Best Michael Conklin Podcasts (2024)

1
300 Episodes of 'Working People'! Announcements, reflections, & what comes next... 55:36

20h ago55:36

55:36

In 2024, Working People officially crossed the 300 episode mark! Since we published our first episode back in 2018, the show has grown in ways we never could have imagined, and the world itself has changed in radical, hopeful, terrifying ways, the labor movement has undergone incredible changes, and we’ve done our best to document that change and t…

1
What it Means to 'Walk the Walk': the NEA Staff Lockout (w/ Rowena Shurn and Ambereen Khan-Baker) 46:44

5d ago46:44

46:44

Today we have an urgent and important conversation with members of the NEA Staff Organization, the union of staffers at the National Education Association, who have been locked out of their workplace by NEA management for the past four weeks. The NEA, representing over 3 million members, is the largest union in the country. Staffers working for the…

1
From the East Palestine Derailment Disaster to the Toledo Water Crisis (w/ Mike Balonek & Chris Albright) 39:38

12d ago39:38

39:38

From East Palestine, Ohio, to South Baltimore and beyond, we’ve been connecting you with residents living in the toxic wastelands left by private and government-run industry—ordinary working people who have been thrust into extraordinary fights for their lives. In the latest installment of our ongoing Sacrificed series, we go to Toledo, Ohio, a cit…

1
Teamsters Members React to Sean O'Brien's RNC Speech (w/ Amber Mathwig, Tony, Chantelle, Rick Smith, Zoey Moretti Niebuhr, Jess Leigh, Kat, & Robert Conklin) 1:50:03

22d ago1:50:03

1:50:03

On Monday, July 15, on Day 1 of the Republican National Convention, Sean O’Brien, general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, became the first Teamsters president ever to address the RNC. Invited by former president Trump, who is now officially the Republican nominee for the 2024 presidential election, O’Brien’s speech was no o…

1
Dispatch from Labor Notes & Railroad Workers United Conferences (Chicago, 2024) 1:29:28

1M ago1:29:28

1:29:28

Two months ago, from April 17-21, workers and labor organizers of all stripes convened in Chicago for the bi-annual Labor Notes conference, which overlapped with the Railroad Workers United convention. As the registration website rightly noted, “Labor Notes Conferences are the biggest gatherings of grassroots labor activists, union reformers, and a…

1
"Safe Staffing Now!": Baltimore Nurses at Largest Catholic Health Network in US Fight On for First Contract (w/ Nicki Horvat) 23:40

1M ago23:40

23:40

On the morning of Thursday, June 20, unionized nurses at Ascension St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore held a rally outside the hospital to raise awareness of their efforts to secure a first contract and to show management that they’re not backing down from their core demands for safe staffing and an operational model that puts patients and patient car…

1
In Brazil, the Climate Crisis Is Already Turning Working People into Climate Refugees (w/ Michael Fox) 54:29

2M ago54:29

54:29

“Southern Brazil is facing its worst climate tragedy ever," Latin-America-based journalist Mike Fox wrote from Brazil for the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) in early May. "Unprecedented floods have impacted 1.4 million people and forced more than 160,000 people from their homes... The images are shocking. Downtown Porto Alegre, th…

1
"CSX has got to go!" Industrially Polluted South Baltimore Residents March to "Evict" Rail Giant from Their Community 40:22

2M ago40:22

40:22

On June 10, in the working-class community of Curtis Bay in South Baltimore, over 50 residents, activists, and supporters from around the city marched through the streets of Curtis Bay to hold CSX Transportation accountable for polluting their community, homes, and bodies with toxic coal dust. Even after an expansive scientific study co-sponsored b…

1
Liz Oliva Fernández 1:23:27

2M ago1:23:27

1:23:27

For the past six years on this show, we've talked to working people from across the United States, from virtually every walk of life, about their lives, jobs, dreams, and struggles. But today, we’re going to talk about what it’s like to live and work in a country that has been designated a political enemy of US empire, a country that sits only 90 m…

1
A Veteran Longshoreman's View of the Baltimore Bridge Disaster (w/ John Blom & Marc Steiner) 47:48

3M ago47:48

47:48

Nearly two months have passed since the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, and the city is still reeling from the disaster. The bridge collapse immediately rendered the Port of Baltimore inoperable, threatening hundreds of thousands of jobs, and billions in wages, business revenue, and state taxes. While channels into the port h…

