South Coast Working

The technical term for the postal workers who deliver mail to our homes is “letter carriers.” Granted, you may not remember the last time you sent a letter. But the last time you received a mail-in ballot, got your prescription medications in your mailbox, or stooped down to pick up a package delivered by a USPS employee was probably quite recent. In this episode, we walk a mile in the shoes of mailmen and mailwomen from around New England.

Postal workers keep our communities connected, even as digital communications, private competition, and political shifts threaten their livelihoods and add stress and hours to their days. Some see their job as more than just delivering mail, like Maggi Burns in Providence, Rhode Island. Maggi says when a customer sees her out in a snowstorm and tells her “you shouldn’t be out in this weather,” she replies “Oh, I'm not really out here to bring you your mail. I'm out here so that you see that everything's gonna be okay.”

In April 2022, postal workers celebrated a major victory with the passage of the Postal Reform Act. The legislation requires the United States Postal Service to continue to operate Monday through Saturday. And it eliminated a retiree funding mandate that put an unsustainable burden on the agency.

The Postal Reform Act was the result of a decade of efforts by the National Association of Letter Carriers and the American Postal Workers – unions that represent the majority of postal employees. But it’s just a start. For this episode, we spoke with postal workers and community members who want more from the USPS– things like basic banking services at post offices, and more competitive starting salaries. You’ll hear from veteran workers reflecting on a career of service, and a young manager working to bring more dignity to her employees' careers.

Construction work is one of the few careers left in the United States where a person can make a good living without a college degree. However, it’s also one of the few fields available to high school graduates with a work force that’s still predominantly white and male. So what will it take for women and people of color to get a bigger piece of the pie, and to land the construction jobs that provide the best wages, benefits, and safety standards – union jobs—and benefit from Massachusetts’ building boom?

In this episode you’ll meet Tara Williams, who brought herself and her children out of poverty through determination, and a brand-new career in the building trades. You’ll learn about the training program where Tara got her start, and the first-in-the-nation green energy project that’s bringing new union construction jobs to the South Coast. Also covered is the shadow side of the construction economy – the exploitation of undocumented workers – and efforts to bring their employers to justice.