America’s Work Force Union Podcast
BMA Media Group
America’s Work Force Union Podcast provides a clear and unfiltered voice for the working people of America. Radio veteran Ed “Flash” Ferenc leads the discussion with a focus on topics that include the impact of labor unions in America, workers’ rights, legislative actions and labor-management relations. Featured guests include various labor leaders, politicians, journalists and more. America’s Work Force Union Podcast provides updates and information from sources around the United States and continues to be the trusted voice for workers across the country.
Episodes
Amazon Driver Fred German on DRI-1 and the Fight for the Teamsters
He had been the driver of the month the month before. Top performer two weeks before that. Let go after five years. The stated reason: reduced routes. The actual reason: he was organizing with the Teamsters. The workers who were terminated are now flyering outside the station. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, Teamsters Local 251 organizer Fred German discusses the DRI-1 organizing campaign in Providence, Rhode Island, where 90 Amazon delivery drivers have demanded recognition, which has been refused. Routes that topped out at 160 stops when he started now consistently run 200, with 250 actual delivery locations. Vans with broken transmissions keep getting sent out. Amazon's response is union-busting meetings, increased management presence and worker terminations. None of it has stopped the campaign. Visit teamster.org for more.
OUP USA Guild’s Arbitration Win and TTD’s Regan on Rail and Aviation Safety
Two conversations about workers fighting back — one a hard-won arbitration victory against a prestigious publisher that broke its first contract two weeks after ratifying it, and one a monthly check-in on the transportation safety fights that never go away. OUP USA Guild operations chair Mark Longaker and NewsGuild-CWA general counsel Barbara Camens discuss the September 2026 arbitration award finding that Oxford University Press violated its collective bargaining agreement when it laid off 13 workers just over two weeks after ratifying its first contract and transferred their work to the United Kingdom — after announcing $50 million in profits. The employer refused to respond to information requests and claimed a lack of work. The guild followed the breadcrumbs, built the case through intensive fact-finding with laid-off workers and current employees and prevailed in a three-day New York arbitration hearing. Remedy discussions are ongoing with the goal of restoring 13 positions to the bargaining unit. Camens also discloses that the NewsGuild is now taking the Associated Press to arbitration over a global production center in India and the layoff of dozens of News Media Guild workers. Then, TTD AFL-CIO President Greg Regan discusses Rail Safety Week and the Railway Safety Act amendment’s passage out of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee with a large bipartisan majority — nearly four years after East Palestine — while Class I railroads continue spending heavily to block meaningful reform. He addresses AI programs already emerging inside the freight rail systems at CSX and Norfolk Southern, why now is the window to establish worker protections before the technology becomes too embedded, the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund’s solvency and the partial implementation of secondary cockpit barriers and the Trump administration’s plan to expand TSA privatization through the Screening Partnership Program from roughly a dozen airports to more than 300. Visit oxfordpressunion.org for more from the OUP USA Guild and ttd.org for more from the TTD.
EPI's Lynn Rhinehart on Sectoral Bargaining and the Path Forward
Millions of workers say they want a union. The law makes it too hard to get one. Most of Europe has a model that sets wages for entire industries at once, covering every worker, whether or not their individual workplace is organized. Three US states are already trying a version of it for rideshare drivers. And an EPI senior fellow says the conditions for winning real labor law reform are better right now than they have been in decades. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, EPI Senior Fellow Lynn Rhinehart discusses sectoral bargaining, what Massachusetts, Illinois and California are doing for Uber and Lyft drivers through a Machinists and SEIU-led initiative, why wage boards are useful but not a substitute for unions, the two-edged problem with lifting federal preemption and why the moment to organize for labor law reform is now. Visit epi.org for more and read Rhinehart's full blog post at onlabor.org.
Bricklayers' Victor Castro on Restoring the Capitol and a Life in Stone
He came from Spain in 1986 with his father's encouragement. He worked his way up to foreman. He left, came back and became a U.S. citizen in 2008. And somewhere in between, he spent decades restoring the U.S. Capitol, the Washington Monument and the National Cathedral — working on stone set by craftspeople a century before him, trying to be worthy of what they left behind. On today's Trades Day episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local 1 MVD foreman Victor Castro discusses his journey from Spain to four decades of historic restoration work in Washington, D.C., including a National Cathedral core drilling story involving a wedding, pressure loss and clouds of dust that will stay with you. Local 1 President Scott Garvin joins to reflect on what Victor's mentorship of the next generation means for the craft's future. Visit bacweb.org and baclocal1.org for more.
AFSCME 2975's Evan Newton on Corvallis Workers' Contract Fight
The city of Corvallis, Oregon, calls itself an employer of choice. Over the past four years, 75% of its union-represented workforce has turned over. Management recently gave itself extra pay steps for retention. Workers at the bargaining table are being offered a contract worse than the one they already have. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, AFSCME Local 2975 President Evan Newton discusses where the contract fight stands after months of bargaining, state mediation and a declared impasse — why the real negotiation is happening at city council, not at the bargaining table, and why a strike is on the table for the workers who clean Corvallis's streets, treat its water and run its library. Visit afscme2975.org for more.
SMART-TD's Bob Guy on Rail Safety, PSR and What East Palestine Proved
Every three hours in the United States, a vehicle or a person is hit by a train. More than 2,300 people are injured or killed every year in North America at railroad crossings and along tracks. More than 60% of those collisions happen at crossings already equipped with lights or gates. And the train that derailed at East Palestine, Ohio, started in Decatur, Illinois. SMART-TD crews flagged it before it left. They were required to take it anyway. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, SMART-TD Illinois Legislative Director Bob Guy discusses what rail safety looks like from inside the industry: what Precision Scheduled Railroading's 30% workforce cut did to freight rail reliability, what actually happened at East Palestine, why the two-person crew standard still needs federal protection and what the CSX Barr Yard closure is doing to freight delays in Chicago right now. Visit illini-smarttd.org for more.
