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America’s Work Force Union Podcast

BMA Media Group

America’s Work Force Union Podcast provides a clear and unfiltered voice for the working people of America. Radio veteran Ed “Flash” Ferenc leads the discussion with a focus on topics that include the impact of labor unions in America, workers’ rights, legislative actions and labor-management relations. Featured guests include various labor leaders, politicians, journalists and more. America’s Work Force Union Podcast provides updates and information from sources around the United States and continues to be the trusted voice for workers across the country.

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S7 · E208
Monday · 38 min
AFSCME 1072 on Withheld Raises and Layoffs at University of Maryland
The University System of Maryland negotiated raises with its workers. The raises were legally binding. The state sent the money to cover them. The USM withheld them anyway. The governor had to order them to comply. Then UMD College Park laid off 73 workers — the first mass layoff of state-funded positions in the university's history, with more than 80% of those laid off being union-represented. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, AFSCME Local 1072 board member Krista Bulley, vice president Jen Patterson and at-large executive board member Patrick Trujillo discuss what is happening at the University of Maryland: how the union forced the governor's hand on the raises, who the 73 laid-off workers were and why the union says the budget crisis UMD is citing does not exist, and where the Step 3 grievance fight at the Office of Administrative Hearings stands as the union works to bring every one of those workers back. Visit afscmemd.org for more.
S7 · E207
Friday · 33 min
American Legion on Veterans Careers and Alliance on Social Security
Two conversations about protecting what Americans have earned — one on helping veterans translate their military service into civilian careers and one on stopping an unelected commission from quietly cutting the Social Security benefits workers have paid into their entire lives. American Legion Director of Media and Communications Henry Howard discusses the Legion’s hundreds of annual veteran job fairs and union partnerships, the ongoing fight for military credentialing legislation to count service time toward civilian licensing requirements, and the November magazine cover story marking the 50th anniversary of women at the service academies. The central profile is Pat Locke of the first West Point class, who didn’t know what West Point was when someone first asked if she wanted to attend and has since become one of the Academy’s most prolific recruiters and one of only six women among 177 recipients of the West Point Distinguished Graduate Award. Howard also discusses how American Legion posts will mark Veterans Day, including the New York City Veterans Day Parade, a wreath at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall and a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington. Then, Alliance for Retired Americans Executive Director Rich Fiesta discusses the Social Security benefit cut threat — trustees project a 22% cut by 2032, a recent independent analysis says 24% — and the fiscal commission bill introduced by Representative Bill Huizenga that would create an unelected panel to fast-track a restructuring plan with no public hearings, no public input and no amendments allowed. The Alliance is in congressional offices now and will be back through the lame-duck session to stop it. He also covers the Alliance’s independent expenditure advertising in Huizenga’s Michigan district, the congressional voting record at retiredamericans.org and why, if your mail ballot hasn’t gone out yet, you should go vote early in person instead. If you or a veteran you know is struggling, call or text 988 or visit betheone.org. Visit legion.org and retiredamericans.org for more.
S7 · E206
Thursday · 29 min
IATSE Local 415 on Two First Contracts Ratified in Tucson
A projectionist at the Loft Cinema was making $15.50 an hour. After more than a year of bargaining with IATSE Local 415, the vote to ratify the first contract was unanimous. Projectionists now make approximately $20 an hour. Three days earlier, 20 workers at the Arizona Theatre Company ratified their first contract. Two wins in one week in Tucson. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, IATSE Local 415 Business Agent Ian Fritz, International Representative Amanda Sager and Loft Cinema organizer Victor Bostick discuss what it took to get here, why the nonprofit argument at the bargaining table is not the obstacle it sounds like and why Ian says entertainment workers at other Tucson venues are already paying attention. Visit iatse415.org and iatse.net for more.
S7 · E205
October 14 · 33 min
CWA on Call Centers and Ohio AFL-CIO on Election Prep and November 3rd
Two conversations about the work happening right now — one on legislation to stop corporations from offshoring call center jobs while collecting taxpayer money, and one on the first day of early voting in Ohio and what the labor movement is doing to make November 3rd count. CWA District 4 Administrative Director Frank Mathews discusses the Keep Call Centers in America Act of 2025 (Senate Bill 2495), which would make companies that offshore call center jobs ineligible for federal grants, loans and taxpayer assistance, and Michigan’s anti-offshoring bills House Bill 6069 and 6070, which had a bipartisan statehouse rally in September. Texas, Louisiana and New York have already passed similar legislation. He also discusses CWA District 4’s election ground game across five states: more than 2,000 volunteer shifts, over 16,000 handwritten postcards to Ohio members and retirees, more than 50,000 Battleground Bulletin emails and why Elon Musk’s reported $275 million in campaign spending — including his failed intervention in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race — is no substitute for boots on the ground. Then, Ohio AFL-CIO President Tim Burga joins, fresh off his reelection, at the biennial constitutional convention alongside newly elected Secretary-Treasurer Melissa Cropper. He discusses the convention energy he compared to 2006 and the standout speaker, IUPAT International President Jimmy Williams Jr., the federation’s voter protection plan with poll observers deployed alongside the door-knocking operation on Election Day, top endorsements including Amy Acton and David Pepper for governor, Sherrod Brown for Senate and ironworker Brian Poindexter for Congressional District 7 and canvas operations running from eight locations across Ohio. Visit cwad4.org for more from CWA District 4 and ohioaflcio.org for more from the Ohio AFL-CIO.
S7 · E204
October 13 · 26 min
Amazon Driver Fred German on DRI-1 and the Fight for the Teamsters
He had been the driver of the month the month before. Top performer two weeks before that. Let go after five years. The stated reason: reduced routes. The actual reason: he was organizing with the Teamsters. The workers who were terminated are now flyering outside the station. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, Teamsters Local 251 organizer Fred German discusses the DRI-1 organizing campaign in Providence, Rhode Island, where 90 Amazon delivery drivers have demanded recognition, which has been refused. Routes that topped out at 160 stops when he started now consistently run 200, with 250 actual delivery locations. Vans with broken transmissions keep getting sent out. Amazon's response is union-busting meetings, increased management presence and worker terminations. None of it has stopped the campaign. Visit teamster.org for more.
S7 · E203
October 12 · 46 min
OUP USA Guild’s Arbitration Win and TTD’s Regan on Rail and Aviation Safety
Two conversations about workers fighting back — one a hard-won arbitration victory against a prestigious publisher that broke its first contract two weeks after ratifying it, and one a monthly check-in on the transportation safety fights that never go away. OUP USA Guild operations chair Mark Longaker and NewsGuild-CWA general counsel Barbara Camens discuss the September 2026 arbitration award finding that Oxford University Press violated its collective bargaining agreement when it laid off 13 workers just over two weeks after ratifying its first contract and transferred their work to the United Kingdom — after announcing $50 million in profits. The employer refused to respond to information requests and claimed a lack of work. The guild followed the breadcrumbs, built the case through intensive fact-finding with laid-off workers and current employees and prevailed in a three-day New York arbitration hearing. Remedy discussions are ongoing with the goal of restoring 13 positions to the bargaining unit. Camens also discloses that the NewsGuild is now taking the Associated Press to arbitration over a global production center in India and the layoff of dozens of News Media Guild workers. Then, TTD AFL-CIO President Greg Regan discusses Rail Safety Week and the Railway Safety Act amendment’s passage out of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee with a large bipartisan majority — nearly four years after East Palestine — while Class I railroads continue spending heavily to block meaningful reform. He addresses AI programs already emerging inside the freight rail systems at CSX and Norfolk Southern, why now is the window to establish worker protections before the technology becomes too embedded, the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund’s solvency and the partial implementation of secondary cockpit barriers and the Trump administration’s plan to expand TSA privatization through the Screening Partnership Program from roughly a dozen airports to more than 300. Visit oxfordpressunion.org for more from the OUP USA Guild and ttd.org for more from the TTD.
S7 · E202
October 9 · 32 min
EPI's Lynn Rhinehart on Sectoral Bargaining and the Path Forward
Millions of workers say they want a union. The law makes it too hard to get one. Most of Europe has a model that sets wages for entire industries at once, covering every worker, whether or not their individual workplace is organized. Three US states are already trying a version of it for rideshare drivers. And an EPI senior fellow says the conditions for winning real labor law reform are better right now than they have been in decades. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, EPI Senior Fellow Lynn Rhinehart discusses sectoral bargaining, what Massachusetts, Illinois and California are doing for Uber and Lyft drivers through a Machinists and SEIU-led initiative, why wage boards are useful but not a substitute for unions, the two-edged problem with lifting federal preemption and why the moment to organize for labor law reform is now. Visit epi.org for more and read Rhinehart's full blog post at onlabor.org.
