Maximillian Alvarez is editor-in-chief at the Real News Network and host of the podcast Working People, available at InTheseTimes.com. He is also the author of The Work of Living: Working People Talk About Their Lives and the Year the World Broke.
Interview
“The People of Chicago Run the City”: Brandon Johnson on His Progressive Vision
We spoke with Chicago mayoral candidate Brandon Johnson about public safety, the housing crisis and building a movement against the neoliberal status quo.
LaborPodcast
Rail Workers of the World, Unite!
Railroad workers and union reps from the US, UK, and France discuss the class struggle in their respective countries and how these struggles are connected internationally in this special episode of the ‘Working People’ podcast.
Labor
Wall Street Caused the East Palestine Crisis
Rail companies are trying to turn astronomical 45% profit margins—and no one's stopping them. An interview with railroad worker Matt Weaver.
LaborPodcast
Where Do Railroad Workers Go from Here?
Four railroad workers discuss Congress’s handling of the rail contract dispute, and how Wall Street’s destruction of the freight rail system is only going to get worse for workers, shippers, and all of us.
Labor
In Key Swing States, Union Members Are Democrats’ Last Line of Defense
In 2020, UNITE HERE workers led the charge in canvassing voters and played a key role in Democrats’ electoral victories. This year, they’re taking the lead once again.
Labor
Inside the Fight To Unionize Delta Air Lines
Delta is the last major airline in the US where flight attendants are not unionized. Its workers want to change that.
Labor
I Survived the Rig Explosion That Caused the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. This Is What I Saw.
It’s been 12 years since the oil spill caused by British Petroleum devastated the Gulf. A people’s history of this disaster has yet to be told.
Labor
One Year Later, Friends and Family of Kroger Employee Driven to Suicide Want Justice
The tragic suicide of Evan Seyfried has been linked to targeted bullying and harassment by coworkers and management at Kroger—his loved ones are still seeking answers and justice.
Labor
Heat Waves Are Literally Killing UPS Workers
Package deliverers and mail carriers aren’t just suffering from capitalist-induced climate change. They’re also often forced to work in vehicles without air conditioning.
Labor
Chicago Teachers Suspect Mayor Lightfoot Tried To Fire Them for Opposing a New Scrapyard
Chicago Public Schools targeted two teachers involved in a campaign to stop the relocation of a dirty General Iron metal shredder to Chicago’s Southeast Side. The union and the community fought back.
Labor
Ask a Railroad Worker: How Did Railroad Jobs Get So Bad?
As a national rail shutdown over mounting labor disputes looms in the US, it’s worth asking how we got here from the folks who know best—the workers themselves.
Labor
Chipotle Shut Down Its Only Unionized Store. Organizers Say It’s Retaliation.
While the company denies the closure is related to union activity, it fits a larger pattern of union-busting efforts at other franchises like Starbucks and Heine Brothers’ Coffee.
Labor
The New ‘Lavender Scare’ Is an Attack on the Working Class
A new wave of attacks on queer and trans rights is here. The Working People podcast asks veteran LGBTQ+ labor organizers how workers can fight back.
Labor
UK Rail Workers Prepare for Second Round of Strikes
After their bosses responded to last month’s 40,000-strong rail workers’ strike with a “paltry” contract offer, the National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport Workers are gearing up for another day of strike action on Wednesday, July 27.
Labor
Organizers Look Back on Labor Notes 2022
A whopping 4,000 union workers and activists attended the Labor Notes conference in Chicago this year to share strategies and report on the status of the rising labor movement.
Labor
A Pro-union Worker Asked Amazon for Injury Accommodations. Amazon Fired Her.
The Amazon Labor Union victory at the JFK8 warehouse on Staten Island was historic. But right now, as we speak, Amazon is currently in court trying to throw out the results of that election, and pro-union workers keep getting fired.
Labor
Frontline Physicians in L.A. Can’t Pay Rent, So They Threatened to Strike
Medical residents and interns in LA County have kept their hospitals running while making minimum wage and struggling to pay rent. Then they overwhelmingly voted to strike and won big.
Labor
Louisiana Dollar Store Workers Can’t Control Air Conditioning in Their Own Stores
The pandemic and the inflation panic have been a boon to dollar stores, which are spreading rapidly throughout low-income areas and “food deserts,” but dollar store employees are being left behind. That’s why workers and community members are organizing.
Labor
"Definitely It's Retaliation": Starbucks Closes Unionized Store in Ithaca
A conversation with Nadia Vitek, a worker-organizer with Starbucks Workers United.
Labor
What It's Like Being a Gravedigger During the Pandemic
A conversation with a cemetery worker about politics, life and labor during the Covid crisis.
