WRFG Labor Forum

Darrell Lane, President of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Union Local #42 brings
the latest news of the ongoing struggle with Mondelez (formerly Kraft) both locally and nationally.
The corporation infamously closed the Chicago plant that produced Oreo cookies and moved production
to a low-wage facility in Mexico that ships the product back to the US.
Darrell will speak about the contract negotiation issues facing the Atlanta workforce.
This interview will be from 4:30-4:55 on The Labor Forum on WRFG 89.3FM.

Earlier in the program, we will review two events that took place this past week-end that figure in the
establishment and growth of WRFG 89.3FM as an independent, progressive community radio station.

In 1968, the Great Speckled Bird, an underground newspaper, was founded by a group of young activists to
provide news and information to and about the rising social, cultural and political movements of the time.
The development of a mission-based, community sponsored and supported radio station was bolstered by
the Great Speckled Bird and other grassroots organizations and so WRFG 89.3FM was born in 1973.
A 50th Bird anniversary event was held on Saturday, June 2 with featured speaker, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now
whose program is aired on WRFG weekdays from 5-6pm.

Poet, political activist, organizer, founder of multiple community institutions and long-time WRFG Board member and
Program Director, Ebon Dooley, was honored at the Auburn Ave Research Library on Sunday where his extensive
collection of papers, books, documents, writings and more are archived.
We will share some of the moments of that event.

The Labor Forum airs every Monday from 4-5pm on WRFG 89.3FM. For additional information, please see wrfglaborforum.org

The Labor Forum on WRFG 89.3FM welcomes two guests to today’s program.

From 4:15-4:30, Sara Patenaude an activist with Hate Free Decatur, will describe the latest
developments in the campaign to remove the confederate monument from Decatur Square.
The group is mobilizing for a Tuesday County Commission meeting to press elected officials to
carry out the actions approved months ago to take the white supremacist symbol off the public square.

At 4:30, Labor Forum listeners will hear from Robert Griswald, a student at the New School in NYC, who is one
of many students who have occupied the college’s cafeteria since May 1. The school has a reputation for being
a progressive institution but the administration fired 45 cafeteria workers in order to bring in a subcontractor,
paying lower wages.

The Labor Forum applauds the role these students are playing in defense of the workers’ rights to keep their jobs.

Please tune in every Monday from 4-5pm at WRFG 89.3FM to hear about the struggles affecting working people
and their families from those taking active participation and leadership in the fight.

For more information, see wrfglaborforum.org

The Labor Forum on WRFG 89.3FM sends solidarity greetings to our listeners and supporters on the eve of International Workers Day, May 1st.

We hope that our weekly one hour program every Monday from 4-5pm provides news coverage and analysis of issues and struggles impacting working people, their families and communities in way that educates, inspires and mobilizes for worker power.

Our first guest from 4:15-4:30 is Deborah Arnold, a member of the Housing Justice League, who will pass on information about nationwide protests opposing HUD budget cuts to affordable housing programs. These actions are taking place tomorrow, May 1, including here in Atlanta at Senator David Perdue’s office in Buckhead.
Following on the heels of the housing foreclosure crisis which saw thousands of people lose their homes to fraudulent and unethical banking and mortgage practices, Atlantans now face escalating rents, exorbitant home sales prices and aggressive development projects in inner city neighborhoods that are displacing communities of color, seniors and low-wage workers.

Please tune in to hear about the work of the Housing Justice League at 4:15.

Next, a parent of two children attending DeKalb County schools will discuss why the demands of the DeKalb bus drivers should be met.
Hannah Hawkins is a community supporter of the workers who participated in a “sick-out” to draw attention to their lack of a living wage and a pension for their years of service as well as issues regarding the condition and safety of the school buses.
Across the country, teachers and other education workers including bus drivers, maintenance and cafeteria workers, have taken bold measures to bring the reality of underfunded public education to the country’s attention.
This interview will be heard from 4:30-4:55.

For more information about The Labor Forum including the archive of past programs, please see wrfglaborforum.org

PLEASE SUPPORT WRFG & SECURE One SPONSOR AT ANY LEVEL for the 45^th WRFG BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION on Saturday, June 23, 5-9pm at the Hammonds House Museum in the West End. It can be an individual, a business, a community group, a professional association, a cultural organization, a union.

THANK YOU!

Tune in Monday, Ap. 23 to The Labor Forum on WRFG, 89.3FM for news of worker struggles here and around the world.

Today’s first guest is Ebonee Williams with the Atlanta-N. Georgia Labor Council providing information about Workers Memorial Day,an annual commemoration of those workers who died on the job. The statistics of those killed and injured while at work are alarming –and preventable. Williams will provide information about the Saturday, Ap. 28 event. This interview is from 4:15-4:30.

At 4:30, labor activist and longshore worker retiree, Clarence Thomas of International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10 will discuss the plans for May Day 2018 which include an 8 hour work stoppage at multiple California ports. This year the politically conscious union is joining with an immigrant rights march.He will recount the militant formation of the union and its decades of international solidarity and anti-racist actions.

The Labor Forum airs every Monday from 4-5pm on WRFG 89,3FM. For additional information, please see http://www.wrfglaborforum.org

On Monday, Ap. 16, The Labor Forum on WRFG 89.3FM welcomes Ken Mitchell and Linda Pogue, both with Disability Link who are members of a coalition, Us Protecting Us, formed to respond the the high number of people with disabilities that are killed by police.
The shooting of Air Force veteran, Anthony Hill by officer Robert Olsen on March 9, 2015 while the young man was naked and acting erratically outside his Chamblee apartment, brought together a diverse cross-section of community members to envision another way to keep people safe.
Mitchell and Pogue will also talk about the upcoming Ap. 23 court proceedings for Robert Olsen, indicted on various charges including murder in the killing of unarmed Anthony Hill.
This interview will be conducted from 4:15-4:30.

At 4:30, Traci Drummond and Andrew Reisinger will be in the studio to inform the Labor Forum audience of events marking the 50th anniversary of the Great Speckled Bird, an Atlanta underground newspaper that reflected the changing political and cultural times. Scholars from many fields make use of the Labor Archives at GSU to research and examine the interplay of hard-hitting articles on war, police brutality and worker struggles with counterculture content and artwork that characterized the Bird.Some of the paper staff went on to help found and establish WRFG in 1973 as a progressive, community radio station.

The Labor Forum airs every Monday from 4-5pm on WRFG 89.3FM. For additional information, please see wrfglaborforum.org

The Atlanta action is one of many that are happening across the US on Ap. 14-15, initiated by a number of national organizations and coalitions including United National Anti-war Coalition, Black Voices for Peace, Code Pink, International Action Center, Veterans for Peace, US Peace Council, ANSWER and many, many others. For more information on the national organizing, see springaction2018.org
Please help spread the word on your various social media formats.

Link to the Facebook page for the event:

https://www.facebook.com/events/384864438647707/permalink/391082704692547/

HUMAN CRISIS IN PUERTO RICO

Update on West Virginia Teachers’ Strike TODAY on The Labor Forum