As they perform Swan Lake, dancers at Miami City Ballet in Florida have been facing a union-busting campaign from the company’s management. Their case went to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which ruled on May 8 in favor of the dancers seeking to unionize, clearing the way for a union election on May 14. These dancers are just one group in a wave of ballet companies unionizing with the…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
A new poll demonstrates that young people across the U.S. are less inclined to live in and accept employment in states that have restrictive policies on abortion. The CNBC + Generation Lab Youth Poll, conducted from April 26 to May 2, examined the viewpoints of respondents between the ages of 18 and 34. Among a number of issues, the survey asked young Americans how their living choices and…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Last week, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey lambasted the United Auto Workers (UAW) in a social media post on X (formerly Twitter) ahead of a union vote at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance, Alabama, set for mid-May. Ivey has been campaigning for months against autoworker unionization in the state. Ivey’s post referenced an anti-union op-ed by Nathaniel Ledbetter, speaker of the Alabama House of…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Workers around the world rallied Wednesday to mark May Day, with many calling on the labor movement to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian cause. In New York, Democracy Now! spoke to demonstrators who demanded that U.S. unions apply political pressure for a ceasefire in Gaza and to stop their government’s arms trade with Israel. “Workers do have the power to shape the world…
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This story is published in partnership with The Fuller Project.
As Nour feeds another half-finished pair of pants through her sewing machine, her arms begin to shake. Amid the whir of fans, her T-shirt sticks to her like skin. She fights to focus, knowing full well her target of up to 100 pieces an hour isn’t going to hit itself.
“I am completely soaked in sweat,” the 38-year-old says of her work shifts. “The heat makes me exhausted.”
Nour, who asked to use a pseudonym out of fear of reprisal from her employer, works at Yakjin, a South Korean-owned garment factory in Cambodia. More than 2,500 employees here stitch apparel for major U.S. giants like Walmart and Gap. Workers at Yakjin say the heat often leads to near-fainting episodes, fatigue, and dehydration. With no windows, the air feels stifling but their requests for fans are at times ignored.
Workers at three other factories in Phnom Penh, the country’s capital, producing clothes for brands like Primark, H&M, and Old Navy (owned by Gap Inc.), told similar stories of worsening heat.
Around the world, fashion’s mostly female labor force is grappling with working conditions made increasingly unbearable and unhealthy by climate change. Women picking cotton in India’s sun-baked fields are toiling in temperatures of roughly 113 degrees Fahrenheit, while workers in Ghana’s Kantamanto — one of the world’s largest second-hand markets where clothing discarded by Western consumers is resold — are losing vital wages when flooding prevents trade. Nour is just one of nearly 1 million garment workers in Cambodia, a country that has experienced roughly 1.4 degrees F degrees of warming per decade since the 1960s.
Fashion has had a devastating impact on the planet, producing more greenhouse gas emissions than aviation and shipping combined. So far, labor experts say, the more than $2.5 trillion industry has mostly focused its climate change efforts on mitigation, such as using more recycled fabrics, while largely ignoring how it impacts workers.
“[Labor] violations in factories are so gross, as in so widespread, and so awful… that that’s where the attention has been,” said Liz Parker, an associate member of Clean Clothes Campaign, an Amsterdam-based alliance of labor unions and nongovernmental organizations. “But workers are suffering from heat stress, from flooding, from water pollution…and we need to protect [them] from that as well.”
To expose how climate change is impacting workers throughout fashion’s supply chain, The Fuller Project tracked products from several brands — including Walmart, Primark, H&M, Gap, and Old Navy — across several countries. At each stage, women play a vital role in the global business of fashion yet their livelihoods — and lives — are being increasingly threatened by extreme weather.
Cotton fields appear outside the car window an hour into the drive from Ahmedabad, capital of Gujarat state on India’s western coast. In every field, a woman in a sari is scooping cotton blossoms into a bag, spots of bright color that punctuate green fields topped with white fluff.
Roshan Osmanbhai arrives at 7 a.m. daily and ties a strip of cloth around her head to protect it from the sun. By midday, the temperature will hit more than 80 degrees F. The last week of January is supposed to be the height of winter in Gujarat, with average temperatures hovering around 68 degrees F. She hasn’t felt that traditional winter for years.
India is the world’s biggest grower of cotton after China. Six million farmers make a living from the sector, most of them women, according to Better Cotton, a nonprofit that promotes sustainable production. Cotton’s global supply chain is complex and lacks transparency, but Primark and H&M both confirmed they source from India. Walmart, Gap, and Old Navy didn’t respond to The Fuller Project’s requests for comment, but nonprofits monitoring supply chains said they likely do as well.
“If you’re in the apparel business…you have to come here,” said Ashis Mondal, former director of Action for Social Advancement, an Indian nonprofit supporting small farmers. “You have no other option.”
Across the region, the farms might be run by women, but few of them own the land they cultivate. The precarious nature of their work is exacerbated further by the changing climate, with summers arriving earlier and monsoon rains delayed or declining, damaging crops. India recorded extreme weather events on nearly 90 percent of the days in the first nine months of 2023, according to The Centre of Science and Environment, a research organization based in New Delhi, killing nearly 3,000 people and ruining almost 5 million acres of crop area.
In Gujarat last year, summer rolled in before March, say the women. The temperature shot up to roughly 113 degrees F before anybody knew what to do. Women farmers complained the heat was making it hard to carry on. “The heat makes our skin itch,” said Jessuben Jhapra, a 49-year-old farmer. “Heat rash can erupt all over the body. Our eyes are under enormous strain.”
The weather patterns have invited new and unfamiliar pests, requiring pesticides that have created further health problems for the women. Most own protective gear — gloves, boots, goggles — but don’t always use them when it’s hot. Two years ago, Alayben Zilriya, a 55-year-old farmer with sharp cheekbones and thin-rimmed spectacles, sprayed pesticides on the plants using her bare hands. She got such a severe reaction that she had to visit the doctor for treatment. Today, the skin on her hands is still shriveled, her nails grayish.
Excessive temperatures can do serious harm to humans. Heat exhaustion sets in when too much water and salt is lost, usually due to excessive sweating. Symptoms include nausea, dizziness, thirst, and palpitations. It can be hard to think clearly — hot weather is linked to reduced cognitive function, judgement errors, and higher risk of occupational injury.
For Nour, this sounds familiar. Even though drinking water is available at her factory, she feels dehydrated and has little energy to work. When it’s hot she takes more toilet breaks but misses her hourly targets and says her supervisors at Yakjin become verbally abusive.
“They curse or insult us,” she explained. “They blame us.”
Workers at Yakjin interviewed by The Fuller Project said they often feel ill or faint. Ry, 38, who has been employed at the factory for over a decade, thinks the heat is getting worse. Climate change is part of the problem, he says, but also fans aren’t maintained or replaced. While the building has fans that blow mist to keep workers cool, they do not reach all employees. For over two years, Ry has asked the factory for more, but says his requests have fallen on deaf ears.
Only a small handful of Cambodia’s roughly 1,300 garment factories have air conditioning, according to Seang Yot from The Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union, or C-CAWDU.
At lunchtime, Yakjin employees hang cloth above their heads in the outdoor canteen for extra shade. In heavy rains during the wet season, the area floods, as does the factory, workers tell The Fuller Project. Cambodia is already highly vulnerable to flooding, including flash flooding, but projected climate change trends indicate this is only set to get worse — affecting tens of thousands more people each year by 2030. Workers are concerned about electric shocks as flood water comes in contact with the factory’s electrical systems, said Nour, though no one has been hurt yet.
“Anything involving money is always a problem,” explained Ry, who also asked to use a pseudonym. “The factory managers don’t care about how heat impacts us, only that we speed up and work faster.”
In an email, Yakjin Cambodia’s management said the factory maintains “a comfortable indoor temperature with cooling and ventilation systems,” including fans and air conditioners, but said there was no AC in the sewing line.
They said there have been no reported cases of fainting in the past two years, and that exhaustion could have many causes including inadequate healthcare, exercise, and lack of sleep, as well as heat.
There are grievance mechanisms in place for workers and no one had reported supervisors becoming verbally abusive when production targets were missed. Yakjin said the factory does not flood during the rainy season and there was no risk of electric shock.
Walmart, which sources from Yakjin, said it “does not tolerate unsafe working conditions” and is looking into the matter.
While Cambodia has always been hot, extreme heat now presents a major threat to human health. The country’s garment sector is particularly vulnerable to climate change because it emerged largely ad hoc with little oversight, according to a 2022 report led by Laurie Parsons, senior lecturer in geography at Royal Holloway, University of London.
Many of the factories, for example, are technically warehouses. “They’re not built for humans,” said Parsons. Most are also privately rented, which means factory owners have little power — or incentive — to implement changes, added Yot.
Cambodia’s labor law sets no limit on workplace temperatures, saying only they must be “reasonable for employees.” In neighboring Thailand, with a similar-sized garment industry, the maximum is 93 degrees F wet bulb temperature (a way of measuring heat stress that takes into account factors like temperature and humidity, among others).
Over two days, The Fuller Project asked a garment worker to measure temperatures using a digital thermometer in the sewing section of Jade Sun Garment, a factory producing for brands like Primark, Old Navy, and George, a British clothing line sold widely in Walmart. Recordings taken by a garment worker in February, one of the cooler months, hit 97.7 degrees F.
During the hottest months, from April to May, the country’s daytime outdoor temperatures can soar above 104 degrees F. Leakhena, a soft-spoken sewer who’s worked at Jade Sun for several years, often feels “nearly unconscious” during this period. “We need more oxygen,” she explained. “I cannot breathe properly.”
The water provided by the factory isn’t clean either, she said. “It smells a lot. When we drink water from that tap it gives us a sore throat.”
In response to inquiries from The Fuller Project about workers’ claims, Gap Inc. said it is opening investigations into Yakjin and Jade Sun Garment and will take appropriate action to remediate any breach of its policies. Primark is aware of the issues raised in connection with Jade Sun Garment and is in the process of “supporting remediation” with its management, adding the safety of workers in their supply chain is “extremely important” to the company. Jade Sun Garment and George did not reply to multiple requests for comment.
In an email, Heng Sour, Cambodia’s Minister of Labour and Vocational Training, said the government is “deeply concerned” about worker welfare. He said The Fuller Project’s temperature recording at Jade Sun Garment offered a “limited view” because it used a single thermometer but pointed to the need for a “more detailed analysis to accurately assess and respond to temperature conditions.” The government is also in the process of “potentially” establishing maximum workplace temperatures and since being contacted has accelerated the deployment of additional cooling systems to factories.
Once their shift is over, women return home — yet there is no reprieve from the soaring temperatures. Many live in privately rented dormitories, often single-bedroom dwellings with low, metal roofs and little protection against extreme weather. Several workers described them as virtually unlivable in the heat.
“I want to see change,” said Leakhena, who also asked to use a pseudonym for fear of reprisals. “The heat is making us more exhausted every day. We don’t know what impact it will have on our health after five or 10 years. And by that point, it’s already too late.”
Inside Accra’s bustling central business district lies Kantamanto. A sprawling complex packed with vendors who sell what’s known locally as obroni wawu or “dead white man’s clothes.”
Ghana was the largest importer of used clothing in 2021, with $214 million worth of garments passing across its borders. When consumers in the United States or United Kingdom donate their old T-shirts, only 10 to 30 percent are resold in stores. The rest disappears into a vast network, often ending up here, West Africa’s hub for used garments from the West. In Kantamanto, stalls sell clothing from Primark, H&M, Walmart, GAP, and Old Navy.
Young women and teenage girls move through the market balancing 120-pound bales of clothing on their heads. Known as kayayei, they transport bales from importers to stalls, storage, and disposal sites, earning 30 cents to $1 per trip. The market’s narrow aisles don’t allow for motorized modes of transport, so the women play a crucial link in the second-hand supply chain. Their work frequently causes neck and spine injuries, said Liz Ricketts, co-founder of The Or Foundation, a Ghana and U.S.-based nonprofit. They also face sexual violence, including rape, and are at high risk of unplanned pregnancies, according to the United Nations.
Many are here because climate change has made farming in their villages unviable, but the cities have proven to be no refuge either. Ghana is experiencing more intense and frequent flooding and storms as global temperatures tick up. In Kantamanto, clothing waste clogs the gutters, which exacerbates the flooding, says Ricketts, and leads to an increased risk of cholera and malaria.
The market is open every day but Sunday. When clouds gather, 18-year-old Mariam Karim starts to worry. She earns roughly $14 a week carting bales of second-hand clothes from trucks, which covers her basic needs such as rent and food. During the rainy season, fewer customers show up and the market shuts roughly twice a month from flooding, according to Ricketts, often leaving women without pay.
A downpour can also mean no sleep. “Flooding at my home is common,” said Karim, who lives near the market in a wooden, makeshift dwelling. “I will usually scoop the water out of my room until it subsides. It is scary because colleagues have even lost their lives and properties.”
West Africa is a climate change hotspot and Accra’s low elevation makes it particularly vulnerable. After more than three decades working at Kantamanto, it’s something Daniel Ampadu, vice chairman of the Kantamanto Used Clothing Association, has seen with his own eyes.
“I am old enough so I can tell you that these days, so much rain comes…and many places, especially our market, gets flooded,” he said. “This wasn’t the case 30 years ago.”
Of the five brands examined across India, Cambodia and Ghana, only Primark and H&M provided details in response to queries about what they are doing to protect workers in their global supply chain from climate change. Primark said it knows it must “act to mitigate” the causes and effects of climate change and support their supply chain partners in similar efforts, such as educating farmers in their Sustainable Cotton Programme, a training scheme. H&M said it is aware of the impact that climate change has on the people in its supply chains and “constantly review and adapt” the scope of its climate-related risks.
For decades, the fashion industry’s exploitation of workers in low-income countries has been well documented. But a new challenge now presents itself: Who will protect them from a climate crisis that the very same industry helped bring about?
Better Factories Cambodia, a partnership between the International Labour Organisation, the UN’s labor agency, and the International Finance Corporation, has repeatedly recorded what it says are unacceptable workplace temperatures during inspections. Although some factories have invested in improved lighting and better ventilation, most need to do more, it says. More recently, fashion brands involved in Action, Collaboration, Transformation, or ACT, a global agreement aimed at transforming the garment industry, have begun to discuss ways to solve the heat problem for its workers, said Yot. Unless extreme heat and flooding are addressed, countries vital for fashion production, including Cambodia, risk losing $65 billion in export earnings and 1 million potential jobs by 2030, according to research by Cornell University’s Global Labor Institute.
“The buck stops always with the brands,” said Parsons. “[But] it’s kind of like pushing an open door… They’re like, yes, we should think about this but they haven’t yet.”
For Nour, she’d simply like to feel cool air on her face. Or the freedom to catch her breath. After work, she showers, washing away the sweat. For a brief moment, she feels alive, before being engulfed by the factory’s heat once more.
Additional reporting by Sineat Yon
The Fuller Project is a non-profit newsroom dedicated to the coverage of women’s issues around the world. Sign up for the Fuller Project’s newsletter, and follow the organization on X or LinkedIn.
This story was originally published by Grist with the headline The world’s garment workers are on the frontlines of climate impacts on May 2, 2024.
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This content originally appeared on The Real News Network and was authored by The Real News Network.
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“A world without borders is necessary if we are serious about ending the ravages of imperialism, the violent extraction of capitalism, and the oppressive racial social organization of our world,” writes migrant justice activist Harsha Walia. Walia’s claim points to how the carceral, exclusionary immigration system weakens labor rights not just for immigrant workers, but for all workers.
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Right now, the biggest student revolt of this century is rocking the country, denouncing the genocide of Palestinians and calling for divestment from Israel and an end to the war on Gaza. The repression has been bipartisan and savage. College administrators are calling in heavily armed police of Democrat-controlled cities to drag away hundreds of students and faculty, for the crime of sitting on a…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
As protests continue on campuses across North America, we go to the University of Southern California, where the union representing about 3,000 graduate student workers at USC has filed an unfair labor practice charge against the school to end campus militarization and drop charges against students and faculty. The “rampant violence that they inflicted on our workers” violates the National Labor Relations Act, says Margaret Davis, president of UAW Local 872. “It was a clear act of retaliation because people were engaging in pro-Palestinian free speech, which they have a right to.”
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
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Janine Jackson interviewed the National Employment Law Project’s Sally Dworak-Fisher about delivery workers for the April 26, 2024, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.
Janine Jackson: Less than four months after it came into effect, Seattle is looking to “adjust”—as it’s being described—the app-based worker minimum-payment ordinance calling on companies like Uber and DoorDash to improve labor conditions for employees.
Seattle City Council President Sara Nelson described the ordinance’s impact on the local economy as “catastrophic.” The Seattle Times reports that the “whiplash reversal comes as both drivers and businesses complained about the added cost of delivery, largely in the form of service charges added by the companies in the wake of the new law”—”in the wake of” being the load-bearing language here.
Common Dreams (3/28/24)
The story of a recent piece by our next guest is in its headline: “DoorDash and Uber Using Customers as Pawns to Punish Workers—Don’t Fall for It.” So here to help us break down what’s going on is Sally Dworak-Fisher, a senior staff attorney at the National Employment Law Project. She joins us now by phone from Baltimore City. Welcome to CounterSpin, Sally Dworak-Fisher.
Sally Dworak-Fisher: Thank you so much for having me.
JJ: Though more and more people are taking on gig work—for reasons largely to do with the conditions of non-gig work—I think it’s still safe to say that more mainstream news media consumers use app-based delivery systems than work for them. And reporters know what they’re doing when they explain this story by saying, for instance, “Companies like DoorDash have implemented regulatory fees in response to the new law, causing the cost of orders to go up.” What’s being skipped over in that formulation, or that explanation, of what’s happening here, that there was a new law and now costs have gone up? What’s missing there?
SD: Sure. Well, it’s not a surprise that companies might choose to pass on some percentage of new costs to consumers, but they’re by no means required to, and compliance with bedrock pay standards, or any workplace law or social safety net, is part of running a business. If you need to charge a certain amount so you can pay your employee a minimum wage, you don’t normally issue a receipt that says, this is due to the minimum wage law. The practice of specifically pointing the finger at some new law seems really designed to make customers angry at the law, and pit them against the workers. It’s a business choice, it’s not a requirement.
And businesses could choose to, for instance, not pass on the entire cost of the law, or not pass on any of it, if they can afford to do that within their profit margin. So this particular situation, where customers are getting receipts that, in effect, blame the law, seems like a play to pit workers and consumers against one another.
JJ: Absolutely. In your piece that I saw in Common Dreams, you note that charging new service fees is an effort to “tank consumer demand and available work.” What are you getting at there? Why would a company want to draw down consumer demand, and then, more specifically, why would they want to lessen available work?
SD: My point there was just that, in so doing, they can also again create an outcry, a backlash, with workers themselves also saying, “Hey, the law isn’t working as intended. We need to change it.” But, really, it’s a manufactured crisis, and it’s not the law that’s to blame there. It’s really the policy of the business that’s to blame.
JJ: And we don’t see media, at least that I’ve seen, digging into that kind of elision, that kind of skip.
Seattle Times (4/26/24)
SD: Another interesting thing to note would be, so they add a $5 fee that’s purportedly because of the new legal requirements. But it’ll be interesting to know how much of that fee from all those people is really going through the compliance, versus how much is going to profit. And their data is not easily shared.
JJ: And I wanted to ask you about that data. Companies are saying these new service charges are a necessary counterbalance to increased labor costs. Though according to, at least, the Seattle Times, they have declined to release internal data. So we’re being asked to trust the very companies that fought tooth and nail against this ordinance, against paying workers more. We’re just supposed to trust their explanation of what the impact of that ordinance has been. That is, as you say, an information deficit there.
SD: Yes, and I think that they closely guard their information, and don’t turn it over to policymakers. It’s sort of shadow-boxing, in a way, because they have all the information. So I would hope that policymakers would make them show their work, in effect.
JJ: Or at least make a point of the fact that they’re not; that they’re making assertions based on something that they’re not proving or illustrating. We can call that out.
SD: And that was part of our point, is that this law has only gone into effect two months ago. Just be cognizant of the fact that this is a choice that the companies are making to raise these service fees. And before you go about rushing to judgment on anything, demand the data, and see what’s going on.
CounterSpin (4/3/20)
JJ: When I spoke with Bama Athreya, who hosts the podcast the Gig, she was saying that there’s a glaring need for a bridge between labor rights advocates and digital rights advocates. Because these companies, they’re not making toasters. Their business model is crucial here, and part of that involves, in fact, data, and that, beyond our regular understanding of workers’ rights, there needs to be a bigger-picture understanding of this new way of doing business.
SD: That dovetails with something that we talk about frequently here, which is the algorithmic control and the gamification of the work. These corporations are really well-versed in touting flexibility, but the day-to-day job of an app-based worker is highly mediated, monitored, controlled by algorithms that detail how much they’ll be paid, when they’ll be paid, when they can work. There’s a whole lot of algorithms and tech that come into play here. But I do just want to say, it doesn’t make them special. These are just new ways of misclassifying workers as independent contractors.
JJ: It’s just a new shine on an old practice.
Another thing that Bama Athreya pointed out was that it’s often presented to us as, “Well, I guess you’re going to have to pay $26 for a cup of coffee, because the workers want to get paid more.” And that’s the pitting workers versus consumers angle that a lot of elite media take.
Intercept (1/7/22)
But also, if we look at other countries, companies like Uber say, “Well golly, if you make us improve our labor practices, I guess we’ll have to”—and then they kick rocks and look sad—“I guess we’ll just have to go out of business.” And then a government says, “Well, yeah, OK, but you still have to follow the law.” And then they say, “Oh, all right, we’ll just follow it.” They can do it.
SD: And I think they’ve admitted that. I believe that the Uber CEO, after California passed AB 5, which is a law regarding who’s an employee and who’s an independent contractor in that state, Uber, I’m pretty sure, was on record saying, “Well, we can comply with any law.”
And, honestly, I think that really gets into, what do we as a society want in terms of our policies? Do we want just any business? Don’t we have minimum wage laws for a reason? If you can’t make it work while still paying a living wage, then consumers aren’t in the business of subsidizing that. I’m sorry, but not every business is entitled to run on the lowest wage possible.
JJ: And I wish a lot of the folks were not saying, out of the same mouth, that capitalism is this wonderful thing where if you build a better mousetrap, then you succeed, and if you don’t, well, you don’t. And that’s why they have to be rewarded, because of the risk they take. When then, at the same time, we’re saying, oh, but if you want to fall afoul of certain basic human rights laws, we’ll subsidize that, and make sure you get to exist anyway. It’s a confusing picture.
SD: I mean, should we bring back child labor?
JJ: Yeah. Hmm. You thought that would be a less interesting question than it turns out that it is.
Let me just ask you, finally, what should we be looking for to happen from public advocates, which we would hope elected officials would be public advocates, and also reporters we would hope would be public advocates. What should they be calling for, and what should they notice if it doesn’t happen? What’s the right move right now?
Sally Dworak-Fisher: “Uber and Lyft, in particular, buy, bully and bamboozle their way into getting legislatures to enact the policies that they favor.”
SD: I think whatever can be done to support the movement. There’s movements across states of app-based workers demanding accountability, and really trying to shine a light on what’s really going on here. I think the more reporting on that, and exposing—you know, every worker should have flexibility and a good job, but the flexibility that’s offered app-based workers is not necessarily the flexibility that a regular reader might assume.
In 2018, NELP issued a report with another organization, called Uber State Interference, and we really identified these ways that Uber and Lyft, in particular, buy, bully and bamboozle their way into getting legislatures to enact the policies that they favor. And now, coming out of the pandemic, as workers are successfully organizing again, like they’ve been doing in Seattle and New York City and Minneapolis, the companies are orchestrating a backlash. So understanding the context of what’s going on, and exposing it, would go a long way in solidarity with the workers.
JJ: We’ve been speaking with Sally Dworak-Fisher from the National Employment Law Project; they’re online at NELP.org. And her piece, “DoorDash and Uber Using Customers as Pawns to Punish Workers—Don’t Fall for It,” can be found at CommonDreams.org. Thank you so much, Sally Dworak-Fisher, for speaking with us this week on CounterSpin.
SD: A pleasure to be here. Thank you so much.
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The Vermont farmworkers organization, Migrant Justice, scored an enormous victory in 2017 when it forced Ben & Jerry’s to join its fair labor program, Milk with Dignity. That program guarantees better wages and working conditions for workers on farms in its dairy supply chain. On the heels of this breakthrough, Migrant Justice launched a new struggle in 2019 to get the supermarket chain, Hannaford…
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The National Labor Relations Act still functions, just barely, for Starbucks workers. Employees at fast-food franchises face even worse odds under federal labor law.
This post was originally published on Dissent MagazineDissent Magazine.
As the world’s largest democracy began the first of its seven-phase general elections last week, India’s farmers were back on the streets protesting the government’s U-turn on earlier promises. It has not been long since the farmers grabbed the world’s attention by camping at the borders of the national capital in Delhi for a year, forcing Narendra Modi’s government to meet their demands.
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As the world’s largest democracy began the first of its seven-phase general elections last week, India’s farmers were back on the streets protesting the government’s U-turn on earlier promises. It has not been long since the farmers grabbed the world’s attention by camping at the borders of the national capital in Delhi for a year, forcing Narendra Modi’s government to meet their demands.
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Growing up, I looked up to my father and aunt, who began restaurant industry careers after immigrating from Eritrea in the 1970s. When I started working, a restaurant job was a natural choice. While I took great pride in my work, I struggled with the conditions. I was often on my feet for 10-12 hour shifts six days a week, had no access to affordable health care, was wholly unaware of my worker…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Columbia encampment (CC photo: Pamela Drew)
This week on CounterSpin: Lots of college students, it would appear, think that learning about the world means not just gaining knowledge, but acting on it. Yale students went on a hunger strike, students at Washington University in St. Louis disrupted admitted students day, students and faculty are expressing outrage at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism (emphasis added) canceling their valedictorian’s commencement speech out of professed concerns for “safety.” A Vanderbilt student is on TikTok noting that their chancellor has run away from offers to engage them, despite his claim to the New York Times that it’s protestors who are “not interested in dialogue”—and Columbia University students have set up an encampment seen around the world, holding steady as we record April 25, despite the college siccing the NYPD on them.
Campuses across the country—Rutgers, MIT, Ohio State, Boston University, Emerson, Tufts, and on and on—are erupting in protest over their institutions’ material support for Israel’s war on Palestinians, and for the companies making the weapons. And the colleges’ official responses are gutting the notion that elite higher education entails respect for the free expression of ideas. Students for Justice in Palestine is working with many of these students. We’ll hear from Sam from National SJP about unfolding events.
(CC photo: Edenpictures)
Also on the show: App-based companies, including Uber and DoorDash, are adding new service fees, and telling customers they have to, because of new rules calling on them to improve wages and conditions for workers. The rather transparent hope is that, with a lift from lazy media, happy to typey-type about the worry of more expensive coffee, folks will get mad and blame those greedy…bicycle deliverers. We asked Sally Dworak-Fisher, senior staff attorney at National Employment Law Project, to break that story down.
Plus Janine Jackson takes a quick look at the TikTok ban.
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The European Parliament on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a new law that prevents the import and distribution of goods made with forced labor, a move that Uyghur advocates said would help clamp down on China’s use of forced labor in far western Xinjiang.
The Forced Labour Regulation, which places the burden of proof on the EU rather than on companies, was approved in a 555-6 vote, with 45 abstentions.
The law will allow authorities in EU member states and the European Commission to investigate suspicious goods, supply chains and manufacturers. Products they determine to be made with forced labor cannot be sold in the EU, including online, and will be confiscated at the border.
Manufacturers of banned goods must withdraw their products from the EU single market and donate, recycle or destroy them. Companies that fail to comply can be fined.
Uyghur activists welcomed the measure, although it does not specifically ban products made by Uyghur forced labor, and some pointed out shortcomings.
“The passage of this legislation also sends a powerful message to the Chinese companies doing business in Europe that have continuously benefited from the Uyghur forced labor despite repeated warnings,” said Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress, or WUC.
The EU’s 27 countries must now approve the regulation for it to enter into force, a measure that is largely a formality. After ratification, they will have three years to implement the law.
Missed opportunity
Zumretay Arkin, WUC’s director of global advocacy, called the parliament’s vote positive, but said the EU “missed a crucial opportunity to agree on an instrument that could meaningfully address forced labor when the government is the perpetrator, like in the Uyghur region in China.”
“We welcome this milestone but stress that all related guidance, guidelines and considerations of when to investigate cases be created in a way that ensures the regulation can effectively ban products made with state-imposed forced labor,” she said in a statement from the London-based Anti-Slavery International.
Absent from the law are key provisions that would have heightened its effectiveness, including a method of redress for forced labor victims, said the rights group which works to end modern slavery.
A similar law took effect in the United States in 2021 banning the import of goods made using forced labor in Xinjiang, where the U.S. government has said China is committing genocide against the 11 million mostly Muslim Uyghurs.
Beijing has denied accusations of human rights violations in Xinjiang, despite substantial evidence that it has detained an estimated 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in “re-education” camps, where they received training in various skills and were forced to work in factories making everything from chemicals and clothing to car parts.
The European Parliament passed a resolution in June 2022 saying China’s treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim groups in Xinjiang amounted to crimes against humanity and held a “serious risk of genocide.”
‘Less teeth’
The EU law has “significantly less teeth” than the U.S. Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, but the crux will be the way it’s implemented by investigating authorities, said Adrian Zenz, senior fellow and director in China studies at the Washington-based Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.
The EU regulation contains a provision that the EU must align itself according to the forced labor definitions and standards of the International Labour Organization, or ILO, which has published updated guidelines containing provisions capable of targeting Uyghur forced labor in Xinjiang, Zenz said.
One of the new provisions is that state-imposed forced labor is best assessed as a risk rather than a specific instance. This points to the fact that state-imposed forced labor creates a pervasive risk in an entire targeted region that is difficult, if not impossible, to assess in particular situations such as in places where there is no freedom to speak out, he said.