S7 · E201
October 8 · 31 min
Bricklayers' Victor Castro on Restoring the Capitol and a Life in Stone
He came from Spain in 1986 with his father's encouragement. He worked his way up to foreman. He left, came back and became a U.S. citizen in 2008. And somewhere in between, he spent decades restoring the U.S. Capitol, the Washington Monument and the National Cathedral — working on stone set by craftspeople a century before him, trying to be worthy of what they left behind. On today's Trades Day episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local 1 MVD foreman Victor Castro discusses his journey from Spain to four decades of historic restoration work in Washington, D.C., including a National Cathedral core drilling story involving a wedding, pressure loss and clouds of dust that will stay with you. Local 1 President Scott Garvin joins to reflect on what Victor's mentorship of the next generation means for the craft's future. Visit bacweb.org and baclocal1.org for more.
S7 · E200
October 7 · 27 min
AFSCME 2975's Evan Newton on Corvallis Workers' Contract Fight
The city of Corvallis, Oregon, calls itself an employer of choice. Over the past four years, 75% of its union-represented workforce has turned over. Management recently gave itself extra pay steps for retention. Workers at the bargaining table are being offered a contract worse than the one they already have. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, AFSCME Local 2975 President Evan Newton discusses where the contract fight stands after months of bargaining, state mediation and a declared impasse — why the real negotiation is happening at city council, not at the bargaining table, and why a strike is on the table for the workers who clean Corvallis's streets, treat its water and run its library. Visit afscme2975.org for more.
S7 · E199
October 6 · 36 min
SMART-TD's Bob Guy on Rail Safety, PSR and What East Palestine Proved
Every three hours in the United States, a vehicle or a person is hit by a train. More than 2,300 people are injured or killed every year in North America at railroad crossings and along tracks. More than 60% of those collisions happen at crossings already equipped with lights or gates. And the train that derailed at East Palestine, Ohio, started in Decatur, Illinois. SMART-TD crews flagged it before it left. They were required to take it anyway. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, SMART-TD Illinois Legislative Director Bob Guy discusses what rail safety looks like from inside the industry: what Precision Scheduled Railroading's 30% workforce cut did to freight rail reliability, what actually happened at East Palestine, why the two-person crew standard still needs federal protection and what the CSX Barr Yard closure is doing to freight delays in Chicago right now. Visit illini-smarttd.org for more.
S7 · E198
October 5 · 48 min
32BJ SEIU on BWI Airport Workers and IAM's Buffenbarger on AI and Work
Two conversations that cut to the heart of what workers are facing right now — one on the fight to lift airport workers out of poverty wages today and one on what AI and quantum computing are doing to skilled work tomorrow. 32BJ SEIU Executive Vice President Jaime Contreras discusses the campaign to amend the Secure Maryland Wage Act to raise wages, secure employer-paid healthcare and establish paid time off for more than 1,000 airline-contracted workers at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport who currently earn $17 an hour with no healthcare benefits, while comparable airports in New York, Boston and Philadelphia already pay wages in the $20 range with healthcare and paid time off. Governor Wes Moore has committed to emergency legislation in the upcoming Maryland session. Contreras also shares his own story: from undocumented teenager fleeing El Salvador's civil war in 1988, to US Navy veteran, to citizen in 1996, to leader of a 195,000-member union that runs its own legal fund to cover every cost for green card holders seeking citizenship. Then, IAM retired International President Tom Buffenbarger shares what an internationally recognized architect told him on the drive to the IAM Kentucky State Council meeting: that AI and quantum computing have compressed 18 to 24 months of architectural design work into five minutes, that contractors are beginning to bypass architects entirely and that the profession is going away. Tennessee Valley Authority members at the same meeting described new manufacturing plant designs that are eliminating cafeterias, break rooms and parking lots because the future those plants are designed for has very few human workers in it. And they described a coming return to nuclear energy — with a wave of construction jobs followed by facilities that will need almost no one to operate — as the practical answer to the electricity demands that AI infrastructure is generating. Visit seiu32bj.org for more from 32BJ SEIU and goiam.org for more from the IAM.
