Labor Heritage Power Hour

Atlanta murders targeted working women

Broadcast on March 18, 2021
Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith
This week's show: Labor movement unites in condemnation of murders of female Asian workers in Atlanta; fire fighters battle Virginia’s Jim Crow legacy; Who is Keolis and why are they hurting local transit workers? Fitness workers unite!APALA Grieves for the Asian Women Who Were Victims of Targeted Shootings in Georgia, and Condemns Misogyny and White Supremacy that Motivated These Murders: Virginia Rodino, Maryland coordinator of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) and the national convenor of United Against Hate.Alexandria fire fighters battle Virginia’s Jim Crow legacy: Josh Turner, President, Alexandria Fire Fighters Local 2141. Who is Keolis and why are they hurting local transit workers? John Ertl, Collective Bargaining Administrator, Amalgamated Transit Union. Fitness workers unite! Emily Collinson, former trainer with Solidcore.
PLUS: World Against Racism day of action Saturday (3/20) and concert Sunday (3/21).
Music: Spirit; written/performed by Tarn Goelling, APALA member who will be singing it at the concert against racism on Sunday.
Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella.
@wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod @APALAnational @APALADC @VirginiaRodino @IAFFLocal2141 @ATUComm @SolidcoreU

Workers after a year of the pandemic

Broadcast on March 11, 2021
Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith
This week's show: What’s been the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on DC-area workers and their unions? First-hand reports on the toll -- and the ongoing struggles -- from hotel workers (John Boardman, Executive Secretary-Treasurer, UNITE HERE 25), supermarket workers (Mark Federici, president, UFCW Local 400), DC teachers (Elizabeth Davis, president of the Washington Teachers Union) and janitors, security guards and airport workers (Jaime Contreras, District Chair and Supervisor, SEIU 32BJ).
PLUS: Workers helping workers: Sonte DuCote, Executive Director, MWC Community Services Agency.
Music: Covid Vaccine - The Soulm8s
Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella.
@wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod @UFCW400 @DCHotelworkers @WTUTeacher @32BJSEIU

UI, MEWPA & Re-Union

Broadcast on March 4, 2021
Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith
This week's show: Pushing to extend Unemployment Insurance benefits with Judy Conti, Government Affairs Director at the National Employment Law Project…"Essential Worker Wednesdays" and the Maryland Essential Workers Protection Act (MEWPA), with Chris Stevenson, analyst for 1199SEIU…Solidarity Forever, with Pete Seeger and special guest Joe Biden…
And Re-Union: How Bold Labor Reforms Can Repair, Revitalize, and Reunite the United States, with David Madland, Senior Fellow and Strategic Director of the American Worker Project at the Center for American Progress.
PLUS: it’s WPFW’s annual Winter Pledge Drive; pledge at 202-588-9739 or online; be sure to scroll down to Your Rights At Work to show your support for DC’s only call-in show about your rights on the job.
Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella.
@wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod @NelpNews @DavidMadland @1199SEIU @1199SEIU_MDDC

The Hardhat Riot

Broadcast on February 25, 2021
Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith
This week's show:
EPI Policy Analyst Margaret Poydock on the story behind the 2020 decline in the number of striking workers.David Paul Kuhn on his book THE HARDHAT RIOT: Nixon, New York City, and the Dawn of the White Working-Class Revolution.
Music: Strike (1970 funk tune by Union).
PLUS: it’s WPFW’s annual Winter Pledge Drive; pledge at 202-588-9739 or online; be sure to scroll down to Your Rights At Work to show your support for DC’s only call-in show about your rights on the job.
Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella.
@wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod @EconomicPolicy

Life and Times of a Black Wobbly & Strike the Hammer

Broadcast on February 17, 2021
Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith
This week's show:
Special Black Labor History Month show: Peter Cole on “Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly” (2nd Edition) and Dr. Laura Warren Hill on “Strike the Hammer: The Black Freedom Struggle in Rochester, New York, 1940-1970” (March 2021).Peter Cole is Professor of History at Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois; Laura Warren Hill is Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies, Bloomfield College in Bloomfield, New Jersey.
Music: The Preacher And The Slave (Pie in the Sky): Mischief BrewPLUS: it’s WPFW’s annual Winter Pledge Drive; pledge at 202-588-9739 or online; be sure to scroll down to Your Rights At Work to show your support for DC’s only call-in show about your rights on the job.
Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Kahlia Chapman.
@wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod @ProfPeterCole @mohojolo

