The Majority Report with Sam Seder - 3642 - Inflation Spikes; The Quiet National Abortion Ban; A Labor Win w/ Jessica Valenti, Liza Xu

Episode Date: May 12, 2026

It's News Day Tuesday on The Majority Report On today's program: On the campaign trail in 2024, Donald Trump promised to end inflation on day one. But a year and a half into his administration, inflation is outpacing wage growth for the first time since 2023. NEC Director Kevin Hassett is taking a glass-half-full approach, choosing to focus on the items that are falling in price "on a microeconomic level." Jessica Valenti, author and publisher of the Abortion, Every Day newsletter joins the program for a conversation about the state of reproductive rights in America...and it's not great. Lisa Xu, an organizer with Labor Notes, joins to follow up on her appearance last month when we interviewed her about the 3,800 meatpacking workers in UFCW Local 7 in Greeley, Colorado that launched the industry's first major strike in 40 years. Workers won a wage increase and reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses spent on personal protective equipment. In the Fun Half: NEC director, Kevin Hassett does some bad math in an attempt to spin the recent dismal job report into good news. Dr. Oz continues the Trump administration's assault on Medicare and Medicaid, arguing against the personal home care industry on Fox News. Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry is very nonchalant about his state throwing out more than 45,000 ballots that have already been cast. Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-VA) laughs and agrees with radio host as he tells Hakeen Jeffries to keep his "cotton-picking hands off of Virginia". At a commencement speech to Arts & Humanities majors at the University of Central Florida the speaker mentions AI and the crowd erupts in boos and jeers, to the shock of the speaker. All that and more. To connect and organize with your local ICE rapid response team visit ICERRT.com The Congress switchboard number is [phone]. You can use this number to connect with either the U.S. Senate or the House of Representatives. Follow us on TikTok here: https://www.tiktok.com/@majorityreportfm Check us out on Twitch here: https://www.twitch.tv/themajorityreport Find our Rumble stream here: https://rumble.com/user/majorityreport Check out our alt YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/majorityreportlive Gift a Majority Report subscription here: https://fans.fm/majority/gift Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here: https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord! https://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store: https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!: https://majority.fm/app Go to https://JustCoffee.coop and use coupon code majority to get 10% off your purchase Check out today's sponsors: DELETEME: Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to joindeleteme.com/MAJORITY and use promo code MAJORITY at checkout. ONESKIN: Get 15% off OneSkin with the code MAJORITY at oneskin.co/majority SUNSET LAKE CBD: Use coupon code "Left Is Best" (all one word) for 20% off of your entire order at SunsetLakeCBD.com Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattLech On Instagram: @MrBryanVokey Check out Matt's show, Left Reckoning, on YouTube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning Check out Matt Binder's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder Subscribe to Brandon's show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse Check out Ava Raiza's music here! https://avaraiza.bandcamp.

You are listening to a free version of the Majority Report. Support this show at join the Majority Report.com and get an extra hour of content daily. The Majority Report with Sam Cedar. It is Tuesday, May 12th, 2006. My name is Sam Cedar. This is the five-time award-winning majority report. We are broadcasting live steps from the industrially ravaged Gowanus Canal in the heartland of America, downtown Brooklyn, USA on the program today. Jessica Valenti, author and publisher of the abortion everyday newsletter on the state of abortion rights in this country.

then Lisa Chu, organizer with labor notes, giving us an update on that meat problem. Four weeks ago, we're looking for some good news, folks. Meanwhile, bad news. Core inflation pops off as Trump's Iran excursion and tariffs catch up with the economy. economy. U.S. Iran ceasefire on life support as Trump's war drives oil prices through the roof. And Trump says in response, he will suspend the gas tax, which he cannot do legally, and even if he did, would barely help. Supreme Court does a 180 on past election rulings and allows Alabama to suspend ongoing of voting

to disenfranchised black voters. The primary is one week from today. FCC tells Disney it's looking to censor Disney. Nebraska and West Virginia primaries today. There's a Democratic primary

in the senatorial race in Nebraska, which though largely irrelevant, could be very relevant. Meanwhile, Virginia Democrats take the referendum ruling to the federal Supreme Court. Meanwhile, calls for ignoring the Virginia Supreme Court ruling build a new Michigan Senate primary poll. Abdul-Sahid is up 11 points from the last poll.

He's got 27. And Stevens and McMurrow both drop seven and nine points respectively, excuse me, nine and seven points respectively, and are essentially tied at 17 or 18. Ten points behind Abdul al-Said. New report, crime is down significantly again in Democratic cities. New York City, meanwhile, is to announce the budget today. Amidst the question if Mom Doni has been able to convince Hockel to help the city close the Eric Adams deficit. All this and more on today's majority report.

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. It is Tuesday, what we used to call Newsday Tuesday, we could still call it that. I don't think we're going to get in trouble. I don't know why I hesitate. Emma is out today. Again, some folks just can't handle their spritzers. No, she's sick.

