Belabored

[contentblock id=belabored-info] It’s going to take a lot of work to resist the attacks on labor that appear to be coming, as President-Elect Trump surrounds himself with billionaires, financiers, and white supremacists. Teachers’ unions were already in the line of fire as the Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association case headed for the Supreme Court, and so we decided to talk to a union leader who brought home some good news on election night about what the future might hold. Barbara Madeloni is president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, and helped build the coalition that defeated a ballot initiative that would have drastically expanded the reach of charter schools. She argues for teachers taking a strong stand on protecting students and public schools from Trumpism—and that labor already knows what it needs to do in order to build strong unions that can withstand attack. We also hear from strikers at Momentive and from the massive Fight for $15 day of action (including Uber drivers) and check in with the latest from OUR Walmart and the ongoing battle around overtime rules. For Argh, we look at Trump’s already-cracking promises to challenge outsourcers, and the challenge that labor and youth activists in South Korea face as they mobilize against their country’s ruling elite. If you think our work is worth supporting as we soldier on into Trumplandia, please consider becoming a sustaining member of Belabored or donating or subscribing to Dissent. Please help keep us going for the next 117 episodes! News Uber Drivers Demand Higher Pay in Nationwide Protest (CNET) Fight for $15: Four Years, $62 Billion (National Employment Law Project) Thanksgiving on the Picket Lines at Momentive (Labor Notes) Michelle: The New Overtime Rules are a Big Deal. Here’s Why (The Nation) Administration will appeal court order blocking overtime rule (The Hill) Labor Group Gets IBM’s Watson to Help Walmart Workers (Bloomberg) Conversation Massachusetts Teachers Association Massachusetts Teachers Knock Out Corporate Charter School Scheme (Labor Notes) Massachusetts Teachers Union President Barbara Madeloni calls for teachers to organize ‘love trumps hate’ standouts (MassLive) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Yong-Chan Choi, A Million in South Korea’s Streets (Jacobin) Sarah: Bernie Sanders, Carrier just showed corporations how to beat Donald Trump (Washington Post) The post Belabored Podcast #117: Welcome to the Resistance, with Barbara Madeloni appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

[contentblock id=belabored-info] As we end a week of horrible news, we’ve managed to unearth some bright spots from Election Day: two stories that may not be able to offset our collective despair, but at least help steel us with a little more courage and optimism as activists and organizers seek to move on after November 8. We talk with CUNY professor Stephanie Luce about voting trends that are actually good for the left and labor, and how state ballot initiatives delivered wins to working people even when the presidential race didn’t. And immigrant rights activist and AFL-CIO organizer Neidi Dominguez, and AFGE organizer Joe Diggs, take us behind the scenes of the Bazta Arpaio campaign, a unique labor-community coalition that helped defeat the reelection bid of the infamous anti-immigrant bigot Sheriff Joe Arpaio, aka mini Trump. And we discuss a post-Trump autopsy for the labor movement, and a union’s last stand at Standing Rock. If you think our work is worth supporting as we soldier on into Trumplandia, please consider becoming a sustaining member of Belabored or donating or subscribing to Dissent. Please help keep us going for the next 116 episodes! News, with Stephanie Luce Minimum wage a big winner on Election Day (National Employment Law Project) Bay Area Cities Split on Multiple Rent-Control Measures (KQED) 9 Progressive Outcomes From Election Day That Will Give You Hope (Popsugar.) Stephanie Luce: And a Union (Jacobin) Conversation Neidi Dominguez and Joe Diggs, Bazta Arpaio Sheriff Joe Arpaio Loses Bid for 7th Term in Arizona (New York Times) Excerpts from IBEW Member Rene Cruz’s Diary from the Bazta Arpaio Campaign in Arizona (AFL-CIO) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Bill Fletcher, Jr., Notes From a Very Close Election (Dissent) Sarah: Kate Aronoff, LIUNA’s Rank-and-File is Challenging Union Leadership on Standing Rock—and Beyond (In These Times) The post Belabored Podcast #116: Facing Labor and Politics Under Trump appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

[contentblock id=belabored-info] In recent years we’ve seen many, many ideas and gimmicks and tricks put forward, each pledging to “save the labor movement.” Our guest this week, longtime organizer and sociologist Jane McAlevey, says that there are no tricks to it; in her new book, titled No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age, out now from Oxford University Press, she studies winning labor and social movement campaigns, and argues that organizing—real, base-building organizing—is the only way to build real power for working people. We also check in on the Harvard workers’ strike from last episode, and talk to Jamie Phillips at Clarion University about a fourteen-campus strike in Pennsylvania last week; look at the children making fast fashion in Turkey; and for Argh, we talk about trade and the refugee crisis, and labor’s role in the struggle at Standing Rock. Belabored invites our listeners to join us as supporting members. Sign up to support us with a monthly donation and we’ll send you a tote bag. Please help keep us going for the next 115 episodes! News Harvard Dining Services workers Contract Pays $35,000 Per Year, Covers Copays (The Crimson) Faculty Strike Rocks 14 Pa. Colleges, 100,000 Students (USA Today) Strike Ends: APSCUF, PASSHE reach tentative agreement (Berks-Mont News) The Kids Who Have To Sew to Survive (BBC) Conversation Jane McAlevey No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age (Oxford University Press, 2016) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Zoe Williams, Europe isn’t just about trade. It’s about humanity too (Guardian) Sarah: Trish Kahle, The Standing Rock Split (Jacobin) The post Belabored Podcast #115: Organizing for Power, with Jane McAlevey appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

[contentblock id=belabored-info]   The lowest-paid workers at the country’s most elite university are rising up, and in the first big campus strike in over thirty years, the Harvard community is rallying around the dining services staff as they ditch the lunch line for the picket line. The workers demand year-round work, a guaranteed minimum annual wage of $35,000, and protection of their medical benefits from huge proposed cutbacks. We speak with strikers Kecia Pugh and Anabela Pappas and UNITE HERE organizer Tiffany Ten Eyck as they square off with the administration in a labor battle that has come to symbolize the staggering inequality across the higher education system. In other news we look at sexual harassment at McDonald’s, farmworkers leading a nationwide boycott of Wendy’s, a last-minute settlement of the Chicago Teachers’ Union labor dispute, and a strike for abortion rights in Poland. With recommended reading on neoliberalism busting our brains, and charter schools busting unions. Belabored invites our listeners to join us as supporting members. Sign up to support us with a monthly donation and we’ll send you a tote bag. Please help keep us going for the next 100 episodes! News How the women of Poland pulled off their massive nationwide protest (Sydney Morning Herald) Poland abortion laws: Ruling party to revive ban despite mass strike by women and defeat in parliament (Independent) Gender Trouble in Poland (Dissent) Poland’s Pro-Death Bill (Dissent) Michelle: McDonald’s Workers Have Filed 15 Complaints of Sexual Harassment in the Past Month (The Nation) McDonald’s accused of ignoring rampant sexual harassment in its restaurants (ThinkProgress) What “TIFs” Are and How They Averted the Chicago Teachers Union Strike (In These Times) The Long Road to Victory (Jacobin) Chicago Teachers Reach Tentative Deal to Avert Strike (In These Times) Michelle: There’s a Nationwide Boycott of Wendy’s Underway Boycott Wendy’s Conversation Kecia Pugh and Anabela Pappas, Harvard Dining Services and UNITE HERE Local 26, and Tiffany Ten Eyck, UNITE HERE organizer Michelle: The First Campus Strike in Over 30 Years Is Happening at Harvard (The Nation) No End in Sight for HUDS Strike (The Crimson) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: Hella Winston, How Charter Schools Bust Unions (Slate) Michelle: George Monbiot, Neoliberalism is creating loneliness. That’s what’s wrenching society apart (Guardian) The post Belabored Podcast #114: Striking the Ivory Tower, with Harvard Workers appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. About 150 million to 180 million people walked off the job on September 2. You probably didn’t hear about it on the news though, since it happened on the other side of the planet. We talk to two observers of the Indian labor movement today, Vamsi Vakulabharanam, associate professor of economics at U Mass Amherst and a Gautam Mody, General Secretary of the labor advocacy coalition New Trade Union Initiative, based in New Delhi, to get an overview of how India’s working people are responding to the government’s efforts to “open” India to global trade and rollback labor rights. We also talk to Emily Drabinski of the Long Island University Faculty Federation on the latest (good!) news about the end of an unprecedented lockout in the world of higher education, get a dispatch from a nationwide prison strike, crunch the numbers on how a $15 minimum wage can feed the hungry, and follow a bitter labor dispute at a Peeps candy factory. With recommended historical reading on rural labor struggles and civil rights, and migrant women’s labor struggles in working-class London. Belabored invites our listeners to join us as supporting members. Sign up to support us with a monthly donation and we’ll send you a tote bag. Please help keep us going for the next 100 episodes! News Remembering Attica (Jacobin) National Day of Solidarity with Striking Prisoners, with Pastor Kenneth Glasgow (Southern People’s Initiatives) Michelle: A $15 Minimum Wage Would Stop 1.2 Million Households From Going Hungry (The Nation) Just Born hiring replacement workers as strike continues (lehighvalleylive.com) Lockout Over (Long Island University Faculty Federation) Faculty Lockout at L.I.U.