Former TWU Local 100 motorman Fred Naiden on the legacy of the 1980 LIRR strike
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 Zohran Mamdani — through the lens of someone who learned organizing from a communist rent-strike leader known only as "The General."
You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