32BJ SEIU on BWI Airport Workers and IAM's Buffenbarger on AI and Work
Two conversations that cut to the heart of what workers are facing right now — one on the fight to lift airport workers out of poverty wages today and one on what AI and quantum computing are doing to skilled work tomorrow. 32BJ SEIU Executive Vice President Jaime Contreras discusses the campaign to amend the Secure Maryland Wage Act to raise wages, secure employer-paid healthcare and establish paid time off for more than 1,000 airline-contracted workers at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport who currently earn $17 an hour with no healthcare benefits, while comparable airports in New York, Boston and Philadelphia already pay wages in the $20 range with healthcare and paid time off. Governor Wes Moore has committed to emergency legislation in the upcoming Maryland session. Contreras also shares his own story: from undocumented teenager fleeing El Salvador's civil war in 1988, to US Navy veteran, to citizen in 1996, to leader of a 195,000-member union that runs its own legal fund to cover every cost for green card holders seeking citizenship. Then, IAM retired International President Tom Buffenbarger shares what an internationally recognized architect told him on the drive to the IAM Kentucky State Council meeting: that AI and quantum computing have compressed 18 to 24 months of architectural design work into five minutes, that contractors are beginning to bypass architects entirely and that the profession is going away. Tennessee Valley Authority members at the same meeting described new manufacturing plant designs that are eliminating cafeterias, break rooms and parking lots because the future those plants are designed for has very few human workers in it. And they described a coming return to nuclear energy — with a wave of construction jobs followed by facilities that will need almost no one to operate — as the practical answer to the electricity demands that AI infrastructure is generating. Visit seiu32bj.org for more from 32BJ SEIU and goiam.org for more from the IAM.
AFL-CIO's Fred Redmond on Election Protectors and the 2 Million Goal
94% of workers say their paychecks are not keeping up with the cost of living. Four in five say politicians are not showing up for them. The AFL-CIO's response is 50,000 trained election protectors deployed in yellow vests at battleground-state polling locations, a worker-first endorsement standard that holds Democrats and Republicans equally accountable, and one of the largest political ground games the federation has mounted in many years. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond joins for the first installment of Friday with Fred to discuss the unanimous AFL-CIO Executive Council position on the November 3rd election, the election protection program running through at least seven days after the election, the 2 million new member organizing goal set at the June convention that Redmond describes as the floor not the ceiling and why seven in ten Americans have supported unions for five consecutive years. Visit aflcio.org for more and read Liz Shuler's State of the Workers address.
C/COBCTC's Dorsey Hager on Data Centers, Honda and Ohio's Gas Tax
The Yotta data center conference in Las Vegas started three years ago with 1,500 attendees. This year it drew 7,000. Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council Executive Secretary-Treasurer Dorsey Hager was there, meeting one-on-one with hyperscalers and developers — some looking at Ohio for the first time — while the Columbus building trades are on pace to eclipse 20 million work hours this year, up from 4 million a decade ago. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, Hager joins from Las Vegas to discuss what the data center boom means for Ohio and Central Ohio workers, reports of a possible new Honda plant in Union County that would extend the C/COBCTC's 50-year partnership with Honda, why Columbus's projected population doubling by 2050 makes sustained infrastructure investment non-negotiable and why he calls the Ohio gas tax suspension — estimated by Governor DeWine to cost the state transportation budget approximately $750 million — very bad policy at exactly the wrong moment. Visit columbusconstruction.org for more.
Animation Guild on DreamWorks Win and ILEPI on the Union Membership Surge
Two conversations capturing what the union movement looks like right now — one tracing how remote animation workers at DreamWorks won their first collective bargaining agreement and one showing what the national data says about where the labor movement is headed. Animation Guild TAG Local 839 IATSE field rep Mairghread Scott and DreamWorks character rigger and negotiating committee member JJ Jay discuss the first collective bargaining agreement covering DreamWorks remote workers, ratified August 21, 2026 with 97% in favor and 83% turnout. The contract delivers free single healthcare coverage through the Motion Picture Industry plan with a family cap of $50 per month regardless of family size, a 52% wage increase for the lowest-paid workers, an end to the practice of paying remote workers less based on where they live and an automatic employer retirement contribution of 6% of union base wages requiring no employee contribution. Jay said his personal healthcare savings under the contract amount to approximately $6,900 annually compared to what DreamWorks was offering non-union employees. Scott said the key to getting it done was workers who knew their worth and were willing to stand together. Then, Illinois Economic Policy Institute economist Frank Manzo discusses the 12th Annual State of the Union Study, produced in coordination with the Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The study found that the United States added more than 411,000 union members last year, the largest one-year surge since 2008, with union membership growing three times faster in states that protect collective bargaining rights than in states with so-called "right-to-work" laws. Workers in so-called "right-to-work" states earn 8% less than their peers in collective bargaining states after adjusting for cost of living, a gap that has widened since 2019. The highest union membership rates nationally are among Black workers, military veterans and workers with advanced degrees. And the Trump administration's attempt to revoke collective bargaining rights from more than one million federal workers drove a surge in public sector organizing that helped push the national total to its highest point in nearly two decades. Visit animationguild.org for more from the Animation Guild and illinoisepi.org for the full State of the Union Study.
Pete Ielmini on Energy Conservation and the Federal Mechanical Insulation Act
At Ellis Island in the early 1900s, the Bricklayers' union was advertising to arriving immigrants. The biggest selling point beyond wages was the eight-hour workday, because the workers coming over had been working 12- and 14-hour days. That was a union promise. The eight-hour workday, the 40-hour workweek and OSHA all exist because unions fought for them. Every American worker has benefited, union member or not. On today's Trades Day episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, Mechanical Insulators LMCT Executive Director Pete Ielmini discusses the LMCT's presence at the Association of Energy Engineers World Energy Conference and Expo in Orlando, where a live bare-pipe demonstration showed $300 to $400 in annual energy loss per uncovered foot and a game show format packed the room. He also updates the Federal Mechanical Insulation Act — passed in the House on the suspension calendar, four Senate co-signers and a closing legislative clock — and reflects on what the labor movement built for every worker in this country. Visit mechanicalinsulatorslmct.com for more.
UC Doctors United's Jacob Lentz on Organizing Physicians at UC Health
He spent eight and a half years writing for Jimmy Kimmel, went on strike twice with the Writers Guild and watched a well-organized union deliver real results. Then he went to medical school, became an ER doctor at UCLA, and watched conditions worsen every year for 11 years. Now he is one of the organizers behind UC Doctors United — an effort to unionize nearly 10,000 attending physicians across the University of California system, the only group at UCLA Health currently without union protection. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, UC Doctors United organizer Dr. Jacob Lentz discusses the organizing drive, why it is about patient care and not physician pay, what his Writers Guild experience taught him about what unions actually do and how he is making the case to colleagues who have spent careers being told unions are the problem. Visit ucdoctorsunited.org for more.
MIT's Paul Osterman on Disposable Workers and a New Employment Crisis
A McKinsey report argued that 95% of a firm's value is produced by 5% of its workforce. An MIT professor spent years finding out what that means for the other 95%. His answer: approximately 35% of the entire US workforce is now employed with no employer intention of retaining them — building cleaners, security guards, travel nurses, freelance journalists, adjunct faculty and millions of W-2 workers in jobs their employers never intend to keep. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, MIT Sloan Professor Emeritus Paul Osterman discusses his book Disposable Workers: The Transformation of Employment, published by Harvard University Press in August 2026. He discusses why companies are making this shift, what AI will do to the numbers and why the evidence that unions make workers better off is clear. Book available through Harvard University Press at hup.harvard.edu.
