126. Labor Union Women Prez, Labor Artist, Teacher: Elise Bryant - Harmony of Interests

03/10/21 • 43 min

Elise Bryant is Executive Director of the Labor Heritage Foundation and President of the Coalition of Labor Union Women.

Elise Bryant launched her labor arts career as the artistic director of the University of Michigan’s labor theater project, Workers’ Lives/Workers’ Stories in 1982. She joined the National Writers Union and began her screenwriting career with a script for the documentary, Porgy and Bess: an American Voice which aired on PBS. In 1998 Elise made her Washington, DC stage debut in Theater J’s production of Goodnight Irene and founded the DC Labor Chorus.

She directed two productions of the labor jazz opera, Forgotten: the Murder at the Ford Rouge Plant, in Detroit and in the Washington, DC area. Most recently she directed the labor jazz opera Love Songs From the Liberation Wars: the 1940s Tobacco Workers Struggle.

After working 35 years as a labor educator, Elise retired from her professorship at the National Labor College to start her own consulting service, the E.L.I.S.E. Consortium.

Elise is a lifetime member of the Wobblies (Industrial Workers of the World), a member of the AFM Local 1000 as well as CWA/Newspaper Guild Local 32035. In 2012 she was given the Lifetime Achievement award from the international organization, United Association of Labor Educators. In 2017 she was elected President of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW).

We discuss:

Growing up in Detroit and using theater arts for activism;
Directing labor jazz operas;
Labor education and the National Labor College;
The role of art in labor movements;
The Coalition of Labor Union Women;
The Labor Heritage Foundation; and the
Future of organizing.

Empathy Media Lab is produced by Evan Matthew Papp and we are a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. Support media, authors, artists, historians, and journalists, who are fighting to improve the prosperity of the working class.

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Elise Bryant is Executive Director of the Labor Heritage Foundation and President of the Coalition of Labor Union Women.

After working 35 years as a labor educator, Elise retired from her professorship at the National Labor College to start her own consulting service, the E.L.I.S.E. Consortium.

We discuss:

Growing up in Detroit and using theater arts for activism;
Directing labor jazz operas;
Labor education and the National Labor College;
The role of art in labor movements;
The Coalition of Labor Union Women;
The Labor Heritage Foundation; and the
Future of organizing.

Website - https://www.empathymedialab.com/

Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/empathymedialab

Twitter - https://twitter.com/empathymedialab

Twitch - https://www.twitch.tv/empathymedialab

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/empathymedialab/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/EmpathyMediaLab/

Linkedin - https://www.linkedin...

Previous Episode

125. Author Eric Lotke discusses his book Union Made Published by Hard Ball Press - Buy Your Copy Today

Union Made captures the blood, sweat, tears, courage, love, and solidarity that animates a union organizing drive. This book provides a window into the challenges faced by workers who are fighting for dignity and a more humane workplace.

Buy this book to better understand why every working person has a right to form a union without harassment from the boss.

Union Made was written by Eric Lotke who is an author, lawyer, criminal justice and union activist.

Overview of Union Made

Catherine Campbell is a union organizer. Nate is an accountant working for a company that's planning a hostile takeover of Pac-Shoppe, the company Catherine is organizing.

It's a love story.

Union Made is a fast-paced romance with a strong female lead and a gripping labor campaign that explores union organizing from the inside. It reveals the tactics, strains and risks of mobilizing a diverse group of workers to stand together against a giant corporation.

As Catherine’s campaign falters in the face of Pac-Shoppe’s illegal hardball tactics, Nate’s sympathy for the workers and fascination with Catherine grow. Can the lonely accountant interest her by sharing evidence of Pac-Shoppe’s dirty tricks? How much trouble will he be in if he reveals corporate secrets to the union?

Release date March 15, 2021.

Union Made is published by Hard Ball Press

Tim Sheard is the Executive Editor of Hard Ball Press.

Veteran nurse Timothy Sheard is a writer, publisher, mentor to writers and union organizer with the National Writers Union, UAW Local 1981. After writing 7 mystery novels featuring hospital custodian-shop steward Lenny Moss, he launched Hard Ball Press to help working class people write and publish their stories. Timothy believes that when workers write and tell their stories, they build rank and file solidarity and union power, as well strengthening the fight for social justice solidarity. Their stories help to combat the anti-labor and anti-working class assaults by the One Percent. Hard Ball Press is the premier publisher of working class life.

You can watch EML’s interview with Tim Sheard here: https://www.empathymedialab.com/post/pandemic-nurse-s-diary-a-tribute-to-healthcare-workers-fighting-covid-19

Next Episode

127. EXCERPT Uber vs. Aslam, CA’s Prop 22, & Fighting for the Global Rights of Gig Workers - LRPN Livestream

Labor Radio Podcast Network’s Weekly Wednesday Livestream interviews labor leaders about current labor issues with rotating hosts made up of network members.

Guests for March 10th, 2021 of LRPN Livestream included Yaseen Aslam (Uber BV v Aslam and President of the App Drivers & Couriers Union), Willy Solis (Gig Worker Collective), and Maria C. Figueroa (Cornell University-School of Industrial and Labor Relations).

LRPN Co-Hosts: Bama Athreya (The Gig Podcast) and Maximilian Alvarez (Working People Podcast and The Real News Network).

Topics Discussed:

The UK Uber vs. Aslam;
Organizing against Prop 22; and
How to build solidarity in the fight for Global Rights of Gig Workers

Additional Credits: Produced by Chris Garlock (Union City Radio); Producer, engineer, and editor is Evan Matthew Papp (Empathy Media Lab).

Additional Links

Episode 3 of The Gig Podcast to learn more about Uber vs. Alsam in Judgement Day Overview: James Farrar and Yaseen Aslam decided to challenge the premise that they were not Uber’s workers. In the UK we follow their precedent-setting lawsuit as it rises to the UK Supreme Court. In the US we talk to drivers and organizers on the eve of their historic victory in California, the passage of Assembly Bill 5 that set a standard for all gig workers to be classified as workers.

Labor History in 2 by the Rick Smith Show: March 10, 1925 The Radium Girls

Music by DC Labor Chorus Song “None of Us Are Free" written by Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, and Brenda Russell. Album Hail to the Thieves, Volume III: Songs to Take Our Country Back! Learn more at Labor Heritage Festival.

About the Labor Radio Podcast Network

The Labor Radio Podcast Network is both a one-stop shop for audiences looking for labor content and a resource for labor broadcasters and podcasters. Resources include a weekly podcast summarizing shows produced by network members, marketing on social media, a website listing network shows and how audiences can find them, a database for contacting expert guests, access to a private listserv for Network members, and a weekly video call to increase solidarity and support amongst members.

Launched in April 2020, the Labor Radio Podcast Network focuses on working class issues that are often overlooked in the corporate-controlled media. The goal of the network is to help raise the voices of working people and strengthen organized labor to demand and achieve better treatment from workplaces and elected officials.

If you are a journalist interested in learning more or if you’re a labor radio or podcast producer and want to join the network, contact us at [email protected].

Follow the conversation on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram using the hashtag #LaborRadioPod or visit the website at: https://www.laborradionetwork.org/.

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/LaborRadioNet/

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/laborradionet

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WEEKLY PODCAST NETWORK SUMMARY: https://laborradiopodcastweekly.podbean.com/