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Occupy Wall Street Labor March Special Coverage

LauraFlanders — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 06:59:16 +0000

Occupy Wall Street is entering its third week, but even though the local media teams have been doing extraordinary work, the money media are still covering the protest as if it were a wildlife park. If the networks won't bring the protesters into the studio, we're going to bring a broadcast "studio" to the protesters. In another collaboration with The Uptake, Free Speech TV and the Media Consortium, GRITtv/Laura Flanders produced a three hour special featuring coverage of the Occupy Wall Street Labor March -- with Naomi Klein, Eve Ensler, Mark Ruffalo, Laurie Penny, Lawrence Lessig, Wally Shawn, Arun Gupta and many more. Anyone can embed this special archived show in your website and share on your FB page. And you can support this coverage by donating here.

DeMoro: It’s Not About A Paycheck

LauraFlanders — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 23:28:27 +0000

The lobbyists and their pals in the media and Congress have Americans believing that the big corporations will leave this country if asked to pay their fair share. But nurses have seen their wages shrink and workloads grow even as the corporations they work for make more money every year. Private healthcare is a money-maker. The employers aren't going; their corporate accounts are growing. They're just getting meaner. And increasingly nurses are putting up a fight.

Here's a snippet of an extended conversation with Rose Ann DeMoro, Executive Director of National Nurses United recorded at the NNU national convention in Washington DC last month. One of the feistiest labor organizations I know, from Maine to California, nurses have launched a campaign for a different set of priorities: A Main Street Contract for America. Sometimes it's just good to hear someone hang tough.

Safety First: Texas Terminations Put Patients at Risk

LauraFlanders — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 23:33:46 +0000

To hear the debate over union rights in Washington, you'd think workers' rights had nothing to do with people's safety, only profits and threats to the same. The struggle of seven nurses in Brownsville Texas puts a different spin on things. According to the complaints these nurses have filed, the patient care assignments they were given directly endangered patients' lives. Linda Valdez and Regelio Garza were replaced this May after they protested assignments that they said made it impossible for them to do their job in their hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU) at Valley Regional hospital. This month, the nurses filed suit claiming their terminations violated several state laws protecting nurses who speak out about dangerous conditions. They tell their story here.

Richard Trumka: We Need to Focus on our Friends

LauraFlanders — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 21:34:07 +0000

The President and his party need to watch out. Going into 2012, money has never had more influence over elections (thank you Citizens United) nor has on-the-stoop person-power been more critical (just look at the fight going on right now over SB5 in Ohio.) Even before the budget debate -- and the breathtakingly bad June jobs numbers -- AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka was warning fair-weather friends not to count on a blank check from labor. Here's an excerpt of an interview with AFL-CIO President, Richard Trumka, recorded in Washington, D.C. in which he talks about the peril of corporate takeover of democracy, our collective power to create the America we dream of -- and issues a warning to Democratic party leaders. This summer, the nation's largest union federation is organizing members to visit their state and local politicians. Will they be getting an earful?

Anika Rahman: Fighting the Womancession

admin — Thu, 12 May 2011 15:00:33 +0000

"I imagine a world in which my seven-year-old daughter doesn't say to me 'I can't be the president because I'm a girl.'" Anika Rahman was horrified and yet not surprised when her daughter expressed that sentiment. As the new CEO and president of the Ms. Foundation for Women, Anika works to empower women to fight for their right to control their bodies and their lives.

She joins Laura in studio to talk about the latest research on how the recession is hitting women, about why she works for women's rights, and why the attacks on collective bargaining are attacks on women.

The Nurses Station: Jean Ross

admin — Thu, 12 May 2011 14:00:29 +0000

"The message of public vs. private, fight against each other, isn't working," says Jean Ross of the Minnesota Nurses Association, who joined the protests in Madison, Wisconsin at the Capitol building against Scott Walker's union-busting bill. Jean and the National Nurses United have been traveling and talking to their workers, hearing firsthand about the impact of the economy on nurses and their patients.

"The notion of shared sacrifice--there needs to actually be some sharing, but there's been none. All the burden has been on the working people in this country," Jean notes. She joins Laura via Skype from Minnesota to discuss the nurses' plan to take the fight to Wall Street.

The Nurses Station, Anika Rahman and New York Teachers

admin — Thu, 12 May 2011 00:00:41 +0000

Teachers right here in New York are facing more than just cinematic attacks—Mayor Bloomberg is laying off 4100 teachers and eliminating another 2000 teaching jobs through attrition. The Mayor blames Governor Cuomo, but the story is the same as the one we've heard in Wisconsin and around the country: there's just no money for those greedy union teachers. Our friend Brian Jones and the Grassroots Education Movement have crafted a response to that message in a film, The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting For Superman, and they're premiering it on May 19 in New York City.

On May 12, the teachers and a broad coalition of unions and activist groups are descending on Wall Street to make the point that there's actually plenty of money for schools and other social programs, if only Wall Street kicked in its fair share—or if they hadn't tanked the economy in the first place. Check out the links here for more on the May 12 action and the film premiere.

Richard Trumka: Fight, Mobilize, Educate Workers

admin — Wed, 04 May 2011 15:04:27 +0000

In Massachusetts, a Democratic state legislature voted to take away public workers' right to collectively bargain over health care, in what Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, calls "A miniature version of what we saw in Wisconsin." He notes that just like Scott Walker, these politicians are scapegoating employees who didn't cause the economic crisis.

But Trumka and the labor movement are fighting back, building coalitions with immigrants rights groups and civil rights organizations, banding together against a common enemy. He joins us via Skype from Washington, D.C. to give us the latest on actions this past May Day and ongoing around the country.

Richard Trumka, Phyllis Bennis, and US Uncut

admin — Wed, 04 May 2011 00:00:03 +0000

This weekend, the New York branch of the nationwide budget-cut protest group US Uncut tried a new tactic--they held teach-ins in not one, but two Bank of America locations, explaining economic issues to a crowd of interested listeners (and bank customers) until they were chased out by security. Thanks to US Uncut for producing the video!

"For the first time what we're seeing is people on the rise and they can no longer be ignored, by their own governments or by the United States," says Phyllis Bennis. And those people are saddened by the U.S.'s action against Osama Bin Laden, but more importantly are demanding that their voices be heard, not the voices of their dictators that the U.S. has relied on for so long.

Phyllis checks in with us from Amman, Jordan, and tells us about the reaction of people there to Bin Laden's death. She also gives us the latest from Cairo, Egypt, where she was before traveling to Jordan.

Finally, Jason Leopold for Truthout reports that BP may just be "too big to fail"--Laura has some thoughts.

Thomas Frank: What’s the Matter With Wisconsin?

admin — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 14:00:58 +0000

"This is what's interesting in Wisconsin: I think that the Right may have picked a fight they can't win rhetorically," says Harper's columnist Thomas Frank, who visited Wisconsin during the heat of the union battles this winter. He notes that Wisconsin was historically one of the most liberal states in the country, and the labor-liberal base there is fired up and ready to fight back.

Thomas joins Laura in studio to talk Wisconsin and the bigger picture for progressives in the country--is the time of the Tea Party fading?