#1263 Worker protections help (almost) everyone (Labor Rights)
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 10 April 2019
⏱️ 87 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Air Date: 4/9/2019
Today we take a look at the overwhelming benefits to society of labor, health and safety regulations and how they only people who don't come out ahead are those who have to pay for them
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SHOW NOTES
Ch. 1: Do Regulations Kill Growth? - Pitchfork Economics - Air Date 2-5-19
Deregulation is the status quo, and it always drags the economy down by creating a race to the bottom and arguments against regulation always end up looking absurd in retrospect
Ch. 2: We are all low wage workers with Annelise Orleck - This Is Hell! - Air Date 3-27-18
The rise of neoliberalism has disregarded workers rights by design. Walking off the job together has the power to change.
Katy on stories of misogyny in the workplace, the hatred that comes out when a worker becomes pregnant, and the life-threatening risks of working while pregnant in unsafe environments.
Deregulations cause death spirals in business. Robert Reich joins to talk about the myth of deregulation and the free market. Average Americans pay a huge price for the myth.
Take action! Click the title and/or scroll down for quick links and resources from this segment.
So what should we do? Learn, organize, fight. Work towards unions, build better unions, build skills and keep working.
Ch. 7: Why is Getting Out of Poverty So Hard? With Felicia Wong - Pitchfork Economics - Air Date 3-19-19
Poverty is a cancer and social services are bandaids. We need sweeping legislative change to tackle poverty properly.
VOICEMAILS
Ch. 8: Debating health care with a libertarian - Heather from Texas
FINAL COMMENTS
Ch. 9: Final comments explaining the historical accident of our current health care system and the need to break the bone in order to reset it
TAKE ACTION!
1. Support California's Assembly Bill 5 & Encourage Passage in Your State
- Read the bill& join the conversation online via #YesonAB5
- Call & write your state legislatures
- Get involved with your local labor organizations
2. Support the Workplace Democracy Act (Sanders/Pocan)
- Read the summary of the 2017-2018 version of the bill
- Call your members of congress at (202) 224-3121
3. More Info on Big Tech Lobbying: Uberinterference: Uber & Lyft Running Over Local Democracy
EDUCATE YOURSELF & SHARE
Rights at Risk: Gig Companies Campaign to Upend Employment As We Know It(National Employment Law Project)
Advancing Workers Rights In Contract Employment (National Employment Law Project)
Marketplace Platforms and Employers Under State Law - Why We Should Reject Corporate Solutions and Support Worker-Led Innovation (National Employment Law Project)
The Con of The Side Hustle(NY Times)
How Silicon Valley Lobbyists Secretly Pushed Texas Regulators to Rewrite the Rules of the Gig Economy(Texas Observer)
Texas rule limiting worker benefits in gig economy would hurt local businesses, owners say(Houston Chronicle)
Post-Dynamex, California Legislature Takes Up the Worker Classification Question(OnLabor.org)
A Line in the Sand (Workplace Democracy Act)(Jacobin)
Freelancers Want to Join Unions but Labor Laws Won't Let Them(Teen Vogue)
Researched & written by BOTL Communications Director Amanda Hoffman
MUSIC(Blue Dot Sessions):
- Opening Theme: Loving Acoustic Instrumental by John Douglas Orr
- Take a Tiny Train - Ray Catcher
- Inessential - Bayou Birds
- Flattered - Delray
- Waterbourne - Algea Fields
- This fickle world - Theo Bard
- The Rampart - Castle Danger
- Voicemail Music: Low Key Lost Feeling Electro by Alex Stinnent
- Closing Music: Upbeat Laid Back Indie Rock by Alex Stinnent
Produced by Jay! Tomlinson
Thanks for listening!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This program is made possible by members and donors to the show. |
| 0:06.2 | In supporting the work we do, two bucks a month to get you an ad for your version of every |
| 0:10.2 | episode, while full membership gets you that, plus members only bonus episodes with extra |
| 0:15.0 | clips and commentary. |
| 0:16.6 | Sign up at patreon.com slash best of left or visit the contribute tab at bestofleft.com. |
| 0:22.8 | Now welcome to this episode of the award-winning best of left podcast in which we shall learn |
| 0:27.6 | about the overwhelming benefits to society of labor, health and safety regulations and |
| 0:33.6 | how the only people who don't come out ahead are those who have to pay for them. |
| 0:37.9 | Clips today come from pitchfork economics. |
| 0:41.0 | This is hell, the leacher account and the dig. |
| 0:50.4 | Police officers don't want to be held to a high standard. |
| 0:54.1 | My children don't want to be held to a high standard. |
| 0:57.2 | I don't particularly like being held to a high standard myself. |
| 1:00.4 | It is a truism of, I suppose, human existence that people like other people to be held |
| 1:05.4 | to a high standard but prefer not to be held to a high standard themselves. |
| 1:09.6 | And so the issue of regulation is a very important one in human societies because it sort of |
| 1:16.2 | defines how we relate to one another. |
| 1:18.9 | And if there's one thing the trickle-downers love to say, it is that the rich and the powerful |
| 1:25.1 | and big companies shouldn't be constrained by regulation. |
| 1:28.7 | And if we do that, that it kills jobs and growth and wages and everything else. |
| 1:34.5 | Again, taking this claim, taking the canonical form of trickle-down economics that if we in any |
| 1:39.7 | way can strain the richer, the powerful, it will be bad for everyone. |
... |
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