Power At Work

In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Raj Nayak, Candace Archer, and Rebecca Reindel, three policy experts who are closely monitoring and actively opposing the Labor Department’s deregulatory agenda.Watch now to learn more about some of the labor standards and protections that are slated for elimination across the Labor Department. Seth and guests will discuss what happens next, and how the labor movement and members of the Power At Work community can make themselves heard inside the Francis Perkins Building, which is the Labor Department’s national headquarters.Connect with Power At Work: Website: poweratwork.usTikTok: @poweratworkblog Instagram: @poweratworkblog Twitter: / poweratworkblog Facebook: poweratworkblog LinkedIn: power-at-workRajesh D. Nayak is a fellow at the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School and a consultant on labor policy and organizational transitions. Most recently, Raj served as the Assistant Secretary for Policy at the United States Department of Labor, overseeing the Department’s regulatory agenda, forward-looking policy development, and evaluation offices.Candace Archer is the policy director for the AFL-CIO. She previously worked for Americans for Financial Reform, the American Federation of Government Employees, and National Labor College. Candace has a Ph.D in Political Economy and was an associate professor for more than 15 years.Rebecca Reindel is the director of occupational safety and health for the AFL-CIO, where she advocates for improved workplace safety and health policies at federal, state, and international levels. She facilitates collaboration among stakeholders to address workplace hazards, testifies before policymakers, and bridges the gap between shop-floor realities and legislative decision-making.

Episode #6 of the Power Half-Hour has arrived!The Power Half-Hour is a livestreamed, fast-paced, bi-weekly roundtable with a rotating group of regular guests. Our guests discuss the biggest labor story of the preceding week and the labor story everyone should be talking about over the next two weeks. Joining Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris for this episode are: Claudia Irizarry Aponte - Senior Reporter at THE CITYHarold Phillips - Host of Working to Live in Southwest Washington and Principal Director of the Labor Radio Podcast NetworkDavid Madland - Senior Fellow and the Senior Adviser to the American Worker Project at American ProgressCatch our next episode live on Power At Work's LinkedIn page on August 14th and soon after on poweratwork.us.Connect with Power At Work: Website: poweratwork.usTikTok: @poweratworkblog Instagram: @poweratworkblog Twitter: / poweratworkblog Facebook: poweratworkblog LinkedIn: power-at-work

In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Victor Mineros and Kathy Torres to discuss the nationwide strike by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters against Republic Services, which is a solid waste management company that collects and disposes of garbage and recycling in cities across the U.S.Watch now to learn more about the status of the strike, the kind of work the Teamsters members at Republic Services perform, the biggest issues in the negotiations, and how we can expect this strike to be resolved. Also discussed are some of the strategies the Teamsters have used in this strike to bring pressure on Republic Services to agree to their members’ bargaining demands, and how the public’s reaction to a long-lasting garbage strike had influenced those strategies.Connect with Power At Work: Website: poweratwork.usTikTok: @poweratworkblog Instagram: @poweratworkblog Twitter: / poweratworkblog Facebook: poweratworkblog LinkedIn: power-at-workVictor Mineros is the Director of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters' Solid Waste and Recycling Division. He got his start with the Teamsters as a rank-and-file UPS package car driver in Los Angeles. He served as a business agent and organizer for Teamsters Local 396 and was appointed an International Representative for the Teamsters Solid Waste and Recycling Division, which is the Teamsters Division he now leads as the Director.Kathy Torres is a Teamsters Local 179 member who has been employed by Republic Services in Ottawa, Illinois, for a year. She is a Class A Driver who has been on strike for three weeks. Kathy is originally from the South Side of Chicago and currently resides in Joliet, Illinois.

In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Javier Ramirez to discuss the future of labor mediation after President Trump shut down the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS). Ramirez takes you inside the negotiating room and explains the critical role labor mediators play.Watch now to learn about what happens next and why labor mediation is important. Also, learn from one of the nation's foremost mediators how the process works, and more broadly, why collective bargaining can be a model for dispute resolution in American society. Connect with Power At Work: Website: poweratwork.usTikTok: @poweratworkblog Instagram: @poweratworkblog Twitter: / poweratworkblog Facebook: poweratworkblog LinkedIn: power-at-workJavier Ramirez is the Executive Manager of the National Conflict Resolution Service at the Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution at Cornell University’s School of Industrial & Labor Relations. Previously, Javier served as Deputy Director of Field Operations at the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS).

Episode #5 of the Power Half-Hour has arrived!The Power Half-Hour is a livestreamed, fast-paced, bi-weekly roundtable with a rotating group of regular guests. Our guests discuss the biggest labor story of the preceding week and the labor story everyone should be talking about over the next two weeks. Joining Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris for our fifth episode are:Alex Jacquez - Chief of Policy and Advocacy at Groundwork CollaborativeMel Buer - Multimedia freelance journalist; Words About WorkMcKenna Schueler - News reporter for Orlando WeeklyConnect with Power At Work: Website: poweratwork.usTikTok: @poweratworkblog Instagram: @poweratworkblog Twitter: https://twitter.com/PowerAtWorkBlogFacebook: poweratworkblog LinkedIn: power-at-workCatch our next episode live on Power At Work's LinkedIn page on July 31st and soon after on PowerAtWork.US.