“There’s the possibility that the [European] Commission in its investigation … could make a finding of forced labor without having to prove every connection to every supply chain, by determining that this region is not cooperating, is not providing accurate information, and in line with what the ILO guidelines say about state-imposed forced labor, that it’s best assessed as a systemic risk,” he said.
“That increases the scope of being more effective in its implementation.”
The approval of the Forced Labour Regulation comes ahead of a European Parliament vote expected this week on the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, which creates a legal liability for companies relating to environmental and human rights violations within their supply chains.
“Together, these laws will send a strong message to workers around the world that the EU will not stand for forced labor,” said Anti-Slavery International.
Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Alim Seytoff for RFA Uyghur and Roseanne Gerin for RFA.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
In today’s America there is no need for a contract for millions of my fellow working stiffs. With many states like mine (Florida) having “Right to work laws,” unions are few and far between. Duh, like not even 10% of private sector workers are unionized. So, you work for a boss on hourly, weekly, or on commission (as this writer still does for over 40 years) you can be replaced or as the Brits say “redundanized” just like that! And they complain, the Fat Cats who own industry, about slow motion or uncaring employees. Well, like with the guy who put in our laminate floors told me several years ago: “At the place I work, with three of us wood craftsmen, the owner just bought himself, his wife and his two children new BMWs. Yet, never a thought to give us raises or a nice bonus at Christmas.”
Let’s not just obsess over the shitty work climate for blue and white collar working stiffs. No, check this out: I used my smart TV and found many “Free Channels” meaning no cost to watch. I got into a three season series and was really hooked on the storyline etc. Well, with this channel, TUBI, they have more commercials than I have ever experienced. The way things are set up if you try to leave the show you may lose where you are in it, so I had to sit through the ****. Most of the commercials were geared for young millennials (20s to early 30s) or the Medicare age folks like myself. I could not believe commercials pushing “Up to $500 cash NOW with no hassles.” Then you have the ones like Credit Karma whereupon the guy wants to rent this apartment and his credit score is low. So, with Credit Karma you see the guy signing for the “way too costly for my budget” apartment as the For Rent sign is taken down. God bless finance capitalism! How about this one, again geared for that 20 to 30+ age group. It’s so easy to buy a new car or sell your old one. With the app in hand this young woman bought the car online… having never test driven it. No bargaining on the price, and who cares, this is modern America! The other young woman is bragging about selling her car online, and how much she got for it. Again, no bargaining. Obviously, those transactions were through some corporation that has the analytics down to a science… for them!
Twelve years ago, I decided to go back to doing stand-up comedy after a hiatus of 40 years. There was a comedy contest at some club in St Augustine, about 50 miles away. I signed up by computer and wrote a nice bit for myself. It was primary election season, so I focused on that and my other major peeve: Dental charges for most Americans with no dental insurance. When I arrived at the club, we contestants met with the MC. He was a regular comic at the place, maybe early 30s. Nice guy. I drew the short stick so I had to go on first. He told me that he would warm the audience up and then introduce me. The rule was to go for 8 minutes. I sat offstage by the bar to observe him. He spent his entire warm up time of 10 minutes with Fart, Tit and Dick jokes. They were laughing hysterically while I was sighing. “I’m dead!” Before he introduced me I did a quick study of the audience. Thirty five people, mostly two tops, a few fours. Their ages varied from mid twenties all the way up to the lady sitting by herself who looked my age. I started out with the Republican primary contenders. “It’s funny folks but if you think about it anyone can kind of look like someone else. Look at the Republicans running for president in 2012. You have Newt Gingrich who looks like a pedophile Bishop.” [Only the lady right below me is really laughing.] “Then you have Rick Santorum, Senator from PA, who looks like he belongs under a car changing the oil with Gomer and Goober.” [Silence] “Or Sarah Palin, who looks like a very attractive Drag Queen.” [Oh boy, tough crowd]. So I changed gears and did my dental bit. “How many of you folks have dental insurance, raise your hands.” Two thirds of the audience raised hands… are these people from earth? I went on anyway. “With the way things are nowadays here is how a first visit to a dentist will look like. You’re in the chair, he probes your mouth with his assistant taking notes. “OK # 17, $2200- root canal and crown. # 6 and #7 both have cavities, $600 total. # 21 $1100” [The lady below is laughing through it all, while with the other 34 people a silence there’s that can kill.] My mouth became as dry as a desert and I prayed the 8 minutes would come… and they did! I walked right out and drove home and never looked back.
During the Vietnam debacle in the 60s and early 70s many of us college students and young working stiffs got out and protested. Even before and after the Bush/Cheney illegal (and immoral) invasion of Iraq, we had many young folks joining us on the street corner. Perhaps not as many as when we had the military draft, but still enough to give us some hope. Well, since that time, where in the hell are the majority of our young Americans? Nowhere to be found, except in the bars and clubs doing what we all did at some time: partying. The difference is that my generation of young Americans who saw through the **** found time to both protest and party. Not anymore. The empire now owns us. As far as those senior citizens like yours truly, well, too many of my fellow baby boomers are more concerned about their next Social Security check, investments, and personal health care. No room for the people of Gaza or the dead-end job workers throughout this nation. No room for the blatant racism, homophobia, etc.
Finally, this Military Industrial Empire actually loves it when working stiffs and retired working stiffs are divided by issues their embedded media and politicos embellish. We have finally become, for certain, the permanent consumer society we always were, especially after WW2. Those commercials reflect just how far down the rabbit hole we landed. When the choices continue to be presented to us of who should rule us, between a Clinton and Bush Sr., a Gore or a Bush Jr., and Obama or a McCain, a Hillary or a Trump, and then (twice, mind you) a Biden or a Trump, we are lost as a culture. And they laugh at the other “Banana Republics”.
The post The Empire Owns Us first appeared on Dissident Voice.This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
Gene Bruskin was born to a Jewish working-class family in South Philadelphia and has been a life-long social justice activist, union organizer, poet, and playwright. Since retiring from the labor movement, Gene wrote his first play in 2016, a musical comedy for and about work and workers called Pray For the Dead: A Musical Tale of Morgues, Moguls and Mutiny. In this mini-cast we talk to Bruskin about his life in the the labor movement, the role of art and imagination in revolutionary politics, and about Bruskin’s new musical, The Return of John Brown, which is premiering this month in Baltimore, Washington, DC, and the John Brown Raid Headquarters in Maryland. “In a staged reading of this new musical, John Brown, who in 1859 became the first person in the nation executed for treason, climbs out of his grave where he was hanged, into the present, only to be rearrested and threatened with another hanging.”
Additional links/info below…
Permanent links below…
Featured Music…
Studio Production: Maximillian Alvarez
Post-Production: Jules Taylor
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Gene Bruskin:
My name is Gene Bruskin and I am a retired union organizer, strategist. I spent 35 years in the labor movement. I retired at the end of 2012, and ended up in being thrown back into the labor movement anyway as a redeployed person. And I’ve spent a lot of time these last few years in particular working with Amazon workers around the country, helping to figure out how to support all these young workers that are taking on the biggest company in the world. But the other thing I’ve done with my retirement, which is really exciting for me, is I went back to an old hobby of mine that I had started before I got into the labor movement and I started writing musicals for workers. And right now, I’m producing my third, The Return of John Brown. But I’ve been doing that work since 2013, 2014, and it’s been very gratifying and very challenging.
Maximillian Alvarez:
All right. Welcome everyone to another episode of Working People, a podcast about the lives, jobs, dreams, and struggles of the working class today. Brought to you in partnership With In These Times Magazine and the Real News Network, produced by Jules Taylor, and made possible by the support of listeners like you. Working People is a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. So, if you’re hungry for more worker and labor-focused shows like ours, follow the link in the show notes and go check out the other great shows in our network. And please support the work that we are doing here at Working People because we cannot keep going without y’all. Share our episodes with your coworkers, leave positive reviews of the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and become a paid monthly subscriber on Patreon for just five bucks a month if you want to support the show and unlock all the great bonus episodes that we publish exclusively for our patrons.
And also, please support the work that we are doing at The Real News Network by going to the realnews.com/donate, especially if you want to see more reporting from the frontlines of struggle around the US and around the world. My name is Maximilian Alvarez, and as you guys heard, we got a special guest, a brother, long time veteran of the labor movement, Gene Bruskin here on the pod today to talk about not only his life and work in the movement, but also, this great musical that Gene is getting ready to premiere, including here in Baltimore and in DC and elsewhere. It’s a musical called The Return of John Brown. And I wanted to have Gene on because, as you guys have probably noticed, things are pretty heavy on the podcast of late.
I mean, not that they haven’t been heavy in the past, but as I continue to go down this route of interviewing more working people living in sacrificed zones around the country, people who are in the direct path of destruction, whether that be at the hands of deregulated industry, government and military, and Department of Defense negligence, Wall Street greed, or people who are directly in the path of the worst and growing effects of manmade climate change. This is a really fucking big issue, pardon my French. And so, that’s why I’m continuing to cover it on this show, that’s why I am doing my next book on this subject, but we’ll talk about that more later.
But the point is that that’s all really heavy and important stuff, but also amidst all of this heavy stuff going on in the world, it’s important to remember that there is still art and beauty, and beauty in the struggle to be appreciated and savored. And it’s the kind of thing that makes life worth living. And I want us to also always make space for that, not only here on the show, not only at the Real News Network, but in our movement writ large. We need to feel joy, we need to express ourselves, we need to participate in the activities of creating beauty wherever we can because that’s what we’re fighting for. That’s why it’s so cool to have Gene on the show today.
And like I said, we’re going to talk a little more about Gene’s background in the labor movement, and we’re also going to talk about how all that work and organizing connects to his playwriting and his art. And I just wanted to set the table real quick before we turn things back over to Gene. We will link to the musical’s website, the website for The Return of John Brown in the show notes for this episode. But I just wanted to read from that website, just to give you guys a sense of what the musical is about.
So, on the website, it states, “In a staged reading of this new musical, John Brown, who in 1859 became the first person in the nation executed for treason, climbs out of his grave where he was hanged into the present only to be re-arrested and threatened with another hanging. As his trial unwinds the past and present merge as Brown’s inspiring story is told through humor, music, mystery, and drama depicting a feverishly-charged moment in history that reverberates in today’s political climate. As the plot twists, Brown’s escape plans lead to an unexpected alliance between white and black farmers hoping to save their land from the Smoke & Mirrors Pipeline company and its CEO King Louis. The playwright, gene Bruskin spent 45 years as a labor union organizer and has written three musicals for and about working class people since his retirement.”
“The musical tale connects yesterday’s battles to the need to challenge the enduring destructiveness of racism today.” “The first show will debut on April 26th in Baltimore, followed by a show on April 27th in Washington DC the next weekend on May 4th and 5th, the play will be featured at the Kennedy Farm, the Harpers Ferry, West Virginia area location where John Brown staged his famous anti-slavery raid.”
All right. So, Gene, let’s bring you back in here, man. I want us to of course talk about the play itself and what you are hoping to accomplish with it, and give folks a little more of a taste of what they’re going to see when they go check this musical out. But before we get there, let’s dig a little deeper into your backstory. So, we can’t go like a full hour here and I know you can’t sum up 40 years of life in the movement in 10 minutes. But I’m curious, just tell us a little more about yourself, your life in the movement, how you got into that work, and how you eventually found your way to writing musicals for and about working people.
Gene Bruskin:
Thanks, Max. It’s really a pleasure to be on your show and to have a chance to talk about this. I grew up as a working-class Jewish kid in South Philly. Although my father had been very political in the ’30s, he actually was a young member of the Communist Party. He got discouraged for a variety of reasons. He went fought in World War 2, and then he just had to make a living the rest of his life. Although, he was always reading and he was an intellectual, I just wanted to play basketball and that got me to college and all this stuff. So, I was very much a child of the ’60s. I was a jock who got politicized by all the stuff that was happening around me, fighting, resisting ultimately that I was going to be sent to Vietnam, which changed my life that in order to not go there and die and kill people.
And ironically, at that moment you could get a deferment if you were willing to teach in the New York City schools. It was considered worse than Vietnam.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Jesus.
Gene Bruskin:
I went to teach as a fourth-grade teacher with no training whatsoever in the South Bronx, and that was of course transformational for me. I had grown up in a working-class neighborhood, but I’d never seen that level of poverty and oppression. And so, that sort of factored into my life. And I ended up in Boston in the ’70s, trying to make a living, participating in the various anti-war and other things. And through some quirk of fate, hooked up with a friend of mine who like me, had musicals as part of his growing up in our house playing all the time. My father even drove us up in the station wagon to New York from Philly to see a musical and drove us back because we couldn’t stay in a hotel. But working-class people used to be able to go to Broadway, so it was sort of in my blood.
So, we did a couple very local-based, community-based shows that were political. One was about busing and one was about theft in America. And to get a job in order to help support this work, I got a job driving a school bus. Well, that was in the middle of 1977. That was in the middle of the intense busing fights in Boston, which were very similar in some ways to Alabama in terms of the violence and the attacks on, in this case, African-American children. And our job as bus drivers was to drive the kids from the black community into the white community and vice versa.
But when we picked up the black children and drove them into South Boston, we were violently attacked on a daily basis. And in the end, we drove in and out of that community surrounded by a police escort, and that went on for 10 years. So, during that period, the drivers organized. And ironically, all the sectors of the city, anybody that wanted a job was driving a bus. It didn’t matter whether you were pro-busing, anti-busing, you were pro-paycheck. And so, we were all there. They cut our pay, we went on strike. I went to jail. We won a contract, and we formed a very militant, multiracial community-based union for 10 years and won great contracts.
We had many strikes. Just by accident, I walked in there thinking I was going to do theater in between the runs, and I ended up the local president and chief steward at different times. And so, that launched my labor career, but for the moment, killed my theater career because you can’t do both on an intense level. And eventually, I got an offer to move to DC and work for the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, along with my good buddy Bill Fletcher. So, all of a sudden, I was in Washington DC. And eventually, I was Jesse Jackson’s labor deputy for a couple of years in the ’90s at the National Rainbow Coalition.
And I went on to just work for a variety of national unions on different kind of campaigns, the biggest of which was the Justice at Smithfield campaign, where we organized a 5,000-person local unit in rural South Carolina against Smithfield Foods. And it was one of the biggest wins, this was USCW in the South, in many years. And then, I ended up retiring, working for the American Federation of Teachers, helping them develop strategies to fight the charter industry. And then, since I retired, I ended up going back to my theater roots. I’d written three musicals, and in the meantime, I was also working with the railroad workers, DMWE with ATU over time. And eventually, these last few years, doing a lot of work with Amazon workers in a lot of different locations.
But my passion beyond the labor movement is figuring out how to make culture a part of the movement. Because if you try to imagine the Civil Rights movement in the United States succeeding if they weren’t allowed to sing, it’s hard to imagine… If you try to imagine the anti-apartheid movement in Africa winning without a note being sung, you can’t imagine it. And we had a vibrant political labor and other kind of culture coming into World War II in the ’20s and ’30s, but commercial television and the commercial movies just overwhelmed it, with a few exceptions. And so, I’ve been trying to make my small contribution to bring it back, and it’s been very well-received to the point that I’ve been able to do it without having a Broadway budget. And I’m back now with The Return of John Brown opening in Baltimore the 26th of April.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Man, so first I’m just going to say, that’s quite a career in the movement. That’s quite a life in the movement. So, we’re going to have to have you and maybe some of the folks from Boston on together to… I want to unpack that whole period and hear from you guys what it was like to work and organize in that moment. That’s just wild to hear. But before we go to The Return of John Brown, I have to ask as someone who, like you said, just kind of through chance encounter, luck and being in a certain place at a certain time, you got into this job and that kicked off a life of organizing and working within the labor movement.
Looking back now, as someone who spent all those decades in the movement, even if you didn’t intend to from the beginning, for my generation of folks who have just been really getting into that movement in recent years, I mean, I think a lot of left-leaning millennials and progressive millennials after Bernie Sanders’ 2016 run, a lot of those folks went into the labor movement, and a lot of them are working for unions. A lot of them are salts trying to unionize different facilities. That’s one way in which I think the Bernie phenomenon did have an aftereffect, and I’ve seen and heard it firsthand from a lot of folks. But we’re still kind of in the early stages of our lives in that movement. And so, I guess I was just curious to ask, as a veteran of that movement, what do you wish you had known back in the day or what would you say to younger folks getting into that movement now about how this is a life’s work and what you wish you had known when you were getting into it at the beginning?
Gene Bruskin:
Great question. When I got into the labor movement in the ’70s, it was sort of part of a resurgence of the left, and also, the working-class left. Going beyond the SDS days of the ’70s, a lot of those people came out and went to work somewhere. And so, when I started getting into the labor movement, it never occurred to me to go back and talk to the veterans who had been through the ’30s and the ’40s, and they were alive. But we sort of had this idea that what did they know? And we were going to form a new left-wing parties and all this stuff, and I just never asked, and that was a huge mistake. That was a huge mistake. And we sort of had to learn a lot of things over again. And over time, I became more and more a student of history and realized the incredible valuable lessons.
What’s really exciting to me now is that young people are coming to me and a lot of other veterans in the labor movement and inviting us in as mentors, as friends, to share our experiences, to back them in all kinds of different ways. And there’s an openness and an understanding that there’s a lot to learn, even though we don’t have all the answers, and if we did, things would’ve been very different. But we did learn a lot. And to me, I just encourage all the younger workers that I’ve had a chance to work with, to study that history, to talk to people who’ve lived it, and then to do your own thinking. And so, that combination is what we really need.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Yeah. No, I think that’s so important and well-put. It’s something that we talk about a lot here at the Real News Network because I’m lucky enough to get to work with… We’re a very generationally-diverse crew. We’ve got folks like Mark Steiner who’s been in the Civil Rights movement, intersecting with the labor movement for 50 years. We had Eddie Conway, legendary Black Panther and founder of Rattling the Bars here. And now, his show after Brother Eddie’s passing is hosted by Mansa Musa who was locked up for 48 years. We have Chris Hedges and Dave Ziron. And so, getting those folks to talk more to our younger folks, and also vice versa, I think is one of the things that makes what we do at the Real News special.
And it’s also expanded to the broader field, like you were saying, taken in terms of the movement. That intergenerational dialogue is so critical, whether we’re talking about the labor movement, the prison abolition movement. Just having those direct linkages to the past and learning from the experiences and successes and failures of our movement ancestors is really important in the same way that, as always, it’s really important for the elders in the movement to welcome in the young people, and always approach each other with this spirit of openness like we all have something to learn from each other, like you said. That’s the secret sauce. That’s, I think, so critical and why it’s so cool that you and I are talking right now. So, let’s talk about how culture, like you said, plays into that. The role that you see culture and musicals and plays and art, why that’s so essential for our movement and how you’re approaching that with this new musical, The Return of John Brown.
Gene Bruskin:
Yeah, thanks. There’s a lot there. One thing I’ve noticed in Boston, we sort of started this impromptu song group called Red Basement Singers because there was a store called the Red Book, and we used to practice in the basement there. And we used to just go around the rallies. We’d get on the subway in Boston and sing Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh and things like that. And what I noticed is that when people are singing, they smile. It’s hard to be sad while you’re singing. And so, it just felt like that music and culture is a way to get people to feel and to be inspired and to enjoy the kind of things that they’re doing because the seriousness and difficulty of organizing, making 50 phone calls, getting beaten up by the police, whatever it is, it’s intense. But the joy, like you mentioned before, and the love, you can’t always feel it. But with the music, you can feel that.
When I retired at the end of 2012, I was trying to absorb thousands of different kinds of workers I had engaged with during my life. The meatpacking workers, the nurses, the nurses’ aides, and of course, the bus drivers, the laundry workers. And these are all these incredible people, most of whom don’t ever get noticed. Who’s responsible for this pork chop that’s on your table? Who cleaned the sheets that you’re lying in in the hospital? And so, I wanted to do culture that was for and about them. And so, just taking all the faces and the people and the situations that I had, I started constructing stories and started doing some historical research and then trying to figure out how to fill the seats with the same people who the play is about. And so, my first show was called Pray for the Dead: A Musical Tale of Morgues, Moguls and Mutinies. And it was a fantasy of an uprising in an unknown country led by morgue workers, who went on strike because a funeral home was going to close.
And what I did is knowing that if I set it up in a church or a theater and asked unions to bring members to a musical, people would’ve said, “What?” Because theater and musicals in this country are like operas to the average bus driver or waitress or whatever, because they’re too expensive. The $40, $50, $100, Hamilton, $1,000. And so, I arranged with the unions, mostly in the Maryland area,, to put this show on at the union halls. And it was great. Unfortunately, at the end of when… This was done as musical stage screenings, at the end of that time, Trump got elected and I couldn’t move it to the next level because everybody was in a panic.
My second musical was staged in Baltimore. It was called The Moment Was Now, and it was staged in a church in Baltimore in 2019, 2020. It was about reconstruction, and that’s a period of history which I was inspired by W. E. B. Du Bois to tell the true story of it and the story that linked the working-class movements of the National Labor Union with the women’s movements, the suffragette women’s right to vote movements, the Susan B. Anthonys of the world, with the freedom movements coming out of the Southern struggles and with the black workers that were organizing into unions at the time and center it in Baltimore.
And I just went to the Central Labor Council in Baltimore to the State Federation of the AFL to 1199 retirees, and the Baltimore Teachers Union, we filled the theater most nights with a musical that was a historical piece with poetic license. I took the actual words of a lot of these characters and made them into songs. So, for example, there’s a black worker organizing in the shipyards in Baltimore where Frederick Douglass escaped from where they were attacked by the Irish, driven out of the shipyards at one point. He gets invited to speak to a national meeting of the National Labor Union by William Silvers, the president, and he says, “You have to explain to them why they need the black workers.”
And that speech got on the front page of the New York Times the next day. Probably the last labor speech that was ever on the front page there. He sings a song, “Does your we include me?” With his actual words from his speech. Any rate, that was shut down in 2020 by COVID, our last performance was March 8th, 2020. There’s a tremendous film that was done of it, high quality that people have been watching since if anybody ever wanted to see it. Anyway, during COVID, I started on another play and that’s turned into The Return of John Brown. And that’s because I was thinking if there’s one white person, being white, Jewish, European American, who people know of who stood up against racism, and in this case slavery, besides Abe Lincoln, it’s probably John Brown.
So, I went back, did a lot of homework. I read Du Bois’ book on Brown. And what I decided is not to spend all the time talking about what John Brown did then, that’s the opening of the play, but I just decided to bring him into the present. So, after the sort of historical moment at the beginning of play when he’s hanged, he magically climbs out of the ground right where they hanged him in Charlestown, Virginia. And they re-arrest him and hang him again and put him on trial. And so, the story of race and history and all that comes out in the trial itself, and there’s a lot of comedy, they threaten to hang him again and he sings a song, “You can’t hang the same man twice.” And there’s a lot of comedy in it, there’s a lot of history, and there’s a lot of drama, we hope.
So, now we’re getting ready to try it out as a musical stage reading. We’ve got some great actors. It’s not fully staged with the scenery and all that. So, we’re taking it to the people we want them to come, it’s free. Then we want them to stay afterwards, discuss John Brown, discuss the play we’re doing, make suggestions, be part of the process, and help us move it to the next stage, literally, and put the page to the stage, maybe even in a Baltimore theater. As you mentioned, we have a website, www.thereturnofjohnbrown.com, you can get free tickets. It starts at the end of this month. And the last two performances in the beginning of May are at the actual location of the John Brown farm. It’s called the Kennedy Farm, in Sharpsburg, Maryland, right near Harpers Ferry where John Brown staged the raid. We’re going to be on the grounds, the backdrop to the stage is going to be the cabin, and there’ll be a live tour before the show.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Man, that’s so badass, and it makes me think of… I was with some brothers and sisters from the labor movement at the end of last year. We were all down in Matewan, West Virginia at the Museum of the West Virginia Mine Wars, and we saw some reenactments from the locals there, the famous Battle of Blair Mountain and stuff, walking on hallowed ground, thinking about that history and thinking about how it connected to us all being there. That’s so powerful that you guys are going to be doing that there on that ground. And for listeners, again, this is going to have to be a teaser for y’all so that you go and check out the musical itself because there’s so much here we could unpack, but we want y’all to go partake of it and let us know what you think.
But I guess just by way of a final teaser, and by way of a final question before I let you go, Gene, this of course is a tradition, a literary tradition of resurrecting key historical figures in contemporary times, right? I’m thinking of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s famous bringing Jesus back to what was then contemporary Russia, and how would society respond to Jesus’s teachings today? So, I was just curious, you started working on this amidst COVID, we know the George Floyd uprising happened the same year. So, I guess I just wanted to ask, why John Brown and why now? What you really feel folks should be thinking about, about that scenario that you’re painting of why this felt like such a profound artistic question to ask at this moment?
Gene Bruskin:
Yeah, thank you. And I’m just going to say quickly, because I have found that because of the failure of our public education system, even at the college level, many people don’t know who John Brown is and that his claim to fame was that, among a lot of other things he did, in 1859, he staged a raid with a group of black and white people on the armory in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia in an attempt to get guns and hand them out to enslaved people and begin an insurrection, and it didn’t work. He was hanged. He was captured and hanged. But at that moment, that story played on the front page of every newspaper in the country, and his final words were printed on the front pages. The South was terrified. The North’s conscience was pulsated. And John Brown said that the, “Slavery cannot be ended except by violence.” People thought that was questionable, but it turned out Abe Lincoln had came to the same conclusion, and 700,000 people died.
So, that story, when watching the Black Lives Matter movement happened and watching the difficulty from people have talking about race and racism, I wanted to do a show that shows the impact of racism and watch one of the protagonists in this show who changes is the racist white farmer who gets educated during this process about his own confusion when he’s losing his land to a pipeline company because he won’t talk to the black farmers. And John Brown intervenes, brings them together and that story unfolds. So, I have found that if you’re sitting in the audience and you got some of these attitudes, but you’re watching them play out on the stage, no one’s coming at you in your class or whatever. And you can sort of think about it.
And then, afterwards we sit around, you can talk about it. I think that that’s a way to sort of get to this. And so, I’m happy for all the audiences, but I’m happy for some white working-class people there who they didn’t like John Brown, but they’re curious. And so, I think this is the right moment right now. We have to learn our history and you can’t understand the present if you don’t understand the past.
Maximillian Alvarez:
All right, gang, that’s going to wrap things up for us this week. I want to thank our guest, Gene Bruskin. And as always, I want to thank you all for listening and I want to thank you for caring. If you want to learn more about Gene’s new musical, The Return of John Brown, go to thereturnofjohnbrown.com or use the link in the show notes of this episode. And again, the first show is going to debut on April 26 here in Baltimore, followed by a show on April 27th in Washington DC, and the details you can find on the website. And then, the next weekend on May 4th and 5th, the play will be featured at the Kennedy Farm, the Harpers Ferry, West Virginia area location where John Brown staged his famous anti-slavery raid.
We’ll see y’all back here next week for another episode of Working People. And if you cannot wait that long, then go subscribe to our Patreon and check out the awesome bonus episodes that we’ve got there for all of our patrons. And of course, go explore all the great work that we’re doing at The Real News Network where we do grassroots journalism that lifts up the voices and stories from the front lines of struggle. Sign up for the Real News Newsletter, so you never miss a story. And help us do more work like this by going to therealnews.com/donate and becoming a supporter today. I’m Maximilian Alvarez. Take care of yourselves. Take care of each other. Solidarity forever.
This post was originally published on The Real News Network.
This story originally appeared in Labor Notes on Apr. 19, 2024. It is shared here with permission.
In a watershed victory, workers at the Volkswagen factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, voted tonight “UAW, yes!” The company’s sole non-union plant will finally join the rest of the world.
“If Volkswagen workers at plants in Germany and Mexico have unions, why not us?” said equipment operator Briam Calderon in Spanish, ahead of the vote.
“Just like Martin Luther King had a dream, we have a dream at Volkswagen that we will be UAW one day,” said Renee Berry, a logistic worker on the organizing committee who’s worked at the plant for 14 years.
The UAW is riding a wave of momentum after winning landmark contracts at the Big 3 automakers last year. Production workers at Volkswagen earn $23 per hour and top out above $32, compared to $43 for production workers at Ford’s Spring Hill assembly plant by the contract’s end in 2028.
“We could see what other auto workers were making compared to what we were making,” said Yolanda Peoples, a member of the organizing committee on the engine assembly line.
To head off a union drive, Volkswagen boosted wages 11 percent to match the immediate raise UAW members received at Ford. Peoples saw her pay jump from $29 to $32 an hour.
“When they went on strike, we paid close attention just to see what happened. Once they won their contract, it changed a lot of people from anti-union to pro-union members,” said Peoples.
Today’s vote was a key test of whether the union could springboard the strike gains to propel new organizing in longtime anti-union bastions in the South, the anchors of big investments in the electric-vehicle transition.
The vote was 2,628 in favor of forming a union to 985 against. There were seven challenged ballots, and three voided; 4,326 workers were eligible to vote.
Previous efforts at this plant in 2014 and 2019 had gone down to narrow defeats. Ahead of the vote, workers said their co-workers had learned from those losses.
They brushed off threats that a union would make the plant less competitive and lead it to close. After all, VW invested $800 million here in 2019 to produce the I.D. Electric SUV.
“We have seen the enemy’s playbook twice, and they don’t have any new moves,” said Zach Costello, a member of the organizing committee and a trainer on the assembly line. “It’s the greatest hits now.”
The organizing committee beat the predictable anti-union talking points with conversations across the plant.
“At the end of the day, we’ve been focusing all our time and attention on the people who matter,” said organizing committee member Isaac Meadows, “and it’s our co-workers who cast votes.
“Now Mercedes workers [in Alabama] are right behind us. We’ve set the stage for them to win and they will create the momentum for Hyundai and Toyota.”
Mercedes workers will vote from May 13-16, with a ballot count on the 17.
Angel Gomez knows the benefits that come with a union card, having been a steward with the Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) and the Teamsters at two previous jobs.