-Brooklyn Ends With Contract Agreement (New York Times) Michelle: When Migrant Women Marched in London (CultureStrike) Conversation Vamsi Vakulabharanam, Associate Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Gautam Mody, General Secretary, New Trade Union Initiative India Is Making Labor History With the World’s Largest General Strike (Alternet) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: Shailly Gupta, Organizing with Klansmen for Social Justice: Bob Zellner Tells His Story (In These Times/Kairos Center) Michelle: Bethan Bell & Shabnam Mahmood, Grunwick dispute: What did the ‘strikers in saris’ achieve? (BBC) The post Belabored Podcast #112: Striking India, with Vamsi Vakulabharanam and Gautam Mody appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. It’s been a long time coming: the NLRB ruled on August 23 that graduate students who work for their universities are, in fact, workers. Columbia University student workers had petitioned for union recognition in 2014, and now, the board has finally ruled 3-1 to overturn its 2004 decision that graduate students at private universities were students, not workers. Lindsey Dayton is one of those Columbia employees, and she returns to Belabored to tell us about the win, and what comes next for their organizing drive. We also hear from Yale graduate employees who filed a petition for recognition after the ruling, and an update from locked-out Honeywell workers; we look at whether Nike’s “Girl Effect” philanthropy has inspired it to improve working conditions for the women who make its shoes, and the impact of climate change on today’s young workers. Belabored invites our listeners to join us as supporting members. Sign up to support us with a monthly donation and we’ll send you a tote bag. Please help keep us going for the next 100 episodes! News Nike Boasts of Empowering Women Around the World (Slate) Michelle: Are You a Millennial? Congratulations! Climate Change Will Cost Your Generation $8.8 Trillion (The Nation) The Price Tag of Being Young: Climate Change and Millennials’ Economic Future (Demos) Moral Monday Rally for Locked Out Green Island Honeywell Workers (WAMC) Going Back to the Table (Times Union) Yale Graduate Assistants File 10 Petitions for Union Elections (Bloomberg BNA) Conversation Michelle: It’s Official: Graduate Students Can Unionize (The Nation) Columbia University Decision, Briefs (GWC-UAW) Sarah and Michelle: Belabored #78: The Union and the University (Dissent) Sarah and Michelle: Belabored #67: Bodies on the Gears (Dissent) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: Molly Knefel, In Philadelphia, Progressive Education Organizers Fight ‘Disaster Capitalism’ (In These Times) Michelle: Mark A. Lause, The Cowboy Class Wars (Jacobin) The post Belabored Podcast #111: Workers’ Rights for Graduate Employees, with Lindsey Dayton appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. A first book launch from our very own Sarah Jaffe! For over two years she has painstakingly chronicled and analyzed social movements since the 2008 financial crisis, and Belabored couldn’t be prouder to present the final product with an exclusive interview with the author. From the other side of the mic, Sarah discusses the political developments depicted in Necessary Trouble, drawing connections among the activists and campaigns she’s followed in her reporting over the years, and illuminates new horizons in American radicalism. In other news, we look at another digital newsroom organizing battle, India’s child labor loophole, a right-to-work showdown in West Virginia, and Olympic sexism. With recommended reading on a union battle at a Trump casino and labor’s decline in the shadow of Trump. Belabored invites our listeners to join us as supporting members. Sign up to support us with a monthly donation and we’ll send you a tote bag. Please help keep us going for the next 100 episodes! News U.S. Soccer’s women deserve as much as the men — even when they lose (Mashable) Sarah: Why Are U.S. Women’s World Cup Champs Paid Like Chumps? (DAME) Michelle: India’s New Child-Labor Loophole (The Nation) The New Law Banning Child Labour is No Ban At All (The Wire) Another News Site Is Trying To Unionize. This Time, Management Is Fighting It Hard. (Huffington Post) Preliminary injunction halts “Right-to-Work” law throughout West Virginia (WSAZ) Labor unions file lawsuits challenging ‘right-to-work’ (Charleston Gazette-Mail) Conversation Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt by Sarah Jaffe A guided tour of American radicalism (Washington Post) Sarah: Whose Homes? An excerpt from Necessary Trouble (Dissent) Beyond the Ballot Box (London Review of Books) Pre-order the book here. Read the first chapter, and check out Sarah’s national book tour dates here. Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: Adolph Reed, Doubling Down in Atlantic City (Jacobin) Michelle: Neil Gross, The Decline of Unions and the Rise of Trump (New York Times) The post Belabored Podcast #110: Americans in Revolt, with Sarah Jaffe appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. The World Social Forum grew out of the alter-globalization movement of the 1990s and 2000s, a regular gathering of thousands from civil society organizations around the world committed to challenging neoliberalism under the banner “another world is possible!” Labor groups have made up a huge part of both the movement the Forum sprang from and the Forums themselves, and this year the Forum is in Montreal, Quebec. Nathalie Guay is Advisor to the Executive Committee of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) in Quebec, and joins us to talk about what we will see at this year’s Social Forum and the international labor movement’s role in bringing it about. We also check in on unionizing retail workers in New York and the progress of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, on the potential for equal pay for equal work in Massachusetts, and Ronan Burtenshaw gives us an update on the dustup in the Labour Party in the UK post-Brexit. For Argh, we look at the organizing ups and downs of digital media workers, and consider what works and what doesn’t to make people happy at work. Belabored invites our listeners to join us as supporting members. Sign up to support us with a monthly donation and we’ll send you a tote bag. Please help keep us going for the next 100 episodes! News How Labour Can Win (Jacobin) Stand With Jeremy Corbyn (Jacobin) Massachusetts Nearing Enactment of Sweeping Pay Equity Legislation (ThinkProgress) Zara workers unionize for the first time in the US (Buzzfeed) With Conventions, Anti-TPP Forces Send Message (Newsweek) Obama: I’m still president and I support TPP (CNN) Michelle: Free Trade is Killing Colombian Labor Activists (The Nation) Conversation The World Social Forum 2016 in Montreal Nathalie Guay, CSN Advisor and WSF 2016 Coordinator Sarah: The People’s LRAD (Dissent) Michelle: Tar Sands Protest Shows Unity, Tension in Green-Labor Alliance (In These Times) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: E. Tammy Kim, Unionizing the Digital Newsroom (Dissent) Michelle: Maria Konnikova, What Makes People Feel Upbeat at Work (The New Yorker) The post Belabored Podcast #109: Forum for Change, with Nathalie Guay appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. As the election season kicks into high gear, all eyes are on Philadelphia ahead of the Democratic National Convention. But maybe the cameras should be focusing not on the theatrics of the convention hall but the political clash at the Philadelphia International Airport. With expert timing, hundreds of service workers at the airport, from baggage handlers to wheelchair attendants to security guards, just voted to authorize a strike during the convention. They don’t have a union, though, and that’s the thing: as subcontracted laborers they’ve been struggling for years for fair wages and the right to unionize, backed by SEIU 32BJ’s nationwide airport worker organizing campaign. We check in with 32BJ Vice President Gabe Morgan to discuss why they’re gearing up to strike, how the Fight for $15 is playing out on the campaign trail, and what they are demanding of their bosses and their politicians, up to, and long after, election day, and we talk with airport subcontractor worker LaQwanda Hagans. In other news, we have a window-smash heard round