Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics,
Speaker 1: where we discussed the top political headlines with some of
Speaker 1: today's best minds. We are off for the holidays, but
Speaker 1: in advance we made you a fantastic show. Today, Kim Kelly,
Speaker 1: the author of Fight Like How, The Untold History of
Speaker 1: American Labor, stops by to tell us about America's current
Speaker 1: labor movement. But first we have Congressman Jake Kanglass who
Speaker 1: represents Massachusetts fourth Congressional District. Welcome to Fast Politics. Representative
Speaker 1: Jake ochanclass like to be so we are in this
Speaker 1: new congressional reality. Republicans have this razor stin majority. Are
Speaker 1: they in disarray? And I think as we mark the
Speaker 1: eighteenth Congress, it's important to look back on the hundred
Speaker 1: and seventeenth Congress, which is the most most bipartisan Congress
Speaker 1: in my lifetime. We did infrastructure, we did science and semiconductors,
Speaker 1: we did clean energy, we did Ukraine, a gun safety,
Speaker 1: all of it bipartisan, just historic, generational investments in our future.
Speaker 1: And now the GOP is looking to hold the gavel
Speaker 1: and the initiative is with them. They have a fork
Speaker 1: in the road. They can take up that mantle and
Speaker 1: reach across the aisle and say here are ideas. Let's
Speaker 1: try to get stuff done with votes from both parties,
Speaker 1: or they can cater to their hard right, their conspiracy
Speaker 1: theorizing authoritarian wing of the party and have political theater
Speaker 1: for two years. I've seen polling and reporting that shows
Speaker 1: that the American people actually just want you guys to
Speaker 1: get stuff done. But it strikes me that the Republican
Speaker 1: primary sort of base does not. Are the Republicans in
Speaker 1: Congress going to be able to stand up to their race.
Speaker 1: That's a question for the Republicans in Congress. What I
Speaker 1: will say is when we had the gavel in the
Speaker 1: seventeen Congress, we delivered results. We delivered infrastructure investments that
Speaker 1: are going to guarantee clean water for every kid in
Speaker 1: this country for example, upgrade transit, invest in basic research
Speaker 1: and development that makes our economy more productive for generations
Speaker 1: to come, the biggest, boldest climate action in history. So
Speaker 1: we delivered results where possible, We work with Republicans where
Speaker 1: they were in transigent like on climate action. We did
Speaker 1: it with our own votes, but we got stuffed, and
Speaker 1: I think that's why you saw us over overperform in
Speaker 1: the midterms, and again the GOP is going to have
Speaker 1: to do some internal reflection on whether it wants to
Speaker 1: be a serious party of governance or whether it just
Speaker 1: wants to cater to its hard right wing. What we
Speaker 1: saw in the omnibus negotiations is that even the GOP
Speaker 1: and the Senate didn't take Kevin McCarthy seriously. He wasn't
Speaker 1: even invited to the big Kids table to negotiate. That's
Speaker 1: embarrassing for him. That's a bad sign for the seriousness
Speaker 1: of the GOP conference under a g a pe speaker
Speaker 1: in the eighteenth Congress. But I do hope that they
Speaker 1: try to get some serious legislating done because we've got
Speaker 1: work to do, particularly on lowering toss for working families.
Speaker 1: So Democrats are now in the minority, even though it's
Speaker 1: a small minority. I mean, how does everything change now?
