Podcasts about america cwa

Frank Mathews, Administrative Director for District 4 of the Communication Workers of America (CWA), joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, the recent policy changes affecting its implementation and the potential impact on rural communities. Kalena Thomhave, a freelance journalist based in Pittsburgh, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss her story on Capital & Main about the United Steelworkers' victory at Blue Bird Corporation in Georgia and its impact on organizing in the South.

LIUNA Minnesota and North Dakota's Kevin Pranis, Marketing Manager, and Steve Cortina, Organizer in North Dakota, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the challenges facing local workers in the wind energy sector. They talked about the influx of out-of-state workers, their impact on local communities and strategies to combat these issues. Debbie Goldman, retired Communications Workers of America (CWA) labor researcher and author of "Disconnected: Call Center Workers Fight for Good Jobs in the Digital Age," joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast. She discussed the transformation of call center work, the impact of technology on workers and the ongoing fight for fair labor practices in the digital era.

Frank Mathews, District 4 Administrative Director for the Communications Workers of America (CWA), joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss threats to broadband equity, the push for fiber over satellite internet and proposed Medicaid cuts. David Spero, President of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss recent system failures at Newark Liberty International Airport, the need for updated infrastructure and the challenges caused by insufficient funding.

On Tuesday, April 8, unions, unionized federal workers, and their supporters around the country mobilized for a national “Kill the Cuts” day of action to protest the Trump administration's cuts to life-saving research, healthcare, and education programs. As organizers stated on the Kill The Cuts website,  "By cutting funds to lifesaving research and medical care, the Trump administration is abandoning families who are suffering and costing taxpayers billions of dollars. These cuts are dangerous to our health, and dangerous to our economy. On Tuesday, April 8th, 2025 workers across the country are standing up and demanding NO cuts to education and life-saving research." In this on-the-ground edition of Working People, we take you to the front lines of the Kill the Cuts rally that took place in Washington DC, and we speak with workers and union representatives whose lives and work have already been affected by these cuts.Speakers include: Margaret Cook, Vice President of the Public, Healthcare, and Education Workers sector of the Communications Workers of America (CWA); Matt Brown, Recording Secretary of NIH Fellows United (United Auto Workers Local 2750); Rakshita Balaji, a post-baccalaureate researcher at the National Institutes of Health (NIH); and Amanda Dykema, shop steward for American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 1072 at the University of Maryland, College Park.Additional links/info: Kill the Cuts website NIH Fellows United website Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / The Real News Network, “What's really behind Trump's war on federal unions?” Jocelyn Kaiser, Science, “NIH under orders to cancel $2.6 billion in contracts” Permanent links below… Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show! Labor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page In These Times website, Facebook page, and Twitter page The Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter page Featured Music… Jules Taylor, “Working People” Theme Song Studio Production: Maximillian Alvarez Post-Production: Jules Taylor

On Tuesday, April 8, unions, unionized federal workers, and their supporters around the country mobilized for a national “Kill the Cuts” day of action to protest the Trump administration's cuts to life-saving research, healthcare, and education programs. As organizers stated on the Kill The Cuts website,  "By cutting funds to lifesaving research and medical care, the Trump administration is abandoning families who are suffering and costing taxpayers billions of dollars. These cuts are dangerous to our health, and dangerous to our economy. On Tuesday, April 8th, 2025 workers across the country are standing up and demanding NO cuts to education and life-saving research." In this on-the-ground edition of Working People, we take you to the front lines of the Kill the Cuts rally that took place in Washington DC, and we speak with workers and union representatives whose lives and work have already been affected by these cuts.Speakers include: Margaret Cook, Vice President of the Public, Healthcare, and Education Workers sector of the Communications Workers of America (CWA); Matt Brown, Recording Secretary of NIH Fellows United (United Auto Workers Local 2750); Rakshita Balaji, a post-baccalaureate researcher at the National Institutes of Health (NIH); and Amanda Dykema, shop steward for American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 1072 at the University of Maryland, College Park.Additional links/info:Kill the Cuts websiteNIH Fellows United websiteMaximillian Alvarez, Working People / The Real News Network, “What's really behind Trump's war on federal unions?”Jocelyn Kaiser, Science, “NIH under orders to cancel $2.6 billion in contracts”Permanent links below…Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show!Labor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter pageIn These Times website, Facebook page, and Twitter pageThe Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter pageFeatured Music…Jules Taylor, “Working People” Theme SongStudio Production: Maximillian AlvarezPost-Production: Jules TaylorBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.

Frank Mathews, Administrative Director for District 4 of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), joined America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the recent Wisconsin Supreme Court election, nationwide Hands Off rallies and the importance of fiber optic broadband infrastructure funding. Sherry Linkon, affiliated faculty at the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University, joined America's Workforce Union Podcast to discuss the deindustrialization of Washington, D.C., the impact of federal job cuts and the ongoing attacks on higher education. 

Jimmy Williams Jr., General President of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss President Trump's executive order targeting federal unions, the importance of organizing and the need for labor to stand up for free speech. Frank Mathews, Administrative Director for District 4 of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the recent judicial victory in Wisconsin, the role of labor in political advocacy and the implications of tariffs on working families.

Download for Mobile | Podcast Preview | Full Timestamps Home Safety Helpline: Low Stakes SCP The Plight of the Early Adopter D&D Jimmy: Epilogue United Videogame Workers Union Announced For US & Canada Why Brightness Calibration Never Works Watch live: twitch.tv/castlesuperbeast Go to http://expressvpn.com/superbeast to get up to 4 extra months free. Go to http://factormeals.com/castle50off and use code castle50off to get 50% off your first box plus free shipping. Go to http://shopmando.com/ and use code BEAST to get $5 off your Starter Pack (that's over 40% off). Go to https://www.chubbiesshorts.com/superbeast to get 20% off your Chubbies order. New Evanescence song for DMC anime - Afterlife Venom | Announcement Trailer | Guilty Gear -Strive- At the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2025, the formation of a brand new, industry-wide union for video game workers has officially been revealed. As announced, the United Videogame Workers union has formed with the tenured Communications Workers of America (CWA), with a view to build community and protect the rights of game workers across the United States and Canada. Tekken 8 changes - escaping throws now hurts you YASUKE_A_Lost_Descendant Everything announced at the Future Games Show Spring Showcase 2025

In Episode 542 of Spawn On Me, we're joined by Chris Hill from Cat City Games to talk about his hilarious and action-packed VR game Balls to The Wall. He shares what inspired the wild concept, how development is going, and why VR needs more games that don't take themselves too seriously.In our What's the 411 segment, we dive into two major stories shaking up the gaming world: the Communications Workers of America (CWA) is taking big steps to establish a gaming union—and we break down what that could mean for devs and the industry. Plus, Assassin's Creed: Shadows is already making waves, reaching over 2 million players. We talk about the hype, what this means for the franchise, and what players are saying.In What We've Been Playing, we go hands-on with a bunch of games we checked out during GDC this year. From indie gems to upcoming AAA titles, this segment is packed with impressions you don't want to miss.Tap in for laughs, deep insights, and all things dope in gaming. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and hit that bell so you never miss an episode!

Melissa Cropper, President of the Ohio Federation of Teachers, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the state's school funding proposal, efforts to protect federal education funding and recent union victories in higher education. Frank Mathews, Administrative Director for District 4 of the Communication Workers of America (CWA), joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast and spoke about the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, the implications of broadband infrastructure decisions and the influence of major financial players like Elon Musk in these arenas.

To help us celebrate Presidents Day, Claude Cummings Jr., President of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), joined America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss his journey, the challenges of maintaining diversity initiatives and the critical role of unions in advocating for workers amid political and corporate pressures. Continuing our Presidents Day coverage, Sean O'Brien, General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, appeared on America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the union's strategic approaches to negotiations, the challenges posed by automation and the ongoing efforts to organize Amazon workers.

Frank Mathews, Administrative Director for District 4 of the Communication Workers of America (CWA), joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss a setback in Michigan's Call Center Jobs Retention Act, the push for fiber-first broadband expansion and concerns over potential healthcare benefit taxation. Daniel Letwin, an associate professor of history at Penn State University, joined America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the history of interracial unionism in Alabama's coal mines, the dynamics of racial cooperation in the labor movement, the organizational strategies of the United Mine Workers of America and the broader implications for labor and race relations during the Jim Crow era.

Frank Mathews, Administrative Director for District 4 of the Communication Workers of America (CWA), joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss critical issues facing workers in the telecommunications industry, expanding broadband access and why the Wisconsin Supreme Court election matters for labor.  Andrew Strom, a labor lawyer and law professor at the Brooklyn Law School, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the complexities facing the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the impact of President Biden's pro-union tenure.

Meet Kurt Mullett from Wabash Indiana. He is a progressive blue dot in a very red state. In just a short period of time he has gained local and national followers on his social media platforms through straight shooting videos and posts. Like many progressives in today's social media, he has detractors and haters, but he has found some amazing friends who look at life trough the same lens he does.  We sopke in early January 2025 about where we are in political America, where we head to and how the voices on social media platforms are helping to shape peoples thinking. The highlited links below can connect you to all things Kurt Mullett. Find HoosierBlue 63 Kurt Mullett on Facebook by following this link. Find Kurt Mullett on Instagram where he is HoosierBlue63  Find HoosierBlue63 on TikTok by following this link HoosierBlue63 On BlueSky find HoosierBlue63 Kurt will be glad to follow you back. On Threads you can find Kurt Mullett as HoosierBlue63  We also talk about Richard Chews the Radio DJ from Chicago. Kurt can be heard on Chews Views on Wednesdays at 8:00am on AM 820 WCPT - A progressive thinking show that reached out to Kurt and has him as a regular guest.  Special thanks toThe Communications Workers of America CWA, for their continued support of My Labor Radio. Follow the link above to learn more. Are you and your co-workers talking about a Union in your workplace? You should be. Talk to a CWA Organizer to learn how easy it can be to organize a Union in your workplace. "Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime, that's why I talk about Union organizing on company time." Special thanks to UAW2209 for their consistent support of My Labor Radio. Thanks to the membership of UAW2209.org Click the link to learn more about this powerful team of Union members working, living and giving back to their communities in NE Indiana.  Special thanks to the MLPA the Midwest Labor Press Association for their support of My Labor Radio follow their link to learn more.  Thanks for listening follow us on all the socials by getting the links from the My Labor Radio LinkTree link here. 

America's Work Force Union Podcast welcomed Debbie Goldman, retired Research Director for the Communication Workers of America (CWA), as she discussed her new book, Disconnected: Call Center Workers Fight for Good Jobs in the Digital Age. Goldman explored the impact of deregulation, technological changes and the CWA's continued efforts to advocate for workers' rights in the telecommunications industry. Tim Burga, President of the Ohio AFL-CIO, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the current political climate in Ohio and the implications for workers' rights. As the state prepares for a new legislative session, Burga emphasized the importance of vigilance in protecting the interests of Ohio's workforce.

Frank Mathews, Administrative Director for District 4 of the Communication Workers of America (CWA), joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to provide insights on what the CWA is doing to prepare for the future and continue to protect workers' rights. America's Work Force Union Podcast welcomed David Spero, President of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS). As the aviation industry braces for potential changes under a new federal administration, Spero discussed the pressing issues facing federal employees and the critical role of PASS in maintaining the safety of the national airspace system.

Adam Keller, Co-host of The Valley Labor Report, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the annual Alabama Arise meeting and how the Arise staff received voluntary recognition to become Communication Workers of America (CWA) members. Len DiCosimo, President of the Cleveland Federation of Musicians, American Federation of Musicians Local 4, appeared on the America's Work Force Union Podcast and spoke about a successful organizing campaign of the Cleveland Institute of Music faculty, plus several events the Local will host in 2025.

Frank Mathews, Administrative Director for District 4 of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss which Presidential candidate and which Ohio Senate candidate will better support working Americans.  Shane Wolfe, Business Manager of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 317, appeared on the America's Work Force Union Podcast and spoke about the Local's new training center and how it is already benefiting his members.

