workers

In Massachusetts, a Democratic state legislature voted to take away public workers' right to collectively bargain over health care, in what Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, calls "A miniature version of what we saw in Wisconsin." He notes that just like Scott Walker, these politicians are scapegoating employees who didn't cause the economic crisis. But Trumka and the labor movement are fighting back, building coalitions with immigrants rights groups and civil rights organizations, banding together against a common enemy. He joins us via Skype from Washington, D.C. to give us the latest on actions this past May Day and ongoing around the country.

"What's at stake is whether assaults on working people will prevail," says Ellen Bravo, who fought with the Family Values @ Work Consortium to get paid sick leave for Milwaukee's workers only to see it banned in the state legislature--and the ban broadened to include the entire state. Meanwhile, to heighten the already tense situation in that state, Sarah Palin was there this weekend to speak to a Tea Party crowd. Laura spoke with Ellen via Skype from Milwaukee on the continuing importance of Wisconsin's place in the fight for workers' rights, and why she thinks that Wisconsinites, anyway, have a clear plan for success--as the third recall petition for a Republican State Senator is filed.

April 4 is the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was in Memphis to support public sanitation workers, organizing with AFSCME. Today, public workers are under attack once again, but around the country workers and their allies are marching and rallying both to remember Dr. King's legacy and renew their commitment to his struggle. We speak with the Rev. Jesse Jackson today as he travels to Madison, Wisconsin to be with protesters there for this anniversary, about Dr. King's unfinished work, about today's actions, and the sad loss last week of scholar Manning Marable. Distributed by Tubemogul.

"If these actions are allowed to stand in these places, there's going to be an assault on public workers around this nation. They are the testing ground to see how people are going to respond to this. And people are responding gloriously, whether it was Indianapolis, whether it was in Madison, they came out. Even those workers who may have been exempt from this takeover, even those workers came out," says actor and humanitarian Danny Glover. Danny Glover has a long history of activism and hasn't slowed down. Just recently, he flew back to Haiti with exiled former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and stopped in Indiana to lend his voice to the struggle of workers there to retain their right to organize. Glover stopped in New York to speak to the memorial gathering for the Triangle Shirtwaist workers, and he took some time to chat with Laura about the struggles of people around the world right now.