the world at Yale and a new labor board ruling that could mark a breakthrough for temp worker organizing rights. With recommended reading on the myth of self care. Belabored invites our listeners to join us as supporting members. Sign up to support us with a monthly donation and we’ll send you a tote bag. Please help keep us going for the next 100 episodes! News Michelle: Yale Worker Who Shattered Racist Window: ‘People are Tired of Being Victims’ (In These Times) Former Yale Worker Who Broke Window Returning After School Offers Him Job Back (Hartford Courant) In Historic NLRB Ruling, Temps Win the Right To Join Unions (In These Times) NLRB Ruling on Mixed Bargaining Units Leaves Questions (Bloomberg BNA) Conversation Gabe Morgan, Vice President, SEIU 32BJ, LaQwanda Hagans, airport subcontractor worker Michelle: Airport Workers Have Voted to Authorize a Strike During the DNC (The Nation) Philadelphia Airport Workers Vote to Strike During DNC, Demand $15 and a Union (SEIU 32BJ) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Laurie Penny, Life-Hacks of the Poor and Aimless (The Baffler) The post Belabored Podcast #108: Philly Airport Workers Rising Up, with Gabe Morgan appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. Puerto Rico’s debt crisis has been a long time in the making, but will the solutions being advocated by the U.S. government (for which, we should remember, Puerto Ricans cannot vote) make it any better? Dr. Héctor R. Cordero-Guzmán, professor of sociology at Baruch College of the City University of New York, says that the U.S. government and the bondholders have something like a gun to the head of Puerto Rico, demanding their piece. He joins us to explain the situation, and to remind us that the situation does, indeed, have analogues within the continental United States. We also hear from Mayra Gonzalez, a striking worker from the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, and bring you updates on the Supreme Court’s ruling for home care workers’ rights, Chris Christie’s response to the $15 minimum wage, and teachers on strike for better schools and freedom for migrants in post-Brexit-vote England. For Argh, we consider the work of a hospice nurse, and in the wake of yet more police violence, a look at the criminalization of the “side hustle.” Belabored invites our listeners to join us as supporting members. Sign up to support us with a monthly donation and we’ll send you a tote bag. Please help keep us going for the next 100 episodes! News Michelle: Home-Care Workers are Now Protected by Minimum-Wage Laws (The Nation) Previous discussions of home care workers’ rights on Belabored episodes #85, #56, and #38 (Dissent) Pressure, no budgets and 60-hour weeks: why teachers are striking (Guardian) Dear Nicky Morgan: this is how to deal with post-Brexit racism (Guardian) Michelle: The Fight for $15 Won in New Jersey but Chris Christie May Veto It (The Nation) A Thousand Workers At The Trump Taj Mahal Are Still On Strike (Huffington Post) How Donald Trump Bankrupted His Atlantic City Casinos, But Still Earned Millions (New York Times) Conversation Héctor R. Cordero-Guzmán Puerto Rico Control Board: A Dangerous Increase of Colonialism or Vital Protection from Wall St.? (Democracy Now!) How Hedge and Vulture Funds Have Exploited Puerto Rico’s Debt Crisis (The Nation) Orwell in Puerto Rico: Congress ‘Promises’ a New Dictatorship (The Nation) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: Emily Badger, Wonkblog at the Washington Post, “Alton Sterling, Eric Garner and the double standard of the side hustle” (Washington Post Wonkblog) Michelle: Larissa MacFarquhar, “A Tender Hand in the Presence of Death” (The New Yorker, The post Belabored Podcast #107: Controlling Crisis in Puerto Rico, with Héctor Cordero-Guzmán appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. If you’re sick of neoliberalism infecting our politics, nurses have a cure in mind. At the People’s Summit in Chicago and on the picket lines in Minnesota they are organizing to help heal the country’s economic divides, revive the debate on single-payer healthcare, and fix the ailing democracy. We talk to Jean Ross, co-president of the National Nurses United, who is on strike in Minnesota to demand a fair contract and decent healthcare for the nursing workforce. We also hear from NNU Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro speaking at the People’s Summit, which was hosted by the union, about the state of social movements today, beyond the Bernie candidacy. In other news, we see teachers rising up in Mexico and mobilizing on the streets of North Carolina, teachers struggling with low wages in preschool, and student debtors pushing back against for-profit college scams. With recommended reading on piloting a universal basic income and Brexiting the European Union. Belabored invites our listeners to join us as supporting members. Sign up to support us with a monthly donation and we’ll send you a tote bag. Please help keep us going for the next 100 episodes! News After Teachers Union Protests Against Education Reform, Mexican Police Kill 8 Protesters in Oaxaca (In These Times) 200,000 Doctors to Join Teachers in Mexico National Strike (Telesur) Michelle: The Victims of For-Profit Education Are Creating a Debtors’ Movement (The Nation) Obama’s missed chance to help for-profit college students (Politico) N.C. Teachers Arrested at Protest For More Education Funding (Education Week) 14 arrested at teacher protest in downtown Raleigh (The News & Observer) Michelle: Inequality Is Even Seeping Into Preschool Classrooms (The Nation) Conversation Jean Ross, Co-President, National Nurses United Major Strikes Involving 10,000 Registered Nurses in MN, MA, and CA Scheduled for Late June (NNU) Striking nurses question Allina spending (Star Tribune) The People’s Summit 2016 Robinhoodtax.org Plus: National Nurses United Executive Director, RoseAnn DeMoro, speaking at the People’s Summit in Chicago Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: Julia Carrie Wong, ‘Fund it, not run it’: big tech’s universal basic income project has its skeptics (The Guardian) Michelle: David Renton, The Socialist Case for Remain, Neil Davidson, The Socialist Case for Leave (Jacobin) The post Belabored Podcast #106: Nurses on the Frontline, with Jean Ross appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. The streets and workplaces in France have been roiling with protests all spring, as the Socialist Party government attempts to push through a deeply unpopular reform of the country’s labor code that would include further “flexibilization” of the country’s famed 35-hour week. There have been strikes, mass marches, and “Nuit Debout,” nighttime mass meetings compared to Occupy and the Indignados in Spain. What’s happening, and why should we be paying attention? Jonah Birch is a contributing editor at Jacobin and a graduate student at New York University, where he studies France’s 35-hour week, and he joins us to fill us in on what’s been happening in France, what it means for labor, and how it fits into the overall situation in the European Union. We also hear from CWA political director Bob Master on the end of the Verizon strike and what was won, and Anannya Bhattacharjee of the Asia Floor Wage Alliance. And we check in on workers organizing in Walmart stores in China and farmworkers marching across New York for labor protections. For Argh, we consider prison labor strikes and the work of a translator, “fixer,” and journalist killed in Afghanistan. Belabored invites our listeners to join us as supporting members. Sign up to support us with a monthly donation and we’ll send you a tote bag. Please help keep us going for the next 100 episodes! News Sarah: Why the Verizon Workers’ Victory is a Big Deal (The Progressive) Michelle: This Is What Goes Into Your Cheap T-Shirt (The Nation) Farmworkers March Across New York State for the Right to Organize (Labor Notes) Michelle: The Fight Against Walmart’s Labor Practices Goes Global (The Nation) Conversation Jonah Birch: A French Spring (Jacobin) Nuit Debout protesters occupy French cities in revolutionary call for change (Guardian) Riot police crack down on Paris protests against labour reforms (Guardian) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: Raven Rakia, “Forget Hunger Strikes. What Prisons Fear Most Is Labor Strikes” (Yes! Magazine) Michelle: Philip Reeves, “‘He Had a Great Eye for a Story,'” (NPR) The post Belabored Podcast #105: A French Uprising, with Jonah Birch appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. Fred Ross was an organizer’s organizer: for decades he labored tirelessly behind the scenes to help develop major social and economic justice movements, including the farmworkers’ organizing drives of the 1960s and other iconic civil rights struggles. But Ross was also one of the most understated and unsung legends of community organizing. While he is primarily known for his partnership with United Farmworkers leader Cesar Chavez, his work as an activist traces the arc of America’s social history from the Great Depression onward. Longtime friend of the podcast Gabriel Thompson, a Steinbeck Fellow in Creative Writing at San Jose State University, has excavated Ross’s historical archives. His new biography, America’s Social Arsonist, is a frank and complex account of the activist’s legacy. We speak with Thompson (whom Belabored last interviewed back on Episode 7 when he just beginning work on his book) to elucidate the