America’s Work Force Union Podcast

Her father came from Mexico as a teenager to work North San Diego County's strawberry fields, following her grandfather who was a bracero. Her mother spent 40 years as a nurse trying to organize her hospital, watched co-workers get retaliated against and voted for a union in her 40th year without ever working under that contract. Lorena Gonzalez became the first woman and first person of color to lead the California Federation of Labor Unions and authored three laws that changed conditions for every worker in the state.

On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, California Federation of Labor President Lorena Gonzalez joins as part of the Labor 132 series to discuss her personal story, the summer job handing out food to striking workers that shaped her view of labor courage, the landmark legislation she authored including statewide paid sick leave, farmworker overtime and criminal penalties for wage theft, California's 125th year as a labor federation, the growing presence of women in trades and labor leadership and why the current surge in public support for unions carries a special responsibility to stay earned.

Visit calaborfed.org for more.

Two Labor Day conversations that connect the fight for workers in Congress to the programs building the next generation of union construction workers — one making the legislative case for faster contracts, higher wages and union political power and one tracing a nationwide network of free apprenticeship readiness programs preparing people from every kind of background for union construction careers.

Congressional Labor Caucus co-founder and IBEW Local 351 member Don Norcross of New Jersey discusses the Faster Labor Contracts Act, which the House passed through a discharge petition, echoing Mary Norton's 1938 use of the same mechanism to advance the Fair Labor Standards Act almost 88 years earlier. He traces his path from a four-year IBEW apprenticeship to the Southern New Jersey AFL-CIO presidency to the Public Officials with a Union Label initiative that placed more than 100 union members in public office across four New Jersey counties and spread nationally. He addresses Reagan's firing of the PATCO air traffic controllers as the turning point in modern labor history, what 70% public support for unions today actually reflects and why Amazon workers on Staten Island, who won their union election more than two years ago, still do not have a contract. His Labor Day message: labor creates all wealth, not the trillionaires.

Then, TradesFutures Executive Director Marina Zhavoronkova discusses the organization's network of more than 200 free apprenticeship readiness programs across 32 states, serving 7,700 participants last year, a threefold increase over five years. She covers the fastest-growing program segments including high schools and community colleges, a new statewide partnership launching the Multicraft Core Curriculum across all 15 Pennsylvania community colleges, women in construction and the Tradeswomen Built Nations conference, data center construction as a major driver of union job demand for program graduates and what the BLS AI exposure categories show about building trades occupations ranking among the lowest in relative AI exposure of all currently classified jobs.

Visit norcross.house.gov and laborcaucus.house.gov for more from Representative Norcross and tradesfutures.org for more from TradesFutures. Follow @NABTU for building trades updates.

The AFL-CIO had to add more digits to its Paywatch database this year just to fit one person's compensation package. S&P 500 CEOs averaged $22.8 million in 2025 without Elon Musk. His $158.3 billion Tesla package pushed the average to $340.1 million, approximately 1,700% higher than the prior year and the highest figure in Paywatch's 28-year history. The ratio of his pay to the median Tesla worker's pay: 2,522,203 to 1. Excluding Musk, the average CEO-to-worker ratio is 312-to-1. And workers' share of US national income fell to its lowest level since World War II.

On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond joins for the final First Friday with Fred before Labor Day 2026 to discuss what the 2025 Executive Paywatch report means for working people, why full-time employees at some of the country's largest employers are among the top recipients of Medicaid and SNAP and why the AFL-CIO is heading into this Labor Day genuinely optimistic, with a goal of 2 million new union members in the next five years described as a floor, not a ceiling.

Visit aflcio.org and paywatch.org for more.

A million people are projected to move to Central Ohio by 2050. Two Ohio Power Siting Board hearings drew nearly 100 speakers in one week. The outer belt needs more lanes. And the IBEW is preparing to blanket Columbus job sites with organizers and then sit workers down with contractors to place them on the same day.

On today's Trades Day episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council Executive Secretary-Treasurer Dorsey Hager delivers his monthly update covering the Fairfield and Asheville Ohio Power Siting Board hearings for two behind-the-meter energy centers serving data center campuses, Central Ohio's infrastructure gap as growth accelerates toward a million new residents by 2050, apprenticeship outreach to middle schools and high schools and the IBEW job blitz coming to Columbus that could be replicated across all building trades if it succeeds.

Visit columbusconstruction.org for more.

Two conversations that connect the fight for workers in the halls of Congress to the fight for workers on the streets of Cleveland — one making the legislative case for tipped wages, overtime pay and AI transparency and one tracing 55 years of a labor-rooted organization that has never stopped asking what workers need that nobody else is providing.

Congressional Labor Caucus co-chair and Culinary Workers Union Local 226 member Steve Horsford of Nevada discusses the Big Beautiful Bill's betrayal of tipped workers and his Tips Improvement Act to make tax relief permanent, the federal minimum wage frozen at $7.25 since 2009 and down 30% in purchasing power, the Double the Wage Act to require double pay after 40 hours, the PRO Act and Faster Labor Contracts Act and legislation requiring transparency on AI-related layoffs and hiring. He also shares the personal story behind his public service: an immigrant mother from Trinidad, a father shot and killed when he was 19 and a decade running the Culinary Training Academy before he ever ran for Congress. His Labor Day message: the problems workers face are not personal failures, and when workers fight, they win.

