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Labor Radio is news by, for, and about working people in Madison, Wisconsin and around the world. It originates out of the studios of WORT 89.9 FM Madison.
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Labor Radio hears from the picket line as the national Starbucks strike for a good faith bargained contract reaches Madison, the president of IBEW Local 2304 talks to Labor Radio after meeting with the WORT board of directors in the wake of the firing of two unionized staff collective members, and a filmmaker behind Baristas vs. Billionaires on the Starbucks unionization fight speaks to WORT. THIS IS A PLEDGE WEEK EDITION. Feel free to donate at www.wortfm.org
Labor Radio for Friday, November 28, 2025, was an all-music show. The show is at the WORT archive for three months at archive.wortfm.org. Look for Labor Radio for Friday, November 28, listed at 5:30 p.m.
The Building Trades Council and community members speaking at a public meeting are on opposite sides on building a data center in the DeForest area and Labor Radio hears from both side, new owners of Milwaukee Forge agree to keep the company open and retain union jobs, leaked documents detail how Amazon intends to slash jobs within three years using automation, Amazon drivers at a Kentucky facility march on the boss and declare their membership in Teamsters Local 89, A proposed GOP-sponsored would gut the National Labor Relations Act but another would return collective bargaining rights to federal employees, and Workers Justice Wisconsin will hold workshops in December on your protections from wage theft and other legal rights for workers,
WORT lays off two union members and Labor Radio talks to the president of IBEW Local 2304, writer Eric Blanc says the the deal to end the federal government shutdown shows fissures in organized labor and a missed opportunity to exercise worker power, a federal court ruling gives a big win to NewsGuild workers who have been on strike for over three years at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Labor Radio talks to a striker there, striking Machinists at Boeing in Missouri and Illinois are going back to work after accepting a newly bargained agreement, unionized baristas of Starbucks Workers United across the country walk out on the coffee behemoth's Red Cup Day promotion, and KFC restaurant employees across Wisconsin win a unanimous jury verdict granting them unpaid overtime.
UNITE HERE Local 1 invites the community to a picket demanding a first contract at the Madison Hilton Monona Terrace, the labor liaison to the Madison area United Way discusses how they are reaching out to workers facing dismissals and a federal shutdown, rank and file Machinists striking Boeing in the St. Louis area have rejected a tentative agreement, Labor Radio looks at the expected skyrocketing of healthcare costs for working people, Alberta teachers are forced back to work under a punitive anti-strike law, an American Federation of Musicians local representing Broadway musicians have reached a tentative contract agreement, and Amazon Labor Union organizer and Gaza blockade participant Chris Smalls leads a protest at AFL-CIO headquarters demanding US labor take a stand against arming the genocide in Palestine.
Machinists on strike at Boeing in the St. Louis area have a federally-mediated agreement that will be voted on by members on October 26, the national No Kings march takes place in Madison with labor support, federal workers who have been shut out from work rally outside the Madison-area Social Security office, national flight attendants union leader Sara Nelson has raised the idea of a general strike as the Trump administration runs wild, the Chicago Teachers Union leads the fight against that city's federal invasion, a worker sues the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for not doing its job, and the attack on immigrant workers is beginning to tank the GDP.
A membership meeting at Group Health Cooperative in Madison cheers a push for unionization with SEIU, Trump announces that some federal workers won't return after the government shutdown and American Federation of Government Employees members talk to Labor Radio about the White House onslaught against federal workers, as ICE deports farm workers the Trump administration says the answer to farm job loss is to lower the minimum wage paid to H2A visa holders and cut its housing subsidies, Wisconsin unions push for a bigger local worker stake in green infrastructure jobs, a Madison elder care resident talks to Labor Radio about the threat that immigration crackdowns will pose to elder care, Professor Tom Alter talks to Labor Radio about being fired by Texas State University and the support he is getting from his unions, and Madison will have a No Kings march supported by organized labor.