achievements and imperfections of a quietly influential organizer, and what his career can teach us today. In the news, we look at the new overtime rules and dirty dealings between McDonald’s in Australia and its management-friendly union. Plus, a dispatch from the front lines of the Verizon strike, and international labor outreach from Queens to Quezon City, with Tim Dubnau of Communications Workers of America and Michael Concepcion of Filipino labor group BIEN. And finally, recommended reading on nonprofit exceptionalism in the labor movement and the exploited Eastern European guestworkers hidden in Silicon Valley. News New Overtime Rules a Boon for Middle-Class Workers (Newsweek) Obama’s new overtime rule spotlights just who the ‘working class’ is. And it’s not Trump voters (Fortune) Michelle: Filipino Workers Are Seizing the Means of Communication in the Fight Against Verizon (The Nation) Statement on the Strike of Verizon Workers in the United States (BIEN Philippines) Verizon Is Seeing a Big Dip in New Customers Due to Strike (Fortune) Hamburgled: McDonald’s, Coles, Woolworths workers lose in union pay deals (The Age) Conversation Gabriel Thompson’s author website Fred Ross: America’s Social Arsonist Talk at The Commonwealth Club Belabored Podcast #7: Social Arsonists Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Ethan Miller, Progressive Nonprofits That Oppose the New Overtime Rules for Low-Income Workers Are Hypocrites (In These Times) Louis Hansen, The Hidden Workforce Expanding Tesla’s Factory (Bay Area News Group/Mercury News) The post Belabored Podcast #104: Fred Ross’s Incendiary Organizing, with Gabriel Thompson appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. Is high unemployment the new normal—or worse, is it just going to get higher? John Nichols and Robert McChesney explore that question alongside the question of who has power in America’s so-called democracy in a new book, People Get Ready: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy. Recently, Sarah hosted an event with Nichols in New York to talk about the book, the role technology plays in a changing economy, and how to fight for a better working future; this week, we bring you that conversation. We also hear from locked-out Honeywell workers, check in on West Virginia after the age of coal, look at possible changes to H-2B guestworker visas, and hear about how your boss can’t force you to be happy at work. For “Argh,” we check in on Verizon strikers and the low-paid contractors increasingly doing their jobs, as well as Chinese workers’ battle for independent worker power. Belabored invites our listeners to join us as supporting members. Sign up to support Belabored with a monthly donation and we’ll send you a tote bag. Please help keep us going for the next 100 episodes! News Honeywell locks out unionized Green Island workers after contract vote (TimesUnion) Honeywell, UAW union in contract dispute (WNDU South Bend) Michelle: Just Because Big Coal Is Collapsing Doesn’t Mean Appalachia Has to Follow (The Nation) Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton Court West Virginians Hit Hard by Coal’s Decline (New York Times) New immigration fight looms in Congress (Politico) Officially, your employer can’t force you to be happy at work (Huffington Post) Conversation People Get Ready: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy (Public Affairs) John Nichols at The Nation Full Event Video (New School) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Herman Rosenfeld, “Inside the Rebellion” (Jacobin) Sarah: Virginia Sole-Smith, “Consider the Cable Guy” (Slate) The post Belabored Podcast #103: Get Ready for Struggle, with John Nichols appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. If party politics seems hopeless to you these days, look for a glimmer of hope down ticket, as we did with North Carolina’s Eric Fink, who is running as an insurgent outsider for State Senate. The law professor and Brooklyn transplant is challenging one of the lawmakers behind the HB2 “bathroom bill”—widely decried as an attack on transgender rights—with a grassroots platform based on economic justice and social democracy. He reports from the campaign trail about his state’s struggle for LGBT rights, Moral Mondays, and progressive politics in a broken electoral system. We also check in on Verizon’s massive strike, Uber’s new legal troubles, the Rana Plaza factory disaster three years on, and campaigning for Palestinian rights within organized labor. With recommended reading on labor and the elections, and the founders and inequality. Belabored invites our listeners to join us as supporting members. Sign up to support Belabored with a monthly donation and we’ll send you a tote bag. Please help keep us going for the next 100 episodes! News Verizon Brand Takes a Hit With Consumers As Strike Drags On (Fortune) Verizon Strike Update: Replacement Workers Unsafe, Unions Allege (Patch) Uber Settles Cases With Concessions, but Drivers Stay Freelancers (New York Times) Will Uber’s New ‘Drivers Association’ Have Any Real Power? (Huffington Post) UAW Overrules Academic Workers BDS Vote Against Israel Despite Finding Strong Turnout, No Misconduct (In These Times) Three years after Rana Plaza disaster, has anything changed? (Reuters) Michelle: A Western Company Could Finally Be Held Accountable for the Rana Plaza Disaster (The Nation) Conversation Eric Fink, North Carolina State Senate Candidate Fink for NC 2016 Feeling the local Bern: Professor challenges lawmaker (Triad City Beat) Faculty page Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Alana Semuels, The Founding Fathers Weren’t Concerned With Inequality (Atlantic) Sarah: Jake Blumgart, Labor’s Cautious Endorsements (American Prospect) The post Belabored Podcast #102: A Left Turn on the Campaign Trail, with Eric Fink appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. One hundred years ago this April, a small group of socialists, schoolteachers, and other nationalist rebels staged an uprising in Dublin designed to put an end to British rule in Ireland. The Easter Rising was unsuccessful, but it set forth the ideals for an Irish Republic that are still resonant today, as Ireland’s labor unions and left parties attempt to turn the tide after years of austerity. Irish journalist and former vice-chair of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions Youth Ronan Burtenshaw guest-edited a special edition of Jacobin magazine all about the Rising, its legacy, and the Irish left today, and he sat down recently in Dublin to discuss all of that with Belabored. We also bring you reports from the picket lines of the Verizon strike and the latest Fight for $15 actions, some news on the court that struck down Scott Walker’s latest attempt to bust unions, and the latest on worker cooperatives. With “Argh,” we revisit welfare reform and its very intended results, and the myth of the progressive capitalist. Belabored invites our listeners to join us as supporting members. Sign up to support Belabored with a monthly donation, or make a one-off contribution to the podcast. Please help keep us going for the next 100 episodes! News Verizon Workers on the Line (Labor Notes) Michelle: We are Winning the Fight for $15 (The Nation) What does California’s new minimum wage buy? A long commute and a room (Guardian) Wisconsin’s Right-To-Work Law Struck Down Last Week. What’s Next? (The Cap Times) Michelle: Worker Cooperatives are More Productive than Normal Companies (The Nation) Conversation Ronan Burtenshaw, Irish journalist, former vice-chair of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions Youth, and editor of Jacobin‘s new issue on the Easter Rising, Between the Risings Ronan Burtenshaw & Seán Byers: Ireland’s Unfinished Revolution (Jacobin) Sarah: Getting Your Irish Up (Baffler) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Paul Blest, The Myth of the Progressive Capitalist (Jacobin) Sarah: Zach Carter, Nothing Bill Clinton Said To Defend His Welfare Reform Is True (Huffington Post) The post Belabored Podcast #101: Ireland Rising, with Ronan Burtenshaw appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. What’s the difference between a protest and a movement, between a tactic and a vision? How do agitators harness the spontaneity of a sudden political clash, while still maintaining discipline and control during mass mobilizations? In This Is an Uprising, Mark and Paul Engler, veteran activists and chroniclers of social movements, analyze the mechanics and tools of popular protest throughout modern history and move toward a theory of civil resistance. Drawing from multiple historical contexts and organizing traditions, from labor strikes to student marches to Gandhian nonviolence strategies, the book presents a blueprint for organizers to understand how uprisings happen, how social movements advance, and why some fail. In this special 100th episode of Belabored, we bring you a live-recorded discussion about their book as well as some contemporary examples of uprisings, including successes, setbacks, and current uprisings that are still unfolding. And for our 100th epiversary, Belabored invites our listeners to join us as supporting members. Sign up here to support Belabored with a monthly donation, or make a one-off contribution to the podcast. Please help keep us going for the next 100 episodes! Special thanks to 61 Local for hosting our event. The post Belabored Podcast #100: How Uprisings Happen, with Mark Engler appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. We’ve talked before on Belabored about the outsize effect the Supreme Court can have on labor rights, and this week, we dig into some legal history—and legal present—with Gillian Thomas, Senior Staff Attorney with the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project and author of the new book Because Of Sex: One Law, Ten Cases, and Fifty Years That Changed American Women’s Lives At Work. The book is the history of just one little phrase in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Thomas takes us through the ways the Supreme Court’s rulings on that little phrase have shaped the experiences of millions of working people—as you’ll learn, not just women, either. We also get an update from the hotel workers who are locked in combat with none other than Donald Trump; we hear about a win for workers in Bernie Sanders’s home state of Vermont; we’ll hear about labor struggles at universities private and public, both of which Michelle has attended; and an inside look at a race, class, and inequality in city schools. Oh, and the Chicago Teachers Union may just make good on a promise Karen Lewis made to us way back on Belabored Episode 1. On Wednesday, April 6, you’re invited to join us at 61 Local in Brooklyn to celebrate our 100th episode with a party and special live recording! We’ll talk with Mark Engler about his new book, This Is an Uprising, and party like the revolution already happened from 7:00 p.m. Join us! News Michelle: Donald Trump, Expert Negotiator, Refuses to Meet With His Unionizing Workers (The Nation) Chicago Teachers Union Vows to “Shut the City Down” With One-Day Strike (DNAinfo) Yale grad students start a union. Next, they must win bargaining rights (Washington Post) Michelle: Yale Is Depriving Graduate Students of Their Rights (The Nation) Bernie Sanders’ Home State Just Passed A Paid Sick Leave Law (Huffington Post) Conversation Gillian Thomas at the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project Because Of Sex: One Law, Ten Cases, and Fifty Years That Changed American Women’s Lives At Work Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: Nick Pinto, Cuomo Bares Fangs At CUNY, Puts Final Nail InThe Coffin of His Own Progressivism (Village Voice) Michelle: Anya Kamenetz, Turmoil Behind The Scenes At A Nationally Lauded High School (NPR) The post Belabored Podcast #99: Because of Sex, with Gillian Thomas appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. Teachers are often accused of “politicizing” their jobs, but sometimes, the politics find them, and educators find themselves on the frontlines of heated social issues. Teachers in the Durham, North Carolina public school system are facing that dilemma as they rally to protect one of their students from deportation. Wildin Acosta, a high school student who recently migrated from Honduras, was arrested in a federal immigration sweep in January and has been detained in Georgia for weeks. Teachers have worked with Wildin’s family and local advocates to demand his release. We talked to educators and activists in Durham to see how the country’s immigration battles are affecting school communities—and learn how teachers and grassroots activists are mobilizing to demand humanitarian protections for refugee families and fight harsh immigration enforcement policies. In other news, we look at the challenges facing two grassroots organizing initiatives in New York City’s low-wage economy, B&H and Hot & Crusty; the dirty side of the country’s “white collar” guestworker program, with Daniel Costa of Economic Policy Institute; and a new union contract for the digital media enterprise Gawker. With recommended reading on reparations, socialism and the 2016 campaign, and teachers defending democracy in Detroit. News ‘The struggle has no borders’: immigrant workers battle union busting tactics (The Guardian) B&H Electronics Store Sued for Discrimination of Hispanic Workers (New York Times) Gawker employees bargain first union contract at a digital media company (The Guardian) Michelle: Is Gawker’s Unionization a Sign That Creative Workers Are Finally Realizing Their Worth? (The Nation) Sarah: ‘You’re Fired!’ The Abuses of ‘Skilled’ Worker Visa Programs (The Progressive) Conversation John Davis and Alice Dominguez, Durham Public Schools teachers Elisa Benitez, Alerta Migratoria Michelle: Kept Out of School For Being Undocumented (The Nation) Teachers of Durham student facing deportation send him homework (The News & Observer) North Carolina High Schoolers Could Be Deported to “Certain Death”, Despite Teacher and School Board Opposition (Global Voices) Free NC Refugee Kids petition Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: Mario Vasquez, Teachers Who Staged ‘Sick-outs’ Declare Victory Against Detroit Schools’ Unelected Emergency Manager (In These Times) Michelle: Brian Jones, The Socialist Case for Reparations (Jacobin) The post Belabored Podcast #98: Teachers Mobilizing for Migrant Kids appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. These days, it seems like everyone’s talking about racism and about economic justice—but often, they’re talking about the two as if they’re different subjects or only distantly related. But Black Youth Project 100 aims to shake up that discussion; the group has released an ambitious “Agenda To Build Black Futures,” that lays out a broad range of economic policy goals, from raising the wage to a guaranteed income, from universal child care to reparations, to create an equitable world. Janae Bonsu, BYP 100’s National Public Policy Chair, joins us to talk about the agenda and why we need to think of economic justice and racial justice as intertwined. The big news this week for labor, of course, was the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, which changes the likely result of one very significant case regarding public sector unions. We hear from Richard Kahlenberg of The Century Foundation on what this means, and we also look at the companies trying to dodge responsibility for safety in the workplace, and a new ban on products made by forced labor. For Argh, we dive into the world of the Mechanical Turkers in academia, and remember the politics of welfare reform. News Antonin Scalia, Justice on the Supreme Court, Dead at 79 (New York Times) Friedrichs Reprieve, But We’re Not Out Of The Woods Yet (Labor Notes) Richard Kahlenberg, How Defunding Public Sector Unions Will Diminish Our Democracy (The Century Foundation) Federal Contractors with History of OSHA Violations Battle New Safety Rules (PR Watch) Congress bans import of forced labor products (Associated Press) Conversation Janae Bonsu, National Public Policy Chair, Black Youth Project 100 Black Youth Project 100: Agenda to Build Black Futures Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: Premilla Nadasen, How a Democrat Killed Welfare (Jacobin) Michelle: Louise Matsakis, The Unknown, Poorly Paid Labor Force Powering Academic Research (Motherboard) The post Belabored Podcast #97: Building Black Futures with Janae Bonsu appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. It’s no coincidence that two longstanding urban crises have exploded in Michigan in the past few weeks: one unfolding in poisoned pipelines of Flint, where children have been sickened by lead contamination, and the other erupting in the dilapidated schools of Detroit, where teachers have launched “sickouts” in protest of deplorable working and learning conditions. In both cases, the destruction of local democracy and the degradation of working-class communities went hand in hand. We talk to Joel Berger, a second-generation Detroit teacher, about what it’s like to work in a public school system dominated by an unelected emergency manager and how the labor movement can and should respond. In other news, we look at a government effort to track gender discrimination, Uber’s latest attack on drivers, unrest at the New York port, and an agenda for black futures. With recommended reading on the rough world of professional hockey, and the dilemma of the 40-hour workweek. News Obama targets gender pay gap with plan to collect companies’ salary data (Washington Post) Thousands Of Workers Walk Off The Job At NY, NJ Ports (Gothamist) Investigation begins into N.J., N.Y. port walkout, as dockworkers return (NJ.com) Uber Drivers in New York City Protest Fare Cuts (New York Times) 9,000 Uber Drivers Planning to Disrupt Super Bowl With Protest (New York Observer) Black Youth Project 100: Agenda for Black Futures (BYP100) Conversation Joel Berger, second-generation Detroit teacher, Cass Technical High School Controversial Emergency Manager Of Detroit’s Public Schools Resigns (NPR) Teacher sick-outs close nearly all DPS schools (Detroit Free Press) What Flint’s Dirty Water and Detroit’s Angry Teachers Have in Common (Mother Jones) Sarah and Josh: Belabored Podcast #16: Who Bankrupted Detroit? (Dissent) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Kati Sipp, Dream Bigger to Do Better (Hack the Union) and Andrew White, How basic income can solve one of the digital economy’s biggest problems (The Conversation) Sarah: John Scott, A Guy Like Me (The Players’ Tribune) The post Belabored Podcast #96: Sick of Austerity in Detroit and Flint appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. Most of the rest of the industrialized world offers paid family leave and paid sick time for workers, but the United States continues to lag behind. That might change if Democratic presidential