The Working-Class Heroes Tour – Minneapolis, MN

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Our trip to Minneapolis centered around a showing of Greg Palast’s New documentary film “Vigilante: Georgia’s Vote Suppression Hitman.” The film is about Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and his long, and we mean long, history of voter suppression. Some of his tactics have made national news, but the depth of the schemes has mostly escaped scrutiny.

We hosted a showing of the film in Chicago during our visit there, but this time, we were showing the film at Crooner’s Supper Club in Minneapolis, Minnesota ,along with our good friends at radio affiliate AM950 – The Progressive Voice of Minnesota.

The film uncovers some pretty disturbing things about how easily someone’s right to vote can be stolen, and the audience was pretty fired up about what they saw. The panel discussion after exposed a lot of fear and confusion about how this kind of thing could happen, and how easily the same thing could be done to them.

Democracy is on the ballot in November, and if we don’t treat the threat to voting rights with the urgency out requires, it may be the last time we vote in a free and fair election in America.

Check out the full show here:

 

For all the links you need to follow the tour and, of course, download the podcast, just click HERE.

Every day a new town. Every day a new story about America’s working people, their history, and the issues that matter to them most.

Thanks for following. We hope we get to meet you out there on the road.

The Working-Class Heroes Tour – Chicago, IL

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Chicago is the home of many victories for labor and for working people. The eight hour work day was born in Chicago, though not many of us know that. It’s a city rich with history and a city where unions are a way of life. In short, it’s our kind of city.

We spent the day at radio affiliate WCPT 820AM, recording form their studio and meeting some of our favorite local labor folks in the process.

Later that evening, we hosted an event at the Rainbow Push Coalition headquarters on Chicago’s south side. The movie is a documentary by our friend and investigative reporter Greg Palast. It’s called “Vigilante” and it’s about voter suppression, particularly the unbelievable tactics used by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp.

We hosted the event with our friend and fellow radio host Santita Jackson, and both the film and the panel discussion after had people fired up to vote, and voting has never been more important that it is right now.

Catch the full episode here:

For all the links you need to follow the tour and, of course, download the podcast, just click HERE.

Every day a new town. Every day a new story about America’s working people, their history, and the issues that matter to them most.

Thanks for following. We hope we get to meet you out there on the road.

The Working-Class Heroes Tour – Flint, MI

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The national stories about Flint are all about the negatives, especially about he ongoing water crisis, but the reality is different. There are problems, as there are in any small city, and the water is still a serious concern, but there is so much more going on.

We spent the day at the Flint Farmers Market, where we were joined by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel for a conversation about what the AG can do for working people, and how her office can help build good lives for her constituents.

We enjoyed a wide-ranging interview about the Payroll Fraud Unit, Jobs Court, and several more ways her office is fighting for working people.


Next, we spoke with State Rep. candidate Jasper Martus. You can listen to the interview yourself, and if you do, you’ll come to the same conclusion that we did: This young man is going to do big things in the state of Michigan, and perhaps beyond.

Here’s the full show:

For all the links you need to follow the tour and, of course, download the podcast, just click HERE.

Every day a new town. Every day a new story about America’s working people, their history, and the issues that matter to them most.

Thanks for following. We hope we get to meet you out there on the road.

The Working-Class Heroes Tour – Detroit, MI

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When we say that Baker’s Bar & Lounge in Hamtramck is a dive bar, we say that with affection. It’s a local place for local people, and a perfect place to talk about working-class issues with the people closest to them.

The bartender at Dave’s is also an elected official – the City Clerk. And when our first guest, Congressman Andy Levin walked in to meet us, everyone knew him by name – and he knew theirs. There was an old school, people-centered form of politics going on in the place, and it was the perfect environment to talk about work that makes America the greatest country on earth.

We spoke at length about everything from bad trade deals to wage theft to all the different ways Democrats can, should, and are now embracing the issues important to middle class Americans and their families.

Next, we sat down with Roland Leggett from One Fair Wage. OFW advocates for low wage workers, with a special emphasis on the large number of working Americans that are currently making sub-minimum wages. Sub-minimum wages are typically paid to tipped workers, and can be as low $2-3 per hour.

Tune in to hear our trip to Detroit, what people-centered politics looks like, and to hear about the injustice of sub-minimum wages, tune into our next episode:

For all the links you need to follow the tour and, of course, download the podcast, just click HERE.

Every day a new town. Every day a new story about America’s working people, their history, and the issues that matter to them most.

Thanks for following. We hope we get to meet you out there on the road.

The Working-Class Heroes Tour – Erie, PA

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After spending the day with some of Erie’s finest activists, public servants, union leaders, and business owners, we prepared ourselves for an exciting event going on that evening. It’s just a few weeks before Election Day, and the campaigns are criss-crossing the state, making sure they do everything they can to get their voters out to the polls and get people fired up to elect working-class heroes to Congress and the Senate. The rally in Erie that night was in support of Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor and Senate candidate John Fetterman.