BMWED on CSX Cutting Track Workers While Reporting Record Profits
CSX reported $3.94 billion in quarterly revenue and approximately $1 billion in quarterly net earnings. Then it notified the union it plans to cut its maintenance of way workforce by 29% and defer capital track maintenance at the same time. Nine hundred system production employees will be furloughed by November 15. Human track inspections have been reduced by 40% in the past 90 days. Workers who find defects are being pressured not to report them. Jason Graham, one of today's guests, lives near East Palestine, Ohio. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, BMWED General Chairmen Brian Thompson and Jason Graham discuss what is happening at CSX, why no other Class 1 railroad is doing this at the same scale, what deferred track maintenance actually means and what it will take to stop it. Visit bmwe.org for more.
Andrew Strom on the Fifth Circuit's OSHA Mental Health Ruling
A refinery worker responds to an eight-hour fire and is later diagnosed with PTSD. ExxonMobil does not record it as a workplace illness. OSHA cites them. The case goes to the Fifth Circuit. Three judges rule that OSHA never had authority to require mental health injury reporting in the first place — because the word illnesses in the 1970 OSHA Act might not have meant mental illness. The regulation they just invalidated has been on the books for 25 years. Congress never objected. Republican and Democratic administrations left it in place. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, labor lawyer Andrew Strom discusses what the Fifth Circuit actually decided in the ExxonMobil case, why a 25-year-old regulation can apparently be rewritten by three unelected judges, how employers nationwide use the Fifth Circuit as a destination court for challenges to labor and employment law and why OSHA should appeal to the Supreme Court but probably will not. Visit onlabor.org for more.
Mass Building Trades Recovery Council on No Stigma, No Shame
A union member stands before a construction crew and tells his story. Raw. Personal. The crew that did not want to be there goes completely silent. And the phone rings a dozen times the next day, with workers saying, "I think I need help." That is what a stand-down looks like. That is what the Massachusetts Building Trades Recovery Council has been building for five years — and what other states are now asking how to replicate. On today's Trades Day episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, Massachusetts Building Trades Recovery Council Director Dan McNulty discusses the model: how tying recovery to union membership and work changes who seeks help and when, what stand-downs and contractor roundtables look like in practice, how free Narcan is being distributed through apprenticeship programs without hesitation and what any state building trades council needs to start its own recovery council. If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988. Visit massbuildingtrades.org/recovery for more.
BCBS NLO on the 988 Coin Campaign and Mental Health in the Trades
A union worker hands a coin to a colleague. On it: someone cares about you. Call or text 988. That act — started in the construction trades with poker chips, now at 150,000 coins distributed in the industry and heading into schools nationwide — is what the BCBS National Labor Office is building into a nationwide youth mental health campaign. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, BCBS National Labor Office Executive Director Merrilee Logue and consultant Catherine Raley join during Suicide Prevention Month to discuss the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, how the construction trades' poker chip program became the NLO's 988 Coin Campaign, why the act of handing someone a coin matters beyond the number on it and what BCBS has done to expand behavioral health access — including a 55% increase in in-network providers since 2020. They also address the 70% of employers who believe mental health coverage costs too much and why Logue says the country cannot afford not to address this. If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988. Follow @BlueLabor on LinkedIn and X for more.
American Legion and Alliance for Retired Americans on November Voting
Two conversations connecting veteran service and senior advocacy to the November election — one previewing the October issue of The American Legion Magazine and one with an urgent message for every voter: check your registration now. American Legion Director of Media and Communications Henry Howard previews the October issue, including the cover story by Alan Dowd tracing America's centuries-long commitment to freedom of the seas and why the Navy's current 293-ship fleet falls dangerously short of the 500 ships the DOD says it needs. He introduces new National Commander Jay Bowen, an Army Patriot missile veteran whose theme for his year of service is BPOTS — Be Part of the Solution — a message connecting individual action to veteran services and specifically to the Be the One veteran suicide prevention initiative. Training is free and open to everyone at betheone.org. He also discusses the American Legion Humvee sweepstakes, with entries open through December 19 at legion.org/sweepstakes. Then, Alliance for Retired Americans Executive Director Rich Fiesta delivers a time-sensitive message: states are already sending mail-in ballots, the Supreme Court has kept injunctions in place against the Trump administration's executive order that would have directed the Postal Service to withhold ballots from voters not on a White House list and the window to fix a registration problem is closing. Go to vote.org now to confirm your status and polling location. Forty percent of voters over 65 voted by mail in 2024, the highest rate of any age group, which is why this fight mattered most for older Americans. Resources including the Alliance's congressional voting record going back to 2001 are available at retiredamericans.org. If you or a veteran you know is struggling, call or text 988 or visit betheone.org. Visit legion.org and retiredamericans.org for more.
QPR's Shayna Klassen on Suicide Prevention with the Iron Workers
She walked into a conference room full of ironworkers for a one-hour presentation on suicide prevention. The room was packed beyond fire code. When she finished, no one left. Union brothers and sisters stood up and said: “We are dying. We are losing our colleagues. We don't know what to do.” People handed her their phones showing text messages from apprentices in active crisis. The presentation stretched into hours. Her phone did not stop ringing after she reached the airport. That day marked the birth of QPR for Ironworkers. On today's Trades Day episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, QPR Institute National Training Director Shayna Klassen discusses the QPR for Ironworkers program, built in partnership with IMPACT and the International Association of Iron Workers, and the principle behind it: the mental health field had to change its approach, not ask ironworkers to change their culture. Ironworkers training ironworkers in their own words is the model. It is now reaching locals across the United States and Canada. If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988. Visit qprinstitute.com and impact-net.org for more.
Ohio Teachers in Crisis and CWA on the Union Wave Into November
Two conversations that connect the stress of the classroom to the energy on the shop floor — one on a national survey showing the teaching profession is in crisis and what Ohio educators are facing in the November governor's race, and one on a wave of recent union wins and how CWA is mobilizing members to make their voices heard on November 3rd. Ohio Federation of Teachers President and AFT Vice President Melissa Cropper discusses the AFT national survey finding two-thirds of approximately 2,000 K-12 teachers rate their stress at a 7 or higher, 31% are considering leaving the profession and only 36% would recommend teaching to their children. Teachers are spending their own money on food and school supplies because school budgets and family budgets are both stretched to the limit. She discusses the Ohio University faculty contract fight now past 400 days, the book ban and AI pressures compounding classroom stress and the Ohio governor's race — contrasting Vivek Ramaswamy's stated goal of eliminating teachers unions, his $30 million-plus from a private school choice donor and his plan to eliminate state income taxes with Dr. Amy Acton's two-and-a-half-year ground game and commitment to bringing educators to the policy table. Then, CWA District 4 Director Frank Mathews discusses a wave of recent organizing wins — Wikimedia Foundation workers joining CWA Local 9415, Daily Herald newsroom workers in Chicago announcing a union after wages were cut 15% over a decade, Unwired Broadband fiber technicians winning in California's Central Valley and NCR ATM technicians winning in the Chicago-Milwaukee corridor — and connects them to the 71% public approval rating for unions now driven by the affordability crisis, the widening wealth gap and the organizing energy of Gen Z and millennial workers. He walks through CWA's three-prong voter mobilization approach of texting, phone banking and handwritten postcards and directs listeners to the endorsements by state and congressional scorecard at cwa-union.org. Visit oft-aft.org for more from the Ohio Federation of Teachers and cwa-union.org for more from CWA.
