#1452 Worked to Death: Pandemics Expose the Power of Labor
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 4 November 2021
⏱️ 74 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Air Date 11/3/2021
Today we take a look at the current wave of strikes and labor movements through the lens of pandemic economics and the history of businesses abuse of the worker.
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SHOW NOTES
Jacobin writer Alex Press says the averted strike is part of a “broader moment” of labor militancy across the United States, including workers at Amazon, Kellogg’s and elsewhere. “Workers are willing to fight back,” she says.
Ch. 2: Take Your Job and Shove It Part 1 - In The Thick - Air Date 10-26-21
Maria and Julio are joined by Luis Feliz Leon, writer and educator with Labor Notes, and Lauren Kaori Gurley, labor reporter for Vice Magazine’s Motherboard to talk about the labor strikes happening across the country.
Ch. 3: A Look at the Worker Shortage in the Food Service Industry - The Takeaway - Air Date 10-28-21
The Takeaway also looks at how Covid exposed the systemic inequalities in the restaurant industry with Saru Jayaraman, President of One Fair Wage and Director of the Food Labor Research Center at University of California, Berkeley.
Ch. 4: Take Your Job and Shove It Part 2 - In The Thick - Air Date 10-26-21
Maria and Julio are joined by Luis Feliz Leon, writer and educator with Labor Notes, and Lauren Kaori Gurley, labor reporter for Vice Magazine’s Motherboard to talk about the labor strikes happening across the country.
Ch. 5: Nice work week, if you can get it - Planet Money - Air Date 10-27-21
The 40 hour work week has been the standard for 80 years. What will it take to lower that?
Shane Larson from CWA joins Goldy to explain why right-to-work laws are so harmful, how they came to be, and why it’s so important to pass the PRO Act to fight for workers’ rights.
We speak with Dutch Merrick, prop master and armorer for over 25 years. Despite safety protocol and expertise, he says, Hollywood crews are getting “worked to death” with 80- to 100-hour workweeks, which he suggests played into the accidental shooting.
MEMBERS-ONLY BONUS CLIP(S)
While undeniably gruesome and tragic, the black plague had a silver lining: the unprecedented lost of life made labour scarce, while infrastructure and other capital were left relatively unharmed.
Ch. 9: Nice work week, if you can get it Part 2 - Planet Money - Air Date 10-27-21
Origins of the 40 hour work week.
VOICEMAILS
Ch. 10: Please clarify various stats on law enforcement and incarceration - Bud from Boise New
FINAL COMMENTS
Ch. 11: Final comments on the details behind the stats of criminal injustice and incarceration plus why flat-earthers haven't trekked to the edge and looked over
TAKE ACTION
5 Ways to Support Workers on Strike (Teen Vogue)
MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions):
- Opening Theme: Loving Acoustic Instrumental by John Douglas Orr
- Voicemail Music: Low Key Lost Feeling Electro by Alex Stinnent
- Closing Music: Upbeat Laid Back Indie Rock by Alex Stinnent
SHOW IMAGE:
Description: Photo of men holding blue and white protest signs in the air that say "UAW On Strike". The photo is from a recent strike by John Deere workers.
Credit: "20211020-OSEC-LSC-1195" by U.S. Department of Agriculture, Flickr | Public Domain
Produced by Jay! Tomlinson
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of Left podcast, in which we shall |
| 0:06.9 | take a look at the current wave of strikes and labor movements through the lens of pandemic |
| 0:11.8 | economics and the history of businesses abusing workers. |
| 0:16.8 | Clips today are from Democracy Now, In The Thick, The Takeaway, Planet Money, and Pitchwork |
| 0:22.6 | Economics, and with members only clips from the strange world of Econ and another from |
| 0:29.1 | Planet Money. |
| 0:36.0 | We begin today's show with what a number of people are calling strike tober. |
| 0:41.3 | As workers across the United States and a wide variety of industries are walking off the |
| 0:46.1 | job, thousands have gone on strike at food plants operated by Kellogg's Nabisco and Frito |
| 0:51.9 | Le over work hours, pay, and benefits. |
| 0:55.2 | Last week, more than 24,000 Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers in California authorize a strike. |
| 1:02.5 | Now 10,000 United automobile workers members at John Deere are also on strike, saying |
| 1:09.7 | they were forced to work overtime while the company made record profits. |
| 1:14.2 | The list goes on and includes more than 1,000 coal miners on strike at Warrior Medin, Alabama, |
| 1:20.5 | as we've covered here at Democracy Now. |
| 1:23.3 | This comes as the union representing television and film production crews averted a strike |
| 1:28.6 | of some 60,000 workers just hours before a midnight deadline Saturday. |
| 1:34.6 | When it reached a tentative agreement with an association of Hollywood producers, representing |
| 1:39.8 | companies like Walt Disney, Netflix, and Amazon. |
| 1:43.9 | The tentative deal brings members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage employees, |
| 1:49.9 | higher pay, longer breaks, and better healthcare and pension benefits. |
| 1:54.3 | Some members say the deal doesn't go far enough, and about 40,000 members from 13 Hollywood |
... |
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