Gomez followed his family to Tennessee after working at Smithfield Foods and Molson Coors in Wisconsin, as well as Ford in New Jersey, where his father put in 30 years. He was hired at VW last November. He works on the underbodies of gleaming Atlas SUVs as they travel down the line at a steady clip.
“At first I wasn’t involved in the union,” Gomez said, because the moment he opened his mouth people knew he was from up North; he didn’t want them to write him off while he was still getting acclimated. “Down here I’m the Yankee. Perception is everything. I didn’t want people to see a slick-talking New Yorker from the Bronx.”
But despite his trepidations, soon people were approaching him to talk about problems at the plant: “People started telling me—white, Black, it didn’t matter—about all the favoritism.”
He started talking to a handful of Spanish-speaking workers from Venezuela, Chile, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico—who saw in a Puerto Rican worker someone from their culture, who could shed light on the union drive because of his own union experiences.
“I took a special interest in looking out for people who do their thing, take care of their families, and they always get f—ed with at the job,” Gomez said. He said these people tended to be Spanish-speaking workers who kept their heads down and did as they were told.
He said he convinced the Latino workers in his department to vote for the union. But he doesn’t sugarcoat the challenges. Some people think “if you don’t believe in what uncle daddy Trump is telling you, then you’re a bad person,” he said. “That’s been the biggest drawback—the whole political aspect coming from the right.”
Meadows said the worker-organizers had learned from past drives not to get too drawn into partisan politics, and that conducting house visits wasn’t worth the backlash.
Instead, this time around, workers emphasized talking to their co-workers on the shop floor, covering 90 percent of the plant with leaders on every line.
They also kept the focus on workers improving their jobs and bettering the lives of their families, rather than getting drawn into a fight with GOP actors, an astroturf campaign, or a billboard war.
“Partisan politics has nothing to do with what we’re doing here,” said Meadows.
A recent poll conducted for the conservative Beacon Center found that 44 percent of respondents statewide in Tennessee viewed the UAW favorably, while just 19 percent viewed it unfavorably.
Ahead of the vote, Tennessee Republican Governor Bill Lee warned workers they shouldn’t “risk their future” by voting for the UAW and urged them not to give up “the freedom to decide it themselves and hand that over to a negotiator on their behalf.”
“His message is wrong,” said Meadows. “Right now, the only choice we have at this place is, do I stay or do I quit.”
Lee was reprising his role from 2019, when he also opposed the drive, stumping alongside the plant’s chief executive officer. At the time, Meadows said, workers booed the governor, and the union drive lost support because of it. This time they’ve grown their committees by focusing on each other instead of the politicians.
“People for the most part are smartening up. And they’re not paying attention to the political crap,” said Gomez. “The politicians know nothing about blue-collar work. They are born with a silver spoon in their mouths.”
Take Governor Lee, heir to a wealthy construction family business with annual revenues upwards of $220 million in 2019 when he became governor.
Like last time, there was a union-busting website, stillnouaw.com, this time with a social media post from former President Trump attacking UAW President Shawn Fain and equating voting for the union with supporting President Biden.
But the anti-union Facebook page only had 15 “likes” as of this week. Previous opposition groups counted hundreds of open supporters. Tennesseans for Economic Freedom, a business group, ran Facebook ads emblazoned with the message: “UAW would spend our paychecks on politics.”
“They still have not realized that we are making the decision for ourselves,” said Victor Vaughn, a member of the organizing committee. “We are the ones driving this ship.”
Congressperson Chuck Fleischmann got the message. Even though he opposed the last drive, this time Fleischmann bucked his Republican colleagues and refused to intervene. “This is something that I’m going to let the workers decide,” he told HuffPost.
Overall, the GOP campaign against the current UAW organizing wave hasn’t been as vicious or coordinated as in previous drives. Only after the union filed for elections in Alabama and Tennessee did the governors of Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas issue a joint statement opposing the union.
They wrote that they were seeing “the fallout of the Detroit Three strike with those automakers rethinking investments and cutting jobs. Putting businesses in our states in that position is the last thing we want to do.”
The threats are implied. But compare that to 2014, when Tennessee Senator Bob Corker said the VW plant would get a new SUV production line if workers rejected the UAW, and state politicians threatened to withhold tax incentives should workers vote the UAW in.
In the lead-up to this week’s election, supervisors would read verbatim from a company newsletter called “The Talking Paper,” written in such a way that it cast doubts about the union without crossing over into unfair labor practice territory.
“Every time the ‘Talking Paper’ comes out,” Costello said, “even my supervisor is like ‘It’s gonna take a while,’ because they have to read every word as it is written. They cannot Cliff Notes it.”
Even so, the lion’s share of the unfair labor practice charges the UAW has filed in this organizing wave so far have been at Volkswagen. “We’ve seen the liars that they are when they say they’re neutral,” Costello said.
To beat past union drives, the company promised to boost wages and address safety. But workers said these turned out to be empty promises. In 2019, Volkswagen brought back the company president who had originally opened the plant.
“Everybody loved Frank Fisher,” said Peoples, who was hired in 2011. “So when he came and pleaded, and pretty much said, ‘Give Volkswagen one more chance here in Chattanooga, we aren’t finished yet, we’re going to make some changes, and I’ll be right here with you,’ that pretty much swayed a lot of people and turned their votes into nos.”
“People understand that they’re just trying to trick us one more time like they did the two times previously,” said Vaughn.
Costello said Volkswagen shipped Fisher back to Germany soon after the vote. “The conditions in the plant slammed back to the brutal meat grinder that it always was,” he said. “And we have carried that with us into this campaign.”
Renee sustained multiple surgeries in her long tenure at the plant. Going into the campaign, she said safety was her top concern. “I want to come out of work the same way I came in,” she said. But conditions at the plant have deteriorated to the point where she says workers agonize over whether they’ll come out of work alive or maimed.
“You may lose a leg or a hand,” she said. “I got synthetic in my shoulder” from a rotator cuff tear. “I have a three-year-old granddaughter who I can’t pick up. So my life has changed, but I’m still going to keep going because I’ve put too much blood, sweat and tears into this plant.”
Labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein compared tonight’s win to the Union Army’s victory in Chattanooga in 1863, during the U.S. Civil War, when President Abraham Lincoln declared it “the gateway to the South.”
Taking Chattanooga, Lichtenstein said, “opened the door to the capture of Atlanta, the rest of Georgia, and the Carolinas.
“With UAW’s win at Volkswagen, another gateway to the South has been opened. No longer will the wage-and-benefit standards of the million-strong auto workforce in the U.S. be set by the non-union portion of the industry. A militant and increasingly powerful UAW will set the standard.”
Costello, too, sees new horizons opening up. “If workers can unite in this country, I think we can move a lot,” he said. “We could even effect change that goes beyond our workplace.”
This post was originally published on The Real News Network.
Silica dust, thrown into the air while mining, has contributed to a staggering rise in cases of progressive, incurable, and deadly black lung disease in America’s coal miners. The insidious particulate is particularly common in the seams of low quality coal found in central Appalachia, yet the Mine Safety Health Administration, or MSHA, has for decades pegged safe exposure levels at about twice what the government allows for every other occupation. On Tuesday, the agency finally announced an updated standard, outlining not only a new threshold for exposure, but increased on-the-job safety measures and medical surveillance to protect workers.
“Miners deserve to go home safe and healthy each day and should never have to choose between sacrificing their lungs and providing for their families,” Chris Williamson, MSHA’s director, said in an address on Tuesday in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. “Miners also deserve to retire in dignity and enjoy the fruits of their labor with their loved ones. That’s why we’re all here today to take a long overdue step forward to protect miners from exposure to toxic silica dust.”
Williamson joined representatives of United Mineworkers of America and United Steelworkers in making the announcement, which miners and their advocates have spent years fighting for.
The need was urgent. Silica dust is toxic, and long-term exposure can cause a slow but fatal hardening of lung tissue called progressive massive fibrosis, or, as it’s known among miners and their families, coal-mining areas, black lung disease. The toxin increasingly abounds in mines as companies plumb thinner coal seams with greater impurities.
The rule, which spans hundreds of pages, covers all miners, regardless of what they dig from the earth, as well as anyone working construction on mine sites. It tightens medical surveillance for black lung by making more frequent clinical visits available to workers at no cost, outlines measures for silica dust monitoring, and, most importantly, lowers the exposure standard to the same 50 micrograms long enforced by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration — 50 micrograms of silica per cubic meter of dust during an eight-hour work day. It also outlined a renewed push for site compliance with stricter consequences, including, Williamson said, “citations, proposed penalties, immediate corrective actions, and if abatement does not occur in a reasonable period of time, withdrawal orders” leading to closure of mines violating the rule.
“Ultimately, this rule’s success will depend on its implementation and enforcement,” he said.
And that, some worry, is exactly where the effort may fail. The new regulations still allow mine operators to conduct their own sampling, a longtime source of grievance for miners and their advocates who simply do not trust coal companies to accurately report silica levels.
“I’m pretty upset,” said Vonda Robinson, the vice president of the national Black Lung Association. Her husband John is 57 and succumbing to the disease; he was diagnosed 10 years ago, far younger than coal miners of previous generations. His doctor recommends a lung transplant, and he’s waiting until the last possible moment, because of the stress the operation places on the body. Those with silicosis tend to live about five years after a transplant.
In the 14 years since MSHA proposed updating the silica dust standard, Robinson and the National Black Lung Association lobbied lawmakers and rallied tirelessly for improved enforcement. Although she feels the regulation announced Tuesday is a “good” rule, “if it’s not enforced, we’re gonna be sitting in the same boat that we were in.”
Regulators allow mines to do their own monitoring because MSHA simply can’t afford to inspect every mine. To do that, the agency, which saw its budget peak in 1979, would have to overcome the consequences of years of budget cuts, and resulting staffing shortages, seen during every presidential administration of this century. Even under the more labor-friendly Biden administration, MSHA saw a smaller-than-expected budget increases in last year’s annual appropriations bill. Mining deaths have also jumped — up 31 percent in fiscal 2023, when 42 workers died — due to accidents, a troubling increase that may signal the agency is having trouble keeping up. The agency also tends to move slowly; it identified a cluster of black lung cases in the 1990s but failed to act.
Robinson also worries about other weaknesses in the new regulation. It uses an eight-hour day as an average to estimate silica exposure, but most miners work 10- or 12- hour shifts. It also allows for just four MSHA silica dust inspections per mine per year, a rate that may not capture the true risk of exposure. Recent investigations by National Public Radio also revealed the agency may have undercounted the number of black lung cases recorded in recent years because studies showing explosive growth have not yet been peer-reviewed.
Rebecca Shelton, the policy director at Appalachian Citizens Law Center, has been poring over the rule since its release. She is particularly concerned about coal companies’ continued control over testing, since the industry has had a history of cheating on results. Shelton said monthly mine testing by MSHA would be ideal because the amount of dust in the air can change depending on where in a mine the company is working, ventilation and other factors. The fact that federal enforcement requirements have barely changed, she said, indicates “a prioritization of the economics of the industry over the lives of miners.”
For people like Brandon Crum, a radiologist who X-rays black lung patients and sees the damage first-hand, the disease, and MSHA’s response to it, is personal. He worked the mines, the fourth generation in his family to do so. “It was a dusty job in dusty conditions,” he said.
Crum’s radiology office is in Pike County, Kentucky, on the border with West Virginia. He is among the few radiologists certified to read chest X-rays for signs of black lung. After documenting early signs of the alarming and continual rise in the disease, particularly among younger miners — those in their 30s and 40s who worked as little as 10 years underground before becoming so sick they needed transplants or died. In 2016, he joined three young men in making a video pleading for federal action to address the crisis; one of them has since died and the others have come to need lung transplants.
Crum says the disease cuts a wide swath through the region, affects those who have it, those who know them, and those who wonder if they might be next. He relayed his experiences in comments he made to the MSHA when the rule was in its draft stages last year. “I tried to put more of a personal touch on it,” he said. “It not only affects the men, but women and families and entire communities.”
The United Mine Workers of America is supporting the new rule, participating in its promotion and celebrating it as the fruit of many years of hard work, which continued even as, union communications officer Erin Bates said, coal companies refused to acknowledge the scale of the disease. The union went around them to Congress, knocking on doors and making calls for decades. She concedes the regulation isn’t perfect, but is happy anything was adopted at all. “Obviously, we want it to be better,” she said, “but no matter what, more health and safety is better for our miners.”
This story was originally published by Grist with the headline A new federal rule aims to protect miners from black lung disease on Apr 17, 2024.
This post was originally published on Grist.
Occidental College, one of the first liberal arts colleges established in California, presents a portrait of the idyllic all-American collegiate experience that many folks dream about. The small, well-planned campus features a distinctive Beaux-Arts design to its buildings and a tree-lined quad that have been featured in dozens of TV shows and movies over the decades, including Beverly Hills 90210, Clueless, and Jurassic Park III. Just under 2,000 full-time students were officially enrolled at the college in Fall 2022, and it remains one of the few colleges nationwide that focus exclusively on undergraduate education. Their recruitment flyers boast of the “distinctive interdisciplinary and multicultural focus of the College’s academic program,” which “seeks to foster both the fulfillment of individual aspirations and a deeply rooted commitment to the public good.”
Within the school’s buildings, where students flit through the halls and pass through the doors on their way to class, an army of student workers is busy keeping the institution running: they lead tours, work as teaching assistants, maintain the IT systems, assist in labs, file paperwork for various departments, and fill many more auxiliary roles in every corner of the campus.
In the last few years, like so many other workers across the country, student workers at Occidental have found it increasingly hard to make ends meet. The price tag for the premier liberal arts degree that Occidental College offers is $60,000 per year—not including the additional $17,000 required to live on campus—a steep hill to climb for working-class students who are eager to set themselves up for success in their careers. The majority of students, nearly 76% in Fall 2022, receive financial aid in order to attend the college. But for most who receive aid, loans and Pell Grants can’t close the gap, forcing them to seek out additional employment on or off campus.
Should undergraduate student workers win their union, there would effectively be wall-to-wall union representation on campus, excluding tenure track faculty.
For student worker-organizers like Noah Weitzner, a junior at the college and media services technician in the IT department, the compensation that he and other student workers receive from Occidental still isn’t enough—and that’s why they made the decision earlier this year to try to form a union of undergraduate workers across campus. “This effort was born out of an acknowledgment that every worker, or many of the workers on this campus, are not treated with dignity and respect, and are not compensated fairly for the work they do that keeps this $100 million institution running,” he told The Real News.
Most student workers at Occidental make the state minimum wage, which is $16.78/hour. “The college, in their first response to our public launch, said that they offer competitive wages, competitive pay, and that is a blatant factual inaccuracy,” Weitzner continued. “We are not paid competitively. There are some students making just over minimum wage [and] no one more than 18 bucks an hour.” In Los Angeles, a city where the cost of living is unaffordable for all but the very top tax bracket, this presents a massive problem—one that worker-organizers like Weitzner believe the union will be able to help fix. “If you look at other schools in the area, you will get UCLA—some of the academic workers were undergraduates who just joined UAW 2865—they’re making over 20 bucks now, right? If you look at Claremont [College],… they’re making more money than we are.”
On March 23, 30 or so student workers manned tables set up under a tree in the quad of Occidental College’s picturesque campus. “This week is about ‘hearts and minds,’” said Olivia Plumb, teaching assistant in the Biology and Arts departments. After holding intense rallies focused on signing cards the week before, worker-organizers felt the need to set up shop and allow student workers to get to know them and get to know the new union. As students walked past the tables on their way to class, smiling organizers called a few out by name. “Grab a pin!” shouted one sophomore, Chris Cassel, who stood out prominently with his Occidental College sweatshirt and brightly colored hair. The mood was relaxed and joyful as worker-organizers passed out flyers and discussed their demands with curious passersby.
When the new student worker union (called Rising Occidental Student Employees, or ROSE) went public, it only took a matter of days for organizers to secure a supermajority of signed union cards. They filed for an election with the National Labor Relations Board on March 22—the election date has been set for April 30, with ballots to be counted on June 12. After years of complaints about the nature of their work, students were ready for a change on campus. In addition to the demand for higher compensation and increased wage caps for work performed at Occidental College, ROSE workers are demanding better work schedules and the flexibility to work more than the 10 hours per week allotted to them by the college.
ROSE has been particularly welcome at Occidental College, where three other bargaining units already represent non-tenure track faculty and non-student staff (both with SEIU), and dining services workers (with the Teamsters). Should undergraduate student workers win their union, there would effectively be wall-to-wall union representation on campus, excluding tenure track faculty. In other words, virtually every non-supervisor role on campus would be covered by a union.
On Thursday, March 28, student employees engaged in a walkout from class and held a rally outside the college’s administration building to draw attention to ROSE’s efforts to get the administration to voluntarily recognize the union. Attended by nearly 200 student workers and their allies, the rally featured speeches from faculty members expressing solidarity and support for the student union drive. After opening his speech with rounds of “Si Se Puede!” E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics Peter Dreier commended student workers for their “impressive” organizing and spoke at length about the support from tenured faculty and California political officials for the new student worker union, including a statement of support from longtime labor activist and California state Senator Maria Elena Durazo.
In her speech, student worker-organizer Jennifer spoke about the broad benefits of a student worker union on Occidental College’s campus, particularly for noncitizen and international student workers. “[The union] offers a collective voice shielding [student workers] from exploitation and discrimination in the workplace, [and] it also provides a sense of belonging and protection, assuring them that they are valued members of our community deserving of [the] same rights and opportunities as their peers,” she said. “As a noncitizen student myself, I recognize that students of irregular statuses, whether undocumented or international, face their own unique vulnerabilities being on this campus, and our work deserves to be acknowledged. We are not invisible and we should not feel invisible.”
After an hour of speeches, rally-goers made their way into the main atrium of the college’s administration building. There, student worker-organizers lead the crowd in a rousing rendition of “Solidarity Forever” and again implored the administration to voluntarily recognize their union. As of publication, the college administration remains unwilling to recognize ROSE and is letting the election process play out.
The uptick in undergraduate student worker organizing at Occidental has been a welcome addition to the robust student worker organizing campaigns already underway at many of the nation’s colleges and universities. Since 2016, the NLRB has held that student workers are statutory employees when they provide services or work under the university’s direction in exchange for compensation. Since that landmark ruling, Columbia University, the vast majority of student worker union campaigns at private universities have focused on organizing graduate students and PhD candidates, to great success: in the last two years, dozens of new bargaining units have cropped up at universities and colleges across the country. Now, as grad unions continue to expand their reach on campuses, the focus has increasingly shifted toward organizing undergraduate student workers.
Since 2016, the NLRB has held that student workers are statutory employees when they provide services or work under the university’s direction in exchange for compensation.
Previous reporting credits positive attention on the US labor movement, as well as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on student workers, as the main reasons for increased undergraduate student worker organizing. According to reporting from last year at Inside Higher Ed,
William Herbert, executive director of the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and Professions at Hunter College, said the rise of undergraduate unions is tied to the resurgence of a larger nationwide interest in organized labor among young workers.
“This is all stemming from an explosion of post-pandemic labor activism, particularly by a new generation who understands that representation has strong advantages,” he said. “There’s a relationship between these filings on campuses and what’s transpiring off campus at places like Starbucks and REI, in which a new generation of employees is leading the charge.”
Undergraduate student workers have won unions at just over a dozen colleges and universities in the last year, illustrating the breadth of new worker organizing in sectors that were previously under-represented.
Since ROSE’s NLRB filing on March 22, the college has responded by setting up an “Information for Student Workers” webpage, in which they make clear their unwillingness to voluntarily recognize the union ahead of an NLRB election. Their statement reads, in part,
The College is pro-student, and not opposed to the formation of unions generally. There are aspects of the typical employee-union format that we see as potentially incompatible with the student work experience. Student jobs at Oxy often have an educational or training component, or exist to strengthen connections between students and faculty, or help students fulfill work-study requirements. These goals and connections may be strained by the presence of third-party representatives. We see the value in direct and interactive dialogue with our student workers and hope that there will be opportunities for such dialogue in the future.
Reading between the lines here, Occidental College’s administration has employed the usual playbook that other private institutions have used to discourage the formation of undergraduate student unions: namely, that student workers are students, first, and collective bargaining agreements would somehow be incompatible with their “unique” relationship with the university, and the negotiation of wages and other compensation would affect federal work study allocations and requirements.
There is precedent, however, in addressing these concerns. In The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, Case No. 04-RC-313979 (Aug. 21, 2023), Region 4 Acting Regional Director Emily DeSa rejected both of the university’s arguments, stating that the employer offered no legal basis for either of them, and upheld the Columbia ruling. As DeSa notes,
However, as the Columbia Board held, “[s]tatutory coverage is permitted by virtue of an employment relationship; it is not foreclosed by the existence of some other, additional relationship that the Act does not reach.” 364 NLRB at 1080. That logic applies equally here: while the RAs unquestionably have a student relationship with the Employer, they also have a coextensive employee relationship with the Employer for the reasons set forth above. Therefore, the Employer’s argument that the RA’s are merely students and not employees lacks merit.
What’s clear in this ruling is that, despite the student relationship between student workers and the college, there is also an employee relationship that can and should be addressed via a collective bargaining agreement—and the former relationship, per the Columbia ruling, does not negate the latter. For graduates and undergraduates alike, one can be a student and an employee. As Weitzner asserted, “The college needs to acknowledge that the institution wouldn’t run without us.”
In response to the argument that acknowledging this employee relationship opens potential conflicts with federal work study allocations and that “the University cannot collectively bargain over financial aid issues and is bound by the Federal regulations governing Title IV programs,” DeSa noted in her ruling against the University of Pennsylvania that “The Employer provides no legal support for this assertion. Nor does the Employer adequately explain how its potential negotiations with the Union could somehow conflict with the Federal government’s aid determinations.”
What does this mean for the student workers organizing at Occidental College? The precedent established in these rulings gives student workers the space they need to push back against these assertions once negotiations commence.
The administration’s decision not to voluntarily recognize the union is a disappointing one, but not a surprise to many Occidental student worker-organizers. “We’re telling them that they have a choice here,” Weitzner said. “They can respect their students and their staff’s decision to form a union. They can live up to their commitments within their mission statement to develop leadership and to foster community engagement and ‘cultivate a community of care.’ They can meet those ends by recognizing this union, or they can remain hostile…[to] put up this wall, within their community… To me, that doesn’t feel like the path of least resistance for any of us.” While they hoped for more willingness from the administration, worker-organizers like Weitzner are confident that the NLRB election will go in their favor. “Either way, we have a union, and it will be recognized by the NLRB and by the college,” Weitzner said. In recent days, members of ROSE have responded to the Student Worker FAQ put up by the College in their campus newspaper.
In response to the organizing effort, SEIU Local 721 President and Executive Director David Green released a statement lauding the student workers for their efforts and welcoming more organizing in the future. “Over the past decade, we’ve seen many employees on college campuses join SEIU Local 721 to demand better working conditions—including at USC, Otis, Laguna College of Art and Design, and more. As a unionized adjunct instructor in the CSU system for more than 10 years, I know that the wave of unionization hitting college campuses will only continue to swell as instructors, staff, and students recognize the benefits of unionizing,” he said. “We will continue to support their ongoing organizing efforts.”
This post was originally published on The Real News Network.
Recently, you may have noticed that the hot weather is getting ever hotter. Every year the United States swelters under warmer temperatures and longer periods of sustained heat. In fact, each of the last nine months — May 2023 through February 2024 — set a world record for heat. As I’m writing this, March still has a couple of days to go, but likely as not, it, too, will set a record.
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
The alleged illegal union-busting that Mercedes-Benz autoworkers in Vance, Alabama accused the car company of in a complaint to the National Labor Relations Board has not weakened the resolve of pro-union employees, a supermajority of whom now support a union election, according to the United Auto Workers. The union announced Friday that more than 5,000 workers at the company’s nonunion plant have…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
The resurgence of the labor movement in 2023 galvanized and emboldened unions around the country—and sent capitalists scrambling to squash the nascent militancy of their workers. Among the attempts of the billionaire class to retaliate is a major legal challenge to the National Labor Relations Board, the government body that has protected the right of workers to collective bargaining for 89 years. This latest attack on the rights of workers is the culmination of a decades-long assault on the working class in the US, which has been caught between an economic system hemorrhaging jobs and a political system that refuses to address their problems. Les Leopold, executive director of the Labor Institute and author of Wall Street’s War on Workers, joins The Chris Hedges Report to discuss the full-spectrum assault on worker power taking place before our eyes.
Studio Production: David Hebden
Post-Production: Adam Coley
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Chris Hedges:
The country’s major corporations seeking to crush union organization have filed legal papers to shut down the National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB, the federal agency that enforces labor rights and oversee unionization efforts. Elon Musk, SpaceX, as well as Amazon Starbucks, and Trader Joe’s have targeted the NLRB after it accused Amazon Starbucks and Trader Joe’s of breaking the law and battling against unionization, as well as accusing SpaceX of illegally firing eight workers for criticizing Elon Musk. The attempt to get the federal courts to overturn the 89-year-old National Labor Relations Act, which has governed labor relations since Franklin Roosevelt was president, is one more assault in the war against workers by corporations and Wall Street. Laws and regulations put in place by the New Deal have been steadily dismantled. The NLRB, for example, has already been rendered largely toothless.
It is unable to fine corporations for breaking the law, including when corporations fire workers who are attempting to organize. If NLRB judges are declared unconstitutional, the goal of the legal challenge, it would halt judges from hearing hundreds of cases brought against corporations for violating labor laws. This latest attack on workers is part of a broader decades long assault that includes the mass layoffs of workers and costly stock buybacks to enrich shareholders at workers’ expense. This assault has not only caused financial distress among the working-class, it has not only seen wealth funneled upwards into the hands of the billionaire class, but has had negative repercussions for our society and our democracy. The Democratic Party’s abject betrayal of the working-class, especially in rural America, lies at the heart of the rise of a demagogue like Donald Trump. Rather than halt this corporate pillage, the victims of this assault are demonized as ignorant, racist bigots.
Those Hillary Clinton called deplorables. They are written off as a lost cause politically. The statistics, however, point to a strong correlation between the decline of the Democratic Party and mass layoffs along with onerous trade agreements that ship manufacturing jobs to Mexico and China. The claim by many Democrats and pundits such as New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, that there is a massive reactionary working-class populist base in America is a fiction. Even the January 6th, 2021 storming of the US Capitol, it turns out, was not in fact a white working-class riot, but it is easier to dismiss the white working-class rather than ameliorate their very real suffering. This failure to act is ominous. As labor journalist Hamilton Nolan writes, “The people who fancy themselves as the captains of the ship are actually the wood eating shipworms who are consuming the thing from the inside until it sinks.”
Joining me to discuss the war on workers and how it imperils what is left of our anemic democracy is Les Leopold, who co-founded the Labor Institute and is the author of Wall Street’s War on Workers: How Mass Layoffs and Greed Are Destroying the working-class And What to Do About It. So your book, I think, makes a very convincing case that the defection of the white working-class in particular, which is largely often rural, is caused by this economic distress, and you have lots of data and statistics and charts to back it up, but I want to begin, as you do in the introduction, you lay out the cost, the emotional cost to workers who lose their jobs. You write that it’s the seventh considered the seventh most stressful life event ranked more stressful than divorce, than recovery from the psychological trauma of job loss takes two years on average. You talk about developing new health conditions rise by 83%. And I’ve seen that among my own family in Maine. Let’s talk about just to begin what that job instability does to one’s physical and emotional state.
Les Leopold:
Well, I saw this in my own family. My father was a factory worker. When he was laid off through a mass layoff, it was traumatic. He felt terrible about himself. We were fortunate that my mother had a full-time job, and so we didn’t completely crash economically, but he just felt pretty worthless. Another fortunate thing was this happened to be during the recessions of the early 1960s and when the economy picked up, he got a job and he basically was able to hold it for the rest of his career. But today what’s happened is then it was during recessions. That’s when you’d see mass layoffs. Corporate CEOs were embarrassed to do mass layoffs. They thought it was a sign of their own failure. Now it’s a sign of financial prowess. Good times, bad times, it doesn’t matter. So you’re seeing people go from one mass layoff to the next mass layoff and it’s totally debilitating. You feel terrible about yourself. It’s hard.
It becomes increasingly hard to make ends meet and you feel let down by your society. Everybody talks about the economy, the economy, the economy. What does it mean if a democratic country and its economy can’t produce a modicum of stable employment? You are in trouble and the people start losing faith in the system all around them. It’s no accident that the opioid epidemic grew up in this environment. It’s no accident that people started to abandon the Democratic Party. They just feel let down and they don’t know where to turn and frankly, where do we tell them to turn? I see a few politicians who are brave enough to take on Wall Street and they’re doing well like Sharon Brown in Ohio, but most people just duck. They want to talk about something else where they talk about jobs in the future. That’s the other thing I’m finding difficult to handle. I’m all for the infrastructure bills, I’m all for the CHIPS programs, all these things that create jobs in the future, but what is it going to do for the person that’s laid off?
Now, we had a plant go down in Olean, New York that’s on the southern tier right above Pennsylvania, very rural, once very industrial. So a plant goes down there and in a few years, a battery factory is opened up in Buffalo three, four, five hours away. It doesn’t do anything for you. You’re being told, “Move. Take your family your life and just rip it up and move.” Anyway, this kind of pressure has been studiously ignored. So that was one finding of our book is, as you’ve mentioned, explained it very well. We found there was a high causal correlation between the rise of mass layoffs in especially in the rural counties in the blue wall states, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and the decline in the Democratic Party going back to 1996, not just during the Trump election. And the second thing we found that you mentioned was that the white working, especially in these rural areas, are not becoming more illiberal. They are not a basket full of deplorables.