Steven Ruggles on the Coming Labor Shortage and What It Means
Wages for young workers peaked in 1973. Real wages for young men did not fully recover until after 2015, reaching a low of approximately 25% below the 1973 peak — a 42-year stagnation caused not just by the baby boom entering the labor force but by that cohort continuing to occupy jobs for decades afterward, suppressing demand for new workers. Now the boomers are retiring. Births fell 17% between 2007 and 2024. And a University of Minnesota demographer projects that net entry into the labor force will drop below zero in the 2030s for the first time in American history. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, MacArthur Fellow and University of Minnesota Regents Professor Steven Ruggles discusses his paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences — The Pig in the Python: US Decennial Labor Flows and Economic Opportunity, 1910–2040 — and what the coming demographic transformation means for wages, union organizing and the workers who will enter the labor force over the next 15 years.
AGMA's Opera Colorado Win and Ohio AFL-CIO on November's Stakes
Two conversations connecting the ground-level work of organizing to the political moment that makes it possible — one tracing the first wall-to-wall unionization of an American opera company in more than 40 years and one taking the temperature of Ohio workers heading into a November election that could determine whether any of it gets easier. Adam Da Ros, a member of both the organizing and negotiating committees for the American Guild of Musical Artists, discusses the Opera Colorado campaign from its first conversations in April 2023, through management's refusal to voluntarily recognize the union, through an NLRB hearing where management argued the chorus were volunteers rather than employees, to a November 2023 election that came back 91 to 8 in favor of AGMA. The new collective bargaining agreement raises the chorus minimum from approximately $500 per production for schedules of 100-plus hours to $21.50 per hour, establishes new minimum compensation with a 5% increase in year two and 3% in year three, brings previously unpaid preparation time and costume fittings into compensated hours and includes the artist-in-residence program under the AGMA umbrella. Da Ros said it is the first wall-to-wall opera company unionization in more than 40 years, and he hopes it inspires other performing arts groups to do the same. Then, Ohio AFL-CIO President Tim Burga reports on Labor Day events from Lorain to Portsmouth and Youngstown to Cincinnati, where he found consistent energy and political frustration among workers who are not seeing their elected leaders address wages, childcare, rent, groceries or utilities. He previews the Ohio AFL-CIO biennial convention September 21 through 23 in Columbus — 140 years after the AFL was founded in that city — featuring guest speakers Dr. Amy Acton, Sherrod Brown and IUPAT International President Jimmy Williams Jr. and serving as the launch point for the Labor 2026 voter mobilization program. He addresses the Policy Matters Ohio report finding that lawmakers have allowed and in some ways created an economy where working people cannot get ahead and frames November as a choice between validating that direction or starting a new day. Visit musicalartists.org for more from AGMA and ohioaflcio.org for more from the Ohio AFL-CIO.
EPI's Heidi Shierholz on Tripling Union Density and the Policy Roadmap
If typical worker pay had kept pace with productivity over the past 45 years, today's typical paycheck would be roughly 40% larger. That income went to shareholders and corporate executives. A new Economic Policy Institute report finds that tripling union density to 30% — where Canada sits today, where the United States was before decades of attacks on collective bargaining — would shift $1.2 trillion annually back to working people, raise the median worker's pay by 14.5%, close racial wage gaps by more than one-third and produce annual wage increases ranging from $1,900 to $10,600 by state. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, EPI President Heidi Shierholz discusses the full report: what tripling union density would mean for worker pay, health insurance coverage and racial equity, two new EPI policy proposals including automatic bargaining rights at companies where CEO pay exceeds 100 times the median worker, the Faster Labor Contracts Act's bipartisan momentum in Congress and what states can do right now — including a finding that ensuring collective bargaining rights for all public sector workers alone would raise national union density from 9.9% to 14.4%. Visit epi.org for the full report.
BRS's Tim Tarrant on Ludlow, Blair Mountain and Railroad Safety Today
On Easter Sunday morning, April 19, 1914, the National Guard and the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency set up a machine gun overlooking a Colorado miners' tent colony, murdered union leader Louis Tikas and two lieutenants who came out to negotiate a truce and burned the camp. Eleven children and two women died in one tent alone. They wanted an eight-hour workday and a safe workplace. The word redneck comes from striking West Virginia miners in 1921 who tied red bandanas around their necks to identify themselves against strikebreakers. It is a labor word. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen National VP Tim Tarrant joins the Labor 132 series to trace those moments in labor history and connect them to the fights happening right now: fall protection still missing at Metra Chicago, clean air fought for in Port Authority of New Jersey tunnels and the May 2026 Long Island Rail Road strike that shut down New York commuter service east of Manhattan for three days. His message on AI and technology: it is a worker's tool and must be used responsibly with workers, not as a replacement for them. Visit brs.org for more.
St. Mary's Nurse Emily Berceau on Organizing and the Fight Ahead
They started organizing in 2019. COVID shut them down. They started again. Then again. Management took down their flyers, told nurses they could not discuss the union despite federal law protecting that right and threatened workers with suspension for wearing a badge reel that said Nurses United. In June 2026, more than 800 nurses at St. Mary's Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin, voted 89% for SEIU Wisconsin. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, labor and delivery nurse Emily Berceau tells the full story of the multi-year organizing campaign at SSM Health, the management tactics nurses faced at every turn, what the first contract fight looks like now that the vote is won and what she would say to any worker going through their own organizing battle. Her answer: a union is made up of average workers pushing together for something better. Solidarity is power. Visit seiuwi.org for more.
