Working People Working People

From May 8-12, the 30th Constitutional Convention of the Canadian Labour Congress took place in Montréal. Reporting for Working People and The Real News Network, Max attended the convention and spoke with a number of rank-and-file workers, organizers, and union officers about the state of the labor movement in Canada. In Part 1 of our two-part dispatch from the CLC, we talk to: Emily Leedham, the Prairie Reporter for PressProgress and editor of Shift Work, PressProgress' weekly national labour newsletter; Guy Smith, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees; Mary Newman, a journalist and producer for the Canadian Broadcast Corporation and member of the Canadian Media Guild; James Russwurm, a quality assurance tester for Keywords Studios, where workers formed the first union in the video gaming industry and affiliated with UFCW Local 401; Liz Ha, 1st Vice President of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) Local 154, chair of the OPSEU provincial human rights committee, and vice-chair of the OPSEU Coalition of Racialized Workers.
Additional links/info below...
Canadian Labour Congress website, Facebook page, and Twitter page Emily's Twitter page and newsletter  PressProgress's website, Facebook page, and Twitter page Guy's AUPE profile page Alberta Union of Provincial Employees website, Facebook page, and Twitter page Mary's Twitter page UFCW Local 401 website, Facebook page, and Twitter page Liz's Twitter page OPSEU Local 154 Facebook page OPSEU Coalition of Racialized Workers website  Emily Leedham, PressProgress, "Public Servants Forced Federal Government to Improve Deal By Going on Strike, Labour Experts Say" Aminah Sheikh, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, "The Right Wing is Organizing in Canada. Can The Left Learn to Stop Them?" CBC Radio, "Canada's Video Games Industry Is Getting Its 1st Union. Organizers Hope It's Not the Last" Permanent links below...
Working People Patreon page Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show! Labor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page In These Times website, Facebook page, and Twitter page The Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter page Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)
Jules Taylor, "Working People" Theme Song

The 2020 protests that took place in the immediate wake of Minneapolis police murdering George Floyd were a historic call for America to reckon with its racist, oppressive system of state-sanctioned police violence. Three years later, rather than a reckoning, that same system, along with the political and business elites propping it up, are giving us "Cop City" (ie, the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, the Atlanta Police Foundation’s 85-acre, $90-million police militarization and training complex where law enforcement from around the US and beyond will, among other things, train for urban warfare scenarios). Plans to build Cop City have been mired in controversy and civil rights violations from the beginning—from the city government's attempts to ignore residents' and activists' objections and force through the construction of Cop City in Atlanta's ecologically vital Weelaunee Forest, to police raiding an encampment of peaceful protestors and murdering one of them, Manuel ("Tortuguita") Esteban Paez Terán, who was shot 57 times, to the truly Orwellian crackdown on protestors and advocates, dozens of whom are being arrested and charged with "domestic terrorism." 
As Micah Herskind writes, "The struggle to Stop Cop City is not just a battle over the creation of a $90 million police urban warfare center. It's not just a fight to protect the 381 acres of forest land, known as one of the "four lungs" of Atlanta, currently under threat of destruction. It's not just a conflict over how the city invests the over $30 million it has pledged to the project, to be supplemented by at least $60 million in private funding. The movement is all of those things. But even more fundamentally, the struggle to Stop Cop City is a battle for the future of Atlanta. It's a struggle over who the city is for: the city's corporate and state ruling class actors who have demanded that Cop City be built, or the people of Atlanta who have consistently voiced their opposition and demanded a different vision for the city." Make no mistake, though, the fight to Stop Cop City is all of our fight, and that very much includes the labor movement. In this mini-cast, we speak with Kamau Franklin and Mariah Parker about Cop City, the fight to stop it, and why labor needs to get off the sidelines and join that fight. 
Kamau Franklin has been a dedicated community organizer for over thirty years, beginning in New York City and now based in Atlanta. He is also a lawyer, writer, and the founder of Community Movement Builders, Inc. Mariah Parker is labor and community organizer, a rapper (known by the stage name Linqua Franqa), and recently served as District 2 County Commissioner for Athens-Clarke County in Athens, Georgia, from 2018 - 2022.
Additional links/info below...
Kamau's Twitter page Community Movement Builders website, Facebook page, Twitter page, and Instagram  Mariah's Twitter page and LinkTree  Stop Cop City Micah Herskind, Scalawag, "This is the Atlanta Way: A Primer on Cop City" Candace Bernd, Truthout, "Cop City Protesters Face Felonies for Flyering as Police Repress Student Sit-Ins" Candace Bernd, Truthout, "Atlanta Was a Constitution-Free Zone During “Stop Cop City” Week of Action" Stephen Janis & Taya Graham, The Real News Network, "Atlanta's 'Cop City' Is a Blueprint for America's Future" Frances Madeson, Truthout, "Domestic Terrorism Charges Against Cop City Demonstrators Spur Further Protests" Natasha Lennard, The Intercept, "Atlanta Police Arrest Organizers of Bail Fund for Cop City Protestors" Natasha Lennard, The Intercept, "Police Shot Atlanta Cop City Protestor 57 Times, Autopsy Finds" Fair Fight Action Releases Statement Condemning Anti-Democratic Criminalization of Legal Aid Group Ahead of Vote on ‘Cop City’ Funding  Jimmy Williams (General President of IUPAT) statement on Cop City Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "Three Years Later, George Floyd’s Family Members Are Still Fighting for Justice" Morga

