Working Voices - Monday, June 15, 2026

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1. This Friday at 5 p.m. and every Friday until July 26th, right here at 90.7 FM KPFK or stream it live at kpfk.org.
2. The People's Game, where sports meets the real world.
3. Hi, this is Lisa Gay Hamilton and you're listening to KPFK, 90.7 FM in Los Angeles and 98.7 FM in Santa Barbara.
4. You mentioned the word slavery, and we're not enslaved anymore, but I've said for decades that what is happening with lesser educated people, if you will, and the minimum wage, that's minimum wage.
5. That's wage slavery.
6. Who can live off of $7.25 an hour?
7. So that's wage slavery, and they already have us there.
8. And Donald Trump is the biggest racist ever in this country, out and out with it.
9. He's just right on point with it.
10. And a man walked up and said, this is a union town, a union town.
11. Good morning and welcome to another Working Week.
12. This is KPFK's Working Voices, and I'm your host, Joe Ayala, president of the Navy CWA Local 53.
13. And I'm your co-host, Marissa Ramske, CWA Local 9003.
14. And in this morning's show, Working Voices executive producer Dan McCrory has an encore interview with union negotiator and author Phil Cohen.
15. Steve Zelcher brings us his latest interview with New Orleans independent journalist C.C. Campbell Rock,
16. Reggie Wong spoke with Angela Sestrich of Unite Here Local 11,
17. and our associate producer Hal Lohr looks at Hollywood with the latest Working Voices updates.
18. All this and more coming up this morning on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles.
19. This is Working Voices.
20. In our first offering this morning, we have an encore presentation from our executive producer, Dan McCrory,
21. who brings us this interview with union organizer, author, and songwriter Phil Cohen
22. about his latest book, Maximum Leverage, From the Street to the Picket Line.
23. It's about surviving poverty on the streets of New York and the journey to become a union organizer.
24. This is Dan McCord
25. for Working Voices talking to Phil Cullen,
26. who has written another book,
27. and it must have something related to labor
28. that I know you, Phil.
29. Okay, the name of the book is
30. Maximum Leverage from the Street to the Picket Line,
31. and it's in two sections.
32. I left home when I was 16.
33. Suffice to say my childhood didn work out I was essentially in everything that gives the streets of New York a bad name I mean the kind of stuff that most people have maybe seen once or twice in a movie
34. And the first chapters, the first stories in the book, which is essentially an interwoven collection of short stories.
35. The first stories in the book are about surviving on the streets of New York back in the late 60s, early 70s.
36. I drove illegal gypsy cabs in the neighborhoods that legitimate taxis were afraid to work.
37. I was the live-in manager of the Skid Row Hotel.
38. And so I had a very, very rough and tumble, violent, dangerous beginning to my life.
39. But it ultimately turned out to be my journey to becoming a union organizer.
40. And the second half of the book, The Picket Line, is about my exploits during my 30-year career as a lead organizer for Workers United, SEIU, and the names that I previously had.
41. And we got stories about defeating professional union busters, leveraging good contracts from hostile employers, breaking the power of the Ku Klux Klan and the union local.
42. And one of the important features of this book, you know, union busting has become a very hot topic in the press over the last several years.
43. But essentially, all the stories were about defining and complaining about the problem.
44. Nobody has any solutions.
45. My book is filled with solutions because I was one of the labor movement's leading experts at defeating professional union busters.
46. In fact, I've never been defeated.
47. When companies sent in professional union busters, I was the hired gun they sent in to neutralize them.
48. And at every instant, I used what I call asymmetric organizing tactics, synergized with a good legal strategy, and defeated the union and preserved the union locals and got good contracts each and every time.
49. And unfortunately, people who are running campaigns today along those lines are really out of their depth.
50. the labor movement made the mistake of going more and more in the direction of
51. you know college educated politically correct liberals who believe in all the right
52. xm muscle in the real world and when you're up against professional you're up against a really
53. vicious group of people and you've got to be not just as ruthless but more ruthless as them
54. but unlike them doing it for a good cause to help people so there's a lot for folks to learn in this
55. book about what it actually takes to defeat union busters, to bring hostile employers on their
56. bended knees. But at the same time, everything's written as an action drama. I'm a writer. I write
57. books that will entertain people as well as educate them. So this is a kind of exciting,
58. knock down, drag out stories you'd see on HBO and watch for entertainment, but on the same time,
59. learning a great deal about the inner workings of the labor movement and how to make in whatever
60. situation you're in. Did you ever have to deal with the mob? No, there's nothing dealing with
61. the mafia. There is a story dealing with the Ku Klux Klan in which I broke the power of the Ku
62. Klux Klan in a union local. And it was quite a dangerous situation. It's the closest I've ever
63. come to a shootout at the OK Corral. But we managed to get through without a shot being fired.
64. and ultimately with the power of the Klan being broken.
65. The next generation.
66. The book has just come out.
67. I mean, it just began becoming available Memorial Day weekend.
68. How did people find it The best place to get it is on my website which is all lowercase fightingunionbusters slash max lev which is short for maximum leverage that fighting
69. unionbusters.org slash max lev um one could also google hardball press which is my publisher
70. and find my book in their inventory.
71. So when you get it from me, you get a signed copy,
72. and you get a free CD of instrumental music, which I composed and recorded.
