Working Life

The last name “Hoover” is, if I can use this term, a brand name in conservative circles. Herbert Hoover was the 31st president of the U.S. who served during the Great Depression, taking office in 1929 the year the stock market crashed—an apt historical reference for today perhaps since the economic implosion we are living […]

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There is no way to downplay the risks to U.S. frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic—and I’ve dug into that in the past month or so, in our various segments talking about workers in health care, postal service, hog and poultry processing, airlines, rail, and subways. It’s dangerous and frightening—and it’s exponentially more terrifying when […]

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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 […]

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Most people, when they walk out the door to go to work, don’t think, “damn, I’m going to get killed today or seriously ill with a chronic disease”. Yes, if you work in a mine or on a construction site, you are more aware of the dangers. But, most people just assume work is a […]

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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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The high-tech world is too often made out to be a shiny new toy, all upside. But, it ain’t so—especially at Tesla where workers are getting sick at astronomical rates. I talk to a Tesla worker about the dangers in the plant—and the unionizing drive underway to protect workers lives. I also talk with a […]

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The uprising is hitting Arizona. Tomorrow, thousands of teachers will flood the state capitol to demand—like their brethren in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Colorado—fair wages. I talk with the both the head of the union and a rank-and-file union leader. I also take up the silly idea of privatization, inspired by a recent dumb-as-can-be […]

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I continue my on-going chats with solid progressive candidates all across the country. I chat with Abdul El-Sayed, who is vying in Michigan to be the first Muslim-American elected as governor in the history of the country. And from south-eastern Indiana, Dan Canon tells me why he jumped into a congressional race despite being, in […]

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Don Blankenship, the coal CEO robber baron, served a year in prison for his central role in a conspiracy that killed 29 miners in a massive 2010 mine explosion. Because workers’ lives don’t matter in our legal system, Blankenship could only be convicted of a misdemeanor violation, not manslaughter or murder. But, hey, when a […]

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People die at work, and people revolt and organize. All in sharp focus the last few days, I looked at the toll at work of sick, injured and killed workers—and why we mark Workers Memorial Day every April 29th—as well as the May Day mobilization that makes us consider how to change the system. I […]

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