We hosted a Working People live show at The Real News Network studio in Baltimore on May 18. In this panel discussion, co-hosted by Max and Baltimore writer and editor Rebekah Kirkman, we speak with a diverse panel of worker-organizers from around the city about their respective struggles to unionize their workplaces, what being in a union means to them and their coworkers, and what all of us can do to support one another and grow the labor movement in our town. Panelists include: Dever Cunningham, MOM’s Workers United (Teamsters); Martin Yepes, Teachers & Researchers United (United Electrical Workers) at Johns Hopkins University; Leila Grothe, Baltimore Museum of Art Union (AFSCME); Andre Elkridge, UNITE HERE Local 7; Rachel Leeds, Walters Workers United Museum of Art. 
Additional links/info below...
Watch the video version of this live show  Rebekah's website and Twitter page Mom's Workers United Twitter page Teachers & Researchers United website, Facebook page, Twitter page, and Instagram  Baltimore Museum of Art Union Facebook page, Twitter page, and Instagram  UNITE HERE Local 7 website, Facebook page, and Twitter page Walters Workers United website, Facebook page, Twitter page, and Instagram  Rebekah Kirkman, The Real News Network, "Walters Art Museum Sends Public Labor Day Email Criticizing Staff for Not Nnionizing Quickly, Yet Refuses to Recognize Union" Rebekah Kirkman, The Real News Network,"MOM’s Organic Market Workers Vote to Unionize Baltimore-Area Store" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "Baltimore Museum Workers Are Fighting for a 'Wall-to-Wall' Union"  Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "Now or Never: Grad Student-Workers at Johns Hopkins Mobilize Ahead of Union Election" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "Workers at Maryland's First Unionized Starbucks Describe Their Fight for Workplace Democracy" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "Baltimore's Enoch Pratt Free Library Workers Move to Unionize"  Jaisal Noor, The Real News Network, "Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel Workers Say Managers Pocket Half Their Tips" Permanent links below...
Working People Patreon page Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show! Labor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page In These Times website, Facebook page, and Twitter page The Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter page Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)
Jules Taylor, "Working People" Theme Song

It's been over 100 days since the catastrophic derailment of a Norfolk Southern train carrying over 100,000 gallons of toxic materials occurred in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb 3. Since then, residents of East Palestine and the surrounding area in Ohio and Pennsylvania have had their lives turned completely upside down. Entire families have been uprooted from their homes, with many having to live in hotels or wherever they can find shelter, unable to return home out of fear of exposure to chemicals that were spilled into the water and soil from the derailment and spewed into the air from Norfolk Southern's "controlled burn" of the vinyl chloride contained within multiple derailed train cars. Even though government and company officials have claimed the air is safe to breathe and the water is safe to drink, residents have continuously reported negative health effects from skin rashes, headaches, and dizzy spells to nausea, diarrhea, shortness of breath, and mouth numbness. Farm animals, pets, and crops have been contaminated, property values have plummeted, local businesses have shuttered or are barely surviving—all the while, frustrated residents report feeling lied to, misled, disregarded, and abandoned by Norfolk Southern and by their state and federal governments, and their ongoing nightmare has been gradually forgotten by the national media. In this urgent episode, we speak with Ashley McCollum, Kayla Miller, and Christina Siceloff—three residents of East Palestine and the surrounding area in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and members of the East Palestine Unity Council—about what they, their families, and their communities are going through, how they are banding together to provide mutual aid for one another, and what we can all do to help.
Additional links/info below...
Ashley's Twitter page and GoFundMe Christina's TikTok and CashApp: $safekeeper115 Kayla's TikTok and GoFundMe GoFundMe: East Palestine Off The Rails! Unity Council for EP Train Derailment Facebook group Soup Mama Official The Unity Council Presents: Community Demands Created by Community Members of Ohio and Pennsylvania Affected by the Norfolk Southern Train Derailment in East Palestine, Ohio Steve Mellon, Pittsburgh Union Progress, "East Palestine Residents Plead: ‘By the Grace of God, Please Get Our People Out of Here’" Steve Mellon, Pittsburgh Union Progress, "Seven Weeks After Rail Disaster, Residents Struggle with the Unknown" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "East Palestine, Ohio: A Hell of Wall Street's Making" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "'This Was Preventable': Railroad Workers Explain How Wall St. Caused the East Palestine Derailment" Maximillian Alvarez, Breaking Points, "Rail Worker EXPOSES Ohio Disaster COVERUP" Mike L., The Real News Network, "A Carman's Perspective on the East Palestine Derailment and the Railroad Industry as a Whole" Matt Berg, Politico, "DOJ Sues Norfolk Southern over East Palestine Derailment" Campbell Robertson & Emily Cochrane, The New York Times, "In Ohio Town Where Train Derailed, Anxiety and Distrust Are Running Deep" Hiroko Tabuchi, The New York Times, "Texas to New Jersey: Tracking the Toxic Chemicals in the Ohio Train Inferno" Status Coup News, "CHRONIC EXPOSURE to Cancer-Causing Vinyl Chloride Found in East Palestine Residents' Urine Tests" Permanent links below...
Working People Patreon page Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show! Labor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page In These Times website, Facebook page, and Twitter page The Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter page Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)
Jules Taylor, "Working People Theme Song

