EPISODE · May 27, 2026 · 29 MIN
The LIRR and the Lost Art of the Labor Fight
from After Hours with Jamie Rubin: A Vital City Podcast · host Jamie Rubin
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/
What this episode covers
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/
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The LIRR and the Lost Art of the Labor Fight
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