73. How many books does this make for you, Alfredo?
74. This is my third book.
75. Is there anything you can tell us that's in the book, just some anecdote?
76. Sure.
77. An interesting scene in the story.
78. My union, which at the time was called Unite, organized the first Kmart Hardwoods Distribution Center.
79. And it was a very difficult situation.
80. I was sent in there to manage it.
81. And after I'd been there for maybe five, six years, one day I was in the break room just walking with the local president, talking to folks, you know, talking to the union members, identifying their problems.
82. And this guy we'd never seen before comes up to us and starts insulting us.
83. I mean, if it was a bar, one would expect him to start throwing punches.
84. Really ugly confrontation.
85. And he was saying, you know, which all ain't worth it.
86. You're all nothing.
87. There ain't going to be a union here in a few months.
88. And he was obviously an employee there who'd never engaged in this before.
89. and I had
90. as much as this guy was nuts
91. and as much as someone who's nuts
92. cannot get under my skin
93. my red flags went up
94. this guy had such a level of certainty
95. about we're getting rid of the union
96. that I sensed
97. there was something behind it
98. and I spoke to the union's southern regional director
99. he said you're crazy
100. you're having a decent relationship with Kmart
101. you're resolving contracts
102. there's not going to be a decertification drive
103. but I sensed one was coming
104. I've got an instinct for union busters
105. like a leopard in the jungle
106. has an instinct for lions
107. or elephants and I began
108. before the desert window even opened
109. I began having
110. my committee members and other union
111. activists gathering
112. information that I could
113. use to file
114. labor charges and work for labor practices
115. if the desert actually went down
116. which it did
117. and what happened I will let people
118. read about it to find out. I'm interested in picking up the book myself and I love the idea
119. that you're including some of your original music. What made you decide to package it that way?
120. I've been writing stories for the last maybe two and a half, three years for a magazine called
121. Work Bites. And a number of the stories in the book were first published in Work Bites.
122. And at a certain point, I realized I should just put all these, you know, keep writing these stories
123. and at a certain point assemble them all together into a book.
124. Because one essentially leads to another.
125. Everything's in chronological order.
126. And one of the really unique things about this book is it really deals with the personal odyssey
127. that a hardcore union organizer went through that led them to their vocation.
128. The first story in the book is about getting busted by Frank Rizzo's police department,
129. which anybody who been around for a while remember Frank Rizzo was one of the most violent and corrupt heads of the law enforcement agencies this country ever had she was kind of a maga before they were maggots she was one of the ugliest people in the history
130. of law enforcement and getting arrested by them for a minor issue but having them trying to turn
131. it into something a lot bigger and what we did play the system so we could walk out 24 hours
132. later. And so there's the whole series of how my life progressed on the streets of New York,
133. where I found in the very beginning, I had an instinct to stay. I've always had an instinct
134. for surviving and staying alive. And when I was a 16-year-old kid on the streets of New York,
135. I helped keep the other street kids alive. I helped keep the other street kids out of prison.
136. And eventually that gift just evolved into a situation where I was the chief steward of my
137. own union local.
138. And from there, what was then called
139. ACTU, the Amalgamated Clothing and
140. Textile Workers Union, and it's now
141. Workers United, eventually
142. they picked me up and hired me for staff
143. as a lead organizer right off the bat
144. because of what I had accomplished as
145. a chief steward in my own local.
146. Do you take heart from the
147. Starbucks and
148. organizing?
149. It's magnificent
150. that they all won, you know,
151. the one organizing drives.
152. The thing is, a lot of workers are not professionals when it comes to running a campaign or understanding labor law or how the system works.
153. And I don't say that as criticism.
154. I couldn't do their job to save my life any more than they could do my job.
155. You know, we all have our own journeys in this world.
156. But unfortunately, they seem to think that you win an organizing drive, you're like nine tenths of the way there and you're not.
157. You don't cross home plate until you have a signed, ratified contract the majority of workers supported.
158. And how to leverage a company like Amazon, like Starbucks, into negotiating a good contract.
159. That takes a level of street sense.
160. That takes a level of knowing how to identify vulnerability and draw blood.
161. But unfortunately, the kind of organizers assigned to these campaigns don't have.
162. Anybody that you're dealing with in this world, whether it's the corporation or law enforcement agency, whatever, at the end of the day, you're dealing with people.
163. People grouped together through a certain cause, a certain employer.
164. And to quote an old Charles Bronson movie, everybody's got their jelly spot.
165. it's understanding how to identify vulnerability in the individuals who are most involved in the
166. efforts to like bust the union and in the companies and corporations themselves identifying
167. vulnerability knowing how to exploit it i use and actually use an expression in the book something
168. along the lines of when you're running an organizing campaign against union busting
169. hostile employers, it's going to make the senior management end up feeling like they're in the
170. medieval castle surrounded by Vikings at every gate and are just absolutely overwhelmed.
171. You know, in terms of filing labor board charges, which are naturally an important part of any fight
172. against illegal union busting, understanding how to gain the trust of frightened employees
173. and getting it to come with you to the National Labor Relations Board to file a signed affidavit.
174. Understanding which members of management are most engaged or most involved in running the
175. decertification effort or the union busting effort behind the scenes and finding a way
176. is to cut them out from the herd.
177. The same way a leopard would identify,
178. if he's in a herd of antelopes,
179. the leopard will pick out one antelope.
180. I mean, he can't defeat the whole herd of antelopes,
181. but he can pick out one antelope and say,
182. that's the one I'm going for.
