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Empathy Media Lab’s is a multi-brand podcast exploring labor, political economy, art, and culture. Producer and host Evan Papp seeks to build solidarity by universalizing the struggles of our human condition while outlining policy solutions that address the most intractable challenges of today. Union Solidarity Forever.
Episodes
Monday May 17, 2021
Monday May 17, 2021
The University of Maryland School of Public Policy Alumni Board's video and podcast series called Policy Dialogues discusses current events through a policy lens.
Episode 25 interviews Robert C. Orr who serves as Dean of University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy. The discussion is hosted by Evan Papp (UMD SPP ‘11).
Dean Orr also serves as United Nations under secretary-general, and special advisor to the UN secretary-general on climate change. Dean Orr joined the United Nations from Harvard University where he served as the executive director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government. Prior to this, he served as director of the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, DC.
He has also served as United States ambassador to the United Nations and director of global affairs at the National Security Council, where he was responsible for peacekeeping and humanitarian affairs.
In this conversation, we discussed:
- His background and how he first got interested in public policy;
- The role of the United Nations;
- His recent testimony before the House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Environment.
- The role of nuclear power in the future of clean energy; and
- The future of the School of Public Policy.
You can follow Dean Orr’s work at: https://spp.umd.edu/.
The views expressed do not represent official positions of the school or alumni network.
Wednesday May 19, 2021
Wednesday May 19, 2021
David Riemer is author of Putting Government In Its Place: The Case for a New Deal 3.0. He is also the author of The Prisoners of Welfare: Liberating America's Poor from Unemployment and Low Wages. David is a Senior Fellow at the Community Advocates Public Policy Institute and Senior Advisor for Social Security Works. David’s service during the past four decades has ranged from preparing city and state budgets to advancing major reform in state and national employment, income, health, and education policy.
In this conversation, we discuss:
- David’s background and why he first got interested in policy, politics, and governance;
- His excellent website that guides the reader through a detailed plan and policy process that is also laid out in his book Putting Government In Its Place: The Case for a New Deal 3.0; and
- Where David sees opportunity and hope in 2021 and beyond.
You can follow David’s work through the following links:
- https://www.govinplace.org/
- https://twitter.com/govinplace
- https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/531978-three-myths-about-unemployment
ABOUT EML
Empathy Media Lab is produced by Evan Matthew Papp and we are a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. Support media, authors, artists, historians, and journalists, who are fighting to improve the prosperity of the working class.
Website - https://www.empathymedialab.com/
All Links: https://wlo.link/@empathymedialab
#NewDeal
#PoliticalEconomy
#LaborRadioPod
#1U
#UnionStrong
Friday May 21, 2021
Friday May 21, 2021
Labor for Palestine was launched in April 2004 by New York City Labor Against the War and Al-Awda NY: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition to reclaim the legacy of working class solidarity with Palestine in the United States, as reflected in groundbreaking statements by the League of Revolutionary Black Workers in 1969, and wildcat strikes against the United Auto Workers (UAW) leadership’s support for Israel in 1973.
In this episode, we spoke with Labor For Palestine organizers Suzanne Adely who is the Co-Director for the Food Chain Workers Alliance and President-Elect of the National Lawyers Guild, and Michael Letwin who is a public defender in New York City and former President of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW 2325.
In this conversation, we discuss:
- The recent general strike in Palestine and about work conditions for Palestinians;
- What is Labor for Palestine and why is it misleading to frame the violence as between two conflicting parties;
- What led to the recent violence; and
- Why organized labor should get involved in this struggle.
You can follow Labor for Palestine work through the following links:
- https://laborforpalestine.net
- https://twitter.com/labor4palestine
- https://www.facebook.com/LaborForPalestine
- https://laborforpalestine.net/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Labor-for-Palestine-Challenging-US-Labor-Zionism.pdf
ABOUT EMLab
Empathy Media Lab is produced by Evan Matthew Papp and we are a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. Support media, authors, activists, artists, historians, and journalists, who are fighting to improve the prosperity of the working class everywhere. Solidarity forever.
