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The Rick Smith Show 10-1-2026 · The Rick Smith Show

0:00
[SPEAKER_03]: It's time for the Rick Smith show!
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[SPEAKER_03]: Now, here is the voice of a working class, Rick Smith.
0:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And welcome, brothers, sisters working class heroes.
0:19
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the Rick Smith show.
0:20
[SPEAKER_00]: That's so much for being here.
0:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Today on the Big Program, lots to get to, lots to talk about, you know, they call the United States Senate the world's greatest deliberative body.
0:32
[SPEAKER_00]: At least that's what my high school civics teacher said.
0:35
[SPEAKER_00]: A hundred of the best and the brightest that the best this country has to offer.
0:41
[SPEAKER_00]: the scholars of the day, the thoughtful, you know, the ones who are, you know, just not in a hurry, not like the house, not following the rages and the angers and the passions of the people in the moment, but more deliberative, more cerebral.
1:00
[SPEAKER_00]: the folks who are supposed to sit in those big leather chairs and and think they're hard about big issues like war or health care, the prices of groceries, whether working people ever be able to retire with dignity, you know, the issues of our time.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And yet, Tuesday, some of those so-called best and brightest, how the hearing with former special counsel Jack Smith,
1:28
[SPEAKER_00]: And what did we get?
1:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, what we got was right wing talk radio with a gavel.
1:34
[SPEAKER_00]: We got a circus, a clown show.
1:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And let's start right with the, the star of the show, the ringmaster extraordinaire of this clown show, Missouri Senator Eric Schmidt.
1:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Eric Schmidt had props in everything locked in with poster board.
1:51
[SPEAKER_00]: You know he's serious when he's got poster board and he walked in like a kid at a science fair who didn't actually do his own work, but was told his project was a stone cold slam
2:06
[SPEAKER_00]: He was going to be what everybody talked about.
2:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And, oh, is he?
2:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Because he on this poster board, he had some text messages from Jack Smith's staff dated February 3rd 2024.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He thought he had, he thought he, this was it, man.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And evidently, we learned in minutes later that that's the
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[SPEAKER_00]: admitted that they were happening a fair dot in Georgia.
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[SPEAKER_00]: and Schmidt being the kid with the science fair, basically goes, I gotcha, gotcha, I've cracked the case, I've got it all, this text poster board that a staffer spends so much time putting together.
2:53
[SPEAKER_00]: I gotcha, oh boy, because he thinks the text proved Jack Smith snuck off like a thief in the night to Atlanta for a hox game and maybe a secret meeting with Georgia prosecutors.
3:07
[SPEAKER_00]: So he lands into the microphone and says, I don't think you know we have this stuff.
3:13
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'll give you a moment to process it so you don't purge yourself.
3:18
[SPEAKER_00]: And you can see it.
3:19
[SPEAKER_00]: He was peacock proud, man.
3:23
[SPEAKER_00]: He was at full attention.
3:26
[SPEAKER_00]: And you got Jack Smith squinting at the poster board trying to figure out what's on it.
3:30
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's going to hang on.
3:33
[SPEAKER_00]: He's trying to figure it out.
3:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, turns out he was, wasn't actually ever at a Hawks game.
3:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, it was, it was Iowa Hawkeye's game when you then find out.
3:45
[SPEAKER_00]: He went to the University of Maryland to see Katelyn Clark play.
3:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, Katelyn Clark played for the Iowa Hawkeye's, not the Atlanta Hawks, the Hawkeye's.
3:57
[SPEAKER_00]: And you would think, you would think he in the United States Senator trying to accuse someone of
4:05
[SPEAKER_00]: because one of his staff people couldn't tell the difference between an NBA team and a big ten, women's basketball team, you would think, maybe just I don't know, would have a little bit of due diligence touch, maybe have a second staffer, but here's the thing, it gets better.
4:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Talking points, memo, check the seating chart, which you know, was one of the first things that I thought, okay, the text asked about 109 row one.
4:35
[SPEAKER_00]: At the arena in Atlanta section 109 doesn't have numbers.
4:42
[SPEAKER_00]: They use letters like a lot of places So there is there literally is no row one So the seat that Schmidt built his entire conspiracy theory.
4:54
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a whole thing Doesn't actually exist
5:00
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's something that, you know, 30 seconds on one of the ticket apps, you could have figured out, it would have taken just a minute or two.
5:09
[SPEAKER_00]: And when Democrats asked him to let Smith see the evidence, you know, let him actually see what he's being accused of, Schmidt moved on and said, I think you've already purged yourself.
5:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And that they would put it into some file or some nonsense.
5:25
[SPEAKER_00]: But then he finished, even after being corrected about the Iowa Hawkeye's Atlanta Hawke's thing, he finishes strong.
5:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Because he tells Jack Smith that he's gonna go down, Smith will go down as a total dirt bag.
5:42
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was thinking about that, I go, I think you're gonna go down as the guy who confused the Hawke's with the Hawkeye's.
5:51
[SPEAKER_00]: At least that's what your Wikipedia page says now and I do believe someone is gonna scribble Hawkeyes on your tombstone.
5:58
[SPEAKER_00]: That's that's gonna stick with you.
6:00
[SPEAKER_00]: That's gonna stick and here's my other bats
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[SPEAKER_00]: somewhere in a Senate office building.
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[SPEAKER_00]: There's a staffer, you know, the one who built the poster, the one who put it together, I'll bet he's updating his rather than me right now.
6:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm going to say it's a he because I don't think a woman would have made that kind of stupid mistake because she would have known Caitlyn Clark played for the Iowa Hawke guys.
6:22
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'd also bet that that that's staffer.
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[SPEAKER_00]: for the next 30 years.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Every new intern that comes on Capitol Hill is going to hear that story.
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[SPEAKER_00]: There's going to be somebody who's going to put his arm around and go kid.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Check your facts.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Remember the Hawkeyes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, maybe this could be one of Trump's, you know, PSA's.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, remember the Hawkeyes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe, maybe.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I gotta tell you that that poster gonna be going to be a legendary cautionary tale.
6:53
[SPEAKER_00]: They really shouldn't frame it.
6:54
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it has to go in this Smithsonian to be honest.
6:58
[SPEAKER_00]: But here's the weird thing.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Schmidt wasn't alone in his buffoonery.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Never fail in comes Louisiana Senator John Kennedy who asks Smith if he believed in the tooth fairy if he believed in the Easter Bunny.
7:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, he asked Smith whether he was out on the quad playing Frisbee during Constitutional Law at Harvard.
7:20
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure what the questioning was, but he didn't said that that, you know, Jack Smith made him want to throw up in his mouth.
7:28
[SPEAKER_00]: And I go, look, if you're looking in the mirror, that should do it.
7:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, he wasn't the only one Ted Cruz didn't, didn't disappoint.
7:36
[SPEAKER_00]: He went all broadway, uh, dragging in, um,
7:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Have you heard from Le Mizz?
7:46
[SPEAKER_00]: And this isn't an oversight.
7:47
[SPEAKER_00]: This is open midnight.
7:48
[SPEAKER_00]: This is what, guess what it is.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And don't take my word for what this was really about.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Josh Hawley, right out of the meeting.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The second that meeting's over said, I think we know, I think we kind of know what we know.
8:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know what that means, but they know what they know.
8:06
[SPEAKER_00]: And he said that it's up to the department of justice to prosecute him for perjury or try to have him disbarred.
8:12
[SPEAKER_00]: And you go, well, there it is.
8:14
[SPEAKER_00]: The whole point of this is retribution.
8:16
[SPEAKER_00]: It's payback.
8:17
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not about facts.
8:18
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not about answers.
8:19
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not about good governance.
8:21
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a setup.
8:22
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a kangaroo court to hang a perjury charge on a career public servant whose only crime was doing what he was appointed to do and follow the evidence.
8:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And the weird thing is, they couldn't even set up the mouse trap to catch him.
8:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, to be fair, there was one Republican, one who didn't humiliate himself.
8:41
[SPEAKER_00]: That was Tom Tellers.
8:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Because Tom, until us looked around and said, I think it's fascinating how people want to pick up the mantle of a vindictive prosecution when their guy's not in office.
8:54
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, I think we all need to be mindful of how we behave and how we are perceived.
9:00
[SPEAKER_00]: He even said he hoped somebody finds out who's responsible for the thugs who stormed the capital and injured over a hundred police officers and I'm like, you know, good for him, about time, but he's not running for office.
9:14
[SPEAKER_00]: It's easy to have a spine when you've already cleared out your desk.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That's not a profile and courage.
9:20
[SPEAKER_00]: That's an exit interview.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Meanwhile, the country's on fire, gas prices are through through with health care, crushing families, working people are drowning in problems Republican policies created, and the United States Senate spends four hours getting a basketball game wrong.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We deserve better than this folks.
9:40
[SPEAKER_00]: We deserve a Senate, not a side show.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And oh, by the way, Senator Smith, one more thing.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Go Hawkeyes, right back.
9:56
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History Inter.
10:00
[SPEAKER_00]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1919.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That was the day that began the Elaine Massacre.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The Massacre took place in Arkansas, where more than 100 black farmers and sharecroppers were gunned down for daring to organize their labor.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The year before, a black farmer by the name of Robert L.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Hill had founded the progressive farmers and household union of America, union members pooled their money to purchase land.
10:28
[SPEAKER_00]: They also hired a lawyer to sue planners who did not give black tenant cotton farmers their fair share of the profits.
10:35
[SPEAKER_00]: The group grew in membership in the Arkansas Delta region, including near the town of Elaine in Phillips County.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But white land owners would not allow this challenge to their power.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Armed white militias came to a church where the union was holding a meeting.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The Black attendees were also armed.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Gunfire broke out.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In response, white posses and federal troops unleashed a wave of terror across Phillips County.
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[SPEAKER_00]: hundreds of black residents were arrested, at least 100 black Arkansans were killed.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Some estimates of those murdered is considerably higher.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Five white people also died.
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[SPEAKER_00]: 122 black men and women were charged with murder.
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[SPEAKER_00]: 12 were given the death sentence.
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[SPEAKER_00]: No white vigilante, however, was ever charged.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The convicted African-Americans appealed their cases.
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[SPEAKER_00]: One appeal for six of the defendants went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court where it was overturned in a landmark ruling.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The year of 19th century.
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[SPEAKER_00]: 2019 was one of the deadliest years of violence against African Americans in U.S. history.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Civil Rights activist James Weld and Johnson called those bloody months the Red Summer.
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[SPEAKER_00]: 26 race riots left thousands of African Americans homeless and hundreds dead from Chicago to Washington D.C. to Omaha.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome back to the Rick Smith Show, now here is Rick Smith.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So our quote of the day comes from Richard Painter.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You may remember Richard.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He was George W. Bush's White House ethics czar.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And the fact that I'm quoting someone from the W. administration tells you how bad things are.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And look, Trump's PSA campaign is even gotten this guy's attention because he says, look, quote, you watch all three ads.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They're sheer propaganda.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He says this is increasingly looking like what authoritarian governments do to promote their leaders.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Increasingly looking like, no, this is exactly what they do.
12:51
[SPEAKER_00]: And I got to be honest, you know, the White House, you know, propaganda director Steven Charg, on Sunday posted on Twitter, don't let the fake news get away with their lies about our epic public service announcements that have been running on TV, epic public, so I guess that, it's not propaganda.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's epic public service.
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[SPEAKER_00]: here to share some thoughts about the epic public service announcement that seems to be getting a lot of bipartisan criticism of as Joe Spielberger to come share some thoughts with us, Joe's a senior policy counsel there at the project on government oversight.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Pogo, you can check out their website pogo.org.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Joe, thanks for taking time for us.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Thanks for having me on Rick.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So Richard Painter, look, I'm not a big fan of the Bush era, but when someone like that comes out and goes, sheer propaganda, this is what authoritarian governments do.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Anybody listening?
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[SPEAKER_04]: Well, I mean, people are listening and you and Mr. Painter, I think, hit the nail right on the head, you know, these ads are essentially political propaganda.
14:02
[SPEAKER_04]: There's no public service or educational value to them.
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[SPEAKER_04]: typical campaigns, slogans, and talking points, and you're right, this is the type of messaging and government spending of taxpayer dollars that we more associate with authoritarian regimes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, then through this with the, you know, take these ads with the, the giant signs on the Department of Labor and and other government buildings of a giant Trump head.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And you go, are we in North Korea?
14:37
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean,
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[SPEAKER_00]: Even if you're wearing the red hat, you've got to be uncomfortable with what's going on here.
14:46
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I think this is an issue that should unite anyone in the country regardless of partisan politics.