183. Cut him out from the herd and take him down.
184. You got to find out which members of management
185. will cause the desertification drive to unravel.
186. If you focus on them and you turn them
187. from a corporate perspective,
188. from being an asset into a liability.
189. And I'll tell you this,
190. in every campaign I've done
191. against professional union busters,
192. the majority of management
193. who were running the campaign
194. and telling the board of directors,
195. oh, this is no big deal.
196. The union's a bunch of idiots.
197. We can get rid of them.
198. We've got this great lawyer.
199. They all get fired at the end of the day
200. because there's one thing corporations
201. have zero tolerance for,
202. and that's failure.
203. Every instance, they have brought in people at both a local and a corporate level who have experience in working with unions and productive collective bargaining relationships.
204. And through them, I've been able to rebuild the relationship.
205. There was never a danger of another decertification or union busting effort.
206. And plus, with a decent working relationship with management, you can actually accomplish a lot more for workers.
207. You can resolve grievances a lot more quickly.
208. You can get better settlements.
209. You can take cases that would have taken a year and a half to be worked out in arbitration and get some unjustly fired worker back to work in a month.
210. So, yeah, sometimes even when you have a good relationship with management, you end up in disputes.
211. But it's not personal.
212. And if you're working with people who understand the goal is to ultimately work things out to everybody's advantage, that's the way you can most help your members.
213. So it's not necessarily important that we become more militant as labor.
214. It's important to be militant when you're dealing with people who are acting like your enemies. When the union is under attack, you have to be not just militant, but bloody-minded, ruthlessly militant.
215. You got to think like a street fighter in order to defeat the overwhelming odds that a corporation and their lawyers represent in terms of resources, in terms of their money, in terms of the power they have in society.
216. You have to be an utter cutthroat to defeat people like that.
217. But to quote Sun Tzu from The Art of War, the object of war is always peace.
218. You defeat them.
219. then there's the point where you try to build a relationship which doesn't mean becoming slack
220. it doesn't mean taking a stand when you need to take a stand but it means having a goal of working
221. together with members of management who have now realized they've made a business decision
222. that's a hell of a lot easier to work with you than to fight with you and to start building a
223. relationship where you can get really resolve the issues that workers have there's always a handful
224. of people in the union local who just want to fight for the sake of fighting.
225. It's like if you go into a bar. But the majority of people
226. don't want to stay angry about the same issue for five years. They want the damn issue
227. resolved in five weeks. And when you've built a
228. productive collective bargaining relationship with management, you're in a position
229. to accomplish that. Great advice. Thank you so much, Bill.
230. I wish you the best on your book. Thank you. I'm going to just one more time remind people
231. of where to get it.
232. Please do.
233. FightingUnionBusters.org,
234. M-A-X-L-E-V.
235. All in lowercase.
236. Get a signed copy plus a free CD of instrumental music that I wrote and recorded Thank you again Phil Thank you Dan
237. That was our executive producer, Dan McCrory,
238. bringing us an interview with union organizer, author, and songwriter Phil Cohen about his latest book,
239. Maximum Leverage, From the Street to the Picket Line.
240. For more information about Phil Cohen and his books, you can go to his website at fightingunionbusters.org.
241. You're listening to Working Voices on KPFK 90.7 FM, Los Angeles.
242. Members of the Food and Beverage Workers Union at SoFi Stadium worried about ICE agents kidnapping employees during the World Cup games in Inglewood.
243. So the union, Unite Here Local 11, included a demand for protection against ICE in their contract negotiations with the stadium's food provider, Legends Global.
244. But negotiations had stalled and workers voted earlier this month to strike if an agreement wasn't reached.
245. Last Tuesday, Local 11 officials announced they got a tentative contract that was scheduled to be voted for ratification last Wednesday.
246. Before the deal, Angela Sestrich of Unite Here Local 11 spoke at a pro-immigrant rally on Sunday to denounce ICE and urge others to boycott Home Depot, which supports ICE.
247. Reggie Wong reports.
248. This is Reggie Wong with his Working Voices Update. We're at the Home Depot in Inglewood on Century Boulevard.
249. And I'm here with a very special guest concerned about the upcoming FIFA games.
250. Introduce yourself, ma'am.
251. My name is Angela Sestridge. I'm a suite attendant at SoFi Stadium.
252. And what's your union's name, ma'am?
253. Our union is Unite Here Local 11. Let me get it right.
254. And what are you speaking at today?
255. Today we are at the Banned Ice from the Cup rally here today in Englewood, California, right by SoFi Stadium.
256. And what are Unite Here Local 11's concerns regarding the upcoming FIFA games?
257. Well, our concerns here were very clear.
258. We want ice out of the World Cup and for them to play no role at all during the games.
259. We're really seriously concerned about FIFA having our personal and sensitive information and what they're going to do with it and whether or not they're going to hand it over to third party, including ICE or foreign countries or intelligence agencies.
