America’s Work Force Union Podcast

America at 250 and the 2032 Social Security Cliff

Episode 122 of America's Work Force Union Podcast brings together two important conversations — one looking back at the founding of the nation and one looking forward at a crisis that could reshape retirement security for 80 million Americans.

First, American Legion Media and Communications Director Jeff Stoffer joins for a farewell segment after 26 years at the Legion and a partnership with AWF dating back to 2009. Built around the American Legion magazine's July issue and the nation's 250th anniversary, the conversation covers the Declaration of Independence as a revolutionary document in global governance, two books that make the case for America's founding values as a living force in the country's moral history and a call for better civic education. Jeff also introduces his successor, Henry Howard — 14-year Legion media veteran, Be the One suicide prevention campaign leader and former newspaper editor — who will carry the monthly AWF American Legion segment forward beginning next month.

Then, Alliance for Retired Americans Executive Director Rich Fiesta delivers an urgent warning about the Social Security trust fund's projected 2032 shortfall. If Congress does nothing, more than 70 million Americans — close to 80 million by 2032 — will face an average benefit cut of approximately 22%, or $500 per month. Fiesta explains why wage stagnation since the Reagan era accelerated the timeline by 15 years, what scrapping the $184,000 earnings cap would do to restore solvency and why November's elections are the most critical near-term variable in whether Social Security gets fixed before the cliff arrives.

Visit legion.org for American Legion updates and retiredamericans.org to look up your representatives' voting records on Social Security going back to 2001.

Tennessee Nuclear Network on $10B Investment and 3,000 Skilled Jobs

A nuclear reactor is under construction in Tennessee. A fuel fabrication facility has steel going vertical. And $10 billion in investment is projected to create up to 3,000 jobs across skilled trades, technical roles and professional positions in East Tennessee alone.

On this episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, Tennessee Nuclear Network Director Bill Tindal breaks down why Oak Ridge has become the national center of the nuclear energy resurgence, what trades are needed right now — from electricians and pipefitters to instrumentation technicians — and how a workforce pipeline from high school dual enrollment through community college is being built to match the demand. He also addresses how today's Generation 3 and 4 reactor designs differ from the plants that scared the public in the 1970s and 80s and why US energy demand projections through 2050 make this a generational career opportunity, not a short-term construction cycle.

Visit eteconline.org to learn more about the Tennessee Nuclear Network.

UPTE-CWA Tech Worker Win and OFT's Voucher Fight and First Contract Success

Today's America's Work Force Union Podcast brings two major stories together in one conversation-packed episode.

First, UPTE-CWA Local 9119 President Dan Russell discusses the union's landmark organizing win — 2,100 University of California tech workers added to the bargaining unit, making UPTE the largest tech worker bargaining unit in the country at 8,400 members. Russell breaks down the subtle union avoidance strategy that kept those workers out for years, how high-visibility strike action brought them in and why getting organized before a mass AI rollout is now the union's most urgent priority.

Then, Ohio Federation of Teachers President Melissa Cropper delivers one of her most packed monthly updates yet — covering AFT's bold Devices Down, Eyes Up vision for public schools, a bipartisan Ohio voucher accountability bill targeting a program that now exceeds one billion dollars annually with almost no oversight and a wave of five first contract victories, including the first KIPP charter school contract in the country. She also gives a confident update on the Columbus Metropolitan Library organizing election now underway.

Visit upte.org to learn more about UPTE-CWA Local 9119 and oft-aft.org for more on the Ohio Federation of Teachers.

Iron Workers Local 44 on the Brent Spence Bridge Finally Breaking Ground

Twenty-nine years ago, Dave Baker was told Iron Workers Local 44 was going to build a bridge. This week, drill shaft work on the Brent Spence Bridge companion project officially began.

On this episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, Local 44 Business Manager Dave Baker discusses the decades of political and funding gridlock that stalled one of the most critical infrastructure projects in the Midwest, what finally broke the impasse and what 6 million projected building trades work hours and 1,200 peak construction jobs mean for iron workers, apprenticeship programs and the Cincinnati trades community.

He also shares his own story — four years working non-union before joining Local 44 in 1997 — and what the union difference has meant for his wages, retirement and family healthcare over 30 years.

Visit ironworkers44.com to learn more about Iron Workers Local 44.