Frank Mathews, Administrative Director for District 4 of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the striking AT&T workers in the Southeast U.S. He also discussed a new executive order signed last week by President Joe Biden and some of the CWA's organizing wins this year. Christine Johnson, President of the United Auto Workers Local 2300, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss a new contract for members at Cornell University. She talked about the outpouring of support members received and what the contract will mean for these workers and others with contracts set to expire this year.

Headlines// 7.15: Jan Bartlett speaking with Dr Helen McCue about her work with Australian People for Health, Education and Development Abroad, also known as Union Aid Abroad, and her continued advocacy for refugee and women's rights. Listen to the full episode on 3CR Tuesday Hometime// 7.30: Sarah Baarini and Shirley Winton from Hobsons Bay 4 Palestine on mobilising to advocate for a Free Palestine and the community rally happening tonight at 6pm at the Hobsons Bay Civic Centre. Follow them on Instagram: @hobsonsbay4palestine// 7.45: Elena Pererya from BikeWest and Angela Ashley-Chiew from Better Streets for the West on an upcoming event organised with Critical Mass Melbourne advocating for safer speeds, footpaths and pedestrian crossings in Footscray at the state library at 5:30pm on 23 February. Follow @bike_west and @criticalmassmelb on Instagram for updates// 8.00: Elena Lopez of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) on cross-border worker solidarity in the face of job offshoring. Listen to the full episode on 3CR Stick Together// 8.15: Artists and podcast hosts Kate Robinson and Maria Birch-Morunga on their new project Threads at the Melbourne Museum and what to expect from Being Biracial season 2. Follow @beingbiracial on Instagram for updates//  SongsSOS - Little Simz

Elena Lopez of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) speaks on cross-border worker solidarity in the face of job offshoring. Elena spoke at a public meeting organised by the Trade Justice Education Fund about the realities of how corporate-driven trade agreements hurt working people everywhere, and the importance of promoting fair trade policy alternatives that are rooted in cross-border worker solidarity rather than hate. Coverage of the following disputes:    • DP World and MUA    • RTBU – Vline    • ETU – Transgrid    • HACSU Tasmania - The Hobart Clinic    • TWU – Cleanaway    • AMOU – TasPorts    • VAU - Ambulance Victoria    • Sircilla power loom workers end strike action    • Philippines jeepney drivers hold national strike

Microsoft moet zich vandaar verantwoorden in Brussel inzake de voorgenomen overname van Activision-Blizzard, waarbij bijna 70 miljard dollar gemoeid is. Opvallend genoeg heeft de Amerikaanse vakbond voor media- en communcatiemedewerkers zich achter de techreus geschaard. De Communications Workers of America (CWA) schrijft in een brief aan Margrethe Vestager, Eurocommissaris voor Mededinging, dat "de Europese Commissie deze zaak serieus moet nemen en de arbeidsmarkt op dit vlak serieus kan verbeteren". Afgelopen zomer sloten Microsoft en CWA al een akkoord over de manier waarop omgegaan wordt met medewerkers van gamestudio's die onder Microsoft vallen. Verder in deze Tech Update: De Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens waarschuwt: de overheid moet stoppen met het verzamelen van gegevens over vliegtuigpassagiers Volgens een cybersecurity-bedrijf denken jongeren te gauw dat ze online veilig zijn See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello Fully Automated listeners! This is a rebroadcast of Episode 5 of Class Unity: Transmissions, as posted here. Transmissions is the official podcast of the Class Unity Caucus of the DSA, and I want to thank them for their permission to use this episode. You can find out more about Class Unity over at https://classunity.org/ In this very special episode of Class Unity Transmissions, we bring you the last interview ever recorded with Danny Fetonte. Danny was a well-known labor organizer in Texas, with over 30 years of experience. He worked at Bethlehem Steel for 4 years, and spent a decade working in a variety of other industrial jobs. He later became a professional organizer, for the Communications Workers of America (CWA), becoming a member of the union's national staff in 1986. Moving to Texas, he became an important leader of the DSA chapter in his new hometown of Austin, growing the chapter from a state of more or less total dormancy, to over 700 members by 2017. Sadly, young DSA members will likely remember Danny not for his lifelong commitment to labor organizing but for a Twitter scandal that destroyed his relationship with the DSA, and left his reputation in tatters. At the 2017 DSA National Convention in Chicago, Danny was successfully elected the National Political Committee (NPC) of the DSA. It was his second time to run for the NPC. A well-known figure in labor circles, Fetonte's record was widely documented in online spaces. However, as the Convention drew to a close, a vocal group of anti-police online leftists began to claim that Fetonte's campaign statement was a fraud. What Fetonte had been concealing, his detractors claimed, was his role as an organizer with the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas (CLEAT), which is a police and corrections officer union, and an affiliate body of Danny's longtime employer, the CWA. Now, it was true that Fetonte had not mentioned this fact in his campaign materials. But it was widely available information, and many of the Austin chapter members who were active on the floor in support of him during the Convention were well aware of his resumé. Such facts poured cold water on the idea that Fetonte was somehow hiding his true identity. Nevertheless, outrage swirled on Twitter, with many saying they would never have voted for him had they known he was involved in police union work. Eventually, on August 10, after days of delay, the DSA's Interim Steering Committee issued a statement suggesting in no uncertain terms that they were taking a dim view of the matter: “We believe that Fetonte's omission was uncomradely and out of line with the principles of our organization.” The controversy set off a tumultuous debate about the extent to which DSA should be trying to find solidarity with police union organizers, and whether members should make a practice of discriminating against individuals for their career backgrounds. The Convention closed on August 6. Three weeks later, on August 27, the NPC (absent Danny) voted 8.5 to 7.5 to seat him, because they could not find any basis to remove him for malfeasance. Danny charged that, seeing as he was a duly-elected member of the NPC, a non-profit board, the exclusionary actions of the NPC in the intervening period were illegal and unethical. In just a moment, we'll present our interview with Danny, where he goes into detail on these allegations, as well as detailing the behind-the-scenes involvement of DSA National Director, Maria Svart. Before we hear from Danny, however, it might be useful to take moment to reflect on the legacy and significance of the Fetonte controversy for the contemporary left in America. Black Lives Matter demonstrations have played an effective role in raising public consciousness. However, as Cedric Johnson noted in a 2019 lecture at ArtCenter College of Design, to achieve real change social movements need real power,

SAP announced significant leadership changes with the appointment of Lloyd Adams as President of SAP North America, effective as of September 1st, and the announcement that Dominik Asam from Airbus will take over as SAP CFO and member of the Executive Board of SAP SE on March 7, 2023. This comes as no surprise with the related big news in the enterprise software space this week being that cloud-native Salesforce dislodged legacy provider SAP as the world's biggest producer of enterprise applications, with second-quarter financial results showing Salesforce standing strong at $7.72 billion in revenue, topping SAP's $7.52 billion. Deltek announced that its CEO Mike Corkery was named to the Virginia 500 The 2022 Power List, which recognizes the state's most powerful and influential leaders by sector. Published by Virginia Business Magazine, this is the third annual edition of the Virginia 500 Power List and Corkery's second time receiving the honor. Planful Inc. announced momentum in its international operations, recording 110% year-over-year growth ending June 2022. Planful increased its roster of EMEA resellers by 200% and expanded its presence in the APAC region. Its operations in Canada have more than doubled year-over-year while the UK team has grown six-fold. The Communications Workers of America (CWA) and Microsoft announced the launch of “Get Connected” an initiative to boost enrollment in the Federal Communication Commission's Affordable Connectivity Program, a benefit program from the FCC that helps ensure that households can afford the broadband they need for work, school, healthcare, and more. CWA and Microsoft will work with local public housing authorities and other community partners to publicize the events and pre-qualify residents for the program.https://www.erpadvisorsgroup.com866-499-8550LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/erp-advisors-groupTwitter:https://twitter.com/erpadvisorsgrpFacebook:https://www.facebook.com/erpadvisorsInstagram:https://www.instagram.com/erpadvisorsgroupPinterest:https://www.pinterest.com/erpadvisorsgroupMedium:https://medium.com/@erpadvisorsgroup

Penny Young Nance, CEO and President of Concerned Women for America (CWA), is a recognized national authority on cultural, children's, and women's issues. As the CEO and President of the nation's largest public policy women's organization, Nance oversees more than 500,000 participating CWA members across the country, over 400 Prayer/Action Chapters and Influencers, over 130 Young Women for America (YWA) Presidents or Ambassadors, and 600 trained leaders, and is also the president of Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee (CWALAC), serving as the principal spokesperson for both entities. Named as one of the top four most powerful pro-life female voices by the Christian Post and by Newsmax as one of the 100 most influential evangelicals in America, Nance stands as a leader on the issue of pro-life messaging and policy. Follow Jason on Twitter: @JasonBryantJ Find Us on Social Media Twitter: FaithCountryPod IG: FaithCountryPod Facebook: FaithCountryPod LinkedIn: our-faith-our-country-podcast CWA's Official Site: concernedwomen.org

Penny Young Nance is the CEO and President of Concerned Women for America (CWA), is a recognized national authority on cultural, children's, and women's issues. CRT, Abortion, etc.

Read the transcript and see full show notes for this episode: https://therealnews.com/the-new-lavender-scare-is-an-attack-on-the-working-classThings are getting very dark in this country, and it's likely going to get worse before it gets better. At every turn—as collective society breaks down, as the ruling class continues to rob us blind, as humanity barrels towards climate catastrophe—working people are being encouraged to turn on each other and to see certain groups of their fellow workers as the enemy. From the demonization and increasingly violent attacks against LGBTQIA+ people, to an extremist-dominated Supreme Court preparing to strip away queer people's right to marry, to legislatures around the country working to eliminate trans people's right to exist, we must respond to these assaults on our neighbors and coworkers with the same spirit of solidarity that gives life to labor's eternal message: an injury to one is an injury to all. In this special and urgent episode, we speak with Gabbi Pierce and Martha Grevatt about how far the labor movement has come in defending the rights of LGBTQIA+ workers, how far we still have to go, and what role the labor movement can and must play in fighting for dignity and equality for all.Gabbi Pierce is an organizer with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), co-chair of Pride at Work—Twin Cities, and she is the first transgender person to serve on the Minnesota AFL-CIO General Board. Martha Grevatt is a retired autoworker and member of the United Auto Workers (UAW); she formerly served as Executive Board member for UAW Locals 122 and 869 and was a founding member of Pride at Work. Pre-production/Studio: Maximillian AlvarezPost-production: Jules TaylorHelp us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer: Donate: https://therealnews.com/donate-podSign up for our newsletter: https://therealnews.com/newsletter-podLike us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/therealnewsFollow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/therealnews

Things are getting very dark in this country, and it's likely going to get worse before it gets better. At every turn—as collective society breaks down, as the ruling class continues to rob us blind, as humanity barrels towards climate catastrophe—working people are being encouraged to turn on each other and to see certain groups of their fellow workers as the enemy. From the demonization and increasingly violent attacks against LGBTQIA+ people, to an extremist-dominated Supreme Court preparing to strip away queer people's right to marry, to legislatures around the country working to eliminate trans people's right to exist, we must respond to these assaults on our neighbors and coworkers with the same spirit of solidarity that gives life to labor's eternal message: an injury to one is an injury to all. In this special and urgent episode, we speak with Gabbi Pierce and Martha Grevatt about how far the labor movement has come in defending the rights of LGBTQIA+ workers, how far we still have to go, and what role the labor movement can and must play in fighting for dignity and equality for all.  Gabbi Pierce is an organizer with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), co-chair of Pride at Work—Twin Cities, and she is the first transgender person to serve on the Minnesota AFL-CIO General Board. Martha Grevatt is a retired autoworker and member of the United Auto Workers (UAW); she formerly served as Executive Board member for UAW Locals 122 and 869 and was a founding member of Pride at Work.  Additional links/info below... Gabbi's Twitter page Communication Workers of America website, Facebook page, and Twitter page Martha's Facebook page and Workers World author page  United Auto Workers website, Facebook page, and Twitter page Unite All Workers for Democracy website, Facebook page, and Twitter page Pride at Work website, Facebook page, and Twitter page Kelly Hayes, Movement Memos, "Attacks on Trans Rights and Abortion Rights Are 'Bound Together'" Kelly Hayes, Movement Memos, "Attacks on Trans Youth Are a Fascist 'Moral Battering Ram'" Molly Shah, The Real News Network, "Supreme Court's Hearings on Abortion Bans Are an Ominous Sign of What's Coming" Kim Kelly, Teen Vogue, "How LGBTQ Union Activists Transformed the Labor Movement" Permanent links below... Working People Patreon page Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show! Labor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page In These Times website, Facebook page, and Twitter page The Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter page Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org) Jules Taylor, "Working People Theme Song

Carmen Pate is an author, speaker, teacher of biblical studies, and mentor to those seeking to discover their place in God's story, encouraging women to fulfill their God given purpose. Carmen is the producer and host of Saving Grace, a broadcast ministry of Grace School of Theology. In addition, Carmen is a Level II Certified Trainer for Ministry Insight's Leading from Your Strengths and The 210 Project. Carmen is the author of In Our Weakness, God is Strong, which gives testimony of God's power in her life, particularly through her 5 year battle with Leukemia. Carmen's past work experience includes serving as a Principal with Alliance Ministries, and Chief Communications Officer for Truth in Action Ministries. She has produced and hosted nationally syndicated radio programs including Truth that Transforms Radio, and Point of View Radio Talk Show. Carmen was a past President of Concerned Women for America (CWA). In that capacity, she regularly defended family and Judeo-Christian values before Congress and international media venues. For over 30 years, Carmen has defended the unborn and ministered to women affected by abortion, beginning her pro-life ministry as director of a pregnancy care center. She was a member of the founding Board of Directors for the international campaign, 40 Days for Life. Carmen was Host and Co-Producer of the DVD study series, Restoring the Value of Life, available through D James Kennedy Ministries. Carmen and her husband Bob have three grown children and 9 grandchildren. Bob and Carmen live in The Woodlands, TX.

Charlie Spiering, White House Correspondent for Breitbart News, details President Biden's call with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Dean Cheng, Senior Research Fellow for Chinese Political and Military Affairs at the Heritage Foundation, discusses where China's allegiance falls in the Ukraine and Russia war. Mario Diaz, General Counsel for Concerned Women for America (CWA), addresses the federal civil rights complaint CWA filed against the University of Pennsylvania under Title IX regarding their decision to allow Lia Thomas to compete on the school's women's swim team. Rachel Emmanuel, reporter for Western Standard, speaks on how the mainstream media is only giving a platform to one kind of voice and pressuring journalists to stop sharing stories of those who oppose the Left's narrative. David Closson, FRC's Director of the Center for Biblical Worldview, weighs in on the Left's obsession with culture wars amid all the crises we're seeing and how the situation in Ukraine has revealed the Leftist worldview. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/loving-liberty/support

Penny Nance, CEO and President of Concerned Women for America (CWA) sits down with Jenna Ellis Esq. to discuss truck convoys, parental rights, and weak church leaders.

The King Soopers strike last month showed Coloradans what organized labor can accomplish to improve working conditions… but what about public workers, who don't currently have the right to collective bargaining under state law? That's where the Communication Workers of America (CWA) 7799 comes in. They're a coalition of workers at Denver Public Library, the University of Colorado, Denver Health and UC Health who are working with state lawmakers to beef up Colorado's labor laws and, they say, strengthen our public institutions in the process. Adjunct professor Alex Wolf-Root and library worker Liana Kiddy-Gan join host Bree Davies to talk about why collective bargaining is so important for public workers like themselves. To find out more about CWA 7799 and ways to get involved in the fight for collective bargaining rights, visit their website: www.cwa7799.org  Wolf-Root mentioned that collective bargaining tends to help close race and gender gaps in the workplace. A true academic, he passed along a few links to relevant research after the interview: “How today's unions help working people” and “The Union Advantage for Women.”  Colorado House Majority Leader Daneya Esgar explains her support for their campaign in this editorial for The Gazette: https://gazette.com/denver-gazette/we-owe-public-employees-collective-bargaining And here's your reminder to send us your Denver love stories by this weekend, for inclusion in our special Valentine's Day episode! Leave us a voicemail at 720-500-5418, or email us at denver@citycast.fm Get your Denver food news fix in today's newsletter! You can read it and sign up at https://denver.citycast.fm/newsletter/ And join the conversation on Twitter! @citycastdenver Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Link to article: https://bit.ly/3rm8SUqQuality assurance workers at Raven Software, a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, a unionization push with the Communication Workers of America (CWA). The group, called Game Workers Alliance, is the first group of workers to form a unit under Activision Blizzard. Workers are asking the company to voluntarily recognize the union, which has the support of the “supermajority” of Raven Software QA workers — 78% of the eligible workers, a CWA representative told Polygon.Some Raven Software QA workers have been on strike since early December, after Activision Blizzard denied new contracts for 12 members of the QA team. The strike of “several dozen workers,” according to the Washington Post, has no end date, and management has not yet responded to workers demands.RELATEDActivision Blizzard's contract workers say they're ‘crushed' by toxic culture“Today, I am proud to join with a supermajority of my fellow workers to build our union, Game Workers Alliance (CWA),” Raven Software QA tester Becka Aigner said in a news release. “In the video game industry, specifically Raven QA, people are passionate about their jobs and the content they are creating. We want to make sure that the passion from these workers is accurately reflected in our workplace and the content we make. Our union is how our collective voices can be heard by leadership.”According to the CWA, Activision Blizzard has not cooperated with worker-organizers. Instead, it's “used surveillance and intimidation tactics, including hiring notorious union busters, to silence workers.”“We ask that Activision Blizzard management respect Raven QA workers by voluntarily recognizing CWA's representation without hesitation,” Communications Workers of America secretary-treasurer Sara Steffens said in a statement. “A collective bargaining agreement will give Raven QA employees a voice at work, improving the games they produce and making the company stronger. Voluntary recognition is the rational way forward.”On Tuesday, Microsoft announced its intention to acquire Activision Blizzard — including Raven Software. When the $68.7 billion deal is finalized in 2023, Activision Blizzard workers will report to Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer. Until the deal is approved, however, Bobby Kotick will remain as Activision Blizzard CEO, despite workers calling for his resignation in the wake of multiple lawsuits and federal investigations into the company's workplace culture.Update (Jan. 21): Activision Blizzard has issued a statement regarding Game Workers Alliance's request for voluntarily recognition.Support the show (https://bit.ly/2XdAlJC)

BlizzardActivisionKing employees are seeking to organize and possibly unionize. Was Paizo's Workers Union merely a move on the chessboard for the Communications Workers of America (CWA)? https://cwa-union.org/news/releases/employees-of-activision-blizzard-file-unfair-labor-practice-charge-against-gaming https://www.inverse.com/gaming/activision-blizzard-union-abetterabk-could-change-the-games-industry --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

California isn't the only party unhappy with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and its proposed $18 million settlement with Activision Blizzard. The Communications Workers of America (CWA), a labor union that has already helped Activision employees file one charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), has decided to bring 31 separate complaints of its own. Are they legitimate? Are they not? Either way they're certainly very focused...on making sure Activision Blizzard leaves open the door for unionization. We're not sure they have standing, but they definitely want a seat...in Virtual Legality. CHECK OUT THE VIDEO AT: https://youtu.be/uK57WIicIHI #Activision #California #CWA *** SUPPORT THE CHANNEL PATREON - https://www.patreon.com/VirtualLegality STREAMLABS - https://streamlabs.com/richardhoeg STORE - https://teespring.com/stores/hoeg-law-store *** CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction 02:00 The CWA Intervenes 06:43 Notice and Waivers (1-2) 15:47 Damage Caps and California (3-4) 22:35 Scope, Definitions, and Non-Admissions (5-10) 30:51 Consultants, Claimants, and Complaints (11-15) 35:55 A Problem of Privilege (16) 38:13 Input, Input, Input (17-21) 43:28 Lawyers are Expensive (22) 47:16 More Input and a Section 7 Parade (23-28) 55:23 Training and Understanding (29-31) 57:13 Conclusion *** Discussed in this episode: "Everybody vs Activision Blizzard: A Legal View" YouTube Playlist - Hoeg Law https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1zDCgJzZUy9PBxr5dNcoQLh2erIt2XrZ "Activision Lawsuit - California Calls EEOC Liars, Union Joins Fight (VL558)" YouTube Video - October 12, 2021 - Hoeg Law https://youtu.be/fwM36bFow_Q CWA Request for Fairness Hearing October 12, 2021 https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.832570/gov.uscourts.cacd.832570.20.0.pdf "Employees of Activision Blizzard File Unfair Labor Practice Charge Against the Gaming Company" CWA Press Release - September 14, 2021 https://cwa-union.org/news/releases/employees-of-activision-blizzard-file-unfair-labor-practice-charge-against-gaming EEOC v Activision Blizzard Proposed Consent Decree https://investor.activision.com/consent-decree-with-EEOC EEOC v Activision Blizzard Opposition to Intervention - Exhibit A (EEOC) https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.832570/gov.uscourts.cacd.832570.15.6.pdf EEOC Website https://www.eeoc.gov/settlement-standards-and-procedures#section2f https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/enforcement-guidance-compensatory-and-punitive-damages-available-under-sec-102-cra https://www.eeoc.gov/employers/resolving-charge https://www.eeoc.gov/federal-sector/settlement-agreement "Right of employees as to organization, collective bargaining, etc." 29 USC 157 (NLRA Section 7) https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/29/157 *** "Virtual Legality" is a continuing series discussing the law, video games, software, and everything digital, hosted by Richard Hoeg, of the Hoeg Law Business Law Firm (Hoeg Law). CHECK OUT THE REST OF VIRTUAL LEGALITY HERE: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1zDCgJzZUy9YAU61GoW-00K0TJOGnPCo DISCUSSION IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS LEGAL ADVICE. INDIVIDUALS INTERESTED IN THE LEGAL TOPICS DISCUSSED IN THIS VIDEO SHOULD CONSULT WITH THEIR OWN COUNSEL. *** Twitter: @hoeglaw Web: hoeglaw.com

Quick clips - Buckminster Fuller quote, Bezos dick rocket, US of Subscriptions, NPR vs Shapiro. Main stories - telecoms spends $320K/day so your broadband sucks, super yachts, & Lake Mead water shortage. Richard Buckminster Fuller - "The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a living. We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery because, according to Malthusian Darwinian theory he must justify his right to exist. So we have inspectors of inspectors and people making instruments for inspectors to inspect inspectors." Bezos dick rocket in space - “We need to take all heavy industry, all polluting industry and move it into space. It's one planet, and we share it and it's fragile. ... We live on this beautiful planet. You can't imagine how thin the atmosphere is when you see it from space. We live in it and it looks so big. It feels like this atmosphere is huge and we can disregard it and treat it poorly.” America is the land of subscriptions and passive income, and MLM. America is cold and callus and really doesn't care about people (I mean this as a whole). The desensitization of America. NPR angry about Shapiro - Outrage As A Business Model: How Ben Shapiro Is Using Facebook To Build An Empire - source The Telecoms Industry Spends $320K a Day to Make Sure Your Broadband Sucks - source According to a new study conducted jointly by Common Cause and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union, telecoms giants spend nearly $320,000 a day on average in the course of their work to thwart any legislation that would disrupt their ironclad grip on the broadband marketplace. Comcast — reportedly the worst offender — spent more than $43 million in the last congressional session alone, with AT&T trailing at $36 million spent. Wild Superyacht Secrets I Learned When I Became a Deckhand - source At a shipyard in the Netherlands—the world's megayacht maternity ward—the largest vessel of its kind is being custom-built for Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos at a projected cost that tops $500 million. “They eat like Americans but want five times the portion size, always served buffet-style,” Sawyer says. “And they only eat around 10%.” "Prostitutes are a different story. “We see day-use girlfriends on other boats all the time,” says Christopher Sawyer, the Bella's chef, “especially in the Med.” He's even witnessed big spenders fill a secondary superyacht with women to trail the lead vessel, swapping them on and off—10 at a time—throughout the course of several days." Federal government expected to declare first-ever water shortage at Lake Mead - source Water levels at Lake Mead keep dropping. The federal government is expected to declare its first ever “tier one” shortage. Produced by The Wild 1 Media. Check out our other podcasts- https://darksidediaries.sounder.fm https://anchor.fm/ttmygh https://crypto101.sounder.fm/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

In this episode we discuss local governments are blocked from competing as an ISP in 18 states, The Communications Workers of America (CWA) union is lobbying state governments to regulate Internet service providers as utilities, Seagate Shipped a 3 Zettabytes of Hard Drive, Huawei Plans to Launch 6G in 2030, US & UK officially blame Russian Government for SolarWinds cyber attack, Capcom blames an 'Old VPN Device' for a Ransomware Attack

02:21 - Melissa’s Superpower: Being Extremely Online 03:06 - Unionizing Glitch (https://glitch.com/) * Glitch workers sign tech’s first collective bargaining agreement (https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/2/22307671/glitch-workers-sign-historic-collective-bargaining-agreement-cwa) * Misconceptions re: Unions * Engineer Salary Discrepancies * Middle Management, Product Management Unionization * Minority Unions (i.e. Google) * What is a Minority Union? (https://workercenters.com/labors-loophole/what-is-a-minority-union/) * The Rise of Minority Unions: How Social Movements and Tech Giants Could Be Showing Signs of Things To Come (The Rise of Minority Unions: How Social Movements and Tech Giants Could Be Showing Signs of Things To Come) 14:58 - Melissa’s Previous Experience with Working w/ Unions * Communications Workers of America (CWA) (https://cwa-union.org/) * Civic Technology (What Is Civic Technology? (https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/09/19/what-is-civic-technology/)) * Chi Hack Night (https://chihacknight.org/) 17:13 - Positive Skills Union Organizers Should Have 18:32 - Thoughts on Leading with Petitions * We are Frank — a platform for worker voice (https://getfrank.medium.com/we-are-frank-189111ceb54a) * 2018 Google Walkouts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Google_walkouts) 26:58 - Writing Online; Dismantling Publications and the Fracturing of the Media World * The Rise Of Substack—And What’s Behind It (https://www.forbes.com/sites/falonfatemi/2021/01/20/the-rise-of-substack-and-whats-behind-it/) * Melissa McEwen: The best JavaScript date libraries in 2021 (https://www.skypack.dev/blog/2021/02/the-best-javascript-date-libraries/) 29:41 - Evaluating Human Performance * PSA: DevRel isn’t fake !! * How to Hire A-Players: Finding the Top People for Your Team- Even If You Don't Have a Recruiting Department (https://www.amazon.com/How-Hire-Players-Recruiting-Department/dp/0470562242) * People Skills 43:21 - Getting Started with Organizing a Union * Use Signal (https://signal.org/en/), Not Slack * Be Harder to Fire Reflections: Casey: Hearing success stories re: unionizing. Jacob: How people skills can be a function of your individual team. Melissa: Studying more about unions in other countries. Rein: Looking more into co-ops and collectivisations. An injury to one is an injury to all. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_injury_to_one_is_an_injury_to_all) This episode was brought to you by @therubyrep (https://twitter.com/therubyrep) of DevReps, LLC (http://www.devreps.com/). To pledge your support and to join our awesome Slack community, visit patreon.com/greaterthancode (https://www.patreon.com/greaterthancode) To make a one-time donation so that we can continue to bring you more content and transcripts like this, please do so at paypal.me/devreps (https://www.paypal.me/devreps). You will also get an invitation to our Slack community this way as well. Transcript: JACOB: Hello, and welcome to Greater Than Code, Episode 229. My name is Jacob Stoebel and I’m here with my co-panelist, Casey Watts. CASEY: Hi, I'm Casey. I'm here today with Melissa McEwen. Melissa is a web developer, working in content now. She often writes about the JavaScript ecosystem. She helped unionize Glitch, which recently signed their first Collective Bargaining Agreement in late February. Welcome, Melissa. So glad to have you. MELISSA: Hi, everyone. CASEY: We like to start each show by asking you a certain question. Melissa, what is your superpower and how did you acquire it? MELISSA: My superpower is being extremely online and I acquired it by being given computers way too young and having nothing to do, but play with computers. CASEY: I like that phrase “extremely online.” What does that look like today for you? MELISSA: It means, I know way too much about what's going on in Twitter and the internet in general and sometimes, I'll make references that you only know if you're extremely online and it's kind of embarrassing. I don't even know what it's like to not be extremely online, but I'm trying to stop being extremely online because it's overwhelming trying not to check Twitter every 5 seconds. CASEY: Oh, yeah. I did that a lot, too. I don't know if I would describe myself as extremely online, but I might have seen some of the same memes as you and I think that would [chuckles] give me a little bit of that. MELISSA: Yeah. I mean, memes, what's the latest drama on Twitter today, that kind of stuff. JACOB: Is there a way to turn that superpower and help people around you or, how do you leverage that? MELISSA: Yeah, the only thing that's good about it, I would say is that you know a lot. I try to write about things and provide my knowledge to other people. I mean, you know a lot, but on a surface level, that's the problem so, you have to always be aware of that. I'm not an expert on unions and for the Glitch union, I was one of the original organizing committee folks, but I was laid off last year in March and there were 18 people, I think laid off. So the union has been going on without me and that's just great. Me and some other externally online people, when we started the union, we leveraged our externally onliness because we were connected to a lot of people who helped us like the CWA, which is the Communications Workers of America. We found them online, for example and they were critical in getting the union actually started because we'd been talking about it, but they were the people that pushed us and they're one of the bigger unions. They've been around for a long time. They have an organized telecommunications workers, primarily and now they're doing some tech stuff. So very interesting. JACOB: Well, as someone who is moderately online at best, I have been reading a little bit about recent union news with Glitch, but I would love to hear your story about how it started and how it brought us to today. MELISSA: Yeah, I mean there's only so much I can say, but the stuff that really was – building a union is about connecting with your coworkers and a lot of people have said, “How are we going to build a union to the remote workplace?” Well, I was remote and half the company was remote. That's one good thing about being extremely online is you’re probably used to talking to people online. I connected to people in my workplace and people on my team. At first, it was mainly people on my own team and then what CWA teaches you to do is to build connections in your workplace. It's almost like you map it out and you talk to other people in your workplace and you try to leverage those connections. I wasn't connected to everybody in the workplace, but I was connected to some other people who were connected to people I wasn't connected to. So it was challenging in that this was not an office where I could go see these people every day. I had to kind of – you can't just sneakily invite someone to a call unionizing. You have to actually build social capital and build relationships and then turn those into those connections you need to build a union. A lot of us had been following union stuff in tech. I was a member of Tech Workers Co, I think others were and we thought since Glitch is a very diverse workplace, we want to make sure that workers have a seat at the table and can actually help each other and to help the company do right by the workers. We had some bumps along the road. It is hard to organize people remotely and a lot of people have misconceptions about unions. They think unions are only for certain workers like people working in a mine, or they have bad impressions of unions. Like, I don't know. I grew up and my parents were like, they told me that unions were bad. We watched On the Waterfront and they were like, “Oh, look, unions, they’re so corrupt.” But a union is just like an organization. It's a big organization and they have a history and they have a context and a union is just like anything. Like a company. It can be bad; it can be good. It's based on the people and once you join a union, you can help guide that union by being part of it. JACOB: I would think an extremely online person would be very good at that. MELISSA: Yeah, it did help to be constantly on Slack and on Twitter. JACOB: And good at really just making those connections. That would not come naturally to make all those personal connections, what you just said. MELISSA: Yeah, but also, it was. I do think people who had those real life – who were at the office did have an advantage in forming those connections because not everybody at Glitch was extremely online, for example. Also, meeting each other in real life, occasionally like, we'd go to the conferences and stuff, that really helped. It's complicated about how much organizing you can do in the workplace and at what times. You don't want to ever do it on times are supposed to be working, for example, so. CASEY: What were some of the things that made this unionization effort successful and possible and what were some of the things that got in the way? I think we've covered some already. MELISSA: Yeah. I think having a pretty social workplace, that was social online, but that doesn't include everybody. There’s some people who were more online than others, for example and the fact that we relied so much on online organizing, it was harder to reach those people. So it was very crucial that we have people in the New York City office who were able to do some on the ground in-person organizing and getting those people on board was like, once we got those people on board, that was a very important thing that we did. Because originally, it was all remote people and then we added in the New York City office people. Yeah, the bumps along the road are just misconceptions about unions, what they mean. People can union bust themselves just by having these misconceptions like, “Oh, union is a third-party. It'll affect my relationship with my manager. I can't be friends with my manager anymore.” It's not true at all. So some of the organizing committee had been in unions before. Like, there was one woman, who was a social worker, who had been a social worker union and I had been in a Civil Workers Union before. So I knew that I was friends with my managers in these unions and I mean, not that being friends with the manager is the priority, but the idea that if you're friends with a manager, you can't do a union. That's just not true. But some people thought that. CASEY: The biggest misconception I can think of is why do you well-compensated professionals need a union and I'm sure you've heard this all the time. MELISSA: Oh yeah, that’s a big one. CASEY: Yeah. Fill us in for that. Like what do you say to that? MELISSA: I think so. Online, someone was like, “Oh, it's cultural appropriation of blue-collar workers.” I do not agree with that. I think all workers benefit from a union and it is just an organization that allows workers to negotiate with their bosses and on a fair playing field. It's not a culture. You don't have to be in the movie, The Irishman, or On the Waterfront, or even know people like that. It's just a way of organizing a workplace and having a seat at the table, so. JACOB: You mentioned earlier that I think, or maybe you implied that this union joins multiple disciplines, too. Is that true? MELISSA: Yeah, like we had engineers and then we also had a media department. That's where things would be hard because a lot of workplaces are quite siloed and I've always been against that. Like, I hate the term non-technical for example, like video production people, those are the most technical people I know they're literally working with like technical equipment every day and they know so much about it. Those people are tactical. And then another big obstacle is who is eligible for a union? Who can join? It's not clear because tech has roles that aren't very traditional, like product manager. Is that a manager, or is that an individual contributor and often, that’s hashed out on the negotiating table. It's based on all these laws and I've read some of the laws, I'm not an expert, but it's good to read a little bit of the labor law just to understand. But even if you know it, it's interpreted differently by different courts and stuff. There's a National Labor Review Board that reviews labor disputes and stuff and that was Trump's appointed board. So we wanted to make sure we got a voluntary recognition because we didn't want anything to do with that board at that time because they were very hostile towards workers. JACOB: The reason I was curious about joining together all kinds of different people from different roles, I was just curious if that diverse workforce came with a diversity of priorities and goals for a union and if those presented any challenges. MELISSA: Yeah. There's a big class difference between engineers and people outside of engineering. Engineers are overwhelmingly paid higher than people outside of engineering, for example and I totally understand the resentment towards engineers. We need to acknowledge that if you're organizing multiple people and outside of engineering. I mean, the fact that engineering is so well-compensated. I don't understand why, for example, a video producer isn't compensated the same as an engineer. It's just an accident of history, how culturally valued, supply and demand, all these things mixed up together. So you have to realize that and when it comes down to money, paying dues. For an engineer, it might be like, “Oh, you're taking 1%, or 2% for the union,” and that's like, “Oh, that’d take you away from being able to go on vacation.” Whereas, for someone who is making a lot less, that's taking away from their ability to pay rent. So that is really, really hard and I don't have a good solution for that. I wish unions would offer things like maybe peg it to your income, maybe not, maybe at a lower percentage, but it tends to not be that high of a percentage; it's 1 to 3%. But acknowledging that that can be the difference between someone being able to afford or not. Especially the salary ranges were quite extreme in our case so, that was really hard. CASEY: I'm listening to this conversation based on my background as a product manager who happened to have managed engineers, designers, and product managers, I don't know how that structure came into play. But even that tier, I wanted to be part of a union, but I think it's US law maybe that gets in the way that says managers at any level can't be unionizing in any form, not even like—let's use a synonym for a union—collective people who tell each other, “Yes, you deserve more money,” or something like that. It's not we're not incentivized to work together in any way and we pretend that the HR department of the company does that for us, which they do the opposite often. What do you think about that middle management kind of thing and how it plays into product management? Your thought process? MELISSA: Yeah. That really sucks because then it becomes like some people feel left out who wanted to be part of the union and at that point, they feel like, “Oh, am I part of –?” Like, they're obviously not C-suite so that's really hard. Other countries have other types of unions like sectoral bargaining that get around that. I don't know that much about that, but we weren't sure if a product manager fit under the definition of qualify, or not. It just depends on if you make decisions on employment, if you tell people what to do, there's a lot of criteria. We did find that product managers were not going to be part of the union. So what does the product manager do? Well, they can't organize themselves, but they're just not legally protected under this bargaining thing under a labor law. So that really sucks and I don't know what the solution is. I guess, getting involved in bigger organizations that work for unionization. The Google union is very interesting and that is a different form of union. It's called a minority union and I don't know that much about those, but I know that people who are managers can join that one, but it has fewer legal protections. So I assume when CWA decided to organize Google under a minority union, it was because they felt they were not capable of doing the traditional union because there are so many obstacles to doing so in Google—Google’s size and multiple locations. It's very difficult. You can organize however you want, it's just what is legally protected and that kind of goes in, in that article. I talk about petitions, for example. Petitions are an example of organizing. That's not unionization, it's not protected by US labor law, but it is a form of organizing. The Google walkout, that's a form of organizing. That's not unionization. You just have fewer legal protections and you don't have the structure that you get from a union when you do those things. CASEY: Well, that's awesome. I'm not up-to-date on this. I'm going to be Googling minority union and sectoral bargaining after this call. MELISSA: Yeah. I didn't even know what a minority union until that came out. I was like, “Wow, I guess, someone should write a book.” There probably is a book. I'm going to find that book. JACOB: Melissa, what brought you to doing this in the first place? Did you have experience with organizing before, or was it something new to you? MELISSA: I didn't have any experience organizing, I suppose, but I was in a union before. I worked at University of Illinois in Chicago and their IT departments are in a union, an older established union. As soon as you join as an employee there, you're a part of that union. Actually unions, some of them aren't that great. Our union was kind of mediocre, to be honest. They barely involved people, for example, in the very top down. That's one thing when you're organizing, you have to choose which union you're going to organize under, or even to start your own union. We thought about starting our own union. I don't feel that qualified to hire union lawyers. You need to advantage money because CWA provided that all the lawyers and stuff like that and all the structure. CWA has gotten a lot of flack on Twitter recently with the Google union stuff. People have dug up the fact that they've represented security guards in the past, but it's a big organization; it's like working with the government. You can't expect perfection, we've got to get involved. If you want to change things, you've got to be involved yourself. I'm very skeptical of the idea that we should just throw that away and start our own thing as tech workers. Because I think people of different ages and classes and stuff have so much to teach us and that's what you get when you join a big union like CWA and you can't demand they fit your extremely online standards. So if you want them to follow the standard, you've got to join and get involved. JACOB: So definitely a politics of compromise from the get-go. MELISSA: Yeah, and I've been involved with the civic technology a little bit. So I was a little bit familiar with that. I've worked in government contracting and I've gone to Chai Hack Night, which is a Chicago meetup, for quite a while. It's a Chicago meetup focused on civil technology and government. I was familiar with some of that, but if you're a startup person, maybe that's harder. You expect unions are going to cater to you, treat you like a freaking princess or whatever, but no, they're not. They are a saboteurization. They've got members, they have a history, and you've got to take that for what it is. CASEY: All right, Melissa, you brought to the table to the union organizing effort your superpower of being extremely online. What other skills did some of the union organizers have that really helped? MELISSA: Yeah. Actually being consistent and organized, that's really important. Organizing meetings. I'm not into that kind of thing and thankfully, there were other people who did that and I thank them quite a lot. Taking notes, following up, once you make me angry, I'm very effective at arguing with people. So that's a good thing about extremely online, but it's bad about being extremely online, but it did come in handy a few times when unionizing. But otherwise, doing in-person on the ground work, I couldn't do because I was remote and organizing the meetings, taking notes, following up with CWA, coordinating between different people, that stuff. The other people helped with that. The other members of the organizing committee and then after the union was recognized, we had an election and some people did that election where you elect the reps and other people did that and I was really happy because I was tired at that point. [chuckles] CASEY: So I'm going into a little bit of a different topic. Melissa, I think you mentioned something about companies and nonprofits who want to lead with petitions and you have some thoughts on that I'm curious to hear. MELISSA: I am super anti petitions. I think these organizations push them and I think they're just antithetical to unionization. A Coworker, for example, they really push you to do these petitions and a, you're alerting your boss that you're organizing, you're doing it under a way that's not legally protected. Why don't you just unionize? I understand that some people can't and if you genuinely can't, that's great, but I wouldn't trust Coworker to tell you if it's okay, or not. I have noticed that some of the conflict on Twitter regarding the Google union, some people involved with that are also involved in Coworker. So I'm really against that and another company that's spread it out. It's a startup, they're called Get Frank but they're also doing petitions. They're very antithetical to unionization and people don't want to say that because the people who were involved with that are nice people and some of them are even involved with Tech Workers Co and stuff and they're nice online, or they're well-respected, but at some point, you’ve got to say, “This is just anti-union.” REIN: Yeah. I mean, taking a collective bargaining opportunity that can stretch across multiple issues and organize the workforce to push for all of them and turning into a petition about a specific thing that has marginal support. I don't see how that helps. I mean, I don't think that those startups are disrupting business organization. I think they're disrupting union organization. MELISSA: Yeah, and I think more people should call them out and the fact that a lot of people who the media goes to for comments about tech organizing are like – so, Liz Fong-Jones, I really respect her. She's on Twitter and she's a member of the board on Coworker and I find that not good. REIN: I mean, I guess the argument is that any place where you can voice concerns and generate support within the workers, the employees is better than none, but that's not how the world works. We can have unions, too, or instead actually putting effort into that means that you're not spending that time putting effort into organizing. MELISSA: Yeah. So when we were first thinking about unionizing, I was on Tech Workers Co and they connected me to people at Coworker and they were really pushing out to do a petition. I'm really lucky that my coworker, Steph, could have connected with CWA because she was like, “No, let's talk to CWA.” CWA took it from there and they actually got us the motivation and the resources we needed to unite us. Whereas, Coworker was like, “Oh, we love unions, but why don't you do this petition first, it's building organization?” and CWA is like, “No.” Unfortunately, some people are taking the CWA being against that as an insult on them personally, which is really weird, that it's an insult for people who did past organization efforts that weren’t unionizing. I don't see why that is relevant. I understand sometimes you can't unionize and I respect other organization efforts, but you're taking an example of a company that can unionize and you're pushing them to do a petition. You're wasting their time. You're endangering their jobs. It's just bad. REIN: Well, I think if there was evidence that it starting with petitions led towards more formal union organizing, I would be more in favor of it, but I don't know of any. MELISSA: Yeah. People use the Google walkout, for example and I guess, the Google unions and the controversy on Twitter was about how the union wasn't involving the past organizers who did all this work for the Google walkout. I recognize Google walkout was an amazing thing and the people who organized that were really great, but that doesn't mean that you have to use their expertise to unionize. A union should be for the current employees. When I'm talking about our union at Glitch, I'm not speaking for the union. I was laid off. I'm not a member anymore. That's very sad. It's very unfair, but I'm not a member and the employees who are working there have insight into the company that I don't. So I don't expect them to recognize me, or to ask me for advice, or anything. I don't even talk to them that much anymore because that's their sphere. CASEY: I'm not an expert on Coworker, but this reminds me of another metaphor a little bit. Let me know if this is close, or not, or similarities and differences. So you know how when you look on the bottom of a solo cup, you see a triangle, or a cycle symbol with a number? Some of those aren't really recyclable and the lobbyists who made that happen, and you’re required to put them on, knew that ahead of time. So they are doing this small change, “Look, you can do the thing,” and then that stops people from pushing back against the production of it. It's helping, but not really and I'm hearing your view of Coworker seems to be helping, but not really. MELISSA: I mean, the Frank one is even worse. They're a for-profit startup. I'm like, “If anyone is giving them positive coverage, they are not asking the right questions here.” Actually, when I saw them written about, I attempted to join just to see what they were about and they rejected me because they were like, “Oh, you're already in a union. You don't need us.” So very interesting. They occasionally email me asking for my feedback, but I'm like, “I don't think you're worth my time.” REIN: If someone wanted to make a platform for unionizing, but I don't think you're going to get much traction in Silicon Valley on that one. MELISSA: There is one person who's doing that. It's called Unit, but I don't know that much about it. I'm just very skeptical of the idea that tech can disrupt unions and it's the easy way out to say, “Oh, the old unions, they're not radical enough. They don't cater to tech workers.” To throw that all away for those reasons is bad in my opinion, because they're not perfect, existing unions, but you're unionizing with a diverse workforce that has a history and has power and I don't know. I think it's also classist, too, like, “Oh, we don't want to organize with these people that aren't tech workers. We don't want to organize with these blue-collar workers.” They're not thinking that maybe explicitly, but that's what they're saying in a way. They don't want to say that, but that's what they're saying. REIN: Yeah. I personally have a problem with trade unions that is that they fracture the workforce and they prevent people with different trades from