Website - https://www.empathymedialab.com/
All Links: https://wlo.link/@empathymedialab
#LaborRadioPod
#1U
#UnionStrong
Tuesday May 25, 2021
Tuesday May 25, 2021
Jake Burdett is a progressive activist and is the former Columbia Democratic Club President in Maryland. He is also a former Amazon warehouse worker.
In this conversation, we discuss:
- How he made headlines as a student at Salisbury University, when U.S. House of Representative Andy Harris supported jailing Jake for up to 10 years for live-streaming a protest at Harris’ office;
- His time working in an Amazon warehouse outside Baltimore; and
- How he became politically active in Maryland politics.
You can follow Jake Burdett’s work on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jake_burdett and at Progressive Democrats of Howard County https://twitter.com/ProgressHoCo.
ABOUT EMLab
Empathy Media Lab is produced by Evan Matthew Papp and we are a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. Support media, authors, activists, artists, historians, and journalists, who are fighting to improve the prosperity of the working class everywhere. Solidarity forever.
Website - https://www.empathymedialab.com/
All Links: https://wlo.link/@empathymedialab
#LaborRadioPod
#1U
#UnionStrong
Tuesday May 25, 2021
Tuesday May 25, 2021
Mother Jones, a north star for us all. Mary G. Harris was born August 1st, 1837 in Cork, Ireland. In 1847, the Irish faced starvation from a potato blight caused by a British feudal economic policy of monocropping. Her family immigrated to North America as part of one of the greatest mass exoduses from a single island in history.
Upon arriving in Toronto, the Harris family faced discrimination due to their immigrant status as well as their Catholic faith and Irish heritage.
At age 23 she found a teaching position at a convent in Monroe, Michigan.
Dissatisfied with the work conditions, she moved to Chicago then to Memphis, where in 1861 she married George E. Jones, a member and organizer of the National Union of Iron Moulders.
In 1867, a yellow fever epidemic in Memphis killed her husband and their four children in the matter of two months. She was 30 years old. After that tragedy, she returned to Chicago to begin a dressmaking business catering to the upper class.
But four years later, the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed her home, shop, and possessions.
The 1877 railroad strike further radicalized her and she joined the Knights of Labor where she helped organize workers in an era where protests and strikes could end with police shooting and killing of workers.
The violence directed at workers helped grow the Knights to become the largest labor organization in the country with over a million members.
As May 1st, 1886 approached, the Knights of Labor prepared for a general strike demanding an 8 hour work day. The Chicago Haymarket bombings created a reactionary tsunami leading to the demise of the Knights of Labor.
As the Knights crumbled into oblivion, Mary Jones became an educator and organizer with the United Mine Workers, traveling throughout the United States.
By age 60, she had assumed the persona of "Mother Jones" by claiming to be older than she was, wearing outdated black dresses and referring to the male workers that she helped as "her boys". The first reference to her in print as Mother Jones was in 1897.
In 1902, she was put on trial in West Virginia for ignoring an injunction banning meetings by striking miners. The district attorney called her "the most dangerous woman in America.”
In 1903, Jones sought to organize children who were working in mills and mines in Pennsylvania. Many of the children at union headquarters were missing fingers and limbs, and she attempted to get newspaper publicity for the bad labor conditions experienced by children. However, the mill owners held stock in most newspapers and would not publish the facts about child labor.
So she organized a march from Philadelphia to Oyster Bay, New York, the hometown of President Theodore Roosevelt, demanding children to go to school and not the mines. Though the president refused to meet with the marchers, the incident brought the issue of child labor to the forefront of the public agenda.
During the Paint Creek–Cabin Creek strike of 1912 in West Virginia, a shooting war broke out between United Mine Workers members and the private army of the mine owners.
Mary Jones defied Martial law in the area to continue public speaking and organizing and she was arrested and sentenced to twenty years in the state penitentiary. After 85 days of confinement, her release coincided with Indiana Senator John W. Kern's initiation of a Senate investigation into the conditions in the local coal mines.