1
"South Baltimore is a sacrifice zone" (w/ David Jones, Angela Smothers, Carlos Sanchez, & Tiffany Thompson) 1:09:42

3M ago1:09:42

1:09:42

“South Baltimore is a sacrifice zone,” Michael Middleton and Dr. Sacoby Wilson wrote in a guest commentary published in Maryland Matters this February. “The six communities that make up South Baltimore—Cherry Hill, Westport, Mt. Winans, Lakeland, Brooklyn, and Curtis Bay—rank in the top 3% of the state for environmental burden using a Maryland Depa…

1
Vina Colley 1:47:13

4M ago1:47:13

1:47:13

"Vina Colley was Erin Brockovich before Erin Brockovich," Kevin Williams wrote in a 2020 Belt Magazine article titled, "The Poisonous Legacy of Portsmouth’s Gaseous Diffusion Plant." Williams continues, "Colley has become an unlikely citizen-scientist, spending a lifetime researching and documenting PORTS and its sins... Colley was hired as an elec…

1
Working People Deserve Bread and Roses—and Musicals (w/ Gene Bruskin) 38:33

4M ago38:33

38:33

Gene Bruskin was born to a Jewish working-class family in South Philadelphia and has been a life-long social justice activist, union organizer, poet, and playwright. Since retiring from the labor movement, Gene wrote his first play in 2016, a musical comedy for and about work and workers called Pray For the Dead: A Musical Tale of Morgues, Moguls a…

1
Justice for East Palestine Residents & Workers Conference in East Palestine 3:06:45

4M ago3:06:45

3:06:45

On March 23, 2024, a coalition of around 80 people convened at the East Palestine Country Club at the first gathering called by the newly formed Justice for East Palestine Residents & Workers Coalition. Those in attendance included: East Palestine residents; railroad workers; residents of other “sacrifice zones" in Ohio, Maryland, California, and W…

1
From Baltimore to East Palestine, This Is Unacceptable (w/ The Valley Labor Report & Maximillian Alvarez) 58:44

4M ago58:44

58:44

24 hours after Max returned to Baltimore from East Palestine, Ohio, the shipping vessel Dali slammed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge, collapsing it into the Patapsco River. The catastrophic collision and collapse of the bridge claimed the lives of six immigrant, non-union construction workers who were working the night shift at the time, filling …

1
Labor, Community, & Environmental Organizations Are Mobilizing to Get East Palestine Healthcare (w/ Justice for East Palestine Residents & Workers) 1:46:12

5M ago1:46:12

1:46:12

This Saturday, March 23, unionists and labor leaders, environmental justice groups, community organizers, community members from other “sacrifice zones,” and supporters from around the country are coming to East Palestine to join residents as part of the newly formed Justice for East Palestine Residents and Workers coalition. The coalition has come…

1
Brett Cross, Uzi's Dad 1:21:08

5M ago1:21:08

1:21:08

Brett Cross is a small-town kid who grew up in Western Texas, among the oil fields, near Odessa. He worked in the oil fields, worked his way up to doing pipeline work, eventually moving to green energy work. He even became a foreman, working hard to provide for his family. And Brett was at work when he got the call from his wife Nikki that changed …

1
'The Upsurge' is Dead. Long Live 'The Upsurge'! (w/ Teddy Ostrow) 12:16

6M ago12:16

12:16

This is an excerpt from our most recent bonus episode featuring Teddy Ostrow. To access the entire conversation, and numerous bonus episodes we have released throughout seven seasons of Working People, please visit our Patreon to unlock this content. The Upsurge was an invaluable show that documented two of the most pivotal labor union struggles in…

1
Why Do Railroad Workers Keep Dying on the Job? (w/ Nick Wurst, Matt Weaver, Mark Burrows, & Ross Grooters) 56:03

6M ago56:03

56:03

"Last Wednesday, a fellow rail worker was gravely injured on the job and lost his life," a Feb 6 email from Railroad Workers United reads. "Our brother Chris Wilson, who worked for Norfolk Southern, was critically injured in its Decatur rail yard Wednesday and died Thursday at Huntsville Hospital." Another email from Feb. 9 reads, "On January 15th,…

1
"Shut It Down!": On the Ground at Johns Hopkins Grad Union's Practice Picket 36:01

6M ago36:01

36:01

One year ago, graduate student-workers at Johns Hopkins University overwhelmingly voted to unionize under the banner of Teachers and Researchers United (TRU-UE), which is affiliated with United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers. While workers had much to celebrate with their historic union election victory, bargaining a first contract with the…

