By Joe Maniscalco

Roughly the same number of American voters who helped Joe Biden best Donald Trump in 2020 decided not to vote at all in that same election. That’s a lot of people—about 81 million, in fact—some of whom could, nevertheless, now be moved to help prevent King Donald I from returning to the throne in November. But that’s only if the Democratic National Committee actually gave them reason enough to get out and vote this time out. 

Editor’s Note: This is Part 2 of a special two-part Work-Bites report on the increasing dangers across the nation’s freight rail system and the growing calls for public ownership of those lines.

By Steve Wishnia

The “Putting America Back on Track: The Case for a 21st Century Public Rail System” report released earlier this month lays out several arguments for public ownership of freight railroads.

Courtesy of InsiderNJ

By Bob Hennelly

I started writing this at Milwaukee’s Mitchell Airport waiting to catch a long delayed flight back to Newark having spent the full week covering the Republican National Convention. I am stationed on the floor near an electrical outlet to recharge my phone.

Editor’s Note: This is Part 1 of a special two-part Work-Bites report on the increasing dangers across the nation’s freight rail system and the growing calls for public ownership of those lines.

By Steve Wishnia

Corporate ownership has messed up freight rail in the U.S. and Canada so badly that public ownership is the only way to save it, argues a study released this summer

By Phil Cohen

On the evening of January 4, I met with the committee and proposed a more dramatic return to Sam’s Club that would garner headlines rather than brief mentions by the press. Playing it safe doesn’t generate three-minute spots on the evening news.

By Phil Cohen

I distributed a leaflet scheduling a union meeting for November 11, at 5:30pm.  Beneath the headline it read:

“Despite Starlite’s games, lies, and efforts to confuse workers, the union remains!  Starlite is making the same mistake as every sleazy union busting company. They are underestimating their workers. They underestimate our common sense. They underestimate our courage. They underestimate our determination.”

By Steve Wishnia

The Heritage Foundation has a plan for Donald Trump’s “deep state.” As he has minimal command of policy issues and details, he relies on the far-right think tank to come up with specific proposals. They know what “concerted activity” is and have ideas about how to weaken Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act.

By Steve Wishnia

Worker-safety advocates hailed the proposed federal heat-protection standards released by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration July 2—but they also warn that they must be adequately enforced.

By Steve Wishnia

The basic principle of American democracy, if summed up in one sentence, is: THE PRESIDENT IS NOT A KING.

Three days before the Fourth of July, the Supreme Court retroactively crowned King Donald I.

Editor’s Note: Building on the success of its  Moral Monday Labor Radio Hour With Rev. Dr. William Barber & Bob Hennelly, the Pacifica Radio Network [PRN] is launching real time coverage of the seminal live events from the 2024 election cycle starting with the June 29th “Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington, D.C. and the polls.”

By Steve Wishnia

Working people’s issues barely got mentioned in the presidential debate June 27.

Well, in the first minute, President Joe Biden declared “working-class people are still in trouble,” when asked a question about the economy, and blamed inflation on “corporate greed” and the “chaos” he inherited from Donald Trump after COVID.

By Steve Wishnia

The February 2023 derailment of a freight train in East Palestine, Ohio, that forced the evacuation of more than 2,000 people was caused when an overheated wheel bearing on a hopper car caused the axle to separate, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a summary of its forthcoming report released June 25.

By Phil Cohen

Editor’s Note: This is Part Three of Phil’s three-part saga about his days driving an illegal taxi [otherwise known as a “gypsy cab”] on the streets of New York City back in the late 1960s when he was still just a teen.

I returned to New York out of money and learned that the landlords of The Apartment had refused to renew the lease. Desperate to reorganize my life, I found what appeared to be a professionally run taxi stand on Sutphin Boulevard in Jamaica.

By Ryn Gargulinski

“Mondays suck.” “Today is going to be the worst workday ever.” “The world is going to hell in a handbasket.” Raise your hand if any of those thoughts crossed your mind in the last year. The last month. The last week. The last five minutes?

By Phil Cohen

During the early 1930’s, anyone could pay the city $10 for a taxi medallion to register their vehicle for livery service. The small silver shield, attached to the hood of their car, documented drivers were licensed to transport passengers who hailed them on the street.

By Steve Wishnia

Donald Trump should go to prison.

Much of the punditry following his conviction on 34 Class E felony charges on May 30 quoted supposed “experts” saying he’s unlikely to get jail time, as he’s 77 years old, a first offender, and E felonies are the least serious felonies in the New York State penal code. Oh, and it might be politically divisive.

By Steve Wishnia

Randy Fannon, vice president for safety at the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, says in his 37 years working for railroads, the “most drastic” changes have come in the last five years.

By Steve Wisnia

On May 23, the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency announced a proposed settlement in which the Norfolk Southern railroad would pay more than $310 million to cover remediation costs from the February 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. The town of 4,800 people had to be partially evacuated after about 50 cars on a 9,300-foot train derailed, including five carrying vinyl chloride, and some caught fire. The highly toxic gas, used in plastic manufacturing, had to be released and burned to avert an explosion.

By Bill Barry

Courtesy of Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee

It happens all the time: a supervisor suddenly approaches one of your best organizing committee members, screams a lot of false accusations about bad work, bad attendance, or bad attitude at them, and then tells them that they are fired.

By Phil Cohen

I received a call from Mill Chair Clara Moser the next morning at 8 am. She frantically told me security guards had been stationed at the plant entrance to prevent me from entering. Management claimed to have video showing me kicking a hole in the wall as I exited on Thursday.