This is Jackamon Radio, I'm Suzy Weisman. On today's program, Crystal Hopkins returns

to discuss the results of the IATC ratification vote revealed on November 15. The three-year

contract or basic agreement with studios and streaming services squeaked by because

of a delicate voting system many compared to the electoral college. 50.4% of the popular

vote rejected the deal, but the agreement was ratified with 256 delegates voting yes

and 88 voting no. That's left a lot of hard feelings and mounting criticism of President

Matthew Loeb's leadership of the union. Just ahead of the vote, Crystal Hopkins stepped

down as president of local 871, citing frustration over the ratification process. We'll get

the story of the deal, won't lay behind it, and Crystal's reasons for stepping down.

We then continue our look at the state of labor in the United States with UCSB labor historian

Nelson Lichtenstein. Nelson have an article in the Washington Post and another in dissent

that addressed the current enormous churn in the workplace, some call it the big quit,

others a strike wave. In the wake of the pandemic, we're seeing record numbers of workers

quitting their jobs, but also rising labor militancy, increasing wages, and accelerating

inflation while the Democrats are trying to hold on to their razor thin majorities by

passing the infrastructure and build back better bills with their big increases in spending.

The employer response is to pay more, but remain vigorously anti-union and getting millions

of new workers unionized is what's required. The calling the words of Joe Hill just before

he was executed in 1915, don't mourn, organize. We get Nelson's analysis of labor and more

when our program returns in just a moment.

This is Jacumen Radio, I'm Suzy Weisman, and we are so fortunate. We have a big show

today on labor beginning with the news on the ratification of the contentious contract

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