Erek Slater's guest appearances

Erek Slater

Working People

Labor Express Radio

Brazil Worker's Podcast

Sarah Jaffe

Sarah Lazare

Angela Davis

Julia Wallace

Sarah Smarsh

Katie Glenn

Sara Nelson

Brian Murray

John Deere

Astra Taylor

Michael Brooks

Luke Savage

Lucy Lloyd

Lynn Allen

Marshall Steinbaum

OwlTail

We chat with Erek Slater, a bus operator for the Chicago Transit Authority, where he's been working for the past 15 years. Erek is a family man, a father, and a three-term elected shop steward and executive board member of the Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 241. We talk about his working life and all that goes into being a bus operator, all the things that passengers never see—even though we depend on workers like Erek every day to live our lives. We also talk about Erek's experience as a shop steward and about his unshakeable commitment to honor, justice, and to empowering the working class. In fact, it was because he stood up for these things that he was unjustly dismissed from his job in May.    Additional links/info below...     International Campaign to Reinstate Chicago Bus Driver Erek Slater PETITION: Drop All Charges and Reinstate Chicago Bus Driver Erek Slater   Update on Campaign to Reinstate Chicago Bus Driver Erek Slater Erek's Facebook page and Twitter page ATU Local 241 website page     Connecticut Workers Crisis Response Facebook page     Sarah Lazare, Jacobin, "A Chicago Bus Driver Says He Was Retaliated Against for His Opposition to Transporting Police to Protests"  WorkWeek Radio, ""We May Have To Shut It Down" Fight To Protect Health &amp; Safety For Chicago ATU 241 Members &amp; Public"  Labor Beat, "São Paulo Is A Union Town: Travel Notes of a Chicago Trade Unionist" Labor Beat, "Joint Action in Tokyo and Seoul"      Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive:  freemusicarchive.org)  Jules Taylor, "Working People theme song" Cletus Got Shot, "Justice Is My Name" 

We chat with Erek Slater, a bus operator for the Chicago Transit Authority, where he's been working for the past 15 years. Erek is a family man, a father, and a three-term elected shop steward and executive board member of the Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 241. We talk about his working life and all that goes into being a bus operator, all the things that passengers never see—even though we depend on workers like Erek every day to live our lives. We also talk about Erek's experience as a shop steward and about his unshakeable commitment to honor, justice, and to empowering the working class. In fact, it was because he stood up for these things that he was unjustly dismissed from his job in May.  Additional links/info below... <ul> <li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ReinstateErekSlater/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"> International Campaign to Reinstate Chicago Bus Driver Erek Slater</a></li> <li>PETITION: <a href="https://www.change.org/p/chicago-transit-authority-drop-all-charges-and-reinstate-chicago-bus-driver-erek-slater?utm_content=cl_sharecopy_22860526_en-US%3Av4&amp;recruiter=1123370684&amp;recruited_by_id=dcc875c0-b5be-11ea-9af4-19701e610203&amp;utm_source=share_petition&amp;utm_medium=copylink&amp;utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&amp;utm_term=psf_combo_share_initial&amp;fbclid=IwAR3_aeUj8_1aQ3sS0BkxbCEnMKaFkWgZEaa4hR4X_EbaFiyYAyhOtdClSEE" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Drop All Charges and Reinstate Chicago Bus Driver Erek Slater</a> </li> <li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/282127982808175/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"> Update on Campaign to Reinstate Chicago Bus Driver Erek Slater</a></li> <li>Erek's <a href="https://www.facebook.com/erekslater" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Facebook</a> page and <a href="https://twitter.com/erek_slater" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Twitter</a> page</li> <li>ATU Local 241 <a href="http://atu241chicago.org/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">website</a> page</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Connecticut Workers Crisis Response <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CTworkerscrisisresponse" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Facebook</a> page</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Sarah Lazare, Jacobin, "<a href="https://jacobinmag.com/2020/06/chicago-bus-driver-cta-police-transport-protesters" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">A Chicago Bus Driver Says He Was Retaliated Against for His Opposition to Transporting Police to Protests</a>" </li> <li>WorkWeek Radio, "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;v=Q4EG-HJZHcU" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">"We May Have To Shut It Down" Fight To Protect Health &amp; Safety For Chicago ATU 241 Members &amp; Public</a>" </li> <li>Labor Beat, "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU9NXdy5WmE&amp;feature=youtu.be" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">São Paulo Is A Union Town: Travel Notes of a Chicago Trade Unionist</a>"</li> <li>Labor Beat, "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jyvsyXLdW4&amp;feature=youtu.be" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Joint Action in Tokyo and Seoul</a>"</li> </ul> Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"> freemusicarchive.org</a>) <ul> <li>Jules Taylor, "Working People theme song"</li> <li>Cletus Got Shot, "Justice Is My Name"</li> </ul>