Yes, there’s some people like that. We estimate nationally, maybe max 3% would fit into Hillary’s basket full of deplorables. Let me just give you the one statistic that a couple that just blew my mind. When asked 20 years ago whether gay or lesbian couples should be able to adopt children, the white working-class, on average, only about 38% said they approved of that. Now it’s 76%. The other one’s probably for religious reasons or something. Another one, how about legalization. This is an important one, because this is the one you would think would be completely hated by the people left behind. “Do you approve of granting citizenship to illegal immigrants who’ve been here three years, no felonies and have been paying their taxes?” Well, 15 years ago, only about 32% agreed with that statement. Now it’s 61.6%. Almost two thirds now say, “Yes, we believe that there should be a path to legalization for undocumented workers.” To me, that was phenomenal when I saw that.
So President Obama said… There’s a certain mental gymnastics that goes on here to rationalize this away. He said, “Yeah, we know that they’ve been left behind economically A, there’s nothing we can do about it because it’s the forces of trade. It’s the globalization and technology, and besides that, it’s their fault that they’re clinging to guns and religion. We’re not making them do that.” Well, it turns out we saw no evidence that people are getting more religious. We saw no evidence that they’re cling to their guns. They’re not more homophobic, they’re not more racist, they’re getting more liberal, but they’re angry. And as you said that very well, they’re disgusted that no one is reaching out for them to them, not just to pat them on the back or wear a hoodie and make them feel good like we look the same. No people that will actually intervene and stop mass layoffs. That’s what has to happen. Direct intervention to stop mass layoffs and the tricks that Wall Street plays to promote them. Leverage buyout, stock buybacks.
Chris Hedges:
We should just be clear, as you made clear in your book, that the financial structures have changed with the rise of corporate raters, we now politely call them private equity firms, and I did a good interview with the Pulitzer Prize-winning financial or business reporter, Gretchen Morgenson on her book on private equity.
Les Leopold:
[inaudible 00:11:56].
Chris Hedges:
So the model changes where a private equity firm comes in and harvest a corporation to sell off its assets, in essence to destroy it. They’re not trying to sustain it, and that has fueled, we’ll go back to certainly Clinton would go back to Reagan probably, but that has over the last few decades, seen wave after wave of mass layoffs. I wrote a book called America: The Farewell Tour, and wrote a chapter out of Anderson, Indiana. That’s where GM used to make its cars, good union paying jobs, a middle class city. They literally packed up the equipment and moved it to Monterey, Mexico where they pay workers $3 an hour, and the city has fallen into a death spiral with all of the attendant problems that you point out, opioid addictions, suicide’s very high.
And yet the Democratic Party just utterly fails to address this issue. Right? Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders had golden opportunities during the pandemic to stop two significant mass layoffs, one in Morgantown, West Virginia, the other, as you mentioned in Olean, New York, the failure to act contrast sharply with Trump’s strikingly symbolic and partially successful effort to prevent the carrier global corporation from moving jobs from its Indiana facility to Mexico in 2017. And I think this is an issue that many people who dislike Trump don’t pick up on, although of course he’s a con artist, but he does speak to this pain directly in a way that no other democratic politician does with maybe the exception of Bernie Sanders, and Sherrod Brown, of course.
Les Leopold:
Well, look, that’s an excellent point. First of all, it was a very self-conscious effort on the part of the Democrats and the Republicans from Reagan on to rip up the new deal controls, get rid of the guard rails, just like you talked about the NLRB, that’s another one they’re now trying to get rid of, but basically these corporate raiders, the harvesters that just wasn’t going on before deregulation, that was frowned upon, that was easily stopped. SEC would walk in and say, no, you can’t do that.
Chris Hedges:
Well, I just want to interrupt you. As you point out in your book, stock buybacks were used to be illegal.
Les Leopold:
Yeah, well, it was basically so controlled that no more than 2% of corporate profits could go to stock buybacks. Now we’re talking close to 70% of all corporate profits in society, and some companies, not just a handful, but hundreds and hundreds spend more than a hundred percent of their profits on stock buybacks. They’re basically taking their money and returning it… Returning it. Giving it to the largest stock owners. They’re not investors. These are stock sellers and these are the hedge funds and other large institutions that swoop in demand the stock buyback.
Actually, that’s why Carrier was moving to Mexico, not to keep up with the competition, but its parent company and I, technologies had a bunch of hedge funds took a position in that company and said, “We want a $6 billion stock buyback.” So they figured, “Oh, we can save $60 million by moving our most profitable division to Mexico,” and Trump did intervene. The story of, it’s so painful to bring this one up, but I connected with the president of the union at the Morgantown West Virginia facility. It’s a mile in pharmaceuticals, and there’s a whole CD history there with Joe Manchin’s daughter, and she got like a hundred million.
Chris Hedges:
Right, they produce EpiPens for $10 and then sell them for hundreds of dollars,
Les Leopold:
But there’s a whole bunch of… Let’s put that aside. She was gone and the new owner wants to move it to India in the middle of the pandemic, and they’re making generic products. So this local union was steel workers, former oil, chemical atomic workers, progressive organized, and they got Bernie Sanders crew, our revolution to support them. They appealed to Biden administration, they appealed to Bernie, they appealed to Manchin. They even suggested to the state government, why don’t you buy the company and then we’ll produce generic products for the VA and for Medicaid? Pretty smart, right? Nobody did anything. So 1500 of the probably the best blue collar jobs other than coal in all of West Virginia 1500 jobs, average pay, 70 grand goes under, and this was when they could have used the Defense Production Act. They did that with the baby formula just before this period, but they didn’t want to do it, and I can’t figure out why.
This was such an easy way to bring national attention to, “We’re not going to put up with mass layoffs.” It’s funny, the president of United Technologies had a great line when they asked him, “Well, why did you give into Trump?” He goes, “I was born at night, but I wasn’t born last night.” We get 10% of our revenue comes from federal contracts, right? So there’s 760 billion a year in federal contracts. What if you told them, “Guess what, from here on in, no more mass layoffs, no more stock buybacks.” You don’t want to do that. Don’t take the contract. We’ll find somebody else set up. You can use the bully pulpit. You can use the federal contract. Now, people will say, whoa, wait a second. You’re messing with capitalism. It’s not going to work. Well, you know what? These large corporations are enormously flexible. The other thing we found, this is another sad one, that Olean plant in upstate New York was Siemens Energy.
90,000 employees was spun off, but still connected to Siemens, which has 400,000 employees, a German based company. Well, 1700 US workers lost their jobs when they stopped making a certain kind of compressor for oil rigs or fracking or something. In Germany, 3000 were going to lose their jobs, but because they have codetermination there, half the board members are workers, including high-level union officials. They did all these investigations, they did all these pressure tactics, and the company agreed to no compulsory layoffs, plus, this is the part that was really mind-blowing. In other words, you have to buy the worker out before they leave, otherwise you can’t get rid of them. The six facilities that were making the product that they were shutting down, they agreed to put something else in the plant and keep the six plants open, so that could be part of your federal contract.
No compulsory layoffs, no plant shutdowns, no stock buybacks. But you have to interfere with capitalists and Wall Street prerogatives. That takes guts. And I keep asking myself, “Don’t they see that it really works for Sherrod Brown in Ohio?” Bernie in Vermont and Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts, those are democratic states, but Ohio Brown outpaced Trump by 15% in 2020. So people respond to those who are really trying to protect their jobs, and it just has to happen. My big fear is that the right is going to wake up. They’re going to see what Trump did. The polling, by the way, after that show, that was enormously popular with the American public and with Democrats for that matter, they’re going to wake up and say, “You know what? Instead of going after these companies because they’re too woke or for diversity, let’s go after them because of their layoffs.”
Chris Hedges:
Now, you make an interesting point that… Reminds me of Gaza, actually. So we have no leverage over Israel unless we stop the arms shipments, but it isn’t going to happen so we have no leverage. So the Democrats have no leverage over these large corporations because they won’t halt these massive government contracts. And you have, I forget the name of the CEO, but when Biden does his infrastructure bill, signs it. He’s standing next to, what’s the name of the woman, who just eradicated all sorts of jobs
Les Leopold:
[inaudible 00:21:17] right in front of him.
Chris Hedges:
Yeah.
Les Leopold:
I’m afraid that’s what’s happened is Schumer’s famous line from 2016 has become the defacto policy. He said, “For every blue collar worker we lose in western Pennsylvania, we’re picking up two Republicans in the suburbs,” and that goes for Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin as well. So that’s essentially telling people, you’re writing them off. That there are more suburbanites than there are rural working-class people or working-class people in general. By the way, it’s not just rural. You’re talking about Staten Island and Queens and other places in heavily urban areas. We found no difference, by the way, in people’s attitudes, whether they were urban, rural, or suburban amongst the white working-class. People are pissed.
They don’t want to be buffeted from their job. I can’t remember who just wrote this, a recent study, and they were asking people what they felt about the economy and almost to the person, they said, “Greed, it’s rigged.” It’s rigged. People feel it’s rigged against them, and that the Wall Streeters are walking off with the money and the CEOs and that the politicians are too eager to get campaign donations and frankly also have their eye on, well maybe get a good Wall Street job after they leave office. Too many people are geared up that way, and it’s now permeated into the political culture. Everybody feels it, unless they’re really benefiting from it, and that’s a very small number of people.
Chris Hedges:
Well, they feel it because it’s true. It’s not a feeling, it’s a fact. And so not only do these corporations lavishly fund politicians like Barack Obama or the Clintons, but they take care of them as soon as they leave office. There’s payback. Speaking fees, the hundreds of thousands of dollars, insane donations to their foundations, which allow them to spend their life flying around in Learjets, et cetera. It’s just legalized bribery.
Les Leopold:
Well, again, I keep asking myself, but why do they want to lose? Why would so many Democrats in swing states with large rural populations, working-class populations, why do they want to lose? Sherrod Brown put out three essays with the title Wall Street’s War on Workers. He did this before the 20 election he did in ’17, ’18, ’19. Why don’t people see that they could actually do something to help working people by stopping these mass layoffs opposing Wall Street using that framework? That’s what I’m saying.
What blew my mind is I believe that that framework was incredibly powerful. It showed up in all the statistical work that we did to sort of prove that it was powerful. Then you get a guy like Mike Luxe, the Democratic pollster. He’s no radical. He did this report just recently a year ago called Factory Towns, and his conclusion is this. I’m close to the exact phrase. He says, “The working-class wouldn’t care that much about the woke thing if the Democrats gave a about the economy.” Substitute the word mass layoffs for economy, and I think he’s exactly right. And now we discover that Sheriff Brown’s onto this framework as well. What’s holding everybody back?
Chris Hedges:
Well, plus they’d win by a landslide if they actually push through FDR type new Deal reforms. But the Democratic leadership as it exists, 80-year-old Biden, Nancy Pelosi, they wouldn’t exist because they’re creatures of Wall Street and their power comes from one that they’re funded by corporations, but even more importantly, they control the flow of campaign or corporate donations to anointed candidates. So I think they’d rather go down in their privileged first class cabins then become politically irrelevant because if there was a pivot where they actually challenged corporate power, the democratic leadership as it exists presently would be eradicated. In a fair election, not one saturated with corporate money, Bernie Sanders would’ve beat Hillary Clinton and probably would’ve beaten Donald Trump.
Les Leopold:
I agree. I agree. The story in the book that we stumbled on there, really saddening, is the story of Mingo County, West Virginia. Can I dive into that one a little bit?
Chris Hedges:
Yeah, sure. This is the opioid capital.
Les Leopold:
Yeah. So Bill Clinton wins Mingo County, a small county in West Virginia. At the time that Bill Clinton won, it had 3,300 coal jobs, he got 69.7% of the vote, a landslide. Every four years thereafter, the Democrat got less and less and less and less, and Biden ends up with 13.9%. that’s a pathetic amount. You’d get more than that by far. If you were a writing candidate in that area, I could run your campaign and get you more than 13.9%. So this county has an incredible history. This is where Mother Jones came and spoke during the Cold Wars of the early 20th century. There was basically a war going on there between the United Mine Workers who was trying to organize and the thugs that were hired by the coal industry. In fact, state and federal troops had to come in there to basically put it under martial law.
Chris Hedges:
Well, there was an armed uprising in Player Mountain for three days. They fought them off.
Les Leopold:
Yep. And finally with the New Deal in Roosevelt, unions were recognized. The United Mine Workers started to prosper. Workers started doing better, and they rewarded the Democrats with their votes. All right, so what was going on between 1996 and 2020 in a county that has 23,000 people in it? The coal mining jobs went from 3,300 to 300, so this was the perfect place for the Democrats to do a real workers work progress administration, go from town to town, ask people what they need, and then create public jobs to produce what they need. They’re going to say, we need better schools. Okay, build new schools. Our roads are falling apart, build new roads. We don’t have internet. Wire them up. We need better healthcare facilities, produce more healthcare facilities. The strip mining legacy has to be cleaned up. Bring conservation corps in, clean those places up, get the rivers below or polluted, fix them.
There were tens of thousands of jobs to be created in Appalachia in West Virginia and thousands that could have been created just in Mingo County, and the Democrats didn’t do anything nor did the Republicans, but we didn’t expect them to do anything, so they relied on where they rely on the private sector. What did the private sector do to enterprising? You can’t this up. A guy who just got out of prison being a pimp, set up a drugstore, got some doctor to fill out prescriptions so that he could put out a prescription per minute, and then a second drugstore competed with the first. That’s free enterprise, right? You come in and take advantage of the market. This little county became the pill Mill of America put out more. That one drugstore was the 22nd largest distributor of opioids in the whole country. You’re talking New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, no, Mingo County, West Virginia in the top.
Number 22. You think these people are going to reward the Democrats for creating a huge handful of jobs in a drugstore. This is, if I were to try to write a spoof about how to destroy yourself politically, I couldn’t have made this up. And then on top of that, Wall Street came in and fed on the carcass of these coal mines that were going under and tried to rip the health benefits away from the coal mining retirees, and that was all legal. UMW Union fought them very hard, but a lot of coal miners lost their retirement healthcare benefits. And we have to stop that. Progressives have to stop… You can’t call yourself a progressive and not fight mass layoffs and not fight Wall Street. You just can’t. You can’t say, “Oh, this is all okay, and the system’s going to work itself out by itself.” It doesn’t. Left to itself, it flows to the bottom, not to the top.
It takes human will undo that regulation that allows those stock buybacks. Don’t let them put debt on a company when they do a leveraged buyout, a corporate rate. Don’t let them use borrowed money. They have to use their own money. They play a completely differently, and there wouldn’t be immediate mass layoffs. The other big fiction, then I’ll stop pontificating here, is that, “Okay, get an education, get a job in high-tech.” This is what we’ve told people to do. “Maybe you can’t do it, but your kids will do it and then things will be fine.” Have you have a bright new future stable employment? Well, last year, the high-tech industry did probably a hundred billion dollars in stock buybacks. How did they pay for it? They did 260,000 mass layoffs. 260,000 workers lost their jobs in the high-tech sector through mass layoffs another 50,000 so far this year. These are the jobs of the future.
Don’t get me going. Then people say, “Well, no, no, no, you can’t… It’s AI. It’s new technology that’s doing it.” Baloney. There’s no indication at all that any of these jobs are lost to AI. Oh, I take it back. Maybe the dismissal notices were sent to people through an AI type program, but that’s not why these jobs were lost. Stock buybacks are why these jobs were lost. The history of technology is that, yes, jobs change, but it’s over a much slower period of time. There’ve been dozens of studies done on technology that’s not the driver of mass layoffs and job insecurity now. By the way, I don’t think trade is either. I think it’s the deregulation of corporations. Of course, the corporate trade agreements, the kind of which you’re very familiar with that have taken place over the years. This all can be stopped. Human will created this, human agency created this, human agency can stop it, but we need a movement to deal with it, and that’s got to be built.
Chris Hedges:
So the Democrats and the Republicans in every election fight over this very narrow slice of the electorate that could have undecided voter, which we’re seeing again, and as you point out in the book, they write off a whole segments of the electorate, and I am just going to read from the book. “The Democrats currently are leaving behind somewhere between 20 and 50% of white working-class non Democrats who are moderately to very liberal on the most divisive social issues. This translates into approximately 10 to 25 million socially liberal white working-class people who are non-Democrats. Given how close elections currently are, neglecting these workers should be considered political malpractice.”
Les Leopold:
I’m really glad that you spotted that one. That was one of the most amazing findings we came up with because we broke the electorate. There’s data long-term, not like polling before an election, long-term voter surveys where you could break the electorate into seven different political classifications. So we put all the Republican leaning people who were working white working-class into one pool, and then we ran all these questions through that pool, and it was stunning. It was stunning how many of these rabid Republicans and heavily leaning Republicans were, in fact socially liberal. But the thing that triggered them, the one problem with these long-term surveys is they’re not put together by people like you or Gretchen. So they don’t have a lot of job oriented questions, but they have a couple that hint that way. One was on environmental job loss and the other one was on trade job loss, and the responses to those questions went through the roof.
People were really angry and worried about those kinds of issues. So that again, I think goes back to the fundamental point. There are millions of socially liberal, so-called Republican conservatives who are freaked out about job loss and they want some kind of job stability and they don’t. Here’s the other little thing we noticed. We do a lot of work with trade unions and a lot of workshops, and what I’ve noticed is that when people feel that the union can’t protect them and that the Democrats can’t protect them, they lean towards the Republicans figure, “Well, we might as well do deregulation or something because that’s the only group now that could help protect my job. Let’s help the companies.” Maybe they’ll protect their jobs. That’s what happens when you have only 6% of the private sector in trade unions. That’s what happens when the Democratic Party doesn’t fight against mass layoffs. People start leaning to the company for some sort of protection.
Chris Hedges:
And we have to talk about trade deals because it was Clinton that pushed through NAFTA. It was Hillary Clinton that was trying to push through the TPP. These trade deals essentially break down barriers so that sweatshops in China, Vietnam, Mexico can mass produce products and they can be brought back into the United States at virtually no cost. When they drive the new GM trucks up for Monterey, Mexico. They still sell at the same price, but instead of the money going to workers, it goes in the pockets of the CEOs and the upper echelon of these corporations. But these trade deals have been devastating to the working-class, and the working-class knows it.
Les Leopold:
Oh, absolutely. The idea of structuring a trade deal to enrich corporations is obviously why the corporations help write these trade deals, and it goes even more so for financial services, the Wall Street part of it, but we’re finding that behind a lot of these trade deals, the drive for profits to use them is not to fend off the competition, but actually to create more cashflow for the stock buybacks. I’d like to see somebody add a little clause to a trade deal that says, guess what? You can use this trade deal, but you can’t do any stock buybacks.
We’re not going to allow you to recycle money that you make back into stock buybacks. We’re not going to allow you to lay the other thing saying, guess what? No forced layoffs add. Add those two things to a trade deal the way you could to federal contracts, and you change the way trade happens globally. But yes, they’ve been remarkably devastating, but in more recent years, they’re often tied like with to the desire to get more cash flow for stock buybacks. So that little loophole that started in 1982, they’ve driven a truck through it, the same Mack truck that’s coming up from Mexico.
Chris Hedges:
I want to talk about the Republican Party. I thought this was a very important point. In your book, you talk about McCarthy’s as ruthless anti-communist campaign, a campaign that most liberals also supported Sidney Hook. I added that. That’s not you. In less feral in forms, the working-class masses did not create the federal loyalty oath instituted by President Truman’s Democratic administration, and those masses did not create the blacklist that harmed the careers of so many in government education in Hollywood for McCarthy as the most primarily an elite phenomenon, not a mass phenomenon. And you say the same is true today. Explain what you mean.
Les Leopold:
Yeah. I got turned onto this reading a book called The Intellectuals of McCarthy by Michael P. Rogan and the Pluralist, the Political Science and Sociology establishment of basically the ’50s and the ’60s. We’re trying to explain how did totalitarianism rise? Why do you have Mussolini and Stalin and Hitler and then McCarthy? These people have no trash, minorities, trash, all kinds of rights, civil rights of all kinds. Why do you have them? Well, the theory simply put was masses run wild that this happens because the masses run wild, and the proof of McCarthy’s masses run wild was Wisconsin was a populous state. It had a lot of, had a populous governor, Congressman had a socialist mayor in Milwaukee, and it grew out of the populous movement of the 1880s and 1890s and flowed into, and it still had remnants of that.
And McCarthy was popular in Wisconsin, and therefore the masses run wild, explains McCarthyism. Well, this guy Rogan did something which I tried to emulate in writing this book, which is let’s take a look at what actually happened in the voting patterns. And he looks at the old populous districts, and it turns out they voted against McCarthy. That’s not where he got his strength. The ideology didn’t come from the populace. The ideology came from the conservative Republican intellectuals. The base, the most fervent part of his base were the small towns, doctors, lawyers, real estate agents and such. And, he then kicks it up another level, he says the elites allowed him to do what he did in Washington, his hearings, his attacks, his ruining people’s careers.
As soon as he started to attack the army, Eisenhower for the first time turned on him, and in six months, McCarthy was gone. For example, had the Republicans turned on Trump, we wouldn’t be talking about him anymore, right? Anyway, we’ll get to that in a second. So his claim was, it’s an elite phenomenon. So we then started to look at, well, you mentioned January 6th. Well, let’s take a look at that. Well, there’s been some great work. On the surface, it looks like it’s a white working-class riot, and it would support this pluralistic argument that it’s the masses run wild. Well, it turns out that the University of Chicago has a project where they look at the demographic characteristics of those people who are arrested, and they’re disproportionately white collar and business owners.
Chris Hedges:
Let me just read the figures. I have them right in front of me. 93% were white, 54% were white collar or business owners, only 22% were blue collar, non-business owners. No college decree and 25% at a college degree.
Les Leopold:
It makes sense. What I see when I look at Trump, I see a basket full of lawyers, thousands of them.
Chris Hedges:
Well, they’re pretty deplorable.
Les Leopold:
Thousands of them. That’s the guts of his power structure. I don’t see a working-class person standing up anywhere front. Yeah, they put them in their audiences and stuff like that to make them look a certain way, and he gets a lot of rural support, but that’s not the guts of his movement. And so I think that there’s a strong parallel between him and McCarthy, and I think it’s the same thing if the elite opinion makers in his own party and let him run wild, which they clearly have done, you’re going to have him succeed.
Chris Hedges:
But they stoke it because their actual policies have no popular support. There’s a reason they stoke this stuff.
Les Leopold:
See, I think if we just dig down one more level, what is the motivation for each of these people? Well, I’m sure it’s slightly different, but one of the clear motivations is money and power, and riding Trump’s coattails. If you see a path to money and power, you’re going to do it, and if nothing’s blocking it, you’re going to keep doing it. And the policies that you support are money and power policies, policies that you think you’re going to get good donations, good jobs in the future, prominence, fame, power, and glory. There are a few, I’m sure, Republicans actually believe what they’re saying, but I have trouble. I think what they’re really saying is, “I want fame, power, and glory, and this is the way I’m going to get it.
Chris Hedges:
Well, as you point out in the book, however uneasy that relationship might be. Sometimes the business community in Nazi Germany had no problem working with the fascists, especially since after mayday, they shut down all the unions. Capitalism, and as you point out in China, can function quite well with totalitarianism. I just want to read this paragraph for Democrats in the media to blame The white working-class for this dereliction of duty by Republican elites is to make the same mistake the plural is made with McCarthyism. The white working-class does not have the franchise on authoritarianism, racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, religious intolerance or violence. Authoritarianism can only irreparably damage society. If political leaders refuse to hold the authoritarians to account. Liberals too can become unwitting enablers by blaming the white working-class for the sins of these elites.
Les Leopold:
Good paragraph.
Chris Hedges:
Yeah. Well, you wrote it. It’s all right.
Les Leopold:
Yeah. Well, I stand by it.
Chris Hedges:
But you nailed it. That’s it. And that is the kind of the most crucial political problem of our time in that unless the Democratic Party is willing to accept responsibility, we’re finished. when Trump comes back into power and he may very well come back into power, it isn’t going to be like the last time and it’s going to become a banana republic.
Les Leopold:
Well, look, I came up through the 1960s, and let’s face it, there was a lot of chaos going on there, and there was a lot of struggle, but I never thought that the democratic system itself was going to break even with all the bombings and the assassinations. it was just like 1968. I never want to live through that again, and I was at the Democratic National Convention. I was in the South. I saw it firsthand, but I had faith in the underlying support that people had for democracy. I am worried now because after 40 years of job instability, you’ve now threatened the very essence of what people need to live to not spiral down. The death spiral you talked about for a community is also the death spiral for each person feels really letting their family down, letting themselves down.
40 years of this, and I think that this system is now threatened. I hate to pin all my hopes on the labor movement, but that’s where I am, and I think that Shawn Fain at the UAW is onto something. He’s the first labor leader in decades that speaks for the class as a whole. When he talks, when he got up and said, “Billionaires should not exist,” just like that. That’s a sign to me that he understands that a movement can be built. What I’d like to see him do is to create, in a sense, a nonpartisan political movement for like a dollar a month or something anybody can join, and a very simple platform. No more mass layoffs, no more stock buybacks, no more leveraged buyouts. Very simple.
I think millions of people would join and that would give him leads to organize. Look, I’m trying to get into the ear of his assistance and comrades, but something has to break where another movement gets built because there are not enough shared Browns or Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. They’re just not enough, and to get them to be enough, you need something to I think come up from below. And what I saw, I was impressed with what happened with the UAW, and it was also the communication. Workers of America are very, very good. By the way, they run courses for a thousand workers a year based on my runaway and equality book, and now based on this book as well. They really… Day-long courses, they spend like a million dollars a year educating their own members to run through these courses, that there’s some hope there. But we need a lot-
Chris Hedges:
Well, that’s what a lot of people forget. One of the fundamental roles of labor in society is education.
Les Leopold:
Exactly. That was a trusted source of information. It still is a trusted source, but with only 6% of the business sector and unions, we got problems. We’re better off in the public sector, but you need that private sector organized and where you started this conversation with the NRB laws, if that goes, you are not going to see hardly any more union organizing, and you’re into the modern form of feudalism. You’re back to the Mother Jones period where you can’t organize. It’s going to be against the law to organize, and we can’t head in that direction. The scary thing is you’ve got a guy like Jamie Demon from a CEO of JP Morgan Chase, supposedly liberal guy. He says, oh, we can work with Trump. He’s already said it.
Chris Hedges:
Lloyd Blankfein said, “If Bernie Sanders was the nominee, he’d work for Trump, one of a major Democratic Party donor.”
Les Leopold:
What’s interesting, the UAW strike was really popular. It’s been a long time since the strike was actually a majoritarian support for a strike, so there’s something out there where people, it’s that basic system, a little model I put forth before, if you’ve got all the power with corporations and the Democrats aren’t protecting you, then you got to have it at least a union. The Starbucks workers, we’re working with these Amazonian United workers right now providing education. They understand. They’re telling me I’m too conservative. I’m not attacking capitalism enough. He says, “Workers are totally comfortable attacking it because they’re living it every day.” They’re basically throw away people. They’re treated like you can just toss them away. Work them to death, and then get somebody else. We need some sort of an uprising that is structured. Not another [inaudible 00:51:44] Square, Arab Spring or We Are the 99%. We need it structured. You need an organization that actually has the infrastructure to hold us together-
Chris Hedges:
But we also need an organization that has the power to strike, because that’s the only weapon working-class people have to fight against their overlords. That’s it, the strike.
Les Leopold:
Yeah. If they take that away, you’re going to see violence.
Chris Hedges:
Well, that’s what we’re watching it right now with the NLRB. That’s what they’re doing.
Les Leopold:
Anyway.
Chris Hedges:
All right. On that hopeful note.
Les Leopold:
I’m going to be a little optimistic. For the listeners here, I’m trying to be optimistic. The book’s not as pessimistic as we are being right now.
Chris Hedges:
Oh, I don’t know. I think we better face what’s in front of us.
Les Leopold:
You’re right.
Chris Hedges:
We’re not going to resist by selling hope.
Les Leopold:
You’re right.
Chris Hedges:
That’s not our job. Our job is to sell truth. Not sell it, but say it.
Les Leopold:
You can’t build something unless you face up to it.
Chris Hedges:
No. I learned that in war. People had a pollyannish view of their own immortality didn’t live too long. We have to see what’s in front of us and then we have to resist. But I highly recommend your book. I think you nailed it. I think it’s a really, really important book, and I want to thank you for writing it.
That was Les Leopold, co-founder of the Labor Institute and author of Wall Street’s War on Workers: How Mass layoffs and Greed are Destroying the Working-Class and What to do About it. I want to thank The Real News Network and its production team, Cameron Granadino, Adam Coley, David Hebden, and Kayla Rivera. You can find me at chrisedges.substack.com.
This post was originally published on The Real News Network.
One week has gone by since a massive container ship struck a critical support column of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, sending the structure and a group of construction workers who were fixing potholes on the bridge into the water of the Patapsco River. Of the 8 men who were working on the bridge that night, six have been pronounced dead since last Tuesday. As more details have emerged about the accident, and the city and port authority’s plans for clean-up and reconstruction, The Real News convened a panel of journalists working all sides of this story to get a sense of what we know, what key questions still need to be answered, and what happens next.
Joining this timely discussion are Marc Steiner, host of the Marc Steiner Show on The Real News Network; Real News Network Editor-in-Chief Max Alvarez; Dharna Noor, who leads “Big Oil Uncovered,” a Guardian series focused on the fossil fuel industry’s attempts to thwart climate science, discourse, and policy; and Clara Longo de Freitas, a neighborhood reporter covering East Baltimore communities for the Baltimore Banner.
Studio Production: Adam Coley
Post-Production: David Hebden
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Mel Buer:
Welcome back, my friends, to The Real News Network Podcast. I’m your host, Mel Buer. And before we jump into today’s important conversation, I wanted to take a moment to thank you, our listeners, for tuning in week after week. Whether you’ve got our shows on while you’re making coffee in the morning, put our podcasts on during your commute to and from work, or give us a listen throughout the workday, The Real News Network is committed to bringing you independent journalism that you can count on. We care a lot about what we do, about the communities and movements that we serve with our reporting, and it’s through donations from dedicated listeners like you that we can keep on doing it. Please consider becoming a monthly sustainer of The Real News Network by heading over to therealnews.com/donate. And if you want to stay in touch and get updates about our work, then sign up for our free newsletter at therealnews.com/sign-up. As always, we appreciate your support in whatever form it takes.