Jones remained a union organizer for the UMW into the 1920s and continued to speak on union affairs. Mary Harris Jones died in Adelphi, Maryland just outside Washington, D.C. She is buried in the Union Miners Cemetery in Mount Olive, Illinois.
Mother Jones: “And I long to see the day when Labor will have the destinies of the nation in her own hands and she will stand a united force and show the world what the workers can do.”
Research was based on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Jones.
ABOUT EMLab
Empathy Media Lab is produced by Evan Matthew Papp and we are a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. Support media, authors, activists, artists, historians, and journalists, who are fighting to improve the prosperity of the working class everywhere. Solidarity forever.
Website - https://www.empathymedialab.com/
All Links: https://wlo.link/@empathymedialab
#LaborRadioPod
#1U
#UnionStrong
Wednesday Jun 02, 2021
Wednesday Jun 02, 2021
Lincoln Cushing and Harvey Smith discuss The New Deal For Artists, now showing in the DC Labor FilmFest. Narrated by Orson Welles, this remastered classic features interviews and commentary by John Houseman, Studs Terkel, Howard Da Silva, Arthur Rothstein, Joseph Losey, Norman Lloyd and more.
Archivist and historian Lincoln Cushing is the author of All Of Us Or None: Social Justice Posters of the San Francisco Bay Area and Agitate! Educate! Organize! - American Labor Posters; Harvey Smith is the author of Berkeley and the New Deal. Find out more on The Living New Deal website.
We have a bonus guest this week, as longtime union organizer Carl Goldman drops by to tell us about the brand-new film We Made Matzah Balls For The Revolution.
All the DC Labor FilmFest films are still available in the AFI Silver’s DC Labor FilmFest Virtual Screening Room.
PLUS: Register now for the 2021 Great Labor Arts Exchange, coming up – online – June 17-20.
Produced by Chris Garlock and Evan Papp.
@AFISilver @dclabor @LaborHeritage1 @DCLaborFilmFest @LincCushing
Thursday Jun 03, 2021
Thursday Jun 03, 2021
Emmet Penney is a writer, editor, and educator and is co-host of Ex.haust Podcast that plumbs the depths of history, culture, and philosophy to understand why it is that despite calamities and rapid change nothing feels possible anymore.
We center the conversation around Emmet’s article Nuclear Power Plants: Our Industrial Cathedrals, which was recently published in the American Conservative.
In this conversation, we discuss:
- Emmet’s path to embracing nuclear energy;
- His article Nuclear Power Plants: Our Industrial Cathedrals;
- The left’s fixation on renewables as a symptom of its presentism;
- The premature closing of Indian Point along with 1,000 high-paying union jobs; and
- Where Emmet sees opportunity and hope.
You can follow Emmet’s work and Ex.haust through the following links:
- https://twitter.com/dumbaristotle
- https://www.patreon.com/exhaust
- https://twitter.com/ex_haustpodcast
- https://exhaust.fireside.fm/
- https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/nuclear-power-plants-our-industrial-cathedrals/
- https://www.thebellows.org/we-need-a-nuclear-new-deal-not-a-green-new-deal/
- https://www.pastemagazine.com/politics/liberals/lectureporn-the-vulgar-art-of-liberal-narcissism/
ABOUT EMLab
Empathy Media Lab is produced by Evan Matthew Papp and we are a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. Support media, authors, activists, artists, historians, and journalists, who are fighting to improve the prosperity of the working class everywhere. Solidarity forever.
Website - https://www.empathymedialab.com/
All Links: https://wlo.link/@empathymedialab
#LaborRadioPod
#1U
#UnionStrong
#NuclearEnergy
#AtomicJobs
Monday Jun 14, 2021
Monday Jun 14, 2021
About Roosevelt, Michigan - A Musical Novel
Buddy Henshaw is a folk musician and teenage orphan who lit out on a cross-country filmmaking project. After nearly killing his first love and collaborator Lily by falling asleep at the wheel, he flees her angry family for New York City, leaving her convinced he is dead. When he returns home to Michigan a decade later and founds an artists’ colony in a desolate downtown, he hopes to recapture Lily but ends up partying his way into a series of murders instead. Ultimately, casualties mount from battles between his artistic and romantic ambitions, and Buddy’s friends are left to deal with the wreckage that remains.
