This is a HeadGum podcast.

Hello and welcome to Factually, I'm Adam Connover, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you so much for joining me once again as I talk to an incredible expert about all the amazing things that they know that I don't know and that you might not know.

I am so excited for this week's episode because if you haven't noticed, it is hot, labor, summer.

Workers are fired up and not just because the bosses at Universal Studios cut down the trees shading our picket lines.

Workers in unions across the country are getting loud and taking action.

340,000 UPS workers flex their muscles with the teamsters union to win a new tentative contract and this follows high profile efforts by Starbucks workers to organize stores across the country and Amazon workers to organize those big oppressive warehouses and the best part is that is opposed to a couple decades ago when workers would be castigated in the press and basically spit on in the street for exercising their labor rights.

There is now greater public support for unions in this country than any time in decades.

On our picket line, we spend all day every day getting honked at by supportive members of the public and I can tell you that it is deafening and beautiful.

And let me just say that one of my favorite parts about this labor uprising is getting to meet other workers in other unions who visit our picket line and gaining an appreciation not just for the work that they do but how our fights are all the same.

Whether you're a teacher, a truck driver, an actor or a barista, all you want is to be able to make a living and support your family in the face of massive corporate power trying to push down your wages and working conditions.

And that means if you stand up for your fellow worker, you make the boulder easier to lift for all of us.

There's a word for this common cause and support solidarity, but you don't have to go to the picket line to find that solidarity.

You can see it in everyday life. For instance, one of the occupations I am most amazed by is our nation's flight attendance.

Not only are they highly disciplined members of the flight crew who keep a metal tube full of hundreds of idiots safe at 100,000 feet, they're also some of the staunchest, strongest, most inspiring union members in America.

A my old show Adam ruins everything and in a past episode of this podcast with a journalist, Nell McShin Wolfhardt, we covered how the first flight attendance to unionize transformed not just air traffic, but the entire labor movement for the better.

Well, today on the show, we're continuing that story and telling the story of this revolutionary moment in American labor with an absolutely incredible guest.

She started her career as a flight attendant, but she's now the president of their largest union and is without question one of the most significant labor leaders in America today.

Her name is Sarah Nelson. She's the international president of the association of flight attendance and I am beyond thrilled to have her on the show.

But before we get to the interview, I just want to remind you that if you want to support the show, you can do so on Patreon.

Because five bucks a month gets you every episode of the show ad free, head to patreon.com slash Adam Conover.

We'd love to see you there. And if you like stand up comedy, please come see me on tour on doing shows all across the country, head to Adam Conover.net for tickets and tour dates.

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