Then, United Labor Agency Executive Director Dave Megenhardt traces 55 years of worker-centered service in Cleveland, from a 1971 kidney dialysis program seeded by the Cleveland AFL-CIO, the UAW and the Teamsters through durable medical equipment, workforce development, housing rehabilitation and the placement of more than 2,000 workers across Northeast Ohio last year. He addresses what deindustrialization's legacy of abandoned communities without transition plans should teach us about AI-driven job displacement, the current federal grant landscape and the ULA's role in seeding Policy Matters Ohio. His Labor Day message: look back on a year of hard work, recognize your contribution to the economy and always fight for someone else.

Visit horsford.house.gov and laborcaucus.house.gov for more from Representative Horsford and ulagency.org for more from the United Labor Agency.

The tornado is the high interest rates. The Scarecrow is the caricature of the uneducated farmer. The Tin Woodsman is the industrial worker who lost his humanity as wages fell. The Yellow Brick Road is the gold standard. The Emerald City is Washington. And behind the curtain at the end, a few powerful people are pulling strings. L. Frank Baum wrote The Wizard of Oz as a populist labor parable. NABTU's Dr. Tom Kriger says it is the most important thing you can watch this Labor Day weekend.

On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, NABTU Director of Education and Research Dr. Tom Kriger discusses the Fitzgerald Act of 1937 and how registered apprenticeship was created, why the union model of training workers in the full range of an occupation is the gold standard, how NABTU's 300,000 apprentices represent roughly half of all registered apprentices in the United States, why the tech industry has badly failed to explain why data centers are necessary and what happens if the US stops building them and why L. Frank Baum's populist parable from the 1890s is more relevant today than most people realize.

Visit nabtu.org for more.

A machinist named Matthew Maguire proposed Labor Day in 1882. When Grover Cleveland signed it into law in 1894, he gave the ceremonial pen to a carpenter with a similar name and told Maguire's wife he was sorry. The machinist never got proper credit. The debate starts every Labor Day again.

On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast — the final episode of the Labor 132 series, one week before Labor Day — IAM retired International President Tom Buffenbarger discusses the life and career of William ‘Wimpy’ Winpisinger, the IAM general president from 1977 to 1989 who wheeled a wheelchair into his first AFL-CIO executive board meeting to tell George Meany it was time to go, led a walkout of the 1980 Democratic National Convention, put IAM-sponsored race cars on national television with drivers including Roger Mears and Josele Garza to showcase union craftsmen and made trade unionism a religion. Buffenbarger also settles — for another year at least — the debate over who really created Labor Day.

Visit goiam.org for more.

Her father-in-law was fired for union activity, contracted tuberculosis and was sent west to die. He came back to Detroit, won a congressional seat and helped write the Social Security Act — standing in the room when Roosevelt signed it in 1935. That history is what Congresswoman Debbie Dingell carries into Congress every day.

On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, Dingell joins the Labor 132 series as co-chair of the 129-member Congressional Labor Caucus. She discusses why USMCA has not created a level playing field with Mexico, the national security threat posed by Chinese autonomous vehicles collecting data on American streets, why the chaotic application of tariffs has cost average households approximately $3,500, the need to scrap the Social Security earnings cap before the 2033 funding cliff and why she is one of the lead House sponsors of Medicare for All — a bill that now has more than 100 co-sponsors.

Visit debbiedingell.house.gov and laborcaucus.house.gov for more.

Without the union, he says, he would qualify for Medicaid and food stamps doing the same insulation work. He has been sober for more than 20 years. He holds a Massachusetts license in addiction counseling. And he watches his members vote against their own economic interests every election cycle and cannot figure out how to get through to them.

On today's Trades Day episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, Heat and Frost Insulators Local 6 Business Manager Jeff Saliba joins on behalf of Pete Ielmini and the Mechanical Insulators LMCT. He discusses why the Boston hospital energy report is a call to action for mechanical insulation, how Local 6's MAP-based recovery program gives apprentices a structured path through addiction and a genuine door back into the program, and why the drift toward individualism — workers thinking me instead of we — is the most significant internal challenge unions face heading into this Labor Day.

If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988. Visit insulators6.org and follow @InsulatorsLMCT for more.

Two conversations that connect the health of workers to the history of the movement that fights for them — one looking at what union members eat and how it affects their long-term health, and one tracing 49 years of a union that keeps the aviation system safe and has been fighting for the right to do that work well since 1977.

Blue Cross Blue Shield National Labor Office Executive Director Merrilee Logue discusses the Food Is Medicine movement and what it means for the 18 million union members covered through BCBS plans. She outlines updated USDA dietary guidelines emphasizing protein, healthy fats and minimally processed foods, the specific nutritional challenges facing union members doing shift work and physically demanding jobs and a range of programs now available through union insurance plans — from registered dietitians and medically tailored meals to produce prescription programs in which healthcare providers can literally prescribe fruits and vegetables as part of a treatment plan. She also discusses the American Psychiatric Association's documented connection between nutrition and mental health and Blue Cross Blue Shield's investment of millions in nutrition programs, food banks and educational initiatives in every zip code across the country.

Then, Professional Aviation Safety Specialists President Dave Spero traces the 49-year history of PASS National — from Howard Johnnssen's decision to start a union after being suspended for kicking in a door to put out a fire, through founders sleeping in their cars and burning through their leave by Memorial Day every year to sign up members, to the eight-year fight for the first contract. He discusses what PASS did on September 11, 2001, when the president suspended the collective bargaining agreement in the first hours so members could focus entirely on securing the aviation system, current FAA workforce shortfalls and the threat of a government shutdown at the end of September 30.

Follow @BlueLabor on LinkedIn and X for BCBS NLO updates and visit passnational.org for more from PASS National.