She's sick. But hopefully we'll be better tomorrow. A lot of COVID out there, folks. Does not hurt to wear a mask. also, and I rarely give this type of advice, all I can tell you is that there was a study in Germany not too long ago, several months ago, that showed that, and I can't remember what the name of the drug is, I know what the brand is in this country, Astel Pro, right? That's what it is.

That showed a couple of squirts in your nose multiple times a day. cuts down both the likelihood of you getting COVID and even other viruses. I'm not exactly sure why. The study had, I think, about 450, 480 people. It was a, there was a control group, so it was a pretty good study. I don't know, take it for what it's worth. But that's out there. good idea to protect yourself from as a last eat is I believe the generic or whatever oh is how it is okay

yeah it's unclear what it is I mean um but having your nose function very helpful for uh respiratory illness and that is my medical minute for the day let's go on to the other patient that is the economy. And people have been feeling this, and now it's showing up in the numbers. There are two real inflation numbers that you have to pay attention to. One is the CPI, the inflation number broadly. And then the other is core inflation. Now, the inflation number broadly, includes energy costs, which of course are up dramatically because of the Iran war. And so a lot of people say, well, you can't really count that because if we were to end the war tomorrow, those would come down. Now, I would not take that for granted.

They'll come down, but they're not going to come down dramatically for a while. because we know that we have at least one billion barrels of oil less in the world than we did than we did as of like two months ago, at least annualized. And but the core inflation excludes food and energy. Food and energy are going to be going way up. But the core inflation is also. so up. And now we have total inflation is eating away at wages. Just to remind you, Donald Trump said, vote for me, and it'll all be fixed. This is Donald Trump two years ago, right? August of 2024.

Starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again to bring down the prices of all good. Affordability. Affordability. Affordability. Affordability. You know, we should have listened to that more carefully because if you really sort of like parse that or grok it, as we used to say. Oh, and that's where they got the IAI from. I just heard. I think it's Douglas Adams, actually. They may have done that on day one. He just didn't see it. It doesn't show. up in the numbers and then after that they stopped with that agenda. Then they had to fire the entire BLS. We're just going to do that in day one.

Here's Kevin Hassett. He is the National Economic Council Director. And this is him yesterday, not to worry, folks, not to worry at all about inflation. The bottom light is inflation is going down at the microeconomic level by a million things that we've done like, you know, fix the avian flu, so egg prices are down, you know, change beef imports so that beef prices go down, make drug prices more affordable with Trump RX and so on. And so if you look at the individual items of the CPI, that at the micro level, lots of things are going down because of specific Trump policies. But at the macroeconomic level, the driving force

right now is the temporary increase of the price of gas. Yeah, no. Well, first off, Well, let's just take it from the last thing back. The price of gas is driving up the CPI to 3.8%. But core inflation is also up much more than economists predicted. Now, that may be because, and again, core inflation excludes food and energy costs, rose 0.4% from the month prior. Now, a lot of things are downstream from gas and oil. But nevertheless, no matter how you slice it, if you take out gas and food,

you still have higher inflation than people anticipated. And as far as the difference between microeconomic measures and macroeconomic measures, that is completely irrelevant. If one thing that I buy is cheaper, but everything else is more expensive, it's still a problem for me. Oh, I got a discount on my gum at the bodega, but dinner cost twice as much as it did three months ago. That's the difference between micro and macro. I don't think I've ever heard anybody use those terms. And the thing is, it's like, this is on CNBC, and you wonder, are all the business people just idiots?

Or are they believing this? I don't know. About beef prices? Like, I don't know. I don't. I guess I'm a businessman, but I'm not a businessman. And even I am like, what? Here is a clip from CNN that at least, I guess, feels like they're not in a position to lie to their audience.

Let's see if it's talking, macro, micro, on a micro level. If you get really micro, I mean, super micro, you're going to be able to find. Like, anecdotally, there are some things that are down. It's just that the data shows that's not the case. Put it all together and you have a situation where prices are now going up faster than paychecks, right? And that's the first time that we've seen that, where real wages, inflation-adjusted wages, are falling. For the first time since 2023, you look all the way on the left side of the screen, that's the red line is prices. Prices were going up faster than paychecks.

then you had this massive improvement. And for about three years, right, people's paychecks were going up faster than the cost of living. Not anymore. We've seen that crossover there. So look, bottom line, this is just more evidence of how the war in the Middle East and this energy crisis is making it more expensive for consumers. It explains this new CNN polling, how people are feeling about the economy and, you know, three-fourths of the population just about are saying it's not going well. This is why. Yeah, this is validation.

validation. Thank you so much. Thank you so. It's macro. Macro. It's macro validation, but not micro validation. Go to macro Donald's. Prices of shoelaces are down.

