“Purge Palantir!”: Union nurses warn Big Tech and Big Brother are invading our healthcare system
Working People
On August 27, registered nurses, patients, and community allies rallied and stopped traffic in cities around the US to demand that hospitals and elected officials cut all ties with artificial intelligence giant Palantir. In this episode of Working People, we speak with a panel of registered nurses—Kelli Brennan (Portland, Maine), Lee Barker (Kansas City, Missouri), and Kiera Arbour (Chicago, Illinois)—about National Nurses United’s “Purge Palantir!” campaign, and about the disturbing creep of Big Tech and Big Brother into a US healthcare system that is already in crisis. Additional...
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Why the stories working people tell ourselves about ourselves matter (Wheeling, WV Labor Symposium Speech)
Working People
Over the 2026 Labor Day weekend, Working People host and TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez spoke at the in Wheeling, West Virginia, organized by the . The theme of this year’s Symposium was “The Art of Labor,” and other speakers included: , textile artist and tapestry maker; , printmaker and shadow puppeteer; and , a multidisciplinary artist and the Creative Director for the . In this episode of Working People, we share the audio recording of Alvarez’s speech, “Why the Stories Working People Tell Ourselves About Ourselves Matter.” . Featured Music: Jules Taylor,...
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Can anyone “make it” in today’s music industry?
Working People
The 20th-century days of vinyl records, tape decks, CDs, Tower Records, and MTV have given way to our 21st-century age of MP3s and music streaming, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube, TikTok, and Ticketmaster. While certain people and certain companies in the music industry are making more money than ever, working musicians are finding it increasingly impossible to pay the bills and make a living from their art. In this episode of Working People, we speak with all four members of veteran Chicago rock band The Empty Pockets about the work that goes into being a professional musician, and the realities of...
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“Katrina 2.0”: Residents of Gary, Indiana fight to survive without power for 12 days (and counting)
Working People
After a deadly “derecho” storm and flash floods slammed the midwest in early August, downing trees and power lines, tens of thousands of residents in and around Gary, Indiana have been surviving without power for 12 days and counting. According to the Associated Press, “Northern Indiana Public Service Co. said 68,000 customers were still without power as of Thursday morning, the majority of them in Lake County beside the Illinois border. The utility said it has restored power to 306,500 others since Aug. 11. But power is not expected to be fully restored until Tuesday [Aug. 25] in some...
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No such thing as ‘unskilled work’: Barbara Ehrenreich’s ‘Nickel and Dimed’ 25 years later
Working People
In her 2001 masterwork Nickel and Dimed, the late Barbara Ehrenreich went undercover to report on the daily realities working people in America face trying to get by on minimum-wage. After working as a housekeeper, a nursing aide, a home cleaner, a server, and more, Ehrenreich wrote that “The first thing I discovered is that no job, no matter how lowly, is truly ‘unskilled.’” It is difficult to overstate the impact that Ehrenreich’s book and body of work have had on US culture and working-class politics over the last 25 years, and the enduring relevance of her work today. In this...
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Layoffs, long waits, obscene prices: Vermont healthcare workers and patients face historic crisis
Working People
Frontline healthcare workers and the patients they serve are facing a major crisis at the University of Vermont Health network—the state’s leading healthcare provider. “In June, UVM Health eliminated over 140 positions across its network, a third of which were union positions,” Matt More reports at The Rake Vermont. “The cuts, which the hospital estimated will save $9.5 million, comes as the network faces a $300 million budget shortfall… Later that month, UVM Health handed down a speed-up order to its Medical Group, which includes outpatient clinics and more than 1,000 physicians,...
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Oil giant BP locks out workers at its last unionized refinery in US
Working People
For the last five months, oil giant British Petroleum (BP) has locked 800 workers out of their jobs at a crude oil refinery in Whiting, Indiana. The facility, located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, is BP’s last unionized oil refinery in the United States. BP says it is pursuing “modernized job structures, training, and upskilling,” but workers and their union—United Steelworkers Local 7-1—say that the company has not bargained in good faith, that its contract proposals pose blatant existential threats to workers’ jobs, pay, and collective bargaining rights, and that...
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Railroad jobs have “gotten worse” since Biden and Congress blocked workers from striking
Working People
In 2022, the United States nearly experienced its first national railroad strike in decades, until then-President Joe Biden, along with Democrats and Republicans in Congress, stepped in to block a strike before it could begin. Rail labor unions were forced to accept contracts that did not substantively address long-brewing crises in the freight rail industry that have had disastrous consequences for frontline workers, trackside communities like East Palestine, Ohio, the passenger rail system, and the US supply chain writ large. In this episode of Working People, we speak with returning guest...
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Corporate profiteers destroyed journalism. Worker-owned media can save it.
Working People
When workers at the historic Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspaper hit the picket line in October of 2022, they had no idea that they would be on strike for over three years—or that the strike would end with new owners taking over the paper and most strikers losing their jobs. But now, a new chapter is being written in their epic story. This week, workers and community supporters launched the Pittsburgh Progress, “a cooperative news organization, owned and democratically run by its workers and members… dedicated to looking out for, and telling the stories of, the working-class people who...
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Data centers are not a “red state” or “blue state” problem; they’re a working-class problem
Working People
In so-called “red states” and “blue states” around the US, from rural areas to urban centers, the explosion of new data center projects is impacting residents in poor, working-class, and middle-class communities alike. In this episode of Working People, we speak with a diverse panel of residents fighting new and proposed data center projects in Texas and Maryland about what it means for you and your community when one of these loud, polluting, energy- and water-guzzling behemoths comes to your town—and how to fight back. Panelists include: , a registered nurse anesthetist who lives...
info_outlineAdditional links/info:
- Kim Kelly website, X/Twitter page, TikTok, Bluesky page, and Instagram
- Kim Kelly, In These Times, “Trump’s latest target: Coal miners’ safety”
- Jordan Barab, Confined Space, “Friday night massacre at Mine Safety Review Commission”
- Kim Kelly, In These Times, “The Trump administration ramps up its war on coal miners”
- Kim Kelly, In These Times, “Trump to coal miners: Drop dead”
Featured Music:
- Jules Taylor, Working People Theme Song
Credits:
- Audio Post-Production: Jules Taylor