Labor Heritage Power Hour

Labor Is Art

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour: SEIU President April Verrett declares that “labor is art” at New York’s worker-powered “Ball Without Billionaires,” an alternative to the Met Gala celebrating the people who actually create culture. We also preview the DC Labor FilmFest screening of Late Shift, the acclaimed Swiss drama about an overwhelmed hospital nurse confronting the human cost of understaffing and burnout.
Plus, historian James Benton joins the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to discuss how NAFTA and decades of failed trade policy devastated working-class communities across America, and we hear another organizing story from the People’s 250 campaign, featuring a Georgetown student and restaurant worker fighting for a union in Washington, D.C.
We also mark labor history with stories from the 1968 Paris General Strike and the 1975 La Tolteca strike, where undocumented Mexican women workers in California organized, fought back and won.
Broadcast on May 14, 2026; hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network and syndicated on Pacifica’s Audioport.@LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

LIVE with Amy Goodman at “Steal This Story, Please!”

This week on the Labor Heritage Power Hour: highlights from last weekend’s sold-out screenings of Steal This Story, Please! at the DC Labor FilmFest, featuring Amy Goodman, Tia Lessin, and voices from WPFW’s powerful post-film Q&A. From the station that helped launch Democracy Now! to today’s fight for independent, audience-funded media, we explore what it means to “never sell out.”
Plus, Labor Arts News on the Ball Without Billionaires, SEIU’s cultural organizing under April Verrett, major union updates from IATSE and SAG-AFTRA, and a new newsroom union in Madison. We head to the University of Maryland’s letterpress studio, where workers can print their own strike signs, and dig into the legacy of the Haymarket Affair with historian Peter Cole—who asks: who controls history?
We also feature the May 5 Bay View Massacre in Labor History in 2:00, and a story from the People’s 250 campaign reminding us that working people’s history is still being written.
Broadcast on May 7, 2026; hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network and syndicated on Pacifica’s Audioport.@LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

From Union Hall to Art Studio; Building Worker Power

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour, we preview the 2026 DC Labor FilmFest—already drawing packed houses—with classic strike documentaries and sharp new films tackling layoffs, automation, and life in the modern workplace.
We also head to Detroit for a new UNITE HERE arts residency that gives union members paid time to develop their creative voices—an innovative effort to build solidarity and expand the reach of labor storytelling. (Deadline to apply: May 15!)
Plus, we dig into labor history with labor historian Rudy Batzel talking with America’s Workforce Radio Podcast about how race, class, and strikebreaking shaped the movement—and still do today. As the nation approaches its 250th anniversary, historian Joe McCartin introduces the #Peoples250 campaign, lifting up working-class stories and inviting everyone to help tell a more complete history of the United States.
This week’s Labor Landmark takes us to Birmingham, Alabama, where two Black union leaders stopped a Ku Klux Klan bombing—an extraordinary act of courage rooted in labor and civil rights organizing. And in Labor History in 2, we look at the ongoing fight for workplace safety.
Our music this week is Hope by Carsie Blanton, a reminder that solidarity, courage, and care—put into collective action—are what keep the movement moving forward.
Broadcast on April 30, 2026; hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Kahlia Chapman.The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network and syndicated on Pacifica’s Audioport.@LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

Fighting and Dying for Billionaires

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour, we preview the upcoming DC Labor FilmFest, opening May 1, with a look at restored classics American Dream and Harlan County, USA, plus opening night film Steal This Story, Please featuring Amy Goodman.
We also get the latest labor arts news from across the country, including wins for library workers and new union drives in media and entertainment.
In our Labor Landmark of the Week, Sarah Gray takes us to Tacoma, Washington, to honor Solidarity Forever author Ralph Chaplin.
Then we head to Portland, where union musicians are building a “third space” through monthly solidarity socials—bringing together music, conversation, and community.
In the latest instalment in our Story Behind the Song series, Terry Leonino and Greg Artzner of Magpie explore how Eugene V. Debs’ historic anti-war speech inspired their song Canton 1918.
And in Labor History in 2:00, Rick Smith remembers legendary labor singer-songwriter Hazel Dickens, whose powerful voice carried the stories of coal miners and their families.Plus, a preview of a new Labor History Today conversation with Joe McCartin, Stephen Lerner and Jeremy Brecher on how “Resisting Trumpism Can Revive the U.S. Labor Movement.”
Music from Anne Feeney, Magpie, Dave Rovics and Patti Smith.
Broadcast on April 23, 2026; hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network and syndicated on Pacifica’s Audioport.

