In Philadelphia news last month: a boycott of the Embassy Suites Hotel for unfair firings, the unification of the city's two major taxi unions and an illegal-immigration raid at a janitorial services contractor.
These aren't exactly typical headlines in Philadelphia news media.
But they were the top stories in the first broadcast of Labor Justice Radio, a new monthly news and analysis program on West Philadelphia's community radio station WPEB 88.1 FM.
Labor Justice Radio , the city's first radio show to be produced entirely by workers and labor leaders in the taxi, service and commercial industries, was formed over the summer in radio classes offered by the Media Mobilizing Project.
The project uses independent media to promote social movements.
Show Coordinator Megan Williamson sees Labor Justice Radio as a potentially powerful organizing tool for Philadelphia workers.
"The voices of workers are sometimes fragmented," she said.
Williamson added that workers "have common allies and sometimes they have common opponents, but in order for them to really achieve economic human rights there has to be a strong unified voice of workers in these different industries."
Labor Justice Radio strives to "draw connections" between the struggles that workers across all industries are undergoing, Williamson said.
Amendu Evans, a shop steward in the city and member of the Service Employees International Union, co-hosted the first broadcast of Labor Justice Radio.
Informing Philadelphians about the tribulations of fellow workers in different industries will bring them together, he thinks.
"Unionized workers need to come together, because most of the time we end up fighting the same people but at different times," Evans said.
Evans' co-host, Charles Clarke, a shop steward at the Pennsylvania Convention Center and active member of the nationwide labor union UNITE HERE, wants the program to inform workers of their rights.
Clarke said laborers are often unaware that workers in other industries experience similar adversities at work.
"But if people see 'this problem that I have is a problem they also have over on the other side of town,' they can get together and begin to solve those problems," he said.
Patrick Anamah, a cab driver and member of the Unified Taxi Workers Alliance, may host an upcoming broadcast of Labor Justice Radio.
Anamah hopes the general public also tunes into the show.
"These issues need to be heard by the outside world so people can hear about what ordinary workers are going through at their place of work," he said.