Speaker 1: Explain to us from my dad, I think people would
Speaker 1: love to know, like just the mechanics of how things change. Well,
Speaker 1: the mechanics of how things change is that we don't
Speaker 1: have committee chairmanships anymore. The GOP has the chairs, and
Speaker 1: that means that the pipeline of legislation going from origination
Speaker 1: from you know, a good idea, and drafting all the
Speaker 1: way to the floor for a vote is a lot
Speaker 1: harder for Democrats. That's really the primary prerogative of of
Speaker 1: being the speaker is that you control that pipeline of
Speaker 1: legislation to the floor for a vote, which means that
Speaker 1: you really need Republicans on board to deliver wins. And
Speaker 1: here again is where I go back to, you know,
Speaker 1: the goop having to decide for itself whether it wants
Speaker 1: to be serious or not. In my district, people are
Speaker 1: energized and in hent on continuing climate action and clean
Speaker 1: energy investments. We we don't we can't take two years
Speaker 1: off because Democrats are in the minority. We've got Paris
Speaker 1: Accord goals to hit. We've got you know, one point
Speaker 1: seven degrees celsius by twenty fifty goal to achieve. It's
Speaker 1: just not acceptable to me or to my constituents to say, well,
Speaker 1: you know, we're in the minority, so we're gonna not
Speaker 1: work anymore on this issue. Not we gotta keep working.
Speaker 1: The same thing on gun safety, same thing on housing
Speaker 1: and healthcare costs. These things are near and present priorities.
Speaker 1: Maybe we're not hitting home runs, but we got to
Speaker 1: hit singles and double Still, you have never been in
Speaker 1: the minority in your time in Congress. I mean, and
Speaker 1: now you're in this Congress that is right now, McCarthy
Speaker 1: is still trying to figure out a way to put
Speaker 1: together the votes. He's got this okay buttons which stand
Speaker 1: for only Kevin I mean d I will say that
Speaker 1: the okay buttons are an over building of his merit
Speaker 1: for that position. I mean, I guess mat was taken right.
Speaker 1: It's such a small majority. I mean, there are Republicans
Speaker 1: who have won in Biden districts. I mean, do you
Speaker 1: know these people? Do you think there are back ventures
Speaker 1: who we don't know about who might make the journey,
Speaker 1: or do you think that's really just West wing fan fiction.
Speaker 1: It's my job to try to find out. It's my
Speaker 1: job to represent my district's values and to advance their priorities.
Speaker 1: And in order to do that with four and thirty
Speaker 1: four other members of the House of Representatives at a
Speaker 1: time when Republicans are in charge of the House, it's
Speaker 1: my job to go and try to find out in
Speaker 1: good faith and if I hear back in good faith, hey,
Speaker 1: I also care about lowering healthcare costs. Here's how I'd
Speaker 1: go about it. You know, I'd use health saving accounts,
Speaker 1: doctor bles, do shopping and things that are more kind
Speaker 1: of considered center right proposals. Great, like, let's have that debate.
Speaker 1: If I hear in response instead, I'm sorry, we're too busy.
Speaker 1: We're doing this investigation into a private citizen's lap top
Speaker 1: designed to americ the president. Well, we're going to find that.
Speaker 1: This Democratic caucus, it's worth noting half of it has
Speaker 1: been elected since we've got energetic, young leadership. This Democratic
Speaker 1: Caucus is fit and fighting. People have been through tough campaigns.
Speaker 1: They came a political age during the Trump years. They
Speaker 1: know why they're in office. They know what they stand for.
Speaker 1: They know what's worth fighting for and losing over. We're
Speaker 1: not going to f around. We are going to hold
Speaker 1: the Republicans to account to protect our democracy, to protect
Speaker 1: women's rights, and to advance common sense measures at lower
Speaker 1: costs and help us compete against China. What are you
Speaker 1: excited that you think you can get done in this
Speaker 1: brave new world where Steve Schools is the speaker. I
Speaker 1: want to beginning to make progress on clean energy and
Speaker 1: healthcare issues, which are critical to my constituents. I think
Speaker 1: that there are solid incremental progress to be made on
Speaker 1: both front for workforce development and permitting issues for clean
Speaker 1: energy projects that you might be able to get some
Speaker 1: Republican support for. For a way to make our healthcare
Speaker 1: system more transparent and to have more of a fiducieri
Speaker 1: responsibility to patients as opposed to pairs of providers. I
Speaker 1: think that there are ways that we can move the
Speaker 1: ball forward there that I'm going to be aggressively exploring.