S7 · E196
October 2 · 22 min
AFL-CIO's Fred Redmond on Election Protectors and the 2 Million Goal
94% of workers say their paychecks are not keeping up with the cost of living. Four in five say politicians are not showing up for them. The AFL-CIO's response is 50,000 trained election protectors deployed in yellow vests at battleground-state polling locations, a worker-first endorsement standard that holds Democrats and Republicans equally accountable, and one of the largest political ground games the federation has mounted in many years. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond joins for the first installment of Friday with Fred to discuss the unanimous AFL-CIO Executive Council position on the November 3rd election, the election protection program running through at least seven days after the election, the 2 million new member organizing goal set at the June convention that Redmond describes as the floor not the ceiling and why seven in ten Americans have supported unions for five consecutive years. Visit aflcio.org for more and read Liz Shuler's State of the Workers address.
S7 · E196
October 1 · 31 min
C/COBCTC's Dorsey Hager on Data Centers, Honda and Ohio's Gas Tax
The Yotta data center conference in Las Vegas started three years ago with 1,500 attendees. This year it drew 7,000. Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council Executive Secretary-Treasurer Dorsey Hager was there, meeting one-on-one with hyperscalers and developers — some looking at Ohio for the first time — while the Columbus building trades are on pace to eclipse 20 million work hours this year, up from 4 million a decade ago. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, Hager joins from Las Vegas to discuss what the data center boom means for Ohio and Central Ohio workers, reports of a possible new Honda plant in Union County that would extend the C/COBCTC's 50-year partnership with Honda, why Columbus's projected population doubling by 2050 makes sustained infrastructure investment non-negotiable and why he calls the Ohio gas tax suspension — estimated by Governor DeWine to cost the state transportation budget approximately $750 million — very bad policy at exactly the wrong moment. Visit columbusconstruction.org for more.
S7 · E195
September 30 · 51 min
Animation Guild on DreamWorks Win and ILEPI on the Union Membership Surge
Two conversations capturing what the union movement looks like right now — one tracing how remote animation workers at DreamWorks won their first collective bargaining agreement and one showing what the national data says about where the labor movement is headed. Animation Guild TAG Local 839 IATSE field rep Mairghread Scott and DreamWorks character rigger and negotiating committee member JJ Jay discuss the first collective bargaining agreement covering DreamWorks remote workers, ratified August 21, 2026 with 97% in favor and 83% turnout. The contract delivers free single healthcare coverage through the Motion Picture Industry plan with a family cap of $50 per month regardless of family size, a 52% wage increase for the lowest-paid workers, an end to the practice of paying remote workers less based on where they live and an automatic employer retirement contribution of 6% of union base wages requiring no employee contribution. Jay said his personal healthcare savings under the contract amount to approximately $6,900 annually compared to what DreamWorks was offering non-union employees. Scott said the key to getting it done was workers who knew their worth and were willing to stand together. Then, Illinois Economic Policy Institute economist Frank Manzo discusses the 12th Annual State of the Union Study, produced in coordination with the Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The study found that the United States added more than 411,000 union members last year, the largest one-year surge since 2008, with union membership growing three times faster in states that protect collective bargaining rights than in states with so-called "right-to-work" laws. Workers in so-called "right-to-work" states earn 8% less than their peers in collective bargaining states after adjusting for cost of living, a gap that has widened since 2019. The highest union membership rates nationally are among Black workers, military veterans and workers with advanced degrees. And the Trump administration's attempt to revoke collective bargaining rights from more than one million federal workers drove a surge in public sector organizing that helped push the national total to its highest point in nearly two decades. Visit animationguild.org for more from the Animation Guild and illinoisepi.org for the full State of the Union Study.
S7 · E194
September 29 · 32 min
Pete Ielmini on Energy Conservation and the Federal Mechanical Insulation Act
At Ellis Island in the early 1900s, the Bricklayers' union was advertising to arriving immigrants. The biggest selling point beyond wages was the eight-hour workday, because the workers coming over had been working 12- and 14-hour days. That was a union promise. The eight-hour workday, the 40-hour workweek and OSHA all exist because unions fought for them. Every American worker has benefited, union member or not. On today's Trades Day episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, Mechanical Insulators LMCT Executive Director Pete Ielmini discusses the LMCT's presence at the Association of Energy Engineers World Energy Conference and Expo in Orlando, where a live bare-pipe demonstration showed $300 to $400 in annual energy loss per uncovered foot and a game show format packed the room. He also updates the Federal Mechanical Insulation Act — passed in the House on the suspension calendar, four Senate co-signers and a closing legislative clock — and reflects on what the labor movement built for every worker in this country. Visit mechanicalinsulatorslmct.com for more.
