EQUAL TIME is where Vermonters talk about issues ignored by the corporate media—mothers opposing toxic pollution, workers fighting for decent jobs, nurses working for health care reform, students speaking out about their education, farmers struggling against corporate agribusiness, and more.
Patty Dewey, President of American Postal Workers Union (APWU) Local 520 in White River Junction and John Dirzius, APWU Northeast Region Coordinator and National Executive Board member talk about Saving Our Postal Service. The APWU is calling for a “grand alliance” to save the USPS as a public postal service. "History shows that movements move Congress ... Movements create legislative victories. Writing to Congress is important, but it is not enough.
Former Chittenden County Transportation Authority driver Jon Flanders explains why Good, Safe Public Transport Depends on Respect & Safe Working Conditions for Bus Drivers. CCTA management is failing to negotiate a fair contract with the drivers' union and refuses to address important safety concerns. That is why broad community support is building for the CCTA drivers in their contract fight for safety, dignity and respect.
Dr. Leslie Matthews, Vermont State Employees Association Legislative Committee Chair, and state employee retiree Tony Smith discuss the State Employees Agenda for Good Government . VSEA members have overwhelmingly endorsed an ambitious legislative agenda for the upcoming 2014 session.
Adam Norton, strategic analyst for the Vermont State Employees Association, discusses the reality facing the 250 blue and pink collar workers at the State Colleges who are presently working without a contract. The workers are trying to maintain their secure retirement, and seeking to get their pay up to a livable wage so that they don't have to rely on state assistance.
Lois Weiner, author of The Future of Our Schools: Teachers Unions and Social Justice; Atasi Das, member of the Windham Northeast Education Association; and Ellen David Friedman, life-long union organizer and labor educator discuss the potential power of teacher unions to reverse the corporate assault on public education and the necessity to transform the narrow business unionism that stands in the way.