260. There's no reason for ICE to be here or FIFA to have our personal information when our employers already have it.
261. And can you tell me a little bit like what about what you do at SoFi and what your co go through working at SoFi Well I a suite attendant at SoFi and we I serve all the premium guests the people who buy suites the movie stars and the CEOs and the high people and the companies and the organizations that buy the suites
262. And we serve all the beverage and food in the suites.
263. We have cooks there.
264. We have concession people.
265. We have runners.
266. We have catering departments.
267. we have a lot of different departments at the stadium and we're just looking for a fair contract
268. and we just want to make sure that we don't have to worry about ICE or immigration coming in
269. trying to scare our workers or even scare our fans. And I'm wondering about the workers and
270. fans. Do you have a lot of immigrants among those crowds? Well, this is California and
271. this is America. America is full of immigrants. We're all immigrants in America. We all came from
272. somewhere else. So everybody's afraid. Our fans are coming from other countries. Our workers are
273. here. Some of them, they have brown skin. They're being mistreated. They're being taken off the
274. streets. They're being taken out of Home Depot parking lots like the one we're in right now,
275. just because of the color of their skin. That's not right. That's not America. That's not America's
276. way. And your union made a certain vote some time ago, right? We voted over the last Thursday and
277. Friday to vote yes, 96% vote yes to strike if FIFA and SoFi Stadium and Legends and Kroenke
278. doesn't come to our demands and keep ice out of the area and keep ice out of Englewood
279. and keep ice out of, well, we want them out of California, but we definitely want them
280. away from all the games.
281. And I guess the companies haven't responded very well, have they?
282. I can't really talk about because we are still in negotiations. So I can't really discuss where we're at in our negotiations. But we're obviously not happy because we voted to strike and we're ready to strike and we're willing to strike. And if we don't get our demands, we will strike.
283. Can the public expect to see a picket line or anything like that? Or that's still kind of up in the air?
284. Well, we're hoping that it doesn't come to that, but they will if it comes to that.
285. And how can the public help out and get more information?
286. The public can help out just by standing with us and not paying these exorbitant prices that FIFA is trying to get.
287. And just stand behind the people who work here and be willing to do the right thing.
288. We don't need ICE here.
289. Thank you again, Angela.
290. And so this has been a great day today.
291. We've been here organizing and fighting, and we're ready to strike,
292. and we want ice out of the Home Depots and all of the whole World Cup games everywhere,
293. not just here in L.A., but everywhere.
294. Okay, great.
295. Thank you so much, Angela.
296. And this has been Reggie Wong with this Working Voices Update.
297. and that was reggie wong talking to angela sestrich of unite here
298. local 11 for more information on unite here local 11 you can go to unite here 11.org
299. and for the latest news on this issue how lore has this working voices update
300. Thank you Reggie In a follow the union representing SoFi Stadium workers has announced that they reached a tentative deal with Legends Hospitality averting a strike during eight World Cup games set to be played at the stadium in Inglewood
301. Negotiations on a labor contract between Unite Here Local 11, representing the cooks,
302. dishwashers, concession workers, and bartenders at SoFi Stadium, and Legends Global, the stadium's
303. food service operator, concluded with 96% of union members authorizing a strike.
304. Union members had been working without a contract for a year, and Kurt Peterson, the union's co-president, said Unite Here Local 11 had demanded salary increases, protection against subcontracting and job loss through automation,
305. and in particular had opposed the collection of sensitive private information, such as nationality and home addresses, that FIFA organizers of the World Cup said it needs to accredit workers.
306. Legends Global had promised to continue negotiations while also working to make sure a potential work stoppage would not interrupt game day operations.
307. One of the biggest obstacles during the labor dispute included FIFA's security requirements because FIFA wasn't directly involved in negotiations.
308. According to the union's Kurt Peterson, when workers were originally hired by Legends,
309. they submitted the documentation necessary for employment, and under the current collective
310. bargaining agreement, the company does not have the right to request it again for FIFA.
311. And workers have the contractual right to walk off the job if the union determines in good faith
312. that federal immigration enforcement threatens worker safety during a World Cup match,
313. according to Local 11, as it posted on its social media accounts announcing the deal.
314. FIFA has refused to comment on the contract talks, saying they are between Legends Global
315. and Unite Here Local 11, but its insistence on collecting personal information is something
316. Legends cannot address during contract talks, which makes a resolution impossible, because
317. FIFA is partnering with the governments of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, the three countries in
318. which the 39-day tournament will be played, to enhance safety and security of all workers,
319. staff, team members, vendors, journalists, volunteers, and spectators by mitigating
320. potential insider threats. A stance of cooperation with the current U.S. federal government that
321. makes some of Unite Here Local 11's members more than a little nervous in light of possible ice
322. crackdowns during FIFA matches. Even after FIFA claimed all data collected during the name-check
323. process will be processed in accordance with applicable data protection and privacy laws,
324. but will be deleted by FIFA as soon as it is no longer needed for purposes of adjudicating
325. requests for credentialed access to FIFA-controlled spaces, a policy that still leaves more than a
326. few questions as the World Cup moves forward with soccer matches.
327. Hi, this is Lila Downs. You're listening to KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles, 98.7 FM Santa Barbara, globally on kpfk.org.
328. In the second half of our show this morning, from his labor video YouTube channel, Steve
329. Zeltzer looks at the gerrymandering of districts in the South to eliminate Black representation
330. with his guest, New Orleans independent journalist CeCe Campbell-Rock, discussing the Trump-era
331. efforts to bring back segregation.
332. and slavery. Discussing living in a neo-confederacy 2.0 and who is behind it, combined with the
333. sanitizing of black history, including slavery and the role of the capitalists in keeping the
334. plantation owners in charge after the end of reconstruction.