Echoing the language of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Roosevelt, Michigan is a love letter to house parties and the extraordinary relationships that support folk and roots music. From a touching affair to a mentorship that goes violently wrong, Brock takes readers to the kind of unforgettable party where no one is sure what's in the punch, but everyone is enjoying the journey - until people start to die.
You can get your copy of Roosevelt, Michigan at: https://www.rooseveltmichigan.com/fiction
About the Author
Dylan James Brock is an author and musician and his second novel titled Roosevelt, Michigan - A Musical Novel, will be released on June 18th, 2021. His first novel, Dry World, was released in 2016 and is accompanied by a 25-song album.
At age sixteen, Dylan enrolled at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and in 2006 he received a Master of Fine Arts in fiction writing at Hunter College in New York City. This year, he founded Verisimi Lit, an independent publisher of newsletters and novels that can be found on Substack.
In this interview, we discuss:
- How Dylan first got interested in creative writing and who are his biggest artistic influences;
- Why he wanted to write Roosevelt, Michigan - A Musical Novel and what it is about;
- His unique writing process; and
- The role of the writer and artist in society.
Follow Dylan James Brock’s work and buy Roosevelt, Michigan:
- https://www.rooseveltmichigan.com/fiction
- https://verisimilit.substack.com/
- https://www.instagram.com/dylanjamesbrock/
- https://www.facebook.com/realdylanbrock
- https://twitter.com/dylanjamesbrock
About EMLab
Empathy Media Lab is produced by Evan Matthew Papp and we are a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. Support media, authors, artists, historians, and journalists, who are fighting to improve the prosperity for all.
Website - https://www.empathymedialab.com/
All Links: https://wlo.link/@empathymedialab
#Artists
#Writers
#Authors
#HarmonyOfInterests
#LaborRadioPod
#1U
#UnionStrong
Tuesday Jul 13, 2021
Tuesday Jul 13, 2021
Tuesday Jul 13, 2021
Tuesday Jul 13, 2021
Labor Radio Podcast Network’s Member Spotlight Series pays homage to radio and podcast producers who are focusing on working class issues.
Maximillian Alvarez is host of Working People, in partnership with In These Times magazine, which is a podcast about working-class lives in 21st-century America. In every episode you’ll hear interviews with workers from around the country, from all walks of life. We’ll talk about their life stories, their jobs, politics, and families, their joys and hopes and frustrations.
Mr. Alvarez is also the Editor in Chief of The Real News network and received his PhD from the University of Michigan.
Full interview here: https://www.empathymedialab.com/post/member-spotlight-maximilian-alvarez-host-of-working-people
Sunday Aug 15, 2021
Sunday Aug 15, 2021
In Episode 4, we discuss Laborem Exercens, which means Through Work and is an encyclical written by Pope John Paul II in 1981, on human work. It is part of the larger body of Catholic social teaching, which traces its origin to Pope Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical Rerum novarum.
Faith and Labor is a podcast video series exploring the history of Catholic Social Teachings and how it can be used to bridge divisions and guide humanity to solve the great challenges facing the working class.
Hosted by John Andrechak of Laborlines and Evan Matthew Papp of Empathy Media Lab, they discuss history, scripture, encyclicals, current events, and how faith and love is needed to strengthen solidarity and heal a world in disarray.
We would love to hear your feedback, ideas, and suggested guests for future shows, as we seek to promote what Pope Francis described in Fratelli Tutti as a more just and fraternal world where “Love shatters the chains that keep us isolated and separate; in their place, it builds bridges.”