It’s been a week since a massive container ship struck a critical support column of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. The collision sent the structure and a group of construction workers who were fixing potholes on the bridge into the water of the Patapsco River last Tuesday. Of the eight men who are working on the bridge that night, six have been pronounced dead since last Tuesday. As more details have emerged about the critical electrical failure on the ship and the city and Port Authority’s plans for cleaning up the wreckage and rebuilding the bridge come to light, we here at The Real News felt it would be prudent to gather some of the journalists working all sides of the story to get a sense of what we know, what key questions still need to be answered, and what happens next.
With me today on the podcast are Marc Steiner, host of The Marc Steiner Show on The Real News Network, and Real News Network Editor-in-Chief Max Alvarez whose coverage of the accident has focused on the immigrant laborers who lost their lives on the bridge and has recently been featured in The Nation and Democracy Now. Also with me is Dharna Noor, a fossil fuels and climate reporter at The Guardian. She leads big Oil Uncovered, a series focused on the fossil fuel industry’s attempts to thwart climate science discourse and policy. She was previously climate producer and reporter at The Boston Globe and earlier she worked as a staff writer at Gizmodo’s climate vertical Earther where she also co-produced a season of the podcast Drilled on the fossil fuel industry’s influence on education. Before that, she led the climate team here at The Real News Network, and her writing has also appeared in publications including In These Times, Jacobin magazine, and Truthout. She was also featured in two books, the World We Need and Future On Fire.
Rounding out our panel is Clara Longo de Freitas who is a neighborhood reporter covering East Baltimore communities for The Baltimore Banner. A graduate of the University of Maryland, she spent most of her college years looking into workers’ conditions amid the COVID pandemic and diversity and equity issues. Her work has been published at The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Post, The Hill, and more. She is originally from Brazil.
Max, I wanted to start this conversation today with your reporting over the last week. You just came back from East Palestine, Ohio where you and other reporters, environmental activists, and concerned neighbors came together to discuss the ongoing environmental and social disaster that was last year’s train derailment in Ohio. You recently wrote for The Nation on the parallels that you could draw from East Palestine to the Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore, and I think that would be an important piece to highlight here. Dharna, I know that you were also in East Palestine on the anniversary of the derailment this last year. So if you have some thoughts on that as well, I want to open it up with that conversation, Max or Dharna.
Max Alvarez:
Yeah, absolutely. And just first, I just want to say what a tremendous honor it is to be on this call with everyone here. And amidst this tragedy, I do want to say that over the past week, I’ve been tremendously proud of our community and tremendously proud of our fellow journalists in this city. And I think that the way that we have worked together to respond to this tragedy and provide the coverage that our community deserves is really something special. And that is baked into all of our reporting.
I really want folks to know out there that our reporting would not have happened without the folks on this call and so many others. Former Real News reporter, the great Jaisal Noor was running a Zoom command center on the morning of the collapse just trying to provide information to anyone who was covering this. We saw Dharna there on the ground next to the Key Bridge and we’re offering like, “Hey, you need our interview? You want our interview? Take it, get this contact, get that contact.” Clara’s been doing incredible work lifting up the voices of these workers and reporting on the community, and I’ve been trying to share that. She’s been sharing our stuff. We’ve been sharing, citing, promoting each other’s stuff, giving each other the contacts we need. Lisa Snowden at the Baltimore Beat is offered to reprint whatever we publish and we want to do that. So it’s just, I think, a real testament to what nonprofit-driven journalism and collaboration can really do to serve the needs of our people and our city, and it’s a real honor to be here with all of you.
Just quickly picking up on that question, Mel, you’re right. As we all at The Real News know, it was very striking that I was in East Palestine reporting finally on the ground there after a year of reporting on it here at The Real News, interviewing residents. And a year before that, Mel and I were interviewing countless railroad workers amidst their contract fight, all of whom were warning that a catastrophe like East Palestine would happen if the corporate Wall Street-driven disease that has taken over the railroads, and not just the railroads but basically every other facet of our society, was not reigned in.
And lo and behold, on February 3rd, just months after President Joe Biden and both parties and Congress conspired to force a contract down railroad workers’ throats, a Norfolk Southern bomb train derails in the backyards of the families of East Palestine. Three days later, the disastrous and unnecessary decision was made and pushed by Norfolk Southern to vent and burn five cars worth of toxic vinyl chloride, as spewing these toxins into the air, exposing these residents to devastating health effects that they are still feeling now. They are bioaccumulating these chemicals. They are racking up health bills. They are losing their jobs, losing their health insurance.
It is really a horrifying situation there in East Palestine that we’ve been trying to cover and it is all about corporate greed, government negligence. It is part and parcel of the 40-plus-year-long process of deregulation, disinvestment, corporate domination. The devaluation of labor and life itself in this country is what is making catastrophes like East Palestine, the Baltimore Bridge, the Boeing planes coming out of the sky, the BP oil spill, and so many other atrocities that are occurring around our country right now, not just on the labor side, but poisoning our communities. That’s why the first text that I received on Tuesday morning, less than 24 hours after I got back from East Palestine, were from members of the community in East Palestine expressing solidarity with us, saying that they saw so many residences in what they went through with what we were going through.
Again, there’s so many things that I’ll say in just 40 seconds here and then I’ll shut up. The questions, I don’t want to presume that East Palestine and Baltimore are the same. The train derailment was not the ship crash that collapsed the bridge, and the investigative work to figure out the root causes of this are ongoing. But again, what I think was readily apparent to me and the folks in East Palestine is that this is an obvious breaking of the social contract between citizens, labor, business, and government, which was supposed to be that all of this dangerous stuff, the trains running through our backyards, the ships going through our rivers, and the factories that are in our communities, all of that was supposed to be allowed only if there were layers of nonprofit-driven protection and maintenance in place to ensure things like East Palestine and Baltimore and Boeing and BP don’t happen, and yet they’re happening more and more frequently.
And that is the problem. To say nothing of the containers that fell into the Patapsco River and whether or not those are going to contaminate us, obviously people in East Palestine who are still seeing the chemical sheen in their creeks from the derailment are looking at the chemical sheens in the Patapsco River and asking, “Do you guys know what are in those containers?” The workers on the bridge did not get a warning about their impending deaths, just like workers on that Norfolk Southern train did not receive a warning from the hotbox detectors about the ambient rise and heat in that faulty bearing before it was too late. There’s so many residences here that I think should guide us towards the questions we need to be investigating right now, but it was really stark for me to have 24 hours in between getting back from East Palestine to the bridge collapsing, and it’s just been a world we never sense.
Mel Buer:
Dharna, do you have anything to add?
Dharna Noor:
Yeah. I think that the similarities and the differences between what happened in East Palestine and what happened just last week in Baltimore are both really interesting. I agree with Max that I think that obviously there’s a lot to look into in terms of the role of corporate unaccountability here. I specifically want to shout out some reporter that The Lever has been doing, showing that Maryland’s governor, Larry Hogan, has spent his time as governor or previously spent his time as the previous governor of Maryland pushing for larger ships to go through Baltimore’s harbor. And I think it’s not surprising, I guess, that this kind of horrible disaster would occur at some point.
That said, I think I and so many other people when this disaster first happened did wonder like, “Oh, is this related to our crumbling infrastructure in our country?” And I think what engineers have said is that the bridge was actually in decent condition, but whether or not you should be able to have a bridge that was built in the ’70s next to this ginormous cargo ship of this kind is really another question. And I also think that in both of these cases, there are just really important questions of social infrastructure to be raised. Had the workers on the bridge who tragically fell to their death during the collision, had they been union, had they been higher paid, this disaster still could have happened. And that’s important to note. I don’t think that it’s a question of corporate unaccountability alone.
But that said, it’s obviously no huge surprise that it is often our immigrant workers of color who are often bearing the brunt of the most dangerous social situations. Non-union construction work is still one of the most dangerous kinds of labor that we have in this country. And so I think that while there are a lot more questions to ask about what changes in social infrastructure should come from this, I think like East Palisade, it’s really, as Max said, a situation that shows us the breaking of that social contract that we are supposed to have with business and with infrastructure. Whether or not this particular case was caused by crumbling infrastructure, by horrible labor conditions, whether or not this would’ve happened otherwise is a different question. But I do think that our social infrastructure tells us a lot about who’s going to bear the worst brunt of these disasters.
Mel Buer:
Right. Clara, you’ve spent some time in the last week learning more along with your team at The Baltimore Banner, learning more about the victims of this accident, the men who lost their lives on the bridge. Can you let our listeners know a little bit more about who these working men were, who they were, where they’re from, who their families are, and the conversations that you’ve been having over the last week about these laborers?
Clara Longo de Freitas:
Yeah. These were all men who were in their thirties and forties. Most of them were married. Most of them had kids. Some of them had even grandchildren. They were from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala in Mexico. And these were very clearly men who were working at least one job, multiple jobs sometimes, to be able to provide to their families, to be able to provide not only to their spouse and children, but also to send money back to their home countries.
I talked to Hector and he is the nephew of Mynor Lopez, and he told me that because of the work that Mynor was doing, he and his I think 11 cousins at this point were all able to go to school because Mynor was working and Mynor would send money to his parents and to his sisters, and then the cousins didn’t have to worry about working because they had the food on the table. They had enough money to be able to survive. So these were clearly men who were, I don’t want to say survival mode, but almost in that sense. They were just trying to provide as much as they could to their families, and taking these jobs that, like Dharna said, they’re pretty dangerous. They are jobs that they’re essential but they don’t always come with benefits. They don’t always come with protections to ensure that something like this wouldn’t impact their families in such way.
Mel Buer:
Max, you’ve also had some conversations at Democracy Now and in your piece for The Nation talking about the reality of many immigrant laborers in this country and the importance of underscoring the conditions that many of these workers are laboring under in order to provide for their families. Is there anything else you’d like to add as we talk about these working men who tragically lost their lives on the bridge last week?
Max Alvarez:
I would, and again, I would point people to Clara’s incredible reporting for The Banner for more details on these men’s lives, but just to name the five of the six who have been identified as of right now. One is still as of yet unidentified. Multiple bodies are still in the Patapsco River and are going to apparently be there for a while while their families grieve. And our hearts go out to them. But what we know so far about the fallecidos, the man who passed away, is that their names were Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval, age 38 from Honduras, Miguel Luna, age 49 from El Salvador, Jose Mynor Lopez, age 35 from Guatemala, Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, age 26, also from Guatemala, Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, age 35 from Mexico. And the sixth unidentified worker is believed to also be from Mexico as Clara said.
And I sat down and recorded a really incredible podcast with multiple heads of immigrant and Latino justice organizations here in the city, and that podcast is going to be out at The Real News by the time you guys hear this. And I would highly encourage you to do so, and I beg you to please be patient with the Spanish and English translations because we’re trying to show you what it takes to have these dialogues with people who don’t speak the same language as you even though you’re working alongside each other in the city.
I sat down with Ricardo Ortiz from the Centro de Los Derechos del Migrante, Susana Barrios, vice president of the Latino Racial Justice Circle, Carlos Crespo who volunteers at the Centro de Apoyo Para La Superracion del Inmigrante or CAPSI, and Lucia Islas, president of the Comité Latino del Baltimore. These are incredible folks who did tell us a bit more about what we currently know. Obviously right now we are trying to give the families as much space as possible because they are grieving an impossible loss. And even though the media is going to forget about them as we move on from this, their struggles are going to be lifelong.These families have lost something that can’t be replaced, and they’re going to be dealing with the effects of that for the rest of their lives. And these groups here in the city are working to make sure that they’re supported, and I think that’s heroic and deserves to be uplifted.
But what they also revealed to us is one detail that really sticks out in my mind that really connects Baltimore to East Palestine is that, as we mentioned, these were immigrant workers. They were working for a non-union contractor, Brawner Builders, that was contracting with the state of Maryland. And so I would point people to Robert Kuttner’s piece in The American Prospect asking the right questions about why we use contractors and subcontractors in this way to do what was previously government work. But that’s a question for another day. All I’ll say is that that contractor-contractee relationship is exactly the relationship that businesses exploit to exploit undocumented immigrants, workers, returning citizens, people who are already living beneath the floorboards of our society.
They are the ones who are preyed upon by contractors around the country, and that’s why you end up with children younger than my foster daughter working in Alabama parts suppliers for Hyundai or picking tomatoes in slave conditions on farms in Florida, or cleaning bone saws and other hazardous equipment in meatpacking plants in the Midwest. This is a rampant, and it’s not just in construction. The abuse of contractors and subcontractors and particularly the immigrant workers who are abused by that system is systemic in this country.
But what I would also say that connects Baltimore and East Palestine is that what we knew on the day of the crash on Tuesday was that two men were recovered from the water who alive, and one of whom went to emergency care. The other reportedly refused emergency services. And what I was told by members of the community, including the folks that I interviewed from the Latino Justice organizations, is that that person, as far as we know, did not have healthcare and that we suspect that’s why they rejected emergency services.
Just imagine the mindset you would have to be in to fall into the Patapsco River after it crashed, going through the most traumatic experience I have to imagine of your life. Although people who make the trek up here as migrants go through a lot of horrors as well. So one of the most horrifying things you’ve ever gone through, and then to refuse a hospital trip because you live in America and you don’t have health insurance at the same time that residents of East Palestine who are citizens are also piling up these ailments from being poisoned by a company that’s been deregulated by the government and they don’t have health care either.
This is just such a damning indictment on our country writ large, and yet the immigrant workers are currently being vilified by part of the country and by Donald Trump as, quote, poisoning the blood of our country. And what are we actually doing? We’re filling your potholes at night. We were the ones, our brothers and sisters, were keeping the economy afloat during COVID without the governmental protections of stimulus checks and things like that. So a lot of these workers are still dealing with long COVID. They died from COVID keeping the economy running, and yet they are vilified in this country, and it’s a really sick situation.
Mel Buer:
Important points to bring up there, Max, and the conversation around immigrant labor in all its forms will continue to be a focal point for the US Labor Movement, I imagine. I do want to bring this conversation a little bit around to some of the cleanup efforts, if you’ll permit me. This next question is for Dharna. You’ve had excellent coverage of the accident in the last week. That’s included conversations about the dangers of leaving that ship in the harbor. It can’t go anywhere right now because it still has pieces of the bridge on top of it. And what’s being done to shore up the ship, what’s happening to its cargo, as I understand it, some of the cargo is full of batteries and other corrosive chemicals that have not yet fallen into the river, but there is a danger for that as they start cleaning up the river and the harbor. So what can you tell us about through your coverage with The Guardian and what stories you’re working on, what can you tell us about the wreckage and the cleanup efforts and what’s going to come next?
Dharna Noor:
Yeah. The cleanup efforts, I think, are leaving us in a bizarre catch-22 situation. I should start by saying actually that in many ways Baltimore averted a number of different worst case scenarios. One of the biggest dangers that can happen environmentally speaking during a major cargo ship crash like this is the hull can break and that can send fuel oil into the water. Fuel oil, obviously a fossil fuel that is extremely toxic to marine life and to birds and also to people. And people in this case, especially being folks who are actually working on the ships and in some cases dock workers if the wind is blowing in certain directions and things like this. But that did not happen. Still could happen because as you’re saying, the ship is still, they’ve not completed the removal of the ship from the water, but it looks like we’ve averted that scenario and that’s going to be okay. So that’s a really good side.
Also, in terms of the actual contaminants right now, the Unified Command, which is the group of federal and state agencies and environmental consultants that are working on this, say that they haven’t found volatile organic compounds or flammable vapors in the air around the ship. That’s another indication that there’s not fuel oil spilling into the water. And also that there’s not a bunch of corrosives that were in the ship that have leaked out, and that’s another really good sign. However, there are still some pretty awful and corrosive and scary chemicals that are on the ship. Right now, there’s been 14 containers that were on the ship that were destroyed. They were primarily full of things like soaps and perfumes and essential oils that are damaging potentially but probably not overtly harmful. I spoke with one expert who noted that since the Key Bridge sat on the wide mouth of the Patasco River, it’s likely that those contaminants will be quickly dispersed. So again, averting a worst case scenario.
But as you said, Mel, there are other things on the ship that we really do not want to be getting into our water. There’s lithium ion batteries, which are super flammable and can create a number of different ecosystem hazards if they fall out of the containers that they’re in that are on the ship into the water, and that would be really bad. So on the one hand, really, really important to get the ship out. On the other hand, doing that too quickly, I think, could pose some really, really serious labor concerns because right now, the ship is in part still on water because it’s really, really difficult to even under the best conditions, it’s really difficult for divers to be in the Baltimore Harbor. It’s super dark. We talked to one diver at The Guardian who said that even if it’s bright daylight outside, diving in the harbor is basically just like you’re feeling around with your hands. You’re not really able to see anything. And there’s a bunch of sediment from the disaster that’s in the water right now, and that makes it even harder to see.
And so while it’s really important to get the ship out of the water, we also don’t want to do that in a way that’s putting workers at risk, a horrible catch-22s kind of situation. Again, I don’t want to fearmonger or sow unnecessary horror here or anything because it does seem like we’ve averted some worst case scenarios. But I think still pretty important to be aware of the potential environmental contamination and know what questions to ask in the future.
The other thing I’ll note is there are many residents who, I would venture to say with a very good reason, who’ve had their trust in officials eroded when it comes to environmental contamination. There are folks, for instance, in the neighborhood of Curtis Bay, which is not far from the fallen bridge, which is a poor and working class community, majority of color community who complained for a decade that coal dust from a nearby coal terminal was plaguing their neighborhood. They said that it was all over their houses, all over their cars. It was giving them asthma. It was making it really hard to breathe, probably linked to a bunch of other health issues. And again, they raised this for a decade, but the state did not officially acknowledge the problem until late last year.
And so whether or not there actually is environmental contamination is one question. What officials are actually doing to make that clear to residents who are nearby is another one. I think a lot of people are just going to be looking for even more transparency than you would normally look, for ongoing testing, a lot of community input. It’s going to be really, really important, I think, to build that level of trust, especially when you’re coming in with a lower hand in some ways because of past mistakes.
Mel Buer:
I want to bring you in here, Marc. As someone who’s lived in Baltimore for your whole life, you’ve covered issues like this in the city for decades. What’s your perspective here as you see this reporting coming out of The Guardian with Dharna, and the conversations that have been happening about what happens next with the harbor, with potential contamination, with the looming labor crisis that’s happening at the port that is now closed? What are your thoughts about that?
Marc Steiner:
Well, there’s a lot here. I think in the last few days, I’ve talked to a former president of the Longshore Union who doesn’t live in Baltimore anymore who may be joining us this week. I’ve talked to a sea captain who then worked for the port. And I talked to another friend who now lives in Maine who used to be a tugboat captain in the harbor. I wanted to get some… And then I started reading all these things about from the Structural Engineering Society. I’m trying to get my hands around what just happened, these tragedies with men losing their lives and the clip, the bridge just collapsing.
Well, a couple of things are happening here. A, there was some serious structural issues in that bridge that had not been shored up because we do not invest in infrastructure. We don’t invest in making the bridges safe for the futures. This was built in the 1970s, 1977 if I have right. And there are many things that have changed in those years. There’s a thing called a bumper. They didn’t have the right bumpers around the bottom of the bridge. When the ship hit the bridge, it began to make a collapse. Things that should have been taken care of, that shouldn’t have existed, that happened. You have to raise questions like why wasn’t the tugboat there? Why wasn’t tugboat getting that ship under the vision out? Why did they cut back on that? The whole thing with Larry Hogan asking for larger ships to come in out of the port with no safety regulations around that effort.
So there are a lot of things that have led to disaster. Right now, this affected California because they’re now looking at all their bridges saying, “Our bridges are not structurally safe. The same thing could happen here to multiple bridges up and down the California coast.” And it all goes back to not investing in the infrastructure in this country, which could, A, put people to work, and B, make us all safer. And so there are a lot of questions like that I think that are just now coming to the fore. And I was really shocked when I read the opinions of structural engineers from around the country in their society paper, and they were going back and forth in this dialogue about just how lax we’ve been in making sure that our bridges are safe and can survive a hit like that. Again, if they had had the bumpers around the bottom of the trusses and other things, it would not have collapsed.
Max Alvarez:
Right. And if I can just add something to that really quick, is that is happening at the same time that everything else is getting bigger and heavier with fewer workers on it. There’s another great report for The Guardian by another former Real News contributor, the great Michael Sainato. Shout out to Michael and Dharna both doing incredible work. But Michael wrote this great piece recently after talking to another official from the Port Workers Union.
And Michael writes and I quote, “As shipping vessels have grown and crew sizes have been reduced, maintenance and upkeep issues are often ignored. A report by the United Nations in 2021 found cargo ship capacity sizes had increased by 155% from 2006 to 2020. Safety incidents of large vessels globally increased 9% in 2022 and 7% in 2021.” Again, that’s why I bring up the railroads because whether it’s a bridge or whether it’s the rail lines, what we are doing is we are making the ships that pass under them larger with more crap on it, with fewer workers on it, just like we’re making the trains longer and heavier and carrying more hazardous material with only two people on that. And the railroads have been trying to get it down to one person crews to say nothing of all the staff. They’re cutting, checking the track, checking the cars, all that stuff. This is why I see these as part of a larger historical process.
Marc Steiner:
Let me just jump in what you just said, a follow-up or something. One of the things I think that’s really important that may come out of this for America to deal with, for places like the Real News to cover is the fight to have regulations and infrastructure built and regulations around our transportation systems in this country that are lacking. Those men wouldn’t have died most likely if the bridge was secure. The men wouldn’t have died if there were regulations in place to protect that bridge and protect their lives. And if they were union workers and not people who were forced to work on a bridge without union protections. All those things are part of the battle going on that’s actually not being reported on, that is unseen, that I think is really critical to the future. I’d also get on the-
Mel Buer:
Oh, I want-
Marc Steiner:
I’ll stop. Go ahead.
Mel Buer:
No, sorry to cut you off there.
Marc Steiner:
That’s fine.
Mel Buer:
I do want to say that that battle has come to the fore, at least in the sense of the pressure that the railroad workers have been taking straight up to the highest levels of regulatory agencies. The Department of Transportation today issued its final rule on two-person train crews, and it’s a minimum now. They need to have two-person train crews in order to run these trains, which is ultimately a good thing, but a bit of a side conversation that maybe we can have another podcast on later in the week.
The one thing that I want to do with the last seven or so minutes that we have here is really just to open up the discussion to all of you. You are all local to Baltimore. You have been putting untold hours into covering this tragedy. And Dharna, Clara, and Max, you were on the ground within hours after the accident, speaking with members of the community, with neighbors, with church officials, with activists, with experts, and listening to the co-workers of the men who lost their lives on the bridge. I think a really good way to end this conversation is really just to talk about the community response, how folks are feeling in the wake of this disaster, what it means for the community going forward, what it means for the local economy going forward, and how can we as listeners at The Real News and elsewhere, how can we help? How can we be able to help you rebuild? What can we do to alleviate some of this suffering and to help you grieve? It’s open to anyone. Clara or Dharna, if you want to take it first, that’d be great.
Clara Longo de Freitas:
I can go first. Well, one thing that I do want to say is that this is a community that rallies together in times of tragedy. I don’t know if you guys know about this or if we’ve covered this in the past, but there was a fire earlier in March, late February, that three people died. Dozens were displaced, and they were all Latinos. And the community put together, they helped find homes for the people. They raised funds. So the community is used to this response and they always rally together. It’s very much something that it’s a sense of community that is very embedded.
I think there’s a lot of grief right now. There’s a lot of sense of helplessness because they want to support their family. But for a really long time, we weren’t even sure who the workers were. We weren’t sure what could be done. So I think right now, everyone is leaving that mode and people are beginning to raise money to help with funeral costs, to help with move the bodies back to their home countries, the bodies that were able to be found. So people are reacting in a very… People have a large solidarity for these families right now.
Dharna Noor:
Yeah. Clara, I’m glad that you mentioned the work that some of the Latino racial justice and immigration rights organizations in Baltimore have been doing around that house fire. I think it’s really interesting that something that officials have been saying and with good reason in the wake of this disaster is that Baltimore is really strong and really resilient. But I’ve been really curious to see what that actually means. And talking to Susana Barrios, who Max also I think has been speaking with, who is the vice president of the Latino Racial Justice Circle, she said, “Yeah, we are strong, but it’s because we’ve had to deal with disasters before, especially in our community which has faced so much hardship.” And so it’s no surprise really that they were able to really quickly put together, it was almost $100,000 that they raised for the victims’ families within six hours of the tragedy, which is pretty incredible.
But also just saying that Baltimore is strong, I think, doesn’t tell the whole story. It also is communities are strong because you have to be strong in the absence of real state support, real protections from governments. Without that base of social infrastructure that you’re supposed to rely on, you have to create your own, which is really inspiring. And then also really, it’s really awful that that’s the only sort of solution that we have. We shouldn’t have to have GoFundMe accounts to fund help for families that die from… I’m so sorry. Here, I’ll start that sentence over. We shouldn’t have to be having GoFundMe accounts to fund funerals and services for people who die in disasters that the state is at least in some way responsible for. And I think that really, it’s really, again, a really inspiring story and also one that should not have to exist.
But that said, Baltimore has been really, really resilient and so many communities have come together in a really inspiring way. Seeing restaurants donate food, seeing people come in from out of town to ensure that the victim’s families have places to stay, seeing the way that certain workers at the Red Cross have been putting their all into making sure that the victim’s families have everything they need, seeing the way that first responders have been taken care of, seeing the way that unions have banded together to make sure that their workers will be protected in the face of lost jobs in the coming weeks, I think has been really, really inspiring. And I want to shout out Baltimore for that resilience, for that strength. And also would love to imagine a future where we could have the kind of state support that we actually need and don’t simply need to rely on ourselves in order to make sure that we can survive tragedies like this.
Marc Steiner:
And I just want to throw in real quick that I think one of the things we have to do now is to really keep our politicians, political leaders, feet to the fire. What are you going to do about investing in infrastructure? What are you going to do about making sure that people are paid union wages and unions have a say in what’s happening in building that infrastructure and putting people to work who need the jobs in our communities?
Max Alvarez:
And that workers like these get citizenship.
Marc Steiner:
Right. Because there are questions that they cannot be allowed to run away from. This should not have happened. The bumper should have been in place. The bridge should not have collapsed. There should have been inspections on that boat before it was allowed to, ship, excuse me, before it was allowed to go out. There’s so many variables here that the lack of oversight by our government for any safety of the harbor, all of that is affecting what just happened. That shouldn’t have happened. Those people shouldn’t have died. The bridge should not have collapsed if the right systems were in place to ensure the safety of all of us. That’s part of the problem.
Max Alvarez:
Right. And a ship experiencing that level of propulsion failure 30 minutes after leaving port should not have been allowed to leave port.
Marc Steiner:
Right.
Max Alvarez:
A rail locomotive experiencing that level of bearing failure, carrying that many hazardous materials through the backyards of regular people, should not have been allowed to be on the track in the first place. And workers on that bridge, at least the foreman should have had a direct line to emergency dispatch in case something like this happened. Like you said, Marc, there’s so many layers and failures here, and we’re going to continue to cover this. And I know that Clara and Dharna and our other great journalists, comrades in the city are going to keep doing that. And once again, I just want to stress what an honor it is to be serving the community alongside these folks, not being in competition with them.
And I just want to implore folks out there to share our work, support our work, because we’re going to keep covering this but we can’t do it without you. But I also wanted to say that the folks at the Latino Racial Justice Circle who began the original GoFundMe to support the families of the man who died on that bridge, as Dharna and Clara and I have all reported, they were quickly overwhelmed by the generosity from that fundraiser, which is itself a really positive thing to come out of such a horrifying situation. So they wanted to hand over the fundraising efforts to the city. They wanted it to be totally transparent. They wanted to make sure all that money went straight to the families. And so if you are out there and you want to donate, that fundraising, that fundraiser is actually now being run through the Baltimore Civic Fund. You can find it by typing in Baltimore Civic Fund, the Key Bridge Emergency Response Fund. We’ll link to it in the show notes, and we’ll also link to Dharna and Clara and my work, of course.
And I just wanted to also add one thing to what Dharna said, is that I sat down at a table in Fells Point at El Taquito Mexicano to talk with Ricardo, Susana, Carlos, Lucia, Claudia, and Victor, the owners of the restaurant. And even my own foster daughter, Norma, was there with me along with my wife, Meg. We were all sitting at a table talking about this. And one thing I just want to impress upon people listening to this is when I looked these people in the face and I asked them the same question you just asked us, Mel, I could see deep in their eyes a look that I know all too well, that I know from my own family, that I have felt in my own eyes. They are doing everything they can. They are strong as hell. They’re all volunteering for multiple different organizations. Carlos himself, he and his wife have a daughter with special needs, and yet they still are superheroes like giving everything that they have to the community.
But what he said while looking into my eyes is, “We are tired. We are tired of doing this work because no one else will. And we are tired of doing it while still having to prove to this country that we are just as human as you are, that there are people who wait for us to come home just like you do. And they deserve, those families deserve to be whole just as much as yours, whether your families are in East Palestine or elsewhere in Baltimore or California or anywhere. We need to find each other on those basic human levels, not as immigrants or citizens, union or non-union, Democrat or Republican, but just people living on this earth trying to do our best to make a life for ourselves and our family. And we have a right to breathe the air and our children have a right to play in the grass and play in the water without worrying that they’re going to get cancers from it or worry that they have to climb over or through rail lines just to get to school in the morning because they’re so long and they’re blocking their way to school.”
That’s where we really are right now. Things have gotten so bad in this country that so many people feel justice forgotten as this community, as the folks in East Palestine. But I don’t know, maybe this will finally be enough for us to realize that we have so much more in common than the corporate media and the political parties would lead us to believe. And I think Baltimore has shown that this week.
Mel Buer:
Well said, Max. Well, that’s all the time we have today, but thank you so much, everyone, for coming on and talking about your very important reporting. The door is always open to come back and talk about more things that you turn up in your respective investigations. Thank you.