Nobody pays attention to that. Nobody pays attention to the shoelace prices. I got jackfruit for 50% off today. And understand that we are just on the cusp.

maybe two months away, two and a half months away from all the oil reserves that are being spent down, or I should say used down or whatever it is. What's the term? Spent down. Spent down. All of those oil reserves are about to go by-bye. And when those oil reserves go by-bye, you're going to see really, massive spikes in the price of things like gasoline.

And we're already seeing farmers talk about problems affording and getting what they need for planting in the end of 2026 and into 2027. Fertilizer, really expensive. We're going to see it in chips with helium. I mean, we're, we're. are not even, I think, at the end of the beginning of what's going to happen economically because of this Iran war. In a moment, we're going to be talking to Jessica Valenti, author and publisher of abortion

everyday newsletter because the news is not good there. Then we will have Lisa Shoe on organizer with labor notes, and she will give us some good news. So we're trying to mix it in. Seven parts bad news. One part good news. And that's eight out of big. Yep. Hey, folks, this is a product that I've been using for probably over 10 years.

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before it doesn't matter if you're someone who tries every new skin care product that hits the market or you've been using the same one or two things for years at some point most people um realize that our skin is just not keeping up the way it used to. I will tell you, both Emma and Julie have been using one skin. They both rave about it. I guess, as far as they say, it's not only made their routine better, but it works differently, according to them.

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Valenti, author and publisher of the abortion everyday newsletter, right back after this. We are back. Sam Cedar on the majority report, Emma Viglin is out today. I want to welcome back to the program Jessica Valenti, author and publisher of the abortion everyday newsletter, which I can't recommend enough. We will put a link to that at majority.fm. Jessica, welcome back to the program. Thank you for having me. The news is not good.

It's not so good. No. It's not great. And I both want to talk to you about the, you know, sort of like the updates of what we're seeing. you know, having had, I guess, you know, months and months and months of sort of the implications of the different states beginning to ban abortion in multiple ways. And also sort of like how that ties into sort of everything else that's happening politically on some level.

But let's start with Miss a Pryph, gosh, Missive Pristone, yeah. Thank you. I've said it correctly once, but that was that one time. It's a tongue teaser. It's all right. It's tough for me. I'm not good at pronouncing very few things. But where are we in terms of this?

And different, I guess, groups are and states are reacting differently. So give us a sense of what's the latest. So it's a little bit complicated. I'll give like the quick and dirty version. You know, Republicans are really, really upset that the abortion rate, the national abortion rate hasn't gone down. And the big reason that the national abortion rate hasn't gone down is because of telehealth abortion pills, right?

Abortion medication that's being shipped from doctors in pro-choice states who are protected by shield laws, shipping them into anti-abortion states. And so those people are able to get care. Conservatives hate that. And so they have been trying to sue the FDA to repeal telehealth access specifically of one of the two abortion medications that you use to end up pregnancy, Mithopristone. They got a really good ruling from the Fifth Circuit, which is like a notoriously conservative court. That's Texas, Louisiana, and maybe Oklahoma, maybe I'm not sure. But that's where they go to get every ruling they want.

Exactly. That's where they go. And so they got the ruling that they want. And the ruling said that folks had to stop shipping Mithpristone, or I should be more specific, that the FDA regulations had to go back to only allowing for in-person dispensing of Mitha-Pristone. And then the Supreme Court put a pause on that ruling while they considered it. And then yesterday they extended that pause until Thursday. So essentially, all is the same until Thursday when we find out what the Supreme Court will do next. They could extend the pause even further. They could take the case. They could dismiss the case on standing, which is what they did last time when Mithopristone came before them. So there's a couple different things that they can do, but it's caused a lot of chaos, a lot of confusion.

I think what's most important for people to know and for people to tell their friends and family is that you can still get abortion medication. You can still get abortion medication shipped to you in all 50 states. And even if something happens with the Supreme Court with Miphrastone, you can still have a safe and effective abortion using the second medication that you take mesoprostol. And the providers are very ready to switch to that protocol if need be. Okay. So it begs many questions. First off, what was the grounds in which to say that Mipristone is such a unique drug that it can be? cannot be prescribed over telehealth. Yeah. So they have a couple of different arguments.

They claim that it's unsafe, which we know is not true. It's been, you know, safely and effectively used for decades. But like the real sticking point with Louisiana and what the Fifth Circuit like climbed onto and what I think is probably their best argument is that it interferes with state sovereignty. Because in effect, by shipping, by allowing abortion bills to be shipped into their state, the telehealth access nullifies abortion bans. It doesn't allow them to enforce abortion bans. And so they are going to the court saying, hey, like, this law is making it impossible for us to be a free state. Of course, the Fifth Circuit doesn't consider that by restricting telehealth access, it, you know, impves on the state sovereignty of pro-choice states who don't want, you know,

