About this episode

Jamie Rubin interviews Fred Naiden about labor rights and the history of the New York City subway system.

On this episode of After Hours, Jamie talks to Fred Naiden — Columbia grad, former TWU Local 100 motorman, Harvard PhD, and recently retired UNC classics professor — about his new book, Railroaded: A Motorman's Story of the New York City Subway. Recorded the day after the Long Island Rail Road went on strike and settled, Jamie and Fred discuss the 1980 subway strike, what it was really like to walk off the job, why working conditions mattered more than wages, and how the city's transit world has changed since the days of 15,000 subway crimes a year. Fred also offers a pointed assessment of Mayor Mamdani — through the lens of someone who learned organizing from a communist rent-strike leader known only as "The General." Railroaded: A Motorman’s Story of the New York City Subway For more solutions-oriented thinking on urban life, visit the Vital City website at https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/

People in this episode

Host: Jamie Rubin

Guest: Fred Naiden

Topics covered

• labor rights
• transit history
• New York City subway
• union organizing
• working conditions
• urban life

Keywords

• LIRR
• labor fight
• subway strike
• working conditions
• transit world
• urban life
• Fred Naiden

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: TWU Local 100, UNC, Harvard

Books & works: Railroaded: A Motorman's Story of the New York City Subway

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