Labor
The Long, Uphill Battle to Unionize Workers at Religious Institutions
A conversation with Maggie Levantovskaya, a lecturer at a small Jesuit university, about how workers there formed a union, despite the fact that the National Labor Relations Board does not have jurisdiction over religious institutions.
Labor
One Big Union for Charter Schools?
A conversation with Tyler Powles, who was a 4th-grade teacher at Caliber: Beta Academy for five years, and Erinn Murphy, an education specialist (and school parent) at Caliber: ChangeMakers Academy.
Labor
Meet the Tongan-American Unionist on a Pilgrimage To Support Striking Workers Around the U.S.
A conversation with Tevita 'Uhatafe, a rank-and-file member of the Transport Workers Union Local 513 in Dallas-Fort Worth.
Labor
50 Years of Class War in Wisconsin
A conversation with veteran educators and organizers Frank Emspak and Adrienne Pagac about the conditions that paved the way for the Wisconsin Uprising.
Labor
The Campus Workers Withdrawing Their Consent
A conversation with student and graduate employees about why workers are simultaneously on strike at two universities.
FeatureInterview
Why Nina Turner Is Taking on the Establishment Again
On her second run for Congress, the plainspoken progressive is still calling it as she sees it.
Labor
The Incredible, Winding Path of a Working-Class Nurse in Wisconsin
A conversation with long-time artist, activist, and registered nurse Susan Simensky Bietila in Milwaukee.
Labor
Why Workers Picketed the Southern Poverty Law Center
Employees and union activists say the civil rights organization mistreats its lowest-paid and most marginalized workers.
Labor
Howard University Faculty Win Tentative Agreement Just Hours Before Planned Strike
After nearly four years of bargaining with the university to get their first union contract, lecturers at Howard University narrowly avert a strike at the 11th hour.
Labor
Wisconsin's Labor Movement Was Forged in Fire
Scholars Harvey J. Kaye and Jon Shelton talk about the strikes and uprisings that paved the way.
Labor
The Wisconsin Teachers Still Trying to Rebuild Unions After Scott Walker Gutted Them
A conversation with K-12 teachers in Hortonville and union organizers with the American Federation of Teachers.
Labor
Unions Stand With Exploited Immigrant Demolition Workers in NYC
A conversation with Chaz Rynkiewicz, vice president of Laborers Local 79.
Labor
The Political Transformation That Happens When Workers Speak for Themselves
On the importance of deep conversations—and listening.
Labor
A U.S. Court Just Intervened to Stop 17,000 Railroad Workers From Going On Strike
A conversation with Jeff Kurtz, a railway engineer and union member for 40 years.
Labor
The Teachers Being Demonized for Trying To Save Us From the Pandemic
A conversation with locked-out members of the Chicago Teachers Union.
Labor
A Buffalo Starbucks Worker Talks About Why He Wants a Union
A conversation with Brian Murray, one of the Buffalo workers, and journalist Jordan Chariton, who recently traveled to Buffalo to speak with Starbucks workers.
Culture
Fiction Is a Beautiful Weapon in the Class War
A conversation with Sarah Lazare, the co-author of the leftist noir novel, Testimony.
Labor
The Insurgent Slate Just Won the Teamsters Election. Here’s What’s at Stake.
A conversation with journalist Indigo Olivier.
Labor
We Could Be Looking at a Historic Healthcare Industry Strike
Overworked and underpaid, 35,000 Kaiser Permanente workers could walk off the job on Monday.
Labor
Solidarity and Togetherness During These Bleak Times
A special conversation with close friends of the Working People podcast.
Labor
The Rank-and-File Fight for Direct Democracy at UAW
A conversation with Justin Mayhugh, a worker at General Motors in Kansas City, about a referendum on whether UAW members can directly elect top union officers.
Labor
Kellogg's Workers Are Striking Against a "Two-Tiered" System of Workplace Inequality
A conversation with Dan Osborn, who has worked at the Omaha, Nebraska, plant for 18 years.
Labor
Wisconsin Hay Farmers vs. Big Ag
A conversation with Lisa Doerr, co-owner of a hay farm in Polk County that supplies food for small-scale livestock farmers in the area.
Labor
The Small-Town Beekeeper Facing Down Big Ag
A conversation with rural Wisconsin beekeeper Kristy Lynn Allen.
Labor
Hollywood’s Overworked Crews Overwhelmingly Vote to Authorize a Strike
IATSE members discuss how workers in the entertainment industry have been run into the ground—and why they're fighting back.
Labor
How Rural Wisconsin Communities Are Fighting Back Against Big Ag's "Hog Factories"
Why residents are taking on industrial meat production.
Labor
Talking to Bourbon Workers on the Picket Line
A conversation with Matt Aubrey, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 23D.
Labor
The Tragic and Irreversible Consequences of Workplace Bullying
The family of grocery worker Evan Seyfried has not stopped seeking justice.