Randi Weingarten Talks How Tim Walz Empowered Teachers Union Activists

Steven Greenhouse talks how Trump's Tariffs may appeal to working-class voters

In the latest Payday Report podcast, retired New York Times labor reporter Steven Greenhouse talks about how Clinton pushing NAFTA bred distrust of the Democratic Party in the Rust Belt. He also discussed how Trump's tariffs may appeal to some working-class

Randi Weingarten Talks How Tim Walz Empowered Teachers Union Activists

By Mike Elk For more than 15 years, I have covered Randi Weingarten, the president of the 1.7 million member American Federation of Teachers union, but I have never seen her as excited as when she got the news that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a social studies teachers and AFT member, had been selected as Vice President. Behind the scenes, Weingarten had pushed heavily for Walz to be selected as Vice President. The first time that a non-lawyer had been on the Democratic ticket in 44 years since Jimmy Carter, who was a naval officer. While in Pittsburgh last week, Weingarten sat down with Payday Report to discuss the impact of Walz's selection on the rank-and-file of her union.

Radio Special on UE defeating McCarthyism in Small Massachusetts Town

In honor of Labor Day, earlier this week, we reaired a New England Public Media special produced by Ian Coss and hosted by local public historian Tom Goldscheider. "This project is every historian's dream," said Goldscheider. "I stumbled onto a cache of union meeting records and newspaper clippings from the 1940s that allowed me to reassemble a piece of local history that had been completely forgotten. The story of what happened in Greenfield is really a window onto a much larger story that speaks to possibilities in our present day. Manufacturing and democratic labor unions are in the news again. I also see this as a cautionary tale about how unions can be divided and defeated, or not; and about what happens when the rule of law is subverted to a hyper-partisan political agenda. History matters!"

Dave Weigel Talks What Summer Lee Can Teach America

Semafor's Dave Weigel talks with Mike Elk about how Congresswoman Summer Lee was able to cruise to a landslide victory against AIPAC will other candidates struggles and were defeated by them.

Veteran UE Organizer Chris Townsend Talks Organizing Surge in Northern Virginia

Chris Townsend is a veteran union organizer who has lived in Virginia for 20 years. He previously served as the UE's Political action director and the ATU's Organizing Director. Over the past five years, he has seen an upsurge in organizing in Northern Virginia. "I was the organizing director for the Amalgamated Transit Union and in a period of several years, in Virginia, we organized 16 new units. We hadn't done 16 of anything in this state for a long time," says Townsend. Townsend thinks that yesterday's victory of 27,000 teachers voting to unionize in Fairfax County, Virginia, could inspire teachers elsewhere. "If they can prevail on their internal union structures, to take a serious look at health care organizing here in Fairfax County in Northern Virginia, they will find a tremendous opportunity," says Townsend. Listen to the veteran union organizer describe how things are changing in Virginia and what this means for the presidential election.