14:52
[SPEAKER_04]: We know that clever you are, you work very hard for your paycheck and when we pay federal taxes, we want to assume that
15:01
[SPEAKER_04]: that tax money is going to support critical infrastructure projects, government services and benefits that go back to the community.
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[SPEAKER_04]: And I don't think any tax payer should wonder whether their hard-earned tax payer dollars are being used to fund political propaganda.
15:19
[SPEAKER_00]: a million and a half dollars and you go look it's not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things but I'll tell you when you're taking food out of the mouths of children when you're kicking people off of the the rolls of the insured a million and a half bucks could have done something better than what the White House is calling epic public service.
15:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Now let's look at the three epic public service.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The first one I guess aired last Wednesday.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's of Trump talking about communism and tax cuts and something
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[SPEAKER_00]: The second one was scenes of, I guess, Mount Rushmore at night with more of his speech from the July, you know, the 4th of July, Spiel that he gave at the 250th, and then the last one, the creepiest of all of them, him just walking down a hall, you know, blathering on about warmongers and communism and just
16:14
[SPEAKER_00]: I look at it, I'm going, I don't quite get where the public services.
16:18
[SPEAKER_00]: It looks like a campaign add to me, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, walk me through your thoughts on those three.
16:26
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, yeah, absolutely.
16:27
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, some of your listeners might be familiar with previous public service announcements coming from the government that could have real educational value, whether it's about issuing public health guidance or helping people to be able to better access
16:44
[SPEAKER_04]: resources and services in their communities, but this has, again, has no public service benefits to it.
16:54
[SPEAKER_04]: It just looks in a pierced, strictly like typical campaign advertisements that we see, you know, basically on the campaign trail.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm all left to remember that you could send away from brochures and they used to run ads.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They would say, hey, get your brochure from Pueblo, Colorado, on a wide array of topics.
17:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Those were public service announcements.
17:21
[SPEAKER_00]: This, I'm not sure what the public service is other than serving dear leaders, ego.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Right exactly and again, you know, this is why we have been pleased to see that there has been bipartisan pushback in Congress from some prominent Democrats and prominent Republicans and again at the end of the day.
17:45
[SPEAKER_04]: you know, this should be an issue of concern for anybody regardless of partisan politics because you want to know that your hard-earned taxpayer dollars are being spent in appropriate ways and ways that will be in the
18:01
[SPEAKER_04]: public interest and not to fund partisan messaging.
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[SPEAKER_04]: And the thing that all emphasized on this point is that, you know, again, regardless of museum power, which administration partisan politics, you know, if this is allowed to move forward and continue without that pushback, it sets dangerous precedent.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the important part for my red hat crowd.
18:26
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to hold your door to Trump, be a Donald Trump.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Um, wait till the next guy, because there there will be a Democrat who's in that office who if you're going, if this is going to be the precedent, I got to think they're going to want to do the same thing, right?
18:40
[SPEAKER_04]: Exactly.
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[SPEAKER_04]: You know, and again, this is why it's important to push back because we don't want a future democratic president or future Republican president, dispending taxpayer dollars to support partisan political interests.
18:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, what do you say, Joe, every every once in a while, my elected leader Scott Perry is my congressman.
19:00
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm hoping come November.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He's on the unemployment line, but you know, every so often they send me flyers going, hey, look at what we did,
19:09
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, look, you're fortunate you put me in because I'm fighting for, you know, name the issue.
19:15
[SPEAKER_00]: And they get to send that out on the taxpayers' dime because they're quote unquote educating us.
19:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Why is this different than that and maybe shouldn't we be looking at at some of those communications as well?
19:28
[SPEAKER_04]: And I think it's a fair point, I think a big difference here is that, yeah, I mean, this is about fundamentally tax payer dollars from across the country being able to fund, you know, national TV ads with no public interest information or public service information, you know, just strictly politics.
19:54
[SPEAKER_04]: But to your point, you know, this is one of the most important things that people across the country can do is, you have a right to demand, regardless of who your representative in Congress is, you know, you should demand that they take on this important issue and ensure that, you know, we're seeing federal spending of taxpayer dollars in ways that are truly in service of people and communities across the country.
20:23
[SPEAKER_00]: When you first saw the ads, what was your initial reaction?
20:28
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll share with mine when you're done, but what was your initial reaction when you saw the ads?
20:34
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, like we've been saying, there's no public service information there.
20:40
[SPEAKER_04]: It just seems like typical campaign advertisements, things that we saw in previous campaigns,
20:50
[SPEAKER_04]: Slow guns and imagery and things like that.
20:53
[SPEAKER_00]: So I mean, were you outrageous?
20:55
[SPEAKER_00]: One of those things that got you like, can you believe this?
20:57
[SPEAKER_00]: And I mean, some people were like, can you believe they're doing this?
20:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like, yeah, I fully expect this kind of stuff.
21:03
[SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing surprising to me at all in this.
21:06
[SPEAKER_00]: And in fact, when I saw, especially the last one.
21:09
[SPEAKER_00]: of him just hammering on you know there's never going to be a communist kind of you know doing the whole red scare thing I'm like you know actually it kind of shows their desperation of just how bad their policies have been that they've got to they've got to resort to the red scare stuff We got to dig that up from the fifties to try and scare people and devoting for them
21:29
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, exactly.
21:30
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, like you said, I don't think there is any surprise or shock value in it, you know, which is seem like typical campaign advertisement that we've become accustomed to over the past several years and going back even further than that.
21:47
[SPEAKER_00]: So is this a hatch-yack violation?
21:49
[SPEAKER_00]: I hear that being thrown around a lot.
21:52
[SPEAKER_00]: And because there's a lot that falls under it.
21:54
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know we love to hatch-yack violation.
21:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Even though I don't think most people know what the hatch-yack is.
22:00
[SPEAKER_00]: So real quick, can you give us a refresher on what that is?
22:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And does this violate that act?
22:07
[SPEAKER_04]: Sure, so there are actually several different prohibitions in law, including the Hatch Act that are implicated here.
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[SPEAKER_04]: So federal laws very clear about respecting the use of taxpayer funds to fund partisan campaign advertisements and pay for campaign related.
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[SPEAKER_04]: expenses.
22:32
[SPEAKER_04]: So that's very clear.
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[SPEAKER_04]: There have been appropriations writers as well, preventing the use of unauthorized funds towards publicity or propaganda.
22:41
[SPEAKER_04]: And the Hatch Act is certainly implicated here as well for those who aren't familiar the Hatch Act.
