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Passing the Torch – Season Three of ‘Black Work Talk’

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Black Work Talk
Black Work Talk
Passing the Torch - Season Three of 'Black Work Talk'
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Black Work Talk’s third season goes to the source of the energy for this current wave of labor activism, looks at how this surge impacts Black workers, and offers a fresh vision for what’s next. Listeners will hear conversations with rank-and-file workers from unions including the United Auto Workers, the Teamsters, and the Writers Guild of America. New hosts Bianca Cunningham and Jamala Rogers offer educational tools and compelling strategies for the 90% of American workers who have yet to organize—and have an opportunity to seize the moment.

For this launch episode, Bianca and Jamala are joined by author, international trade union activist and longtime friend of the show Bill Fletcher Jr., who interviews them to learn more about who they are as well as what they bring to the Black worker movement.

About the Host

Bianca Cunningham

Bianca Cunningham is Campaign Director for Bargaining for the Common Good at Action Center for Race and the Economy. A former Verizon Wireless worker, she led her coworkers in seven stores across Brooklyn, NY to join CWA in 2014, making them the first unionized retail workers in the company. She later led a 49-day strike to secure a first contract. Verizon fired her for organizing, and during the Verizon strike, picketers across the country chanted “Bring Back Bianca!” Bianca co-founded the DSA’s AfroSocialists and Socialists of Color caucus, a caucus for Black Indigenous and people of color within the organization. She also served as co-chair of the NYC chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America for two terms. She most recently was on staff at Labor Notes where she sometimes wrote and more often facilitated training on Race and Labor.

Jamala Rogers
Jamala Rogers

Jamala Rogers is a longtime organizer in the Black Liberation Movement. As a radical feminist, she brings that lens to her political analyses and writings. She is the author of Ferguson is America: Roots of Rebellion (2015). Jamala is host of the weekly radio program, Voices from the Battlefield.