Erie County Democratic Chairman Jim Wertz started the night off, introducing Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), who spoke specifically about working-class issues and values, calling for a return to the kind Democratic values that made the Democrats the party of working families for decades and decades in the past.

Then Senator Casey introduced another of America’s working-class heroes, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH). Senator Brown has been a favorite of ours for some time, so it was good to be able to spend some time with him and give both Senators Casey and Brown a gift from the show:

Click the player below to hear the show we did from the event, and to hear the conversation between Rick and two of the best the Democrats have to offer, as they talk about the issues we need to address if we are going to rebuild America’s middle class and put the power bak in the hands of the people who create the wealth, instead of the people who spend all their time finding new ways to steal it.

For all the links you need to follow the tour and, of course, download the podcast, just click HERE.

Every day a new town. Every day a new story about America’s working people, their history, and the issues that matter to them most.

Thanks for following. We hope we get to meet you out there on the road.

The Working-Class Heroes Tour – Erie, PA

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After maybe the best breakfast we’ve ever had at Dabrowki’s on Erie’s east side, complete with pancakes the size of our heads and a server and cook who swore like a sailor and made us feel right at home, we set up shop for what would become a very full day. Our hosts are one of the oldest and strongest unions in Erie, the brothers and sisters of United Electric (UE) 506. They have a beautiful hall that is decorated with the history of the town, and of the fights UE has taken on to defend and advance the interests of Erie’s working families.

UE 506 has a long history of standing up for the rights of all workers, and they were just as fired up for the current fights as they were about the fights they won in the many pictures on the walls of the meeting hall.

At first, we didn’t know exactly what to expect; Erie voted for Obama, then for Trump, and then for Biden. It’s a very swing-y kind of place. What would we discover in 2022, with a mid-term election about to arrive and the political climate more toxic than at any point in the past 40 years?
It didn’t take long to answer that question. We spent the day talking to fired up public servants from all over the area. We spoke to candidates for Congress and the state legislature, and we spoke to current elected officials about the history of the area, and the plans they had to make lives better for the people they serve. We found ourselves taken in by the energy of the place, which is something we have been seeing from stop to stop on our travels. Something is going on in places like Erie.

But we wouldn’t get a whole story until that evening, when Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Bob Casey (D-PA), two of America’s greatest working class champions would arrive to campaign for PA Senate candidate John Fetterman.

More on that tomorrow.

Check our Day 1 of our visit to Erie here:

For all the links you need to follow the tour and, of course, download the podcast, just click HERE.

Every day a new town. Every day a new story about America’s working people, their history, and the issues that matter to them most.

Thanks for following. We hope we get to meet you out there on the road.

The Working-Class Heroes Tour – Scranton, PA

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Scranton is a beautiful small city with an active downtown and lots of economic potential.

But the history of the city, and of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, lies under the ground, hundreds of feet under the ground.

So that’s where we went, 300 feet under the ground into a coal mine, to see what work was like for the parents and grandparents of Scranton current residents.

Folks, people use terms like “life-changing experience” far too loosely, but this isn’t one of those times.

In a series of short videos and social media posts, we’re going to introduce you to John, our tour guide at the Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour and Ed, the site foreman – the men who taught us about the life of a Pennsylvania coal miner, and also the men responsible for making sure we came back out of the mine once we went in. Before we went into the mine, we sat down with Ed in the small museum at the top of the hill:

Once inside the mine, we were in John’s hands, and he showed us what Ed had previously told us about:

These short videos only scratch the surface of what we learned about the conditions the workers lived and died in, and just how many lives were lost so we could power the industrial revolution with Pennsylvania coal.

It’s an experience we’ll never forget, and an education in the kinds of cruelty that can follow when workers don’t have the power to control the conditions in which they work.

Don’t miss this episode. And if you ever get to Scranton, take the tour. It will probably make you uncomfortable, but it’s an experience every American working person should get to learn from, so we never, ever, ever let our fellow working Americans go through this again.

For all the links you need to follow the tour and, of course, download the podcast, just click HERE.

Every day a new town. Every day a new story about America’s working people, their history, and the issues that matter to them most.

Thanks for following. We hope we get to meet you out there on the road.

The Working-Class Heroes Tour – Reading, PA

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We hate to lead with the bad news, but to understand towns like Reading, PA and the grit of the people there, it’s good to know that it is and has been one of the poorest towns in America for many years. In 2011, the poverty rate was over 41%. As recently as 2018, it was still north of 35%. Those are absolutely staggering numbers.

Reading is a place that understands struggle, and it’s also a place that understands the false promises of the past.

We began our time in Reading by speaking to Arohi Pahtak, the Director of Policy at the Poverty to Prosperity Project at The Center for American Progress. The subject of the conversation was Joe Biden’s recent commitment to fight hunger, perhaps even eliminate it by 2030.

This is a subject near to our hearts – Rick grew up in poverty on the west side of Cleveland, and poverty almost always means hunger, especially for kids. It looks like there may be help coming, though, which is good news for the kids in Cleveland, and also those in Reading, PA and other towns like it.