S7 · E193
September 28 · 34 min
UC Doctors United's Jacob Lentz on Organizing Physicians at UC Health
He spent eight and a half years writing for Jimmy Kimmel, went on strike twice with the Writers Guild and watched a well-organized union deliver real results. Then he went to medical school, became an ER doctor at UCLA, and watched conditions worsen every year for 11 years. Now he is one of the organizers behind UC Doctors United — an effort to unionize nearly 10,000 attending physicians across the University of California system, the only group at UCLA Health currently without union protection. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, UC Doctors United organizer Dr. Jacob Lentz discusses the organizing drive, why it is about patient care and not physician pay, what his Writers Guild experience taught him about what unions actually do and how he is making the case to colleagues who have spent careers being told unions are the problem. Visit ucdoctorsunited.org for more.
S7 · E192
September 25 · 31 min
MIT's Paul Osterman on Disposable Workers and a New Employment Crisis
A McKinsey report argued that 95% of a firm's value is produced by 5% of its workforce. An MIT professor spent years finding out what that means for the other 95%. His answer: approximately 35% of the entire US workforce is now employed with no employer intention of retaining them — building cleaners, security guards, travel nurses, freelance journalists, adjunct faculty and millions of W-2 workers in jobs their employers never intend to keep. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, MIT Sloan Professor Emeritus Paul Osterman discusses his book Disposable Workers: The Transformation of Employment, published by Harvard University Press in August 2026. He discusses why companies are making this shift, what AI will do to the numbers and why the evidence that unions make workers better off is clear. Book available through Harvard University Press at hup.harvard.edu.
S7 · E191
September 24 · 31 min
BMWED on CSX Cutting Track Workers While Reporting Record Profits
CSX reported $3.94 billion in quarterly revenue and approximately $1 billion in quarterly net earnings. Then it notified the union it plans to cut its maintenance of way workforce by 29% and defer capital track maintenance at the same time. Nine hundred system production employees will be furloughed by November 15. Human track inspections have been reduced by 40% in the past 90 days. Workers who find defects are being pressured not to report them. Jason Graham, one of today's guests, lives near East Palestine, Ohio. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, BMWED General Chairmen Brian Thompson and Jason Graham discuss what is happening at CSX, why no other Class 1 railroad is doing this at the same scale, what deferred track maintenance actually means and what it will take to stop it. Visit bmwe.org for more.
S7 · E190
September 23 · 26 min
Andrew Strom on the Fifth Circuit's OSHA Mental Health Ruling
A refinery worker responds to an eight-hour fire and is later diagnosed with PTSD. ExxonMobil does not record it as a workplace illness. OSHA cites them. The case goes to the Fifth Circuit. Three judges rule that OSHA never had authority to require mental health injury reporting in the first place — because the word illnesses in the 1970 OSHA Act might not have meant mental illness. The regulation they just invalidated has been on the books for 25 years. Congress never objected. Republican and Democratic administrations left it in place. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, labor lawyer Andrew Strom discusses what the Fifth Circuit actually decided in the ExxonMobil case, why a 25-year-old regulation can apparently be rewritten by three unelected judges, how employers nationwide use the Fifth Circuit as a destination court for challenges to labor and employment law and why OSHA should appeal to the Supreme Court but probably will not. Visit onlabor.org for more.
S7 · E189
September 22 · 39 min
Mass Building Trades Recovery Council on No Stigma, No Shame
A union member stands before a construction crew and tells his story. Raw. Personal. The crew that did not want to be there goes completely silent. And the phone rings a dozen times the next day, with workers saying, "I think I need help." That is what a stand-down looks like. That is what the Massachusetts Building Trades Recovery Council has been building for five years — and what other states are now asking how to replicate. On today's Trades Day episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, Massachusetts Building Trades Recovery Council Director Dan McNulty discusses the model: how tying recovery to union membership and work changes who seeks help and when, what stand-downs and contractor roundtables look like in practice, how free Narcan is being distributed through apprenticeship programs without hesitation and what any state building trades council needs to start its own recovery council. If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988. Visit massbuildingtrades.org/recovery for more.

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