335. No more.
336. Hear my victory song.
337. Everything that tried to kill me only made me strong.
338. This is Steve Zeltzer with Workweek.
339. And the effort to turn back the gains of the civil rights movement in the South and to
340. resegregate the South is a frontal attack on not just Blacks in the South, but the entire working
341. class in the United States, and the battle for democratic rights, civil rights, human rights.
342. And joining us today is CeCe Campbell. She is an independent journalist from New Orleans,
343. has been active for many years, decades, fighting for the people of Louisiana and the people of the
344. South. She had to escape to California during the Katrina disaster, where she was continuing to work
345. as a journalist. And now she's taking up this issue of the attack on Black representation,
346. what this means for people in the South and working people in this country. So welcome to our show.
347. Thank you, Steve. Thank you for the opportunity. I think Landry, our governor, has gone way beyond
348. appeal. I'm calling this whole situation that's happening now, it's Neo-Confederacy 2.0,
349. because they want to bring us back to what 1850 i mean if taken out we had we had one we phil fields
350. was our congressman he just won he just won the election in the fall he just took his seat and
351. that seat has now been eradicated because uh in a lawsuit called louisiana versus calais
352. 11 non-Black people
353. complain that
354. that district was drawn
355. they're calling them opportunity districts now
356. but that district was drawn
357. along racial lines and of course
358. of course it's true that
359. the Voting Rights Act say you cannot do that right
360. so they were technically in the right
361. however
362. the other problem
363. is we have six members
364. in our congressional delegation
365. we had two Blacks now we have one
366. thanks to the Supreme Court, correct?
367. But look at this.
368. This state is 52% white, right?
369. Well, they say 57% these days.
370. I don't believe it because that changed over in one year,
371. so I don't believe that.
372. But you can say between 52% and 57% white.
373. The black population is 33% black.
374. And then if you add in the other minorities,
375. all together with the black population,
376. that's 48% of the people.
377. So explain to me why.
378. We have six congressional members in Congress and five of them are white Republicans.
379. The math is not mathing.
380. It's the same thing in the state legislature.
381. For example, in the Senate, 57%, but they own 83% of the seats.
382. The House, 68% of the seats.
383. The math is not mathing.
384. You know so they drawing districts the way to favor them And the fact that the Supreme Court has said partisan gerrymandering is okay You know what that going to backfire and i going to tell you why it very partisan with the with the
385. dungeon and both of our senate seats yeah senate seats are held by white meals as well but you can
386. look at the composition and tell that they're doing partisan gerrymandering but on on that's
387. That's just the varnish on top.
388. What it really is, is racial gerrymandering on the part of white people to help keep them in control.
389. This idea of going back to the Confederacy, the good old days.
390. Yes.
391. They think that actually that we need to return to the good old days.
392. They want to bring back the federal monuments or sanitizing the history of slavery.
393. They're saying that if you talk about slavery in the classroom, it's hurting the feelings of people.
394. Yeah, I've heard that controversy.
395. That's really been funny to me because what hurts people is the fact that, you know, all those years they burned us out.
396. They killed us. They've hung us. They lynched us. We couldn't vote.
397. And now you want to take away the history altogether. You want to sanitize. You want to whitewash the history books.
398. That's not going to happen. I mean, that was that in Philadelphia.
399. They took down a collage of different historical things in the park and Trump had them to take that down.
400. They haven't put it back up yet.
401. And this effort of sanitizing history of the United States, the history of blacks, the history of whites, the real history of the Civil War.
402. Exactly.
403. Well, like I said, this is about the South rising again.
404. The lost cause is really not lost, y'all, because we're here to correct that.
405. We're here to take our country back.
406. And if you notice, I was just looking at Donald Trump and I forget what he was announcing this time, that arch thing he probably wants to do. And every person behind him said we're white males. So this is not about make America great again. This is about make America white again. White controlled, everything controlled by white people.
407. And I don't get that because diversity is the strength of this nation.
408. You know, you're putting all of the Hispanic people out, the jobs that they took that they claimed nobody else wanted.
409. But even so, the jobs that they're losing or they're leaving is going to put pressure on us.
410. That's why, you know, food is going to be, look, you're going to pay a dollar for an orange now?
411. I'm just saying.
412. I mean, the use of ICE to terrorize people, Black, brown people, they say that Trump has said that they were successfully used in New Orleans.
413. ICE took care of the crime in New Orleans.
414. What happened with the introduction of ICE in New Orleans?
415. What was the reality of bringing ICE into New Orleans?
416. The reality of ICE coming to New Orleans was more, they were going to the Home Depots, they were going to Lowe's,
417. where they know that because of Katrina, there's been still a lot of construction needed.
418. And these Hispanic people from wherever they're from, Central America, you know, Mexico, they have the skills.
419. And they're standing out there waiting.
420. So they're going to these places and rounding up.
421. But guess what?
422. They did not come into our city, which is a blue city.
423. They did not come in here killing people and acting a fool.
424. That was not going to happen in this city.
425. This city is a blue city.
426. We're like an island in Louisiana.
427. Louisiana is called the red state, but we're blue city and we don't tolerate that so you really didn't hear anything about
428. You know about
429. Them doing anything except having two warehouses. I found out they got to hear warehouses
430. Where they detaining people Isis and then the other day was it yesterday that I just hear that the Senate has a Turn down a bill from the Democrats that said that the ICE people had to have body cams
431. No, they don't have to unmask.
432. What is this?
433. My husband said it's like the Third Reich.
434. I mean, we're living, I say we're living in Arwell's 1984.
435. But the truth of the matter is we're living in Hitler's 1939.
436. Like the Waffen-SS, that ICE thing.
437. And they're recruiting Nazis. They're recruiting fascists. The Congress just passed a bill for $70 billion for ICE, for these fascist thugs to be hired and more camps to be set up, concentration camps all over the country where they don't have proper care, medical care.