22:49
[SPEAKER_04]: has been on the books for decades and it restricts the ability of the most federal civil servants from using their official positions time on the job resources for the further meant of partisan politics.
23:07
[SPEAKER_04]: And while the Hatch Act exempts the president and the vice president, it covers, you know, most other White House personnel,
23:16
[SPEAKER_04]: There was reporting just today that says that this funding for these ads came from customs and border protection.
23:25
[SPEAKER_04]: And so one of the things that we'll be looking for is the Office of Special Council, which is the entity that
23:31
[SPEAKER_04]: is authorized to investigate and enforce the Hatch Act to investigate very clearly to determine where and how the Hatch Act was potentially violated.
23:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I've heard that and I've also heard you.
23:44
[SPEAKER_00]: We should have the DOJ or we should have this or that.
23:47
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going, I guess dumb question.
23:50
[SPEAKER_00]: who who appoints the people who lead those things and do you think the loyalists that the patronage hires that the Trump is put into place really are going to go against him?
24:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, uh, just asking the question because it seems you know our government is full of a bunch of people who you know a bunch of patronage hires who know what happens when they when they cross
24:19
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
24:20
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a bunch of yes people over there who are never going to do their jobs when it comes to him.
24:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, if it was some frontline worker who through their union was out handing out flyers, we're going to come down with the full force of the federal government but this, well, you know, it's an epic public service.
24:39
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, exactly.
24:41
[SPEAKER_04]: And historically, you know, there's really been a type of double standard in hash act enforcement.
24:48
[SPEAKER_04]: What we see is that it has been utilized as a critical tool against rank and file in federal agencies across the government and has been almost impossible to get any type of meaningful accountability from higher level senior officials, including White House personnel.
25:07
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, when Republicans are back home, doing their run-in-for-office, this has got to be something that's coming up.
25:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you think this hurts Republican candidates?
25:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you think this could potentially be another one of those, you know, Trump stepping on the message, causing another fire that has to be put up?
25:25
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm hoping that is it.
25:26
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm hoping that in districts across this country, people are going, hey,
25:30
[SPEAKER_00]: What's your guy doing and aren't you supposed to be Mr. Power of the purse there in Congress?
25:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Aren't you supposed to be raining this stuff in?
25:37
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm hoping those questions are being asked in districts across this country.
25:41
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, exactly.
25:42
[SPEAKER_04]: And again, I mean, this is why it has been important to see this bipartisan pushback again from prominent Democrats and prominent Republicans in Congress.
25:53
[SPEAKER_04]: And it's important for people
25:58
[SPEAKER_04]: really asking their representatives regardless of party to push back against unauthorized spending and to make sure that hard earned taxpayer dollars are being spent in ways that get back to communities and not for partisan political propaganda and operations.
26:17
[SPEAKER_00]: It is ironic though that they took the money from customs and border enforcement.
26:20
[SPEAKER_00]: I just, of course they took it from there.
26:24
[SPEAKER_00]: If they couldn't take it from children's lunch programs, of course they were going to take it away from the border.
26:30
[SPEAKER_00]: It just seems like you can't write this stuff, Joe.
26:35
[SPEAKER_04]: Every day is something different.
26:36
[SPEAKER_00]: That's for sure every day is do you think there'll be a number four or will the minutes do you any guesses if you were if you're doing the betting app will there be a number four add or will they kind of pull back
26:50
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, I've learned not to completely bet on anything these days.
26:56
[SPEAKER_04]: I think it really depends.
26:57
[SPEAKER_04]: And I think, you know, this is one reason why it's important to see this bipartisan push back.
27:02
[SPEAKER_04]: And we hope that there will be more media attention given to this issue and help to see Congress.
27:08
[SPEAKER_04]: utilizing every authority in its power to really get accountability for this unauthorized spending.
27:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Another thing, one, once November happens, I end up Democrats take back the house and another thing to investigate and another thing to, you know, maybe we got to shore up.
27:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe maybe there's a lot of stuff that needs to be done to clarify just how far you can go in some of these spots.
27:31
[SPEAKER_00]: But Joe's Spielberger, I appreciate you taking time for us.
27:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Great stuff.
27:35
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll
27:37
[SPEAKER_04]: Absolutely.
27:38
[SPEAKER_04]: Thanks so much Rick.
27:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks so much.
27:40
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to hear your thoughts.
27:41
[SPEAKER_00]: What did you think of the ads?
27:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I said, I wasn't surprised at all.
27:46
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't actually don't have any outreach because this is what I expect of them.
27:49
[SPEAKER_00]: But I want to hear your thoughts.
27:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Rick at theworksmithshow.com.
27:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Quick break.
27:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Right back, stick around.
28:00
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History Inter.
28:03
[SPEAKER_00]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 2012.
28:06
[SPEAKER_00]: That was the day the Chicago Teachers Union walked off the job for the first time in 25 years.
28:13
[SPEAKER_00]: The historic weeklong strike resonated nationwide among trade units and served to re-invigorate the Labor Movement.
28:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Certainly, higher wages and better benefits were among the teacher's demands.
28:24
[SPEAKER_00]: The city's mayor, Rama manual, had canceled the union's wage increase, laid off close to 1,000 teachers and went on the attack against seniority rights and working conditions.
28:35
[SPEAKER_00]: The strike enjoyed wide public support among parents and the public.
28:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Teachers emphasized broader educational problems they faced, namely the attacks fueled by corporate privatization.
28:45
[SPEAKER_00]: They wanted a return to more traditional forms of education.
28:49
[SPEAKER_00]: rather than simply preparing students for endless rounds of testing.
28:53
[SPEAKER_00]: They wanted more art, music, and gym classes, and they demanded stable funding for social support services for the most vulnerable at-risk students.
29:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Union teachers understood that the Board of Education was using standardized testing to get rid of teachers and schools in order to privatize education.
29:11
[SPEAKER_00]: all in the name of turning around failing schools and helping the kids.
29:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Though the contract was less than perfect, it showed the power working people have to hold the line against continued assaults on their standards of living, especially in the public sector.
29:26
[SPEAKER_00]: The CTO was able to beat back attempts at merit pay and increased use of student test scores in teacher evaluations.
29:34
[SPEAKER_00]: They won first time recall rights.
29:36
[SPEAKER_00]: supply reimbursements and liberal arts classes.
29:39
[SPEAKER_00]: There were concessions, however, made on seniority rights, pay for laid-off teachers and longer work days.
29:45
[SPEAKER_00]: But the CTO demonstrated that strikes can win in a period of extended anti-union onslaughts.
29:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Labor History and 2 brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and the Rick Smith Show.
29:56
[SPEAKER_00]: For more information, go to laborhistoryinter.com.
30:00
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the fall harvest season when many farm stands and homes decorate with pumpkins, cornstokes, and maybe even a straw man.
30:09
[SPEAKER_01]: How to make a straw man?
30:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Easy.
30:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Stuff a cup of burlet bags with hay and dress your man in an old flannel shirt over alls and straw hat.
30:18
[SPEAKER_01]: But today's billionaires, corporate elites and other political mega donors have come up with their own version of this creature, stuff a couple of silk pillows with $1000 bills, dressing in a fine tailored suit and voila, they turn a common straw man into a congressman.
30:36
[SPEAKER_01]: If that's how corporate powers create a government that routinely serves their average at the expense of the rest of us.
30:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Indeed, in this election season, they've already stuffed about $2 billion into Congress creatures who will support their AI data centers, tax breaks, and other boondoggles.
30:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Who are these money-stuffers?
30:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Ah, that's the secret to their corruption.
31:00
[SPEAKER_01]: In 2010, America's partisan corporatized Supreme Court handed a legalistic anti-democracy weapon called dark money to giant corporations.
31:10
[SPEAKER_01]: By judicial dictate, the courts were a public and majority rule that executives can give unlimited sums of corporate cash to superpacks to elect their straw man without telling us commoners who is buying which slowmakers and at what price.
31:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Yet, both parties are going along with this corruption, claiming to be powerless to overturn the court's edict.
31:37
[SPEAKER_01]: This is Jim Hyder saying powerless.
31:40
[SPEAKER_01]: What about asking the people to intervene and overwhelming majority of Americans of every political strike despise the dark money trick and will rally behind any serious effort to kill it?
31:51
[SPEAKER_01]: A bipartisan effort to do just that is now underway in Montana.
31:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Learn about it from transparentelection.org.
32:03
[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome back to the Rick Smith Show.
32:05
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, here is Rick Smith.
32:12
[SPEAKER_00]: So I know my kids think working as a video game designer would be the dream job and in fact I think one of my sons friends is actually trying to pursue that line of work and it sounds like it'd be a great gig What knit you sit around play video games all day long?
32:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean in the movies it looks awesome you know take lunch when you want to do what you want to play some video games Be around your friends.
32:37
[SPEAKER_00]: You know all kinds of stuff
32:40
[SPEAKER_00]: but reality and well fantasy, generally two different things.
32:45
[SPEAKER_00]: And my next guest, Alex Weans, got a piece out that the video game industry is brutally is the headline, but now it's unionizing.
32:54
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why I've asked Alex Weans to come share some thoughts.
32:56
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a reporter over Mother Jones magazine.
32:58
[SPEAKER_00]: You can check out their website, MotherJones.com.
33:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Alex, thanks for taking time for us.
33:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, thanks for having me, Andre.
33:06
[SPEAKER_00]: So look, it sounds like a great gig, man.
33:09
[SPEAKER_00]: It sounds awesome.
33:10
[SPEAKER_00]: I get to play video games all day long.
33:12
[SPEAKER_00]: I get to be around my friends.
33:13
[SPEAKER_00]: I get to hang out and it sounds like a great gig and get paid for it on top of it.
33:20
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the movies, what's the real life?
33:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
33:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Unfortunately, it isn't real life.
33:26
[SPEAKER_02]: There is a kind of culture that's in grains within the video game industry, especially triple A games, which are like the big blockbuster ones like GTA 6 that's coming out, world of warcraft.
33:39
[SPEAKER_02]: So a lot of these have something called crunch time where these big games have a deadline, maybe it's a holiday, maybe it's like
33:49
[SPEAKER_02]: an announcement that came years back, but you have to make that deadline.
33:55
[SPEAKER_02]: And the culture is working like 100 hour weeks, massive over time, and just kind of being just treated as like a cog in this machine rather than a worker who has passion for video games and truly like an art
34:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but you know, I would have someone push back and say, well, if it's what you truly want to do, it's not work because we, I'm sure you've heard this phrase.
34:26
[SPEAKER_00]: If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life.
34:28
[SPEAKER_00]: So you might want to, you know, like, look, listen to these tech CEOs, they love what they do.
34:32
[SPEAKER_00]: They work 100 hours a week every week.
34:35
[SPEAKER_00]: And for them, it's great.
34:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Why, why not it be the mission instead of just a job there, Alex.
34:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, at the end of the day, these are workers.
34:47
[SPEAKER_02]: Like it is, yes, something that they are passionate about.
34:51
[SPEAKER_02]: But like your job isn't your life.
34:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Like we all know that.
34:55
[SPEAKER_02]: And so this really became a big problem.
35:02
[SPEAKER_02]: around like the initial years of the COVID pandemic and kind of the aftermath of that.
35:09
[SPEAKER_02]: So we talked about the crunch time period where it's almost ingrained in the video game like culture already.
35:17
[SPEAKER_02]: But with like the initial years of the COVID pandemic, I include myself in this where there was way more demand to play video games.
35:25
[SPEAKER_02]: right?
35:26
[SPEAKER_02]: So that increased a man saw in the years after that a bunch of investment.
35:33
[SPEAKER_02]: So you got mergers, acquisitions, all of that kind of stuff.
35:37
[SPEAKER_02]: So now a lot of the game developers we're going to talk about later, Microsoft owns them.
35:45
[SPEAKER_02]: So you have companies that are not really have any knowledge
35:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, and then after a lot of the, like, early part of the COVID pandemic, that demands, uh, when down as people, um, started, like, for children to work in, like, go, yeah, back to life.
36:07
[SPEAKER_02]: And so,
36:09
[SPEAKER_02]: That demand went down, but those mergers and everything else were still happening.
36:14
[SPEAKER_02]: So then the CEO's, I guess, their reaction to it is cost cutting because now they have all this money stacked into it.
36:25
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not making as much.
36:27
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's the reaction and therefore that exacerbates
36:31
[SPEAKER_02]: that crunch culture, it exacerbates the amount of work that workers are doing and the amount of workers that are hired to do each project.
36:41
[SPEAKER_02]: So yes, like they love games, but also the industry is just collapsing.
36:49
[SPEAKER_00]: So basically, it's just, it's the new factory is what you're telling me.
36:52
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, they've got a deadline, they've got a meet, so we're gonna push everybody to the brink and then it's feast or famine when it's all dried up or done with you, you're on your own.
