Who's Running This Place: Labor flexes political muscle as Election Day approaches

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Hey, listeners, if you haven't heard yet, WNYC and Gothamist Senior Political Reporter, Brigid Bergin, is hosting a new pop-up call-in show, election-related, every Thursday from 1 to 2 p.m. through the election and maybe a little beyond to unpack the results. And because we suspect that if you listen to The Brian Lehrer Show podcast, you'll probably also be interested in some of the conversations Brigid is having with lawmakers and other voices from the local political sphere. So for the duration of her show, we're gonna share the full hour of the program down our podcast feed every Thursday afternoon. That's what we've got for you right now. So let's listen to Brigid Bergin's new pop-up show called Who's Running This Place.

Brigid Bergin (0:47)

You're listening to Who's Running This Place, a new politics show coming to you every Thursday at this time from now through the election. I'm Brigid Bergin, your host and senior politics reporter here at WNYC.

On today's show, we're talking about workers and how issues affecting you as a worker may also inform your thinking in this election. My guest is someone who has a provocative view about working people and who actually has their best interests at heart. John Samuelsen is the International President of the Transport Workers Union, representing more than 160,000 workers in the railroad, transit, airline, service sectors and more. John, welcome to Who's Running This Place.

John Samuelsen (1:29)

Thank you very much for having me.

Brigid Bergin (1:31)

And listeners, we want to hear from you. We want you to be part of this conversation. Are you or is a family or friend a union member? Do you feel like union membership has informed your politics? If your union endorses a candidate, is that the candidate you vote for? Or do you find yourself making a different choice? Call or text us and tell us about your experience. The number is 212-433-WNYC, that's 212-433-9692.

And in this conversation, we're also going to be talking about what it means to be working class. How do you define working class? Call us and tell us your experience. The number is 212-433-9692.

You can call or text that number. So, John, when it comes to the lives of workers, who's running this place?

John Samuelsen (2:25)

I think if workers were running this place, we'd be a lot better off. It would be my wish that workers will run more and more of this place and their unions.

Brigid Bergin (2:32)

Yeah. Well, it sounds like your union, at this point, more than 160,000 members and growing, you're assembling quite a large organized labor movement right within your own membership.

John Samuelsen (2:46)

Yeah. We have, we've seen tremendous growth. We are growing. In fact, tomorrow, we have an election in the New York City ferry system with the captains.

We won an election in the New York City ferry system about a month ago. Oh, wow. For the mechanics. So we continue to grow. We've seen tremendous growth in the airlines to the point where I'm a track worker, and yet we're now the biggest airline union in the country from all the new worker organizing.

Brigid Bergin (3:09)

Is that where the international comes from in your title, or the international union because the airlines are flying overseas, or do you actually have locals in other countries?

John Samuelsen (3:20)

Well, we have members in the Caribbean, and there was a time where we had airline members in Canada.

We don't anymore, but we will again. At some point, we'll have members in Canada.

Brigid Bergin (3:30)

So as we talk about this, for listeners who may be less familiar with your union, tell us a little bit more about the members. We've touched on some of the different groups that you represent, but here in New York City specifically, if someone thinks of the TWU, what kind of work are they thinking of?

John Samuelsen (3:48)

So the union began in New York in the New York City Transit System. It was organized in 1934, primarily originally with New York City Transit workers, subway and bus workers. But it grew very quickly into railroad workers and airline workers. But in New York, of course, people think New York City Transit workers, and that is our biggest affiliate, TWU Local 100 It's where I'm out of. I'm a New York City subway track worker.

But we also represent 35, 40,000 flight attendants. We have 23,000 flight attendants at Southwest, for instance. We organized JetBlue right after I took over the International TWU, which is now about nine years ago, JetBlue flight attendants.

So we have 10,000 jet mechanics. In addition to a tremendous amount of bus operators, track workers, railroad workers, utility workers, we represent national grid workers, the old Brooklyn Union Gas. Oh, wow. University workers.