hopefuls have their way, as after decades, paid family leave is finally at the center of the debate. Ellen Bravo of Family Values @ Work joins us to explain how, finally, work-family policy became a policy candidates couldn’t ignore, why it’s important to acknowledge where change comes from, and how care work is central to the future of labor. We also look at the future of public sector unions before the Supreme Court, teacher sick-out protests in Detroit, and worker actions on Martin Luther King Day and ahead of the presidential debate. For “Argh,” we share a piece from Dissent‘s new families issue, and get a glimpse of what $15 an hour is actually like. News Michelle: This Supreme Court Case Could Be Very Bad for Unions (The Nation) How Defunding Public Sector Unions Will Diminish Our Democracy (The Century Foundation) Nearly all of Detroit’s schools closed due to sickouts as Obama visits (CNN) Sarah and Josh: Belabored #16, Who Bankrupted Detroit? with Marcy Wheeler (Dissent) O’Hare Airport Workers Block Downtown Chicago Traffic, Joining National Day of Action on MLK Day (In These Times) Washington area airport workers join fight for $15-an-hour minimum wage (Washington Post) South Carolina Fast Food Workers Strike for $15 Ahead of Democratic Debate (Vice) Conversation Ellen Bravo Family Values @ Work Paid Family Leave: From Political Talking Point to Serious Election Issue (Family Values @ Work) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: Arlie Hochschild, The Right vs. The Family (Dissent) Michelle: Gabriel Thompson, This Is What $15 an Hour Looks Like (The Nation) The post Belabored Podcast #95: Campaigning for Families with Ellen Bravo appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. Uber has taken over the taxi markets of cities around the globe with its infamously “disruptive” business model. But the aggressively expanding rideshare service may soon get routed in Seattle, thanks to legislation that would pave the way for for-hire drivers to unionize. By allowing both rideshare app users as well as traditional cabbies to collectively bargain, the new law could establish a framework for disrupting the “gig economy” and empowering the rank-and-file drivers. We speak with Rebecca Smith of the National Employment Law Project and Takele Gobena of the App-Based Drivers Association in Seattle to explore the legal and political road ahead for labor organizing in the “On Demand” economy. Plus news from the latest legal battle over graduate student unionization, prayer at work for Muslims in Colorado, hijab on campus and tenure politics, and dueling Fights for $15 in New York, and recommended reading on middle-class myths and the drug war at work. News Cuomo strikes deal to raise SUNY minimum wage to $15 an hour (Buffalo Sun Times) De Blasio To Raise All City Workers’ Minimum Wage To $15/Hour (Gothamist) NLRB grants review of Columbia grad students’ petition to unionize (Columbia Spectator) GWC-UAW Local 2110, National Labor Relations Board Hearings (GWC-UAW Local 2110) Michelle: Are Graduate Students ‘Workers’? (The Nation) AAUP faculty group seeks inquiry on College of Saint Rose cuts (Times Union) Carolyn Stefanco and the Administration: Rescind or Resign (Change.org) Wheaton professor denounces efforts to fire her (Chicago Tribune) Dr. Larycia Hawkins Cargill employees walk out of Fort Morgan plant Monday (Fort Morgan Times) Cargill: Tried to resolve issues before firing Colorado Muslim workers (Denver Post) Michelle: 180 Muslim Workers Were Fired for Taking ‘Prayer Breaks’ (The Nation) Conversation Rights on Demand: Ensuring Workplace Standards and Worker Security In the On-Demand Economy (NELP) App-Based Drivers Association Michelle Could Unions Disrupt Uber’s Empire? (The Nation) Socialize Uber (The Nation) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: Bryce Covert, $250,000 a Year Is Not Middle Class (New York Times) Michelle: Daniel Engber, Why Do Employers Still Routinely Drug-Test Workers? (Slate) The post Belabored Podcast #94: Disrupting Uber appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with#belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. As 2015 draws to a close, there are plenty of things we won’t miss, but there were also several bright spots for the labor movement, from the Fight for $15’s wins to teachers’ victories, the possible end of two-tier wage structures to those ever-present port truckers and the spread of the movement for black lives. We discuss the best and worst moments of 2015, and what we’re looking forward to in 2016, for workers from China to Chicago and everywhere in between. We also bring you our last news roundup of 2015, with updates on strikes at the port and sexual harassment actions, sex workers and a crackdown on labor activists, and some thoughts on racial justice fights from the past and how they inform the future in both our Argh picks. News Michelle: China’s latest crackdown on workers is unprecedented (The Nation) Free Chinese Labour Activists (Facebook page) Port Truck Drivers Win Nearly $7 million in Stolen Wages from Carson-Based Company (Long Beach Post) Contract Drivers Strike Indefinitely Against Pacific 9 Transportation in LA (CBS) Michelle: Trans sex workers are 25 times more likely to be HIV positive than the general population (The Nation) Nothing About Us Without Us: Sex Work, Policy, Organizing, Rights (Best Practice Policy Project) FitzGibbon Media and the problem of sexual harassment in the progressive movement (Vox) The Most Shocking Thing About Trevor FitzGibbon’s Behavior Is How Common It Is (The Nation) Conversation The Good Sarah: End to Two-Tier Belabored Podcast #88: Dismantling Two-Tier (Dissent) Michelle: Fight for $15 Michelle: New York Fast Food Workers Win Their Fight for $15 (The Nation) The Bad Sarah: The Friedrichs vs. The California Teachers Association Case Looms This Supreme Court Case Could Significantly Weaken Teachers Unions (Huffington Post) Michelle: Asia Supply Chain Issues Michelle: ‘When We Made Mistakes in Our Sewing, They Slapped Us’ (The Nation) The Hopeful Sarah: Chicago Teachers Vote to Strike Again Sarah: Impending Teachers Strike in Chicago Adds Power to Nationwide Movements against Inequality and Racism (Truthout) Michelle: Childcare and Homecare Workers in Fight for $15 Michelle: Day-Care Costs Can Drive a Family Into Poverty Before a Child Reaches Kindergarten (The Nation) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Chris Webb, “Impatient for Justice” (Jacobin) Sarah: Astra Taylor, “From Jail to Farm to Table” (New Yorker) The post Belabored Podcast #93: The Good, The Bad, and the Hopeful appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. One hundred years ago, radical troubadour, labor movement martyr and and proto-punk rock icon Joe Hill left us with the famous words “Don’t mourn, organize!” Today we’re celebrating that spirit with a remembrance of his life, music, and legacy as a pioneering union activist. We speak with Alexis Buss, who, along with Philip S. Foner, compiled and edited the centenary edition of The Letters of Joe Hill. With a selection of songs and readings from the collection, we explore Hill’s organizing work with the Industrial Workers of the World, the historical resonance of his songs, and the lessons today’s activist movements can draw from his story. With clips from performances from a recent tribute event at the New School. And in other news: South Korean labor struggles escalate, unionization and strike votes by Chicago educators, Trump Las Vegas hotels go union, and New York City weighs freelance labor law. Special thanks to Haymarket Books, Magpie, Bucky Halker, Hari Kondabolu, Son of Nun, Jamie Kilstein, and The New School. News Workers At Donald Trump’s Las Vegas Hotel Vote To Unionize (Huffington Post) Nevada Unions to Trump: Pay Your Hotel’s Workers Fair Wages (People’s World) Labor secretary Tom Perez urges Culinary union members to back Clinton (Las Vegas Review-Journal) Michelle: No Surprise: Trump Is a Union Buster at His Own Hotel (The Nation) Inside a union drive at The Trump Hotel (Toronto Star) Working Families Party Endorses Bernie Sanders for President (New York Times) In South Korea, a Dictator’s Daughter Cracks Down on Labor (The Nation) Massive crowd protest in South Korea against Park’s labor reform plans (Reuters) Michelle: Angry Workers Swarm Seoul’s Streets, Demand President Resign (In These Times) New Bill Would Make It A Crime To Stiff Freelancers (Gothamist) How to Build the Movement for Progressive Power, the Urban Way (The Nation) More trouble for Rahm Emanuel: Chicago teachers to vote on strike authorization (Washington Post) University of Chicago Non-Tenured Faculty Vote to Join Union (Reuters) Conversation Alexis Buss, co-editor of The Letters of Joe Hill: 1879-1915 Joe Hill Centenary website IWW Historical Archives Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: Melissa Gira Grant, How Stoya took on James Deen and broke the porn industry’s silence (Guardian) Michelle: Steven Greenhouse, Uber: On the Road to Nowhere (American Prospect) The post Belabored Podcast #92: Don’t Mourn, Organize! appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. It’s that time of year again: the day after Thanksgiving, when retailers count on door-buster markdowns and brutally expanded hours to make a pot of money all in one sitting. For the past four years, it’s also been the day that Walmart workers have chosen to maximize the impact of their protests on the retail giant. This year, as OUR Walmart has become a more independent organization from the union that helped found it, the UFCW, Walmart workers and their allies across a bigger-than-ever group of organizations have undertaken a “Fast for $15,” calling attention to the way workers at Walmart often don’t make enough money to feed themselves properly, and in very old-school hunger-strike fashion, taken their fast to the doorsteps of the rich and powerful within Walmart. We spoke to Dan Schlademan, co-director of OUR Walmart, and Tyfani Faulkner, who was in the middle of her fifteen days without food, about the week’s actions and the startling news that OUR Walmart was under surveillance by the FBI and Lockheed Martin at the behest of Walmart. We also bring you an update on the aftermath of the Tazreen factory fire, some working conditions of hotel housekeepers, and a look at how student protests on university campuses are making labor demands. For Argh, some thoughts on the cult of the amateur, and the efforts of one radical union to stand up for racial justice during the Second World War. News Michelle: 8 in 10 Hotel Workers Have Been Harassed At Work (The Nation) Three years after Tazreen factory fire Walmart still refuses to pay (International Labor Rights Forum) Michelle: The Other Side of Black Friday Price Tags (The Nation) UNC Students Interrupt Town Hall with List of Demands (WRAL) UNC Students list of demands (WRAL) Conversation How Walmart Keeps an Eye on its Massive Workforce (Bloomberg) Sarah: What’s the real reason behind Walmart store shutdowns? (DAME) Sarah: Workers Confront Walmart Executives at Star-Studded Company Event (Truthout) Michelle: What You Should Know About Walmart’s Raise (The Nation) Michelle: How the Retail Industry Keeps People of Color in Poverty (The Nation) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Peter Cole, When America Was Overcome with Anti-Japanese Xenophobia During WWII, One Union Fought Back (In These Times) Sarah: Amanda Hess, The Cult of the Amateur (New York Times Magazine) The post Belabored Podcast #91: Fasting for $15 and Full-Time appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. You might think the American worker has come a long way since the dreary days that inspired Upton Sinclair to write The Jungle—that the dirty, exploitative jobs of the Gilded Age were stamped out by modernization and regulation. But actually, those jobs have been shipped overseas, neatly hidden under the veneer of neoliberal globalization. Belabored brings you a conversation with historian Erik Loomis on his new book, Out of Sight (New Press, 2015), about how modern production processes have actually fueled corporate impunity and ecological destruction—and how the public can fight back for environmental and economic justice. Plus news on the latest wave of Fight for $15 protests, City University of New York’s labor uprising, the White House order to Ban the Box, and FedEx workers on strike. With recommended reading on Mizzou students rising, and a worker’s death on the high seas. News CUNY Faculty Members Arrested After Staging Protest (New York Times) Stephanie Luce Talks Civil Disobedience, Arrest at PSC Action (Murphy Institute) Michelle: Almost Half of All American Workers Make Less Than $15 an Hour (The Nation) Michelle: Childcare Workers Make 40% Less Than the Nationwide Median Wage (The Nation) Fight for $15 FedEx truck drivers based in Gardena threaten to strike through the holidays (Daily Breeze) FedEx Settles Independent Contractor Mislabeling Case For $228 Million (Forbes) Michelle: Why ‘Banning the Box’ Is Such a Big Deal for the Formerly Incarcerated (The Nation) Conversation: Erik Loomis, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Rhode Island and author of Out of Sight: The Long and Disturbing Story of Corporations Outsourcing Catastrophe Erik Loomis on Lawyer’s Guns & Money Erik Loomis: Out of Sight: The Labor Abuses Behind What We Eat (Dissent) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Ian Urbina, Tricked and Indebted on Land, Abused or Abandoned at Sea (New York Times) Sarah: David Zirin, 3 Lessons From University of Missouri President Tim Wolfe’s Resignation; Black Mizzou Football Players Are Going on Strike Over Campus Racism (The Nation) The post Belabored Podcast #90: Offshoring Dirty Jobs, with Erik Loomis appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. We’re used to complaining about the big banks, especially since the 2008 financial crisis. They wrecked the economy, they pressure us to take out loans and credit cards we don’t need, they get handouts from the government while lobbying to make sure we can’t discharge our student loans in bankruptcy. Well, what if the rank and file bank workers feel the same way, and they’d rather team up with us to make the banks actually act in the public’s interest? That’s the goal of the union and community-group backed Committee for Better Banks, and they had an action this week. Bank worker Khalid Taha tells us why he’s standing up for better banks and better wages. We also talk about the struggles of call center workers at T-Mobile, where one woman had enough of the sexual harassment she was facing, about Bernie Sanders’ appearance on a picket line, a win in the fight against on-call scheduling, and whether the Obama administration’s new plan to reduce testing is what it’s cracked up to be. For Argh, we look at the future of the job, and the life and death of a warehouse temp. News Sarah: For Sexually Harassed Employees, T-Mobile has Terrible Service (DAME) J. Crew Ends On-Call Scheduling (Buzzfeed) The End of On-Call Scheduling? (The Atlantic) After Heavy Criticism, Urban Outfitters Kills Off On-Call Scheduling Nationwide (Buzzfeed) Bernie Sanders Joins Verizon Picket Line (Huffington Post) Why Verizon Workers are Standing Up (CWA) Network for Public Education Questions Obama Test Plan (Diane Ravitch) Here’s What the Obama Administration’s New Guidelines on Tests in Schools Mean (ThinkProgress) Conversation: Michelle: When Bank Workers Occupy the Banks (The Nation) Michelle: Are Bank Tellers the Fast Food Workers of Wall Street? (The Nation) Michelle: Can Labor Bring Wall Street Back to Main Street? (The Nation) Big Banks and the Dismantling of the Middle Class (Center for Popular Democracy) Sarah: Bank of America’s Horrid “Customer Service” Scandal (Salon) Sarah: How Big Banks Shortchange Their Workers (In These Times) Sarah: Could Teller Organizing Help Halt Bank Abuses? (In These Times) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: Bethany Moreton, The Rise and Fall of the Job (Pacific Standard) Michelle: Dave Jamieson, The Life and Death of an Amazon Warehouse Temp (Huffington Post) The post Belabored Podcast #89: Banking on Change, with Khalid Taha appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. Back at the start of the Great Recession the U.S. auto industry was crashing and the United Auto Workers were scrambling to stop the bleeding. Out of the turmoil came the infamous two-tier wage system. But the recent contract negotiations at Fiat Chrysler are signaling an end to the two-tier system, with a large majority of workers opposing the policy. We speak with Alex Wassell, a skilled trades worker who has been at the Chrysler FCA Warren Stamping Plant for twenty-two years, and longtime auto labor observer Gary Chaison of Clark University, about what the new deal means, the potential outcome of the contract talks, and the future of the UAW. We also look at the latest organizing battles in digital media and Teach for America, intern oppression in China, and dirty labor practices at famed photo gear retailer B&H. With recommended reading on the history of the Labor Party’s awkward experiment in electoral politics, and the failure of working-class politics in Washington today. A special thanks this week to our friends at Labor Notes for their help. News Photo retailer B&H faces unwanted exposure over worker safety (Al Jazeera America) Michelle: Workers Fight Back Against Racism, Wage Theft, Toxic Hazards, and Chronic Overwork at Brooklyn B&H Warehouse (The Nation) Michelle: This Is What It Takes to Unionize a Newsroom (The Nation) Michelle: The Unionization of Digital Media (The Nation) Sarah and Michelle: Belabored Podcast #82: Labor Rising in New Media, with Justin Molito (Dissent) NLRB: Teach for America corps members have a right to unionize (Detroit Metro Times) NLRB Rules Teach for America Members Have a Right to Unionize (The American Prospect) Michelle: The Secret Weapon for Cutting Costs at Chinese Factories? Interns (The Nation) Servants of Servers (Danwatch) Conversation: Alex Wassell, UAW member and employee at Chrysler FCA Warren Stamping Plant Gary Chaison, Professor of Industrial Relations, Clark University Fiat Chrysler Union Contract Faces Hurdles (New York Times) Chrysler Workers Vote 2 to 1 to Reject Two-Tier Pact (Labor Notes) Are those detested two-tiered UAW contracts finally on the way out? (Los Angeles Times) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: Hamilton Nolan, The White House Can’t Win the Class War (Gawker) Michelle: Mark Dudzic and Derek Seidman, Looking Back at the Labor Party (New Labor Forum) The post Belabored Podcast #88: Dismantling Two-Tier appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. The popular mythology in America is that education is the solvent for inequality; that if kids just get a good enough education from good enough teachers, they’ll be able to bootstrap their way to wealth. This myth, argues author, educator, and Jacobin editor Megan Erickson, ignores the realities of our class-stratified society. In her new book, Class War: The Privatization of Childhood, Erickson looks at inequality in education from Bugaboo strollers to standardized admissions tests, and she joins Belabored to discuss how her time in the classroom shaped her thinking on education, and how education can’t solve inequality, but can become less unequal. We also hear from educators from Seattle to New York fighting inequality in their own workplaces, and hear from women organizers from the Global South and striking warehouse workers in Los Angeles. For Argh, we look at some options for the future of work—or the future of no work.   