Janna Ahrndt Does Not Dream of Labor

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour: The 2026 DC Labor FilmFest launches on May Day, with AFI Silver programmers previewing one of the festival’s strongest lineups yet—featuring global stories, labor classics, and a notable surge in women-centered narratives.
Artist Janna Ahrndt joins Kathy Newman to explore the hidden labor behind digital life—from email overload to automation myths—and why “time-saving” tech often creates more work.
On this week’s Labor Landmark, archivist Conor Casey brings us the story of The Seattle Union Record, a pioneering labor-owned newspaper. Plus, labor helps Jackie Robinson break the color barrier on Labor History in 2:00, and the latest labor arts news briefs, including the rescue of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette by a nonprofit newsroom, a new union contract securing AI protections for CBS News writers, and a successful union drive by ESPN hair and makeup artists.
Music this week includes “Never Surrender” by the R.J. Phillips Band and “Get Organized” by Floorchild.
Broadcast on April 16, 2026; hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network and syndicated on Pacifica’s Audioport.

Rude Mechanical Orchestra’s sounds of solidarity

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour, we take it to the streets with the Rude Mechanical Orchestra, a New York City-based activist marching band that’s been showing up for more than two decades in support of workers, organizers, and movements for justice.
We also get the latest labor arts news, including the announcement of the 2026 DC Labor FilmFest lineup, organizing victories across the cultural sector, and updates from unions representing musicians, writers, performers, and library workers.
Plus: a Labor Landmark of the Week from the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum’s Courage in the Hollers trail, and a special excerpt from What They Could Never Kill, our recent Billie Holiday/Paul Robeson special, featuring Billie Holiday’s haunting “Strange Fruit,” followed by Paul Robeson’s “Joe Hill.”Broadcast on April 9, 2026; hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Kahlia Chapman.The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network and syndicated on Pacifica’s Audioport.

Escape Room Workers Solve the Challenge

This week on the Labor Heritage Power Hour: Performers at a horror-themed escape room in Los Angeles organize the first union shop in the industry, a powerful labor landmark in Victor, Colorado reminds us of the violent roots of the labor movement, and the Coalition of Labor Union Women marks 50 years of labor, art, and organizing. Plus, Bette Midler takes on a Woody Guthrie classic, a new song from Mike Stout honors the Women of Steel, and the latest labor arts news from around the world.Broadcast on April 2, 2026; hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network and syndicated on Pacifica’s Audioport.@LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

The Singing TradesWoman

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour: High tower crane operator and singer/songwriter Sammy Cossairt talks with poet and master electrician Susan Eisenberg about life in the trades and her new song “TradesWoman”; a Labor Landmarks visit to Seattle’s historic Labor Temple with Conor Casey; plus stories of women-led struggles—from the 1929 Elizabethton Rayon Strike to Michigan’s “Big Annie” Clements.Broadcast on March 26, 2026; hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network and syndicated on Pacifica’s Audioport.@LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

The Hidden Labor Story Behind the Oscars

This week on the Labor Heritage Power Hour: we announce this year’s Labor Oscar winner and take a look at the little-known backstory at how union organizing prompted Hollywood bosses to create the Academy Awards.
Plus, the IWW relaunches a grassroots labor film series in Bellingham, Washington; and musician Tom Kastle brings Joe Hill’s story to life in a NYC performance this Saturday.
Also: labor arts news, spring chorus concerts, and Labor History in 2:00 on the 1968 KMPX radio strike.
Music: Tom Kastle’s “I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night” and “Preacher and the Slave”.
Broadcast on March 19, 2026; hosted by Chris Garlock and Harold Phillips; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network and syndicated on Pacifica’s Audioport.@LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

Union Women Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

On this episode of the Labor Heritage Power Hour, we share highlights from a special edition of the program that originally aired on WPFW on International Women’s Day, hosted by Elise Bryant and celebrating Women’s History Month and the powerful role of women in the labor movement.
But first, Harold Phillips brings us the latest Labor Arts News, including updates on the Labor Oscars voting, the General Strike Song Contest, and several important labor organizing victories across the country.
Then we dive into Elise Bryant’s International Women’s Day special, featuring conversations with labor leaders and activists about women’s organizing, labor history, and the ongoing fight for workplace justice and equality.
Guests include Chelsea Bland, President of the Metro DC Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), Sig Milius, DC CLUW leader and Director of the Community Services Agency of the Metropolitan Washington Council AFL-CIO and Daniella Byck, member of the Washingtonian Guild (CWA).
The program explores the legacy of women in labor history, the continuing struggle for pay equity and worker power, and the organizing campaigns happening right now in Washington, DC and across the country.
Music featured in this episode includes: “Union Woman” – Lynn Marie Smith; “We Were There” – Bev Grant & the Brooklyn Women’s Chorus; “Misogyny” – Anne Feeney; “We Can’t Go Back” – Hali Hammer; “Bread and Roses” – SongRise.
The show also highlights women labor leaders who have broken barriers in the labor movement, including Liz Shuler, President of the AFL-CIO, Roxanne Brown, President of the United Steelworkers and April Verrett, President of SEIU.
📺 Vote in the Labor Oscars: Check out the nominees and cast your vote on the LHF YouTube channel.🎵 Submit a song to the General Strike Song Contest: Deadline: April 11; Details at laborheritage.org📅 Labor Arts Calendar, Labor Landmarks Map, and more labor arts news.Broadcast on March 12, 2026; hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network and syndicated on Pacifica’s Audioport.@LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod