The soul of the labor movement is the fight for democracy in and outside of the workplace—and, from the shop floor to the ballot box, organizers, volunteers, and rank-and-file workers with UNITE HERE are putting everything they have into that fight. Even in the midst of a deadly pandemic that hit the service and hospitality industries especially hard, union members with UNITE HERE hit the pavement in record numbers ahead of the 2020 general elections. As Harold Meyerson notes in The American Prospect, UNITE HERE members canvassed "more precincts than any other organization on the Democratic side of the ledger that year. Talking to well over a million voters in Vegas, Reno, Phoenix, Philadelphia, and Atlanta, they played a key role in Joe Biden’s victory and in the Democrats winning control of the Senate. This year," ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, "they have even more members knocking on doors than they did two years ago." As working people face an increasingly unbearable cost-of-living crisis, as the right continues to attack abortion rights (and voting rights, and workers' rights, and LGBTQ people, and teachers, etc.), as basic human needs like healthcare, housing, and clean water are put farther out of reach for the poor and working classes, as more people give up on a political system they feel gave up on them a long time ago, the fight for a better society must come from the grassroots. In this special panel, recorded a week before the 2022 midterm elections, we talk with three UNITE HERE members—Maggie Acosta (Arizona), Bryan Villarreal-Vasquez (Nevada), and Sheila Silver (Pennsylvania)—about their tireless canvassing efforts in battleground states, what they're hearing from voters, and what the struggle for democracy means to them and their union.
Additional links/info below...
Permanent links below...
Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)
Stuck in Legal Limbo while Fighting to Hold Amazon Accountable (w/ Matt Littrell)
A Three-Minute Message from Gaza (w/ Mohamed el Saife)
The Teamsters Picket Amazon's BWI5 Warehouse in Baltimore (w/ Deion Anthony Steppes, Cristina Duncan Evans, Taylor Boren, & Mike McGuire)
"Soldiers Are Everywhere, Settlers Are Everywhere, People Are Afraid to Leave Their Homes" (w/ Issa Amro)
Sherry Cothren (w/ Jeremiah Cothren)
Live Show: Storytelling for Justice—East Palestine (w/ Chris & Jessica Albright)
UNLOCKED BONUS EPISODE - I Was in The House When the House Burned Down (w/ Vincent Bevins)
What Happens to the NLRB If the Government Shuts Down? (w/ Michael Bilik & Colton Puckett)
UAW Strike Update: More Auto Plants to Join 'Stand-Up' Strike (TRNN livestream w/ Martha Grevatt & Auston Gore)
The UAW Is Ready to Fight (w/ Marcelina Pedraza, Torice Sawyer, & Nick Livick)
One Fair Wage (w/ Tabina Gipson)
**Labor & the Long Road to Reunification in Korea (w/ Ju-Hyun Park)** PATREON EXCLUSIVE
Save WVU (w/ Leslie Wilber, Morgan King, & Jessie Wilkerson)
Ana Jakopič
Khali Jama
What—and Who—Caused the Train Derailment in East Palestine? (w/ Jason Cox)
The Showdown at UPS (w/ Rikki Schreiner & Amber Mathwig)
Michael Paul Lindsey II
Live Show: Organizing on a Mass Scale (w/ Josh Thole & Sarah Beth Ryther)
Pride and Labor's Duty to Fight for All (w/ Jessica Gonzalez & Fae Weichsel)
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Just Dumb Enough Podcast
Voices of Misery Podcast
House of Whimsical Terror
Stuff You Should Know
Timcast IRL