Sep 29, 2026 · 1 hr 4 min · 17 segments
Twenty-five years ago this month, ascendant Republicans in lockstep with the state’s deepest pockets convinced [hoodwinked?] 447,072 Oklahoma voters in a special election to approve right-to-work. The…
Forrest BennettGuestArnold HamiltonHostMarianne MartinHostCal HobsonPanelist
to kind of revisit what I was saying, but we have to empower our membership.
But a lot of the affiliate leadership seems to have been Very interested, and I don't fault them for this, in playing the money game at the Capitol, which is you try to ingratiate yourself with elected members, especially those who are in positions where they can pull the levers, chairmen and people in leadership, and then you hope.
The problem with that issue is that the people that don't like our issues come through with double the amount of money and they do get that access.
And so what we've been talking about for the last year, my approach has been sort of sit and go through our planned events and the things that we do, the way that we've been doing them to identify what's working and what isn't.
I'm saying that that anything that is good can be corrupted by people who have the audacity and the shamelessness to do that.
Guns were created so that people could hunt for their livelihoods and their lives, and now they're being used to shoot up schools.
AI was theoretically designed so that we could make faster healthcare decisions, but now it's being used to drain people's bank accounts.
We need to understand that The systems are created and then reinforced by people with a lot of resources who are very interested in protecting their own interests and not very much at all interested in protecting anybody else's.
So what we are trying to do and what we're planning to do for the next year is to refocus our efforts inward and try to empower our membership.
Debbie Hope Downing, just an absolute champ of the movements, of all the good movements, invited me to her church.
untraceable bills amazing but I was able to talk and and what it did for me honestly was remind me that the work that we do is really sacred and I want to try to get my membership to appreciate that what they are doing simply by putting their name on a card and saying I do want to be a member of a union I'm going to pay my dues I'm going to go to the meetings I'm going to try to take some type of agency with my work life, which is most of our waking life, that they are doing something bold and important, and that they are carrying on a tradition that has lasted longer than this country, longer than people have been, white people have been on this continent.
And so that's, I don't want to say it's a Hail Mary, but it is a drastic change.
I don't feel as interested in trying to donate to the right candidates because this is money that comes from the dues of our workaday members, I have a hard time justifying maxing out to somebody who has authored anti-union legislation because they're the chairman of some committee that may open their door to us.
you.
to kind of revisit what I was saying, but we have to empower our membership.
But a lot of the affiliate leadership seems to have been Very interested, and I don't fault them for this, in playing the money game at the Capitol, which is you try to ingratiate yourself with elected members, especially those who are in positions where they can pull the levers, chairmen and people in leadership, and then you hope.
The problem with that issue is that the people that don't like our issues come through with double the amount of money and they do get that access.
And so what we've been talking about for the last year, my approach has been sort of sit and go through our planned events and the things that we do, the way that we've been doing them to identify what's working and what isn't.
I'm saying that that anything that is good can be corrupted by people who have the audacity and the shamelessness to do that.
Guns were created so that people could hunt for their livelihoods and their lives, and now they're being used to shoot up schools.
AI was theoretically designed so that we could make faster healthcare decisions, but now it's being used to drain people's bank accounts.
We need to understand that The systems are created and then reinforced by people with a lot of resources who are very interested in protecting their own interests and not very much at all interested in protecting anybody else's.
So what we are trying to do and what we're planning to do for the next year is to refocus our efforts inward and try to empower our membership.
Debbie Hope Downing, just an absolute champ of the movements, of all the good movements, invited me to her church.
untraceable bills amazing but I was able to talk and and what it did for me honestly was remind me that the work that we do is really sacred and I want to try to get my membership to appreciate that what they are doing simply by putting their name on a card and saying I do want to be a member of a union I'm going to pay my dues I'm going to go to the meetings I'm going to try to take some type of agency with my work life, which is most of our waking life, that they are doing something bold and important, and that they are carrying on a tradition that has lasted longer than this country, longer than people have been, white people have been on this continent.
And so that's, I don't want to say it's a Hail Mary, but it is a drastic change.
I don't feel as interested in trying to donate to the right candidates because this is money that comes from the dues of our workaday members, I have a hard time justifying maxing out to somebody who has authored anti-union legislation because they're the chairman of some committee that may open their door to us.
you.
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