organizing together and historically, that's been on purpose. Like there's a reason the AFL is still around, but the Knights of Labor aren't. MELISSA: Yeah. I mean, unions are organizations, they’re just like companies and stuff. There's some that even have dark histories of racism and stuff like that. Although, trade unions are a little different than like CWA. This is where I wish I was more up to the terminology, but it's very complicated. REIN: I would just like to unionize whole companies and not worry about what job titles people have because I think that's the systems thinking way to do it. MELISSA: Yeah, and we unionized everyone in our company that qualified under the labor, the national labor law, and not just engineers so, that was good. Luckily, the people were into engineers being craftsmen, or whatever are usually typically anti-union, but otherwise, you'd think that they'd be like, “Oh, we need an engineer's trade union because we're like electricians, or something.” But I think that would not be a good direction. CASEY: Yeah, I think it makes a lot of sense that there are unions for people who work at a company, separate from groups of people working on a technology like, Ruby user groups and all the other meetup groups for every technology everywhere and the conferences. It's like the skills are separate from the union, from the company and it's funny, I guess maybe historical that a lot of them are conflated together. All the engineers in the company are doing both a little bit. I like that we're cleanly splitting it now sometimes. That sounds great. Melissa, I noticed that you have a Substack newsletter, which is a popular thing lately. Not that you're working on a lot lately. I know we talked about that, but there's a trend for individual people to be writing more and more online lately and it seems like you're aware of that and in that sphere. What's your experience lately writing online, trying to get an audience and all that? The process. MELISSA: I say no to Substack because I'm like, “This is just more work and I don't need any more work.” I started a Substack because I was like, “Oh, a lot of people have Substacks.” But then I was like, “Oh, this requires me to do, this is another job.” You have to have a consistent thing and at least, we are starting to – Substack encourages paying creators. That's good. But at some point, it's like, “Oh, I'm paying like ten different creators. I wish there was this thing where I could just pay them all at the same time and they could have jobs and benefits. Oh, that's called a publication. Too bad, we've systematically disabled these by predatory capitalists, hedge funds and stuff, buying them and disposing of them.” Like what's happened to the Chicago Tribune. I had friends who worked there and that thing it's basically just been totally dismantled by predatory companies. So I think Substack is going to be here and other similar models are going to be here for the foreseeable future. But I don't think they are – I think it's sad. CASEY: Have you worked with any of the traditional publications to try to get things published? I know you do JavaScript content work. MELISSA: Yeah. So I originally was a food writer and I've worked for Chicagoist. I left Chicagoist because I didn't have time due to my tech job, but they unionized and they were shut down because they unionized and that's really sad. A lot of my friends lost their jobs. So I have a little bit of experience in the media world and I've watched the media world become so fractured and precarious and I think the tech industry has been unfortunately, a negative actor in that. But now, I primarily write about JavaScript and I do so professionally. It'd be nice to write about food instead, but I like JavaScript. I like coding a lot so that's cool. There's no jobs in food writing, though. CASEY: Tell us about something you wrote recently. MELISSA: I wrote about JavaScript date libraries and like the different ones that are out there and when you should use the library and when you shouldn't use the library and that's for the blog I work for, which is called Skypack blog and I do DevRel all for them in there, a CDN for JavaScript modules. Oh, here's the thing we can talk about: how people attack DevRel as being non-technical and I hate that. JACOB: Yeah, please. MELISSA: There was a tweet this week, or maybe it was on Friday, it was like, “Offend a developer relations person in one tweet,” and I'm like – so it was a variation on the original one, which was, “Offend a software engineer, offend a DBA in one tweet,” and those were often there a software engineers making fun of software engineers or DVA's people making jokes about data structures, or a bad data. The DevRel one was like, “Oh, your job is fake.” That's what all the jokes were and most of them were not from DevRel people and I'm like, “I hate this.” I used to be a frontend developer and people used to joke like that about frontend developers, like, “Oh, you just play with CSS all day and you just push little boxes around the page and give them different colors.” We need to recognize that there’s sexism involved in this and also, racism because frontend development and DevRel tend to be more diverse subsections of tech. I'm just tired of men saying a job is fake and that I'm not technical. I left frontend dev because of that, partially. I shouldn’t have done that because the end of the day, there's no way to convince these people that you're a real engineer. They're just not going to be convinced because they're sexist and they're jerks and they should be deleted. REIN: Yeah. It was kind of funny when it was software engineers laughing at themselves, but it turned into punching down pretty quickly and then it just got me in and I did not like it. I would say to those people that they should try a day in the life of a DevRel and see if you think you're good at it. MELISSA: Yeah. It's thinking that, okay, if you have these skills, you don't have the technical skills and also, that your other skills aren't valuable at all. This is a constant struggle, working with engineers, especially working in cross-departmental is engineers not recognizing other skills. I was talking about video editing before. I'm like, “That is the worst thing I can totally think of is calling a video editor non-technical; they're literally the most technical people I could think of.” They're walking with software technology and also, a lot of engineers who are like, “Oh, anyone can write things,” and I'm like, “I've edited y’all’s writing. I know you can't write.” [chuckles] Even me, I feel like sometimes the more engineering I do, the worst I become as a writer. That's scary, but I try to balance it. I try to be a mediocre engineer and a mediocre writer. REIN: I want people to stop doing that because it’s just a shitty thing to do, but I will also say that as you get more experienced as a software engineer – so I'm a principal now, which means I'm a huge deal, but as you get more experienced, you need to get good at a lot of the stuff that DevRels are good at. You need to be able to convince people that your ideas are good. You need to be able to communicate both verbally and written in writing. You need to give a shit about product and marketing and customer support and people who aren't engineered. You have to start doing all that stuff if you want to grow as an engineer. So to some extent, I think these people are limiting themselves more than are limiting DevRel. They should still stop being shitty people, though. MELISSA: Yeah. The whole principal engineer thing is funny because I was just thinking about how every company has a different definition for principal, senior, junior. That's one of the things that a union can help with and otherwise, it can be very arbitrary and you can feel like they're used to discriminating against people. So if the union can negotiate what a ladder is and what it means, that's way better than having just a random manager do it. That's my rant with all of tech. We're always constantly reinventing the same thing over and over again. Ladders were like, “Oh, we’ve got to build this from scratch for ourselves. Even though we have no training on building ladders, we're just going to invent this because we know everything because we're engineers.” Same with interviewing process. I'm like, “Oh, there's decades of research on interview process. but you want to invent your own new interviewing process.” I'm like, “At some point, you're just like experimenting on people and that's unethical.” I'm like, “Take your weird games elsewhere. If you want to design weird games, play Dungeons & Dragons, or something.” REIN: Yeah. I mean, if you want to take human performance seriously, you can do that. People have been doing that for decades. You just need to go take a course and read some books and started taking it seriously. It's not hard. I mean, it's hard to evaluate human performance because human performance is very complex, but it's impossible if you don't know what you're doing. MELISSA: Yeah, and I tried to get – any interview process I'm involved with designing. I'm like, “First of all, why am I involved with designing this? I'm not qualified. Second of all, at least I did read some research and I do know that the research shows that you want to do a structured interview.” If I can just get people to agree to that one thing, it's so much better than if they're just asking random questions. So structured interview means you agree on a structure beforehand for the interview, you agree on questions and what you're going to talk to the person about, or what exercise you're going to do, if you insist on doing programming exercise. You ask the same ones to every candidate. There's other things you could do to make it more fair, but if you just have that one baseline. Otherwise, it's so arbitrary. REIN: There's a book called Hiring A-Players, or something like that and I like some of the advice that it has, but I think the idea that you can distinguish between “A and B players” in an interview is pretty marginal. But I do like the parts about trying to make things more evidence-based when you're trying to assess capability. I think that a lot of the hiring practices we have today mostly are about providing motivated reasoning to hire people who look like you and that's about 90% of what they do. MELISSA: Yeah, and there's also this thing, I will die in this hill, but I have people who insist if we don't do a specific code exercise, or do some kind of screener that we're going to hire someone who can't code, who literally can't code and some people will have insisted that they've worked with such people. I'm really skeptical that like can't code. What does that mean? I don't know. Does it mean they just didn't integrate with the team correctly? No one tried to help them? I'm not sure. I'm just really skeptical of that. It just sounds like more hoops to jump through, but I have not convinced anybody of that besides myself. [chuckles] At least in workplaces. REIN: I think in my career, I've maybe worked with one person who I genuinely thought couldn't code, but that's when I was pretty new. What I think now is that they were really not put in an environment where they could be successful. They were dropped in immediately into a high-pressure scenario, with little experience, with a team that was small, under-resourced, over pressurized, and didn't have time to support them. So what I thought then was, “Wow, this guy sure can't code. He sucks.” What I think now is, “Wow, we sure screwed up putting him in that position.” MELISSA: Yeah. I've taught people to code who are 12. I'm really skeptical that someone was hired that managed, I don't know, I just sound like they're not managed well, or not onboarded well, but that'd be a cool, like, I don't know. Maybe I'm becoming too interested in HR, I will become an HR researcher and study the phenomenon of people saying that their coworkers can't code and what does that mean? REIN: Yeah. MELISSA: I mean actually find those people, ask them, and then find the people who supposedly can’t code and find out they actually can. They were in a very difficult environment, for example, or I don't know. I've been in environments where getting the dev environment started took you five days. No wonder they had trouble; you thought they couldn't code because you did set them up to being able to code. They had to install 40 different things and do a proxy, or whatever. So yeah. JACOB: I’m someone who’s very – well, there's that phenomenon stereotype threat you perceive that other people are making preconceived judgements about you. Like, “Oh, I'm the only person of color in my team and I can tell that I'm not expected to do well.” It affects your performance and as a white male, that actually does make some sense to me. If I can feel that I'm going to be judged for the output that I put out, instantly whether it's I didn't follow the great style, or it looks like my work is going to be picked apart immediately. That's just going to be debilitating and I'm just going to be constantly focused about looking good rather than trying to solve the problem. That is not what – Rein’s story does not surprise me at all. MELISSA: Yeah. If I actually hired someone who couldn't code, that would be actually exciting to me, it would be like My Fair Lady, or something because I could definitely teach them how to code and I'd be really impressed because I was like, “Oh, they were able to talk about all these projects and stuff and not actually be able to code?” I don't believe this person exists, by the way. REIN: The other thing I really wish people would understand is that human performance is ecological. The context matters. If you take one person and drop them into five different hypothetical companies, you'd get five different outcomes. They'd perform in different ways. You wouldn't get the same performance for them in those different companies because it's not just about the person. MELISSA: Yeah, and it's also about the demands of the job. I worked with one guy and people told me he couldn't code and what they actually meant was that they just didn't think he was technical, or something, but he was coding every day. He was doing Dribble templates, which is not considered the highest level of work by some snobby engineers. But that guy could definitely code and he did his job and it was very unfair to say he couldn't code. CASEY: I have a story I can share about some evidence-based interviewing I did back at the IT department. We evaluated hundreds of student employees to fix laptops every year—we hired a whole bunch—and we evaluated them based on the people skills and their technical skills on a scale we put that into data for all the points that evidence and structured questions and all that. Some people had a 5 on people's scales out of 5 and 1 on technical skills, or vice versa, or something close to that. And then we look back a year, or 2, or 3 later, after they had time to learn and grow in the position, we loved all the people with the 5 on people's skills. They were the best employees. They learned the most over time. We're proud of them. They were great to work with. They taught other people a lot, too. But the ones with the technical 5s weren’t people ones. A lot of them resigned, or didn't like the job, or people avoided working with them, they were solo employees. Maybe they got some work done, but that lesson that you can learn the technical part, but you can't necessarily learn the people part. Some of it's learnable if you're motivated, but the disposition is what really drove success in that role. I think that applies everywhere. It's not surprising. MELISSA: I wish there were more approaches teaching people skills because, I don't know, it feels like there's a lot of trainings for engineering skills, but not for people's skills. I've definitely like, I was raised by parents who were weird and homeschooled me. So I definitely use a lot of stuff like books to learn people skills and stuff like that. I don't know. It's super basic, but How to Win Friends and Influence People, that one. You could just read that. I mean, it gets you some of the way there. So I wish there were more resources like that. REIN: Yeah. I would say that you can learn people skills, but companies don't teach them. That's not what companies think is part of their responsibility. They think that they're hiring the person as they are and can teach them technical things. That's another problem, which is that companies aren't providing the opportunities to grow that people need. JACOB: There's probably different people's skills for different companies, that would be successful. MELISSA: Yeah, and it's the same thing. It's the saying that I've heard at workplace is like, “Oh, he doesn't know how to code.” I've also heard the same thing like, “He has no social skills.” It's like something you're born with and can't be changed and that's just your lot in life and I don't believe that. I was homeschooled and when I first went to school, you would have said, “I had poor social skills,” but now I have serviceable social skills. JACOB: I think Casey pointed out an important distinction between a disposition to be personable and learn and apply people skills versus the skills you have at a particular moment. I, as a neurodiverse person, I think that's a really important thing because I'm sure people have said behind my back many times in my life that I don't have people's skills without commenting on the disposition of my ability to do well and interface with people. I think they’re two different things. MELISSA: I think neurodiverse people—I'm also in that category—also sometimes are even better at certain people's skills because we've been told we have these issues and we really want to think about them. I've read a lot of books; I don't think most neurotypical people have read as many books as I have on human psychology. I wasn't a psychology major—I just want to know why are these normal people trying to get me to do these things? What does it mean? That's a level I’m asking? Yeah, but that's a skill and it's a learned skill that is valuable to me. REIN: Can we talk about unions again because I have a question? If you already talked about this before I got here, just let me know. But my question is: what would you say to someone who really has no idea how to get started with this, but thinks that there's an opportunity to organize their company is worried about retaliation and things like that and wants to get started? MELISSA: Yeah. Get in contact with, they could DM me and I could connect them to people at the current Glitch union, or two, you can approach a union directly. CWA is happy to help. The union that Kickstarter organizers worked under OPEIU, I think is also another option. It can be hard to pick a union because some only do local organizing, but there are some that are national like CWA. CWA has a lot of resources. I would just go with them at first. But you can always do your research and stuff. I'd just be careful with people who direct you to those petition sites, or whatever and that did happen to me. REIN: And don’t do your organizing on the company Slack. MELISSA: Oh yeah, for sure. Use Signal, don't do it on company time when you're supposed to be working, build social relationships with people at work. Although, it could be, I don’t know if – I was a member of a company where they specifically seem to discourage social relationships. I was a contractor. I wonder if that was a way that they were discouraging organization and unionizing. You see that with Uber and stuff like that. Uber drivers, they're not given a company Slack, pr whatever, or even like, they don't have a way to chat with other drivers. They've had to do this on their own time on Facebook; they've used Facebook to organize. So definitely don't use any company resources, or company time. You're not legally protected if you do that. If you do contact CWA and stuff, they'll tell you what's legal and illegal. It is for example, legal to organize during lunch, I believe, but you should definitely check that beforehand. And then you get into issues if you're remote, time zones, everyone has lunch at a different time. You have to be creative. REIN: Yeah. It turns out it's legal, except for all of these loopholes that make it not legal and companies are incentivized to make the case that what you did was illegal so that they can fire you. So just be extra careful. MELISSA: Yeah. I don't know. I've known of union organizers that they're going to find a way to fire some of them, but if you can stand up and up in your job, you're harder to fire. Make sure to attend all your meetings. Don't be late to work. I am not a fan of that and I think it's very unfair that you have to be expected to live by this perfect standard that non-organizing employees don't have to follow, but I'm willing to do it for the union. REIN: Yeah. I mean, just be aware that once it becomes apparent that this is what you're doing, they're going to try to fire you—any company will—and so you need to be on your best behavior even more so than you were before. MELISSA: And it is scary organizing unions. I've often wondered would I have been laid off if there was a union, or not? I don't know. But the thing is you negotiate severance for me and I didn't have to do that individually. So it gave me a good cushion when I was laid off and I know people who are laid off who didn't have those things. A company can hurt you even if you don't unionize and at least, unions give you some protection and I'm very grateful to CWA negotiating my severance. REIN: So are we getting close to reflections? CASEY: I think it is time for reflections. I can go first. As a product manager and engineering manager before, I've always been interested in being part of a union and it's awesome hearing a success story about how, what happened at a company, even though it was the formal type that I'm not eligible for as a manager. But now I'm very interested in looking up some of these alternative forms like sectoral marketing, minority union. I think there's a whole lot happening recently that could help middle managers like me and a lot of my roles have the benefits. Often, I hear, “No, you can't possibly ever be part of a union. Why would you even ask that question?” And it's just great to hear someone actually who has worked with a union and say, “No, that's possible. It's just a different form. Not covered by loss.” That's what I want to hear. That's what I wanted to believe. MELISSA: Yeah. It's so unfair. Unions are just what's the law now doesn't have to be the law tomorrow, for example and different countries have different forms of unions and stuff, so. JACOB: I'm thinking more about the thread we got on about personal skills, people skills and I'm thinking more about how those can be really just a function of the culture of your team and who's on it and what everyone's individual needs are and how their brains are wired and so many other factors. I'm just thinking about, “Well, what are the right skills that I need for my team rather than just an arbitrary, or a universal list of what those skills might be?” MELISSA: Yeah. I'm thinking I need to like – I'm here talking about unions and there's so much I don't know about unions. I'd like to study unions in other countries, especially. I really want to learn about different forms of unionization and really delve into the history of unionization. I've done it a little. I was never taught that much about unionization in school and stuff like that, especially from homeschool because my parents were anti-union. But even when I went to public school, after being homeschooled, we really didn't talk that much. I know about the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, but I think for most people, we don't know that much about it and I definitely want to beef up my history and international knowledge on that. REIN: Yeah. I think also looking into collectivization work around collectives, things like that, there's a tech consultancy that does the websites for Verso and Haymarket and some other lefty publications and there are workers collective and there are actually a surprising number of them. MELISSA: Yeah. That's super interesting to me. I've done a little bit of co-ops and stuff. I've been members of co-ops. There is an interesting article, I forget where I saw it, but it was about how co-ops can be good, but they're not the answer to work, or organizing because often they replace work, or unionization. For example, they were talking about this coffee shop that they were trying to unionize and they all got fired and then they formed a co-op and that was seen as success, but it's not necessarily. For example, I'm a member of a co-op, a food co-op, and the workers there were trying to unionize and the co-op was union busting them and that was like, wow, that is really special and as a member of the co-op, I was writing to the board. I was like, “How dare you, I'm going to quit.” [chuckles] We should recognize the union. They really fought that union and I was like, “This is supposed to be – co-op is supposed to be empowering to workers,” but just like unions, there are many different forms of co-ops. There's a very interesting history, especially internationally and I don't even know the tip of the iceberg on that. But I'm very fascinated and having been in co-ops and been involved with co-ops. Another issue with co-ops is often the membership that can be almost like trade unions in that, there can require an onerous process to join one. REIN: I think the thing I'd like to leave our listeners with, you might've heard the saying, “An injury to one is an injury to all,” and you might know that that comes from the IWW, I believe. But you might not know that it comes from preamble to their constitution, which says in part, “Trade unions foster a state of things which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping to feed one another in wage wars. Trade unions aid the employing class to mislead workers into the belief that the working class have interests in common with their employers. These sad conditions can only be changed and the interest of the working class upheld only by an organization formed in such a way that all of its members in any one industry, or in all industries, if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on.” So the IWW obviously believes very strongly, you have to organize whole companies and not just the techies maybe get their union because they're special. I mean, can you imagine if Uber, if the tech workers and the drivers unionized together? They share the same interests, folks they could do that. MELISSA: Yeah. That's an interesting question. Like, could they? That's another thing that contracting, or permalansing, I don't know, maybe there'll be a major court challenge, especially with the Biden administration where the National Labor Board might be more sympathetic. Can contractors unionize with regular workers? Contracting is a way to bust unions and to keep people in a position of precarity, but what if they ruled that you can unionize. Once you realize that’s arbitrary, you're like, “Oh, if you've got good enough lawyers, if you have politicians that can get involved, maybe unionization 10 years from now will look really different because maybe they –” REIN: Yeah, the main difference is that the drivers don't have multi-million dollar lobbying organization that they're backed by. That's the main difference and the reason they're not getting the respect they deserve. Special Guest: Melissa McEwen.

