In the latest Payday Report podcast, retired New York Times labor reporter Steven Greenhouse talks about how Clinton pushing NAFTA bred distrust of the Democratic Party in the Rust Belt. He also discussed how Trump's tariffs may appeal to some working-class

By Mike Elk For more than 15 years, I have covered Randi Weingarten, the president of the 1.7 million member American Federation of Teachers union, but I have never seen her as excited as when she got the news that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a social studies teachers and AFT member, had been selected as Vice President. Behind the scenes, Weingart…

In honor of Labor Day, earlier this week, we reaired a New England Public Media special produced by Ian Coss and hosted by local public historian Tom Goldscheider. “This project is every historian’s dream,” said Goldscheider. “I stumbled onto a cache of union meeting records and newspaper clippings from the 1940s that allowed me to reassemble a pie…

Semafor’s Dave Weigel talks with Mike Elk about how Congresswoman Summer Lee was able to cruise to a landslide victory against AIPAC will other candidates struggles and were defeated by them.

Chris Townsend is a veteran union organizer who has lived in Virginia for 20 years. He previously served as the UE's Political action director and the ATU's Organizing Director. Over the past five years, he has seen an upsurge in organizing in Northern Virginia. "I was the organizing director for the Amalgamated Transit Union and in a period of sev…

In Virginia, this week, over 27,000 teachers and school staff are expected to vote on unionizing. If they win, it will be the largest union victory in decades. The organizing drives comes after Virginia granted collective bargaining rights to public employees in 2020. Virginia now has become one of the fastest-growing states for unions in the count…

With 70% UAW Sign Up, 25-Year Mercedes UAW Veteran Talks By Mike Elk Eleven years ago, I first met Kirk Garner, Vice President of UAW Local 149, the minority union at Mercedes in Vance, Alabama. After the UAW was narrowly defeated in a union drive in 2014, it formed minority unions at Volkswagen in Chattanooga, Tennessee and Mercedes in Vance, Alab…

Since the late 1990s, UAW Local 149 Vice President Kirk Garner has been involved in efforts to unionize at Mercedes in Vance, Alabama. Now, after the 73% victory at Volkswagen in April, the union says that it is cruising to victory. “It feels really good. And it's finally coming to fruition. And we're excited, everybody's excited, ready to vote,” s…

A formerly anti-union Volkswagen worker explains why he now supports the union at Volkswagen.

For nearly 25 years Mercedes workers in Vance have tried to unionize, but have never gotten so close. Early last month workers at Mercedes reached 50% for the first time in plant history. “I came in ‘98. And they had a campaign going on, and were gaining momentum. And they just couldn't reach that 50% mark,” says Kirk Garner, one of the leaders of …

This week, as part of our podcast, Payday Report spoke to Lori Knapp and her lawyer, Jon Ruschdeki, who have been involved in a 6-year lawsuit against Koch Industries-owned Georgia Pacific but have yet to see their day in court. The lawsuit stems from her father Ed Chapman's death in 2020 from mesothelioma. Her father contracted the disease as a co…

On Tuesday, 11,000 TV & film writers went on the first strike in Hollywood in a generation. Daley Haggar, who was a writer for the Big Bang Theory and has been a member of the Writers Guild for nearly 20 years, joins us to discuss what's at stake as writers see diminishing paychecks with the switch to streaming.…

Most of the mainstream media has abandoned the workers suffering from the fallout of the East Palestine chemical train derailment. However, the Holler's John Russel, a native of Columbiana County, where the accident occurred has remained on the story. Russell talks with Payday about what both mainstream and left media got wrong about the derailment…

On this week's Payday Report, we talk about over 9,000 Hollywood writers that are going on strike next week for the first since 2007. We also discuss the largest federal workers strike in Canada in over a decade. We also discuss the legacy of Harry Belafonte.