a Louisiana Attorney General telling them what their doctors can and can't do. And so this is not just about abortion restrictions and restrictions on abortion pills. It's about getting shield laws to the Supreme Court, right, which allow providers and pro-choice states to ship these pills. Essentially, they want the ability to punish providers and pro-choice states. They want the ability to extradite abortion providers, bring them into anti-abortion states, and send them to prison for life. Like at the end of the day, that's really what this case is about. So this is a way for states to reach outside their states, intimidate doctors, activists who might provide care for people in their state. I mean, it also, if this concept of sovereignty functions this way, it seems like, why, I mean, I think it also, you know,

it undermines the sovereignty, like you say, of the other states, but why can't we mail pot between, or weed, as the kids call it, between states that have legalized it? I mean, like that, that question's dismissed out of hand, the argument that you're trampling on people's state sovereignty because I'm not allowed to sell pot to another state that has, that is decriminalized pot. I mean, so that's where we're at. But why would Miso Pristol be okay? And Mifipristone not. Yeah, there's no sense to it. It just happens to be the one that they have done the most work on over the past few years.

They are absolutely still coming for Mizo Prostal, one of the, you know, big conservative of legal groups that brings these sorts of cases has started to put mesoprostol into all of those suits. And so, you know, that's just a matter of time, right? It just happens to be that Mitha Pristone is the one that they have the most fake research on. And so in the event that they, in the event that they succeed, which I don't know, is there any way to read the tea leaves? I mean, did the fact that the, the court has punted for a couple more days suggest that this is they're struggling with this. I imagine because the state's rights argument is so complicated for these justices in a couple of different ways that they're trying to figure out how they thread this needle on some level.

And the implications, I would imagine there's a lot of implications if a state can say we're banning something and therefore we trump the federal authority of the Postal Service. Yeah. Yeah. And of the FDA and of FDA science, right? Yeah, absolutely. I don't think that there's a way, different folks feel different ways about how this is going to go. I think the assumption is that part of the reason they keep pushing it down the line is the same reason that that's the same reason that the Trump administration hasn't come out and said anything. It's because no one on the right wants to deal with this before the midterms. They know that it's an incredibly unpopular issue for them. No one wants to see abortion restricted, not even in anti-abortion states. And so it's a loser.

And the more press that they have for it, the worse it is for them. And so they're really trying to avoid it as much as possible. But I wouldn't be surprised if, you know, the administration wanted to have their cake and eat it too. And if they can point to the courts and say, well, it was the courts, you know, that banned, you know, telehealth access of abortion medication, not us. And it gives them a little bit of an out. I don't know how much voters will be able to distinguish. But it's completely unclear. The implications, though, will be tremendous. At this point, right now, nearly 30 percent of abortions in America are telehealth abortion medication abortions, right? So abortions that are happening because someone has gotten pills shipped to them, that is a huge number.

And telehealth access to abortion medication is sort of the thing that is propping off all other access right now. If that falls, already states are stretched in like pro-choice states who are just being inundated with out-of-state patients. If all of a sudden they have all of those patients who couldn't get pills shipped to them now coming into pro-choice states is going to be a, total disaster. And would this case stop Miphaepristone from being sent to states that didn't have a ban? Yeah. I mean, you could still go in person. Yes, it functions as a national ban.

It would be a national ban. Yeah, it would be a national ban on shipping the abortion medication. You would still be able to go in person because you're an pro-choice state. you could go to pick up the medication in person, but you would not be able to do it via telehealth. So again, this is, it really is like one of the steps towards national restrictions after they spent all of this time telling us that they wanted to leave this up to the states. Yes. Well, I mean, they were lying. Yeah. Shocker. They were lying. And so, okay, and I guess we'll know more about this on

Thursday. Do you have a sense of what, I mean, I guess the, I don't know what the, the pro-choice activists and forces will do in the event that this goes through. I mean, presumably they'll be coming from miso-prostol as well. What are both sides do in the event that they lose this case? Yeah. We keep shipping it anyway. Right. Like, that's what's going to happen is people are going to keep shipping it anyway and not talk about it. Folks can already get abortion pills shipped from other countries, shipped through informal networks, getting access through community resources. Like, this is already happening. They are not going to stop abortion pills from being shipped into anti-abortion states. They're going to make it harder for people to get.

They're going to institute a chilling effect. They are going to make people feel terrified. but they're not they're not going to stop people from getting abortions um let's talk about i mean there's been a steady flow of information out of texas because that was one of the first places i think if not the first place to essentially uh uh ban abortion criminalize it um and we're seeing a drop in birth rates and also an increase in um um uh deaths as a function of of of women bleeding out sometimes um just give us a sense of what's happening there and i mean i imagine i mean texas is the biggest state it's had this the longest so we hear more coming out of there but this is happening in in all these uh these uh abortion states and it really

shows the lie of the so-called exceptions to the abortion because there's no way to assess whether someone's case is accepted. No, the exceptions are not real. Exceptions, people should still try to make use of them, please. Don't get me wrong, but exceptions are a PR tool for Republicans to be able to say, oh, like, I'm not that bad. I'm a little bit more moderate. But yeah, no, we're seeing an increase in maternal mortality in ban states, an increase in infant mortality. Rates of sepsis are going up in Texas. I think the last time they did some research, I think Texas maternal mortality rate went up by 56% after they passed a ban. And what is so troubling, along with everything else, is that they are working really hard to hide that

