Working Life Podcast: Chicago Teachers Gearing Up For the Picket Line

Teachers are on the ramparts again. This time in Chicago where the members of the Chicago Teachers Union are gearing up for a possible strike if they can’t get a decent contract to improve wages, win a hard cap on class size and increase staffing. To talk more about the struggle for a good contract, I’m joined by Andrea Parker, an English teacher and union vice president, and Robin Blake Boose, a first grade teacher. I, then, take a look at what’s up in Ohio: You would think that people there would be ready to revolt, to overthrow the oligarchs and the elites and the corporate raiders who have effectively strip-mined the economy, destroying factory jobs and making sure new jobs don’t have decent wages because those same raiders fight unions tooth and nail. Even though Ohio voted for Trump, the people re-elected incumbent Senator Sherrod Brown, a progressive, clear populist, quite comfortably in 2018. Populism works. I talk with Amy Hanauer, the executive director of Policy Matter Ohio, about the organization’s recent deep dive look at Ohio’s economy.

-- Jonathan Tasini

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