Workers Rights On Illinois Ballot; Green New Union Jobs w/ Tim Drea; Lee Harris | MR LIVE 11/2/22

Fun Half Link

Sam hosts Tim Drea, President of the Illinois AFL-CIO, to discuss the Workers Rights Amendment that is on the state ballot next Tuesday. Then he is joined by Lee Harris, reporter at The American Prospect, to discuss her recent piece "Industrial Policy Without Industrial Unions". Sam begins by running through updates on charges against CVS and Wallgreens in an opioid lawsuit, the GOP continuing to lead polling for the House, the NLRB’s response to Starbucks union busting in Ithaca, and Bibi returning to the top of Israeli politics, before diving deeper into Joe Biden’s recent highlighting of the GOP’s stances on Social Security and Medicare in his campaigning. Then Tim Drea joins as he and Sam dive right into what the Workers Rights Amendment in Illinois entails, working through the right to a safe workplace and worker safety alongside securing the right to bargain, before diving into why the WRA is necessary with the rising trend of state-level attacks on workers rights already having come to Illinois, with the labor-supporting legislature successfully fighting off Bruce Rauner’s union-busting policy. After a greater discussion on Illinois as an epicenter for labor organizing in the US, Tim and Sam walk through the various fights the Illinois AFL-CIO is engaged in, and why you can’t favor creating jobs over making sure that the workers come home from them. Lee Harris then joins as she and Sam tackle the recent Inflation Reduction Act’s role in bolstering US industrial policy, exploring why industrial policy is important in a shift away from the neoliberal reliance on the free market, and why, despite that, a focus on ensuring these are unionized and well-paying industrial jobs is a necessary step. They parse through the recent job creation via the CHIPS act and the IRA, discussing how the varying support for labor across US states creates a race to the bottom to secure funding, and how private companies are already looking to get around any vague requirements for decent worker treatment. Wrapping up the interview, they explore the Biden Administration’s failure to properly address certain labor scandals, and discuss what can actually be done to help bolster the state of labor in this country.

And in the Fun Half: Sam discusses Samuel Alito’s recent attempt to use the ol’ Elizabeth Warren tactic as an excuse to undermine affirmative action, Paul from Illinois discusses bail reform, and Ben Shapiro discusses why it was wrong, not bad for Candace Owens to defend the bad AND wrong things that Kanye West was saying. Connor for Kentucky calls in about his campaign for KY’s 5th Congressional District, Glenn Greenwald appears on Tucker just in time to not address the myriad lies Tucker has been spreading that directly involve Glenn’s own reporting, and Ed from Oregon discusses the success of push-pull tactics on the right. Dennis Prager explores the complexity of lesbians and the simplicity of gay men, and Ross from Florida discusses discourse around Ukraine, plus, your calls and IMs!#podcast #news #majorityreport #interview #longformcontent #democats #labor #union #greenjobs #industrial

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