by Maximillian Alvarez | Apr 8, 2026 | Economy, Economy and Inequality, health care, labor, Podcast, Politics and Movements: US, Unions, Working People
Nearly a year after workers voted to authorize a strike, non-union city and commercially contracted security officers in Baltimore, MD, will walk off the job on April 9 in an Unfair Labor Practice strike against their employer, Abacus Corporation. In their yearslong effort to unionize and secure more job security, better pay, accessible healthcare, and safer working conditions, workers at Abacus have reported rampant union busting and violations of their labor rights. In this episode, we speak with Laura Dixon, a veteran security officer and Abacus employee, and Jaimie Contreras, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union, Local 32BJ.
Additional links/info:
SEIU Local 32BJ website, Facebook page, and Instagram
Katherine Wilson, Baltimore Sun, “Baltimore contract security officers at city properties prepare to strike”
Featured Music:
Jules Taylor, Working People Theme Song
Credits:
Audio Post-Production: Jules Taylor
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Maximillian Alvarez:
All right. Welcome everyone to Working People, a podcast about the lives, jobs, dreams, and struggles of the working class today. Working People is a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network and is brought to you in partnership with In These Times Magazine and the Real News Network. This show is produced by Jules Taylor and made possible by the support of listeners like you. My name is Maximillian Alvarez, and today we are going back to the picket line. We’ve got another strike update episode for you guys, and this time we’re talking about a strike that’s happening right here in our hometown of Baltimore. As stated in a press release from the Service Employees International
by Kelly Hayes | Apr 2, 2026 | abuse, conflict, Interview, Movement Building, Organizing, Podcast, Trauma
“We have a great opportunity in our movements to learn how to be opponents without being enemies,” says Tanuja Jagernauth. In this first of a two-part conversation, Jagernauth and host Kelly Hayes discuss the language people use to describe harm and conflict, the difference between disagreement and abuse, and how organizers can move through conflict with more clarity and care under fascist…
Source
by Maximillian Alvarez | Apr 1, 2026 | ICE, Podcast, Politics and Movements: US, Prisons and Policing, Working People
While facing decades-long political efforts to throttle and privatize the United States Postal Service (USPS), and while US Postmaster General David Steiner ominously warns that the USPS will “run out of money” within a year, postal workers continue to deliver the mail and serve communities across the country. But that job has gotten harder, more dangerous, and more complicated in recent years. From increases in targeted violence against letter carriers to the Trump administration’s attacks on mail-in voting, to ICE and Border Patrol agents invading communities on their mail routes, USPS workers are confronting many daily hazards on the job that the public doesn’t see. In this episode, we speak with Connor Mauche, a letter carrier in New York and a shop steward for Branch 3 of the National Association of Letter Carriers, about what it’s like to be a postal worker in America in 2026.
Additional links/info:
National Association of Letter Carriers – Branch 3 website
Ann DeStefano Sutherland, The Revolt of the Good Guys (a documentary about the Great Postal Strike of 1970)
Derek Dolbeare, Labor Notes, “Dispatch: Letter carriers are gearing up for another contract fight”
Sara Braun, The Guardian, “Nearly blind refugee abandoned by US border patrol found dead in Buffalo”
Monique Morrissey, Economic Policy Institute, “Why is President Trump attacking the Postal Service?”
Susan Haigh, AP, “US Postal Service expects to run out of cash in a year without help from Congress, postmaster says”
Featured Music:
Jules Taylor, Working People Theme Song
Credits:
Audio Post-Production: Jules Taylor
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Alright. Welcome everyone to Working People, a podcast about
by Michael Fox | Mar 26, 2026 | mexico, Podcast, Politics and Movements: International, Under the Shadow
Increasingly, Trump has his sights set on Mexico—promising to send in US troops in the name of fighting cartels and advancing a so-called drug war policy. But Trump’s actions hearken back to an era of US empire much, much older.
See, Mexico has withstood a long history of foreign intervention by the Spanish, French, and multiple times by the United States.
In 1848, Mexico lost more than half its territory to the United States. The US states of California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and more used to be part of Mexico.
Today, host Michael Fox visits Mexico’s National Museum of Interventions in Mexico City, and we look back at the devastating history of foreign intervention in Mexico amid Trump’s threats against Mexico and elsewhere in the region today.
This is Episode 9 of Under the Shadow, Season 2.
Under the Shadow is an investigative narrative podcast series that walks back in time, telling the story of the past by visiting momentous places in the present. Season 2 responds in real time to the Trump administration’s onslaught on Latin America.
Hosted by Latin America-based journalist Michael Fox.
This podcast is produced in partnership between The Real News Network and NACLA.
Theme music by Michael Fox’s band, Monte Perdido. Monte Perdido’s 2024 album Ofrenda is available on Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you listen to music.
Other music from Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound.
Script editing by Heather Gies. Hosted, written, produced, mixed, and edited by Michael Fox.
Guests
Christy Thornton, Associate Professor of History at NYU
Resources
Here is the link to Mexico’s National Museum of Interventions.
You can check out Michael Fox’s Patreon to see exclusive pictures of the museum and the wall out front.
Here is
by Maximillian Alvarez | Mar 25, 2026 | Economy, Economy and Inequality, labor, Podcast, Politics and Movements: US, Unions, Working People
3,800 workers and Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 7 members at the massive JBS beef processing plant in Greeley, Colorado, walked off the job on an unfair labor practice strike on March 16. This is the first strike ever at the Greeley plant—one of the largest in the country—and it’s the biggest meatpacking strike in the US since the 1985-86 strike at the Hormel plant in Austin, Minnesota. As Caitlyn Clark and Lisa Xu report in Labor Notes, “Strikers say JBS has been increasing the speed of the production line while cutting work hours from 40 a week to 35, squeezing out more work for less money… Workers are also demanding that the company stop charging them out-of-pocket costs for personal protective equipment like mesh vests and arm guards—essential because they work with knives, saws, and other sharp, dangerous equipment.” In this episode, we speak with Clark and Xu, who report from the JBS picket line and break down why this strike is so significant and what it will take for workers to win this fight against the largest beef processor in the US.
Guest:
Caitlyn Clark is a national organizer at Essential Workers for Democracy, an organization dedicated to rank-and-file member education and empowerment for UFCW members in grocery, meatpacking, and retail.
Lisa Xu is a staff writer and organizer at Labor Notes.
Additional links/info:
Caitlyn Clark & Lisa Xu, Labor Notes, “In 57 languages, meatpackers strike for the first time in 40 Years”
Featured Music:
Jules Taylor, Working People Theme Song
Credits:
Audio Post-Production: Jules Taylor
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Maximillian
by Marc Steiner | Mar 24, 2026 | Democratic Party, Democrats, Podcast, Politics and Movements: US, The Marc Steiner Show, Trump
The Democratic Party has lost to Donald Trump and MAGA twice, and is continuing to lose working-class voters by clinging to corporate power, militarism, and a leadership class increasingly disconnected from its base. In this episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc speaks with Norman Solomon about his new book, The Blue Road to Trump Hell, and the reality that the right can only be stopped by both confronting Democratic failures and rebuilding a grassroots politics rooted in class, peace, and social movements.
Guests:
Norman Solomon is the cofounder of RootsAction.org, executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, and the author of numerous books, including War Made Easy: How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death; War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of the Military Machine; and The Blue Road to Trump Hell: How Corporate Democrats Paved the Way for Autocracy.
Credits:
Producer: Rosette Sewali
Studio Production: David Hebden
Audio Post-Production: Stephen Frank
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Marc Steiner:
Welcome to the Marc Steiner Show here on The Real News. I’m Marc Steiner. It’s great to have you all with us again. My guest today is Norman Solomon. He joins us once again. His latest work, The Blue Road to Trump Hill. This is a critically important book that wrestles with how the Democrats pave the way with its right terror that now controls the US government. Jonas Solomon is the National Director of Roots Action, executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. And along with this book, Ruch Action Democratic Autopsy looks at why the