Lorena Gonzalez on California Labor, Women in Trades and Worker Power
Her father came from Mexico as a teenager to work North San Diego County's strawberry fields, following her grandfather who was a bracero. Her mother spent 40 years as a nurse trying to organize her hospital, watched co-workers get retaliated against and voted for a union in her 40th year without ever working under that contract. Lorena Gonzalez became the first woman and first person of color to lead the California Federation of Labor Unions and authored three laws that changed conditions for every worker in the state. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, California Federation of Labor President Lorena Gonzalez joins as part of the Labor 132 series to discuss her personal story, the summer job handing out food to striking workers that shaped her view of labor courage, the landmark legislation she authored including statewide paid sick leave, farmworker overtime and criminal penalties for wage theft, California's 125th year as a labor federation, the growing presence of women in trades and labor leadership and why the current surge in public support for unions carries a special responsibility to stay earned. Visit calaborfed.org for more.
Labor Day 2026: U.S. Rep. Norcross on Worker Power and Zhavoronkova on TradesFutures
Two Labor Day conversations that connect the fight for workers in Congress to the programs building the next generation of union construction workers — one making the legislative case for faster contracts, higher wages and union political power and one tracing a nationwide network of free apprenticeship readiness programs preparing people from every kind of background for union construction careers. Congressional Labor Caucus co-founder and IBEW Local 351 member Don Norcross of New Jersey discusses the Faster Labor Contracts Act, which the House passed through a discharge petition, echoing Mary Norton's 1938 use of the same mechanism to advance the Fair Labor Standards Act almost 88 years earlier. He traces his path from a four-year IBEW apprenticeship to the Southern New Jersey AFL-CIO presidency to the Public Officials with a Union Label initiative that placed more than 100 union members in public office across four New Jersey counties and spread nationally. He addresses Reagan's firing of the PATCO air traffic controllers as the turning point in modern labor history, what 70% public support for unions today actually reflects and why Amazon workers on Staten Island, who won their union election more than two years ago, still do not have a contract. His Labor Day message: labor creates all wealth, not the trillionaires. Then, TradesFutures Executive Director Marina Zhavoronkova discusses the organization's network of more than 200 free apprenticeship readiness programs across 32 states, serving 7,700 participants last year, a threefold increase over five years. She covers the fastest-growing program segments including high schools and community colleges, a new statewide partnership launching the Multicraft Core Curriculum across all 15 Pennsylvania community colleges, women in construction and the Tradeswomen Built Nations conference, data center construction as a major driver of union job demand for program graduates and what the BLS AI exposure categories show about building trades occupations ranking among the lowest in relative AI exposure of all currently classified jobs. Visit norcross.house.gov and laborcaucus.house.gov for more from Representative Norcross and tradesfutures.org for more from TradesFutures. Follow @NABTU for building trades updates.
Fred Redmond on CEO Pay, the 2025 Paywatch Report and Labor Day 2026
The AFL-CIO had to add more digits to its Paywatch database this year just to fit one person's compensation package. S&P 500 CEOs averaged $22.8 million in 2025 without Elon Musk. His $158.3 billion Tesla package pushed the average to $340.1 million, approximately 1,700% higher than the prior year and the highest figure in Paywatch's 28-year history. The ratio of his pay to the median Tesla worker's pay: 2,522,203 to 1. Excluding Musk, the average CEO-to-worker ratio is 312-to-1. And workers' share of US national income fell to its lowest level since World War II. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond joins for the final First Friday with Fred before Labor Day 2026 to discuss what the 2025 Executive Paywatch report means for working people, why full-time employees at some of the country's largest employers are among the top recipients of Medicaid and SNAP and why the AFL-CIO is heading into this Labor Day genuinely optimistic, with a goal of 2 million new union members in the next five years described as a floor, not a ceiling. Visit aflcio.org and paywatch.org for more.
C/COBCTC on Data Centers, Infrastructure and Outreach
A million people are projected to move to Central Ohio by 2050. Two Ohio Power Siting Board hearings drew nearly 100 speakers in one week. The outer belt needs more lanes. And the IBEW is preparing to blanket Columbus job sites with organizers and then sit workers down with contractors to place them on the same day. On today's Trades Day episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council Executive Secretary-Treasurer Dorsey Hager delivers his monthly update covering the Fairfield and Asheville Ohio Power Siting Board hearings for two behind-the-meter energy centers serving data center campuses, Central Ohio's infrastructure gap as growth accelerates toward a million new residents by 2050, apprenticeship outreach to middle schools and high schools and the IBEW job blitz coming to Columbus that could be replicated across all building trades if it succeeds. Visit columbusconstruction.org for more.
Rep. Steve Horsford and Dave Megenhardt on Fighting for Workers
Two conversations that connect the fight for workers in the halls of Congress to the fight for workers on the streets of Cleveland — one making the legislative case for tipped wages, overtime pay and AI transparency and one tracing 55 years of a labor-rooted organization that has never stopped asking what workers need that nobody else is providing. Congressional Labor Caucus co-chair and Culinary Workers Union Local 226 member Steve Horsford of Nevada discusses the Big Beautiful Bill's betrayal of tipped workers and his Tips Improvement Act to make tax relief permanent, the federal minimum wage frozen at $7.25 since 2009 and down 30% in purchasing power, the Double the Wage Act to require double pay after 40 hours, the PRO Act and Faster Labor Contracts Act and legislation requiring transparency on AI-related layoffs and hiring. He also shares the personal story behind his public service: an immigrant mother from Trinidad, a father shot and killed when he was 19 and a decade running the Culinary Training Academy before he ever ran for Congress. His Labor Day message: the problems workers face are not personal failures, and when workers fight, they win. Then, United Labor Agency Executive Director Dave Megenhardt traces 55 years of worker-centered service in Cleveland, from a 1971 kidney dialysis program seeded by the Cleveland AFL-CIO, the UAW and the Teamsters through durable medical equipment, workforce development, housing rehabilitation and the placement of more than 2,000 workers across Northeast Ohio last year. He addresses what deindustrialization's legacy of abandoned communities without transition plans should teach us about AI-driven job displacement, the current federal grant landscape and the ULA's role in seeding Policy Matters Ohio. His Labor Day message: look back on a year of hard work, recognize your contribution to the economy and always fight for someone else. Visit horsford.house.gov and laborcaucus.house.gov for more from Representative Horsford and ulagency.org for more from the United Labor Agency.
NABTU's Dr. Tom Kriger on Apprenticeship, AI and The Wizard of Oz
The tornado is the high interest rates. The Scarecrow is the caricature of the uneducated farmer. The Tin Woodsman is the industrial worker who lost his humanity as wages fell. The Yellow Brick Road is the gold standard. The Emerald City is Washington. And behind the curtain at the end, a few powerful people are pulling strings. L. Frank Baum wrote The Wizard of Oz as a populist labor parable. NABTU's Dr. Tom Kriger says it is the most important thing you can watch this Labor Day weekend. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, NABTU Director of Education and Research Dr. Tom Kriger discusses the Fitzgerald Act of 1937 and how registered apprenticeship was created, why the union model of training workers in the full range of an occupation is the gold standard, how NABTU's 300,000 apprentices represent roughly half of all registered apprentices in the United States, why the tech industry has badly failed to explain why data centers are necessary and what happens if the US stops building them and why L. Frank Baum's populist parable from the 1890s is more relevant today than most people realize. Visit nabtu.org for more.
