Dolores Huerta won the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her life of organizing workers, especially migrant farmworkers. With Cesar Chavez she co-founded the National Farmworkers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers. Huerta will speak at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg in Fox Hall. WMNF began our interview by asking… Read more »
Good morning, welcome to Radioactivity. I’m Rob Lorei. ACORN was once the largest political movement of low and moderate income people in the US- but it was destroyed by an attack- from conservative media. We’ll look at the history of ACORN this morning and hear from its founder Wade Rathke who will be in St…. Read more »
On MidPoint we asked listeners their thoughts about the latest U.S. / allied missile strikes on Syria. We also spoke about some upcoming actions by Students for a Democratic Society – a May Day rally in Ybor City and a sanctuary campus event at USF. SDS rallies: at USF for sanctuary campus and in Ybor… Read more »
In the last few months the City of Tampa passed an ordinance trying to cut down on human trafficking by regulating businesses that pose as a massage parlors; but opponents of what’s called the “bathhouse ordinance” are concerned that it hurts victims of sex trafficking. Sydney Eastman, a volunteer with the Sex Worker Solidarity Network,… Read more »
Radioactivity 3 22 18 Good morning, welcome to Radioactivity. I’m Rob Lorei. Coming up— We’ll meet veteran community organizer Heather Booth— who took part in the Civil Rights movement, she was an early a feminist leader and is considered to be one of the country’s most effective progressive organizers. She’s the subject of a new… Read more »
A major education bill unanimously passed the Florida Senate Education Committee Tuesday, after a few changes from the version that passed the state House; about 125 teachers and their supporters from Pasco, Hernando Pinellas and Hillsborough Counties rallied against the bill and for public education Monday in Land O’ Lakes. Don Peace is president of… Read more »
Teachers and their supporters rallied at Tuesday afternoon’s meeting of the Hillsborough County School Board. They’ve demonstrated outside the last several meetings. The executive director of HCTA — the Hillsborough teachers’ union — Stephanie Baxter-Jenkins, says they’re no closer to a contract agreement with the school district. Baxter-Jenkins says the local struggle of teachers for fair… Read more »
Last week the Florida House passed a bill that critics call the “union busting bill;” our guest says it will hurt members in graduate assistants unions like the one she is co-president of at the University of South Florida. The bill would decertify public sector unions that have less than 50 percent dues-paying members. So far… Read more »
**Update, Thursday 25 January 2018: The Florida House passed HB 25, 65-41. The Florida House will vote as soon as Thursday on a bill that Republican leaders in the Legislature say would prevent a small number of people from claiming to represent a large number of employees; but unions oppose HB 25 saying its goal is… Read more »
Hundreds of teachers and their supporters rallied outside Sarasota County Schools offices Tuesday afternoon; they’re not happy with the latest offer from the school district. On Wednesday, WMNF News interviewed the executive director of the teachers’ union, Barry Dubin of the Sarasota Classified/Teachers Association, about the contract negations. “For instance, if the [county’s school tax] referendum… Read more »
The collection of six labor unions representing 38,000 full time and part-time Walt Disney World employees recently rejected a minor wage increase from the tourism giant. WMNF News interviewed Ed Chambers, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1625 and of the collection of six unions, known as the Service Trades Council… Read more »
Teachers in Hillsborough County are still in labor negotiations with the school district, including for promised pay raises. To find out where things stand after what the teachers consider a weak proposal this week, WMNF News spoke with Stephanie Baxter-Jenkins, the executive director of the Hillsborough teacher’s union, Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association (HCTA). Listen:
The St. Petersburg City Council recently passed an ordinance that requires many companies doing business with the city to pay their employees a living wage. WMNF News interviewed Charlie Gerdes, one member of the St. Petersburg City Council who voted for the living wage ordinance. Listen: “We passed an ordinance that requires any contractor or… Read more »
What can be done to successfully prevent or reduce sexual misconduct in the workplace? Sexual Violence Prevention programs have been established in workplaces for decades. But as a barrage of incident reports flood our news feeds and consciousness, those programs seem useless. What can be done to measurably diminish harassment, violence, and abuse in organizations… Read more »
The Republican tax bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives would dramatically increase taxes paid by graduate students doing much of the teaching and research on university campuses; we speak with two graduate assistants from the University of South Florida. Erin Sauer and Marcy Cockrell are co-presidents of USF Graduate Assistants United. Last Thursday… Read more »
A 2014 report by the Associated Press found a rash of homelessness among children living in the Central Florida communities around Walt Disney World. There were more than 1,200 homeless families with children just in Osceola County. “Homeless advocates blame the housing problem on the low-paying wages of the service economy and the rents in… Read more »
Floridians who lost their jobs because of Hurricane Irma may be eligible for help from the government. WMNF News interviewed Alice Cobb, director of programs at Career Source Pinellas and Career Source Tampa Bay, which are offering Irma recovery assistance for workers in the area. “We have various types of assistance. For example, we are… Read more »
In the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, we hear how the migrant farming community of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has been affected; and we hear from Tampa Bay residents upset at their power companies. We took phone calls; our guests was Roger Butterfield of the Student Farmworker Alliance. From the website of the CIW, Coalition of… Read more »
Tuesday morning a Pinellas County Schools bus driver let students off the bus ten blocks away from their destination at Lealman Innovation Academy; according to a press release from the St. Petersburg Police Department, the driver said she let the as many as 39 sixth through twelfth grade students off for safety reasons. One student… Read more »
Public school students go back to class in several counties across the Tampa Bay area Thursday, and many of them will have teachers who have to dig into their own pockets to buy classroom supplies. To find out the scale of the problem, WMNF News spoke with Mike Gandolfo, president of the Pinellas Classroom Teachers… Read more »