data. Some anti-tortion states have completely dismantled their maternal mortality committees in Texas. They are stacking it with anti-abortion activists. They are really, they know that these laws kill women and they are working really hard to cover that up. What happens after the Miffo-Pristone and the Mr. Prawl Act? What is the next sort of like, you know, frontier for them? Because it really does seem like there's, the pro-choice activists and advocates and can develop sort of like black market and underground services and whatnot and that's what's happening. But from a pushback standpoint, there doesn't feel like there's much opportunities on a legal sort of like structural level at this point. So I'm curious what the anticipated frontier next frontiers are going to be where those activists are going to have to fill in for what could be above ground services in the past.

So there's two things that I'm paying close attention to. One is this really obscene, absurd claim that Americans are all drinking abortions because people are flushing their abortion remains and abortion pills and it's all getting in the water. and anti-abortion activists have been working a long time to sort of force the EPA to create standards around how to flush abortion remains and miscarriage remains if you use abortion medication. And just, I think it was last month, the EPA put out a list of potential contaminants that states should be testing their waters for. And birth control pills and abortion medication were on that list. And so they are trying to open up this new sort of like legal frontier of environmental regulations. and environmental protection to regulate, further regulate and further restrict abortion medication and birth control pills and hormones used in gender-affirming care.

And then the other thing I'm really worried about, honestly, is travel. It's one of those things that, you know, people sort of call me like a tinfoil hat person for, but there's already sort of informal restrictions on travel. I wrote a piece last week about a one. who had her 14-year-old daughter taken from her home because CPS found out that she planned to take the daughter out of state for an abortion, which is completely legal. You're allowed to take your kid out of state for an abortion. They took her 14-year-old from her, removed her from the home until the abortion appointment had passed, threatened her with murder charges, said, we're going to

take your other kid away. Similar things have happened in pro-choice states where, you know, a woman who I also wrote about, a CPS and police investigation opened up into her. for helping her daughter, all of which is a long way to say, I think that they are going to go after travel, and I think that they're going to start with teenage girls and this idea that you can't take teens across state lines. We're a little bit away from that, but it's already happening informally, I guess, I should say. Well, and, you know, as far as tinfoil hat stuff, I'm old enough to remember when, you know, back in 2004 where Hillary Clinton was telling us, we need to take a couple of steps towards conservatives and try and compromise on abortion and the idea

that abortion rights over the course of those subsequent 20 years would be rolled back was always considered a near impossibility. The Obama administration failed to codify abortion rights when we had supermajorities, albeit very briefly and very busy. and largely because people thought like we're not going to expend political capital on this because it's never going to get rolled back and here we are. But I also want to just point out, at least in the first thing you were talking about, you mentioned birth control pills.

You mentioned gender-firm in care drugs. There seems to be an expansive definition, and there always has been in many ways, of what constitutes an abortive fashion. And they're including things that prevent you from getting pregnant if you're a woman as being abortions in a way. Will you just speak to that aspect of that movement? Yeah. So this is something that the anti-abortion movement has been claiming for a really long time that certain forms of birth control like IUDs, the morning after pill, even the birth control pill, are actually abortive patients.

No truth to that. It was considered a very fringe argument. And then the Trump administration started saying the same thing. They started the story. They wanted to burn $10 million in birth control that was meant to go to women abroad. It was like the stockpile. And when they were asked why, they said, because it's abortive patient birth control. And the global gap rule prevents us from, you know, providing aid to abortions. completely insane. You barely hear about that, right? Like, you're talking about the administration, the Trump administration, saying that certain common forms of birth control, like hormonal implants and the pill, are actually abortions. And there was barely any coverage. And I should say, I mean, this is obviously obvious to you, but I don't know if, you know, a lot of people understand. One prevents the egg from being fertilized, from lodging in. depending on how it works, but from lodging in the uterus and being fertilized. And so you're not aborting anything.

Well, you're inhibiting the egg from being fertilized, but you're not aborting a fetus or a phytist or a zygote or any of that stuff. And the thing is, I really get the sense that a significant portion of these anti-abortion advocates. I mean, I think some are just like, I want to get rid of birth control because only God decides whether and if you're a woman and you're going to be a harlot and have sex and it's not to have a child, you've got to suffer the consequences. I mean, it's literally their language. I think there's many who hide the fact that they know that it's of birth control. And I think there's others who don't. I don't know that it would make a difference,

but it is both a testament to how they're willing to lie and manipulate and their ignorance. Yes, I do think it's both. And listen, I don't think it's a coincidence that conservatives are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on, you know, social media campaigns to reach young women to tell them that birth control is bad for them and birth control hurts them and is going to make them infertile, right? Like, they are seeding all of this cultural misinformation so that when they inevitably take steps to restrict birth control, they can claim that it is to protect our health, which is the same exact thing that they did with abortion procedures and abortion medication. What else do you think before we go that folks should know? I know there's a million stories.

