Care” Josh on “A De Facto Union” Sarah on Bloomberg’s fight against a living wage Pieces we wish we’d written: James Cersonsky, “New labor movement emerges in Scott Walker’s Wisconsin,” Salon E. Tammy Kim, “Why Do the People Raising Our Children Earn Poverty Wages,” The Nation The post Belabored Podcast #18: Jobs and Freedom appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. On the 17th episode of Dissent’s Belabored podcast, Sarah and Josh consider this week’s historic seven city fast food strikes. Is this campaign’s strategy–partnering unions and community groups, mounting one-day strikes, and attacking the entire industry at once–paying off? What comes next? How will this all end? Then they explore a related question: what’s the relationship between funding sources and internal democracy for campaigns organizing workers who don’t pay union dues? And in this week’s opening news round-up, they tackle college athletes, graduate student employees, sobering survey data, and who’s afraid of alt-labor. Links for those following along at home: Fast food strike reporting from Sarah and Josh Josh on “Who Should Fund Alt-Labor?” Sarah on minimum wage protests AP: “80 percent of U.S. adults face near-poverty, unemployment” during life Micah Uetricht: “Big Business Aims to Crush Worker Centers” Josh on Jack Lew’s union-busting at NYU Travis Waldron on student athletes and pay Sarah on on the Laundry Workers Center Sarah on McDonald’s and payroll debit cards Stories we wish we’d written: Susie Cagle, “The Dark Side of Start-Up City,” Grist George Black, “The Untold Story of Rana Plaza,” On Earth The post Belabored Podcast #17: Fast Food Nation appeared first on Dissent Magazine.