Speaker 1: I think we have the f a A, the Aviation
Speaker 1: Administration re authorization coming up. That's an opportunity I think
Speaker 1: to get some bipartisan work on that tends to be
Speaker 1: a bipartisan bill. There's pathways of opportunity here. Can you
Speaker 1: please not make it so there's only one pilot per flight.
Speaker 1: I happened to be the daughter of the author of
Speaker 1: the book Fear of Flying, so I do have some
Speaker 1: anxiety here. But like we've had such a good run
Speaker 1: of like planes not crashing, why mess with that? Safety
Speaker 1: is always going to be the paramount consideration for any
Speaker 1: f a A policy. Safety is always going to be
Speaker 1: number one. We're not going to do anything that would
Speaker 1: decrimend safety by even one iota. So talk to me
Speaker 1: about the leadership, because this is a bold new leadership.
Speaker 1: I mean, we don't have You know, Nancy Pelosi was
Speaker 1: the leader for a long time, and you know, people
Speaker 1: had complaints, as they always do about leadership, but she
Speaker 1: was very, very very effective. Even her worst critics said
Speaker 1: that what does this new leadership look like? And talk
Speaker 1: to me about that. Kim Jeffreys will be our our leader.
Speaker 1: Katherine Clark, my neighbor here in Massachusetts, will be with
Speaker 1: and then Pete Aguilar from California will be number three
Speaker 1: a caucus chair. And the Democratic Caucus is energized and
Speaker 1: unified behind these three. I think we know them. They
Speaker 1: have risen through our ranks through relationships and hard work,
Speaker 1: and they have I think the trust and the confidence
Speaker 1: of the caucus right now, and we are very excited
Speaker 1: to make a Keem Jeffreys the Speaker of the House.
Speaker 1: In One of the things that Pelosi had to deal
Speaker 1: with is that it's not just MAGA and no maga.
Speaker 1: It's like some people are very left, some people are
Speaker 1: more center, some people are part of no labels. I mean,
Speaker 1: how do you manage I mean, are you concerned about
Speaker 1: having to sort of juggle all of those groups. Of course,
Speaker 1: you've gotta juggle diff and emphasies and priorities within a
Speaker 1: big tang caucus. I think though that story is a
Speaker 1: very popular story with the media. Everyone loves the sort
Speaker 1: of Dems and disarray storyline. Again, though, like I, I
Speaker 1: go back to the vent Congress when I actually came
Speaker 1: to get stuck done with a very tight vote count,
Speaker 1: when you had to have left and center on the
Speaker 1: same page, And I think our track record just speaks
Speaker 1: for itself. Everything from infrastructure to ukrainate, the gun safety legislation,
Speaker 1: to clean energy investments, to science and semiconductors. Like the
Speaker 1: pace and productivity of the dred seventeen alies the notion
Speaker 1: that somehow Dems can't line up and deliver for the
Speaker 1: American people. We did, we will again when we get
Speaker 1: the gabble. We're gonna have vigorous debate, as we should,
Speaker 1: because that makes legislation better. But right now we have
Speaker 1: a party in the Democratic side of the House that
Speaker 1: knows and has shown what it stands for to the
Speaker 1: American people. We want to make this economy work for everybody,
Speaker 1: and we want to protect democracy, and we've got a
Speaker 1: GOP that is having a pretty biggerest internal debate about
Speaker 1: whether it actually thinks democracy is the path forward. And
Speaker 1: until that story changes, I think the spotlight needs to
Speaker 1: be on the GOP and it's internal issues. There are
Speaker 1: things like TikTok where they don't necessarily it doesn't necessarily
Speaker 1: cut on partisan lines, right, I mean, are there things
Speaker 1: like that that you feel like you guys can get
Speaker 1: going with right away in this House. Well, the Omnibus
Speaker 1: included a measure to fan TikTok from government phones, I believe,
Speaker 1: and I think that's a reasonable step forward. We should
Speaker 1: have severe concerns about industries that need to be decoupled
Speaker 1: from the Chinese Communist Party, telecoms, the A p I
Speaker 1: supply chain for pharmaceuticals. Obviously, you know, military contracting, semiconductor
Speaker 1: manufacturing in the nation of one point four billion people.