Tuesday Aug 17, 2021
Tuesday Aug 17, 2021
“...of the leaders of the AFL-CIO since the second world war, Trumka has been one of the very best and that doesn't translate automatically into success or organizing or even winning huge strikes partly because the Carter spirit has been powerful in the democratic party and there's a lack of understanding why you need organized labor.”
Richard Louis Trumka was President of the AFL–CIO from 2009 until his death on August 5, 2021. He served as president of the United Mine Workers from 1982 to 1995, and then was secretary-general of the AFL-CIO from 1995 to 2009.
The American System network gave a tribute to Trumka on their August 5th program while highlighting the failure of the Democratic Party to sufficiently support organized labor. This segment was produced by Empathy Media Lab.
Empathy Media Lab is produced by Evan Matthew Papp and we are a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. Support media, authors, artists, historians, and journalists, who are fighting to improve the prosperity of the working class.
Empathy Media Lab’s website is https://www.empathymedialab.com.
All EMLab links can be found at: https://wlo.link/@empathymedialab.
Wednesday Aug 18, 2021
Wednesday Aug 18, 2021
Dr. Charles Keeney is the author of The Road to Blair Mountain Saving a Mine Wars Battlefield from King Coal, which was published in January 2021 of West Virginia University Press and he is founding member of the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum.
We center the conversation around Dr. Keeney’s book and the Battle of Blair Mountain Centennial Commemoration over Labor Day Weekend 2021.
In this conversation, we discuss:
- Dr. Keeney’s family history steeped in labor struggles going back to his great grandfather Frank Keeney;
- What was the Battle of Blair Mountain and why it is relevant;
- His book The Road to Blair Mountain Saving a Mine Wars Battlefield from King Coal;
- The West Virginia Mine Wars Museum;
- Politics in West Virginia; and
- The role of teaching labor history as central to human progress.
Follow the relevant links to Dr. Keeney’s work and labor struggles in West Virginia:
- Keeney’s book - The Road to Blair Mountain Saving a Mine Wars Battlefield from King Coal
- West Virginia Mine Wars Museum - https://wvminewars.org/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/cbelmontkeeney
- Frank Keeney - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Keeney
- Matewan directed by John Sayles
Follow the events around the Battle of Blair Mountain Centennial Commemoration over Labor Day Weekend 2021 https://www.blair100.com/. Empathy Media Lab will be in Charleston, West Virginia over the weekend filming and interviewing labor activists. If you have content ideas or want to meet up, please reach out!
ABOUT EMLab
Empathy Media Lab is produced by Evan Matthew Papp and we are a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. Support media, authors, activists, artists, historians, and journalists, who are fighting to improve the prosperity of the working class everywhere. Solidarity forever.
Website - https://www.empathymedialab.com/
All Links: https://wlo.link/@empathymedialab
#LaborRadioPod
#1U
#UnionStrong
#Blair100
Thursday Aug 26, 2021
Thursday Aug 26, 2021
Thursday Sep 02, 2021
Thursday Sep 02, 2021
“There is another America. Remember it. Those miners died for you. You should at least know who they were. And then let's all follow in their footsteps. Long live the multiracial uprising in the hills of Appalachia in 1921. Long live the Battle of Blair Mountain.” David Rovics
U.S. Labor Day weekend 2021 marks the 100 year anniversary of the Battle of Blair Mountain, which was part of the West Virginia Mine Wars.
The battle was the largest armed insurrection in the U.S. since the Civil War. The sacrifices of those miners and their families who fought on Blair Mountain laid down a foundation to fight for every worker’s labor rights and protection and courageously stand up and face tyrannical men of murderous intent.
Empathy Media Lab will be in West Virginia documenting the Battle of Blair Mountain Centennial Commemoration, including the United Mine Workers of America’s reenactment of the famous march that ended in the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain.
This short film is based on an audio essay by David Rovics and the song Sixteen Tons by Merle Travis.
