Episode 115: Should Bernie Run?; Teachers Striking!; A National Severance Pay Now!

Working Life Podcast

Episode 115: A lot of people are wondering: should Bernie Sanders run? Is Bernie going to run? In today’s episode, I consider the notion that Bernie would become the most powerful politician in the country, and it could be better for the progressive movement, if maybe he sidestepped running for president. Whoa! Then, I check in with the massive and important teachers’ strike in Los Angeles—you will hear from the president of the union, Alex Caputo-Pearl. I wrap up with a conversation with Eileen Appelbaum, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, about a “radical” idea: a national severance pay law. After all, if CEOs never lose a dime when they screw up and get sacked, why should workers, who actually do their jobs and create the real value for a company, not be assured of pocketing a nice hunk of cash when a company goes belly up or just fires thousands of workers just to make the bottom line look better?