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By Bob Hennelly

On this episode of the Moral Monday Labor Radio Hour with Rev. Dr. William Barber & Bob Hennelly, we are on the Atlantic Coast in southeast Florida, a state where over 42 percent of the voters are low wage and low wealth, and who, as Rev. Dr. William Barber reminds us, could change the course of history this year if they mobilize.

According to Florida United Way’s ALICE report, which tracks these households, 45 percent of the state’s households struggle week to week to get buy. In 28 counties out of Florida’s 67 counties, at least half or more of the households have trouble making ends meet. In nine of those counties, it’s 60 percent or higher. Overall, 77 percent of Florida’s households headed by a single mother with children live in households that struggle despite the fact the parent maybe working multiple jobs.

We’re talking about Florida and its staggering wealth inequality with Coy Jones, political action director for 1199 SEIU of Florida, which is doing so much to fight for healthcare workers and their patients in a so-called “right to work state” that’s been hostile to unions and overly friendly to corporations. Coy is also joined by Amy Runkle, a certified nurse’s assistant for close to 40 years who has been fighting for safe staffing in a state where nursing homes were particularly hard hit during the COVID pandemic.

We also visit with Ernesto Ruiz of the Farmworkers Association of Florida, which advocates for the tens of thousands of immigrant agricultural workers who work here to deliver the fruits and vegetables that our nation relies on — even as the global climate crisis drives temperatures into life threatening triple digits. Ernesto discusses how Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state legislature have passed legislation that makes it illegal for county governments to pass laws that protect these workers from working in extreme heat. That’s right, you heard me  correctly. This law which takes effect in July, actually  prohibits local governments from protecting workers from extreme heat.

But before all that, Rev. Barber kicks off this week’s show discussing both the campus protests happening across the country calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza — as well as the need for a reappraisal of the link between higher education and the US military industrial complex, which devours the national budget at the expense of everything else, including the health and well-being of the American people.

Listen to the entire show below: