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.
Anja Rudiger, of the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative, works with the Healthcare is a Human Right campaign which in 2011 succeeded in getting a groundbreaking law passed: Act 48, which commits Vermont to creating a healthcare system providing healthcare as a public good and ensuring everyone can get the healthcare they need, when they need it.
Robert Pollin, Co-director of the The Political Economy Research Institute and Professor of Economics at UMass Amherst and author of recent studies including
Journalist Thomas Grace and former driver and Teamster activist Scott Ranney discuss the results and lessons of the successful Vermont CCTA bus drivers' strike. Thomas and Scott explain why the drivers' issues resonated with other working people, and draw out key lessons for effective working class self-organization.
CCTA driver Rob Slingerland and former driver Chuck Norris-Brown explain the core issues in their dispute with management:
1. SAFE & REASONABLE WORKING CONDITIONS: Management wants to extend the length of split-shifts to 13 ½ hours. This extension of already long hours raises safety issues for everyone on the road.
2. FULL-TIME EMPLOYMENT: Management wants to bring in more part-time workers. Drivers do not want to see full-time jobs being turned into part-time work. We want our drivers to have livable jobs.
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.