Marc Steiner:
Thank you.
Dharna Noor:
Thanks for having us. Really an honor to help-
Clara Longo de Freitas:
Thank you so much.
Dharna Noor:
… you today.
Mel Buer:
That’s it for us here at The Real News Network Podcast. Once again, I’m your host, Mel Buer. If you love today’s episode, be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get notified when the next one drops. You can find us on most platforms, including Spotify and YouTube. And if you’d like to get in touch with me, you can find me on most social media, my DMs are always open, or send me a message via email at mel@therealnews.com. Send your tips, comments, questions, episode ideas, gripes, whatever you like. I’d love to hear from you. Thank you so much for sticking around, and I’ll see you next time.
This post was originally published on The Real News Network.
When the iconic Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed around 1:30am on Tuesday, March 26, eight men who were working on the bridge at the time were plunged into the cold waters of the Patapsco River. Two of those men were recovered alive, six were not. As TRNN previously reported, all existing evidence points to the fact that these workers—who were working for a non-union contractor, Brawner Builders, filling potholes on the bridge—did not receive any warning from emergency dispatch that the shipping vessel Dali was about to plow into the bridge.
As Baltimore reels from the shock of the bridge collapse, as investigations begin into the root causes of the accident, and as we begin to take stock of the seismic economic and potential environmental impacts that this catastrophic accident will have, the families of the six workers who died are mourning an incalculable loss. As Clara Longo de Frietas writes at The Baltimore Banner, “All of the men confirmed or presumed to be dead had emigrated from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador or Mexico. They were Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35; Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26; Miguel Luna, 49; Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval, 38; Jose Mynor Lopez, 35; and one as-yet-unnamed man… All of them came to Baltimore for a better life.”
Amidst this tragedy, volunteers, community organizers, immigrant and Latino/Latine justice organizations, businesses, and more have responded with tireless efforts to support the families of the deceased workers, and to provide support for Baltimore’s Latino/Latine and immigrant communities in general. In this special bilingual podcast, recorded in Spanish and English at El Taquito Mexicano restaurant in Fells Point, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez sits down with a panel of community and immigrant justice organizers and members of Baltimore’s Latino/Latine community to discuss those efforts, what we know about the men who were working on that bridge, and what this tragedy tells us about the plight of immigrant workers in Baltimore and around the US. Panelists include: Ricardo Ortiz, vice president of the Centro de Apoyo Para la Superación del Inmigrante (CAPSI); Susana Barrios, vice president of the Latino Racial Justice Circle; Carlos Crespo, who volunteers at CAPSI; Lucia Islas, president of Comité Latino de Baltimore; Norma Martinez, a high-school student in Baltimore, born in Honduras (and Max’s foster daughter); Claudia, co-owner of El Taquito Mexicano; Victor, co-owner of El Taquito Mexicano.
Baltimore Immigrant Community Fund Key Bridge Emergency Response
Studio Production: Maximillian Alvarez
Post-Production: Alina Nehlich
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Maximillian Alvarez: Welcome, everyone, to The Real News Network Podcast. My name is Maximillian Alvarez, I’m the editor-in-chief here at The Real News, and it’s so great to have you all with us.
Bienvenidos a todos al podcast del Real News Network. Mi nombre es Maximillian Alvarez, soy el jefe de redacción del Real News Network, y estoy feliz que ustedes están aquí con nosotros.
A reminder that The Real News is a viewer and listener supported network, and it’s only with your support that we are able to keep doing this work, so please support us if you can, head on over to therealnews.com/donate and donate today.
Este es un recordatorio de que el Real News es una publicación que solo existe con el apoyo de nuestra audiencia, y no podemos continuar nuestro trabajo sin sus donaciones. Pues, por favor, ven al therealnews.com/donate.
Six men, immigrant construction workers from Central America, died in the catastrophic Key Bridge collapse last Tuesday.
Seis hombres, trabajadores de construcción, inmigrantes de Centroamérica, murieron en el colapso del puente de Francis Scott Key en Baltimore la semana pasada.
We know the names of five of the six victims. They were:
Sabemos los nombres de cinco de los seis fallecidos. Ellos son:
Our hearts are broken for these men and their families. While the media will quickly forget about them, members of the Latino community here in Baltimore are mobilizing to support their families. Three days after the bridge collapse, I had the honor of sitting down with community organizers and representatives of multiple Latino and immigrant justice organizations in the city.
Sentimos mucho dolor en nuestros corazones ahorita, y nuestros pensamientos están con estos hombres y sus familias. La media va a olvidarlos… eso sabemos… pero Latinos aquí en Baltimore, miembros de la comunidad, se están movilizando ahorita para apoyar a esas familias ahora y en la futura. Tres días después del colapso del puente, yo tuve el honor de sentarme y hablar con organizadores de comunidad y representantes de varias organizaciones de justicia para latinos e inmigrantes en la ciudad.
I spoke with… Yo hable con… Ricardo Ortiz, vice president of the Centro de Apoyo Para la Superación del Inmigrante (CAPSI); Susana Barrios, vice president of the Latino Racial Justice Circle; Carlos Crespo, who volunteers at CAPSI; Lucia Islas, president of Comité Latino de Baltimore. I also spoke with Claudia and Victor, co-owners of El Taquito Mexicano, the restaurant where we had this conversation—and my own foster daughter, who herself is an undocumented high school student in Baltimore, Norma Martinez, also joined in on the conversation.
Here is our conversation that we had, which we conducted in Spanish and in English. I really hope folks listen to it, and I really apologize for my bad Spanish. Obviously, I’m not a native speaker, but I tried my best.
Aquí está nuestra entrevista, que conducimos en español e inglés. Espero que la gente vaya a escucharla, y disculpa mi horrible español… Obviamente, no soy un hispanohablante nativo, pero hice mi mejor esfuerzo…
Maximillian Alvarez: Alright, well, I am sitting here. It’s around 8:00 PM on Friday, March 29th. We’re gathered at El Taquito Mexicano in Fells Point in Baltimore at the end of a very long and hard week.
Estamos sentando en el Taquito Mexicano, aquí en Baltimore, en Fells Point, después de una semana muy larga e intensa.
But we’re sitting here as a community. I am sitting at this table with some incredible people, heroes of the community.
Estoy sentando en esta mesa con gente increíble, miembros de la comunidad, quien está luchando para la comunidad, para trabajadores y familias de trabajadores, como los de los seis trabajadores que se murieron esta semana.
They’re here fighting with everything they’ve got when they’ve got their own families, when they’ve got their own jobs, but they’ve been fighting all week for this community, for families, and for working families, and for workers like the six brothers that we lost on that bridge this week. And so, I wanted to just start by going around the table, and before we get into, you know… We’re going to ask our guests what we know about these workers. But, of course, we want to give space to the family more than anything. So, please, we’re going to provide more information to you all about that. But please respect those families and please respect that we are trying to give them space right now.
Vamos a presentar más información sobre los trabajadores cuando la tenemos, pero obviamente queremos dar espacio a las familias ahorita. Y por favor, todos quien está escuchando ahorita, envíen tus sentimientos buenos, pero también, por favor, dale espacio a las familias también. Y vamos a hablar en la mesa ahorita. ¿Cómo estamos? Como latinos en esta ciudad, como latinos en América, como miembros de esta comunidad en Baltimore?
How are we doing—as Latinos, as members of this community, as brown people in America right now after this tragedy? So, I’m going to shut up, and we’re going to go around the table.
Ricardo Ortiz: Hola, gracias. Yo soy Ricardo. Vivo en Baltimore desde hace cinco años y creo que esta semana ha sido amargo-dulce. Primero, muy triste porque perdimos a miembros de nuestra comunidad, personas que como nosotros trabajan día a día para sacar adelante a su familia, sacar adelante el país. Muchas familias inmigrantes estamos aquí por un mejor futuro y el presenciado esta catástrofe que ha afectado nuestra comunidad ha sido muy triste.
It’s been a very hard moment for us as a community here in Baltimore because we lost six people of our community. And as immigrants, we are here for our families, for a better life, or for work. But at the same time, it is very powerful to see how the Baltimore community supports us, and we can see how the people here are with us, and that makes us feel like we are part of this community also. So, that’s what I can say about how it’s going on with our community. But also, I think it’s a great opportunity to show the reality that our community faces. A lot of the community here works here just to make a better life, but the pay is very bad. They don’t have enough resources for them and their families. So, I think it’s a lot to face right now for our community. But I’m very happy to share this table with a lot of people like me who are very interested in supporting our community.
Y dentro de esto, amargo y dulce, ha sido también muy poderoso ver que hemos vivido el respaldo de la comunidad, porque nos han apoyado mucho. Inmediatamente, las autoridades salieron a apoyarnos y también hemos visto cómo la comunidad se ha acercado a nosotros para decir: «¿Hey, qué necesita tu comunidad?». Ha sido como muchos sabores, pero estamos también aprovechando el momento para decir las necesidades que enfrenta nuestra comunidad. Muchos venimos a trabajar por una mejor vida o por nuestras familias que viven en nuestros países de origen, y ahora nos damos cuenta de que la gente ya está poniendo atención a que las personas trabajadoras no les pagan lo suficiente, no les dan los artículos necesarios para protegerse en su lugar de trabajo, pero también las autoridades a veces «se hacen de la vista gorda», como dijéramos en México, de que saben que estamos enfrentando esto, tienen poder, pero no hace nada para cambiar las cosas. Pero a la misma vez ver cómo estoy con otras personas que nos hemos empoderado y nos hemos acercado para unir fuerzas y decir hasta un ¡ya basta!, pero también las cosas no están bien y tenemos que hacer algo desde nuestra comunidad.
Maximillian Alvarez: Y también, lo siento, podemos introducirnos también y nuestras organizaciones, si quieren.
Ricardo Ortiz: Claro. Yo soy Ricardo Ortiz, trabajo en una organización que se llama el Centro de los Derechos del Migrante. Somos una organización binacional que tenemos oficinas en México y en los Estados Unidos. Aquí en Estados Unidos tenemos oficina en Baltimore y nosotros nos enfocamos en apoyar a las personas trabajadoras, especialmente a las personas trabajadoras con visas temporales o seasonal workers, que vienen un tiempo a trabajar y regresan a México. Y que eso también es otra parte muy triste que enfrentamos, que a pesar de que estas personas siguen un proceso migratorio para poder venir a trabajar con un permiso de trabajo a este país, la situación que enfrentan es terrible y muchas veces tienen más violaciones que las personas que a lo mejor viven acá, entonces, es muy interesante.Y también estoy apoyando a CAPSI, que somos una organización local. Somos un grupo, un colectivo de líderes y lideresas en Baltimore que queremos empoderar a la comunidad.
So, my name is Ricardo Ortiz. I work with Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, or CDM. We are a binational organization, or nonprofit, and we support immigrant workers, and specific seasonal workers, or workers with H2A or B visas here in the United States. And it’s very interesting to see the other faces of the workers who came here with a work permission that also faced very difficult situation in their spaces of work.
Susana Barrios:
Buenas noches, mi nombre es Susana Barrios. Trabajo para una organización sin fines de lucro que trabaja para la protección y abogacía de las personas con discapacidades.
Good evening. My name is Susana Barrios. I work for a nonprofit organization that works… it’s a protection and advocacy agency for people with disabilities.
También soy vicepresidenta de otra organización que se llama Latino Racial Justice Circle y soy voluntaria también con CAPSI.
I am also the vice president of Latino Racial Justice Circle, and I also volunteer with CAPSI.
Me siento ahora culpable. Me siento mal porque quisiera ayudar más, pero a la vez estoy en mi casa cómoda y sé que hay muchas personas trabajando, entonces me siento mal por no poder ayudar más.
So, right now, I feel guilty because I am home. I feel bad for everybody, but I am home, and I am worried about the first responders that are out there working. And I wish there was more I could do.
Carlos Crespo: Bueno, mi nombre es Carlos Crespo. Yo soy participante con CAPSI. Me gusta ayudar mucho a la comunidad.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) Hello, my name is Carlos Crespo. I’m a participant with CAPSI, and I like to help the community.
Carlos Crespo: Soy un padre de familia que tengo una niña con discapacidad, pero eso no nos detiene a mi esposa y a mí para seguir luchando por nuestra comunidad.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) I am a father of a young lady that has a disability, but that doesn’t stop my wife and myself from helping the community.
Carlos Crespo: Y sinceramente, esta semana yo me he sentido un poco triste porque no tiene mucho que pasamos la situación de las familias que perdieron los dos niños y el primo.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And sincerely, this week, I have been feeling sad because it also hasn’t been very long since we helped a family that lost two young children and their cousin.
Carlos Crespo: Pero yo lo digo una vez más, nosotros estamos hechos de acero porque así como nos caemos, nos levantamos y seguimos adelante. Y afortunadamente, no necesitamos pedir del Gobierno para poder seguir luchando y trabajando.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And I’ll say it again, we are made of steel, because we might fall down, but just like we fall down, we will get up, and we don’t need the government to keep on going.
Carlos Crespo: Porque no estamos acostumbrados de estirar la mano y pedirle al país, sino nosotros, aunque sea tres trabajos, pero nos gusta trabajar y no estar pidiéndole al Gobierno, como mucha gente piensa que nosotros los hispanos vivimos del Gobierno.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) Because we are not used to holding out our hands and asking for help from the government, because a lot of people think that we like to live off the government.
Carlos Crespo: Y esperemos que realmente en muy corto tiempo encontremos a un César Chávez o a un Martin Luther King, que luchó por las comunidades. Yo sé que por ahí anda, pero todavía no lo encontramos. Y esperemos que realmente encontremos a un líder como ellos, y yo sé que nuestras comunidades van a cambiar.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And let’s hope that, very soon, we can find a Cesar Chavez or a Martin Luther King. I know that that person is there. They were people that fought very hard for our communities, and we are hoping to find them soon.
Maximillian Alvarez: Y hoy es el día de César Chávez ¿No?
Susana Barrios: Oh, wow! OK.
Maximillian Alvarez: Yo solo quería decir que estoy sentando en esta mesa con gente así. Todos. No, continúa, por favor, pero quería decirlo.
I wanted to say that I’m sitting at a table full of those people. You guys are it. We are it. You are it. You are fighting the same fight, and you are reminding people out there that we are the change we’ve been waiting for. We are the heroes we’ve been waiting for.
Somos los héroes para quienes hemos estado esperando.
God, did I butcher that? Did that make sense?
Estoy sentado en esta mesa con héroes. Lo siento, no quería interrumpir, pero solo quería decirlo.
Carlos Crespo: Es que yo creo que estamos cansados, que nos utilicen nada más como animales, que nada más vengamos a hacer dinero. Me estoy cansando de que nos vean como dinero, nada más, como política.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) I think we’re getting tired of people using us only as animals. I’m honestly getting tired that they only see us as a way to make money or seeing us as a political tool.
Carlos Crespo: Y sabemos que hablan de nosotros cuando vienen las elecciones, pasan las elecciones y se olvidan de uno, pero somos humanos.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And they talk about us only when there’s an election, but then, they forget about us. But we are human.
Carlos Crespo: Y sabemos, no es el tema que vamos a tocar, pero nosotros fuimos los más afectados de la pandemia.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And I know this is not the subject we’re going to talk about, but we were one of the most affected during the pandemic.
Carlos Crespo: Y hasta ahorita hay muchas personas que tienen problemas porque les dio el COVID y mucha de nuestra comunidad falleció porque no tuvieron los servicios médicos.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) As of today, there’s still many in our community that still have lingering effects because they got COVID, and many of our people died because they didn’t have access to medical assistance.
Carlos Crespo: Queremos que esto cambie, no queremos que nos vean como dinero, como oportunidad de pagarles menos y hagan el peor trabajo que nosotros no queremos hacer hoy aquí.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And we want you to not see us as easy money, a way to make money, where you can pay us less so that we have to do the work that nobody else wants to do.
Carlos Crespo: Y espero que yo realmente vea ese cambio.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And I hope to really see that change.
Carlos Crespo: Y vamos a seguir luchando por mi comunidad, porque yo no me voy a rendir. Y vamos a seguir dando la cara por los que no pueden dar la cara, por los que tienen que trabajar tres trabajos. Pero nosotros que tenemos la oportunidad de salir y hablar, lo vamos a seguir haciendo.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And we are going to keep fighting for our community. We are going to keep stepping up, be the face of the community. We are stepping up for those that have three jobs, for those, we are going to be the face of those that cannot step up.
Carlos Crespo: Y esperemos estas familias que tuvieron la desgracia puedan lograr algo y puedan estabilizarse. Sabemos que emocionalmente va a ser difícil, pero esperemos y realmente les den la ayuda que necesitan, a ellos y a sus hijos.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) We hope that these families that have suffered this tragedy are able to get stable. We hope that they are able to get the help they need, not only for themselves, but for their children.
Carlos Crespo: Porque sabemos que el dinero no les va a ayudar. La salud mental de ellos va a estar bien difícil que se vuelvan a recuperar.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) Because we know that the money is not going to help them. Their mental health is going to be difficult, and they are going to need to recover.
Carlos Crespo: Y le voy a pasar ahora a la señora Lucía para que siga hablando ella.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) Now, I’m going to hand it off to Señora Lucia so she can speak next. Thank you.
Lucia Islas: Hola, buenas tardes a todos. Mi nombre es Lucía Islas. Soy la presidenta del Comité Latino de Baltimore. Llevo 17 años trabajando para Baltimore, muy orgullosamente fundadora de muchas organizaciones donde ya no pertenezco, pero estuve trabajando. Soy parte de Mis Raíces, soy parte de CAPSI, Centro del Apoyo para la Superación del Inmigrante. La pregunta aquí es: ¿Cómo me siento el día de hoy?…
Hi, everyone. My name is Lucia Islas. I am the president of Comité Latino de Baltimore. I’ve been working here in Baltimore for almost 17 years. I’m so proud to say that I’m a volunteer in many ONG like Mis Raices Also, I was one of the founders of one organization that now I left. But I’ve been working a lot and I’ve been working on the ground with my community.
El día de hoy, la verdad, yo soy muy fuerte. Yo me siento bien, pero en mi corazón hay tristeza por nuestra comunidad. Y lo más triste que puedo decir yo es que si nosotros no lo hacemos, ¿quién lo va a hacer?
So today, I’m here, I’m okay. I study psychology, and I always try to take care of myself. I do a lot of mindfulness so I know how to control myself, but my heart is crying. From the bottom of my heart, I can say that I always think that if we don’t do the work, who is going to do it? And Don Carlos once saying something about Martin Luther King, I always said that I also have a dream for my community. I have a dream for my community to be successful, to be the same way to everyone.
Como mi compañera estaba diciendo, yo siempre digo que yo también tengo un sueño como Martin Luther King. Yo quiero que nuestra comunidad sea igual, que tenga mucho progreso en este país y que sea tratado igual, sobre todo.
The day that this thing happened, it was so sad. I have a daughter, she’s 14 years old, and she told me, “Mom, look. What’s going on?”
El día que pasó esto, fue muy triste. Mi hija de 14 años me dijo.
So I start looking everything, and I noticed that somebody, because everybody knows us here in this community, so we have a lot of WhatsApp groups.
Nosotros tenemos muchos grupos de WhatsApp y yo me di cuenta que gente estaba comentando cosas y haciéndonos preguntas.
So right away, and this is something that Susanna didn’t say, but right away that day from 8:00 A.M. and literally to 9:00 or 10:00 P.M. we were receiving calls.
Literalmente ese día, desde las ocho de la mañana hasta las diez de la noche, estuvimos recibiendo llamadas.
And we are always the ones that keep calling politics people saying, “This is happening, please do this. Pay attention to our community.”
Nosotros hacemos siempre eso. Yo puedo decir que tengo buena relación con mucha gente de aquí, que como sabe nuestro trabajo, nosotros empujamos un poquito diciendo: «Está pasando esto, por favor, tomen en cuenta nuestra comunidad».
And I can say that, yes, when we made a call, because they trust us and they know that we are working with the community, they always are listening to us. Since then, we are working with the community.
Desde ese día estamos trabajando con la comunidad.
Yes, we know some of the names.
Sí sabemos varios nombres
But we are always looking to have confidentiality. And I always think about dignity.
Yo siempre pienso confidencialidad y dignidad.
This is something that our people cannot lose. They cannot lose the dignity. Yes, they are suffering. Yes, there is a lot of help, but it has to be just private. We cannot say anything.
Yo creo que siempre tenemos que cuidar la dignidad. Están sufriendo, debe de ser privado.
And I think the most important thing right here in this table is that we are more than thankful that somebody is listening to us, and that everybody can hear what the Latino community is feeling about it.
Creo que lo más importante es que alguien como usted nos está escuchando y que todos los demás escuchen lo que nosotros sentimos.
This is something very hard for us. Even for my little one, she’s 14, she was like, “Mommy, what’s going on?” They don’t know. She just watched the news that something happened. But can you imagine everything that went through her mind?
Nosotros no sabemos de verdad el daño que les hace hasta la gente que no estaba aquí, como mi hija, que ve algo y ella piensa: «¿Qué está pasando?». Entonces, es algo que tenemos que cuidar.
Thank you.
Claudia: Buenas tardes, mi nombre es Claudia. Soy la dueña de El Taquito Mexicano. Con mi esposo, el señor Víctor.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) Good afternoon. My name is Claudia. I’m the owner of El Taquito Mexicano, with my husband, Mr. Victor.
Claudia: Y sí nos da pesar todo lo que pasa en la comunidad hispana, pero es algo bonito saber que hay un grupo de personas que se dedican a ayudar a la gente, que ponen toda su dedicación.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) Yes, I worry a lot about what’s happening in the Latino community, or the Hispanic community, but it’s also very heartwarming to see that there’s a group of people that are worried about our community and the situation.
Claudia: Y a nosotros nos agrada que tomen nuestro negocio para venir a hacer estas cosas. Con mucho gusto estamos aquí para lo que ellos necesiten.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And we feel grateful that they like to come to our business to have these types of meetings, and we welcome them with open arms.
Claudia: Sabemos que ellos son las personas adecuadas para brindarle el apoyo a la gente que lo necesita.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) We know that they are the appropriate people that can provide the support that they need.
Claudia: Y sabemos que ellos siempre van a dar lo mejor para la comunidad hispana.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And we know that they will always give the best of themselves to the Hispanic community.
Claudia: Esperemos que las familias de estas personas que perdieron la vida en el accidente que hubo.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) We hope that these people that lost their life in the accident that happened…
Claudia: … pronto se recuperen y sabemos que este grupo en particular los va a ayudar bastante.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) … that they’re able to move forward soon, and we know that this group will be able to help them.
Victor: Hola, buenas noches. Mi nombre es Víctor, tenemos unos 15 años más o menos de vivir aquí en Baltimore.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) Hello, my name is Victor, and I have lived here in Baltimore about 15 years.
Victor: Después de la tragedia, que creo que todos estamos hablando, es triste que nos toca más siempre a los latinos.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And after the tragedy that I think all of us have been talking about lately, it is very sad that it always happens to us, Latinos.
Victor: Es triste, pero yo recuerdo que hace unos 12 años caminaba por las calles de Baltimore y se asombraba cuando usted escuchaba hablar a alguien en español, porque no había casi hispanos.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) But it’s very sad, but I remember around 12 years ago when you walked the streets of Baltimore and it was very surprising to hear somebody speak Spanish because there weren’t that many Hispanics.
Victor: De alguna manera nos sentimos orgullosos que seamos más gente trabajando en este país.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) In some ways, we are very proud because there are more of us working in this country
Victor: Porque lo primero que pensaban, es que cuando estábamos llegando pensaban que veníamos a delinquir, a robar. Y no es cierto, les estamos demostrando que estamos trabajando y seguiremos trabajando.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) Because the first thing they would think when they saw us was that we would come here to commit crimes, to rob. And we are showing them that that’s not true. We’re working. We’re working very hard.
Victor: Esperamos que se le apoye un poco más al hispano, porque de verdad somos gente luchadora y vamos a seguir adelante. Ojalá y alguna autoridad que escuche nos pueda ayudar. De verdad que vamos a hacer más grande Baltimore.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And we hope that they find a way to support the Hispanics more because we can go far. We hope that somebody that’s listening can help us, can give us that support, because we can make Baltimore stronger.
Norma Martinez: Hola, mi nombre es Norma Martínez y estamos aquí en la mesa hablando sobre todo lo que está sucediendo en Baltimore.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) Hello, my name is Norma Martinez and we are here gathered at the table to discuss everything that’s happening in Baltimore.
Norma Martinez: Es increíble lo que está pasando, porque los mismos latinos estamos luchando para los que fallecieron.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And it’s incredible what’s happening here because Latinos are fighting to help those that passed away.
Norma Martinez: Y la pregunta aquí es: ¿Dónde está la compañía donde ellos trabajaban? ¿En qué están apoyando?
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And the question here is where is the company where they were working? What are they doing to help?
Norma Martinez: ¿Ellos se han contactado con los familiares? Han dicho: «¿Los podemos ayudar o algo?».
(Translation, Susana Barrios) Have they contacted the families? Have they asked them if they can help, or something similar?
Norma Martinez: Y otra cosa es que para los que están perdidos, es como que no están poniendo demasiado empeño, por ejemplo, el gobierno.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And another thing is, I don’t think that for those bodies that are lost, it doesn’t seem that the government is doing a lot.
Norma Martinez: Y es difícil ser latino porque es como que no importa si se murió o se perdió. Es como que tenemos que ser americanos para que el gobierno nos ponga atención.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And it’s hard being Latinos because it feels like they don’t care if we are lost. It feels like you need to be American for the government to worry about you.
Norma Martinez: O también no tener dinero los familiares para estar presionando al gobierno para que hagan algo.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And also, it’s hard that the families don’t have any money so that they can pressure the government for them to do something.
Norma Martinez: Y es muy triste de que el gobierno solo los utilice para trabajo, pero que cuando pase algo, es como que ellos no se dan cuenta o simplemente no importa.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And it’s very sad that the government is only using them for work, but when we need them, they are not there for us.
Norma Martinez: Es impresionante todo lo que está pasando.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And I don’t know, it’s very impressive, all of that’s happening.
Norma Martinez: Esperemos que todo salga bien y entre nosotros podemos ayudarnos.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And let’s hope that there’s a positive outcome and we are able to help each other.
Norma Martinez: Otra vez, que el gobierno se ponga pilas con los latinos, porque es como los que están trabajando más duro y no reciben nada a cambio.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And once again, I want the government to support the Latinos because we are the ones that are working very hard and we don’t get anything in exchange. Thank you.
Norma Martinez: Gracias
Maximillian Alvarez: Y también solo quería preguntar, que eres una joven y tienes amigos en esta ciudad ahorita, quien trabaja en construcción.
You are a young person. You’re 18, you have friends who work in construction. No?
Norma Martinez: Sí, y también de mi colegio, muchos latinos que quieren seguir estudiando se van del colegio porque no tienen cómo vivir.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) Yes. And also in my school, there are a lot of students that would like to go to college, but they can’t because they have to leave school so they can go to work.
Norma Martinez: Sí, siempre ellos dicen: «Necesitamos ayudar a mis papás a pagar renta, hacer todo, porque el gobierno no nos echa ni una mano».
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And they say, “We need to go help our parents. We need to pay rent and everything because we don’t get any type of help from the government.”
Norma Martinez: Y los padres no tienen suficiente dinero como también para pagar universidades y todo eso.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And the parents also don’t have enough money to be able to pay a college tuition.
Norma Martinez: Y a veces, muchos dicen de que: «Los latinos son maleducados, que ni tan siquiera van a la universidad».
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And sometimes people say that Latinos are uneducated and that they don’t even go to college,
Norma Martinez: Pero no se dan cuenta que también no nos están ayudando para poder progresar.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) But they don’t notice that they’re not helping us so that we can succeed.
Norma Martinez: Y la única opción que queda es dejar la escuela y trabajar.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And the only option that’s left is leaving school and going to work.
Maximillian Alvarez: Otra vez, es increíble sentar en esta mesa con esos humanos increíbles. Incluso mi hija.
It’s just incredible to be sitting here at this table amidst this tragedy with just such incredible human beings, including my daughter. But I wanted to just sort of ask again. We’re going to give folks more details in the show notes for this episode about the men who died, the fundraisers that are being directed through the city, and links to the organizations represented by the amazing folks here.
Y vamos a incluir la información de los trabajadores que se murieron esta semana en las notas de este episodio. Y también vamos a incluir los enlaces de los sitios de estas organizaciones representados a los organizadores aquí en la mesa. Pero yo quería preguntar, ¿cómo fue esta semana? ¿Cómo fue el proceso de ayudar a esta comunidad? Y nos habla un poco más de las conversaciones con otros miembros de la comunidad que han tenido esta semana y los periodistas, quienes están hablando de esta tragedia y sus respuestas a eso.
So I just want to talk a little bit about what it’s been like for you all to try to do what you do this week, and try to help the community. A lot of people were asking, “Are there fundraisers? If so, who’s running them? Who’s helping the community?” So, yeah, if you could just talk about what it’s been like for you all in your different organizations this week and the kind of work you were doing, and the kind of conversations you’re getting into with other Latinos in the community
Ricardo Ortiz: Aquí, de nuevo, Ricardo. Y lo que hemos escuchado es que eran personas trabajadoras, que normalmente trabajaban por las noches, normalmente ocho o nueve de la noche salía de sus casas y regresaban al día siguiente. Tienen familias, varios de ellos son de México, Guatemala y El Salvador, Honduras. Y sabemos que estos trabajos de construcción es uno de los trabajos que más hace nuestra comunidad, pero al mismo tiempo, el segundo trabajo más peligroso en este país para realizar.
So we know that these six workers had families and they are from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. And we know they work in construction. And construction is one of the most dangerous workplaces for everyone in this country. So this is something that we know. and yeah, I think that’s something I can share about it.
Maximillian Alvarez: Talk to me about what it’s been like for you to try to help or respond to this.
