How should workers respond to the disappointing Senate debate over health care? Three of organized labor's leading single payer advocates---Cindy Young of the California School Employees Association, Matt Schlobohm of the Maine State AFL-CIO, and Tom Leedham of Teamsters Local 206--discuss the Senate bill and the challenges it poses for unions and working people generally.

Tonight's show is about employers who seize the current economic crisis as an opportunity to pit working people against each other and undermine longstanding union rights. 

First, we speak with Karyl Feliciano, a Fred Meyer employee, and Jenny Reed, United Food and Commercial Worker (UFCW) union business representative, on large-scale contract negotiations with multiple employers, including Safeway, Albertsons, and Fred Meyer.  The Hillsboro Fred Meyer recently called the cops on Jenny Reed and two other union representatives just for talking to union members at the grocery store.

Then, we speak with Bryan Mercer and Sean Jin of the Media Mobilizing Project to take a look at the severe anti-union spin of news coverage of the transit strike in Philadelphia that ended today. 

But, it's not all discouraging news today.  We'll close with a little good news for workers in the airline industry.

As layoffs and downsizing continue at many newspapers, more people turn to the Internet to get their news. What is the future of the labor movement in the online news industry, where many journalists work from home and have never met their co-workers in person?  On August 27^th, progressive news source Truthout.org made history as the first online-only news site to form a union. We speak with Maya Schenwar, Executive Director and Matt Renner, Development Director, about how they won a union at their workplace.

Tonight’s show features two stories close to home that affect the livelihoods of many Portlanders.

"How could you cut a Bureau in half?" Massive job cuts at the City of Portland

Maybe you or someone you know works for the City of Portland, or works in an industry like construction that depends on city permitting, or maybe you’re a tenant who’s ever called the city to report housing code violations when your landlord won’t make needed repairs.  All those functions are threatened as the City prepares to lay off half the staff of the Bureau of Development Services.  Our guest is Carol Justice, longtime City employee and member of AFSCME 189, working together with other unions to fight the cuts.  "This is a class war," she tells KBOO. "This is the middle class fighting to keep just what they have -- we're not even asking for more."  Reach her at carol.justice@comcast.net

 "This is my day job:" Fair Trade Music campaign

Despite the high profile of Portland’s music scene, professional musicians struggle to make ends meet in our town, on fees that often work out to even less than minimum wage.  Our guests -- musicians Sean Hudson, Graham Smith-White, and Jennifer Woodall, and publicist Matt Kalinowski -- are among those banding together with AFM 99 to ask venues and fans to support what they’re calling fair trade music.