Leslie is joined by Tom Conway, President of the United Steelworkers (USW), North America’s largest industrial union.
They’re 1.2 million members and retirees strong in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. They proudly represent men and women who work in nearly every industry there is.

The two have a broad conversation about how workers are leading the way in the United States as our society is facing big challenges, from rampant economic inequality to the continuing human and economic toll of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and more.

Here are the subtopics that they covered during the interview, with a big focus on how workers and their unions are taking matters into their own hands to improve their lives, and fight for social and economic justice on a wider scale:

Organizing unions is one of the surest ways to improve wages, ensure safer working conditions and have a voice on the job, and workers in a wide variety of sectors are organizing to draw on their collective power.

- Last fall, 700 workers at Bobcat in Bismarck, N.D., voted to join the USW, and just last week 200 more at a Bobcat facility in Rogers, Minn., did the same.
- Football players in the USFL organized with the USW last year. This year, they overwhelmingly ratified a first contract to help provide safety and stability to their jobs. Now, players in the XFL are also looking to join the USW.

Workers and their unions are leading the way on trade, working to contain bad actors like Russia and China, and foster growth in domestic industries.

Workers are also using their activism to roll back bad laws, like the historic repeal of the so-called right-to-work (RTW) law in Michigan.

USW members have been on the vanguard fighting for less-publicized but equally needed legislation, including bills to help veterans.

The website for the USW is USW.org and their handle on both Twitter and Instagram is @steelworkers.

The Leslie Marshall Show - 3/28/23 - Workers Leading the Way

For Media Business Episode 48:
Tony Conley welcomes back Jarrett Skorup, the vice president for marketing and communications at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. He has held various roles within communications, including senior director of marketing and communications and director of the Frank Beckmann Center for Journalism at the Center, and has played a leadership role in marketing efforts, media strategy, and overseeing policy campaigns and objectives. He has worked at the Center since 2009.
Skorup is a graduate of Grove City College with degrees in history and political science. He also studied economics and religion. While there, he was captain of the college's club Ultimate Frisbee and wrestling teams.
His work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Fox News, National Public Radio, MLive, Detroit Free Press, Detroit News, and many newspapers across the country.
A native of Sandwich, Illinois, Skorup is an avid Chicago sports fan. He also officiates high school wrestling and enjoys fishing and woodworking. In his free time, Skorup volunteers with his church, serves on committees with the local Chamber of Commerce, and works in the schools through Junior Achievement.
He lives in Midland, MI with his wife, Karen, and children Grayson, Reagan, Theodora and Reece.

For this discussion, they cover the Right to Work legislation, discussion over private and public workforce, opinions on unions and use of union dues, and whether taxpayers should have to fund refunds of paid union dues?

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Thank you to Benjamin Robinson and Motor City Skyline's music

Media Business | Jarrett Skorup - How the Media Deals with Right to Work Legislation

Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/98784955

Bea, Artie and Phil discuss why the fact that a record 20 million people are now on ACA (Obamacare) plans is not the unequivocal good news that Democrats are portraying it as, how to understand those numbers in the context of the ongoing Medicaid unwinding, and why it’s long past time to move beyond the ACA.

Get Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism

Find Jules' new book here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3054-a-short-history-of-trans-misogyny

Runtime 1:06:48, 19 February 2024

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Death Panel Teaser - Let Them Eat Statistics (02/19/24)

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Teaser - Let Them Eat Statistics (02/19/24)

Leslie is joined by Maria Somma, Organizing Director for the United Steelworkers (USW).

The pair explores why workers still need the PRO Act.

This includes white collar workers, which Maria shares multiple examples of with the audience.
Workers in the South are also eager to exercise their rights, though this is drawing backlash from anti-worker politicians in states like Georgia and Alabama.

The Biden administration has done important work to correct course at the NLRB, and there are pro-worker provisions in recent investments, which are helping smooth the way for workers to have a voice on the job.  This includes extensive new requirements for infrastructure projects to be “made in America” as part of the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). Known as the Build America, Buy America Act (BABAA), this section of the law promises to stimulate American manufacturing and create jobs for American workers by ensuring that a substantial portion of BIL funding is used to purchase U.S.-made products and materials.

However, workers still face an uphill battle when it comes to forming unions.  The solution is to finally pass comprehensive legislation that shores up loopholes in our laws and attaches real, immediate penalties to corporations that violate workers’ rights. 
Leslie and Maria share the legislative solution to these issues, which is the Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act).

They detail what the law would do, which is:
- Establish stronger and swifter remedies to stop employers from breaking the law
- Make companies recognize contractors as part of the collective bargaining process so they can no longer continue to whittle down Union membership by subcontracting
- Force an employer to reach a first contract in a timely manner with a newly organized group of workers. (No more dragging out first contracts)
- Reverse so-called 'Right to Work,' regardless of state laws
 - Prohibit employers from forcing employees to attend anti-union meetings
Recent polls show that support for unions is at a fifty-year high, and having Joe Biden, the only sitting President to walk a picket line, in office has helped workers a great deal.  But, it’s time for the law to catch up. 

Maria Somma has been an organizer for her entire career, first as a community organizer, and then as a labor organizer. 
She started with the Steelworkers in 2001 as a healthcare workers organizer, and became Organizing Director in 2015.
The website for the USW is www.USW.org.
Their handle on X and Instagram is @steelworkers. Like them on Facebook by visiting www.Facebook.com/Steelworkers.

The Leslie Marshall Show - 6/21/24 - Workers Need the PRO Act

Happy Right to Work Day!  While everyone else in this country is at the lake, drinking beer, eating barbecue, and singing the praises of collective Communist labor, I like to celebrate the people who REALLY make this nation work, the business owners who make things, provide needed services, and yes, pay the people who work for them.

TASCAM DR-05

Fight Back with Jay Howell - Happy Right to Work Day!

The Home of Business in Michigan. Get on-demand access to audio programs, articles and resources presented by savvy business leaders and industry experts.

Radio news reporter and anchor, also a voice over hired gun.

The best progressive talk right here, on demand. Always Progressive, Always On!

Politics, culture, and public policy from the left. Stay alive another week.

w/ Beatrice Adler-Bolton, Artie Vierkant, Phil Rocco and Jules Gill-Peterson. 

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New tracks tagged #right to work