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Recent Episodes Demonstration in Seattle to Close Down Guantanamo Now
28-Jan-2008 The ACLU of Washington, Amnesty International, World Can't Wait Drive Out the Bush Regime, and others, sponsored a rally in downtown Seattle to protest the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and to demand that all prisoners be charged and tried immediately, or else released, and that the prison be shut down. Tom Conlon reports. (05:27 Minutes) Download (641 K)
War game to Improve Healthcare in Washington
08-Dec-2007 A conference, in which the simulation technique of 'wargaming' was employed, was held at Evergreen State College, to explore healthcare issues and develop ideas for the state legislature to improve health care in Washington. Wargaming was originally developed in the military. In this simulation game, viewpoints from all the different constituencies affected are considered, such as the medical establishment, patients, insurers, corporations, etc. The goal is to arrive at proposals that consider many viewpoints and therefore have a real chance of being implemented. Tom Conlon reports. (04:59 Minutes) Download (4.57 MB)
Nutritionists Discuss Increasing Obesity and Lack of Good Diets in Washington
21-Oct-2007 The Washington State Food and Nutrition Council met at Highline Community College in Des Moines. Topics were rising obesity among children and the increasing cost of the more healthy food items, putting a better diet out of the reach of many families. Tom Conlon reports. (04:42 Minutes) Download (4.30 MB)
Seattle leaders defend immigrant day labor center from right-wing attack
26-Sep-2007 Judicial Watch, a right-wing Washington DC law firm has charged Casa Latina and the City of Seattle with illegally helping undocumented workers. City and community leaders have launched a spirited defense. (05:27 Minutes) Download (1.25 MB)
Put doctors on salary to improve health care
21-Sep-2007 Medical ethicist Mark Meaney says the U.S. system of paying doctors for each procedure erodes patient rights and leads to thousands of unnecessary hospital deaths. In his book, "Three Secrets Hospitals Don't Want You to Know," Meaney describes ways patients and their families can protect their rights and improve their hospital care. (05:06 Minutes) Download (1.17 MB)
Union-Comunity Protest Stops Frozen Food Shipment Cold
13-Sep-2007 In a demonstration at Port of Seattle Terminal 18 September 10, 150 union and
and community members succeeded in blocking a shipment of frozen food from
National Frozen Food Corp (NFFC). NFFC is trying to oust the union from their
plants according to Teamsters Local 252 which represents NFFC workers in
Chehalis and Albany.
Washington Jobs with Justice led the demonstration at the Port. Local 252
members passed out leaflets at the nearby mariners game.
(04:46 Minutes) Download (1.09 MB)
Painters union wins $600k class action lawsuit against non-union drywall contractor
05-Sep-2007 How Painters union members, grocery workers and teachers observed labor day weekend:
Several teachers unions around Puget Sound spent the 2007 Labor Day
holiday at the bargaining table; grocery clerks hung a banner to thank
the community for support during their recent contract fight; and
members of the painters union celebrated winning a $600,000 class
action lawsuit against a non-union employer who was skimping on
overtime pay. (04:54 Minutes) Download (1.12 MB)
Jackie Guerra Speaks at State Labor Council Convention
30-Aug-2007 Comedian, actress and progressive talk-show host Jackie Guerra fired up the delegates at the recent Washington State Labor Council Convention in Seattle. Tom Conlon reports on Washington labor's annual stock taking. (05:34 Minutes) Download (1.27 MB)
Spokane family is another casualty of the health insurance crisis
08-Aug-2007 Spokane child care worker Paula Hall tells the nation how medical bills swamped her family; Seattle Times reporter Drew DeSilver explains that Washington's recent job growth is at the low end of the wage scale. (04:57 Minutes) Download (1.13 MB)
Congress blocks union rights for airport security screeners
;)
Click photo to enlarge
01-Aug-2007 Congress dropped a provision from the Homeland Security Bill that would have given union rights to 45,000 airport security screeners. The Seattle Labor Temple is nominated as a historical landmark. (05:19 Minutes) Download (1.22 MB)
Puget Sound grocery workers: waiting in check-out line, but cash drawer is still stuck shut
25-Jul-2007 You tube video shows grocery CEO's earn 500 times average daily bread of workers in Seattle area supermarkets. (05:06 Minutes) Download (1.17 MB)
Food Servers fight back against company grab of gratuities
;)
Click photo to enlarge