I mean, but in terms of like these big movements, is there something in particular? I mean, like you say, the travel is going to be the sort of the next, you feel is they going to be the next, I guess, frontier. Travel and speech, travel and pro-choice speech, right? Like, we're seeing a lot of attacks on pro-choice speech. South Dakota just passed a law that bans advertising abortion pills. Republicans in multiple states are trying to pass laws that they will sort of frame as

aiding and abetting. but what they're really talking about is sharing information. And this goes back actually to the reason that they're trying to restrict abortion pills, right? Like people are finding out how to get abortion pills shipped to them, and they're making that happen. If they can't stop abortion pills, they would like to stop people from finding out how they can get those abortion pills to begin with. And so we're seeing just a tremendous amount of censorship on social media platforms, folks who post about where to get abortion pills, how to use abortion pills, again, completely legal. seeing their content locked, seeing their accounts taken down. Republicans just sent a letter last month to the FDA

because they want the FDA to use the power of that agency to get websites taken off the internet that share information about how to get abortion pills. And so I think speech and just the ability to share that information, which has been so pivotal for women post-Dobbs, that is really in their crosshairs. Do you see a connection between what's going on just in terms of voting rights with abortion?

Yeah, of course. I mean, listen, every state that has passed a pro-choice ballot measure to codify abortion protections in the Constitution, Republicans have bent over backwards, first of all, to disenfranchise voters to make sure that they didn't have that say to begin with, right? Like, abortion really has been a testing ground in that. way in terms of, you know, changing the standards from like 50% of the vote to 60% of the vote or changing what a citizen-led initiative needs to do to, you know, get that to happen. In Florida, we saw Ron DeSantis use state funding to weaponize state agencies to push misinformation

about the pro-choice ballot measure that was in Florida in 2024. And now that a lot of these states have passed pro-choice ballot measures, Republicans are refusing to adhere by them. They are trying to roll them back. They're suing, saying people didn't really understand what they were voting for because they didn't have this word on the ballot, right? Like attacks on abortion are absolutely attacks on democracy. And we're seeing that play out every single day. Jessica Valenti, author and publisher of abortion everyday newsletter and site. We'll put a link to that at majority.fm and on our podcast and YouTube descriptions.

Jessica, thanks so much. Really appreciate it. Thank you. Just such important work you're doing over there. And thanks for sharing with us. Thank you. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

All right, folks, we're going to take quick break. When we come back, we're going to be talking to Lisa Shoe, organizer with labor notes on getting an update on the 3,500 worker strike against, the meat processing a plant JBS JBS, a meat packing rather I should say across Colorado. We'll be right back after this.

We are back, Sam Cedar, on the majority report. Emma Viglin is out today. I guess it was about about over a little bit a month ago. Lisa, you were on the program and you were telling us about

3,800 meatpacking workers in the UFCW local in Colorado, Greeley, Colorado, and they had launched the first, the industry's first major strike in 40 years. What was that strike about, remind us, and how long did it last? Yeah, so, so yeah, notwithstanding some important walkouts in the 2000s

during COVID. This was the first major strike since 1985, 1986. And it was over working conditions. It lasted three weeks. And specifically the lack of, well, the company with garnishing workers' wages to pay for damaged personal protective gear. And if you have any sense of what it's like to work on a meat disassembly line, moving at high speed, you know, wielding knives, like. Like that protective gear is very crucial. And, you know, in our story, we reported about how workers, you know, had aprons with, like, holes in them. And so this was a big thing that they went on strikeover and they won. They also won increases in wages, protections from rising health care costs, you know, better vacation and sick leave policies.

But this is personal protective equipment win, which was very important for the workers. And how long were they on strike for? And what were the implications of that strike? I mean, it doesn't sound like it was very long. And so I'm curious both as to like sort of the costs associated for JBS and also JBS failed attempts to sort of get scabs to come on and work for them, which, you know, then they're really against it. Yeah, yeah. So, well, they were definitely completely against it. It was three, it was three weeks. weeks long, which is definitely enough to make it pretty costly for the company. It's not, we talk about some articles, it's not easy to like reroute cows. Cows actually have to be slaughtered pretty quickly once they're transported. And then once the plant is down, which it is, if you have hundreds of workers, thousands of workers off the line, it's hard to get it restarted again at full speed.

It takes a lot of time. So it damaged the company beyond just, you know, the three weeks of the stretch. itself. But yeah, it was hard for them to hire scabs because you have to train these workers. This is very intense work. You have to be trained, you know, I think it's like at least a week. And if it's a three-week strike, you know, they kind of, you know, it takes while to get workers literally up to speed. And then it's just hard work to hire for, you know. These are, you know, Another really important aspect of the strike is that this was an extremely diverse immigrant workforce. A lot of people, meatpacking plants are refugees.