Ricardo Ortiz: Sí, realmente quien ha hecho mucho han sido aquí mis compañeros, apoyando. Yo desde CAPSI, nuestro grupo, hemos apoyado en redes sociales. Inmediatamente, cuando me desperté como a las siete de la mañana, algo así, Susana me mandó un mensaje de WhatsApp y me dijo: «Oye, ¿sabes esto? Sería bueno que publicáramos algo en nuestra página».
So when I wake up at 6:00 AM, Susana sent me a WhatsApp and she asked me, “Hey, do you know what happened a few hours ago? And it will be good if we can post something on social media to ask the people, ‘Hey, do you need any support? Are you okay or how we can support you?’” And we created a post where we ask the people, “If you need anything, just let us know.” And we had some conversation with government representatives from Baltimore County and Baltimore City, and we ask them, “If you need anything, we can support you.”
Y también nos contactamos con representantes del Gobierno de la ciudad y del condado para decirles lo que necesitemos, y también ellos, si conocen gente intercambiar esta información. Con autoridades del Gobierno de México también
So we also talk with the Consular of Mexico to say, “Hey, it’s some Mexican people here. Just keep an eye about it.” So yeah.
Susana Barrios: A mí me empezaron, desde las cinco de la mañana, me empezaron a mandar textos. La primera fue mi hija, que quería saber si estaba viva.
So at 5:00 in the morning, I started getting texts. The first person was my daughter. She wanted to make sure I was alive. And then I started putting on the WhatsApp group, “If anybody needs help, we are here to help.”
Empecé yo a poner los informes en nuestros grupos de WhatsApp, que si alguien necesitaba ayuda, estábamos ahí para ayudarlos. Luego, en mi caso, la cónsul de Guatemala, cada vez que hay una tragedia en Baltimore, se comunica con nosotros y nos dice: «Si hay connacionales, me dejan saber para saber cómo podemos apoyar».
And then the Consulate of Guatemala texted me and she said, “If there’s anybody that’s affected from our country, then let us know, so we are here to help.”
Nosotros empezamos a ver en qué podíamos ayudar, porque no queremos hacer algo sin las familias.
And then we started to see how we could help, but we couldn’t do anything without the families and knowing what it is that they need.
Y luego, en mi organización de Latino Racial Justice Circle, también como dijo Ricardo, estábamos en comunicación con los del condado. Luego nos comunicamos con el condado porque era una situación bastante complicada. La parte de la tierra pertenece al condado, el puente pertenece a la ciudad y el agua pertenece al estado. Entonces, era algo complicado. Ellos nos dijeron que podíamos hacer un GoFundMe, porque una persona estaba en directo contacto con las familias y las familias autorizaron que nosotros hiciéramos el GoFundMe.
So then we were in contact with the government agencies because it’s very complicated. The land part belongs to Baltimore County. The bridge belongs to Baltimore City. And the water belongs to the state. So we got the go-ahead from the families that we could start a GoFundMe, because the families were okay with us doing the GoFundMe. And with all the other organizations, what we usually do is we’re like, okay, this one organization is going to do it. And instead of doing a whole bunch of little GoFundMes, everybody sends us this direction.
Todas las organizaciones también sabemos de que en lugar de hacer un montón de GoFundMe, hicimos solo uno y todos los demás dirigían a eso. No esperamos que fuera la respuesta tan rápida.
We didn’t expect the response to be so fast.
Nosotros, Latino Racial Justice Circle, es una organización que solo son voluntarios, no estábamos capacitados para trabajar con mucho dinero.
Latino Racial Justice Circle is a volunteer-run organization and we don’t feel like we have the capacity to work with so much money. So then at that point we started to work with MIMA, the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs.
Ahí empezamos a trabajar con MIMA, la oficina del alcalde de Asuntos de Inmigrantes. Ellos ahí activaron la página de donaciones, que se creó como una asociación entre la administración de la ciudad de Baltimore y el Fondo Cívico de Baltimore. El Fondo Comunitario de Inmigrantes de Baltimore ya existía para apoyar a los inmigrantes en la ciudad con una estipulación que es la respuesta de emergencia y crisis.
So we work with MIMA and they activated the donation page that was created as a partnership between the administration of Baltimore City and the Baltimore Civic Fund. The Baltimore Immigrant Community Fund already existed to support immigrants in the city with one stipulation, being that emergency and crisis response. So in this one, I think they started when it was the COVID response.
Y esto empezó cuando fue la respuesta de COVID, ellos ya tenían el mecanismo, solo era de activarlo.
So they had that mechanism in place and they just needed to activate it. So we opened it at 9:00, but we really didn’t publicize it until I think more like 11:00. And we had to close it by a little bit before 7:00.
Lo abrimos a las nueve de la mañana, pero no lo pusimos público hasta como eso de las once de la mañana, creo yo. Y ya para las siete de la noche, ya lo tuvimos que cerrar. Pero entonces, todos los de medios de comunicación nos estaban llamando, porque querían hablar.
So a lot of the media and reporters, they were calling us and calling us because they wanted to talk to us. But it was because I think a lot of them wanted information about the families. We did not have any information about the families directly.
Muchos de ellos querían información acerca de las familias, pero nosotros no teníamos y no tenemos información directamente de las familias, porque estamos respetando y la verdad que no nos importa saber.
And the truth is that we really don’t care to know because we know that they are going to receive the money directly. And at this point we don’t need to know who they are.
Les vamos a entregar el dinero directamente, pero ahorita no necesitamos saber quiénes son. 100 % de lo que se va a recaudar se va a dividir entre ellos, nosotros no tenemos ningunos gastos en nuestra organización. Solo estamos esperando a que GoFundMe nos deposite el dinero para poder darles a ellos en un cheque.
So 100% of the proceeds are going to go to the families. We are volunteer run again and we don’t have any expenses. We are just waiting for the money to be released to our bank account so that we can make out the checks to the families once we identify who the next of kin is.
Solo que tenemos que identificar quién es el familiar más cercano de esas personas. Pero también estamos trabajando en conjunto con el Gobierno del Condado de Baltimore County.
And we are working along with Baltimore County government who is supporting the families.
Carlos Crespo: También lo que estamos empezando a hacer con doña Lucía es ver a los que son dueños de negocios como restaurantes.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And also what we are doing with Doña Lucia is we are talking to business owners like restaurants.
Carlos Crespo: Porque ellos nos ofrecieron la ayuda de llevarles comida a los familiares de los fallecidos.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) Because they have offered to provide food to the family members of the victims.
Carlos Crespo: Porque sabemos que todos los que fueron afectados son hispanos y realmente el americano normalmente lo que lleva es comida en lata.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And because we know that they are Hispanic and what we know is usually what Americans donate, canned food.
Carlos Crespo: Y también quiero agradecerle a Vargas Bakery, porque él es una persona que también le pide uno la ayuda y él la da para la comunidad.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And I also want to thank Vargas Bakery because the owner is a person that if we ask for help, he always provides to the community.
Carlos Crespo: Y sabemos que más personas de negocios también lo hacen, pero él siempre levanta la mano.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And we know that other business owners also do it too, but he always raises his hand.
Carlos Crespo: Y sabemos que es un tiempo bien difícil para nuestra comunidad, pero como lo dijimos anteriormente, vamos a salir de esta también.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And we know that it’s a very hard time for our community. But as we said before, our community is strong and we will get through it.
Carlos Crespo: Y esperemos que realmente esas familias se recuperen del golpe que han tenido. Sabemos que va a ser difícil, pero no imposible.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And we hope that these families are able to surpass this. We know that it’s hard but not impossible.
Carlos Crespo: Y vamos a seguir trabajando para ellos. Vamos a asegurarnos que los hijos de ellos también reciban los servicios que ellos van a necesitar.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And we are going to keep working for them. We are going to make sure that their children get the services that they are going to need.
Carlos Crespo: Y mientras Dios nos preste vida, vamos a seguir trabajando para nuestra comunidad.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And as long as God gives us strength, we are going to keep working for our community.
Carlos Crespo: Gracias.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) Thank you.
Lucia Islas: El trabajo que se empezó a hacer desde el primer día es mucho más de lo que han dicho ellos.
So the work that we start doing since the first day, it’s more than they just said. Why?
¿Por qué? Porque como la gente tiene confianza en nosotros.
Because the community trusts us and they know us.
Nos empiezan a llamar para pequeños detalles.
They start calling us. And I’m just going to give you an example.
Yo tengo una hija que trabaja en una escuela.
So I have a daughter that she works in a school, she called me.
Ella me llamó: «Mami, creo que hay un niño de las familias»
“Mommy, I think there is a kid that his father is one of the people that died.”
So little things like that, they start calling us. She will not tell me if it is a kid or not, but she start receiving calls.
Mi hija empezó a recibir llamadas,
Then she start calling me. Then a lot of restaurants, people that they know us start calling us saying, “How can we help?”
Restaurantes empiezan a llamarnos: «¿Cómo podemos ayudar?»
Politicians, reporters, churches,
Políticos, reporteros, iglesias,
They start calling us. Why? Because they already know us.
Nos empiezan a llamar porque ya nos conocen.
So that’s how our work starts.
Es como nuestro trabajo empieza.
So what I do, I call Susana, I call Richard, Ricardo. We are more members. So I start calling everyone.
Lo que hacemos es empezamos a llamar a todos y todos tienen algo que hacer.
So Ricardo, he just said he’s the one that social media. Susana has a lot of contacts. Don Carlos also, he will call the restaurants. I will receive calls from the Red Cross. I will receive calls from politics.
Entonces, Ricardo empieza con social media, Susana empieza a recibir llamadas y a hacer contactos. Y don Carlos empieza a recibir llamadas de los restaurantes, yo también empiezo a recibir llamadas.
So one day we had a call from a woman saying that… It was not a call. So she put something in Facebook and she put a face like crying. And I said, “Can you call me?”
Ella puso una carita llorando, yo le dije: «¿Me puedes llamar?»
And then we chat by Messenger. And then at the end I knew she knew me and I know her. So I was like, “Are you okay?”
Entonces, al final yo le pregunté: «¿Usted está bien?» Resultó que ella me conocía y yo la conocía.
And then she told me a story. She told me that, “No, I’m okay, but my son was just going through…” So her son just passed like five minutes before that happened. And can you believe the impact that this man, because he’s 45 years old, has? And I call him if he wants to talk about it, and he said not. So he used to work in the other side of the city, and regularly he comes at that time.
Ella me dijo que su hijo acababa de pasar. Dice que unos cinco minutos o maybe menos que el hijo escuchó cuando eso se cayó. Entonces, su mamá, por eso puso la carita llorando, pero dijo: «No, yo estoy bien». Y la señora es mexicana. Entonces, yo le dije: «¿Quiere su hijo hablar?» Y me dijo que no.
So those little things make us work with the community. We are putting everything together like a puzzle. Like, “Okay, who needs this? What else do we need?” Susana was talking about taking care of the kids in the future. We are working already on that.
Poquitas cosas que ponemos son como un rompecabezas y lo estamos poniendo ya junto. Susana ya está pensando qué se va a hacer con esa familia.
And something that is very important is that, even though we don’t know the families, we care about them. We really care about them. And we keeping receiving calls, like Ricardo just said. We put something in the social media saying, “Do you need something? Let us know.” And yes, we receive. We received response from the people.
Como Ricardo estaba diciendo, él puso un post en Facebook y puso ahí: «Si necesitan algo, déjennos saber», y sí nos contestan.
So that’s the job that we do. Why they trust us…
Porque antes, han pasado muchas cosas, no es la primera vez. Llevamos trabajando…
I’ve been working 14 years, Susana maybe more, not because she’s older than me, just because she has more experience…
Yo llevo trabajando 17 años, Susana más, no porque sea más grande que yo, solo porque tiene más experiencia. Ricardo, Carlos, don Carlos…
And like I said, we have Gevene, we have Edwin Perez, Mo. So we have also not just Latino. We have also African-American people together with us.
Tenemos mucha gente que nos ayuda y ese es nuestro trabajo
So I work at South East CDC. I am a case manager,
Yo trabajo en Southeast CDC, soy case manager.
And that makes the things easier because I know where to go and I know where to knock.
Eso me hace más fácil a mí porque sé a dónde ir y sé a dónde tocar.
Also, we have experience with many other organizations and we always are willing to participate with everyone. We’ve been working with, I think, most of them. As far as know, I think we have worked with all of them.
Hemos trabajado con casi todas las organizaciones, de hecho hoy estuvimos en una rueda de prensa con Casa. Nosotros estamos donde nos necesiten,nosotros no tenemos ninguna barrera.
We don’t have a line that divides us. We always are willing to participate, to have a partnership. It’s always for the future of our Latino community. That’s the only thing that matters for us. And thank you.
Gracias. Es lo único que nos importa, trabajar y no tener líneas de división.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Well, I know, as we said, it’s been a long day at the end of a long week and we all need to go home and get some sleep.
Yo sé que fue un día larga, fue una semana larga y tenemos que regresar a casa para dormir. Solo tengo una preguntita más. Al final, ¿qué queremos decir a la población de Baltimore y de los Estados Unidos de esta situación y la significancia de esta situación? ¿Cómo Ellos pueden ayudar la comunidad aquí? ¿Y por qué ellos deben ver nuestra comunidad en solidaridad con nosotros, no, [otro idioma 00:49:26] el opuesto, no contra nosotros? Como los hombres en East Palestine, Ohio, o en todas las partes del país.
So I just wanted to ask, by way of a final question, if we had any final thoughts that we wanted to share with the people of Baltimore, with the rest of the country, about what this tragedy says. What we really want people to take away from this. And also, what can we tell people out there about what they can do to help? From the people in East Palestine, Ohio, who have been texting me all week saying they stand in solidarity with us. How can we reach those communities? And what do we want to say to them about what they can do to support us and why they should?
Susana Barrios: Yo estoy agradecida por la respuesta, que no solo fue local ni estatal, sino que fue global. Se sintió el cariño y espero que le podamos explicar a las familias cómo la gente ha tratado de demostrar que les importa.
I am very thankful and grateful for the response that we received. And I hope that I can convey to the families all the well wishes that people not only local or in the United States, but globally were trying to show them.
Y lo que sí quiero decir es de que esto no se va a acabar. Estoy segura que todos los reporteros se van a ir cuando pase alguna otra noticia en otra parte, pero estas familias van a seguir necesitando ayuda y que no se olviden de ellas.
And I want to say that the families will still be here, they will still have needs after all the reporters have left and they have moved on to the next big story. But these families will still be here and they will still need our support,, so please don’t forget them.
Ricardo Ortiz: I just want to start to say thank you to the people from Baltimore. Thank you for all your love, all your support. I think we are stronger now. And for me, just very thankful to see how the Baltimore city has opened their arms for us.
Quiero agradecer a la gente de Baltimore por todo el cariño, la solidaridad que nos han dado y nos han mostrado que este es nuestro hogar y que somos parte de esta comunidad.
And for the people who are listening, please call your representatives. We have the opportunity to have an immigrant reform, but we need your support. We need to push the politicians because they are doing nothing. And for more than 30 years we don’t have any immigrant reform. And why it’s important for our community? Because for that paper that say you are a citizen that’s the only reason why so many people don’t have access to the healthcare, they don’t have access to the school, they don’t have access for many, many, many things. And if you really want to support our community, we need to have citizenship for all and we need to have the same rights for everyone. So please call your representatives, call our organization. We can find us and Facebook as CASPI, and we want to educate your community. And you are welcome to support us in any way. So thank you, and share this information because we need more people to know the reality that is facing our community.
Y, por favor, si tú estás escuchando esta entrevista, llama a tus representantes, porque es momento de que tengamos una reforma migratoria. Han pasado más de 30 años en este país sin una reforma migratoria y el papel para nuestras familias significa tener acceso a educación, tener acceso a salud, tener acceso a mejores oportunidades de vida. Y también nos pueden seguir en nuestra página de Facebook como CAPSI. Nos encuentras así en Facebook, es C-A-P-S-I, Centro de Apoyo para la Superación del Inmigrante, y estamos recibiendo cualquier tipo de apoyo, sea para que conozca de nuestro proyecto o si quieres venir y acompañarnos a recorrer las calles de Baltimore.
Baltimore, you are welcome to join us. That’s it. Thank you.
Carlos Crespo: Yo, por último, quiero darte las gracias a ti por darnos la oportunidad de llevar el mensaje a las personas que no saben lo que ha pasado aquí en Baltimore o que hagan conciencia.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And in closing, I want to thank you for helping us spread the word to those that don’t know what’s happening here in Baltimore so that they are aware.
Carlos Crespo: Y esperemos que realmente nuestra comunidad aprenda de las tragedias y que nos unamos como comunidad.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And let’s hope that our community learns from tragedies and we learn to get together or work together.
Carlos Crespo: Porque si nosotros nos apoyamos como comunidad, podemos cambiar muchas cosas en la política.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) Because if we support each other as a community, we will be able to change a lot of things in politics.
Carlos Crespo: Porque era lo que decía tu hija hace rato, que los hispanos nos tiramos con los mismos hispanos. Y no podemos avanzar porque ya nos tienen envidia o porque ya nos tienen coraje. Entonces, necesitamos cambiar eso.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) Because it’s what your daughter was saying earlier, that Hispanics envy other Hispanics and we don’t come together. We’re jealous, we don’t support each other, and we have to change that.
Carlos Crespo: Y sí podemos hacer grandes cosas, pero es unirnos, alzar una sola voz. Aquí estamos en un país, el país se lleva en el corazón, pero estamos luchando porque queremos a América.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And we can do a lot of things if we come together and we become one voice. We have our home countries in our heart, but right now we’re in this country and our country now is America.
Carlos Crespo: Y sí se puede. Y muchas gracias una vez más.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And yes, we can. And thank you once again.
Lucia Islas: Yo quiero darle las gracias a ti y a tu familia, por haberte tomado el tiempo de hablar con nosotros, al Taquito Mexicano, por habernos permitido estar aquí. Pero también quiero darle las gracias a la ciudad de Baltimore, al gobierno, a las iglesias, a los hospitales, a los voluntarios que están ayudando allá en la búsqueda de los cuerpos. Yo sé que la ciudad está haciendo lo posible por encontrarlos a los que faltan, pero también tenemos que entender que no es fácil. Esto toma tiempo. Quiero darle las gracias al consulado de México, que siempre está trabajando con nosotros, que nos escucha. Y sobre todo, quiero darle de corazón las condolencias a las familias. Y quiero que sepan, como dijo nuestra compañera: «Los reporteros, la ayuda se va a ir, pero nosotros estamos aquí, CAPSI está aquí, nos pueden buscar y pueden preguntar». Y nosotros sí empezamos a ayudar del principio al fin, hasta que nosotros veamos, no les vamos a prometer nada, pero sí les vamos a ayudar a buscar esos recursos.
Now I’m going to say it in English. I want to thank you for taking the time to talk to us. I also want to thank the city of Baltimore, the government, the churches, the hospitals, and the volunteers who are helping there in the search for the bodies. I know that the city is doing everything possible to find those who are missing but I also know that it’s not easy, that it takes time. Thanks to the Mexican Consulate, to the Red Cross for everything that it’s doing for us. And the most important thing: I want the family knows that, yes, like Susana said, the reporters and everyone will be gone, but this is not going to finish. We are going to be here. Please look for us. I’m Lupita Rojas on Facebook. I’m the president of Comité Latino de Baltimore. I’m also part of CAPSI. And look for us. Look Susana, look for Ricardo, look for Carlos. If you know me, you know that I really, really do what I said. Please reach out to us because we are going to help you from the beginning to the end. Thank you.
Por favor, aquellas familias que sufrieron esos terribles pérdidas, por favor, búsquenos a nosotros. Nosotros no somos los héroes, pero nosotros sí somos tal vez, como dijo aquí nuestro compañero, y perdón que nos estemos poniendo esos nombres, pero sí tenemos sueños para nuestros hispanos y queremos ayudarlos. Búsquenos porque les vamos a ayudar en lo más mínimo, pero eso sí, van a tener un fuerte abrazo de nosotros. Gracias.
Victor: Yo también reitero las gracias.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) I joined everybody in saying thank you.
Victor: Bien contento por haber conocido personas que no había visto.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) I am very happy to meet people that I had not met before.
Victor: Nosotros, a lo mejor, no podemos estar con tiempo ayudando, pero las puertas de este negocio está abierto para lo que necesiten.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And maybe we don’t have the time to be helping, but the doors to this business are open to whatever you need.
Victor: Les aseguro que va a haber muchos negocios que van a querer aportar y nos apuntamos nosotros.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) I assure you that there’s going to be many, many businesses that are going to want to help. And we signed up too
Victor: Gracias por conocer a gente que usa su tiempo, sabemos que tienen cosas que hacer.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) Thank you to the people that are donating their time. We know that they have things to do.
Victor: En cambio, usan su tiempo para repartirlas en diferentes cosas que la gente necesita.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And in exchange, they use their time to do things to help the people that need it.
Victor: Orgullosamente, son hispanos, igual que yo.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) And I am very proud that they are Hispanic, just like me.
Victor: Y gracias a todos.
(Translation, Susana Barrios) Thank you. Thank you, everyone.
This post was originally published on The Real News Network.
24 hours after Max returned to Baltimore from East Palestine, Ohio, the shipping vessel Dali slammed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge, collapsing it into the Patapsco River. The catastrophic collision and collapse of the bridge claimed the lives of six immigrant, non-union construction workers who were working the night shift at the time, filling potholes on the bridge. In this interview on The Valley Labor Report, Alabama’s only weekly union talk show, hosts Jacob Morrison and Adam Keller speak with Max about The Real News Network’s coverage of the bridge collapse, the connections between Baltimore and East Palestine, and about the conspiracists and “anti-woke” grifters who are trying to capitalize on this tragedy for their own gain.
Additional links/info below…
Permanent links below…
Featured Music…
Studio Production: Maximillian Alvarez
Post-Production: Jules Taylor
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Maximillian Alvarez:
All right. Welcome everyone to another episode of Working People, a podcast about the lives, jobs, dreams, and struggles of the working class today, brought to you in partnership with In These Times magazine and the Real News Network, produced by Jules Taylor, and made possible by the support of listeners like You Working People is a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. If you’re hungry for more worker and labor focused shows like ours, follow the link in the show notes and go check out the other great shows in our network. And please support the work that we’re doing here at Working People because we can’t keep going without you. Share our episodes with your coworkers, leave positive reviews of the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and become a paid monthly subscriber on Patreon for just five bucks a month to unlock all the great bonus episodes that we publish exclusively for our patrons.
And please support the work that we do at The Real News by going to therealnews.com/donate, especially if you want to see more reporting from the front lines of struggle around the US and across the world. My name is Maximilian Alvarez and I just wanted to pop in really quick to let folks know that yes, I am alive. I appreciate the messages. I know folks were a little worried with me announcing in the last episode that I was finally going to East Palestine to be there in person, and then there was no episode from us the following week. But if you’ve been following my updates on social media last week, or if you happen to catch my face or voice on outlets like Democracy Now, Breaking Points, The Nation, and The New Republic, then you know that I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off covering this catastrophic shipping vessel crash that brought down the Francis Scott Key Bridge here in Baltimore.
And that literally happened 24 fricking hours after I got home to Baltimore from East Palestine. And I’m still trying to work with filmmaker Mike Balanick to get our documentary reports from East Palestine ready to go too. And Jules and I will be putting out a compilation episode later this week that will include some of the voices from that incredible gathering that we had in East Palestine about a week and a half ago now. It was just such an incredible experience, you guys, and I have so much more to say about it, but I’ll save that for the next episode. For now, I’m just going to link to some of the interviews and pieces that I put out over the past week in the show notes of this episode. And instead of a new episode this week, we are going to share with y’all today, an interview that I did with our brothers, Adam and Jacob, at the Valley Labor Report this weekend.
And just a huge shout out to the Valley Labor Report. If you guys aren’t listening to them yet, what are you doing? That’s Alabama’s only weekly Union talk show right there. And we need them doing the good work that they’re doing, so please go support them if you aren’t already. But yeah, this was the first interview that I got to do after this insane two-week stretch from East Palestine to the Baltimore Bridge. And I got to just reflect a bit on the story, the dimensions of tragedy, and the layers of societal failure that are wrapped up in this bridge collapse, the connections between Baltimore and East Palestine. And I also have a special message for all of these jack off and right-wing grifters who are trying to make this tragic story fit their dumb DEI or anti-DEI narrative.
And in doing so, they are showing just how bankrupt their message is and how little they have to offer the working class when it comes to addressing the sources of the pain here, let alone addressing the larger issues that we need to deal with to stop stuff like the East Palestine train derailment and the Baltimore Bridge from happening in the first place. These guys are modern-day snake oil salesmen. And I have no time, these families of these workers who died on that bridge have no time, our city has no time, and working people have no time for their bullshit. Anyway, we’ve got lots more important coverage on Baltimore, East Palestine, Ohio, Palestine, the elections, and the fight against the corporate destruction of everything. We’ve got all of that coming your way here on working people and across the Real News Network. So stay tuned. And for now, here’s me speaking with Jacob Morrison and Adam Keller on the Valley Labor Report.
Speaker 1:
(singing)
Jacob Morrison:
Have we got Max in the Zoom?
Maximillian Alvarez:
I think we do have Max.
Jacob Morrison:
Perfect. So Maximillian Alvarez is the editor in chief of the Real News Network, host of the Working People podcast, friend of the show, voice of the show. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us today.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Thanks for having me, brothers. It’s great to see you, as always.
Jacob Morrison:
Great to see you. It’s unfortunate that it is under these circumstances because the circumstances are not great. There has been just a genuinely catastrophic accident in Baltimore that has, by all accounts, taken at least six lives and six lives of immigrants. And I’m not sure if there are expectations that the death toll is going to be rising at this point. But on top of that, the obvious and the thing that should be at the center, and we want to put that at the center, there are, of course, huge other ramifications because this bridge was really kind of the connecting artery to the Baltimore port. That’s one of the largest in the United States. The Longshoremen’s Association there said that they are concerned that their 2,400 members are going to be out of a job soon. Boats are having to… These cargo carriers are anchoring outside of the port, unable to dock because they can’t get their stuff what it would’ve gone across the bridge to the rest of the US. So this is just a huge, huge situation with really serious ramifications for the entire city of Baltimore.
So just let’s start there, and then we can dive into some of the specific aspects and maybe some of the reactions to it. Generally 30,000 foot view, how is this feeling to people in Baltimore as a resident of Baltimore yourself?
Maximillian Alvarez:
Yeah, I’ll walk through the timeline of this week, right? And just to kind of let folks know, it’s been a very long week, and I just got more than five hours of sleep for the first night in a week and a half. So it’s kind of all hitting me now. I was just, along with our team at the Real News, racing all over the city, doing everything we could to meet the moment and lift up the voices of the people who were going to be quickly forgotten in all of this, right? And the workers who perish, their families, their community, our community, as you said, the workers on the port, the workers on that ship who are probably going to be stuck there for weeks. And there’s another issue there about…
If we’re talking about invisible workers, like these immigrant construction workers who were filling potholes on the key bridge when the ship, the dolly hit the load bearing pylon and collapsed the bridge, the workers on that ship are also incredibly exploited, and we don’t know a whole lot about them, but what we do know is that as Maritime Trades Union folks here in the States have told me, you have a lot of these ships that are effectively, and I quote, “Floating sweatshops” that workers from the global South are living on and working in and have no escape from months on end, right? So there’s a whole lot of horror tied up in this story that we’re going to need to unpack for the weeks and months to come.
But as you said, Jacob, the very fact of the bridge collapsing in the Port of Baltimore is going to have huge ramifications for working people in the Baltimore area, but beyond it too. It’s going to have ramifications for our economy after workers have been battered for years by COVID, by inflation, and so on and so forth. So this is going to be a very devastating event for the city and for our people for a long time to come. I got back to Baltimore myself at 1:30 on Monday morning after driving six hours back from East Palestinian, Ohio where I had been for the previous five days, running around, filming for the Real News, participating in an event that we helped put together along with just this incredible coalition of folks that have come together and came together, they’re physically in East Palestine. Last Saturday, a week from today, we’re talking East Palestine residents whose lives have been turned upside down by the catastrophic Norfolk Southern Train derailment on February 3rd of last year.
That too was a preventable catastrophe. And the workers there, the people there, these are current and former union members, like Chris Albright, one of the residents that I’ve been working most closely with and have gotten close to, and his family. He’s an incredible guy, beautiful family. He was a gas pipeline worker, he was a foreman, he was a LiUNA member, is a LiUNA member. And then a month after the derailment, we can almost completely surmise, but because of all the legal deniability, doctors are even afraid to say for sure, but a month after this derailment, a healthy able-bodied pipeline worker was experiencing congestive heart failure that developed into severe heart failure, and he can no longer work. His medical bills are piling up. As of this year, he’s lost his health insurance.
So these folks are in an incredibly dire situation, and we were there, along with residents, railroad workers, residents from other sacrifice zones like Pipeton, Ohio, where they’ve been getting poisoned by a nuclear plant for 40 years, residents living near other rail lines saying, “We don’t want this to happen to us, and we’re coming here to stand in solidarity with you,” striking journalists from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, environmental groups. People from West Virginia, California, Baltimore coming in to assemble there to answer the call in East Palestine and say, “We’re not Trump voters. We’re not anything but fellow workers, fellow human beings who are fighting for our families and our communities, and we are here to help you. And we want to stand with you, but we all need to stand together if we’re going to stop this crap because it’s happening all over the country.” It doesn’t matter if you’re in a Democrat or Republican state, corporate America is poisoning, exploiting, and taking advantage of all of us right now.
And we are the forgotten victims of this 40 plus year reign of corporate oligarchy and neoliberal crap that has contributed to the decades long process of the Wall Street takeover of vital industries like the railroads, the profit obsession, leading to an obsession for juicing short-term profits, while stripping away long-term maintenance and safety provisions, stripping away staff, cutting costs, cutting corners every year. And the railroads are more profitable than they’ve ever been, and yet communities like East Palestine and workers like those on the railroads are the ones paying the price. I promise I’m getting to Baltimore, but the point is, that’s what I was doing this weekend. And I drove back on Sunday night, got home late Monday morning thinking about all of this, thinking about those conversations, thinking about our brothers and sisters in East Palestine.