The strike at Mercy Health East Clinic in Janesville enters its 100th day and UAW Local 95 holds a solidarity rally, Boeing is ignoring striking Machinists and training scabs as the strike near St. Louis enters its third month, Labor Radio speaks to a local president of a federal employees union about how the US government shutdown is being used to heighten the anti-worker attacks of the Trump administration, and workers at Anodyne Coffee in Milwaukee vote 100% to unionize--which doesn't keep management from challenging it. THIS IS A WORT PLEDGE WEEK EDITION. Please support Labor Radio and WORT at wortfm.com.
Unions and community supporters hold a rally for striking health care workers of Mercy Health East Clinic in Janesville, UAW members in California demand a sustainable industrial policy, striking Machinists at Boeing in the St. Louis area offer their own contract proposal absent movement from Boeing management, New Mexico is becoming the first state to institute state-funded universal childcare, strikes spread across Italy in support of the Palestinians undergoing genocide in Gaza and in support of the Sumud Flotilla sailing the Mediterranean, unions at Texas State University rally for colleague and tenured professor Dr. Tom Alter who was summarily fired under political pressure for advocating socialism, and Labor History in Two looks at the Shays Rebellion.
University of Wisconsin system faculty and staff unions go to a Board of Regents meeting to demand meet and confer and formal recognition, OPEIU Local 39 wins a union recognition vote at Pathfinders social services in Milwaukee, a four-day strike by Teamsters Local 320 at the University of Minnesota system ends in an agreement with the help of solidarity from IATSE, a UW School or Workers webinar series looks at the role of immigrant labor, a meeting of the Dane County Board of Supervisors is packed with AFSCME members protesting a sudden proposed rise in health care costs and the vote goes the workers; way, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has to revise employment statistics from earlier this year downward, and a federal judge ruled in a union-filed lawsuit says that the federal Office of Personnel Management broke the law when firing thousands of probationary employees.
Machinist union members who build Boeing fighter jets reject a tentative agreement, Teamsters Local 320 at the University of Minnesota goes on strike and Labor Radio talks to a strike captain, the US Supreme Court increasingly relies on a "shadow docket" to upend the lives of workers, department store Target's abandonment of diversity gets a target on its back from organized labor, the feds raid a Georgia Hyundai plant and maybe destroy a big capitalist deal with South Korea because foreigners, the National Weather Services doesn't want workers who know about weather, and Labor History in 2 remembers when Eugene Debs ran for president from jail.
UAW Local 95 remains on strike against Mercy Health East in Janesville and labor and supporters in Madison rally at the state capitol, the Madison Social Security office was the site of a rally in support of that program, on Labor Day workers speak at LaborFest and also march downtown against oligarchs in Labor Over Billionaires, Italian dockworkers promise to shut down European shipping if a flotilla braving the illegal blockade of Gaza is attacked, and the small Wisconsin town of Abbotsford faces government collaboration with ICE.
Security workers at Woodman's grocery vote to join SMART Local 565, a nationwide AFL-CIO bus tour hits Eau Claire and a Central Labor Council leader there speaks to Labor Radio, W&W dairy workers who are on strike receive a show of support in Madison, AFL-CIO President Liz Schuler's Labor Day speech slams Trump but also says workers can't depend on Democrats, Laborers union member Jose Ramirez speaks of his union rise and the labor movement in a segment by the Milwaukee Area Labor Council, SMART union member Kilmar Abrego Garcia is jailed again and faces exile by a vindictive Trump administration, and organized labor and immigrants rights advocates come out to support activist Catalina "Xochitl" Santiago who has been detained by federal agents.
Immigrant workers at W&W Dairy in Monroe strike their new owners and the community and organized labor comes out in support, hotel workers at the Hilton-Madison Monona Terrace join UNITE HERE Local 1 in an NLRB certified election with two-thirds of the vote, workers at Mercy Health East represented by UAW Local 95 carry their strike into the seventh week and get support in Madison, Teamsters local 705 is striking Mauser Packaging Solutions in Chicago, striking flight attendants reach an agreement with Air Canada, and US courts are ready to make the National Labor Relations Board unconstitutional.