Speaker 1: We're not going to just stop trading all together. I
Speaker 1: don't think that serves the American consumer well. But we
Speaker 1: do need to aggressively decouple industries that are of significant
Speaker 1: econo coomic energy or national security to the United States
Speaker 1: and make clear that we do not want our personally
Speaker 1: identifiable information or critical notes of our supply chain to
Speaker 1: be subject to the Chinese Communist Party. Right, your district
Speaker 1: is very tech heavy. By district is very tech heavy.
Speaker 1: America is very technically I mean right, Twitter is now
Speaker 1: subject to the whims of Elon Musk. Do you think
Speaker 1: there needs to be more regulation in tech and more
Speaker 1: more importantly almost do you think that there can be
Speaker 1: some kind of reproache mont with the right and a
Speaker 1: sort of bipartisan or nonpartisan tech regulation. I think my
Speaker 1: friend and colleague Rocana has done a very nice job
Speaker 1: of explicating this issue. I think these social media platforms Twitter,
Speaker 1: probably most acutely, but Facebook and Instagram as well. Yes,
Speaker 1: they're private companies, but they are also functionally their information
Speaker 1: utilities in the same way that the broadcast providers were
Speaker 1: in the heyday of TV. And with the designation comes
Speaker 1: accountability and responsibility the leading reporters accounts without a clear, transparent,
Speaker 1: accountable process for doing so and explaining why you're doing so,
Speaker 1: it's totally unacceptable. Totally unacceptable. We're not well served by
Speaker 1: having big tech put its thumb on the scale of
Speaker 1: political discourse in this country, and we're also not well
Speaker 1: served by having politicians way in on the nash nations
Speaker 1: of big tech and there in the way that they
Speaker 1: are how they have internal processes for dissemining information. Because
Speaker 1: in both situations, I worry that we politicize what really
Speaker 1: should be a utility for information dissemination. So I really
Speaker 1: think Row has done a nice job of laying this out.
Speaker 1: It's certainly going to be a live area of debate.
Speaker 1: Have you talked to Republicans who you think could get
Speaker 1: on board with us, because you only need, like, you know,
Speaker 1: a very small number I have. I don't. I don't
Speaker 1: know that this is a cleanly partisan issue though in regulation. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what I'm That's why I think so. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think we're going to see the camps on this issue
Speaker 1: for very differently. I think there's gonna be geographic considerations.
Speaker 1: I think there's going to be ideological considerations that are
Speaker 1: not necessarily partisan. It's it's still developing, but I wouldn't
Speaker 1: just count on it being the verses are now. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much. This is so interesting. I hope you'll
Speaker 1: come back. Kim Kelly is the author of Fight Like
Speaker 1: How The Untold History of American Labor, Welcome Too Fast,
Speaker 1: politics Kim Kelly, Well, thank you so much for having me, Molly.