17-Jul-2007 In fighting company grab of banquet service charges, Seattle food and beverage servers win new law forcing companies to disclose who gets the money. (04:35 Minutes) Download (1.05 MB)
The Big Red Song Book or, why the Wobblies didn't like Woody
11-Jul-2007 Interview with shipwright and anthropologist Archie Green whose new
book, "The Big Red Song Book" analyzes the famous "Little Red Song
Book" published continuously by the Industrial Workers of the world
(aka the IWW, aka The Wobblies) since 1909. Green explodes some of the
myths about labor music, and charts the political fights between the
Wobblies and other popular folk singers like Woody Guthrie and Pete
Seeger. (05:24 Minutes) Download (1.24 MB)
One family's ordeal in the sub-prime mortgage market
27-Jun-2007 Reginald Beck and his family were driven into foreclosure, eviction and homelessness after they took out a sub-prime mortgage to by a home in Puyallup. (07:17 Minutes) Download (1.67 MB)
Drywallers strike ends; Del Monte workers win lawsuit, then they are deported; Previews of Michael Moore's new movie 'Sicko'
20-Jun-2007 Thumbnail reviews of Michael Moore's new movie 'Sicko' by members of the preview audience; 1300 drywallers in Washington and Oregon go back to work after 18 day strike; 167 workers arrested at a Portland OR plant in immigration raid. (04:52 Minutes) Download (1.11 MB)
Building Trades unions cross picket lines in drywallers strike; Low wages forces some union grocery workers to turn to food banks
13-Jun-2007 A Carpenters Union strike of 1300 drywallers in Oregon and SW Washington has been met with indifference and hostility by other building trades unions; Low wages in the unionized grocery industry forces some workers to turn to food banks.
(04:39 Minutes) Download (1.06 MB)
Cheap Motels and a Hot Plate
02-Jun-2007 An interview with Michael Yates author of an unusual travel book, Cheap Motels and a Hot Plate. It's a labor economist's tour around the United States. Yates not only describes the scenery and the tourist traps he and his wife Karen encounter, he also talks about people, jobs, wages, and rent and racism ... the basic economics of how our country works for working people. (05:09 Minutes) Download (1.18 MB)
Low paid workers in the US and elsewhere chop our veggies and cut our blossoms
30-May-2007 Interviews with writers Beth Slovic (about Del Monte workers in Portland OR) and Amy Stewart who writes about the global cut-flower industry in her book "Flower Confidential". (05:12 Minutes) Download (1.19 MB)
Labor leaders with shop-floor roots
23-May-2007 Interview with new Machinists Union District 751 President Tom Wroblewski; Eulogy for long time labor and political activist Carl Shier. (04:42 Minutes) Download (3.23 MB)
NLRB punishes Oregon SEIU Local by banning successful organizing tactics
16-May-2007 The National Labor Relations Board in a highly unusual move
April 25, banned a Portland OR union from using card checks for union
recognition for the next 6 months. Shauna Bello, a spokesperson from
SEIU Local 49 and Dmitri Iglitzin, a Seattle labor attorney explain
the implications of the NLRB action. (05:13 Minutes) Download (1.19 MB)
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Special Events
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Paulo Kasuma
Archie Green Interview
11-Jul-2007
57 minutes-13 MB-unedited material
Interview with shipwright and anthropologist Archie Green whose new book, "The Big Red Song Book" analyzes the famous "Little Red Song Book" published continuously by the Industrial Workers of the world (aka the IWW, aka The Wobblies) since 1909.
Archie also talks about growing up in a socialist family in Los Angeles in the 1930's, his life-long love of Wobbly songs, and how a dying comrade passed along his almost complete collection of song Little Red Song Books to Archie, leading a few years later to publication of The Big Red Song Book.
(57:02 Minutes) Download (13.06 MB)
L.A. Ports Proposal could benefit 16,000 truckers
28-Jun-2007
Labor, enviros, health and community groups unite to support
changes to S. Calfornia ports. Proposed reforms would cut pollution by
50% and change truck drivers status from owner-operator to employee.
(06:17 Minutes) Download (4.31 MB)
And from Ray, a Song....
26-Oct-2006
Just a quick upload of a song by "Ray" commenting on the state of employment.
(01:15 Minutes) Download (1.14 MB)
Allen Benjamin on Mexican Election Dispute
06-Oct-2006
Interview with American observer Alan Benjamin about fraud in the Mexican Presidential election and efforts by Andres Lopez Obrador to establish an alternative Presidency. Benjamin is a member of OPEIU and serves on the Executive Board of the San Francisco Labor Council. Audio is rough at the beginning; hang in for the good stuff.
(43:41 Minutes) Download (10.00 MB)
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