Workers at Festival Foods in Madison speak to Labor Radio after their landslide vote to unionize and join UFCW Local 1473, Pathfinders in Milwaukee joins OPEIU Local 39, some states are passing labor protections as they are withdrawn on the federal level, the NewsGuild and the NWU jointly condemn the Israeli assassination of journalists Anas al-Sharif and his colleagues and call for solidarity with the Palestinian people, AFGE Local 1732 President William Townsend speaks on the attacks on federal workers from the Trump administration, ex-Packer and first NFL Players Association president Billy Howton dies, and Madison holds a fundraiser for UAW Local 95 on strike in Janesville.
After three years the Game Workers Alliance union at Raven Software in Middleton secures its first contract, a representative of UAW Local 95 on strike in Janesville addresses Labor Radio listeners, Teamsters Local 120 inks a contract at Sysco Minnesota and alleges poor bus maintenance support in Madison, the Secretary of the Veterans Administration tears up VA collective bargaining agreements, Madison celebrates the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, Trump doesn't like the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers so kills the messenger, Machinists at Boeing in Missouri and Illinois go out on strike, Amazon workers will have trouble appealing to the National Labor Relations Board as the board is dragging along without a quorum, and there will be a fundraiser for striking UAW Local 95 workers in Janesville at the Madison Labor Temple on August 15th.
Former Amazon Labor Union organizer Chris Smalls is freed from Israeli captivity after being abducted on the sea while bringing aid to Gaza, Amazon workers finally get rulings on charges filed at the National Labor Relations Board, national unions are having trouble unifying against actions of the Trump administration, a Wisconsin bill to strip gig workers of employee status goes to the desk of Governor Tony Evers, the president of IATSE Local 415 in Arizona talks to Labor Radio, there will be a march in support of Social Security in Madison this month, and the Rick Smith show remembers the police shooting of striking dock workers in Hilo, Hawai'i, in 1938.
The president of UAW Local 95 talks to Labor Radio as her union continues its strike against Mercy Health East in Janesville, faculty and staff at institutions of higher education across the US are organizing against federal cuts and academic interference, the NEA executive board backs off from its rank-and-file proposed ban of the ADL, an Australian journalist is awarded damages after being fired for commenting on Gaza, a Palestinian union federation issues a desperate call, Representative Ilhan Omar speaks on worker safety deregulation at the Trump Department of Labor, workers at a Tucson movie theater join IATSE Local 415, the Teamsters are striking Airgas across the US and the cops are investigating whether the company gassed strikers, Doctor Feroze Sidhwa addresses what he saw in Gaza, and the AFL-CIO has announced that John Smallwood is the new Community Services Liaison.
A UAW Local 95 nurse at the striking Mercy East clinic in Janesville speaks to Labor Radio and the union holds a rally at the picket line, Wisconsin health care activist Tim Faust speaks on the effect on workers of the upcoming massive cuts in Medicaid funding, a Good Trouble rally is held in Madison, the US Supreme Court says Trump can go ahead with gutting the US Department of Education, striking municipal workers in Philadelphia go back to work as they go to vote on a tentative agreement, and a California State professor protesting a massive ICE raid in Camarillo is detained and their union rallies behind them.
The massive Philadelphia public worker strike continues, a deeper look at "no taxes on tips," the Supreme Court allows Trump to go ahead with mass firings of federal workers and a Madison-area labor veteran explains why US workers may have to give up on relying on labor law, Amazon thinks a good way to solve its hiring problems is to "suggest" office workers work in its warehouses for free during its Prime Days, a leading committee of the country's largest union says it will no longer work with the dubious "civil right organization" the Anti-Defamation League, and a union delegate visiting Madison talks on unions in Argentina and here.
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