Speaker 1: We're seeing a lot of striking. The Pittsburgh Post Gauzette,
Speaker 1: the fort Worth to Start Telegram, and the New York
Speaker 1: Times all on strike end of December. Talk to us
Speaker 1: about why is this happening within large groups and what
Speaker 1: are they striking for. Well, we're coming up on the
Speaker 1: end of the year, and that means that a lot
Speaker 1: of contracts, like unique contracts that have been negotiated are
Speaker 1: coming They're coming up. It's time to renegotiate. And also,
Speaker 1: I mean a lot of these places, like workers have
Speaker 1: been negotiating or trying to negotiate new contracts for a
Speaker 1: long time. I think The New York Times has taken
Speaker 1: them months and months and months. And it's been a
Speaker 1: whole acrimonious process for a lot of different places because
Speaker 1: it's tough to negotiate and bargaining union contract because invariably
Speaker 1: across industries, no matter what's really happening, doesn't matter if
Speaker 1: you're like a barista or a coal miner or working
Speaker 1: at the New York Times, there's usually this tension of like, Okay,
Speaker 1: my co workers and I we need better wages, better
Speaker 1: working conditions. There's certain things about our job we need
Speaker 1: to improve, and the bosses are invariably saying, well, I mean,
Speaker 1: think about the bottom line. We don't want to give
Speaker 1: you these things. We would like to keep those profits
Speaker 1: for ourselves and secure our own improve those positions. So
Speaker 1: we're going to fight you on it. And so we're
Speaker 1: seeing this happen. I mean, we've been seeing it happened
Speaker 1: for hundreds of years, but right now it is it
Speaker 1: does feel like a very striky kind of season. I mean,
Speaker 1: thousands upon thousands of workers are on strike right now
Speaker 1: from California to Alabama to New York City, and I
Speaker 1: think people are just fed up. They're sick and tired
Speaker 1: of being overworked and underpaid and told that they don't count.
Speaker 1: And I think the past couple of years there's been
Speaker 1: the shifting consciousness, especially that you know, so much of
Speaker 1: our labor is essential, so many of our jobs are essential,
Speaker 1: but we're not treated like we matter. And one of
Speaker 1: the most effective engines that we had to change that
Speaker 1: is by organizing collectively, by unionizing, by fighting for a contract,
Speaker 1: by hitting the picket line. So it's you know, we
Speaker 1: we've been workers have been been doing this for a
Speaker 1: very long time, but right now it does feel like
Speaker 1: there's a very specific moment happening that everybody's coming to
Speaker 1: have had. And also one thing that I think is
Speaker 1: really important too, is that a lot of these strikes,
Speaker 1: in these union drives and campaigns, they're getting a lot
Speaker 1: of attention right like we're talking about this on your podcast,
Speaker 1: Like we're seeing lots of media coverage. They a lot
Speaker 1: of unions have kind of harnessed the power of social
Speaker 1: media to get their stories out there. Like that is
Speaker 1: not just having in a vacuum. It's not something that
Speaker 1: people can ignore as easily as they perhaps could have
Speaker 1: been or could have done decades before or years before
Speaker 1: when there was a less labor curious press. But right
Speaker 1: now post October, where everyone's trying to get in on
Speaker 1: everyone with most labor stores, and I think it's great. Like, so,
Speaker 1: there have been some really amazing labor stories. The one
Speaker 1: that I'm very conscious of is this Starbucks story. Will
Speaker 1: you talk a little bit about that? Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's been such a big year for Starbucks Workers United.
Speaker 1: The past couple of years have been just an absolute
Speaker 1: wildfire for that organizing effort. Hundreds of Starbucks stores are
Speaker 1: not unionized. Some of them are trying to get to
Speaker 1: the bargaining tables Starbucks, Starbucks, it's very anti union. They've
Speaker 1: been busting the hell out of this effort the entire time.
Speaker 1: They fired organizers, they've retaliated, they've tried to intimidate. Howard
Speaker 1: Schultz has been publicly given statements about how he doesn't
Speaker 1: think unions are a good staying, especially for his baby.
Speaker 1: Like they've been up against the wall for this entire time,
Speaker 1: but they still kept going. Kind of hilarious that this guy,
Speaker 1: like big Democrat. Yeah, it was supposed to be Hillary
Speaker 1: Clinton's labor secretary. Can you imagine that timeline? My god,
Speaker 1: and it's it's it's sort of funny. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's crazy that anyone wanted him to ever be anyone's
Speaker 1: labor secretary is amazing. What a dick. And I mean
Speaker 1: it's sort of funny in another way because Starbucks has
Speaker 1: become this the shorthand for like the pampered liberal right,
Speaker 1: like oh my latte, I gotta get my star Bees.