Next we spent some time with Dean Showers, former President of the United Steelworkers 6996 in Reading. We learned about the downfall of manufacturing in Reading, and the union busting that always takes place when industry leaves to seek cheap labor overseas.

Once the manufacturing jobs left town, they were mostly replaced with lower paying service sector jobs. And the robber barons – not yet satisfied by rampant poverty they created, went after sustainable wage public sector jobs next. That’s what we spoke to Chris Ellis of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) about. We learned about the fights they lost and the fights they won, and about the fights yet to come.

Here’s the full episode. Thank you to the fine folks of Reading, PA for allowing us to tell this story:


Next stop: Scranton, PA

For all the links you need to follow the tour and, of course, download the podcast, just click HERE.

Every day a new town. Every day a new story about America’s working people, their history, and the issues that matter to them most.

Thanks for following. We hope we get to meet you out there on the road.

The Working-Class Heroes Tour – Allentown, PA

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The first stop on our tour is also the title of one of the most iconic working class anthems in American music history – Allentown, Pennsylvania. Billy Joel fans have been singing the name for a generation:

Well, we’re living here in Allentown
And they’re closing all the factories down
Out in Bethlehem, they’re killing time
Filling out forms, standing in line.

And there was a time when this description was pretty accurate, and our guests on the show don’t shy away from that history. But what we learn in our discussions is that the greed and the corruption that sent the factory jobs Billy Joel sings about to other countries can be countered by good policy, smart investment, and a political class that works hard for the people.

We were fortunate to meet a few of these public servants, beginning with State Representative Mike Schlossberg, and candidate for State Senate Nick Miller. Both spoke to us at length about the positive things going on in Allentown, and about the work they’re doing to improve the system of education in the area. Nick Miller (pictured) is a current school board member, and one of the youngest elected officials in the city’s history. Rep. Schlossberg began his political career in 2009, as the youngest member ever elected to the Allentown City Council before being elected a State Representative in 2013.

We also spent some time with Teamster 773 President Dennis Hower, who educated us on the city’s labor history. Dennis began his career as a package car driver for UPS, and he’s ben a Teamster since 1990. In this discussion, he explained that the benefits and pension that his union job offers could easily be duplicated by Amazon, FedEx, or any other company that competes with UPS. “The only reason they don’t is because they’re not union companies.”

We finished the days with a conversation with retired teacher and Lehigh County Democratic Party Chair Lori McFarland, and then it was off to one of the best hot dog joints in all the land – the world famous Yacco’s, which opened in Allentown way back in 1922.

Check out the full episode here:

Next stop: Reading, PA

For all the links you need to follow the tour and, of course, download the podcast, just click HERE.

Every day a new town. Every day a new story about America’s working people, their history, and the issues that matter to them most.

Thanks for following. We hope we get to meet you out there on the road.

The Working-Class Heroes Tour – Launch Day

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Before we set out on the road to begin the Working-Class Heroes, we decided to sit down with some of our favorite labor leaders to see what they had to say about the tour, and what they thought we might discover once we’re out there.

First, we spoke to old friend and AFA-CWA President Sara Nelson. AFA stands for Association of Flight Attendants, but many call the AFA’s members “Aviation’s First Responders.”

We spoke quite a bit about the divided state of today’s America, and about how the workplace can provide a place for people to come together. “When it’s time to fight the boss,” she said, “typically, our demands are right in line with each other.”

She’s correct. The things that unite us are far greater than the sum of the things that divide us.

She also said those divisions are very often created by money, especially when those divisions are political in nature. “Money controls our politics” she said, but she also said that while the bosses have the money, and often control, we have the power.

And she’s right.

Next, we spent some time with a labor legend, Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO Fred Redmond. Fred told us the story of Reynolds Metals in McCook County, Illinois. He told us about how the company was a part of the community, and how it provided the wages that sustained families all over the area; that is, until the hedge fund sharks came.

Fred told us the story of how the company was sliced and diced, and how the workers were left holding the pieces, but without healthcare, without pensions, and without jobs that were once the backbone of a vibrant community.

We also spoke to historian Eric Loomis, author of one of the very best books on labor history ever written. It’s called “A History of America in Ten Strikes” and you can find a copy HERE.

We discussed the long, rich, and often bloody labor history in the state of Pennsylvania, out first stop on the Working Class Heroes Tour. From the picket lines to the miners who never made it home, Pennsylvania is home to sixteen tons of history that is almost never taught in schools. As we travel, we plan to fill in some of the blank spots and shed light into some cold and dark places where workers lost their lives in pursuit of the American Dream.

Hear the full episode right here, but don’t forget to subscribe and download the podcast:

For all the links you need to follow the tour and, of course, download the podcast, just click HERE.

Every day a new town. Every day a new story about America’s working people, their history, and the issues that matter to them most.

Thanks for following. We hope we get to meet you out there on the road.