America’s Work Force Union Podcast

EPI's Heidi Shierholz on Tripling Union Density and the Policy Roadmap

If typical worker pay had kept pace with productivity over the past 45 years, today's typical paycheck would be roughly 40% larger. That income went to shareholders and c

BRS's Tim Tarrant on Ludlow, Blair Mountain and Railroad Safety Today

On Easter Sunday morning, April 19, 1914, the National Guard and the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency set up a machine gun overlooking a Colorado miners' tent colony, murde

St. Mary's Nurse Emily Berceau on Organizing and the Fight Ahead

They started organizing in 2019. COVID shut them down. They started again. Then again. Management took down their flyers, told nurses they could not discuss the union des

Lorena Gonzalez on California Labor, Women in Trades and Worker Power

Her father came from Mexico as a teenager to work North San Diego County's strawberry fields, following her grandfather who was a bracero. Her mother spent 40 years as a

Labor Day 2026: U.S. Rep. Norcross on Worker Power and Zhavoronkova on TradesFutures

Two Labor Day conversations that connect the fight for workers in Congress to the programs building the next generation of union construction workers — one making the leg

Fred Redmond on CEO Pay, the 2025 Paywatch Report and Labor Day 2026

The AFL-CIO had to add more digits to its Paywatch database this year just to fit one person's compensation package. S&P 500 CEOs averaged $22.8 million in 2025 without E

C/COBCTC on Data Centers, Infrastructure and Outreach

A million people are projected to move to Central Ohio by 2050. Two Ohio Power Siting Board hearings drew nearly 100 speakers in one week. The outer belt needs more lanes

Rep. Steve Horsford and Dave Megenhardt on Fighting for Workers

Two conversations that connect the fight for workers in the halls of Congress to the fight for workers on the streets of Cleveland — one making the legislative case for t

NABTU's Dr. Tom Kriger on Apprenticeship, AI and The Wizard of Oz

The tornado is the high interest rates. The Scarecrow is the caricature of the uneducated farmer. The Tin Woodsman is the industrial worker who lost his humanity as wages

Tom Buffenbarger on ‘Wimpy’ Winpisinger and the Origins of Labor Day

A machinist named Matthew Maguire proposed Labor Day in 1882. When Grover Cleveland signed it into law in 1894, he gave the ceremonial pen to a carpenter with a similar n

U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell on Trade, Social Security and Fighting for Workers

Her father-in-law was fired for union activity, contracted tuberculosis and was sent west to die. He came back to Detroit, won a congressional seat and helped write the S

Insulators Local 6's Jeff Saliba on Energy, Recovery and Union Power

Without the union, he says, he would qualify for Medicaid and food stamps doing the same insulation work. He has been sober for more than 20 years. He holds a Massachuset

Food Is Medicine, Aviation Safety and 49 Years of the Labor Fight

Two conversations that connect the health of workers to the history of the movement that fights for them — one looking at what union members eat and how it affects their

USW's John Lepley on Homestead, Carnegie and the Fight That Built Labor

Carnegie's name is on libraries, museums, endowments and an entire town in Pennsylvania. His 1889 essay, The Gospel of Wealth, said the wealthy should give away their for

U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan on the Labor Caucus, PRO Act and Clean Energy Jobs

The federal minimum wage has been frozen at $7.25 an hour since 2009. The Congressional Labor Caucus has 128 members — and everyone must actually support the PRO Act to j

9/11 at 25, US Shipbuilding and the 2032 Social Security Cliff

Two conversations that connect the service of the past to the policy fights of the present — one honoring those who answered the call after September 11, and one sounding

Bill McCamley on Wage Theft, Labor History and the Trades Crisis

In 1806, members of America's first labor union were found guilty of criminal conspiracy for demanding higher wages. In 2017, wage theft cost 2.4 million workers more tha

Medicare for All History, Head Start Cuts and Ohio's Education Fight

Two conversations that connect the long arc of labor's fight for workers and their families to the battles happening right now — one tracing a century of organized labor'

SMART Union and Union EAP on Mental Health Support That Actually Works

They audited the EAP numbers. They called them. One program — marketing comprehensive mental health services — told them it did not do mental health when faced with a com

Cleveland Teachers Fight Back and 100 Years of American Labor Law

Two conversations that connect the labor movement's past to its present — one showing what union solidarity looks like in action today and one tracing the legal history t