37:01
[SPEAKER_00]: While the company, while these franchises are making billions of dollars, while these executives are lining their pockets, hundreds of times what the average worker makes, it's still the desperation class for the people who are actually producing the games if I'm hearing you right.
37:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, that's right, man.
37:20
[SPEAKER_00]: So the question then becomes because, you know, as I've said, you know, people organize for various reasons, wages being part of it, but more importantly, conditions, hours, you know, family life work balance, that kind of stuff.
37:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Walk me through what these 1900 workers, what they, what they fought for and what protections are going to matter to them, especially during
37:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah.
37:48
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a good question.
37:49
[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, as you mentioned, a lot of it is draw protections, especially remote work to wage increases.
38:00
[SPEAKER_02]: And so what these 1900 workers eventually kind of came to was.
38:08
[SPEAKER_02]: We're talking about this one video game developer called Blizzard so they make games like Overwatch World of Warcraft stuff like that and each unit basically had like their own union so basically the world of warcraft team had their own unit and they all kind of combined together because like these problems are.
38:34
[SPEAKER_00]: kind of go across the video game industry like universal and right and one because you don't want to be pitted against the other ones.
38:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
38:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
38:42
[SPEAKER_02]: So basically like they came to that realization right.
38:46
[SPEAKER_02]: So like during bargaining, bargaining took like through the span of like a couple years
39:01
[SPEAKER_02]: a neutrality agreement, a labor neutrality agreement between CWA, the communications workers of America who are representing these blizzard workers and Microsoft.
39:14
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think like Microsoft had during like 2022, which when this agreement happens,
39:22
[SPEAKER_02]: They were acquiring a lot of these businesses, including Blizzard as I was saying about like the post COVID pandemic like video game do so with all of this happening a lot of the workers were like okay we all have this like similar problems some of them are unique but if we combine together.
39:45
[SPEAKER_02]: that is kind of like our best play in terms of negotiating with Blizzard.
39:51
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's kind of what happens.
39:53
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, there's a lot of like, you got to go ahead.
39:56
[SPEAKER_00]: No, it seems to me like you would want a master agreement to cover video games to where it's just, you know, all video games to where you're not in one franchise or another.
40:04
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just, uh, it's, it's all video game workers.
40:07
[SPEAKER_00]: These are the kind of like the building trades does.
40:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Doesn't matter what contractor you're working for the wages hours conditions are all the same.
40:15
[SPEAKER_00]: You have uniformity across the work So that workers no matter if they're working on any of these different games.
40:22
[SPEAKER_00]: It's all the same And I think that kind of uniformity also helps the employer as you have this kind of certainty of knowing what your costs are gonna be So I it seems to me like that would be a smart way to go and it sounds kind of like what they're trying to do, right?
40:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, that's kind of what they tried to do.
40:40
[SPEAKER_02]: So those Blizzard workers all got together and were like, this would make it easier if we all had the same contract.
40:49
[SPEAKER_02]: And after those years of negotiations, a lot of the workers told me for this story that they felt like a lot of the people negotiating for Blizzard also ultimately felt that way as well.
41:04
[SPEAKER_02]: One, just for like uniformity with managing all their workers, but then two, also just for the higher ups to within Microsoft and everyone else, just having that uniformity there.
41:21
[SPEAKER_02]: And so that's kind of what helped spark a lot of the negotiation.
41:28
[SPEAKER_02]: happening toward 20, 20 sticks and kind of building that uniforms contract among all 1900s.
41:36
[SPEAKER_00]: So if Microsoft signed a new Travity Agreement in 2022, and I remember having people on back then talking about how big this could be.
41:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Why did it take so long?
41:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Why did it take this long to get a contract?
41:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Why?
41:49
[SPEAKER_00]: What was going on?
41:52
[SPEAKER_00]: What was the company doing all that time?
41:54
[SPEAKER_00]: If they weren't fighting the ability to join and to organize, what's been going on all this time?
42:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so a lot of the workers told me that negotiations ran into several roadblocks.
42:08
[SPEAKER_02]: There were a ton of bargaining share changes.
42:14
[SPEAKER_02]: So one of the workers told me an interesting story where
42:21
[SPEAKER_02]: There was one bargaining chair her name is crystal carry and she was later sworn in as president Trump's NLRB general counsel that was this January, but she was also they think she was also involved with a lot of like Microsoft's higher level bargaining so it wasn't just.
42:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Blizzard and their workers, they think like she was working on so many different other negotiation.
42:47
[SPEAKER_02]: So if you don't like prioritize Blizzard or just think of it as just one cog in your big company of what Microsoft owns, then of course like you're not going to get much done if there's not much priority there.
43:03
[SPEAKER_02]: There were also other chairs and then once they kind of describe it to me as once they kept on changing chairs, it's like your restarting.
43:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Like communication.
43:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Right, you're basically back to square one.
43:16
[SPEAKER_02]: Each one has different communication styles.
43:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Each one has probably different priorities that they kind of value and therefore they felt like it was almost like a year that they wasted because of like
43:31
[SPEAKER_02]: these rapid amount of changes that that happened during negotiation.
43:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, do you think that happened on purpose or was it just happened stance?
43:37
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, if this crystal carry is now Trump's general counsel at the NLRB, that that sends up a giant red flag of just how bad she is for workers in general, that she would now be in that position to be able to do even more damage.
43:53
[SPEAKER_00]: But do you think it was, it was, you know, buying by design?
43:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Because look, you know, this is what corporate America does really well.
44:01
[SPEAKER_00]: They drag this stuff out, hoping that you'll forget or the bargaining unit will turn over.
44:06
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a bunch of reasons.
44:08
[SPEAKER_00]: But given Microsoft's neutrality, it makes me question.
44:12
[SPEAKER_00]: So is there a thought on that?
44:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, like I spoke to the workers I spoke to, they were pretty unsure about it, but they could definitely say like, because of these rapid changes in bargaining chairs, it was clear that this was not like Microsoft's priority.
44:34
[SPEAKER_02]: They don't know if this was by design, of course, but
44:37
[SPEAKER_00]: they obviously didn't care enough to start like negotiations right away make it efficient have a deadline on everything so so maybe it was so small they didn't even care to try to trust that make that makes sense now you know walk me through some of what they did get and I know that the AI piece is is a big part of it
44:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, you know, because I guess they've agreed to continue bargaining over AI for the whole contract, which I guess is probably, is that good is that bad.
45:10
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, because at some point you go, this couldn't this be an industry that AI would just take over and all these, these workers would be gone any, any thoughts there.
45:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, that AI piece was was very important and what what they also stressed when I spoke with them.
45:27
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, so what they did initially propose, um, they called it like their maximalist argument of they, they were the ones who got to decide how AI was used in their workplace.
45:39
[SPEAKER_02]: And what they negotiated to was that they would continuously bargain over how AI was used over the length of the contract.
45:48
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's at least four years.
45:50
[SPEAKER_02]: And they drew a lot of positives from that and they were so they their mentality was.
45:59
[SPEAKER_02]: AI is going to change a lot like in the next four years and the way the video game industry incorporates that is also going to change a lot.
46:07
[SPEAKER_02]: So having that continuously like bargaining power was really important to adapt to those changes as well and have commitment from Blizzard to be like, yes, we'll continue talking about this and you'll continue to have a
46:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, you talk about this event, this BlizzCon.
46:33
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not a gamer.
46:34
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what BlizzCon is, but this BlizzCon was, I guess, instrumental in moving this along.
46:41
[SPEAKER_00]: You tell me what it was and what happened.
46:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, BlizzCon is a gaming convention.
46:48
[SPEAKER_02]: So developers go there.
46:52
[SPEAKER_02]: It's basically like fans basically go there.
46:56
[SPEAKER_02]: So if you think of like Comic Con or something like that, it's a good comparison.
47:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, so it's basically an opportunity for Blizzard to show fans their games, so it might be something that's upcoming, it might be like a teaser of a new game, and it's basically a way to drum up excitement and give previews.
47:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, and what a lot of the workers told me was that was a significant
47:32
[SPEAKER_02]: If Blizzard is like advertising all their games and people are liking it, what does that mean if a lot of the workers are outside of the building of BlizzCon and protesting?
47:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Especially especially especially with the generation that plays games that has a much higher view of unions than probably any other generation.
47:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
47:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
47:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Exactly.
47:52
[SPEAKER_02]: And Blizzard is also like the highest profiting like video game developer within Xbox, which is what Microsoft owns for gaming.
48:05
[SPEAKER_02]: And so also that looks really bad too.
48:09
[SPEAKER_02]: If like the video game, the
48:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Blizzard is saying they're doing well.
48:13
[SPEAKER_02]: All their games are doing well.
48:14
[SPEAKER_02]: People are liking it.
48:16
[SPEAKER_02]: Here are all our new games that You can also get excited about but we also don't pay our workers.
48:22
[SPEAKER_02]: We also don't treat them well and they're outside right now protesting and they thought that was like a huge Like thing
48:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, right, and sometimes that's what it comes down to, especially in an industry where, you know, you're your brand matters for people and because, you know, some of the game name's even I know, and you know, I was reading the article and there's this EA.
48:49
[SPEAKER_00]: I know the EA sports brand, you know, they're the football and all that.
48:53
[SPEAKER_00]: We now see evidently according to the article, Saudi money, Jared Kushner money, I guess is taken on EA and they're cutting jobs.
49:01
[SPEAKER_00]: So isn't this kind of a moment for all of the gaming world to be going, hey, maybe we need to start protecting ourselves because look at what private equity did to manufacturing and to everything else in our economy.
49:14
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't imagine it's going to do well by the gaming world.
49:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, definitely.
49:19
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a great point.
49:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Like...
49:21
[SPEAKER_02]: With EA, we not only have, probably, we also have nation-states with Saudi Arabia's public investment fund.
49:31
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's what a lot of the workers were telling me, too.
49:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, they felt like they're organizing effort.
49:38
[SPEAKER_02]: Really meant something not just for Blizzard itself, but other video game workers who were either in unions or thinking about unionizing or in that process.
49:51
[SPEAKER_02]: what you were kind of saying of having a blanket contract or a blanket like agreement of this is what video game workers deserve and get is something that would be you would think a beneficial to both parties and therefore that is something that like a lot of the workers were kind of trying to tell me of like
50:15
[SPEAKER_02]: We want not just workers to be like this is a contract that we can win but also for studios to be like this is something that we can give workers and actually make our games better because
50:29
[SPEAKER_02]: with something like BlizzCon, that was a complete success on Blizzards and Anne's like a lot of the workers.
50:37
[SPEAKER_02]: They felt really good about how that turned out.
50:40
[SPEAKER_02]: And if the studio wants to be popular with a lot of gamers who know about unions because this is on the news, then it can be mutually beneficial.
50:50
[SPEAKER_02]: And
50:51
[SPEAKER_02]: That's kind of what we want instead of things like we have Saudi Arabia money.
50:56
[SPEAKER_02]: We have Jared Kushner money getting in and it kind of monies the water of like what is the video game actually doing?
51:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Right?
51:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Is it for gamers to just play at home or is it for like some sort of political purpose and diplomatic purpose?
51:13
[SPEAKER_02]: You have like Saudi Arabia getting involved in like
51:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Esports.
51:18
[SPEAKER_02]: So there's like a huge amount of money that a lot of these big parties who have never been in the gaming industry before or seeing value in that goes beyond just this is a game that I really enjoy and this is something that's fun.
51:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, somebody's going to screw it up.
51:34
[SPEAKER_00]: The money the interest will screw it up.
51:37
[SPEAKER_00]: But I hope folks will check out the piece of video gaming industry is brutal and unionizing.
51:42
[SPEAKER_00]: You can check that out over at Mother Jones dot com Alex.
51:45
[SPEAKER_00]: We in is the the reporter there.
51:47
[SPEAKER_00]: You can check out his work there at Mother Jones dot com as well.
51:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Alex, great talk with you.
51:52
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a great story.
51:53
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope others will in the industry will look at it and go, hey, maybe we can go that way.
51:57
[SPEAKER_00]: And
51:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe they won't have to go the Rockstar way where they're I didn't get to that, but they fired some workers as companies do And I'm sure that'll work it out.
52:06
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd love to have you come back and and share some of that down the road as I'm sure you're you're keeping an eye on But Alex we appreciate the time man Thank you.
52:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Great talk with you.
52:16
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to hear your thoughts and anything on the gaming stuff
52:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, like I said, I know some of my kids friends that this is their dream wouldn't have been great if you could follow your dream and still make a living.
52:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Want to hear your thoughts, Rick and the Rick Smith show.com, right back.
52:38
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History Into.
52:42
[SPEAKER_00]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1892.
52:47
[SPEAKER_00]: That was the day that 29 liters of the homestead steel strike in Pennsylvania were charged with treason against the state.
52:55
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're a regular listener to labor history, you've heard about this strike before.
52:59
[SPEAKER_00]: The strike occurred because the steel company decided to reduce wages and crush the emerging union.
53:05
[SPEAKER_00]: When the workers refused to accept a pay cut, company manager Henry Clay Frick laid off the entire workforce.
53:12
[SPEAKER_00]: He hired Pinkerton guards to protect the strikebreakers.
53:15
[SPEAKER_00]: But the workers of Homestead were not so easily put out of the plant.
53:19
[SPEAKER_00]: They fought back against the Pinkertons.
53:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Nine workers were killed as were seven Pinkertons.
53:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Many more injured on both sides.
53:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Strike leaders stood trial for murder.
53:29
[SPEAKER_00]: The jury found them innocent.
53:31
[SPEAKER_00]: But 29 strike leaders were arrested again.
53:33
[SPEAKER_00]: This time they were charged with treason.
53:36
[SPEAKER_00]: During the trial, the chief justice of Pennsylvania instructed the grand jury when a large number of men armed and organized themselves by divisions and companies, appoint officers and engage in a common purpose to defy the law to
53:50
[SPEAKER_00]: To resist its officers and to deprive any portion of their fellow citizens of the rights to which they are entitled, it is a levying of war against the state and the offense is treason.
54:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Despite this charge to the grand jury, the jury again refused to convict these strike leaders.
54:08
[SPEAKER_00]: However, paying legal fees and bail, drain the strike finances.
54:12
[SPEAKER_00]: While leaders were kept in jail, the morale of the strike was broken.
54:16
[SPEAKER_00]: The homestead steel mills were not unionized until well into the 20th century.
54:41
[SPEAKER_03]: We're listening to the Rick Smith show, we're working people coming to the top.
54:46
[SPEAKER_00]: I got to tell you, it's so great to see.
54:53
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, workers who you don't normally think of as Arden supporters of unions, fight organizing, fighting and winning.
55:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Good contracts and things are going to make their lives better.
55:05
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is what I've been saying for a very long time.
55:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Look, the sad reality is, union density in this country is almost the where it was when it was illegal to be a union member.
55:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And we wonder why wages have been suppressed and declining for the last 50 years, because of the all-out assault on working people.
55:22
[SPEAKER_00]: And every time corporate America comes up with a new gimmick, a new scheme, a new way to get cheap labor.
55:29
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the working people who take it on the chin and you know, there's this door dash settlement that just happened.
55:35
[SPEAKER_00]: A hundred and thirty one and a half million dollar settlement in New York City.
55:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Mary's at Montgomery calls it the biggest one in the history of the city and the money goes to 260,000 workers who got cheated, wage theft.
55:54
[SPEAKER_00]: they agreed to pay a $131.5 million in wages that they took, that's a crime nobody's going to jail, but they're going to pay a little penalty.
56:07
[SPEAKER_00]: So this all this money's going to go, but by 440 bucks per worker on average, and it's all because Mayor Mimdami in New York said, let's go after this stuff that government
56:23
[SPEAKER_00]: enforce the rules.
56:26
[SPEAKER_00]: And look, you know, Jordan, I should admit it, they, they stole people's wages, but they put it differently.
56:32
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we screwed up.
56:35
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you know, Joshua should be paid in full on time every time.
56:40
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're sorry, we sorry we let them down, we sorry.
56:44
[SPEAKER_00]: We promise, we've never to do it again, because evidently it was a technical bug.
56:50
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a complicated situation.
56:53
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think it's very complicated.
56:55
[SPEAKER_00]: I think you cheated people out of wages.
56:57
[SPEAKER_00]: And there was no mechanism for those workers to go, hey, you cheated me, which is why I come back to every worker should have a union.
57:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Because in those workplaces, if you cheated that first guy,
57:11
[SPEAKER_00]: That person files a grievance against taking care of.
57:14
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not years of being cheated.
57:19
[SPEAKER_00]: And as my brother said, when a worker earns a wage, they deserve to be paid that wage, not tomorrow, not after a lawsuit, but on time and in full.
57:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, as I said, wage theft is a crime.
57:34
[SPEAKER_00]: This is just wage theft by app.
57:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And when the bug always seems to short the worker and never the company, sorry, not by and it's a bug.
57:45
[SPEAKER_00]: What we also find out is if I have in good government policy and enforcement, it works.
57:54
[SPEAKER_00]: A city that sets up pay laws and enforces them, workers get their money.
57:59
[SPEAKER_00]: I love the fact that Mandami set up an office of worker power to get people to organize and to have someone who's going to stand up for these folks, because I understand these delivery workers, they're all independent contractors, so they really can't unionize like, as I would want them to do the way employees can.
58:18
[SPEAKER_00]: That makes the city's pay laws and enforcement, they're really only protection.
58:25
[SPEAKER_00]: And do you think they're going to be some red cities across the country?
58:28
[SPEAKER_00]: They're going to jump in and do this work because they look through millions of receipts to build this case.
58:34
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a lot of manpower, a lot of effort.
58:38
[SPEAKER_00]: But I know they'll post it notice.
58:39
[SPEAKER_00]: They swear they won't do it again.
58:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Promise, cross my heart, don't have to die all that until next time.
58:46
[SPEAKER_00]: And for me, this is the world that sadly we've been in for way too long.
58:54
[SPEAKER_00]: And until we wake up to the reality that we do need smart policy, we need sound governance.
58:59
[SPEAKER_00]: We need a cop on the beat.
59:01
[SPEAKER_00]: We need a government that cares about working people and not just about corporate overlords.
59:08
[SPEAKER_00]: This is one of those stories.
59:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Want to hear your thoughts?
59:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Email me, ricketerricksmithshow.com, do you get it or this is just what you know, they were just, you know, they're sorry.
59:20
[SPEAKER_00]: They won't do it again.
59:21
[SPEAKER_00]: They promise, they learn their lesson.
59:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you think, Rick at therixmithshow.com?
59:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Miss any portions of the program download the podcast or we get your favorite podcast, you'll find dollars, isn't it always?
59:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks so much for being here.
59:35
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll see you back here next time.
59:48
[SPEAKER_03]: at RickAtTheRicksSmithShow.com.
59:54
[SPEAKER_03]: Until next time, this has been The RickSmithShow.
59:57
[SPEAKER_03]: We're working people coming to talk.