Worked Over: How Round-the-Clock Work Is Killing the American Dream

Broadcast on February 11, 2021
Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith
This week's show:
The AFL-CIO’s Cathy Feingold and Brian Finnegan report live from "The Sound of Democracy: A Global Noise Barrage for Myanmar" action at the Embassy of Myanmar in Washington, DC.Jamie McCallum on his new book “Worked Over: How Round-the-Clock Work Is Killing the American Dream.” He argues that labor’s next big battle may be over not wages but time. PLUS Labor news headlines and “Ampun Bang Jago” (Ease up, Mr. Hotshot), a popular Indonesian protest song that popped up in a viral video after the military coup in Myanmar last week. “Ease up, Mr. Hotshot” is a phrase that’s used to respond to arrogant or self-righteous authority figures. Like bosses, say. Or the military.
Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Kahlia Chapman.
@wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod #Workers4Myanmar

Remembering John Sweeney (1934-2021)

Broadcast on February 4, 2021
Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith
This week's show:
Stephen Lerner, Marilyn Sneiderman, Harold Meyerson and Joe McCartin remember John Sweeney, who led the AFL-CIO from 1995 to 2009. John Sweeney died on Monday at his home in Bethesda, Maryland; he was 86.
American labor and community organizer Stephen Lerner worked with Sweeney at SEIU to create the Justice for Janitors campaign in the mid-Eighties. Marilyn Sneiderman is Executive Director of the Center for Innovation in Worker Organization at Rutgers; under Sweeney, she directed the National AFL-CIO’s Department of Field Mobilization, where she helped launch the national "Union Cities" initiative. Harold Meyerson is editor at large of The American Prospect; his piece on Sweeney, The Man Who Realigned Labor, appeared on February 2. Joe McCartin is a labor historian at Georgetown University, where he also serves as the executive director of the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
PLUS: Elise Bryant, president of the Coalition of Labor Union Women, on the February 9 free online screening of 9to5: The Story of A Movement.
Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Kahlia Chapman.
@wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

Why “Work Won’t Love You Back”

Broadcast on January 28, 2021
Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith
This week's show:
Labor journalist Sarah Jaffe on her new book Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone.
Richard Loeb, AFGE Senior Policy Counselor on President Biden revoking Trump’s Executive Orders targeting federal workers’ rights.
Sophia Miyoshi, Restaurant Opportunities Center-DC Lead Organizer on the upcoming webinar on Your Rights At Work In A Pandemic
(Thursday, January 28; 6:30 – 8:00pm).
Plus: Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do?) and I Do What I Love by Ellie Goulding (both from Sarah Jaffe’s Work Won’t Love You Back Spotify playlist)
Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella.
@wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod @AFGENational @sarahljaffe @ROCDC

Biden fires Trump’s union buster at the NLRB

Broadcast on January 21, 2021
Hosted by Chris Garlock
This week's show: Joe McCartin on Biden’s firing of Peter Robb, Trump-appointed general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board, who helped Reagan bust PATCO in 1981. McCartin wrote "Collision Course: Ronald Reagan, the Air Traffic Controllers, and the Strike that Changed America." Becky Kolins Givan on “Strike For The Common Good: Fighting for the Future of Public Education”; she’ll be discussing this online next Monday, January 25, 5:00 pm EST with Joe McCartin, hosted by the Albert Shanker Institute. Steve Striffler, co-editor “Organizing for Power: Building a 21st Century Labor Movement in Boston.”Plus: Worker's Song by the Dropkick Murphys.
Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Kaliah.
@wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

COVID vaccine: myths & realities

Broadcast on January 14, 2021
Hosted by Chris Garlock and Ed Smith
This week's show: John Boardman, UNITE HERE Local 25 on calls for DC-area hotel closures and transit safety procedures to protect staff and public from right-wing violence.Anita Jenkins, Chief Executive Officer at Howard University Hospital, clears up the myths and realities about the COVID vaccine. Richard Schweid on “The Caring Class.”
Plus: Maryland My Maryland: The Free State Song. Hear a proposed replacement for the state’s song glorifying secession and violence. Sign the petition here.
Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella and Shepsu Baker.
@wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod @DCHotelworkers @HowardU @ATULocal689 @ATUComm