Key worker organizers from the videogames industry draw lessons from their struggle, all while collectively playing through Fall Guys. ———————————————— Since the beginning of 2018 there has been a wave of worker organizing in the videogames industry. While there is a longer history of resistance and struggle among game workers, the last two years have been the most visible and connected examples so far, with active campaigns stretched across several contingents. This interactive discussion will bring together key participants from the US and UK and ask them to reflect on the experience of organizing through worker networks, assess the efforts of their new trade union formations, and generalize the lessons of these important workplace struggles—all while collectively playing through Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout. The chaos, vibrancy, and frenetic antics of this multiplayer battle royale should provide an excellent backdrop for the conversation, and may even offer unexpected insights into the work that goes into the videogames industry. If nothing else it will make for a more entertaining than usual panel discussion. The event will close with plenty of time for questions for the speakers about the organizing and/or gameplay advise from the online audience. ———————————————— Dr Jamie Woodcock is a senior lecturer at the Open University and a researcher based in London. He is the author of The Gig Economy (Polity, 2019), Marx at the Arcade (Haymarket, 2019), and Working The Phones (Pluto, 2017). His research is inspired by the workers' inquiry and focuses on labour, work, the gig economy, platforms, resistance, organizing, and videogames. He is on the editorial board of Notes from Below and Historical Materialism. Emma Kinema is an organizer with the Communication Workers of America (CWA). Austin Kelmore is the former chair of Game Workers Unite UK, a game programmer, tech lead, DEI advocate, and tea drinker. ————————————————————— Order a copy of Marx at the Arcade: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1319-marx-at-the-arcade The Gig Economy: https://bookshop.org/a/1039/9781509536368 Working the Phones: https://bookshop.org/a/1039/9780745399065 Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/46ArCqpxS20 Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks

This week, 200+ employees at Google announced that they've formed a union. The Alphabet Workers Union, which is supported by Communications Workers of America (CWA), is the first of its kind at Google, and will include dues-paying members, an elected board of directors, and paid organizing staff. For now, it still represents a small fraction of the roughly 260,000 workers at Alphabet. But it's still a big deal — especially in Silicon Valley, where it's so hard to organize at all. Guest: Sam Harnett, Silicon Valley Reporter for KQED Read the transcript here. Listen to our How We Got Here series here. 

30 Minutes features a conversation with Miranda Schubert, Leila Hudson, and Felise Tagaban. They are all members of the Coalition for Academic Justice at the University of Arizona or CAJUA. They discussed the issues that led them to join together with others in CAJUA. CAJUA is a coalition of students, staff, and faculty fighting for equity, transparency, and representation. They say that it is their love for and belief in the university that obliges them to imagine and create a compassionate, collaborative, and just University of Arizona. Furthering the work of CAJUA, on August 18, 2020, they formed Local 7065, the United Campus Workers (UCW) of Arizona, and became part of the national movement of the Communications Workers of America (CWA). Felise Tagaban is Diné, Tlingit, & Filipino. Her mom is from Black Mesa, AZ on the Navajo Nation. Her dad is from Petersburg, Alaska. She is proud to be a guest on the lands of the Tohono O’odham as a 1st-year doctoral student in the U of A Higher Education program. She is also a graduate student adviser for Native SOAR (Student Outreach, Access, and Resiliency), a multigenerational service-learning mentoring program that equips undergraduate students at the University of Arizona (UA) to mentor local middle and high school students. Leila Hudson is an Associate Professor in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences where she is Associate Professor of Modern Middle East Culture & Political Economy. She is also a UA Faculty Senator. Miranda Schubert is an Academic Advisor in the College of Medicine Department of Physiology. She is a member of the CAJUA steering committee and the union steering committee. Full disclosure- Miranda is a DJ on KXCI’s Tuesday Early Morning Music Mix. More information is available at https://www.cajuarizona.com/. Recorded and produced by Amanda Shauger.

Craig Parshall, Special Counsel to the American Center for Law and Justice and Founder of the John Milton Project for Digital Free Speech, on what happened Wednesday in the House hearing on Big Tech. Brandon Showalter, reporter for the Christian Post, on J. K. Rowling's continued pushback on the transgender ideology and Facebook's censorship on the topic of gender dysphoria. David Closson, FRC's Director of Christian Ethics and Biblical Worldview, on the Christian response to a study showing how the pandemic is turning millennials into socialists. Doreen Denny, Vice President of Government Relations for Concerned Women for America (CWA), on Title IX in a post-Bostock age, CWA's work to protect Title IX, and CWA's letter to the NCAA Board of Governors. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/loving-liberty/support

In this episode of the Conservative Business Journal Podcast, John Di Lemme interviews Penny Nance, CEO and President of Concerned Women for America (CWA). In this powerful podcast, Penny shares... - The most tragic event in her life in which she was assaulted by a sexual predator, who helped her, and how good police work put the predator in jail - How the lady that helped her saw no race, but instead saw just another woman that needed help - Why the idea of defunding police is insane and detrimental to the safety of Americans - How the "woke" mob has caused division in America - Why the Democrats are more interested in stoking rage and anger than finding a solution - How the lack of spiritual leadership is further dividing our nation - The #1 reason that she supports the President Trump and the importance of him keeping promises - Why Joe Biden is no longer a moderate Democrat but a leftist liberal - How power of prayer coupled with action will radically change our country - Why it's time for women of faith to step forward and speak truth - What the American flag means to her and why we must stand for the flag Plus so much more!

In this episode of the Conservative Business Journal Podcast, John Di Lemme interviews Penny Nance, CEO and President of Concerned Women for America (CWA). In this powerful podcast, Penny shares... - The most tragic event in her life in which she was assaulted by a sexual predator, who helped her, and how good police work put the predator in jail - How the lady that helped her saw no race, but instead saw just another woman that needed help - Why the idea of defunding police is insane and detrimental to the safety of Americans - How the "woke" mob has caused division in America - Why the Democrats are more interested in stoking rage and anger than finding a solution - How the lack of spiritual leadership is further dividing our nation - The #1 reason that she supports the President Trump and the importance of him keeping promises - Why Joe Biden is no longer a moderate Democrat but a leftist liberal - How power of prayer coupled with action will radically change our country - Why it's time for women of faith to step forward and speak truth - What the American flag means to her and why we must stand for the flag Plus so much more!

