EPISODE · Aug 20, 2026 · 44 MIN
Bill McCamley on Wage Theft, Labor History and the Trades Crisis
from America’s Work Force Union Podcast · host BMA Media Group
In 1806, members of America's first labor union were found guilty of criminal conspiracy for demanding higher wages. In 2017, wage theft cost 2.4 million workers more than $8 billion. Today, construction workers die by overdose at approximately 16 times the rate of conventional workplace accidents. The fight for a fair day's wage is 232 years old and still going. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, New Mexico Building Trades Wellness Coalition Director Bill McCamley joins the Labor 132 series for a conversation that runs from the 1794 Cordwainers through the Gilded Age robber barons, the Teddy Roosevelt trust-busting era and the FDR New Deal to the present-day crisis of 40 million men outside the American workforce and 11,000 construction workers dying by overdose each year. He also discusses what it will take to bring young men into the trades, cut the 40-60% apprentice dropout rate, and ensure that workers who do the essential work of building everything know they are valued for it. Call or text 988 if you need help. Visit nmbtwellness.org and billmccamley.net for more.
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What this episode covers
New Mexico Building Trades Wellness Coalition Director Bill McCamley discusses the century-long fight for fair wages from the 1794 Cordwainers to the Gilded Age to the present, the scale of wage theft costing millions of workers billions annually, why 40 million men are now outside the American workforce and why approximately 11,000 construction workers dying by overdose each year — 16 times the rate of conventional workplace accidents — is directly connected to workers not feeling valued by the system they are building with their hands. Call or text 988 if you need help.
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Bill McCamley on Wage Theft, Labor History and the Trades Crisis
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