Episode 13: Labor Notes Conference Panel Part 1

This episode of Black Work Talk is the first of two covering the discussion held at the Labor Notes conference on June 17, 2022 titled “Black Labor Struggles Over Time: An Intergenerational Panel.” The panel moderators were Toussaint Losier of the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Bianca Cunningham of the Action Center on Race and the Economy. Panelists included Jerome Scott, a long time organizer in the struggle for Black freedom and worker rights; Susan DeCarava of the NewsGuild of New York; Chris Smalls of the Amazon Labor Union; and Stacy Davis Gates of the Chicago Teachers Union. This episode focuses on the opening question for the panelists: What are the key challenges facing Black workers today and what should we do about it?The second episode will feature the Q & A with the audience and cover the question: What does it mean to support Black worker organizing at this moment in time?

Om Podcasten

Black Work Talk is a show that elevates the voices of Black labor, workers, leaders, activists, and intellectuals in discussions on the connections between race, labor, capitalism and culture in the struggle for progressive governing power. On season three of Black Work Talk, new hosts Bianca Cunningham and Jamala Rogers explore the impact of 2023’s strike wave in conversations with rank and file workers from unions that have fought or are still fighting for better, more equitable contracts in 2023; including the UAW, Teamsters, Writers Guild of America and more. Where did the energy for this wave of labor movements come from, what does it mean for black workers, and where does it go from here? They also open the conversation by calling in the 90% of American workers who have yet to organize in their workplace with an ongoing accessible and educational series on the process of organizing and filing to start a union from scratch.