The Labor Notes Podcast

Gig workers are often sold the lie that their job is flexible, customizable, and lets them be their own boss. But that hides the reality that they don’t control a lot of their own basic working conditions, including the rates they’re paid or even if they can continue working with the app, if they’re arbitrarily deactivated. 

In May, hundreds of app workers across Mexico held a two-hour work stoppage to escalate their demands and to fight for a collective agreement with app giants like Uber, DiDi, and Rappi (two Uber Eats-style delivery platforms), reported Natascha Elena Uhlmann. 

Joining Natascha and Danielle this week is Luis Fernando Mora Reyes, an app worker from Mexico City and the secretary of training and culture for the National App Workers Union (la Union Nacional de Trabajadores por Aplicación or UNTA). 

Read Natascha’s story in English: Mexico's Gig Workers Fight Efforts to Hollow Out Their Employee Status Win

Lee el artículo de noticias de Natascha en español: Los trabajadores por aplicación luchan por hacer valer sus derechos bajo la reforma laboral

Have you ever been so stumped by an organizing challenge that you wished you could just beam out a help signal to others who’ve dealt with the same thing? Enter special guests Tera Arnold and Dakota Massman, who fielded several organizing questions along with pod co-hosts Danielle Smith and Natascha Elena Uhlmann at our first ever live episode of the Labor Notes Podcast, which took place last month at the 2026 Conference in Chicago. 

Tera and Dakota, of Teamsters Local 135, were two of the casino dealers at the Horseshoe Indianapolis Casino who walked out last year on a rare and courageous strike for union recognition. 

Send us more organizing questions in writing or on a voice note to podcast@labornotes.org, and we’ll try to answer them on the pod!

You might be in a battle of wits with a great white shark on a New England beach and needing a bigger boat. Or maybe you're getting into property fights with your goth relatives (or imposters) in the Addams Family. Perhaps you're just a toy, a child's plaything, but developing power analysis in the Toy Story franchise.

Wherever your big screen adventures are playing out, we at the Labor Notes Podcast think you're probably applying a labor lesson from our bestseller, Secrets of a Successful Organizer, or our new book, Keep Going: A Guide to Organizing When It's Hard.

Tune into this week's episode for why our favorite summer blockbusters are really about organizing. 

Links to resources we mention in this episode: 

Stewards’ Corner: Workplace Safety Is Not a Game (Labor Notes Podcast, October 2025)

Four Union Strategies to Fight on A.I. (Article on labornotes.org | Labor Notes Podcast, May 2026) 

Keep Going: A Guide to Organizing When It's Hard: Order your copy | See Inside: Introduction: How to use this book; Chapter 1: Cultivate Respect

You guys loved our episode about having bad meetings so much that we’re actually bringing it back. Revisit this old Labor Notes pod banger and evergreen organizing question: “What if Unions Meetings Were Actually Good?”

It feels like we just saw about 4,700 of you a week ago in Chicago, so we're taking some space this week to give you a chance to miss us a little. (i.e. We're catching up on sleep after the 2026 Labor Notes Conference, and will be back to our programming next week!)    

In the meantime, watch the conference livestream:  

Friday, June 12

Main Session: WATCH HERE 

Saturday, June 13

The Soul in the Machine: Resisting A.I. Pressure on the Character and Quality of Our Jobs: WATCH HERE 

Opening Up Bargaining: WATCH HERE 

Sunday, June 14

Main Session: WATCH HERE 

See you next week, solidarity y'all!