We had 57 different languages spoken in this one plant alone, but the strike united all of them. And, you know, it showed that the workers weren't going to just, you know, kind of take these conditions lying down just because, you know, they tend to be pretty highly exploited already. Talk us about that dynamic. 57 languages. You've got refugees from all around the world who have come here. It's also a time where you get two different things going on. One, it's really hard to organize across that type of diversity, although I would imagine

the meat packing plant is so such an extreme work environment that focusing on that ends up pushing a lot of differences aside both in terms of like culture and language and just sort of like history of labor actions you know within their culture and then I would also imagine the idea of ongoing actions by the administration to get rid of temporary protected status.

I bet a lot of those people might be part of that cohort, or at least no people part of that cohort, 57 languages. And just the ongoing assault on immigrants has to also be weighing in their minds in terms of like,

do we really want to be fighting for our rights as workers at a time where ice could pull up and just, you know, they're denaturalizing people, never mind, you know, what their immigration status is. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think it really speaks to, you know, the bravery of the workers and going out on strike at a time like this. And also the preparation that the local union laid, the groundwork, the very strong communication and organizing that was already happening in the plant. And,

And I think you're right. These are conditions that really force workers, in many cases, to come together. You know, you're working side by side on the line in these different conditions. And, but yeah, it's just a big logistical effort to pull off this kind of strike across so many divisions. But, you know, as we reported, there's just a lot of unity on the picket line. people dancing and singing and all these different languages really coming together. Where did the organizing take place? I mean, they're working on the line together, so there's an opportunity there that you would have as opposed to like, I don't know,

other, you know, like warehouses where maybe people aren't working alongside each other as much or, you know, delivery crews or something like that. But I also would imagine that you're not getting a lot of downtime in the course of the meat packing. And so there's not a lot of time. With some of this happening offsite? Was it on site? Do you have a sense? Yeah.

Yeah. So, you know, there are these positions in the UFCW called Walking Stewards. These are people who have time. Technically, they're paid by the company. But they're essentially doing union work. And they get to roam around the plant and talk to workers. They're also just like, so you mentioned workers with temporary protected status. There are a lot of Haitian workers in the plant, a lot of Spanish-speaking workers, as in many meatpacking plants, a lot of francophone, African speakers, Burmese speakers.

So within each of these linguistic groups and ethnic groups, you know, you have important leaders, you know, worker leaders, stewards, union representatives, who, are able to, you know, I think first communicate within those groups and then at the local union level bring them all together. I know they had big, you know, strike meetings and strike registration meetings offsite, but, you know, definitely within the plant as well. I wish there was a documentary about it because it honestly sounds fascinating to me to have 57 different languages spoken in these plants. It's just, it's just nuts. And to see that within three weeks, they basically brought this company to its knees is really impressive. And I appreciate your reporting on it, Lisa. Is there anything else you think we should know about it? Are you,

are there other processing plants that are starting to think, you know, that have looked, to this as inspiration. What are the implications going to be of this strike and their success? Yeah. So I think a couple things. One thing is just like for people who don't know like JBS, it's just, you know, it's just like an acronym, but it's one of the biggest meat processing plants or sorry, companies in the world. It's a Brazilian agro business. It's also one of the most corrupt and predatory. In the U.S., we have an oligopoly of meatpackers. It's like the days of the jungle, again, and beef processing is controlled by JBS and a cartel of three other companies. So it's really significant that there are workers that are saying, you know, no to these working conditions,

but this is also something that impacts, you know, consumer prices, like even like McDonald's has sued these companies for colluding to raise prices for consumers. They also depress the living of cattle ranchers, you know, further up the supply chain by colluding to keep cattle prices low. So I think that's some of the bigger context that's important to know. It's like these workers are really standing up and saying like no to this oligopoly control system. And then in terms of future fights, this is a two-year contract.

contract that they signed. So in two years again, you know, they'll be fighting for more. And there are few other UFCW locals with JBS plants who also have contracts expiring then. So, yeah. My math is correct. They're going to, these contracts are going to end second or third week of April in 28, two weeks before May Day. Yep. 28, which is the date that Sean Fine of the UAW had asked for a general strike and to align contracts up at that time. Yeah, that's right. You know, you're right. I think they probably did that math too, although I don't know for sure if this was just a coincidence,

but I do know that May 2020 is on the minds of a lot of leaders in the UFCW, a lot of workers around the country. But yeah, very fortuitous timing and hopefully they take advantage of it. Well, fascinating story.

