The Labor Notes Podcast

Nearly 4,000 workers at the JBS beef processing plant in Greeley, Colorado, walked off the job on March 16, launching a two-week unfair labor practice strike that they extended into a third week. 

Workers spoke to Caitlyn Clark, an organizer at Essential Workers for Democracy, and Lisa Xu, a Labor Notes Organizer, who both join the pod this week.

Read Caitlyn and Lisa’s Labor Notes story on the strike here.

Learn more about the 1980s Hormel strike here. 

Support striking JBS workers by contributing to their strike fund, supporting Essential Workers for Democracy’s fundraiser, and learning more about the strike here. 

And learn more about the movement to revitalize the United Food and Commercial Workers in our podcast episode from June: “Grocery Workers at the UFCW are Organizing for a Fighting Union.”

The new Labor Notes guide to Organizing a Union Reform Caucus spells out some basic concepts and definitions around reform caucuses and organizing, but will also be useful to anyone who has been on this path for a while.

Labor Notes Organizers Lisa Xu and Barbara Madeloni (who is retiring) join the pod to talk through some deeper questions around running for office, the relationship between caucuses and leadership, and building democratic structures that can help members work through decision-making and conflict.

This is part 2 of a two-part series on this new resource, which you can find on labornotes.org/caucus.  

Listen to part 1 here.

Have you and your co-workers been shut out of bargaining? Have you felt pressured to vote yes on a contract you really didn't like? Do you feel like there aren't a lot of ways to address issues in your union besides filing complaints or grievances that seem to go into a void? 

Rank-and-file members win more and build power in their workplaces when they also have a voice in their unions! 

It’s the lesson that hundreds of thousands of workers—including educators, building trades workers, Hollywood film production crew members, Teamsters, United Auto Workers members, letter carriers and grocery workers— have held onto as they’ve fought for better from their unions and waged militant fights against the bosses. 

If you and your co-workers are on this path, you’ll love the new Labor Notes Guide: How to Build A Union Reform Caucus. Find answers to questions like: What’s a reform caucus? Is that even the right option for me and my co-workers? How would it work? What about running for union office? 

This is part 1 of a two-part series on this new resource, which you can find on labornotes.org/caucus.  

Labor Notes Organizer Lisa Xu and and retiring Labor Notes Organizer Barbara Madeloni join the podcast.

In this first year of the Labor Notes Podcast, our weekly show on rank-and-file news and organizing tactics, we’ve covered mass strikes, contract fights, and organizing breakthroughs even in this era of escalating repression at work and on the streets.

Retail workers are leading organizing drives. Building trades workers, letter carriers and grocery workers are pushing for more transparency and democracy in their unions. Immigrant workers and allies are strategizing ways to build power with their co-workers and neighbors to fight back against the brutality of immigration raids.

In this anniversary episode, we look back at a year of workers banding together and raising expectations for what we can win.

Here are links to past episodes we highlight in this one: 

How Workers Pulled Off a Mass Strike in Minnesota (February 6, 2026)

Casino Dealers Brought Back the Recognition Strike and Won (December 19, 2025)

Starbucks Workers are on a Nationwide Strike for a First Contract (November 14, 2025)

Are the Democrats F*cking Up the Shutdown? (October 24, 2025)

Stewards’ Corner: Workplace Safety Is Not a Game (October 17, 2025)

Grocery Workers at the UFCW are Organizing for a Fighting Union (June 6, 2025)

Stewards’ Corner: What if Union Meetings Were Actually Good? (May 30, 2025)

Facing Privatization And DOGE Attacks, Postal Workers Are Fighting Back (April 11, 2025)

The antidote to despair, even in this era of extraordinary assaults against working people, is organizing. From autoworkers in Chattanooga, TN, winning their first contract to the trolleybus operators in Mexico City preparing to go on strike, there are pockets of labor everywhere building momentum.