Tom Buffenbarger on ‘Wimpy’ Winpisinger and the Origins of Labor Day
A machinist named Matthew Maguire proposed Labor Day in 1882. When Grover Cleveland signed it into law in 1894, he gave the ceremonial pen to a carpenter with a similar name and told Maguire's wife he was sorry. The machinist never got proper credit. The debate starts every Labor Day again. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast — the final episode of the Labor 132 series, one week before Labor Day — IAM retired International President Tom Buffenbarger discusses the life and career of William ‘Wimpy’ Winpisinger, the IAM general president from 1977 to 1989 who wheeled a wheelchair into his first AFL-CIO executive board meeting to tell George Meany it was time to go, led a walkout of the 1980 Democratic National Convention, put IAM-sponsored race cars on national television with drivers including Roger Mears and Josele Garza to showcase union craftsmen and made trade unionism a religion. Buffenbarger also settles — for another year at least — the debate over who really created Labor Day. Visit goiam.org for more.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell on Trade, Social Security and Fighting for Workers
Her father-in-law was fired for union activity, contracted tuberculosis and was sent west to die. He came back to Detroit, won a congressional seat and helped write the Social Security Act — standing in the room when Roosevelt signed it in 1935. That history is what Congresswoman Debbie Dingell carries into Congress every day. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, Dingell joins the Labor 132 series as co-chair of the 129-member Congressional Labor Caucus. She discusses why USMCA has not created a level playing field with Mexico, the national security threat posed by Chinese autonomous vehicles collecting data on American streets, why the chaotic application of tariffs has cost average households approximately $3,500, the need to scrap the Social Security earnings cap before the 2033 funding cliff and why she is one of the lead House sponsors of Medicare for All — a bill that now has more than 100 co-sponsors. Visit debbiedingell.house.gov and laborcaucus.house.gov for more.
Insulators Local 6's Jeff Saliba on Energy, Recovery and Union Power
Without the union, he says, he would qualify for Medicaid and food stamps doing the same insulation work. He has been sober for more than 20 years. He holds a Massachusetts license in addiction counseling. And he watches his members vote against their own economic interests every election cycle and cannot figure out how to get through to them. On today's Trades Day episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, Heat and Frost Insulators Local 6 Business Manager Jeff Saliba joins on behalf of Pete Ielmini and the Mechanical Insulators LMCT. He discusses why the Boston hospital energy report is a call to action for mechanical insulation, how Local 6's MAP-based recovery program gives apprentices a structured path through addiction and a genuine door back into the program, and why the drift toward individualism — workers thinking me instead of we — is the most significant internal challenge unions face heading into this Labor Day. If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988. Visit insulators6.org and follow @InsulatorsLMCT for more.
Food Is Medicine, Aviation Safety and 49 Years of the Labor Fight
Two conversations that connect the health of workers to the history of the movement that fights for them — one looking at what union members eat and how it affects their long-term health, and one tracing 49 years of a union that keeps the aviation system safe and has been fighting for the right to do that work well since 1977. Blue Cross Blue Shield National Labor Office Executive Director Merrilee Logue discusses the Food Is Medicine movement and what it means for the 18 million union members covered through BCBS plans. She outlines updated USDA dietary guidelines emphasizing protein, healthy fats and minimally processed foods, the specific nutritional challenges facing union members doing shift work and physically demanding jobs and a range of programs now available through union insurance plans — from registered dietitians and medically tailored meals to produce prescription programs in which healthcare providers can literally prescribe fruits and vegetables as part of a treatment plan. She also discusses the American Psychiatric Association's documented connection between nutrition and mental health and Blue Cross Blue Shield's investment of millions in nutrition programs, food banks and educational initiatives in every zip code across the country. Then, Professional Aviation Safety Specialists President Dave Spero traces the 49-year history of PASS National — from Howard Johnnssen's decision to start a union after being suspended for kicking in a door to put out a fire, through founders sleeping in their cars and burning through their leave by Memorial Day every year to sign up members, to the eight-year fight for the first contract. He discusses what PASS did on September 11, 2001, when the president suspended the collective bargaining agreement in the first hours so members could focus entirely on securing the aviation system, current FAA workforce shortfalls and the threat of a government shutdown at the end of September 30. Follow @BlueLabor on LinkedIn and X for BCBS NLO updates and visit passnational.org for more from PASS National.
USW's John Lepley on Homestead, Carnegie and the Fight That Built Labor
Carnegie's name is on libraries, museums, endowments and an entire town in Pennsylvania. His 1889 essay, The Gospel of Wealth, said the wealthy should give away their fortunes for the public good. After Homestead broke the union in 1892, workers who had eight-hour shifts went to 12-hour shifts and eventually to 24-hour shifts every two weeks. A worker killed in a blast furnace left his family $75, including burial. That is the other side of the Carnegie story. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, United Steelworkers Director of Education John Lepley traces the full arc of the 1892 Battle of Homestead — Carnegie's castle in Scotland, Frick's Fort, the Pinkerton detectives on the Monongahela, the day-long battle and the militia that broke the union — through the 1937 Memorial Day Massacre and the long, costly fight to build the collective bargaining agreements that changed workers' lives. He also recommends Out of This Furnace by Thomas Bell as essential reading on what steelworker life actually looked like from the inside. Visit usw.org for more.
U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan on the Labor Caucus, PRO Act and Clean Energy Jobs
The federal minimum wage has been frozen at $7.25 an hour since 2009. The Congressional Labor Caucus has 128 members — and everyone must actually support the PRO Act to join. Clean energy projects that were creating union jobs across the Midwest have been canceled by the Big Beautiful Bill. And 50 million Americans would join a union today if the barriers were lower. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, Wisconsin Congressman and 30-plus-year IUPAT member Mark Pocan discusses what worker power looks like from inside the House of Representatives. He covers the Labor Caucus membership requirement and why virtually no Republicans qualify, the 17-year freeze on the federal minimum wage and the $2.13 subminimum wage for tipped workers, what the Big Beautiful Bill did to clean energy job creation in Wisconsin and the Midwest and why organizing at Starbucks, Amazon and REI is some of the most exciting labor movement news he has seen in years. Visit pocan.house.gov and laborcaucus.house.gov for more.