Labor Lawyer Andrew Strom on How the Sixth Circuit Just Made It Harder for Workers to Fight Back

Workers at Trinity Health Grand Haven Hospital voted 89 to 66 to keep their union — after their employer had already illegally stripped it from them. The NLRB went to court seeking an emergency order to restore recognition while the case was litigated. Two Trump-appointed Sixth Circuit judges said no. The dissent came from a Reagan appointee.

On this episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, union attorney and Brooklyn Law School adjunct professor Andrew Strom breaks down what that ruling means, why the NLRA's four-year enforcement process makes preliminary injunctions the only real deterrent against illegal employer conduct and why the same court that gives employers automatic injunctions against workers who violate non-compete agreements refuses to apply the same logic when employers strip workers of their collective bargaining rights.

Read the full analysis at onlabor.org.

Ironworkers Local 48’s Trey Martin Is Running for Congress in Oklahoma

Trey Martin joined the Iron Workers at 19 with no clear path to the middle class. Twenty years later, he watched his wife nearly die from two autoimmune diseases and nearly go bankrupt in the process — even with solid union health insurance. That experience, and a Congress that has failed to address healthcare for his entire lifetime, convinced him it was time to run.

On this episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, Iron Workers Local 48 President Trey Martin talks about his congressional campaign in Oklahoma ahead of his Tuesday primary, the platform he is running on and why he believes kitchen table issues — wages, healthcare, public schools, congressional stock trading — cut across party lines in a way that can win in a state with a conservative supermajority.

Follow the campaign at treyforoklahoma.com.

Teamsters Local 175's Luke Farley on Beverage Market Strike in West Virginia

A profitable MillerCoors distributor in West Virginia is demanding wage cuts, retirement rollbacks and health insurance premium increases of up to 880%. The company is not claiming financial hardship. And 49 Teamsters Local 175 members voted unanimously to strike — and have been running 24-hour, seven-day-a-week picket lines ever since.

On this episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, Teamsters Local 175 Secretary-Treasurer and Staff Attorney Luke Farley walks through exactly what Beverage Market is demanding, why it has no justification, how the community has rallied behind the striking workers and what Teamsters International is doing to put pressure on MillerCoors parent companies, whose West Virginia market share is evaporating heading into the Fourth of July weekend.

Follow the strike and show your support at teamsters175.org.

CWA District 4's Frank Mathews on the AT&T Contract Win and the CWA Worker Power Agenda

AT&T Mobility wireless workers just ratified a strong new contract covering 9,000 people across 36 states — and a 95% strike authorization vote is a big reason why the bargaining committee had the leverage it needed.

On this episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, CWA District 4 Administrative Director Frank Mathews discusses the contract win, the CWA Worker Power Agenda built directly from responses by more than 9,000 union members and the legislative conference that sent thousands of CWA members to Capitol Hill with 17 bills and the knowledge to discuss every one of them. He also previews the double overtime legislation unveiled at the conference by Congressman Greg Casar and explains why the No Tax Breaks for Outsourcing Act and the Raise the Wage Act are long overdue.

Read the full Worker Power Agenda at cwa-union.org.

SMART-TD's Jared Cassity on the Rail Safety Act Breakthrough and Lessons from East Palestine

Three years after the East Palestine derailment, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has adopted the Rail Safety Act as an amendment to the Build America 250 Act — mandating two-person freight train crews, new hazmat transparency requirements and improved defect detector standards. It is the biggest rail safety step in more than two decades.

On this episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, SMART Transportation Division National Safety and Legislative Director Jared Cassity explains exactly how East Palestine happened, why silenced wayside defect detectors were a deliberate railroad policy choice rather than a malfunction and what the legislation does — and does not — address. He also explains why September 30 is the hard deadline and what it means if Congress misses it.

More information on SMART Transportation Division's legislative work is available at smart-union.org.

LaborLab's Bob Funk on the $1.7 Billion Union Busting Industry and How Workers Can Fight Back

US employers spend $1.7 billion every year trying to stop workers from organizing. One union-busting consultant earned $7 million alone last year. Amazon spent more than $26.6 million on outside consultants in 2025. And the Department of Labor is enforcing disclosure requirements for unions while largely ignoring the same rules for companies and law firms that fight workers.

On this episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, LaborLab founder Bob Funk breaks down a new report produced with the Economic Policy Institute on the scale and structure of the union avoidance industry — from the law firms that drag out contract negotiations for years to the healthcare systems spending millions on union busters while patients wait for beds.

Funk also explains how LaborLab's Persuader reports put legally required information directly in workers' hands during organizing campaigns. If you are facing a union-busting campaign, visit laborlab.us or email contact@laborlab.us.