In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Mark Lauritsen, Veronica Cruz-Velandia, and Leehanyi Baptista to discuss the important and impressive collective bargaining victory by the meatpacking workers at JBS Foods and their union, the United Food and Commercial Workers.Listen now to learn about a historic collective bargaining win by the UFCW’s members in negotiations with JBS Foods and some of the specifics of what is included in that contract. Discussed are the members’ experience of sitting across the table from a large multi-national corporation and demanding what the workers needed to live good-quality lives, as well as the strategies they used to win a great contract.Mark Lauritsen is a UFCW International Vice President and Director of the UFCW’s Food Processing, Packing, and Manufacturing Division. Mark is a third-generation packinghouse worker who began his union career as a shop steward in the Wilson Foods meatpacking plant in Cherokee, Iowa. He is also the President of the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF).Veronica Cruz-Velandia is a UFCW shop steward and bargaining committee member who works in the fabrication department for JBS Regional Beef in Souderton, PA. She has worked for JBS for 6 years.Leehanyi Baptista is a UFCW shop steward and a member of the UFCW’s bargaining committee. He works in the maintenance department at JBS Regional Beef in Souderton, Pennsylvania.

In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Michael Sainato and Josh Eidelson to discuss the latest stories involving unions, worker power, and worker collective action.Watch now to learn about President Trump’s effort to bust federal employee unions, the future of the National Labor Relations Board, the labor movement’s involvement in protests against the Trump Administration’s immigration policies, and workers with disabilities in the workplace and in public policy.Michael Sainato is a labor reporter for The Guardian US. His writing has appeared in the Guardian, Miami Herald, Baltimore Sun, Huffington Post, LiveScience, Buffalo News, the Plain Dealer, the Hill, Gainesville Sun, Tallahassee Democrat, Knoxville News Sentinel, and the Troy Record.Josh Eidelson is a labor reporter for Bloomberg News and Businessweek. His work is frequently cited by lawmakers and scholars, and has been honored by groups including UCLA Anderson’s Loeb Foundation; the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing (SABEW); the Sidney Hillman Foundation; the Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA); the New York Labor History Association; the San Francisco Press Club; and the Northern California, Western Washington, and New York chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Episode #4 of the Power Half-Hour has arrived!The Power Half-Hour is a livestreamed, fast-paced, bi-weekly roundtable with a rotating group of regular guests. Our guests discuss the biggest labor story of the preceding week and the labor story everyone should be talking about over the next two weeks. Joining Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris for our second episode are:Ali Bustamante - Professor of Practice at the University of New OrleansChris Garlock - Executive Director of the Labor Heritage Foundation and founder-coordinator of the Labor Radio Podcast NetworkSharon Block - Executive Director at Harvard Law School’s Center for Labor and a Just EconomyConnect with Power At Work: Website: poweratwork.usTikTok: @poweratworkblog Instagram: @poweratworkblog Twitter: / poweratworkblog Facebook: poweratworkblog LinkedIn: power-at-workCatch our next episode live on Power At Work's LinkedIn page on July 17th and soon after on PowerAtWork.US.

In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Claudia Irizarry Aponte, a senior reporter covering labor and work for THE CITY; Lucia Gomez, former political director for the New York City Central Labor Council and National Immigration & Worker Rights Coordinator for LiUNA; and Michael Podhorzer, former political director of the AFL-CIO to discuss the results of the New York City Democratic mayoral primary with a labor lens.Watch now to learn whether Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani’s messaging about working-class and middle-class cost-of-living issues was a deciding factor in his primary victory over former Governor Andrew Cuomo, and the divide in the labor movement going into the primary election. Watch as these experts assess whether these NYC primary election results teach us anything about the future of working-class politics in other parts of the country.Claudia Irizarry is a senior reporter covering labor and work for THE CITY, a nonprofit local news outlet in New York, and adjunct professor at Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. Her reporting on the dangerous and exploitative conditions of the city’s app-based food delivery workers resulted in landmark local reforms and was awarded the James Beard Award in 2022 and the Edward R. Murrow Award in 2021, among other honors. Her work has appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer, City Limits and NPR’s Latino USA.Lucia Gomez is the National Immigration & Worker Rights Coordinator for LiUNA, an American and Canadian labor union. Prior to her work for LiUNA, she served as the political director for the New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO. She led the development and implementation of the Council's political agenda, lobbying, and electoral campaigns, with a focus on advancing workers' rights, racial equity, and labor organizing.Michael Podhorzer is the former political director of the AFL-CIO. He founded the Analyst Institute, the Independent Strategic Research Collaborative (ISRC), the Defend Democracy Project, and the Polling Consortium, and helped found America Votes, Working America, For Our Future, and Catalist. He is now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.

In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Alvin Velazquez, a law professor at Indiana Maurer School of Law; Lynn Rhinehart, a Senior Fellow at the Economic Policy Institute; Gali Racabi, a law professor at Cornell Law School; and Seth Goldstein, a labor law attorney and partner at Goldstein and Singla PLLC to discuss the future of labor law. Watch now to hear four expert labor lawyers debate arguments over the future of worker power given the all-out assault on the National Labor Relations Act and the National Labor Relations Board. One argument focuses on state laws, and the other on whether workers would be better off without federal labor laws. Lynn Rhinehart is a Senior Fellow at the Economic Policy Institute. Prior to Rhinehart’s role at the EPI, she worked as Senior Advisor to the Secretary and Acting Secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor.Seth Goldstein is a partner at Goldstein and Singla PLLC. Seth has represented public and private unions, including Amazon Labor Union and Trader Joe’s Workers United, before the National Labor Relations Board, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the U.S. Department of Labor.Alvin Velazquez is an Associate Professor of Law at Indiana Maurer School of Law. Velazquez previously served as the Associate General Counsel for the Service Employees International Union.Gali Racabi is an Assistant Professor of Law at Cornell Law School, with a focus on various employment and labor law topics. Racabi has published work in many journals, including the Yale Law Review and Cornell Law Review.