Today we have a special interview with bus driver and Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) leader Erek Slater. On May 31, 2020 he addressed his co-workers to share the official public statement of the ATU International President regarding the right to refuse to drive police, in the context of the mass protests over the murder of George Floyd. Because of it, CTA has retaliated against Erek by taking him out of service and accusing him of illegally advocating for a wildcat strike. Now, we have another murder: Last Sunday night, Jacob Blake was killed by two white policemen with seven shots in the back in Wisconsin. The working class must be united against capitalism and racism. We from CSP-Conlutas stand with you Erek and the Black Movement in United States.

#10 - Erek Slater Campaign and our demand for Justice for Jacob Blake

Labor Express Radio Interview: Erek Slater of Transit Workers Unite and COVID-19 survivor on the “Safety First for Transit Workers Now” Petition and the impact of COVID-19 on transit workers. Jerry Mead-Lucero of Labor Express Radio interviews Erek Slater, bus driver, elected board member of ATU Local 241 and founding member of Transit Workers Unite, recovering himself from his own bout of COVID-19, about the devastating impact of the crisis on transit workers and the petition his organization, along with several others including Local 100 Fightback and  ATU 308 for Justice Coalition issued recently calling on their employers - the transit authorities, their unions, and the relevant political powers to make transit workers and transit riders safety top priority and put safety measures and control directly in the hands of the frontline workers themselves.  The demands are bold and call for a form of worker control rarely advocated in such petitions. Labor Express Radio is Chicago's only English language labor news and current affairs radio program. News for working people, by working people. Labor Express Radio airs every Sunday at 8:00 PM on WLPN in Chicago, 105.5 FM. For more information, see our Facebook page...   laborexpress.org and our homepage on Archive.org at: http://www.archive.org/details/LaborExpressRadio

Labor Express Radio Interview: Erek Slater of Transit Workers Unite and COVID-19 survivor on the “Safety First for Transit Workers Now” Petition and the impact of COVID-19 on transit workers. Jerry Mead-Lucero of Labor Express Radio interviews Erek Slater, bus driver, elected board member of ATU Local 241 and founding member of Transit Workers Unite, recovering himself from his own bout of COVID-19, about the devastating impact of the crisis on transit workers and the petition his organization, along with several others including Local 100 Fightback and  ATU 308 for Justice Coalition issued recently calling on their employers - the transit authorities, their unions, and the relevant political powers to make transit workers and transit riders safety top priority and put safety measures and control directly in the hands of the frontline workers themselves.  The demands are bold and call for a form of worker control rarely advocated in such petitions. Labor Express Radio is Chicago's only English language labor news and current affairs radio program. News for working people, by working people. Labor Express Radio airs every Sunday at 8:00 PM on WLPN in Chicago, 105.5 FM. For more information, see our Facebook page...   <a href="http://laborexpress.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">laborexpress.org</a> and our homepage on <a href="http://Archive.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Archive.org</a> at: <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/LaborExpressRadio" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.archive.org/details/LaborExpressRadio</a>

Interview: Erek Slater of Transit Workers Unite and COVID-19 survivor on “Safety First for Transit Workers Now”