Preventable Deaths: The Texas Explosion & The Tragedy Of  Workplace Fatalities          
with
Tom O'Connor,  Dir., Ntl. Council for Occupational Safety & Health

The latest work place tragedy, the explosion last Wednesday at Texas’ chemical and fertilizer plant left at least 14 people dead and more that 160 injured.  In the last year, on average 4,500 people died in workplace accidents.  But, while the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has jurisdiction over 7 million workplaces the U.S. spent only $558 million a year on OSHA, as increasing numbers of workers died.  With a gutted agency it’s not uncommon for some companies to go years without inspection. The Texas plant hadn’t been inspected since 1985 and even then despite being cited for serious violations for storage of anhydrous 
ammonia was fined a mere $30.  
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Remembering the Triangle Fire
with 
Sophia Henderson Holmes

Poet Sophia Henderson Holmes reads from her epic poem commemorating the lives of those who died at the Triangle Fire. The poem itself serves as well as a tribute to Sophia herself, who has since passed on but has left us her stirring words and the challenge to organize for workers' rights. 
 

http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesPreventableDeathsTheTexasFertilizerPlantExplosion 

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Obama Budget Attack On Social Security Hangs Seniors Out To Dry
with
Bob Borosage, Co-Director, Campaign for America’s Future


The median income of people over age 65 is less than $20,000 a year. Nearly 70 percent of the elderly rely on Social Security benefits for more than half of their income and nearly 40 percent rely on Social Security for more than 90 percent of their income. Meanwhile, the President pushing the myth that Social Security and Medicare face economic collapse and that the budget deficit imperils the fiscal solvency of the nation has proposed a cut in the annual cost of living adjustment that will be a substantial hit to a population ill-prepared to see a cut in its income. Government programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are critical to keeping seniors out of financial crisis. Now, the President has proposed slowing the growth of Social Security benefits and lowering the rate of increase in Social Security payments, also veterans’ benefits and federal pensions. Obama’s budget also contains cuts to Medicare services. All this will come at the cost of those who are already financially at risk.
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President Rips Off Social Security Robbing Peter 

To Pay Paul


Senator Bernie Sanders and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka protest the President’s budget proposals which will further bend the backs of thosealready shouldering the burden of the plutocracy’s financial disasters by eroding payouts to Social Security.
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http://archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesObamaBudgetAttackOnSocialSecurityHangsSeniorsOutTo

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http://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesObamaBudgetAttackOnSocialSecurityHangsSeniorsOutTo/schoolcutsntl.mp3 

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Largest Strike Ever of Fast Food Workers Echoes
MLK’s Last Campaign For Striking Memphis Workers

Across New York City hundreds of fast food workers walked off their jobs. It was the second strike in their ongoing Fast Food Forward campaign for higher wages and union recognition.  The strikers day culminated in a march with supporters in Harlem, where many strikers carried signs that read “I Am A Woman”.  The signs, and strike, which was held on the anniversary of the assassination of MLK in Memphis, echoed his support for striking sanitation workers' call for workplace rights and racial justice.

http://archive.org/details/BuildingBridgesLargestStrikeEverOfFastFoodWorkers
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Love, Justice, Family and Equality
with Emily Hecht-McGowan, Family Equality Council

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two potentially landmark cases: the challenge to Proposition 8, which took away the freedom to marry from same-sex couples in California, and the challenge to Section 3 of the misnamed "Defense of Marriage Act" (DOMA), which denies legally married same-sex couples over 1,000 rights, protections and responsibilities under federal law simply because they are gay.  Never before has the court heard two significant gay rights cases simultaneously.  Emily Hecht-McGowan, Director of Public Policy for the  Family Equality Council joins us to look at these two cases which could be a defining moment in the LGBT community's decades-long struggle for equality under the law. 
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Children’s Voices On Love, Justice, Family and Equality
with
Zach Wahls
The son of two moms, Zach Wahls, speaks before the Democratic National Convention on "My Two Moms"
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No Justice, No Pizza – Domino's Beware!
with The Justice Will Be Served Campaign
Pizza workers and supporters rallied against their employer Domino’s over years of unpaid wages and retaliation experienced when they stood up for their rights.  During the rally they celebrated their first of its kind court ruling permitting them to sue Domino’s Pizza Corp. as a joint employer along with the individual franchise holder, which would also apply to other fast food workers in establishments like McDonald's and retail workers at places like Walmarts.  The right of the Latino, African and Bangladeshi workers to proceed with the suit they filed in 2010 against Domino's Pizza’s franchise owner David Melton and the Domino's Corp. is a huge victory. The workers had commenced suit after receiving below the minimum wage, were forced to make deliveries during extreme weather conditions, and didn’t have a place to take a break or eat during their excessively long work hours.

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http://archive.org/details/BuildingBridgesLoveJusticefamilyAndEqualityNoJusticeNoPizza-

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