9/11 at 25, US Shipbuilding and the 2032 Social Security Cliff
Two conversations that connect the service of the past to the policy fights of the present — one honoring those who answered the call after September 11, and one sounding the alarm about a Social Security funding cliff that Congress has the tools to prevent but has not yet used. American Legion Media and Communications Director Henry Howard joins with the September update as the 25th anniversary of September 11 approaches. The September cover story of the American Legion Magazine, Sacred Honor, was written by Ben King — a Radio Shack worker in Washington who decided within hours of the attacks that if it was war he would go, signed up for the Army Reserves within days, was deployed to Baghdad in 2006 and survived an IED strike that pushed the engine block of his Humvee into him, receiving a Purple Heart before going on to serve as operations director of the Virginia War Memorial. Howard also previews a new Tango Alpha Lima podcast episode publishing September 8 featuring military pilot Heather Penney, whose September 11 mission was to intercept Flight 93 and bring it down with her own aircraft if necessary — a mission from which she would not have returned. He then discusses a September magazine feature on America's shipbuilding decline, from 180,000 shipyard jobs in 1980 to roughly 105,000 by 2010, with current capacity estimated at more than 200 times China's. Then, Alliance for Retired Americans Executive Director Rich Fiesta discusses a 2032 Social Security funding cliff that would trigger a 22% across-the-board benefit cut if Congress does not act, where the Warren-Moreno scrap-the-cap bill stands and the Alliance's primary fight for the remainder of the 119th Congress: defeating a fiscal commission bill sponsored by outgoing senators that would fast-track Social Security recommendations to a vote while bypassing hearings, testimony and amendments. Visit legion.org for American Legion updates, listen to the Tango Alpha Lima podcast episode on September 8 and visit retiredamericans.org for the full congressional voting record on seniors' issues.
Bill McCamley on Wage Theft, Labor History and the Trades Crisis
In 1806, members of America's first labor union were found guilty of criminal conspiracy for demanding higher wages. In 2017, wage theft cost 2.4 million workers more than $8 billion. Today, construction workers die by overdose at approximately 16 times the rate of conventional workplace accidents. The fight for a fair day's wage is 232 years old and still going. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, New Mexico Building Trades Wellness Coalition Director Bill McCamley joins the Labor 132 series for a conversation that runs from the 1794 Cordwainers through the Gilded Age robber barons, the Teddy Roosevelt trust-busting era and the FDR New Deal to the present-day crisis of 40 million men outside the American workforce and 11,000 construction workers dying by overdose each year. He also discusses what it will take to bring young men into the trades, cut the 40-60% apprentice dropout rate, and ensure that workers who do the essential work of building everything know they are valued for it. Call or text 988 if you need help. Visit nmbtwellness.org and billmccamley.net for more.
Medicare for All History, Head Start Cuts and Ohio's Education Fight
Two conversations that connect the long arc of labor's fight for workers and their families to the battles happening right now — one tracing a century of organized labor's role in winning healthcare coverage for Americans and one reporting from the front lines of public education in Ohio as the school year begins. National Nurses United Medicare for All Campaign Director Jasmine Ruddy traces the labor movement's century-long fight for national health insurance, from the first push tied to the Social Security Act in 1935 through the AMA's repeated opposition campaigns, the AFL-CIO's landmark 1957 declaration of government health insurance as its top legislative priority, Walter Reuther's role in marshaling labor support and the July 1965 passage of Medicare and Medicaid. She then updates listeners on where the Medicare for All campaign stands today: more than half of House Democrats now co-sponsoring the Jayapal-Dingell bill, 16 or 17 Senate co-sponsors on Senator Sanders' bill and a coalition of more than 335 organizations on record in support. Then, Ohio Federation of Teachers President Melissa Cropper joins for her monthly update as the 2026-2027 school year opens across Ohio. She discusses the federal administration's death-by-a-thousand-cuts approach to Head Start, first contract wins at Menlo Park Academy, KIPP Charter School and Columbus College of Art and Design, the Columbus Metropolitan Library's path toward a first contract following last month's organizing win and what Ohio's governor race means for public education and teachers unions — with one candidate calling for the elimination of teachers unions and the other actively engaging with OFT on education policy. Visit medicareforall.org and nationalnursesunited.org for more from National Nurses United and oft-aft.org for the OFT voter guide and updates.
SMART Union and Union EAP on Mental Health Support That Actually Works
They audited the EAP numbers. They called them. One program — marketing comprehensive mental health services — told them it did not do mental health when faced with a complex case. That is when SMART's Chris Carlough and Union EAP's Ben Cort knew something had to be built from scratch. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, SMART Director of Wellness and Mental Health Support Chris Carlough and Union EAP CEO Ben Cort discuss 14-plus years of peer training inside the sheet metal trades, what the audit of existing EAPs actually revealed and how Union EAP was built specifically to meet union members where they are — with licensed therapists who answer the phone directly and who understand the culture of union construction work. Member locals using Union EAP are seeing utilization rates 300% to 1,000% higher than their previous providers. If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988. Visit smohit.org for peer training resources and unioneap.com for more on Union EAP.
Cleveland Teachers Fight Back and 100 Years of American Labor Law
Two conversations that connect the labor movement's past to its present — one showing what union solidarity looks like in action today and one tracing the legal history that explains why that solidarity is still so necessary. Cleveland Teachers Union President Errol Savage discusses his first day in office — the same day the district announced 310 teacher layoffs — and how he responded the only way he knew how: by organizing, showing up and fighting alongside his union brothers and sisters. More than 600 teachers and Cleveland community members showed up at a Board of Education meeting that typically drew a handful of people. The board engaged. The superintendent made different choices. Today fewer than 50 of the original 310 teachers are still not back in Cleveland classrooms in a full-time capacity, and most of those plan to return. Savage also discusses what the fight means for the broader attack on public education and how he is already supporting teachers in Fairview Park, Ohio facing their own contract battle. Then, labor lawyer and OnLabor contributor Andrew Strom traces 100 years of American labor law from the 1926 Railway Labor Act through the NLRA, Taft-Hartley, the birth of right-to-work through judicial interpretation and three Supreme Court decisions — Republic Aviation in 1945, Lechmere in 1992 and Epic Systems in 2018 — that illustrate how the same law that was once called the Magna Carta of workers' rights came to be described by the Supreme Court as a mouse hole, all without Congress changing a single word. Visit ctu279.org for more from the Cleveland Teachers Union and onlabor.org for more of Andrew Strom's writing on labor law.
CA Building Trades on Proposition 45 and the November Fight
It is being marketed as a permitting reform and affordability act. But the 41 pages of California's Proposition 45 bypass the state's landmark environmental review law, strip local elected officials of meaningful discretion over what gets built in their communities, include no requirement that any savings reach the public and contain a provision that overrides any conflicting law — including environmental protections. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, State Building and Construction Trades Council of California President Chris Hannan explains what Proposition 45 actually does and why a coalition of more than 270 organizations — including the California building trades, the environmental movement, firefighters and educators — is working together to defeat it in November. He also discusses Climate Jobs California, the new labor-academia initiative the council is building to advance clean energy in California, the right way. Visit noprop45ca.com to get involved and cabuildingtrades.org for more.
