The Labor Notes Podcast

Mexico City’s Trolleybus Workers Took on Austerity and Won

What do you do when neoliberal ghouls are set on privatizing services you love and rely on? For Mexico City’s trolleybus workers, the answer was building a coalition of public transit riders, climate activists and labor allies prepared to fight back. They turned fear into action, and supporters into organizers—mobilizing commuters who relied on the transit network to bring other riders into the fight. As Trump’s schmuck parade sets out to dismantle critical public services millions rely on, we can learn from Mexican workers’ fight to stave off privatization and win vital investments in their public transit system. PLUS: You heard it here first—it’s pod co-host Danielle’s birthday! Her one birthday demand, we mean wish, is that you subscribe to the pod and leave us a review. Happy birthday Danielle!!!

How TSA Agents and Federal Workers are Fighting a Hostile Administration

Facing an administration bent on privatizing public services, federal workers are flocking to their unions in large numbers and connecting with one another through the new rank-and-file group the Federal Unionists Network. TSA agents are among the latest groups of workers organizing a response after the Department of Homeland Security decided earlier this month to abruptly end their collective bargaining agreement.

How Workers Are Fighting for a Liveable Planet

It matters to us as workers to have a liveable planet! And the labor movement has unique leverage and responsibility to push for climate action in the workplace and in contracts.The upcoming April issue of Labor Notes spotlights how workers are fighting for better conditions as they contend with storms, heat waves, and wildfires while on the job, and how they are staking their place in the transition away from fossil fuels. Labor Notes Organizers Kari Thompson and Keith Brower Brown join pod co-hosts Danielle Smith and Natascha Elena Uhlmann.Subscribe to the Labor Notes magazine at labornotes.org/store/labor-notes-subscription!

What the Tariffs Debate Is Missing: Workers’ Voices

When Nippon sought to acquire U.S. Steel in a $15 billion acquisition last year, the companies went to great lengths to convince U.S. Steel workers that the deal would benefit them too (and not just line executives’ pockets). But the workers didn’t buy it. Tune in to the inaugural episode of the Labor Notes Podcast to hear about how the workers saw through the companies’ shenanigans and resisted an acquisition that could have left them on the chopping block. The deal, which likely would have helped Nippon evade tariffs, was blocked by the Biden administration at the end of 2024, but might not be entirely off the table for the future.