And then the first thing I did on Tuesday morning was I went on Flash Ferenc’s show, America’s Workforce. Shout out to Flash and the great folks there. I know you guys got a phenomenal regular spot there too. Chris Albright and I went back on Flash’s show Tuesday morning at seven in the morning to talk about the East Palestine Conference. And as soon as that was done, I started learning about the bridge. And the first text that I started getting about the bridge were from East-
Maximillian Alvarez:
… next that I started getting about the bridge were from East Palestine residents who felt really connected and feel really connected to Baltimore right now. And there’s something really powerful in that, but we can return to that later. But they were seeing a lot of eerie resonances with what they had been through. I couldn’t help but see them too. And I want to be clear, as I said in the piece I wrote for The Nation this week, like Baltimore is not East Palestine. These situations are not exactly the same, but they do, I think, reveal common issues that working people around this country are feeling, and the sources of those issues we also have in common, right?
I mean, I’ll get to that in a second. But as we know, and as you said, basically at 1:30, around 1:30 on Tuesday morning, this ship, the freight ship that was leaving the Port of Baltimore, had left, I don’t know, 30, 40 minutes prior to experiencing a catastrophic propulsion failure. Issuing the captain or the pilot on that ship who is an American designated official who is supposed to help ships navigate their way out of the Port of Baltimore.
They issued a mayday call when they experienced that failure, letting the emergency dispatch know that there was a chance that the ship could hit the bridge. And then they had about 90 seconds to respond. And so police, you can listen to the police scanner, the folks responding to that call racing to the Key Bridge, blocking traffic. So more people didn’t drive onto that bridge before it collapsed, and credit to them, they saved lives. But the workers, the construction workers who were filling potholes on that bridge in the middle of the night were working for a contractor in the city named Brawner Builders. It’s a non-union contractor. They did not get a warning. I mean, by all accounts, we have not found any evidence that they got any warning. And that’s kind of where my reporting in this came in is after the America’s Workforce interview, I went to the Real News Network.
I was talking to our colleagues, our team about what we knew and what we could do. Two of my amazing colleagues, Kayla Rivara and Jocelyn Dombroski, our chief of editorial operations and our managing editor. We got in the car, I grabbed my podcast stuff and I said, “Let’s go and try to get as close as we can.” And so we ended up at this Royal Farms gas station. It’s a really famous kind of Maryland chain. Justin Tucker, the kicker for the Baltimore Ravens does the commercials for them. So I was standing there with my colleagues and seeing media run around at this Royal Farms that is right next to one of the entrances to the bridge. And we were racing there because we had seen on social media that a man named Jesus Campos was there. Jesus also works for Brawner Builders, is also an immigrant worker, construction worker who was saying that he knew the men on that bridge.
So we were racing primarily to meet him and we did. And I got to interview Jesus for between three and four minutes. But it was really troubling to me because the whole time we were racing there and I was trying to find out everything I could about the situation, I was looking at the posts and articles from other journalists who had spoken to Jesus. And when we got there, I asked him a question that I felt I hadn’t heard anyone else ask up until that point. I’m not saying no one did, but I hadn’t heard it, which was, did the workers get a warning before the bridge collapsed? And he told me pretty point-blankly, “No.” That to me is an egregious injustice, right, and there’s so many questions again that are wrapped up in that. How in the hell could we end up in a situation where workers doing this essential work contracting with the state and those contracts, especially in construction, are supposed to mandate, are prevailing union wages.
And again, this is not a union contractor. So far what I’ve heard from other construction folks in the city is that Brawner doesn’t have the worst reputation. So I don’t want to speak out of turn and blame the company for everything before I can do more investigating, but the facts are that it’s a non-union contractor that the state of Maryland, like states around the country use these contractors and those contractors subcontract workers out. And that very well could have been the situation on Tuesday where some of these workers were subcontracted, being paid under the table, possibly even undocumented. Again, these are the questions that we’re trying to find out. But right now, first and foremost, we’re trying to give the family space because they are grieving an incredible and impossible loss. Some of these men just welcomed new children into their family in the past year and now those families have a hole in it that’ll never be filled.
So anyway, I’ll wrap this up. The point being is that I interviewed Jesus Campos. I posted about the fact that according to one of the co-workers of these men who died on the bridge, they did not receive a warning. If they were city workers, if they were union workers, would they have had a direct line to emergency dispatch? If not, why the hell do we have a regulatory regime that allows workers to be marooned on a ship like that in a clearly potentially hazardous environment doing that vital work? And let’s not forget, construction’s already one of the deadliest jobs in America and they had no direct line to emergency dispatch in case something like this happened. That in itself is an egregious injustice. And the only other thing I’ll say, just tying it back to East Palestine is, again, these situations are not the same, but a lot of the common questions are coming up with Norfolk Southern and the train derailment.
When that derailment happened, right, immediately you had all of these, well-to-do pundits in the United States saying like, “Well, we can’t rush to conclusions. All we know is that it appears to be a bearing failure that caused the derailment. So that’s all we can say on it right now,” just like the same folks today are saying, “Well, all we know is that it was a propulsion failure, so we can’t rush to conclusions.” And I’m not rushing to conclusions. We need to do the investigative work. That’s what journalism is supposed to do. But, again, the point that I’m making here and the point that seems so obvious to not just me but folks in East Palestine and folks who’ve been paying attention to things like East Palestine, to things like Boeing, right, to things like BP, right, to the railroads, right?
I mean, what we are seeing is a fracturing of the basic social contract in this country, which was supposed to be between the citizens, labor, business and government to say like, look, all of this dangerous crap and machinery that is operating in our backyards, in our communities, these railroads that are running through our backyards in our towns, right? These massive shipping vessels that are passing by our homes and over the water that we use in this city, the social contract is that we need to have layers of protection and maintenance in place that are not driven by profit but that are there and exist solely to ensure that things like this don’t happen.
So the very fact of the bridge collapse, the very fact of the Norfolk Southern train derailment, the very fact of the two Boeing planes that went out of the sky and killed hundreds of people with them, the very fact of the BP oil spill, and I could go on and on and on, that is the problem. If we had a healthily functioning regulatory system, if we actually had a society that did not allow corporations to do whatever the hell that they want, those things would not happen in the first place. That is the problem.
Jacob Morrison:
Right, right. I mean, some of the echoes, the lever has been doing great reporting and they were really great on the East Palestine stuff as well. They found that the company that chartered this cargo ship also was sanctioned by the Labor department for retaliating against an employee who reported unsafe working conditions. In its order, the department found that Maersk had a policy that requires employees to first report their concerns to Maersk prior to reporting it to the Coast Guard or other authorities. And it seemed like I can’t find it right now, but was that same ship in involved in another accident?
Maximillian Alvarez:
Yeah. So I believe it was in 2016 in Antwerp. The ship didn’t have a catastrophic accident, but it did… You can see pictures of it online where it ran into a concrete siding in the Port of Antwerp. And then the other detail that is worth looking at was I believe it was last year. The ship was sited in a port in Chile for having propulsion issues, right? But what the company and what people of a certain disposition will point out is that the ship did also receive a passing grade here in the US. I believe the last one was in September, right? So again, there’s a lot to sort of unpack here because, again, one side is going to try to kind of do what they always do, what they did in East Palestine and everywhere else is they’re going to try to say that this is a contained freak accident that couldn’t have been avoided, or if it did, here are the unique circumstances that led to this contained and unique catastrophic incident.
But we know better, right, because if you actually spend your time interviewing the working people who live and work around these sites, right, whether they be railroad lines or whether they be ports or whether they be just folks living in the city, right, and know what goes on there and are affected by it, right, there’s a larger question here about how we ended up in a situation where clearly a situation where something that should have been caught, a ship that never should have been able to leave port, especially carrying as many hazardous materials as it was that some of which are reportedly according to Business Insider sitting in the water right now in the Patapsco River. That’s what folks in East Palestine were also saying is like, “How many of those containers fell into the water?” Again, they are going through something similar where they’re being told by Norfolk Southern, by their own government and government agencies like the EPA, “Everything’s fine. You guys are fine. Go back on to your regular lives and stop bothering us.”
Meanwhile, myself and Mike Balonick, this great working class director and videographer who I was shooting in East Palestine with, we were standing in the creeks behind people’s houses in East Palestine with Christina Siceloff, a single mom who lives in the sticks in Pennsylvania who is also getting all these health ailments. She’s been out there like a creek ranger with a few other folks documenting the fact that those waters still are not safe. And she showed us if you just turn a shovel over, you’ll see it’s like ghosts coming out of the water. Those chemicals that we saw on top of the water a year ago, they’re still there, right? And so obviously, East Palestine folks are telling us like, “You need to find out what was in those containers and you need to get them out of the water as soon as possible.” So that’s another issue. But again-
Jacob Morrison:
Right.
Maximillian Alvarez:
… the whole point is this did not happen overnight. We are experiencing across this country, right, the chickens are coming home to roost it feels after 40 plus years of corporate dominance, deregulation, disinvestment, the devaluation of labor and life itself, right? That stuff starts to add up. And all of it plays a role to the point where we don’t care enough about the workers on that bridge to even ask, “Do they have a direct line to emergency dispatch?” We don’t care enough about the workers in that port to ask like, “Are you guys getting enough time to do your job properly?” We don’t care enough about the workers on those ships to ask like, “Are you guys getting enough time and are you getting paid enough? Are you getting what you need to ensure that you are navigating these vessels as safely as you need to be when they are passing in our own backyard?” Right?
I mean, to say nothing of what’s on the ships, the amount of regulation, the kind of security checks, there are so many resonances here with what I’m seeing in other industries. And I’m not jumping to conclusions and saying I know exactly the source of this failure, but again, you can’t do the work that we do and talk to people around this country who are experiencing similar things and not see the connections here. So that’s kind of where we are right now. I mean, again, everyone’s sort of racing to talk about what this is going to mean for the economy. There’s just a rash of conspiracy theories like floating around there. People are already kind of racing past, right, the six men who died on that bridge. Eight fell into the water that we know of, two were recovered that morning. One of whom went to the hospital. The other reportedly refused-
Maximillian Alvarez:
… went to the hospital. The other reportedly refused emergency services. And I immediately… Because if you know undocumented people in construction workers, your conclusion when you hear that is like, oh, they were uninsured or undocumented or both. But I was watching white anchors and newscasters here in the city say, “Oh, I guess that person must’ve just been fine and walked away.” And that’s the kind of situation we’re in where these workers who were already basically invisible to our society have only become momentarily visible in death.
And this is happening at a time when Donald Trump, one of the two leading presidential candidates in this country leading one of the two major parties, could be president again, he’s out there saying that immigrants are poisoning the blood of this country and people are believing it. I went on Democracy Now! and made a passionate plea to people to please see us as human beings, for God’s sake. Because while you’re out there saying that we’re criminals and rapists and we’re coming to destroy the country and we’re sucking all the government money out, this is what we’re actually doing. We’re working at night filling your potholes so that you could have a good drive to work and we can put food on the table for our families.
I just had an incredible podcast conversation yesterday in a Mexican restaurant in town, El Taquito Mexicano in Fells Point, where I met with an incredible group of heads of different Latino and immigrant justice community orgs in the city. I mean, these are folks who the media and the city barely ever talks to or acknowledges at all. So they themselves are also operating in the shadows and they are doing their best to fight for a community that is basically invisible, not just here in Baltimore, but around the country. And they are also working people who have families, who have multiple jobs. Some have children with special needs.
And yet I was sitting at this table of superheroes talking in English and Spanish about how they have been mobilizing to support the families, what this says about the way that our community is treated, and what we were all feeling as people who are being vilified in this country, even though we’re just trying to make a life for our families, and even though even in death we can’t achieve the dignity that every human being deserves. That’s kind of where it is right now.
Jacob Morrison:
Yeah. That is really indicting on those reporters that assumed and said on the air that, “Oh, that means they’re okay.” I mean, that’s wild to me that they would believe that and say that it’s…
Maximillian Alvarez:
Well, it’s an even bigger indictment on our country, right? Because again, I want to confirm this, but just to say, when I was talking to the folks last night and I asked. I was like, “Was that person [foreign language 00:32:59]? Do we know?” And again, we want to learn more details about the family. But what I was told was he had no health insurance.
So in this fucking country, just sit with that… Sorry for swearing. In this country people, imagine being a worker, a construction worker, filling potholes at night, a bridge collapses beneath your feet, you fall into the cold waters of the Patapsco River, your coworkers are dying around you. You don’t know if you’re going to make it out alive. And reportedly one, if not both of these workers could not swim. We know that one of them could not. You’re rescued from the water. And you refuse the offer to go to the hospital because you live in America and you don’t have health insurance. After going through what I have to imagine is one of the most traumatic experiences of your life, you are worried about the cost of that healthcare that you desperately need. That is an indictment on our country.
Jacob Morrison:
Right. Absolutely.
Maximillian Alvarez:
And these Palestinians right now don’t have healthcare. That is an indictment on our country. That’s why we’re trying to get Biden to invoke the Stafford Act and guarantee these folks government funded healthcare, because their ailments and bills are piling up. What a horrendous state for our country to be in, and when are we going to band together as a class across political lines, union, non-union, whatever. When are we going to start banding together and say, “This is not good enough. We will be forgotten no more. We deserve healthcare. We deserve to be able to drink our water and for our children to breathe the air without getting nosebleeds or cancer.” I mean, this is how bad things have gotten.
So hopefully that kicks us in the ass enough to stop pitting ourselves against each other and seeing one another as the enemy, whether they’re the Trump voters in East Palestine or immigrant workers like the folks on this bridge. If we can get past that crap, we can actually make change happen. We can be the change that we’re waiting for. But I don’t know what we’re waiting for right now because look around you. Things are really dire, and people are suffering,
Jacob Morrison:
Right. And it’s absurd to not kind of look to the state of things for an answer as to why this happened in Baltimore, just like we did as things initially started breaking in East Palestine. Just because the boat passed an inspection, doesn’t mean that everything was great. I mean, we’ve seen the state, through multiple examples, the state of our regulatory system and how it’s kind of falling apart at the seams, and it is not catching the things that it’s set up to catch. And so-
Maximillian Alvarez:
That was the defense of Norfolk Southern, who was like, “We were with all regulations.” And then you have a decision to make there. You could either say, “Oh, okay. Well, then I guess it was fine.” Or you say, “How bad are our regulations if that was okay?” If that train carrying that many hazardous materials that no one knew… Very few people actually knew what was on that train.
And not only that, but I mean, again, the hotbox detectors that picked up the ambient rise and heat of the bearing miles away from East Palestine. Those hotbox detectors are not regulated by the government, they’re regulated by the companies. The company decides what the threshold is to… If it gets above this heat, then we’ll relay it to the dispatch office and they’ll relay it to the crew on the train. That’s another example of what deregulation looks like, where those layers of security are stripped away and the company’s profit motive is driving the decisions that are made, and this is what happens.
So you’re absolutely right, Jacob. One of the many problems with East Palestine and with this is not that this ship or that train we’re up to code, it’s that the code is not up to the right standard. I mean, because those codes have been watered down and government negligent, government officials have let companies do it for years on end. Democrats and Republicans have participated in this.
Jacob Morrison:
And it’s like the FAA paying Boeing employees to do the FAA’s job in certain instances. I mean, it’s all just a mess.
But that’s a good segue to East Palestine and your conference or convention that y’all had last week to ask Joe Biden, to call on Joe Biden to invoke an act that would give people in East Palestine healthcare.
Tell us the act and the authority that Joe Biden has there and the event that y’all had last week and how it went and what are some of the next steps.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Yeah, I appreciate that. And by way of bridging the two, I want to let folks know, again, I talked to these incredible organizers and pillars of the Latino community here in Baltimore last night. They were the ones who started the original GoFundMe, that was the Latino Racial Justice Circle. Which again, these are all volunteers, but they started that GoFundMe for the families of the six brothers that we lost this week.
But I think one silver lining, one ray of hope, is that they were quickly overwhelmed by the response. So even though part of the country is demonizing us, the response from people wanting to help, wanting to show solidarity, from East Palestine to around the country. The fact that the Latino Racial Justice Circle had to close the GoFundMe because they were getting so many donations that they were worried… They wanted to be fully transparent. They wanted to make sure that the families got every ounce of that money. So they made the decision to essentially work with the city to offload that fundraiser, and now that fundraiser is being run through the city.
So if folks want to donate to that fund for the families of the Key Bridge 6, it is there on the Baltimore City’s website. I’ve also posted it online. I can share it with you guys after this interview. But if you want to help, that is one way that you can.
Same goes for East Palestine. Again, one of the reasons that we are… This coalition, this new coalition that’s formed called Justice for East Palestine Residents and Workers, this has come out of a year’s worth of folks like me. But not just me, there’s the East Palestine Unity Council. There are residents across the East Palestine who are not part of the Unity Council. There are railroad workers. There were union reps, mainly local and regional, including local presidents who came there and were not permitted to speak on behalf of their unions, but who were saying, “I’m here anyway because this is what’s right.”
And therein lies another issue. Labor needs to get off its ass and start helping East Palestine. These are your brothers and sisters. Again, Jami Wallace from the Unity Council, she’s a former SEIU member. Chris Albright is a LIUNA member. Daren Gamble, who I’ve also interviewed, is a retired bricklayer. I mean, these are our brothers and sisters, and they are dying. Their families have been poisoned by this crap.
And again, they were exposed to chemicals in that unnecessary and catastrophic derailment and the decision to vent and burn five cars worth the vinyl chloride, which the manufacturer of that vinyl chloride said was not necessary, but what we all suspect Norfolk Southern pressured local officials to make the decision to vent and burn those contents. Not because the contents were going to explode and there was going to be shrapnel going for miles around, but because they wanted to clear the way and get those rail lines open again because they’re a massive moneymaker. I saw those trains going through every 20 minutes when I was standing in East Palestine.
So I mean, again, I say that that exposure to those chemicals, even if those chemicals have dissipated since then, a lot of it is still in the soil, a lot of it is still in the water. I could taste the metallic taste in my mouth when I was standing near Chris Albright’s house. It got worse when I stood next to the derailment site. You get a sort of mouth numbness. People are still in their homes racking up bizarre ailments, really unique ailments. It has all the hallmarks of an industrial poisoning accident, like Three Mile Island or anything like that. And we’re going to see the effects in the bodies of these people over the coming years.
And yet, again, the country’s just moved on. Biden finally got there in February of this year and basically said, “You’re welcome for delivering for you, bye.” Norfolk Southern is out there telling people, “You’re not going to get another dime from us.” They’re cutting people off from this aid. What they’re doing there is so despicable, and I need people out there watching this to care about it. Because what I told people in East Palestine is, and what our coalition really represents is that it’s… And again, I know this because I talk to workers around the country, as you guys do. I said, “It’s not that working people have forgotten about you, it’s that so many people feel just as forgotten as you do.”
I mean, I just interviewed Brett Cross, another fellow worker, another gas worker in Texas, who was also a father. And his son, Uzi, was one of the children murdered in the school shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde. His community feels just as forgotten as East Palestine does.
I interviewed one of the workers, Leo Linder, who was on the Deepwater Horizon when it blew over 10 years ago in the Gulf. That community feels forgotten. It feels like the devastation from that feels as forgotten by the country as anything else.
We need to band together as a coalition of the forgotten. The forgotten workers on strike, like the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette workers or the Warrior Met Coal strikers, who we both tried to cover throughout their two plus year strike.
I mean, workers who have been, like the Latino organizers told me yesterday, a lot of immigrant workers in this community are still and are going to keep being impacted by Covid. I mean, people are dealing with long Covid because they were working in conditions where they didn’t have the kind of protections. And if they were undocumented, they did not have access to the stimulus checks and the unemployment benefits. So they had to go to work. They got sick. A lot died. A lot are still getting sick. They feel just as forgotten as East Palestine does and as we’re worried Baltimore will be, and Baltimore has been forgotten, for so many years. I mean, this city’s been losing population for decades. We’ve been disinvested from. The police have been brutalizing us. And again, we’re all kind of feeling this stuff.
And yet the people who are ripping us off, the people in the 1% whose wealth has grown by astronomical amounts in the past 10 years alone from Donald Trump’s tax cuts to the ways that we essentially handed the economy over to billionaires throughout the course of Covid, the bosses are winning, the oligarchs are winning. And they are busy pitting us against each other and telling folks like the working people in East Palestine that people like me and the men on that bridge are their enemy, instead of the people…
Maximillian Alvarez:
People like me and the men on that bridge are their enemy instead of the people like Alan Shaw who are raking in profits from all of the cost-cutting and corner cutting that they’re doing on the railroads, right? That’s where the work that we do, that’s where the work that all of us does has to come in. We have to fight back. We have to find each other on the basic human levels, not as socialist, Republican, union, non-union, Democrat, Republican, whatever, right? We need to find each other on that level of just basic humanity, right? Human beings, fellow workers, fellow neighbors, people who want to provide for our families, breathe clean air, drink clean water, be left alone so we can enjoy our one time around on this earth with our family, not have to work every day, every hour of our day just to put food on the table, right? I mean, things have gotten so bad that those are the most basic common foundations upon which we need to unite, but if we do, I promise you all, we can actually win and we can make real change happen.
Jacob Morrison:
Right. And just to wrap it up as maybe, I don’t know. I was going to say that this may be a lighter note to end on because it’s just so, so stupid, but also it’s kind of a dark note because you alluded to some of the propaganda that’s been going around around the situation, and that’s the attempt to shoehorn the kind of anti-DEI stuff into this Baltimore Bridge collapse just like they have been around the stuff with Boeing. And every time now that you see a story about corporate malfeasance and the destruction of the regulatory state that results in totally preventable disasters and accidents and deaths and injuries, there’s some crazy conservative commentator coming out and saying, well, that’s what happens when you hire Black people. And it’s astounding that they’re able to just come out and say that. I mean the mayor of Baltimore, and I don’t know how you feel about the mayor of Baltimore.
I have no idea anything about him because I know how you feel about politicians generally, I’m sure probably you’re not a fan, I don’t know, but he came out and did a press conference and there were people on Twitter talking about this is Baltimore’s DEI mayor. He’s like, they’re just saying the N word. That’s just what DEI means now. And then Charlie Kirk has been doing this thing about, oh, well, I’m not saying it was DEI, but I’m just saying it’s important that we get rid of DEI as I’m talking about this. Dave Rubin did the same thing reacting by reminding us that we need to “hire the best people to build our stuff,” and that once you allow wokeness in, bad things happen. And it’s just astounding their willingness to shoehorn this stuff in where it clearly reveals their bigotry. And so I’m just interested in how you’ve been taking in the reactions like that as you’ve seen this unfold.
Maximillian Alvarez:
You saved this one for the last question. I’m about to yell for another hour. I mean, real quick before I get there, I just want to say before I go on this rant to anyone out there listening, because I know we got a lot of union brothers and sisters listening to this great show, please support the Valley Labor Report. We need shows like this because you guys are not unconnected from what we’re talking about here, right? It’s because the contracting and subcontracting relationship and the way that profit-seeking businesses and sleazy contractors exploit that is the exact same reason we find brown children working in Hyundai parts distributors over there in Alabama or cleaning bone saws in meatpacking plants in the Midwest, or working in slave conditions and farms and picking the tomatoes for our Wendy’s cheeseburgers in places like Florida, right? This connects all of us, and if you are in a union, you need to do what Labor’s Local 79, a construction union in New York is doing. Not seeing their fellow workers, immigrant workers returning citizens from prison, undocumented people, the people that non-union contractors target and exploit the most.
They are not “taking your jobs.” Again, they’re like the men on these bridge. They’re like people working around you so often, they’re trying to make a life for themselves. They’re living in the shadows and they’re being exploited and abused because they do not have the full legal right to representation. They do not have a union contract. They need your help. They are not your enemy. That is what Labor’s Local 79 has realized, and that’s why they are working to organize those folks. They are reaching out to them. They helped start a COVID relief fund for undocumented people who couldn’t get benefits from the state, right? Because if you organize them, you take the bosses leverage out of their hand where they always have a cheaper form of labor. You guys were just on the Great Man Samusha Show, rattling the bars here at the Real News Network, talking about how the fact that corporations, private and government agencies, are exploiting slave prison labor to undercut costs.
They’re doing that to all of us. If you’re a working person, these companies, these corporations, and even our own government, they are the ones who are creating this multi-tier labor system where you have prison slave labor at the bottom, undocumented under the table labor, just above that intern labor. I mean, they’ve created so many layers of labor that create resentment within our own ranks that make us see each other as the enemy. That’s how they’re winning, guys. Please don’t take the bait. Please see this in the larger picture. And also if you are listening to this and you want to get involved in the coalition that is growing out of East Palestine and you want to join the campaign to pressure President Biden to invoke the Stafford Act, issue a federal disaster declaration for East Palestine, because that’s the kind of thing that presidents do when there are hurricanes.
Governor Westmore just declared an emergency here because of the bridge collapse, right? You unlock a lot of resources, federal and state, that people in East Palestine desperately need right now. And in fact, governor Mike DeWine has finally, last year, sent request to President Biden to issue a disaster declaration and Biden won’t do it. It’s only going to happen if a rank and file movement of people, union, non-union, environmental groups, everything else, pressure him and join this call to say, invoke the Stafford Act, declare EP a disaster. Get these people healthcare. And I suspect one of the main reasons Biden won’t do that is because if he does, then there are going to be a whole lot of communities around the country that are like, hey, we’re in the same boat. I mentioned Piketon, Ohio, where the nuclear plan is, they should get… I mean, they have a different situation, but there are communities like that that still need help.
People are still dying of cancers and weird ailments. That’s what we’re fighting for in East Palestine. Now, to quickly jump to the morons and cowards who are out here spinning their BS conspiracy theories amidst this tragedy here in Baltimore, I mean, I went on breaking points yesterday to make this point. I’d set it on Democracy Now, stop being a coward. We’re not going to reach those morons like Charlie Kirk. They are disinformation and division merchants. That is the whole point of what they do, right? I’m not hoping to reach them. I’m hoping to reach the fellow workers who are being poisoned by that crap and the people who are again, being led by their most cowardly impulses to fabricate these ridiculous explanations when the reality is much more horrifying and it’s staring you right in the face. We can confront that together. We don’t need to shy away from it.
We don’t need to come up with these ridiculous boogeymen to try to explain what should be patently obvious, which is again, the regulatory capture, the corporate capture of our entire system, the speed-ups, the relentless thirst for profit, the stripping away of safety and maintenance, the devaluation of labor and life. All of this is creating the conditions where things like the Baltimore Bridge collapsing and the East Palestine derailment are going to be happening a lot more. That is the problem. But what I would just say as someone who grew up conservative, as someone who used to think people like Charlie Kirk think, I used to buy into that. If I had not gone the way that I have to end up being the lefty nut job I am today, I would probably be out there saying the same things right now. I have right wing Latinos yelling at me for “pushing a narrative” this week, and I’m like, bro, I used to think like you. Your mentality is nothing new to me.
I hope you see the light someday. But a lot of people are too far gone into that thing. But what I would just say as someone who has made that journey from conservative, deep red conservative to deep red lefty over the course of my life is that when I see that, what I see is that they are playing you. Republicans, the right, have been the ones since I was born, pushing for all this deregulation, all this dis-investment, all of this, oh, we got to let corporations serve their shareholders and not the public because then the invisible hand of the market will bring us prosperity. We got to keep cutting the taxes of the rich and the wealthy. We got to keep stripping away these regulations. We got to keep disciplining labor and breaking unions. And now that same right is trying to turn around 40 years later and say, oh, diversity’s the problem.
DEI is the problem. Immigrants are the problem. Fuck you. I grew up listening to your lies. I grew up believing the crap that you were pushing, and now you all on the right, especially people like Charlie Kirk and even people I work with, I mean, I’m not even going to call out more names. Again, I went on breaking points yesterday. I mentioned Sager by name. I want to have a conversation. I’m not saying Sager is Charlie Kirk, but there’s a whole right wing discourse machine here that is contributing to this crap, and it is not going to help working people. And I believe, and I think it’s patently obvious having grown up in this world and this ideology, that the right is just trying to cover its ass. The right is trying to distract us from the fact that they have helped create, and in fact, they have been the driving force creating the conditions that are leading to our communities being in this dire state over 40 years.
They don’t want you to know that. They want you to think that they’re the populace on our side and that the problem is DEI. That’s not the problem. DEI for corporations like this, it’s just another money making scheme. That’s why corporations lean into DEI so hard because it’s a way to pretend like they’re doing something to satiate calls for diversity. It’s a low lift, low budget investment that can make companies seem more woke, more conscientious, but it really doesn’t require them at all to change their business or their labor practices in the least, right? They can keep doing what they’re doing while pretending that they’re more conscientious employers. That’s why so many companies just lean into the DEI stuff because they take very little risk in doing so. What you’re actually mad at is not the diversity. You’re mad, again, at the corporate oligarchs who are playing you and playing us and trying to cover their own ass for what they have done to our country for 40 plus, 100 plus, 200 plus years.
Eventually we got to wise up to this, otherwise, they’re going to destroy everything we hold dear. They are in the midst of destroying the very planet that we live on, and we don’t have time to waste fighting about DEI right now. Get serious, get involved, or get out of our way.
Jacob Morrison:
Hell yeah.
Speaker 2:
Amen, brother. Amen.
Jacob Morrison:
Yep. Yep. You were talking about this has been going on for 10, 20, 30, 100, 200 years. You might even say something like, the history of all Hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. But-
Maximillian Alvarez:
You might. You could say that.
Jacob Morrison:
You might would say that. Max Alvarez, really appreciate it. Always great. People should subscribe and read The Real News Network. Listen to the Working People podcast, watch The Art of Class War on Breaking Points. Max, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Thank you, brothers. Always a pleasure. Love and solidarity from Baltimore.
This post was originally published on The Real News Network.
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