How will railroad workers vote after Biden and Congress blocked their strike? (w/ Hugh Sawyer, Mark Burrows, & Ron Kaminkow)
Release Date: 11/02/2024
These ‘neighbors from the hood’ saw ICE terrorizing their community—and banded together to fight back
Working People
After seeing friends and neighbors in their community of Pasadena, CA, being terrorized, assaulted, and abducted by masked federal agents, Daniela Navin and Jeannette De la Riva joined together with other neighbors in their area to form Grupo Auto Defensa and fight back. From chasing ICE cars out of town with bullhorns to setting up security brigades so terrified residents can walk outside and go to the grocery store, from providing know-your-rights information to reclaiming public space, protecting each other, and rebelliously refusing to live in fear, the members of Grupo Auto Defensa are...
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Corporations and the government are turning the USA into one giant ‘sacrifice zone’
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The Real News Network is honored to be for our on-the-ground documentary report, “.” “While corporate media covered the catastrophe in East Palestine, Ohio, with aerial views of ruined train cars and plumes of smoke likening the horrific crash to a disaster film,” The Park Center for Independent Media (PCIM) states in their award announcement, “Steve Mellon of the and Maximillian Alvarez of were on the ground telling the stories of people in the communities devastated by the deadly toxins released into their neighborhoods long after major media outlets...
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What good is a union in Hell?
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On Sunday, July 20, 2025, Working People host and TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez delivered the keynote speech at the national convention of the National Organization of Legal Services Workers (NOLSW), UAW Local 2320. “I am here to report back to you from the front lines of struggle, without hesitation or hyperbole, that we are at risk of losing everything,” Alvarez told the crowd of union members. “And so I am here not to extol the virtues of your union or the value of unions in general, but to ask you bluntly: What good is a union in Hell? How much can an organization of the...
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How union organizing can change your life and the world w/Jaz Brisack | Working People
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After getting a job as a barista at the Elmwood Starbucks in Buffalo, New York, Jaz Brisack became a founding member of Starbucks Workers United and helped organize the first unionized Starbucks in the US in December of 2021. In their new book, Get on the Job and Organize, Brisack details the hardwon lessons they and their coworkers have learned from building one of the most significant and paradigm-shifting worker organizing campaigns in modern history. In this extended episode of Working People, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian speaks with Brisack about their book, the facts and...
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An update on the longest ongoing strike in the US: ‘Some things don’t change at the Post-Gazette’
Working People
In the latest episode of Working People, we go back to the picket line to get a critical update on the longest ongoing strike in the United States. In October 2022, over 100 workers represented by five labor unions—including production, distribution, advertising, and accounts receivable staff—walked off the job on an unfair labor practice strike at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PPG). The strike began after the newspaper’s management, Block Communications, which is owned by the Block family, cut off health insurance for employees on Oct. 1 of that year. After more than 2.5 years...
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“It is our moral imperative”: Oregon students hunger strike for Gaza
Working People
At this very moment, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip who have managed to survive Israel’s scorched-earth siege and bombing are being deliberately starved to death as a result of Israel’s 11-week blockade preventing food and aid from entering Gaza. As Jem Bartholemew writes at The Guardian, “The UN’s humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, told the BBC [Tuesday] morning that 14,000 babies could die in Gaza in 48 hours if aid did not reach them in time. Five aid trucks entered Gaza on Monday but Fletcher described this as a “drop in the ocean” and totally inadequate for the...
info_outlinePanelists include: Hugh Sawyer, a veteran locomotive engineer with 36 years of experience, a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen Division 316, and a founding member and acting treasurer of Railroad Workers United; Mark Burrows, a retired locomotive engineer with 37 of experience, who has served as co-chair and organizer for Railroad Workers United, where he still edits RWU’s quarterly newsletter “The Highball”; Ron Kaminkow, a recently retired former brakeman, conductor, and engineer who worked for many years in freight rail before working 20 years as a passenger engineer at Amtrak, a founding member of RWU and delegate in the Northern Nevada Central Labor Council.
Additional links/info below…
- Railroad Workers United website, Facebook page, and Twitter/X page
- Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, “Railroad workers speak out after Congress and Biden block rail strike”
- Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, “Why do railroad workers keep dying on the job?”
- Maximillian Alvarez & Mel Buer, The Real News Network, “Labor militancy can't be stopped: Palestine and Labor Notes 2024”
- Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, “US freight workers say it’s time to nationalize the railroads”
- Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "“This was preventable”: Railroad workers explain how Wall St caused the East Palestine derailment"
- Mel Buer, The Real News Network, “Corporate billionaires are wrecking the supply chain. Just look at the railroads”
- Adam Johnson, Nima Shirazi, Maximillian Alvarez, & Mel Buer, Citations Needed / The Real News Network, “Biden and Congressional Dems partner with GOP and corporate media to discipline railroad workers”
- Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, “Railroad workers are being ground to dust. Who will help them?”
- 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