Suzi talks to UAW 2865 strikers Sarah Mason and Jack Davies of UC Santa Cruz and Johnathan Guy at UC Berkeley about the UC strike, the largest strike ever in American higher education. It is crunch time for the UC system as term ends and grades are due. The academic workers are demanding significant pay increases, childcare reimbursements, and support for international scholars. They recognize that this action has the potential to change the existing model of university education. We get their analysis, experience and hopes for the strike.
Suzi then talks to labor historian Michael Goldfield about the showdown in Rail: President Biden pushed through a bill forcing a contract on 115,000 overworked and exhausted railworkers who have been fighting for paid sick leave. The demand for paid sick days is a placeholder for all the quality of life issues that railroad workers are facing after years of austerity while the rail companies enjoyed record profits. Biden invoked the 100-year-old Railway Labor Act to avert the strike, asking Congress to impose a settlement and compel the workers to accept a contract. Goldfield explains why this arcane Act to prevent transportation workers from striking came into being and why it is still in effect.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, protest movements.