Working People

On Aug. 22, 2025, the small-town lives of residents living near the Smitty's Supply facility in Roseland, LA, changed forever when an explosion occurred at the automotive lubricant plant. The explosion and ensuing fire, which burned for days, triggered evacuations across the area, blanketing homes and businesses with smoke, soot, and oily residue, while spilling petroleum products from the plant into area waterways, including several adjacent ponds and the Tangipahoa River. While the Environmental Protection Agency claims that the area is safe, according to the agency's own chemical monitoring, residents say they've been left behind and kept in the dark as they develop negative health symptoms and their homes remain covered in toxic substances. In this episode, we speak with Arlene Bankston, a farmer and resident of Roseland, and Allie Ponvelle, who lives one town over in Amite, about the slow-moving nightmare they've been living in ever since the massive explosion and chemical fire at Smitty's Supply. Additional links/info: Alene Bankston's Facebook page Allie Ponvelle's Facebook page Petition to Close Roseland Montessori School Due to Toxic Contamination Chemically Impacted Communities Coalition (CICC) website Wesley Muller, Louisiana Illuminator, "Smitty's Supply neighbors still wary of fire fallout despite assurances from Landry, EPA" Whitney Miller, WWL Louisiana, "What was in the air and water after the Smitty's Supply fire? Testing under new scrutiny" "Maximillian Alvarez, TRNN, "America's toxic future looks like East Palestine, Ohio, today" Featured Music: Jules Taylor, Working People Theme Song Credits: Audio Post-Production: Jules Taylor

Nearly a year after workers voted to authorize a strike, non-union city and commercially contracted security officers in Baltimore, MD, will walk off the job on April 9 in an Unfair Labor Practice strike against their employer, Abacus Corporation. In their yearslong effort to unionize and secure more job security, better pay, accessible healthcare, and safer working conditions, workers at Abacus have reported rampant union busting and violations of their labor rights. In this episode, we speak with Laura Dixon, a veteran security officer and Abacus employee, and Jaimie Contreras, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union, Local 32BJ. Additional links/info: SEIU Local 32BJ website, Facebook page, and Instagram Katherine Wilson, Baltimore Sun, "Baltimore contract security officers at city properties prepare to strike" Featured Music: Jules Taylor, Working People Theme Song Credits: Audio Post-Production: Jules Taylor

While facing decades-long political efforts to throttle and privatize the United States Postal Service (USPS), and while US Postmaster General David Steiner ominously warns that the USPS will "run out of money" within a year, postal workers continue to deliver the mail and serve communities across the country. But that job has gotten harder, more dangerous, and more complicated in recent years. From increases in targeted violence against letter carriers to the Trump administration's attacks on mail-in voting, to ICE and Border Patrol agents invading communities on their mail routes, USPS workers are confronting many daily hazards on the job that the public doesn't see. In this episode, we speak with Connor Mauche, a letter carrier in New York and a shop steward for Branch 3 of the National Association of Letter Carriers, about what it's like to be a postal worker in America in 2026. Additional links/info: National Association of Letter Carriers - Branch 3 website Ann DeStefano Sutherland, The Revolt of the Good Guys (a documentary about the Great Postal Strike of 1970) Derek Dolbeare, Labor Notes, "Dispatch: Letter carriers are gearing up for another contract fight" Sara Braun, The Guardian, "Nearly blind refugee abandoned by US border patrol found dead in Buffalo" Monique Morrissey, Economic Policy Institute, "Why is President Trump attacking the Postal Service?" Susan Haigh, AP, "US Postal Service expects to run out of cash in a year without help from Congress, postmaster says" Featured Music: Jules Taylor, Working People Theme Song Credits: Audio Post-Production: Jules Taylor

3,800 workers and Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 7 members at the massive JBS beef processing plant in Greeley, CO walked off the job on an unfair labor practice strike on March 16. This is the first strike ever at the Greeley plant—one of the largest in the country—and it's the biggest meatpacking strike in the US since the 1985-86 strike at the Hormel plant in Austin, MN. As Caitlyn Clark and Lisa Xu report in Labor Notes, "Strikers say JBS has been increasing the speed of the production line while cutting work hours from 40 a week to 35, squeezing out more work for less money… Workers are also demanding that the company stop charging them out-of-pocket costs for personal protective equipment like mesh vests and arm guards—essential because they work with knives, saws, and other sharp, dangerous equipment." In this episode, we speak with Clark and Xu, who report from the JBS picket line and break down why this strike is so significant and what it will take for workers to win this fight against the largest beef processor in the US. Guests: Caitlyn Clark is a national organizer at Essential Workers for Democracy, an organization dedicated to rank-and-file member education and empowerment for UFCW members in grocery, meatpacking, and retail. Lisa Xu is a staff writer and organizer at Labor Notes. Additional links/info: Caitlyn Clark & Lisa Xu, Labor Notes, "In 57 languages, meatpackers strike for the first time in 40 Years" Featured Music: Jules Taylor, Working People Theme Song Credits: Audio Post-Production: Jules Taylor

Diane Wilson is a fourth-generation fisherwoman and a lifelong resident of Seadrift, Texas. Wilson has become a global folk hero over the course of her epic, decades-long journey from shrimp boat captain and mother of five to social and ecological justice warrior who took on a multibillion dollar corporation polluting the bays along her beloved Texas Gulf Coast. But the fight to save her home from industrial pollution is far from over. On March 2, Wilson began a hunger strike outside the Dow Chemical Company / Union Carbide plant in Seadrift. "I have a tent and am camping out 24 hours, 7 days a week," Wilson wrote in a letter to Dow CEO Jim Fitterling, "to impress upon Dow/Union Carbide our intense dislike and frustration of decades of plastic pollution being discharged into our bays and waterways." In this urgent episode, we speak with Wilson as her hunger strike enters its third week. Guest: Diane Wilson is a fourth-generation shrimper, boat captain, mother of five, author, and an environmental, peace, and social justice advocate. During the last 30 years, she has launched legislative campaigns, demonstrations, hunger strikes, sunk boats, and even climbed chemical towers in her fight to protect her Gulf Coast bay. She is a co-founder of CODEPINK, the women's anti-war group based in Washington, DC, and co-founder of the Texas Jail Project, which advocates for inmates' rights in Texas county jails. Since 2012, Wilson has been executive director and waterkeeper of San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper (SABEW) on the Texas Gulf Coast. Wilson is the author of numerous books, including: An Unreasonable Woman: A True Story of Shrimpers, Politicos, Polluters, and the Fight for Seadrift, Texas; and Diary of an Eco-Outlaw: An Unreasonable Woman Breaks the Law for Mother Earth. Additional links/info: Follow updates on Diane's hunger strike here Diane Wilson website Diane Wilson, "Letter to DOW CEO Jim Fitterling" San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper (SAWBE) website, Facebook page, TikTok, and Instagram Plastic Pollution Coalition, "Diane Wilson launches hunger strike after Dow requests legalization of microplastics discharge in Texas" Featured Music: Jules Taylor, Working People Theme Song Credits: Audio Post-Production: Jules Taylor