The biggest labor story in the US right now is happening at Microsoft
Working People
Current and former tech workers with the No Azure for Apartheid coalition continue to disrupt business as usual at Microsoft’s global headquarters in solidarity with Palestinians facing a genocide, and in protest of Microsoft’s contracts with the Israeli military to provide tech that Israel uses to surveil, kill, and retroactively justify the killing of Palestinians. In this episode of Working People, which is a critical follow-up to our last episode, we speak with a panel of five tech workers and No Azure for Apartheid coalition members who have all been fired by Microsoft in the...
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‘Microsoft is an active partner in the genocide!’: Inside the tech worker revolt for Palestine
Working People
Tech workers at the heart of Microsoft are waging one of the most significant and under-covered labor battles in the US right now. For the last two weeks, members of the No Azure for Apartheid coalition, including current and former tech workers at Microsoft and community allies, have been taking bold, continuing, and escalating actions to disrupt business as usual in solidarity with Palestinians facing genocide and in protest of Microsoft’s contracts with the Israeli military to provide tech that Israel uses to surveil, kill, and retroactively justify the killing of Palestinians. Those...
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‘We want life”: Palestinians in Gaza describe their daily struggle to survive
Working People
Right now, Israel's military is invading and obliterating what remains of Gaza City. After 700 days of genocidal bombing, shooting, forced starvation, and the systematic destruction of schools, hospitals, farms, refugee camps, roads, houses, and the entire infrastructure of civilian life, the Palestinians clinging to life in Gaza City are being exterminated, while others run or limp for their lives with nowhere safe to go. Amid the horrors of Israel’s military onslaught, with starvation and illness spreading, Mohamed Abu Tawila, a former English teacher, and his nephew Abdul Rahman, a...
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Unions face extinction under Trump. What the hell is labor doing to fight back? (w/ David Huerta & Everett Kelley)
Working People
Every single one of us who considers ourselves part of the labor movement has some real deep, serious, and urgent soul searching to do this Labor Day. After already falling to historically low levels of union density, public and private-sector unions are facing an extinction-level event under the new Trump administration. That is not hyperbole; that is a fact. So the real question is: What the hell are workers, unions, and the labor movement doing to fight back? These are the essential questions at the center of both of the interviews we are sharing in this special Labor Day episode,...
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Railroad workers explain why Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific mega-merger will be a 'disaster'
Working People
Railroad workers are sounding the alarm about the potentially catastrophic consequences of the proposed mega-merger of two of the nation’s Class 1 freight rail companies. “Union Pacific said it would buy smaller rival Norfolk Southern in an $85-billion deal to create the country’s first coast-to-coast freight rail operator,” Reuters reported in July. “If approved, the deal would be the largest-ever buyout in the sector.” If this giant merger goes through, what will it mean for railroad workers, customers, and for the general public? In this episode of Working People, we...
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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’
Working People
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?
Working People
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
Working People
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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"These cuts are death sentences": Trump's "Big, Disastrous Betrayal Bill"
Working People
Dozens of peaceful protesters, including disabled people in wheelchairs, were arrested last Wednesday in Washington, DC, while protesting President Trump’s massive spending and tax bill, which will dramatically slash taxes, restructure the student loan and debt system, and make devastating cuts to vital, popular programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). With Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote, Senate Republicans voted Tuesday to advance Donald Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill, which will now go back to the House of...
info_outlineAs we’ve mentioned many times before on the show, movements today are a part of a legacy of extraordinary actions taken by ordinary people. Tapping into our own labor history provides us with a blueprint for action in today’s turbulent world.
On March 25th, 1911, a fire began in the scrap bins under a cutter’s table on the 8th floor of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City. Within minutes, the entire floor was engulfed in flames, spreading to the ninth floor and 10th floors–where 200+ workers were just finishing up to go home for the night. By the time workers were alerted to the conflagration, options for escaping the fire were few. By the time the fire was brought under control, 146 workers were dead. New York City saw sweeping reforms in the aftermath of the fire, catapulting some pro-reform lobbyists like Francis Perkins all the way to the highest halls of government with the introduction of the New Deal 20 years later.
Near the 114th anniversary of this tragedy, Mel sat down with labor historian Dr. Erik Loomis, professor at the University of Rhode Island and author of his forthcoming book, “Organizing America: Stories of Americans Who Fought for Justice” to talk about the struggle for better working conditions in the garment industry in New York City, the fire itself and the reforms enacted afterwards, and why it’s important to learn from our own labor history in this current moment.
Additional links/info:
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Cornell University - ILR School: Remembering the 1911 Triangle Factory Fire
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Dr. Erik Loomis on Bluesky
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More information about Dr. Loomis’s forthcoming book, “Organizing America”
Permanent links below…
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Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show!
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Labor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
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The Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter page
Featured Music…
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Jules Taylor, “Working People” Theme Song
Studio Production: Mel Buer
Post-Production: Jules Taylor