438. People are dying in these camps, these concentration camps.
439. So this, it seems like an escalation to say that not only are we going to have $70 billion for more ICE camps and thugs,
440. but we're actually going to resegregate the South and get rid of any black representation in the South.
441. Well, that's the goal. That is the goal.
442. And then getting back to ICE, we rarely heard anything here about ICE.
443. Those detention camps that I'm talking about, concentration camps, if you will,
444. They're not even near New Orleans.
445. They're somewhere way out in the middle of Louisiana.
446. We don't even know what's going on there.
447. I have not heard of any negative things coming out of those camps.
448. So I don't know what's going on with those camps,
449. but I know they didn't come in here with the foolishness like they did in Memphis
450. and doing other things.
451. The rise of fascism, and I agree with you, I think we've got a fascist state.
452. Of course.
453. Doesn't care about the Constitution, doesn't care about the laws, doesn't care about civil rights, is sanitizing history to the good old days when we had segregation in this country.
454. We had slavery in this country.
455. Exactly.
456. It seems, though, that the rest of the labor movement, the unions, there's no national campaign against racism, against segregation, against the attack on black representation in this country, in the South.
457. Yeah, yeah, and I don't know what's going on, because you know Wade Ratke, right?
458. Mm-hmm, yeah.
459. Well, Wade and his wife, Beth Butler, they live here.
460. They're here.
461. And, you know, they...
462. The issue of the fight in the labor movement, the fight for Black rights is a fight for union rights.
463. Exactly.
464. It's a fight for human rights.
465. It's not separate.
466. Right.
467. If they get rid of the rights of Black people in this country, Black workers, Black workers have been the most powerful force for unionization in this country.
468. Exactly, exactly.
469. National protest against the attack on Black representation is necessary if we're going to fight fascism.
470. I mean, if you can't defend the fight for equality, the fight for all, what can you defend?
471. You mentioned the word slavery, and we're not enslaved anymore, but I've said for decades that what is happening with lesser educated people, if you will, and the minimum wage, that's minimum wage.
472. That's wage slavery.
473. who can live off of an hour tell me that and that happened under Obama Thanks to Obama what it was before him right So that wage slavery and they already have us there And now you have
474. and Donald Trump is the biggest racist ever in this country. Maybe not. Maybe it was Johnson,
475. you know, maybe it was President Johnson after reconstruction, but this one is just out and out
476. with it he's just right on point with it and i was reading some things about hitler and
477. what trump is doing and miller and all his people they are following the hitler playbook
478. because the first thing hitler said when he was going about you know building this
479. racist state if you will he was saying the press is the enemy of the people and how much has
480. Donald Trump been saying fake news, fake news, fake news. You're fake. You're bad. You're this.
481. Because he doesn't want people to hear the truth or believe the truth.
482. And so that's one part of it. Then he's gathering this private army.
483. Ice, whatever they are, you know, and everybody's saying that I know he's not going to leave office.
484. This is why he's gathering this private army.
485. I don't care what anybody say, all these people with the masks, that's January 6th people he has paid to go out there and be ICE, so-called ICE.
486. They're criminals, and they're going to be his private army.
487. When it's time for him to leave office, he's not going to leave.
488. The military is going to stage a coup on the right side of things.
489. Or if this is going to happen to us, if we're just going to be ruled by this man.
490. It seems like there's denialism, or maybe it's American exceptionalism, that fascism can't happen in this country.
491. Because you had just a recent election, Trump is now attacking California, saying it was a rigged election.
492. Well, when it comes towards November, he may say, well, California's vote doesn't count because it's a rigged election.
493. They may see a balance in California.
494. So he's setting the stage already in what he's doing, what these fascists are doing to actually prevent an election in November or to rig the election.
495. I'm glad you brought that up because what's happening here is that there was a recent election for the clerk of criminal district court.
496. And this young man who had been incarcerated wrongly for 20 years, Calvin Duncan, Calvin became a jailhouse lawyer.
497. He got himself out of prison through the Innocence Project.
498. He went to Tulane and got a law degree.
499. He ran for this office.
500. It was the last month.
501. It was in March, and he won the office.
502. Bill Quigley, Attorney Quigley,
503. tore him in on the steps of the Criminal District Court.
504. What did the legislature do?
505. They created this big takeover bill.
506. So they abolished his seat,
507. and they're about to take over
508. they're going to change our judiciary
509. under the guise of efficiency
510. and saving money
511. so they're going to take out
512. three criminal court judges
513. because oh we're going to do that
514. because there's no other place in the state
515. that has that many criminal judges
516. well there's no other place in the state
517. that is as big as this city
518. other than East Baton Rouge
519. but because this city is a tourist city
520. that just brings in
521. the opportunity for more crime.
522. Okay, so what do you do?
523. You, Jay Morris,
524. who wrote
525. all these crazy bills
526. and they passed them,
527. it's from Monroe, Louisiana.