1
Baltimore's Co-Ops Show There's Another Way to Work (at the Baltimore Museum of Industry) 1:12:31

6M ago1:12:31

1:12:31

Baltimore has become what many consider to be ground zero in the emerging “solidarity economy” and the formation of worker-owned, cooperatively run businesses. There’s something important going on here, and there’s a lot that we can all learn from our fellow workers who are in the cooperative space—people who are living, breathing proof that there’…

1
Homegrown Sandwich Shop Workers Hit 100 Days on Strike (w/ Sydney Lankford & Perry) 48:46

6M ago48:46

48:46

Workers at Homegrown Sustainable Sandwiches in the Seattle area voted overwhelmingly to unionize with UNITE HERE LOCAL 8 in late 2022, and they have been fighting for a first contract ever since. In fact, workers from two Homegrown stores have been on strike since late last fall in protest of the unfair termination of union leader Sydney Lankford, …

1
East Palestine—1 Year After the Derailment 1:15:43

7M ago1:15:43

1:15:43

Feb. 3, 2024, marks the one-year anniversary of the Norfolk Southern train derailment that changed life forever for the residents of East Palestine, Ohio, and the surrounding area. The derailment of 38 rail cars and the subsequent “controlled release” and burnoff of toxic vinyl chloride was one of the most catastrophic industrial accidents in our c…

1
After Waging the Largest Healthcare Worker Strike in US History, Kaiser Workers Win Big (w/ Meg Niemi & Audrey Cardenas) 36:28

8M ago36:28

36:28

From October 4-6 of this year, the US experienced the largest healthcare worker strike in our history, when over 75,000 workers with the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions went on a three-day strike against the healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente. Then, on October 13, after warning that more strikes could be coming if a deal wasn’t reached at the…

1
Brazil's Radical Plan to Fight Slave-Like Working Conditions (w/ Marcos, John, & Vitor Filgueiras) 1:37:31

8M ago1:37:31

1:37:31

Brazil's Radical Plan to Fight Slave-Like Working Conditions (w/ Marcos, John, & Vitor Filgueiras) In this special international episode, we get the chance to talk to folks in Brazil about the farmworkers who are being trapped in slave-like conditions, and about a truly radical new government program that is trying to break the cycle of enslavement…

1
Chris & Jessica Albright 1:14:08

9M ago1:14:08

1:14:08

It's been nearly 10 months since the derailment of a Norfolk Southern freight train and the subsequent “controlled release” and burnoff of toxic vinyl chloride changed life forever for the residents of East Palestine, Ohio. While the media, politicians, and the public have largely moved on, people living in and around East Palestine have been aband…

1
"This Is McCarthyism All Over Again": Suppressing Unions' Free Speech Rights over Gaza (w/ Allie Goodman, Michael Letwin, & Dany Greene) 53:44

9M ago53:44

53:44

With each passing day, more Israeli bombs are falling on Gaza, more bodies are being blown apart and buried under the rubble, over a million Palestinians have been displaced from their homes. Over the past month and a half, the world has borne witness to a genocidal military campaign to clear out Gaza once and for all, and every day, every hour, it…

1
Stuck in Legal Limbo while Fighting to Hold Amazon Accountable (w/ Matt Littrell) 45:59

9M ago45:59

45:59

Back in August of 2022, we spoke with Matt Littrell, a picker at the Amazon warehouse in Campbellsville, Kentucky, and one of the lead organizers in an effort to unionize Amazon facilities in Kentucky. When we spoke with Matt, Amazon had just fired him in suspected retaliation for his organizing activities, citing "performance" issues. Since then, …

1
A Three-Minute Message from Gaza (w/ Mohamed el Saife) 8:47

9M ago8:47

8:47

More than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's retaliatory assault on Gaza in the past month, including thousands of women, children, and elderly, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The real number is likely much higher… we don’t know how many people, dead and alive, are under the rubble right now. But we do know that the …

1
The Teamsters Picket Amazon's BWI5 Warehouse in Baltimore (w/ Deion Anthony Steppes, Cristina Duncan Evans, Taylor Boren, & Mike McGuire) 29:42