"H" is for Hover Scare (1887). Hiram E. Hover (often mis-spelled in the press as “Hoover”) formed the Co-operative Workers of America (CWA) in North Carolina. The goal of the CWA was to promote major labor reforms and establish cooperative stores. In South Carolina, Hoover addressed inter-racial crowds in Spartanburg, Greenville, and Walhalla. Other organizers, recruited by Hoover, founded CWA Branches or “Hoover Clubs” in Greenville proper, and in the rural areas of Greenville, Laurens and Spartanburg counties. Fearing an uprising by black sharecroppers and laborers that made up the membership of the CWA, whites in the upstate—with the tacit approval of state officials--formed vigilante groups. The leaders of the Hoover Clubs were rounded up and forced to abandon the CWA. South Carolina newspapers reported the events of 1887 as the “Hoover Scare.”

On this week's show we take a look at the CBA between the NFL and the NFL PA and have some audio from The Pat McAfee Show. We ask is Pat right about the union keeping quiet on the deal? Teachers in New York are fighting for foundation aid, which is money that they are owed from the state. Find out why it is important and what states like New York so to make it tougher to adequately fund our schools. The Communications Workers of America (CWA) have put Democrats who voted against the PRO Act on notice and are asking the DCCC to pull their support. Trump is challenging a ban on captive audience meetings and wants to let federal workers opt-out of their union at any time. We wonder, why would you ever want to opt-out of your union. Plus LaGrange gives the panelists the floor to discuss whether he went too far in saying that Trump supporters create Stupid Kids. Let us know in the comments if he went too far.

In 1979, Concerned Women for America (CWA) was founded with the goal of stopping the Equal Rights Amendment. Now, there’s a new Equal Rights Amendment circulating in Congress, and CWA is as opposed to it as ever. Find out more in this story from host Taylor Berglund.

Rick Smith from The Rick Smith Show joins us to talk about Presidential politics and give us some insight into the 2020 election. Wes McEnany from the Communications Workers of America (CWA) called in to explain their organizing drive of tech and game workers. Plus minimum wage increases save lives, a law firm in Texas is preying on public employees, Columbia Sportswear is organizing over Band-Aids, and Trump is mum on AT&T outsourcing jobs.

Concerned Women for America (CWA)recently celebrated 40 years promoting Biblical principles and pro-women policies. Join our CEO & President Penny Young Nance, who hosts, as we hear from our amazing Keynote Speaker, Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee as well as our Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as they so warmly addressed our supporters and members that night.

Let’s talk about rising health care costs for T-minus five seconds—costs, by the way, that bear little if any correlation to the quality of care delivered or the outcomes that patients attain. Getting what you pay for and no less is a rallying cry. That rallying cry should unify pretty much everybody who is writing checks for health care services. That includes taxpayers; it includes employers; it includes patients. When I say taxpayers and patients, by the way, I also could mean unions. When health care costs too much and bosses resort to cost shifting, nobody wins. Businesses or public sectors with sick employees do not perform very well. Nor do businesses win when extraordinary health care costs push down wages—dollars disappear that were formerly used to innovate or reduce class sizes or any of a myriad of other things that money could be better spent on besides overly expensive health care. In this health care podcast, I speak with Mark Blum from America’s Agenda. When I was talking with Mark, I kind of pictured him bearing a flag with a peace sign on it. His point for unions and employers alike is this: Instead of ripping each other into shreds at the bargaining table over health care, maybe work together proactively. Clip the reasons for rising health care costs in the first place. These reasons include, but certainly are not limited to, excess middleman profits that do not contribute to patient value, private equity earning profits on the backs of patients and payers, a health care system that rewards volume over value … I could go on and on. But here’s a way out of this tangled web we’ve been forced into: Instead of bowing and scraping at the boots of special interests driving up the costs of health care for Americans—and when I say Americans, I mean bosses or labor alike—instead of flailing at the mercy of these forces, change the game. Gang up together and proactively demand to get what you pay for. Mark and I talk about two very concrete examples on how to do this. Mark and the team at America’s Agenda, for example, saved New Jersey $1.6 billion (that’s billion with a B) over the past three years on pharmacy benefits alone. That’s a whole lot more shekel than could have been generated by haggling over who pays for what of a pharmacy bill that is $1.6 billion too high. We also talk about direct primary care and how much direct primary care—not owned by a private equity, by the way—how much direct primary care can improve patient outcomes while, at the same time, reducing costs. Mark has some learnings here, too. You can learn more at americasagenda.org and solidaritus.net.  Mark Blum is executive director of America’s Agenda, an alliance of labor unions, businesses, health care providers, and government leaders with a common mission of guaranteeing access to affordable, high-quality health care for every American. Under Mark’s direction, America’s Agenda has defined widely adopted principles of high-value care delivery design and achieved an unrivaled record of success in building winning statewide health care reform campaigns. Managed Care magazine recently featured an America’s Agenda–designed strategy that netted more than $1 billion in prescription drug savings for New Jersey’s public workers during 2018 and 2019 and is projected to save the state nearly $2.5 billion over five years without cutting public employee prescription benefits. Mark serves also as president and CEO of SolidaritUS Health, a leading-edge, labor-owned direct primary care provider whose innovative approaches to relationship-based care delivery were featured recently in Modern Healthcare magazine. SolidaritUS Health has revolutionized patient experience and improved quality of care while reducing employer health costs substantially and helping save thousands of US industrial jobs from being offshored. Mark, who has served as a special adviser on hospital finances to leadership of the California legislature, serves currently as an appointee of Governor Phil Murphy to the New Jersey State Health Benefits Value and Quality Task Force. Mark was the first male ever elected to the board of directors of the American Medical Women’s Association. Internationally, he has served as adviser to Cambodian textile workers organizing the first labor unions in their country’s history. 03:17 Employers and unions—combining forces. 04:04 Rising deductibles at eight times the rate of inflation. 04:40 Creating and sharing savings, rather than fighting over cost shifting. 05:45 Working with New Jersey unions to have meaningful reduction in pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) spend—New Jersey Education Association (NJEA); Communications Workers of America (CWA); American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME); Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association (PBA); among others. 07:57 Finding the next PBM to serve all these people in New Jersey using a “reverse auction.” 09:04 Designing a purchaser contract to eliminate hidden pricing in PBM contracting. 16:20 “There is no reason other PBMs couldn’t participate in reverse auctions like this.” 16:35 How reverse auctions like America’s Agenda’s auction in New Jersey are possible in virtually every state. 17:58 “The big obstacle to doing this … is that the PBM industry is remarkably profitable.” 19:25 Tactics among PBMs—Vinay Patel discusses in EP241.20:26 Why PBMs don’t want to see this change. 21:51 “What stops them from reducing reimbursements to community pharmacies?” 22:05 “Best-in-class terms can build in requirements that PBMs may not spread price.” 24:37 America’s Agenda’s transformation of direct primary care. 26:56 America’s Agenda’s biggest innovation in labor direct ownership of direct primary care. 28:24 Aligning the interests of patients and physicians. 29:46 The big crisis in American health care—rising costs. You can learn more at americasagenda.org and solidaritus.net.  Check out our latest #healthcarepodcast episode with @Mark_Blum of @AmericasAgenda. #healthcare #podcast #digitalhealth #healthcosts #healthcarecosts #hcmkg #Employers and #unions—combining forces for the betterment of health care. @Mark_Blum of @AmericasAgenda discusses in this week’s #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #digitalhealth #healthcosts #healthcarecosts #hcmkg How rising #deductibles are surpassing #inflation. @Mark_Blum of @AmericasAgenda discusses in this week’s #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #digitalhealth #healthcosts #healthcarecosts #hcmkg Sharing savings instead of #costshifting. @Mark_Blum of @AmericasAgenda discusses in this week’s #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #digitalhealth #healthcosts #healthcarecosts #hcmkg Meaningful reduction in #PBM spend in New Jersey. @Mark_Blum of @AmericasAgenda discusses in this week’s #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #digitalhealth #healthcosts #healthcarecosts #hcmkg What is a #reverseauction, and how is it useful in finding the right #PBM? @Mark_Blum of @AmericasAgenda discusses in this week’s #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #digitalhealth #healthcosts #healthcarecosts #hcmkg Purchaser contracting in place of #PBM contracting. @Mark_Blum of @AmericasAgenda discusses in this week’s #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #digitalhealth #healthcosts #healthcarecosts #hcmkg “There is no reason other #PBMs couldn’t participate in #reverseauctions like this.” @Mark_Blum of @AmericasAgenda discusses in this week’s #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #digitalhealth #healthcosts #healthcarecosts #hcmkg “The big obstacle to doing this … is that the #PBM industry is remarkably profitable.” @Mark_Blum of @AmericasAgenda discusses in this week’s #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #digitalhealth #healthcosts #healthcarecosts #hcmkg Tactics among #PBMs. @Mark_Blum of @AmericasAgenda and Stacey, our host, give a callback to EP241 with @RphVinay of @SIPNpbm in this week’s #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #digitalhealth #healthcosts #healthcarecosts #hcmkg Why don’t #PBMs want to see this change? @Mark_Blum of @AmericasAgenda discusses in this week’s #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #digitalhealth #healthcosts #healthcarecosts #hcmkg “What stops them from reducing reimbursements to community pharmacies?” @Mark_Blum of @AmericasAgenda discusses in this week’s #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #digitalhealth #healthcosts #healthcarecosts #hcmkg How can purchasers stop #PBM #pricespreading? @Mark_Blum of @AmericasAgenda discusses in this week’s #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #digitalhealth #healthcosts #healthcarecosts #hcmkg Transforming #directprimarycare. @Mark_Blum of @AmericasAgenda discusses in this week’s #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #digitalhealth #healthcosts #healthcarecosts #hcmkg Aligning #patient and #physician interests. @Mark_Blum of @AmericasAgenda discusses in this week’s #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #digitalhealth #healthcosts #healthcarecosts #hcmkg What’s the biggest crisis in #Americanhealthcare? @Mark_Blum of @AmericasAgenda discusses in this week’s #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #digitalhealth #healthcosts #healthcarecosts #hcmkg

Concerned Women for America (CWA)recently celebrated 40 years promoting Biblical principles and pro-women policies in a Gala at the Trump International Hotel. Join our Chief Operating Officer Toni DeLancey, who hosts, as we hear from our founder, Mrs. LaHaye, some very special remarks from President Trump, remarks from our CEO and President Penny Nance, and our keynote speaker - the Vice President of the United States, the Honorable Mike Pence.

On Thursday, Oct. 10, Sarasota Herald-Tribune reporters and their supporters took part in the NewsGuild-Communication Workers of America (CWA) campaign to preserve local news in front of the paper's downtown offices. They handed out flyers decrying GateHouse Media's aggressive program of layoffs and cost-cutting. GateHouse Media, which acquired the Herald-Tribune in 2015, is preparing for a potential merger with the Gannett corporation. GateHouse says there will be up to $300 million in additional cuts and synergies following the merger. We spoke with longtime local columnist Billy Cox.

U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown interviews call center workers and Ohio natives, Linda Bradley, Marvin Thompson, and Renee Rouser, about what it means to work in an industry that has become extremely vulnerable to outsourcing. Linda, Marvin, and Renee – all members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union – debunk the preconceived notions of what it means to be a call center worker.

With special guests, Larry Cohen (Board Chair-Our Revolution/Board chair-Democracy Initiative/Past President-Communication Workers of America (CWA) ), Nina Turner (President-Our Revolution / former Ohio State Senator & Bernie 2016 Surrogate) and Basi Alonso and Sam Adaramola, Dreamers that work internally for Our Revolution.

Bev Ehlen is the State Director for Concerned Women for America of Missouri. She lived in the St. Louis County most of her life, but moved to Warren County in 1999. Bev and her husband, Clif, have two sons, two daughters-in-law and four grandchildren, so far. Bev left her real estate career in 1990 to homeschool their sons. After learning about current issues and the Christian foundation of our country, Bev joined Concerned Women for America (CWA) in 1991 and became a prayer/action chapter leader shortly thereafter. After meeting and working with state legislators through those first years, she developed an interest in the activities at the State Capitol and became the Legislative Liaison for CWA of Missouri in 2000. Bev became State Director for CWA of MO in January 2007 but continues her work with the Missouri General Assembly.