We will link to your work over at Labor Notes. I should also say I'm a supporter of Labor Notes and encourage people to do that because there's just increasingly, I mean, I've just watched it over the course of 20 years. It's not like even 20 years ago, there was a lot of labor reporting. But now it is very, very difficult

and I really appreciate your work. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. We'll put a link to that at majority.fm. All right, folks, that's it for us in the first half of the program today, being at Newsday, Tuesday, and I am determined to take phone calls in the second half of the program, which means very likely we will not be taking phone calls. in the second half of the program. But I will do my best. I will do my best. Lesbians love majority

says on the I am. My mom is CEO of the American Beat Institute. I keep trying to talk to her about JBS corruption. Keep up the good work. Just a reminder, it is your support that makes this show possible. You can become a member at join the majority report.com.

join the majority report.com is the site where you can sign up to help this show survive and thrive. Also, just coffee.com. Fair trade coffee, hot chocolate. Use the coupon code majority. You get 10% off any of their. You can buy beans. You can buy ground coffee. You can buy one pound bags.

You can buy five pound bags. You can get single origin coffees. you can get blends. Great coffee. It's a co-op. They got great political values. They are very supportive of their suppliers in places like, well, the co-op started to support farmers in in Zapatistas down in Chiapas.

And Chiapas. And I have a. They also have farmers, I think, in East Africa and maybe in West Africa as well. So check them out. Justcoffee.com. Matt, what's happening in the Matt Leckin media universe? And I get so distracted by your photo in this. My photo.

Yeah. Why? Well, because where are you looking? At somebody on my screen. Yeah. But it's weird because I don't know that. And it looks like you're like looking past the F here. We've got a new photo soon.

And you got to like. Yeah, you can't use the same photo over and over again? Just bring two shirts. You use this photo over and over again. This is a screenshot from the actual broadcast. It is? Yeah. It looks identical to the like every other way.

person every single day. You got to move where you're, you're going to, you got to move where your screen is. I mean, I don't think I look like that in every picture. That was just the first one when I scrubbed looking for a screenshot, but I

wouldn't have my mouth open. 100%. 100% do. Anyway, so there's a new left reckoning coming up right after the show today. We're talking about Florida. Whose economy, despite all the billionaires, talking about how much they were going to go there because they're insulted by Zoron is struggling

massively. Actually, we put the Florida economy, we, obviously, we have a lot of technical equipment here, and we can actually take Florida economic numbers, put it through our X-5,000 audio interface machine, and this is what we got. Yeah. Exactly. And also, they're, you know, they're not morally outraged to have alligator alcatraz, but it is costing them money in their state budget. One million dollars a day.

So I hope it's worth it there, folks. And good luck, you know, with your collapsing economy as you support ice. So check that out. Patreon.coms, left reckoning. And, yeah, that's coming up right after short of that. Can we get Andrew Cuomo to get down there? Like, should we start a letter writing campaign? Florida needs him.

Yeah. What the hell? The job creator like Andrew Cuomo. I thought, I mean. Let me check in on him. Maybe he did go. I don't think he did, but he was supposed to. He promised us he would.

I hope he didn't lie to us. That would be upsetting. Folks, see you. In the fun house. Three months from now, six months from now, nine months from now, and I don't think it's going to be the same as it looks like in six months from now. And I don't know if it's necessarily going to be better six months from now than it is three months from now. But I think around 18 months out, we're going to look back and go like, wow.

What? What is that going on? It's nuts. Wait a second. Hold on for, hold on for a second. Emma, welcome to the program. Hey. Matt.

What is up, everyone? Fun hack. No, me, teen. You did it. Fun hat. Let's go Brandon. Let's go Brandon. on.

Bradley, you want to say hello? Sorry to disappointment. Everyone, I'm just a random guy. It's all the boys today. Fundamentally false. No, I'm sorry. Women's... Stop talking for a second.

Let me finish. Where is this coming from, dude? But dude, you want to smoke his... Seven, eight? Yes. Yes? It is you. Oliver's me.

I think it is you. Who is you? No sound. Every single freaking day. What's on your mind? Sports. We can discuss free markets and we can discuss capitalism. I'm going to guess how life.

Libertarians. They're so stupid though. Common sense says, of course. Gobbled euk. We fucking nailed him. So what's 79 plus 21? Challenge matter. I'm positive equilibrium.

I believe 96, I want to say. 857. 210. 35. 501. 1⁄2. 911 for instance. $3,400.

$1,900. $6.5,4. $3 trillion sold. It's 8.0. some game. Actually, you're making think less. But let me say this. Poop. You call satire, Sam goes to satire.

On top of it all? My favorite part about you is just like every day, all day, like everything you do. Without a doubt. Hey, buddy, we see you. Hi, folks. Folks. Folks. It's just the week being weeded out, obviously. Yeah. Sundow guns out.

I don't know. But you should know. People just don't like the entertain idea. I have a question. Who cares? Is enabled folks. I love it. I do love that. Look, got to jump.

You got to be quick. I get a jump. I'm losing it, bro. Two o'clock. We're already late, and the guy's being a dick. So screw him. Sent to a gulaw? Courage.

Like, what is wrong with you? Love you. Bye. Love you. Bye-bye.