528. He don't know a diddly about
529. New Orleans. What are you doing?
530. Now we have a case where
531. they're throwing our votes away.
532. And I know you heard about it. I know you heard that because Cleo Fields' seat was lost thanks to the, you know, the Supreme Court and he abolished his seat while an election was going on, correct?
533. 40,000 people voted early, early voters.
534. Not only did Landry suspend that election for that seat, for Phil Fields' seat, not his seat because they abolished his seat, but for Congress, the congressional race primary.
535. He suspended that, but at the same time, people were already voting and 40,000 people voted early.
536. And this man said, I'm not counting those votes.
537. when was it okay for you to throw my vote away i mean come on now they have had hundreds of people
538. to go up to baton rouge two or three times to argue against the takeover bill you know four
539. major lawsuits have been filed by legislators civil rights groups and new orleans voters
540. pending against the state of louisiana all argue that the state's actions including act 15 and
541. related maneuvers violate constitutional protections and disenfranchise New Orleans voters, especially
542. Black voters. So the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus has filed, the ACLU has filed,
543. who else? I think the National Democratic Party has filed. So what they're saying is the state
544. violated Louisiana Constitution by eliminating an office after the election had already occurred,
545. talking about Calvin Duncan's office, right? The takeover strips New Orleans voters primarily
546. black voters of their right to seek the official they chose. So you're just throwing our vote away.
547. And even though we elected this man, as we elected Cleo Fields, our votes no longer count.
548. They've been voided. The legislature cannot retroactively void an election because it
549. disliked the outcome. So why these lawsuits matter? This is the law directly asserting
550. that the takeover is an unconstitutional power grab targeting the majority black electric. And
551. That's the one they're talking about, the Louisiana Senate Democratic Caucus lawsuit.
552. But don't we have a racist insurrectionary court at this point?
553. Oh, I'm so, I'm so, I won't say I'm heartbroken.
554. I'm so disappointed because I always thought that the United States Supreme Court, with its flaws, it's never been perfect.
555. and has never been totally on the side of people of color,
556. but it has tried to be fair until Donald Trump got in there.
557. And now it's just a tool for Donald Trump.
558. I mean, the Republicans in Congress, the Republicans on the Supreme Court,
559. and Donald Trump's office has melded into one,
560. and they are taking orders from him as if they're not separate branches of government.
561. I don't understand it.
562. That's become a fascist state.
563. That's what I was about to say.
564. I do understand because this is the Hitler model.
565. This is a fascist.
566. Mussolini and Hitler and all of these.
567. And I'm like, and I believe it's still Steve Millen.
568. What's that other?
569. Steve Bannon.
570. They're the ones driving the car.
571. And, you know, it seems that what is going on in New Orleans, what is going on in Alabama, what is going on in Texas, that's coming in the rest of the country.
572. Oh, yeah.
573. That's not just for the South.
574. That's coming to California.
575. Yeah, he's talking about adding the seats.
576. Adding the seats so that they can.
577. I mean they cheating And then the Supreme Court when the Supreme Court said that is a partisan issue that a state basically it states rights issues when they want it to go Donald Trump way But when it again Donald Trump is against it then it not a states rights issue Well that why the election in California is a rigged election
578. because it's not going his way. Exactly. So in other words, it's upcoming election in November.
579. You're going to have a situation where they control the Congress. Johnson will never allow
580. Trump to be removed. People don't understand, and with Vance as the vice president, the transfer of
581. power requires the people who lead these government institutions to proceed with the transfer of
582. power. If they don't do that, then we have a situation in which they say, I'm going to stay
583. in power. And isn't that what Trump tried to do the last time? Well, you know, one thing about
584. Trump well he does two things he projects things on to others stuff he does which is wrong and
585. criminal he projects on other people but other than that he's he telegraphs everything he's
586. going to do remember when he he won recently this last time around when he won this presidency he
587. said wouldn't it be nice if I was president for life I mean you're dropping little hints here and
588. there he's telling us what he's going to do right so well he's telling us that he's going to stay
589. in power. Exactly, exactly. He's going to stay in power, and it's not going to be through peaceful
590. changes that he's removed. No. He's going to stay in power no matter what. It seems like it's time
591. for people in the United States to wake up, that we're not going to have a normal election.
592. Our military needs to wake up, and yeah, the people who have political power need to
593. get with the program. Mike Johnson, that pipsqueak, is from Shreveport, Louisiana,
594. of bozier louisiana which is you know it's a red parish bozier paris and shreveport is not the
595. biggest place in the world and he's wielding all his power i mean all of look it's probably not a
596. coincidence that the leadership in congress are from louisiana you notice that you got mike
597. johnson you got scalise you got kennedy and god knows who else but they're all walking in lockstep
598. with Donald Trump. They don't care.
599. They don't care about the people. I mean, I've never
600. seen a government that cares
601. so little about
602. being a public servant.
603. They're not public servants.
604. You know, let's just say they're fascists, and they're
605. trying to take over this country.
606. It seems like
607. the people in this country, the unions,
608. for example, the AFL-CIO,
609. they act like it's going to be business
610. as usual. The solution
611. is going to be to have an election and
612. elect Democrats into office. And if we do that, then we can solve the problem. It seems like a
613. denialism, because as you say, Trump is honest about what he wants to do. He said it. I'm going
614. to be there. He's selling hats. I mean, I heard today he's selling hats in the White House.
