The Assignment with Audie Cornish

The New State of Unions

Do new unions need “Big Labor”? There is a new generation of labor organizers in the United States: baristas, warehouse workers, and grocers. They are organizing shop-by-shop and relying less on traditional big labor unions. Audie talks with longtime labor activist Erica Smiley, executive director of Jobs with Justice, and Nabretta Hardin, a Starbucks union organizer in Memphis, about legacy unions and their place in the new labor movement. Also: what can this new generation of activists learn from the old guard about sustaining a movement?   
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Each week on The Assignment, host Audie Cornish pulls listeners out of their digital echo chambers to hear from the people whose lives intersect with the news cycle. From the sex work economy to the battle over what’s taught in classrooms, no topic is off the table. Listen to The Assignment every Monday and Thursday.