From rising oil prices to unpaid TSA workers, this episode looks at how economic crises repeatedly shift the burden onto working people while corporations continue to profit.
We break down the ripple effects of the Iran conflict on gas prices and inflation, the government shutdown forcing 50,000 TSA employees to work without pay, and how rising healthcare costs quietly suppress wage growth. We also cover major labor fights unfolding across the country—from the rally to “Fix Tier 6” pensions in New York to a looming strike at a JBS meatpacking plant in Colorado and faculty preparing to walk out at Portland Community College.
Along the way, we examine a new report exposing “corporate welfare,” where low wages at major corporations leave workers dependent on public programs like Medicaid and SNAP while executives collect massive pay packages.
Finally, we look at a growing debate inside the labor movement: whether organizing Amazon—and putting more union members on the ballot—could determine the future of worker power in the United States.

In this episode of the Labor Force Podcast, we look at several stories that reveal a common thread in today’s economy: power. From war policy to automation to union rights, the same question keeps coming up—who controls the system, and who benefits from it?
We start with the escalating U.S.–Israeli war on Iran and the broader imperial framework behind it, examining why anti-war movements have historically depended on working-class organizing. Then we turn to the growing impact of artificial intelligence on jobs, after major layoffs at Block showed how corporations are increasingly using AI to cut labor costs while boosting profits.
We also cover new attacks on unions, including federal efforts to terminate collective bargaining agreements for IRS workers and legislation in Florida that could weaken public-sector unions across the state.
Finally, we look at a major labor fight in the WNBA, where players are demanding a larger share of the league’s rapidly growing revenue, and discuss broader economic debates about inequality, climate, and the push for alternatives to a growth-at-all-costs economic model.
Across all these stories, one theme is clear: the future of work—and the economy itself—will depend on whether workers organize to shape it.

In this episode, we unpack the growing gap between political economic messaging and working-class reality. From retirement security tied to speculative markets and rising health care costs to tariffs that quietly raise consumer prices, we examine how today’s “economic populism” often leaves corporate power untouched while workers absorb the risk.
We also break down new data showing unionization rising in 2025 despite an increasingly hostile labor policy environment, alongside nationwide postal worker mobilizations, major health care and academic labor disputes, and new rail safety legislation shaped by worker advocacy.
Finally, we explore the so-called “revolution chart” — rising corporate profits alongside labor’s shrinking share of the economy — and what growing inequality reveals about burnout, mental health, and class consciousness in modern America.

From hospital picket lines to Southern auto plants to a legal brothel in Nevada — and all the way to corporate offices rocked by AI layoffs — this episode connects the dots.
More than 31,000 health care workers at Kaiser Permanente are still on strike, demanding enforceable staffing standards and real raises after years of burnout. In New York, nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian proved that holding the line can win concrete gains. In Chattanooga, Volkswagen workers shattered the “Southern wall” with a first UAW contract that delivers major raises and job security language. And at Sheri’s Ranch in Nevada, sex workers are organizing to protect their dignity, safety, and control over their own likeness in the age of AI.
Meanwhile, white-collar workers are facing mass layoffs as corporations deploy artificial intelligence to cut labor costs. The promise of meritocracy is cracking. The myth of insulation is collapsing.
This isn’t a culture war story. It’s not blue-collar versus white-collar. It’s the same system applying the same logic across industries: maximize profit, minimize labor, automate when possible.
The real question is whether workers — all workers — respond with fragmentation or solidarity.

In this episode, we run through a wave of labor fights and political organizing that all point to the same thing: working people are done waiting their turn. From teachers in San Francisco forcing movement after a historic strike, to nurses in New York City refusing to be rushed into a weak contract, to health care workers walking out at Kaiser Permanente, this is what collective power looks like in real time. We also dig into the fight at JBS in Greeley, where Haitian workers are organizing under brutal conditions while navigating immigration threats — and why their near-unanimous strike vote is about dignity as much as wages.
We zoom out to connect these fights to the legacy of the 2006 immigrant walkouts that helped kill the U.S. Congress’s Sensenbrenner bill, and what today’s organizers can learn from that moment about scale, strategy, media, and clear demands. Then we head to Fort Worth to break down how machinist Taylor Rehmet flipped a deep-red state senate seat by focusing on bread-and-butter issues like schools, health care, and union rights — and by actually listening to voters instead of chasing culture-war nonsense.
The throughline: rank-and-file democracy matters, solidarity works, and power doesn’t come from consultants or billionaires — it comes from people willing to take risks together. From picket lines to ballot boxes, this episode connects the dots between labor struggle, immigrant justice, and grassroots politics in a system designed to keep working people divided.

This episode breaks down why unions still work—even as organizing faces political and economic headwinds. We cover new data showing union workers earn more and have better benefits, major wins like the UAW’s first contract at Volkswagen in Chattanooga and Iowa nurses unionizing with the Teamsters, and ongoing strikes by healthcare workers in New York and at Kaiser Permanente. We also look at the push to pressure Starbucks over stalled contract talks, the growing crisis of soaring utility bills in New York, and how a historic general strike in Minneapolis is fueling new conversations about May Day and nationwide collective action.
 

This episode looks at how immigration enforcement, union-busting, and corporate cost-cutting are all part of the same war on workers — and how workers are fighting back.
We break down the Minneapolis shutdowns demanding ICE leave Minnesota, the growing wave of nurse strikes in NYC and across Kaiser Permanente facilities, UPS’s plan to cut up to 30,000 jobs while posting massive profits, and the Trump administration’s attacks on federal worker union rights.
From ICE raids to health care picket lines, the pattern is clear: fear is being used to weaken workers — and solidarity is the response.

This episode of Labor Force Podcast tracks a labor movement in motion, from mass protest to workplace transformation.
We start in Minnesota, where tens of thousands joined a coordinated economic blackout and protests demanding ICE leave the state, accountability for the killing of Renee Good, and an end to ICE funding—raising serious questions about the power and potential of general strikes.
We then cover an impending open-ended strike by 31,000 Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers across California and Hawaii, a major union victory at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the groundbreaking of Micron’s $100 billion semiconductor project in Central New York amid environmental backlash.
The episode also explores the rise of “microshifting,” a growing push to break free from rigid 9-to-5 schedules, especially among caregivers, and what flexibility really means in an unequal labor market.
We close with a look at AI-driven layoffs, mounting worker anxiety, and how companies are using “AI” to justify cuts—along with why upskilling and collective power will shape what comes next.