615. He's going to be there permanently. And he's putting out this propaganda in the White House,
616. making money on it at the White House. And he's pretty much saying it. And he's not only saying
617. it, but the state power of Congress, the courts, and the executive are all held by the same people.
618. Yes, and that's ridiculous because there are no three branches of government anymore, and I can't
619. even believe the Supreme Court. I mean, you know what? Every last, but not the Democrats because
620. they're trying to do the right thing, but see the Republican majority, they all need to be impeached.
621. If they can be impeached let do term limits because they should not be there I never heard of anybody having a job for life anyway So I want to thank you very much for joining us We been talking with Cece Campbell and she an independent journalist who has been writing about the struggle in Louisiana
622. the struggle in the South, the struggle for human and worker rights. And she's been talking about
623. the recent effort to go back to the Confederacy in the South and what that means, not just to
624. the people in the South, but people all over this country and all over the world. So thanks for
625. joining us. Thank you, Steve, for inviting me.
626. Made me strong.
627. That was Steve Zeltser from his Labor Video YouTube channel.
628. For more videos and insights from Steve Zeltser,
629. you can go to his Labor Video YouTube channel,
630. or now you can find him at the Production of Labor Video Project
631. on the web at labormedia.net.
632. And for more insights and information from CeCe Campbell-Rock,
633. you can find her at blacksourcemedia.com.
634. Hi, this is Halle Berry, and you're listening to KPFK 90.7 FM.
635. In local labor news, SAG-AFTRA members overwhelmingly approved a four-year TVN film deal,
636. with major studios including Netflix, Disney, and Warner Bros. Discovery on Thursday night
637. increasing minimum wages and addressing concerns about the use of AI performers.
638. The deal, which was expected to be approved, received the support of 91% of SAG-AFTRA members
639. who voted on the agreement which starts July 1st and ends June 30th, 2030.
640. The union represents 160,000 performers, including actors, stunt performers, and influencers.
641. This agreement builds on the foundation members fought to establish
642. and carries that work into the next chapter of our industry, said SAG-AFTRA President Sean Astin in a statement.
643. It delivers meaningful gains in compensation, strengthens protections around artificial intelligence and digital identity,
644. reinforces the long-term security of members, benefits plans, and recognizes the reality of how performers work today.
645. Under the deal, the length of the agreements between SAG-AFTRA and major studios represented
646. by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers expands from three to four years.
647. It also boosts minimum wage by 3% annually, increases contributions to the health plan by 1%,
648. and expands the bonus of the union's success bonus distribution fund
649. based on residuals that performers get for popular streaming programs.
650. The contract also addresses concerns about the growing use of artificial intelligence in TV and film and its impact on acting jobs.
651. Last year, many actors spoke out about Tilly Norwood, a computer-generated actor, and whether synthetic characters like her could threaten their livelihoods.
652. Some performers have also advocated getting paid if and when their likenesses are used to create such characters,
653. But of course, not all members were in favor of the contract, saying it did not go far
654. enough in protecting performers against AI, saying the contract serves to normalize the
655. use of AI replicas and synthetic performers rather than drawing a firm line protecting human performers and their jobs But Sagafter says the producers have agreed to a principle strongly favoring human performances and that producers
656. would only use a synthetic if it brings significant additional value to the motion picture. If a
657. producer decided to use a synthetic in a role that could be done by a human, they would need
658. to notify the union and bargain in good faith. Additionally, the contract merges the pension
659. plans of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists,
660. which were previously separate but combined in 2012 to form SAG-AFTRA, noting that their
661. health plans were consolidated in 2017, but their pensions have remained separate.
662. That was a major sticking point with the members, some of whom couldn't qualify for benefits because
663. their contributions were split between the two plans. Studios agreed to boost their overall
664. contribution to the combined plan by 1%. SAG-AFTRA's deal comes after the Writers Guild of
665. America members also approved an agreement with the AMPTP in April. The groups were able to agree
666. on contracts this year without striking as they did in 2023, and the Directors Guild of America
667. began negotiations with AMPTP last month, with its contract expiring in just 15 days on June 30th.
668. And that's our show for this week.
669. Once again, we're asking our labor partners, locals, and regional officers to seriously consider underwriting this show.
670. Because Working Voices and KPFK could really use your support.
671. So please contact the station at 818-985-5735 or kpfk.org to explore the possibilities.
672. We need to hear from you.
673. You can also email your comments or questions to workingvoicesataol.com.
674. and please contribute if you can at 818-985-5735.
675. Once again, this is Joe Ayala,
676. president of NAPIT CWA Local 53.
677. And this is Marissa Remsky.
678. Our thanks to Dan McCrory, Steve Zelcher,
679. Gary Scott, Reggie Wong, Hal Lohr,
680. and all of our guests.
681. Please continue to give what you can to keep us going.
682. We're in this together.
683. And of course, always remember to
684. educate, agitate, and organize.
685. Have a great week, everybody.
686. I got work, baby.
687. I got work to do.
688. I got a gig.
689. I got work to do.
690. I got work to do.
691. I got so much work.
692. Yeah, yeah.
693. Work, work.
694. Yeah.
695. Work, work.
696. Work, work.
697. Hey, this is Brad Friedman of the Bradcast, heard right here on KPFK, Mondays at 3 p.m.
698. As you know, KPFK is corporate-free, listener-supported radio.
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