#1531 The Labor Movement is a Hot Mess and Democrats Are Not Much Help
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 13 December 2022
⏱️ 68 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Air Date 12/13/2022
Today, we take a look at the labor dispute within our freight rail industry as well as other unionization fights that corporations are vehemently opposing while the Democrats and Biden, the "most pro-labor president ever" are doing precious little to help.
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SHOW NOTES
Ch. 1: Railroaded - Bad Faith - Air Date 12-1-22
Union train engineer Ross Grooters returns to the podcast along with The Real News' Maximilian Alvarez, and Bad Faith newbie and co-host of Well There's Your Problem Justin Roczniak.
Ch. 2: The People's Guide To Power - The Power Of Labor - The Brain Lehrer Show - Air Date 10-23-22
Labor unions represent workers in conversations with their employers. Can a political party represent workers in our government? Sochie Nnaemeka talks about some of the policies and politics behind the party's agenda.
We are joined by Real News' Mel Buer and Max Alvarez to discuss the media campaign to obscure Biden and Congressional Dems selling out rail workers.
Ch. 4: Railroaded Part 2 - Bad Faith - Air Date 12-1-22
Union train engineer Ross Grooters returns to the podcast along with The Real News' Maximilian Alvarez, and Bad Faith newbie and co-host of Well There's Your Problem Justin Roczniak.
Ch. 5: John Logan on Amazon & Starbucks Organizing - CounterSpin - Air Date 10-7-22
With tens of thousands of workers walking out around the country, the notion that this is somehow not meaningful should be hard to maintain.
Ch. 6: Instability - Capitalism's Constant - Economic Update with Richard Wolff - Air Date 12-1-22
Prof. Wolff presents updates on the Twitter-Musk scandals, critique of profit as a return on risk, and mass European union-led strikes against inflation.
Ch. 7: How to show solidarity with railroad workers - The Real News Podcast - Air Date 11-16-22
In a special panel co-hosted by The Real News and Haymarket Books, Railroad Workers United members speak about their struggle, the situation on the rails, and how you can get involved in efforts to support them.
MEMBERS-ONLY BONUS CLIP(S)
Maximilian Alvarez interviews Matt Parker, a full-time locomotive engineer who’s worked on the railroads for 19 years. Parker also serves part-time as Chairman on the Nevada State Legislative Board of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.
FINAL COMMENTS
Ch. 9: Final comments on the hot mess of the fight for labor rights
MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions):
- Opening Theme: Loving Acoustic Instrumental by John Douglas Orr
- Voicemail Music: Low Key Lost Feeling Electro by Alex Stinnent
- Activism Music: This Fickle World by Theo Bard (https://theobard.bandcamp.com/track/this-fickle-world)
- Closing Music: Upbeat Laid Back Indie Rock by Alex Stinnent
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're going to want to check out BestOfLeft.com slash holiday, where we have a bunch of options |
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| 0:26.1 | Again, find all that at BestOfLeft.com slash holiday, and we appreciate your support. |
| 0:31.5 | And now, welcome to this episode of the award-winning BestOfLeft podcast in which we shall take |
| 0:36.0 | a look at the labor dispute within our freight rail industry, as well as other unionization |
| 0:41.3 | efforts that corporations are vehemently opposing while the Democrats and Biden, the most pro-labor |
| 0:47.4 | president ever, are doing precious little to help. |
| 0:51.2 | Clips today are from Bad Faith, The Brian Lerror Show, Citations Needed, Counter-Spin, Economic |
| 0:57.7 | Update, and The Real News, with an additional members' only clip also from The Real News, |
| 1:03.6 | and stay tuned to the end where I'll explain the particularly fitting origin of the modern |
| 1:09.0 | definition of the term hot mess, which I used in the title of today's show, because it |
| 1:14.8 | was so fitting. |
| 1:21.6 | I want to come to you, Justin, because you wrote a great essay in the New York Times |
| 1:25.7 | back in October, in which you traced some of the history as to how the railroads got |
| 1:30.8 | to be so broken in the first place. |
| 1:33.2 | Can you walk us through a little bit of how we got to the place where we've had these |
| 1:36.9 | really dramatic cuts in the labor force and some of the systemic changes in terms of |
| 1:41.5 | how rail and freight are delivered that caused it to be so much pressure on the individual |
| 1:46.1 | employees and so much inflexibility in their timelines? |
... |
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