The following links providing more information about this labor struggle through:
- Dr. Charles B. Keeney’s book The Road to Blair Mountain Saving a Mine Wars Battlefield from King Coal
- West Virginia Mine Wars Museum
- Matewan directed by John Sayles
- David Rovics website and twitter
ABOUT EMLab
Empathy Media Lab is produced by Evan Matthew Papp and we are a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. Support media, authors, activists, artists, historians, and journalists, who are fighting to improve the prosperity of the working class everywhere. Solidarity forever.
Website - https://www.empathymedialab.com/
All Links: https://wlo.link/@empathymedialab
#LaborRadioPod
#1U
#UnionStrong
#Blair100
Thursday Sep 09, 2021
Thursday Sep 09, 2021
“So why did we want to recreate this March? Because we are bound and determined that the history of our forefathers will not be taken away from us by any rich person or any government.”
Cecil Roberts, President of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA)
One hundred years ago, in a rural mountainous stretch in middle America, a violent labor uprising took place, a battle of good versus evil, rebellion against wage slavery, a fight for freedom against tyranny -- yet this historical memory lies dormant in most minds today.
U.S. Labor Day weekend 2021 marked the 100 year anniversary of the Battle of Blair Mountain, which was part of the West Virginia Mine Wars. The battle was the largest armed insurrection in the U.S. since the Civil War. The sacrifices of those miners and their families provides an important history of courageously standing up and facing tyrannical men of murderous intent.
When I learned about the centennial gathering in remembrance of the great battle of Blair Mountain in West Virginia over Labor Day 2021, I knew I had to go; not just to document the event and raise awareness through the Labor Radio Podcast Network, but I needed to go for myself, as a labor pilgrimage to march alongside the United Mine Workers of America, upon the hallowed ground where miners fought for their rights and a better future for every worker.
During the United Mine Workers of America’s reenactment of the famous march that ended in Sharples, West Virginia near Blair Mountain, I was able to interview fellow marchers and capture a rousing speech by Cecil Roberts, President of the United Mine Workers of America.
Solidarity forever.
ABOUT EMLab
Empathy Media Lab is produced by Evan Matthew Papp and we are a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. Support media, authors, activists, artists, historians, and journalists, who are fighting to improve the prosperity of the working class everywhere. Solidarity forever.
Website - https://www.empathymedialab.com/
All Links: https://wlo.link/@empathymedialab
#LaborRadioPod
#1U
#UnionStrong
#Blair100
Wednesday Oct 13, 2021
Wednesday Oct 13, 2021
On June 20, 1920, Mother Jones spoke on the steps of the Williamson County Courthouse in West Virginia as a grand jury deliberated on the shooting between mine of Matewan, West Virginia and the Baldwin-Felts detectives who were terrorizing the people in the service of the Stone Mountain Coal Company to increase the profits of plutocrats like Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan, and Mellon, and against the United Mine Workers of America driving unionization throughout the land.
The Associated Press wrote the next day “Mother Jones” in West Virginia Coal Fields Making Speeches to Excite Miners.
EMLab filmed a reenactment of Mother Jones famous speech in Matewan, West Virginia during U.S. Labor Day weekend 2021, which marked the 100 year anniversary of the Battle of Blair Mountain, which was part of the West Virginia Mine Wars. The battle was the largest armed insurrection in the U.S. since the Civil War. The sacrifices of those miners and their families provides an important history of courageously standing up and facing tyrannical men of murderous intent.
ABOUT EMLab
Empathy Media Lab is produced by Evan Matthew Papp and we are a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. Support media, authors, activists, artists, historians, and journalists, who are fighting to improve the prosperity of the working class everywhere. Solidarity forever.
Website: https://www.empathymedialab.com/
All Links: https://wlo.link/@empathymedialab
Friday Oct 22, 2021
Friday Oct 22, 2021
In Episode 5, we discuss Economic Justice for All, which is the pastoral letter promulgated by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1986. The letter addresses the precarity of Americans living within the U.S. economy and is framed by the values of Catholic social teaching and thus condemning the neoliberal policies under President Ronald Reagan.