LHSFNA on Trench Safety, Work Zones and OSHA Under Pressure
About one construction worker dies in a trench collapse every week. Every death is preventable. Work zone run-over and back-over incidents are also preventable. And the federal agency responsible for enforcing the rules that would stop these deaths just had its already-thin resources cut further. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, Laborers' Health and Safety Fund of North America Director Travis Parsons discusses the history of worker safety from the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire to the creation of OSHA in 1970, the three simple methods that prevent every trench collapse, why work zones need physical barriers rather than cones and barrels and what the current administration's anti-regulatory environment means for laborers on job sites right now. He also discusses the LHSFNA's founding in 1988 as a labor-management fund and why meaningful OSHA fines are the enforcement lever the industry needs most. Visit lhsfna.org for more.
CWA's Frank Mathews on Union History and the Story of Red on Thursday
In August 1989, CWA chief steward Gerry Horgan was struck and killed by a replacement worker driving through a picket line during the NYNEX strike in New York. He was a Marine, a volunteer firefighter, a mountain rescue team member and a family man who gave everything for working people. Since that day, CWA members have worn red on Thursdays in his honor. August 15 marks the 37th anniversary of his death. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast — part of the Labor 132 series presented by the National Labor Office of Blue Cross Blue Shield — CWA District 4 Administrative Director Frank Mathews traces the history of the Communication Workers of America from its 1947 founding through landmark contract wins, barrier-breaking leadership elections and the member relief fund that removes one of management's most reliable bargaining weapons. He then tells the full story of Gerry Horgan and what wearing red on Thursdays has meant to the CWA family over the past 37 years. Visit cwad4.org for more.
BAC's Tim Driscoll on Labor Law, AI, Immigration and Misclassification
More than 30% of union election wins never produce a first contract. Not because workers gave up. Because employers face no real punishment for running out the clock. The BAC has two active situations in California and Florida, where employers have been delaying for two years with zero consequences. On today's Trades Day episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers President Timothy J. Driscoll discusses the PRO Act, the Faster Labor Contracts Act and why the arbitration provision critics call government overreach is simply a necessary guardrail. He also addresses AI's growing impact on construction design and engineering, what responsible data center siting requires from developers, why the administration's immigration enforcement is a deliberate wedge strategy that has swept up BAC members with valid work authorization in ICE raids and why congressional efforts to expand independent contractor status are moving in exactly the wrong direction for workers. Visit bacweb.org for more.
TSA Administrator Cummins, Transit Funding and Ohio's Labor History
Two conversations that connect the fights of the past to the fights happening right now — one tracking the policy battles shaping transportation workers today and one tracing the 200-year labor history that explains why those battles keep coming. Transportation Trades Department President Greg Regan discusses the TTD's concerns about newly confirmed TSA Administrator David Cummins, who has said collective bargaining inhibits airport security workers and plans to expand privatized screening from approximately 20 airports to 200. Regan also addresses a bipartisan bill to fix the Railroad Retirement Board's ability to pay out earned benefits to railroaders who have contributed to one of the world's healthiest pension systems and a September 30 surface transportation funding cliff that would simultaneously cut off roads, bridges, Amtrak, commuter rail and public transit funding — at a moment when Amtrak is posting record ridership and revenue as proof that infrastructure investment works. Then, Ohio AFL-CIO President Tim Burga traces Ohio's labor history through his own family story — a grandfather who survived the 1940 Willow Grove Mine explosion in Belmont County, a father who served as president of a United Steelworkers local in the 1960s and a debt he said his family owes entirely to the United Mine Workers of America and the United Steelworkers. He covers the 1890 founding of the UMWA in Columbus, William Green's authorship of Ohio's workers' compensation law and the defeat of Senate Bill 5 in 2011 by the same 62-to-38 margin that defeated right-to-work in Ohio in 1958. He closes with what the current organizing surge among young workers means for the movement's future and why getting from a successful union vote to a first contract remains the most urgent labor law reform priority. Visit ttd.org for more from the Transportation Trades Department and ohioaflcio.org for more from the Ohio AFL-CIO.
Fred Redmond on Family, 50 Years With the Steelworkers and Organizing
His mother took three buses every morning to clean houses in the suburbs. His father worked every job he could find until he landed his first union contract at an aluminum mill on Chicago's southwest side. Then Fred Redmond's family started going to a doctor's office instead of the free clinic. That is why the labor movement is personal to him — and why he has given more than 50 years to it. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond joins for the first Friday with Fred of August as part of the Labor 132 series. He shares the story of his parents' journey from sharecropping in Mississippi to union membership in Chicago, reflects on his proudest moments with the United Steelworkers, including organizing rubber plantation workers in Liberia and surviving strikes at Reynolds and Alcoa, and explains why union popularity is now at its highest point in 70 years. Visit aflcio.org and explore the AFL-CIO's labor history timeline.
C/COBCTC on Data Centers, a New Learning Center and Trades Outreach
Columbus just landed Electra's $850 million EL9 Ultra Short hybrid-electric aircraft manufacturing plant at AirPark Ohio, is building a $100 million early childhood learning center on a former jail site and generated 6.5 million union building trades work hours at Google facilities alone last year. And the American Federation of Labor was founded downtown in 1886. On today's Trades Day episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, C/COBCTC Executive Secretary-Treasurer Dorsey Hager delivers his monthly update covering Intel's continued ramp-up, upcoming public hearings for two major gas-powered energy centers that will supply data center campuses in Fairfield County and Asheville, a new project labor agreement for the $100 million Franklin County early childhood learning center, the state of Ohio's data center conversation at the local government level and what happened when building trades members brought brick walls and concrete finishing to the Ohio State Fair. Visit columbusconstruction.org for more.
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland on the SAG-AFTRA Merger and Labor History
The Screen Actors Guild was founded in 1933. AFTRA was founded around the same time. For nearly 80 years, they tried to become a single union and kept falling short of the 80% supermajority required by both constitutions. Then, in 2008, employers used the gap between them to restructure primetime scripted television in ways that stripped members of their health insurance. By 2012, the two unions were one. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast — part of the Labor 132 series — SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland tells the full story, from the very different founding cultures of SAG and AFTRA in the 1930s through the McCarthy era, Ronald Reagan's complicated labor legacy, the 2008 employer maneuver that finally made the cost of disunity impossible to ignore and what the merged union has built in the 14 years since. He also addresses the AI fight, now the most urgent focus of SAG-AFTRA's resources, and explains why the strength of the merged union is exactly what that fight requires. Visit sagaftra.org for more.