Speaker 1: But the workers there who are dealing with low wages
Speaker 1: and poor working conditions and dangerous issues at work. They're
Speaker 1: still being busted as if they were working for Jay
Speaker 1: Gould in the eighteen hundreds, like so insane, But they're
Speaker 1: still going and it's being led. One of the things
Speaker 1: I think is so important and notable about the Starbucks
Speaker 1: Workers United struggles that it's being led predominantly by younger workers,
Speaker 1: by black and round workers, queer and trans workers, like
Speaker 1: people who are younger, who have been told that their
Speaker 1: labor and their opinions and their identity doesn't matter. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're leading this movement, which is good. I mean, that
Speaker 1: sounds good. Now, we love to see it. The two
Speaker 1: biggest stories of the fall in my mind are the
Speaker 1: Starbucks unionizing and also Howard Schultz just showing us who
Speaker 1: he really is. And then this Amazon union. Let's talk
Speaker 1: about that. Oh yeah, that's amazing. I mean they've had
Speaker 1: they've had a little bit of a tough year after
Speaker 1: you know, that big historic, incredible victory that I was
Speaker 1: a labor union had at their Staten Island facility where
Speaker 1: they won the union. The unionized that facility. There have
Speaker 1: been efforts and union votes at other facilities. Another one
Speaker 1: I think is Staten Island. I think there's an effort
Speaker 1: in Kentucky. There's been a couple of other places that
Speaker 1: have tried to kind of recreate their magic right and
Speaker 1: organized with them, and those efforts have unfortunately not been successful,
Speaker 1: but that organizing is continuing. You know. The incredible visibility
Speaker 1: of their win and of the people involved, Chris Smalls
Speaker 1: and Dirk Palmore, Angelico Maldondo, like, they have given so
Speaker 1: many people hope, and they have done such a great
Speaker 1: job of showing the importance of multi racial, multi lingual, multigender,
Speaker 1: multigenerational solidarity when comes to organizing these big workplaces against
Speaker 1: these big richer than God evil all the arcs. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's amazing to me though. The it's the younger people
Speaker 1: who understand labor right, and then they're bringing along the
Speaker 1: older people. It depends. I mean, that's why it's so
Speaker 1: important to approach us from a multigenerational standpoint, right, because
Speaker 1: younger folks they have the fire, they have perhaps more
Speaker 1: progressive viewpoints, they're ready to go out there and burn
Speaker 1: it all down. And then older folks maybe have the
Speaker 1: institutional knowledge and then experience the wisdom and when you
Speaker 1: work together, that's how you win. I mean, this is
Speaker 1: why it's so significant seeing the teamsters who are about
Speaker 1: as established a union as you can get, who have
Speaker 1: been partnering and supporting the Amazon labor union because they're recognizing, Okay,
Speaker 1: these younger folks, these newer folks, they we need that energy. Like,
Speaker 1: let's throw some resources at I would see what they do.
