Two conversations that connect the fight for workers in the halls of Congress to the fight for workers on the streets of Cleveland — one making the legislative case for tipped wages, overtime pay and AI transparency and one tracing 55 years of a labor-rooted organization that has never stopped asking what workers need that nobody else is providing. Congressional Labor Caucus co-chair and Culinary Workers Union Local 226 member Steve Horsford of Nevada discusses the Big Beautiful Bill's betrayal of tipped workers and his Tips Improvement Act to make tax relief permanent, the federal minimum wage frozen at $7.25 since 2009 and down 30% in purchasing power, the Double the Wage Act to require double pay after 40 hours, the PRO Act and Faster Labor Contracts Act and legislation requiring transparency on AI-related layoffs and hiring. He also shares the personal story behind his public service: an immigrant mother from Trinidad, a father shot and killed when he was 19 and a decade running the Culinary Training Academy before he ever ran for Congress. His Labor Day message: the problems workers face are not personal failures, and when workers fight, they win. Then, United Labor Agency Executive Director Dave Megenhardt traces 55 years of worker-centered service in Cleveland, from a 1971 kidney dialysis program seeded by the Cleveland AFL-CIO, the UAW and the Teamsters through durable medical equipment, workforce development, housing rehabilitation and the placement of more than 2,000 workers across Northeast Ohio last year. He addresses what deindustrialization's legacy of abandoned communities without transition plans should teach us about AI-driven job displacement, the current federal grant landscape and the ULA's role in seeding Policy Matters Ohio. His Labor Day message: look back on a year of hard work, recognize your contribution to the economy and always fight for someone else. Visit horsford.house.gov and laborcaucus.house.gov for more from Representative Horsford and ulagency.org for more from the United Labor Agency.

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

Transcript

Related