Dear Friends,

Are labor unions and workers’ rights on the rise? That’s our discussion this week with Charlie Wishman, president of the Iowa Federation of Labor. LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE.

“Nate Hamilton Speaking to Striking workers” by Professional Association of Milwaukee Public Education, is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.

There’s some sense that recent successes seen by working families are due to fallout from COVID-19. But as Charlie points out, the success of the 2018 teachers union strike shows that the resurgence of Labor’s influence predates COVID.

While one might see the effort to unionize the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, as a failure, that effort set the stage for other Amazon workers to push for better wages and working conditions.

Meanwhile, pushback from the corporate suits at Starbucks has been fierce and, well, possibly illegal to some extent. In response to efforts to unionize six Starbucks stores in Buffalo, New York, company officials launched an aggressive anti-union campaign, including captive audience meetings, one-on-one talks, store shutdowns, closures, and more.

One recent organizing effort that resolved favorably was the strike at John Deere, with the signing of a new contract that workers and the company both felt good about. That contract includes an immediate 10% raise, an $8,500 signing bonus, a cost-of-living adjustment, and more.

Labor’s detractors allege that unions are greedy. That ridiculous charge falls flat when you consider, for example, that corporate profits at John Deere hit new records during the recent strike.

You’ll appreciate not only Charlie’s take on these struggles, but the perspectives shared by our callers, including one staunch conservative who agrees that Labor Unions are valuable and needed.

Also on this week’s program, Kathy Byrnes joins me for our Food and Farm segment to discuss why it’s time to start thinking about planting indoors to assure healthy, hardy seedlings for next spring.

You can also catch the Fallon Forum on these local affiliates:

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Thanks for supporting the progressive alternative to the right-wing shock jocks!

Ed Fallon