Speaker 1: That's what Workers United did with Starbucks, and that's why
Speaker 1: they're being so successful. I think that's the magic, the
Speaker 1: magic solution, right, work together a list of people. So
Speaker 1: let's talk about the train unions. Sorry, I need you
Speaker 1: to explain to us what's happening there. A bunch of bullshit. Basically,
Speaker 1: it seems like I just published today I say that
Speaker 1: the Baffler going into the many ways in which it
Speaker 1: was bullshit. Basically, the sticking point here, and I think
Speaker 1: this is an important thing to focus on, is that
Speaker 1: they they need more sick days, right. I mean, this
Speaker 1: is hardly like they're being greedy. They are like lived
Speaker 1: through a pandemic and can't get sick days. Actually, Aaron Gordon,
Speaker 1: a reporter at Motherboard who has covered this for a while,
Speaker 1: he made a good point that it's it's definitely sick days,
Speaker 1: but it's bigger than that. It's the lack of time,
Speaker 1: like the lack of control that these workers have their
Speaker 1: on calle. Any given moment, you have a ninety minutes
Speaker 1: to get to work, whether you're sick, you're at your
Speaker 1: kid's birthday, doesn't matter. They're treated like robots. And a
Speaker 1: lot of that comes down to this PSR system, like
Speaker 1: precision precision scheduling railroading at all. It's an acrotim but
Speaker 1: it's a system that's in place that it basically was
Speaker 1: put in place after the railroads cut about thirty of
Speaker 1: their workforce six years ago. And so now these people
Speaker 1: who were working on multiple person cruise before, now it's
Speaker 1: one person, it's two people. Everything is stretched so thin
Speaker 1: and so tight that if one person needs to go
Speaker 1: home because they have a cold, well that throws the
Speaker 1: whole thing out of whack. So the railroad companies do
Speaker 1: not want to give the workers any flexibility, They don't
Speaker 1: want to give them any autonomy, and they really don't
Speaker 1: want to give them sick days. Right now, I think
Speaker 1: the current contract that while it's now being forced down
Speaker 1: their throats by the buying administration, that was negotiated in
Speaker 1: part between thanks to this this kind of federal mediation
Speaker 1: that took place on top of the negotiations that were
Speaker 1: happening with the rail companies and the and the unions.
Speaker 1: I think they get one personal day that they have
Speaker 1: to schedule like thirty days in advance, and they get
Speaker 1: a couple of days where they can go to the
Speaker 1: doctor that they have to schedule a month in advance.
Speaker 1: Like it's just very They got decent wages out of it,
Speaker 1: they got I think, okay, health care protections, But the
Speaker 1: way they're being treated like they're just cogs in a machine.
Speaker 1: That's what's really driving so much of the brutality of
Speaker 1: what's happening. And the fact that Congress felt the need
Speaker 1: to step in and avert a strike because it would
Speaker 1: have hurt the economy, would have caused economic pain. That's
Speaker 1: what strikes are for. That's why people go on strike.
Speaker 1: They're not supposed to be fun for anybody. We also
Speaker 1: have right now the new schools on strike. De Oh,
Speaker 1: that's getting so ugly too, Yeah, Will you explain that?
Speaker 1: It just kind of goes to show that no matter
Speaker 1: how publicly progressive or enlightened or even like radical and
Speaker 1: institution likes to paint itself as being when it comes
Speaker 1: down to paying their workers, that's when all like the
Speaker 1: neo con Republican Reagan vibes start coming out. Because of
Speaker 1: adjuncts and other academic workers at the New School, which
Speaker 1: is like this very allegedly progressive institution in New York City,
Speaker 1: they have been on strike because they're trying to win
Speaker 1: decent wages and they're trying to win but our benefits
Speaker 1: all of the things that people go on strike for
Speaker 1: that you would think a nice liberal institution and be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: you are the reason that our students excel. You're the
Speaker 1: reason our institution runs. Yeah, we can give you a race.
Speaker 1: But the New School has just dug in and fought back.
Speaker 1: And I think just yesterday they put out a statement
Speaker 1: saying they were stopping, but they're cutting the workers striking
Speaker 1: workers health insurance, and they were threatening to punish staff
Speaker 1: other staff members who were, you know, standing a solidarity
Speaker 1: with them and not showing up to work. Like it's
Speaker 1: become this knockdown, drag out fight, and it's like, do
Speaker 1: you do you see what you're doing to your own brand?
Speaker 1: Like people can see you well. And I also feel
Speaker 1: like with the New School This is not corporate greed.
