Big companies don’t give a second thought to making big profits during the COVID-19 pandemic even if that means thousands of workers—and their families—will get sick and die from the virus. Actually, it’s a feature not a bug, no pun intended—in food processing, all those workers who make sure you get beef or chicken on […]
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Jonathan Tasini's Ruminations on Work, The Economy, and PoliticsTag Archive | "Debbie Berkowitz"
Episode 188: Corporations & the Pandemic Killing Fields; Taking A Cleaver To The Pentagon Budget
Posted on 01 July 2020.
Posted in Audio, Podcast, WorkersComments (0)
Episode 167: They Died For Your Chicken Dinner; Populist Roars Across Montana
Posted on 05 February 2020.
It’s pretty likely that when you cut into a nice juicy roast chicken at home or in a restaurant a worker in some poultry processing plant was injured cutting up that chicken into commercial pieces. And in some cases, it’s even worse: in January, two workers in poultry plants were killed in the space of […]
Posted in Audio, Economy, Labor, Podcast, PoliticsComments (0)
Episode 143: Kill More Hogs, Hurt More Workers; Your Server’s Higher Wage Won’t Hurt
Posted on 14 August 2019.
Working on in a hog processing plant is one of the most dangerous jobs on the planet—and it’s about to get a whole lot worse, evoking “The Jungle” of the early 20th Century. In a classic profits-over-people move, a new regulation is about to hit which would eliminate any speed restrictions on how fast hog […]
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Episode 132: Murder, Violence and Robbery—Gifts From the Free Market
Posted on 29 May 2019.
Murder, violence and robbery—it sounds like a list for a plot of The Wire. But, no, it’s just another standard operating procedure for the free market system—in which people are murdered in Colombia thanks to so-called “free trade”, workers are beat up and sometimes killed at McDonald’s because the company doesn’t care about its workers […]
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Episode 124: Here’s How We Fund “Medicare For All” & The Rest; Work Is Not Safe
Posted on 20 March 2019.
I offer a public service to progressives—and to those, like me, who are irritated by progressive leaders who don’t know how to talk about specifics when it comes to policy, and just spew out sloganeering, even when they get caught making mistakes. It’s embarrassing. So, today, Matt Gardner, a leading expert on tax policy, comes […]
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Episode 82: Hell Might Be Safer Than A Hog Processing Plant; Teacher Uprising NC Version; “America’s Mayor” Heidi Harmon Runs for Re-Election!
Posted on 16 May 2018.
Another day, another chapter in the new ways to screw workers. This time, the target is workers inside hog processing plants—who are already doing one of the most dangerous jobs in the country. I talk with expert Debbie Berkowitz about the Department of Agriculture’s new proposal to speed up the processing line–so that Big Ag […]
Posted in Audio, Economy, Labor, Podcast, PoliticsComments (0)
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