9M ago29:42

29:42

On the evening of Wednesday, Nov. 8, members of the Teamsters union led a picket line march outside of Amazon’s BWI5 warehouse in Baltimore. Dozens of other union workers and members of the Baltimore community joined the demonstration, which was an extension of the ongoing Unfair Labor Practice strike by unionized Amazon drivers and dispatchers at …

1
"Soldiers Are Everywhere, Settlers Are Everywhere, People Are Afraid to Leave Their Homes" (w/ Issa Amro) 9:32

10M ago9:32

9:32

Every day the Palestinian civilian death toll is rising dramatically as Israel continues with its genocidal bombing and ground invasion of Gaza, and as settler and military violence towards Palestinians in the West Bank intensifies. "It's a closure, it's a curfew, in many places in the West Bank," Issa Amro says. "It's not normal life these days. S…

1
Sherry Cothren (w/ Jeremiah Cothren) 1:27:24

10M ago1:27:24

1:27:24

Over the past month, United Auto Workers have continued to ramp up their strike at the Big 3 auto companies, calling workers at more plants to hit the picket line. As Keith Brower Brown recently reported at Labor Notes, “Every Friday for the past four weeks, Big 3 CEOs have waited fearfully for UAW President Shawn Fain to announce which plants will…

1
Live Show: Storytelling for Justice—East Palestine (w/ Chris & Jessica Albright) 45:15

10M ago45:15

45:15

The derailment of a Norfolk Southern freight train in East Palestine , Ohio, on Feb. 3 of this year, and the subsequent “controlled release” and burnoff of toxic vinyl chloride, is one of the most catastrophic and devastating industrial accidents in our country’s history, and a catastrophe of equal or greater proportion could literally happen again…

1
UNLOCKED BONUS EPISODE - I Was in The House When the House Burned Down (w/ Vincent Bevins) 1:01:38

10M ago1:01:38

1:01:38

The decade from 2010 to 2020 was one that saw more people around the world participating in protests than at any other point in human history. And yet, looking back, the results of so many of these mass protests, the societal changes that followed, were the opposite of what protestors were demanding. In his new book, If We Burn: The Mass Protest De…

1
What Happens to the NLRB If the Government Shuts Down? (w/ Michael Bilik & Colton Puckett) 1:03:55

11M ago1:03:55

1:03:55

It is looking increasingly likely that Congressional Republicans will bring the federal government to a shutdown starting this weekend. "U.S. government services would be disrupted and hundreds of thousands of federal workers would be furloughed without pay if Congress fails to provide funding for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1," Reuters reports. …

1
UAW Strike Update: More Auto Plants to Join 'Stand-Up' Strike (TRNN livestream w/ Martha Grevatt & Auston Gore) 57:32

11M ago57:32

57:32

The United Auto Workers are striking against all of the Big Three automakers at once for the first time in the union’s history. The UAW is employing a novel “stand-up strike” strategy: rather than having over 140,000 auto workers hit the picket line at once, UAW members at three strategically targeted plants were called to strike first last Thursda…

1
The UAW Is Ready to Fight (w/ Marcelina Pedraza, Torice Sawyer, & Nick Livick) 1:17:38

11M ago1:17:38

1:17:38

After the high-stakes contract fight between the Teamsters and UPS, the eyes of labor are now on the contract negotiations currently taking place between the United Auto Workers and the Big Three automakers: Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis (formerly Chrysler). The UAW’s master agreement with the Big Three covers around 150,000 autoworkers, and…

1
One Fair Wage (w/ Tabina Gipson) 24:52

11M ago24:52

24:52

At the federal level today, the subminimum wage for tipped workers is still just $2.13 an hour. That is, frankly, a disgrace. "A direct legacy of slavery," the One Fair Wage campaign notes, "the subminimum wage affects a workforce of nearly 5 million tipped workers that is 70 percent women and 43 percent people of color." In this mini-cast, we talk…

1
Labor & the Long Road to Reunification in Korea (w/ Ju-Hyun Park) PATREON EXCLUSIVE 1:11:15

12M ago1:11:15

1:11:15

Within the past two years, South Korea has seen major labor actions, including a general strike in October of 2021, and major crackdowns on organized labor, including the national intelligence agency raiding the offices of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions in January of this year. In that same time, military and geopolitical tensions in the …

1
Save WVU (w/ Leslie Wilber, Morgan King, & Jessie Wilkerson) 1:01:35

12M ago1:01:35

1:01:35

The world of higher education has been in shock this past week after West Virginia University President E. Gordon Gee announced plans to dramatically cut academic programs and jobs in the coming year. "West Virginia University, a crucial institution in one of the nation’s most impoverished states, is poised to jettison all of its faculty dedicated …