Hollywood writers represented by the Writers Guild of America, East, and the Writers Guild of America, West, are on strike for the first time since 2007-08. As Alex Press writes in Jacobin, "The WGA (West and East) called the strike just before midnight on May 1, with its leadership unanimously voting for a work stoppage after six weeks of negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) over a new three-year contract that covers some 11,500 film and television writers. Announcing its decision, the union said that the bargaining table responses of the AMPTP, which consists of Amazon, Apple, Discovery-Warner, Disney, NBC Universal, Netflix, Paramount, and Sony, had 'been wholly insufficient given the existential crisis writers are facing.'" Even though overall production budgets have risen in the past decade, writer pay has declined, and the rise of streaming services has translated to lower residuals for writers, shorter paid work periods and more precarious employment, etc., with studios even threatening to replace more essential creative labor with AI software.
In this mini-cast, we speak about what led to the writers' strike, and get an update from the picket line, with Sasha Stewart, a WGA-East council member and Writers Guild Award nominated TV writer, producer, and creator. With a background in improv and sketch comedy, Sasha has written for, among other productions, The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore (Comedy Central) and The Fix with Jimmy Carr (Netflix), and she contributes to McSweeney's and The New Yorker. She was also the Head Writer on the YA political thriller podcast Daughters of DC (iHeartRadio).
Additional links/info below...
Sasha's website and Twitter page WGA-East website, Facebook page, Twitter page, and Instagram  WGA-West website, Facebook page, Twitter page, and Instagram  Entertainment Community Fund  Josh Gondelman, The Nation, "Writers Like Me Have Shut Down Hollywood. Here’s Why" Alex Press, Jacobin, "TV Writers Say They’re Striking to Stop the Destruction of Their Profession" Mandalit del Barco & Becky Sullivan, NPR, "The Best Picket Signs of the Hollywood Writers' Strike" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "Hollywood Studios Are Making Billions Off Underpaid Animators" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "Entertainment Workers Discuss the Dark Side of Hollywood and Historic IATSE Strike Vote" Matt Pearce, The Los Angeles Times, "AI Deepfakes of Anthony Bourdain’s Voice Are Only a Taste of What’s Coming" Permanent links below...
Working People Patreon page Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show! Labor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page In These Times website, Facebook page, and Twitter page The Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter page Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)
Jules Taylor, "Working People Theme Song

Announcement: Our next live show will be on Monday, May 8, from 5-7pm EST at the Canadian Labour Congress’ 30th Constitutional Convention in Montreal!
We took Working People on the road and hosted another live show on March 21 in Atlanta, Georgia, in collaboration with the Action Builder / Action Network team. In this panel discussion, Max speaks with local organizers about the specific challenges workers in the South face in their workplaces and in their efforts to organize—and how they are finding creative ways to overcome those challenges today. Panelists include: Chris Daniel of the Georgia AFL-CIO; Melanie Barron of the Communications Workers of America / United Campus Workers; and Maurice "Mo" Haskins of the Union of Southern Service Workers. 
Additional links/info below...
Melanie's Twitter page Communications Workers of America website, Twitter page, Facebook page, and Instagram  United Campus Workers website and Twitter page Georgia AFL-CIO website, Twitter page, and Facebook page  The Union of Southern Service Workers website, Twitter page, Facebook page, and Instagram  Action Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page Action Builder website Kim Kelly, Teen Vogue, "Union of Southern Service Workers Is Organizing Low-Wage Workers Across Industries" Saurav Sarkar, The Real News Network, "Punjabi Workers in Toronto Are Fighting Wage Theft—and They’re Winning" Jimmy Williams (General President of IUPAT) statement on Cop City  Working People, "A "Do or Die" Moment for the Academic Labor Movement (w/ Matt Thomas, Kristina Mensik, Bryan Sacks, & Todd Wolfson)" Chris Kromm, Facing South, "A New Day for Labor in the South?" Permanent links below...
Working People Patreon page Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show! Labor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page In These Times website, Facebook page, and Twitter page The Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter page Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)
Jules Taylor, "Working People" Theme Song