Speaker 1: This is some other weirdness, right, because there's no corporate
Speaker 1: to be greedy for. Right. Yeah, it's I don't know
Speaker 1: what cut type. It's some type of greed, and it's
Speaker 1: some type of I think some of it comes down
Speaker 1: to and maybe this is maybe a little bit of
Speaker 1: spit bawling, but I think some of it is both
Speaker 1: classism and also some of these progressive institutions that talk
Speaker 1: about that care about culture and art and it's a
Speaker 1: passion project for you to work here. Like they don't
Speaker 1: think that workers. They think workers should feel lucky to
Speaker 1: be there, like, oh, you get the opportunity to be
Speaker 1: part of our community. Yeah, okay, well I still I
Speaker 1: still gotta pay rent in New York City, Like my
Speaker 1: my boss to my landlord doesn't care about cultural value.
Speaker 1: They care about dollars and dollars and cents. I mean,
Speaker 1: do you think these strikers will get what they want?
Speaker 1: I mean, I hope. So that's the whole point, right,
Speaker 1: And I think the fact that some of these these
Speaker 1: actions are getting so much publicity and getting support from
Speaker 1: the public, I think that is a very big deal.
Speaker 1: Especially I mean the New York Times going on a
Speaker 1: one day walk out, that's going to get a ton
Speaker 1: of publicity, and as it's a warning strike on their end,
Speaker 1: they're not going on a prolonged strike yet, but they're
Speaker 1: showing what could happen if they did. I think one
Speaker 1: of the biggest points of going on strike is to
Speaker 1: strike fear into your boss's heart and show just how
Speaker 1: important you are, just how much you matter. And that's
Speaker 1: what these workers are doing. And as long as people
Speaker 1: support them and donate to their strike funds and show
Speaker 1: up to their picket line, they're gonna show that, you know,
Speaker 1: people value us, they say you're all worth the fact
Speaker 1: that you don't as a problem, and just keep exerting
Speaker 1: pressure and hopefully bring them to the table. Because these
Speaker 1: are just a few of the big strikes happening right now.
Speaker 1: Tell us any other big strikes that we should be
Speaker 1: aware of. Oh man, right now, there's forty eight thousand
Speaker 1: University of California workers on strike in California. That was
Speaker 1: getting wild too. I think just the other day seventeen
Speaker 1: strikers were arrested for occupying UH school officials office. Like
Speaker 1: they're going hard in California. I've been covering this strike
Speaker 1: in rural Alabama for the past almost two years now,
Speaker 1: the Warrior met coal strike. Yeah, for twenty months now. Uh,
Speaker 1: coal miners in rural Alabama have been on strike against
Speaker 1: their Wall Street venture capital backed coal bosses, trying to
Speaker 1: get a decent contract. Twenty months and they haven't gotten
Speaker 1: very much attention. But they're still out here. You know.
Speaker 1: Earlier this year, fifty thousand nurses in Minnesota went out
Speaker 1: on strike. We had an art museum strike here in Philly.
Speaker 1: There's always something happening, and yeah, it's just matter of
Speaker 1: paying attention. Please plug your book. Yeah, My book Fight
Speaker 1: Like Hell, The Untold History of American Labor, came out
Speaker 1: earlier this year. It's my first one. I think of
Speaker 1: it as kind of a marginalized people's history of labor
Speaker 1: in the US, So it focuses specifically on the struggles
Speaker 1: and strikes and triumphs of women, queer workers, black, brown,
Speaker 1: Indigenous Asian workers, trans workers, disabled workers, sex workers, incarcerated workers,
Speaker 1: everybody who doesn't necessarily get those big headlines throughout history,
Speaker 1: but has always been here and has always had to
Speaker 1: fight the hardest to push us towards whatever pieces of progress.
Speaker 1: We've actually made and it's out known. I'm the paperback
Speaker 1: comes out this summer. Oh I love this. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much, Kim. This was fantastic. I hope you'll come
Speaker 1: back and talk about all the other stuff that's going on. Yes,
Speaker 1: I am always available to be your strike correspondent. Excellent.
Speaker 1: That's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in
Speaker 1: every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to your the best minds
Speaker 1: and politics makes sense of all this chaos. If you
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Speaker 1: and keep the conversation going. And again, thanks for listening.