1
Ana Jakopič 1:27:01

1y ago1:27:01

1:27:01

Ana Jakopič is a lawyer, organizer, and trade union leader in Slovenia. We talk to Ana about the different kinds of workers she organizes with on a daily basis, the struggles working people across Slovenia are facing, and how connected/disconnected those struggles currently feel to the strikes taking place in Europe and beyond. But we also talk abo…

1
Khali Jama 1:26:42

1y ago1:26:42

1:26:42

"I've never been an organizer," Khali Jama says, "but I've always fought." As a single mother, a Muslim, and a Somali-American worker living in Minnesota, Jama has always had to fight for the life she, her family, and her fellow workers deserve. And earlier this year, after bringing that fight to the Minnesota state legislature, Khali and her cowor…

1
What—and Who—Caused the Train Derailment in East Palestine? (w/ Jason Cox) 48:58

1y ago48:58

48:58

The Norfolk Southern train derailment and "controlled release" of toxic vinyl chloride in East Palestine, Ohio, was an avoidable catastrophe. Long before the train cars crashed on Feb. 3 and residents' lives were turned completely upside down, railroad workers had been warning anyone who would listen that the relentless cost-cutting and profit-maxi…

1
The Showdown at UPS (w/ Rikki Schreiner & Amber Mathwig) 1:22:29

1y ago1:22:29

1:22:29

We are less than two weeks away from what could be the largest single-employer strike in US history. As of this recording, contract negotiations between United Parcel Services (UPS) and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters have reportedly "collapsed"—and the clock is ticking until the current contract expires on July 31. If a deal is not reac…

1
Michael Paul Lindsey II 1:49:28

1y ago1:49:28

1:49:28

When we hear the term "whistleblower," we tend to think of names like Daniel Ellsberg, Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, Julian Assange—people who have risked their freedom, even their lives, to expose government lies, abuses of power, and state secrets that the public needs to know about. But there are a range of federal statutes designed to protec…

1
Live Show: Organizing on a Mass Scale (w/ Josh Thole & Sarah Beth Ryther) 38:31

1y ago38:31

38:31

We hosted another Working People live show, in collaboration with the Action Builder / Action Network team, on May 8 at the 30th Constitutional Convention of the Canadian Labour Congress in Montréal. In this panel discussion, Max speaks with Sarah Beth Ryther, employee-organizer with Trader Joe's United in Minneapolis, and Josh Thole, former Major …

1
Pride and Labor's Duty to Fight for All (w/ Jessica Gonzalez & Fae Weichsel) 1:10:19

1y ago1:10:19

1:10:19

From legislative attacks on the rights of trans people, drag performers, and queer people spreading to statehouses around the country like wildfire, to rightwing media relentlessly spewing fascistic anti-LGBTQ+ messages, to far-right groups ramping up their intimidation tactics and violent assaults to force LGBTQ+ people back into the closet, Pride…

1
Sean Orr 1:15:12

1y ago1:15:12

1:15:12

The largest private sector labor contract in the US is set to expire at midnight on July 31; as negotiations continue to play out, we will soon see whether or not the 350,000 Teamsters working for United Parcel Services (UPS) will hit the picket line and wage one of the largest strikes in US history. As Sean Orr, a UPS package-car driver and electe…

1
2023 Canadian Labour Congress, Part 2 (w/ Nora Loreto, Meg Davis, Larry Rousseau, & Nicholas Marcus Thompson) 1:55:03

1y ago1:55:03

1:55:03

From May 8-12, the 30th Constitutional Convention of the Canadian Labour Congress took place in Montréal. Reporting for Working People and The Real News Network, Max attended the convention and spoke with a number of rank-and-file workers, organizers, and union officers about the state of the labor movement in Canada. In Part 2 of our two-part disp…

1
2023 Canadian Labour Congress, Part 1 (w/ Emily Leedham, Guy Smith, Mary Newman, James Russwurm, & Liz Ha) 2:10:08

1y ago2:10:08

2:10:08

From May 8-12, the 30th Constitutional Convention of the Canadian Labour Congress took place in Montréal. Reporting for Working People and The Real News Network, Max attended the convention and spoke with a number of rank-and-file workers, organizers, and union officers about the state of the labor movement in Canada. In Part 1 of our two-part disp…

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