We also discuss America Magazine’s article titled America’s child care crisis and Catholic social teaching by Kate Ward.
Faith and Labor is a podcast video series exploring the history of Catholic Social Teachings and how it can be used to bridge divisions and guide humanity to solve the great challenges facing the working class.
Hosted by John Andrechak of Laborlines and Evan Matthew Papp of Empathy Media Lab, they discuss history, scripture, encyclicals, current events, and how faith and love is needed to strengthen solidarity and heal a world in disarray.
We would love to hear your feedback, ideas, and suggested guests for future shows, as we seek to promote what Pope Francis described in Fratelli Tutti as a more just and fraternal world where “Love shatters the chains that keep us isolated and separate; in their place, it builds bridges.”
#LaborRadioPod
#1U
#UnionStrong
#FaithandLabor
#CatholicSocialTeaching
Sunday Nov 07, 2021
Sunday Nov 07, 2021
“There will be no way for us to be able to solve every single problem of migrant workers here in Thailand. The only way we can do it, we need to have them to speak up about the problem. We need to have them form their own organization, representing themselves.”
Sawit Kaewwan
About Sawit Kaewwan
Sawit Kaewwan, the secretary general of the State Enterprises Workers’ Relations Confederation (SERC) in Thailand, has mobilized the Thai trade union movement to support migrant workers, especially those at risk for human trafficking.
The unions have offered repeatedly to collaborate with industry and government. Instead, the government is pursuing criminal charges against Sawit and 12 of his colleagues for organizing a national railway safety campaign they launched back in 2009. The charges appear politically motivated because they were filed in 2019 just before the statute of limitations expired. Thailand’s National Human Rights Commission has condemned the actions against the trade unionists.
Learn more about Sawit’s work:
- Judy Gearhart’s Essay on Thompson Reuters Foundation News - https://news.trust.org/item/20211105170721-mjdr1
- https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/sep/21/top-thai-union-leader-targeted-with-jail-for-rail-safety-campaign
- https://laborrights.org/publications/time-sea-change-why-union-rights-migrant-workers-are-needed-prevent-forced-labor-thai
About The Labor Link Podcast
The Labor Link Podcast supports workers' rights in global supply chains by sharing personal stories and perspectives of the men and women organizing the workers who make our stuff. The Labor Link Podcast is hosted by Judy Gearhart of American University’s Accountability Research Center and produced by Empathy Media Lab of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. Contact Judy Gearhart for media inquiries at gearhart@american.edu.
About the Host of The Labor Link Podcast
Judy Gearhart is a senior researcher at the Accountability Research Center and an adjunct professor at Columbia University. Previously she served as the executive director at the International Labor Rights Forum and programs director at Social Accountability International. She also worked in Mexico and Honduras on trade, labor rights, and democratic participation.
About the Accountability Research Center
The Accountability Research Center (ARC) is based in American University’s School of International Service. ARC bridges research and frontline perspectives to learn from ideas, institutions, and actors that advance strategies to improve public accountability.
Through extensive dialogue with partners and collaborators, ARC co-designs exploratory research that is relevant for their strategies and can contribute to international thinking about how change happens.
Thursday Nov 18, 2021
Thursday Nov 18, 2021
We are excited to share Radio Labour’s excerpt, “Fighting for Thailand's Migrant Workers,” that covered The Labor Link’s podcast interview with Sawit Kaewwan.
Summary:
Millions of migrant workers in Thailand need help. The Thai labour movement is fighting for their rights. An interview with Sawit Kaewwan, the secretary general of the State Enterprises Workers’ Relations Confederation (SERC) conducted by Judy Gearhart of American University’s Accountability Research Center.
The RadioLabour team consists of labour educators, negotiators, research representatives, union members and others connected to the labour movement. Most of us work, or have worked, for a union, a labour studies centre, or a global union. The team is led by Marc Bélanger, an international labour educator, based in Canada.
To learn more about Radio Labour, visit: https://www.radiolabour.net/.