‘Blue Collar Buzz’ Reports From the Democratic National Convention

New York, NY – This week’s special episode of LaborPress’ “Blue Collar Buzz” airing Sunday night at 9 p.m. on AM970, is coming to you (almost) direct from the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. NYS Assembly Member and Clinton Delegate Walter Mosley checks in to talk about Hillary Clinton and the challenge of uniting divided progressive voters; while LaborPress’ own Steve Wishnia brings us voices straight from the chaotic convention floor itself. Sonja Brown from the Workforce Development Institute, is also in studio to tell us why the “manufacturing jobs have all gone overseas” narrative — is really off base. 

Hillary Rodham Clinton may have secured the Democratic Party’s endorsement for president after a bitter and contentious primary battle against Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders — but does she have enough support to keep Trump out of the Oval Office? Can Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein harness the power and energy of Bernie’s political revolution to defeat both the Democrat and Republican nominees in November?

Assembly Member Walter Mosley [D-57th District], says that despite what he calls a few “hiccups” during the Democratic National Convention, Democrats, nevertheless, “just want to get behind our candidate.”

As the latest polls show, however, the Clinton campaign desperately needs to attract as many Bernie Sanders supporters as possible to defeat Trump — something that now looms large following revelations the DNC actively sought to undermine the Vermont senator’s presidential bid.

On this week’s episode of LaborPress’ “Blue Collar Buzz,” Assembly Member Mosley directly addresses the issue, asserting that the emails demonstrating concerted efforts to derail Sanders actually do not represent the DNC as a whole.

Arguments like that, however, are not likely to move some the Sanders supporters that LP correspondent Steve Wishnia spoke to at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. While one young woman told Steve, “I would never vote for Hillary Clinton,” others said that their biggest issue was opposing the American job-killing Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal.

U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin from Wisconsin also weighs in from the floor of the Democratic National convention, saying that Democrats must fight back against assaults on labor and create a “pathway to the middle-class.”

And, finally, despite those who complain that America doesn’t make anything anymore and that U.S. manufacturing is dead, Sonja Brown from the Workforce Development Institute, the 13-year-old AFL-CIO partner dedicated to educating and training the next generation of American workers, says that trained people are, in fact, desperately needed — not in some overseas manufacturing plant — but right here at home. 

"We need to educate the people in New York regarding the workforce opportunities that are here,” Brown says. “We’ve grown a lot through technology. There’s a lot of tech in our productions and manufacturing. We just need to get the word out.”

The median income in Albany’s nano-tech sector is now somewhere around $80,000 a year. 

“And that’s the message we need to get out,” Brown says. “We look at manufacturing as pretty much the low-income part of any business. But it’s not the truth.”

LaborPress’ “Blue Collar Buzz” airs every Sunday night on AM970 The Answer from 9 to 10 p.m. This week’s episode, as well as every other episode of LaborPress’ “Blue Collar Buzz” is also available on demand at www.am970theanswer.com.