August 27, 2024: This is not my labor day

After a worker riot turned deadly in Haymarket Square, Chicago in 1886, days after striking McCormack Tractor workers attacked scabs and labor leaders were arrested, tried and hanged for the Haymarket Square killings, May 1 was designated international workers day.  The USA chose not to join the rest of the world celebrating May 1, but instead proclaimed the first day in September as Labor Day, due to its fine weather for picnicking.  After some studio technical difficulties, (hey, we are all volunteers), co-hosts Margie, Louis and Barbara talked about the state of labor in the USA.  We began with the Industrial Revolution and early unionizing, the trust busting of monopolies, New Deal labor reforms, and the weakening of these reforms in the 1980s after President Reagan fired striking air traffic controllers, privatized their jobs, and busted their union.  Today, labor is fighting to demand enforcement of New Deal unionizing reforms and the monopolization of key sectors of our economy, such as tech, media, insurance, housing, and insurance.  To that, we say "more  picketing, less picnicking"!

Tune in next week as we focus on a different kind of labor--the laboring of women to bring life into the world--and a Hinesville, GA program called Mom's Heart Matters to prevent postpartum maternal deaths.