Full Program

Part 1

On this Labor Day weekend we begin with an analysis of how American workers might be celebrating the end of summer on Labor Day with vacations, given that about 56% of American workers took weeklong vacations last year, an all-time low from the steady decline that began in the 1980’s when more than 80% took weeklong vacations. Harold Meyerson, an editor-at-large of The American Prospect and a weekly columnist for The Washington Post joins us to discuss his latest article at The American Prospect “A Happy Labor Day – Really” and examine how both left wing and rightwing populism are emerging in this election season as a result of stagnant wages and lack of economic opportunity.

Part 2

Then we speak with Dr. Harley Shaiken, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley who studies labor, information technology, the organization of work, global economic integration and trade. We discuss the state of working America and the decline of wages and unions since the late 1970’s and whether manufacturing jobs could be returned as the service economy takes over from the manufacturing economy. We also examine the future of American capitalism as more and more wealth is extracted by the top 1% while less and less wealth trickles down to the bottom 99%.

Part 3

Then finally we get an historical perspective on labor, income disparity and race and gender in the workplace with Leon Fink, a professor of History at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He edits the journal “Labor: Studies in Working Class History of the Americas” and we discuss whether growing income equality today is worse than it was in the previous Gilded Age and how much globalization has lowered wages while almost all of the benefits of increased productivity go to the top.

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the tragic image of a Turkish police officer cradling the lifeless body of a 3 year old Syrian Kurdish boy found washed ashore after the rickety boat carrying his family to Greece capsized, drowning his 5 year old brother and mother as well. Jana Mason, the Senior Advisor for Government Relations and External Affairs at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Washington D.C. where she represents the agency’s interests with the U.S. government, joins us. We discuss how Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan have taken in over 4 million Syrian refugees so far but insufficient funding of the UNHCR by donor nations, particularly in Europe, has led to shortfalls in caring for the continuing outflow of Syrians fleeing the civil war, leading refugees to risk their lives in the hands of callous human traffickers as they cross the Mediterranean in unseaworthy boats to Europe.

Part 2

Then we speak with Daryl Grisgraber, who leads Refugees International’s research and advocacy related to the Middle East and North Africa, focusing mainly on the Syrian displacement crisis. She joins us to discuss efforts today in Brussels at an emergency meeting of European leaders to deal with the growing crisis, where Hungary’s right wing Prime Minister Viktor Urban warned that Europe’s “Christian” future is at stake as he blamed Germany for creating the migration crisis by offering asylum to refugees.

Part 3

Then finally we examine the sentencing today of a county clerk in Kentucky who, acting on God’s authority, has defied the Supreme Court by continuing to refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Carl Tobias, the Chair and Professor of Law at the University of Richmond who has tracked same-sex marriage litigation across the country, joins us to discuss whether jailing Rowan County’s Kim Davis instead of fining her will make her a “Christian” martyr soon to appear at a mega-church near you.