News Michelle: Warehouse Workers of Los Angeles, Unite! (The Nation) CUNY Union protests outside chancellor’s apartment (Politico) Women Leading the Global Labor Rights Movement (Murphy Institute) Michelle: $1,000 for a Dead Family Member—Is That Justice for Bangladesh’s Garment Workers? (The Nation) Michelle: Cambodia’s Garment Workers Aren’t Backing Down (The Nation) Michelle: How Do You Organize Workers Who Live and Sleep in Their Bosses’ Homes? (The Nation) Sarah: Teachers are Schooling Government on How to Improve Education (DAME) Seattle Teachers Strike for Social Justice (I AM AN EDUCATOR blog)   Conversation: Megan Erickson at Jacobin Class War: The Privatization of Childhood (Verso)   Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Trebor Scholz, The Future Of Work: The People’s Uber (Pacific Standard) Sarah: Madeleine Schwartz, Less Work, More Time (Dissent) The post Belabored Podcast #87: Class War in the Classroom appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. Do you love your job? Should you? We’re continually bombarded with cultural imagery of Silicon Valley entrepreneurial geniuses and brilliant “self-actualized” professionals—so much that we feel miserable for not having a career that promises that elusive total self-fulfillment. And Miya Tokumitsu thinks that’s exactly the point: she argues in her book, Do What You Love: And Other Lies About Success and Happiness, that our modern workplace culture is designed to conflate personal happiness and human relationships with material achievement and professional prestige, and that our basic humanity suffers as we pursue our “dream jobs.” Tokumitsu talks to us about the dangers of building our identities around the icon of the “passionate” worker, and how a warped philosophy of work-life balance ends up serving corporate power rather than actually empowering those doing the work. We also discuss the Seattle teachers’ strike, LA sweatshop struggles, adjunct agony, and the re-launch of the campaign to change Walmart from the shop floor. Finally, recommended reading on Europe’s migrant crisis and linking the Fight for 15 with the movement for black lives.   News Seattle students start school with teachers strike suspended (Times Union) Michelle: Yes, Your T-Shirt Was ‘Made in LA’—and the Worker Got 4 Cents For It (The Nation) The Union Behind the Biggest Campaign Against Walmart in History May Be Throwing in the Towel. Why? (In These Times) OUR Walmart Relaunches Its Campaign To Beat the World Retail Giant (In These Times) Sarah: Teachers are Schooling Government on How to Improve Education (DAME) Report: “Back to School in Higher Ed: Who Needs Faculty?” (Campaign for the Future of Higher Ed)   Conversation: Do What You Love: And Other Lies About Success and Happiness (Regan Arts) In the Name of Love (Jacobin)   Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Amy Corcoran, Ever-growing, ever-changing: Inside the Calais camp (Red Pepper) Sarah: Brendan McQuade, A United Front (Jacobin) The post Belabored Podcast #86: Loving and Loathing Work, with Miya Tokumitsu appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. The National Labor Relations Board made news (and made big businesses sad) last week with its ruling in the Browning-Ferris Industries case, which has to do with joint-employer status. In this decision, seen as a win for worker organizations, the Board ruled 3-2 to revise its definition of a joint employer to include many business owners who get their workers through a temp agency or subcontractor. To explain what this all means, for temp workers, their employers, McDonald’s employees and other franchise workers, we talk to Larry Engelstein, executive vice president and director of collective bargaining and employer relations at SEIU 32BJ. We also hear from Rasheen Aldridge, St. Louis organizer and Ferguson commission member, on St. Louis’s move to raise the minimum wage, and look at strikes in India, the recent big win for home care workers’ rights, and a hunger strike to save a Chicago school. News Chicago Parents Enter Week 2 of Hunger Strike Protesting Corporate Ed Reform and Dyett HS Closure (In These Times) I Can’t Stop Watching This Guy Disdainfully Refuse To Shake Rahm Emanuel’s Hand (In These Times) Dyett hunger strikers taking their fight to Education Secretary Arne Duncan (Chicago Sun-Times) Michelle: Home Healthcare Workers Haven’t Qualified for Minimum Wage for 80 Years. Now They Do. (The Nation) Federal appeals court reinstates rules giving overtime, minimum wage to home care workers (Associated Press) St. Louis Leaders Agree to Minimum Wage Increase to $11/hour (Associated Press) Follow Rasheen Aldridge on Twitter Ferguson Commission’s youngest member: ‘A lot of young people are feeling the pain’ (Guardian) Indian workers strike over Modi labour reforms (BBC) Commuters hit hard by trade unions’ strike (Times of India) Millions strike in India over government labour reforms (Al Jazeera) Conversation: Larry Engelstein, SEIU 32BJ NLRB issues decision in Browning-Ferris Industries Michelle: This Labor Ruling Could Give a Big Boost to the Fight For 15 (The Nation) Sarah: Forever Temp? (In These Times) Michelle: Temp Nation: How Corporations Are Evading Accountability, at Workers’ Expense (The Nation) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: Sukjong Hong, ‘This only happened because people organized.’ Nail salon workers speak out after NYT exposé (Fusion) Michelle: Colleen Kimmett, 10 Years After Katrina, New Orleans’ All-Charter School System Has Proven a Failure (In These Times) The post Belabored Podcast #85: Joint Responsibilities, with Larry Engelstein appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. Decades before the signing of New York’s landmark Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights, another group of household workers were taking collective action to push for fair wages and working conditions. Barnard College historian Premilla Nadasen’s new book, Household Workers Unite, explores the little known history of the black domestic workers who led courageous organizing campaigns throughout the postwar era, intersecting with and building on the civil rights and feminist movements. By the 1970s, the nationwide push for domestic workers’ rights helped establish federal minimum wage protections and elevated the status of household labor in the eyes of employers, policymakers, and the mainstream labor movement. What can today’s domestic workers’ advocates learn as the sector faces new challenges in the global economy? We also look at the National Labor Relations Board punting on Northwestern University football players’ rights—with comments from Professor Lee Adler of Cornell University, bank tellers and the Fight for $15, the war on working mothers, and stolen wages at Long Beach hotels. With recommended reading on “passion” on overdrive at work, and the meaning of self care. News Board Unanimously Decides to Decline Jurisdiction in Northwestern Case (National Labor Relations Board) The Absurd, Cowardly, and Morally Bankrupt NLRB Decision Against the Northwestern Football Union (The Nation) Sarah and Michelle: Belabored Podcast #48: Athlete-Students’ Big Win (Dissent) Lawsuit alleges Long Beach hotel failed to pay full wages to workers (Long Beach Press Telegram) Sarah and Michelle: Belabored Podcast #4: “Talk To Someone Like Me” (Dissent) Michelle: Are Bank Tellers the Fast Food Workers of Wall Street? (The Nation) Report: 3 in 4 bank tellers earn less than $15 an hour (National Employment Law Project) The Real War on Families: Why the U.S. Needs Paid Leave Now (In These Times) Sarah and Michelle: Belabored Podcast #51: Taking on the Big Boys, with Ellen Bravo (Dissent) Michelle: The Unexpected Burden of Pregnancy at Work (The Nation) Conversation: Premilla Nadasen, Professor of History at Barnard College Household Workers Unite: The Untold Story of African American Women Who Built a Movement (Beacon Press) Michelle: Shouldn’t Home Care Workers Earn a Living Wage? (The Nation) Sarah and Michelle: Belabored Podcast #71: Building Care, with Ai-jen Poo (Dissent) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: Jennifer Pan, What Does “Self-Care” Really Mean? (Fader) Michelle: Miya Tokumitsu, Forced to Love the Grind (Jacobin) The post Belabored Podcast #84: Domestic Workers Unite, with Premilla Nadasen appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. When the trio of European institutions known as the Troika forced another austerity deal on Greece earlier this month, despite the massive “no” vote from the Greek people in a referendum just days earlier, the hashtag #ThisIsACoup trended on Twitter as Greeks and supporters voiced their outrage. The deal requires privatization of industry, pension cuts, tax increases that will fall on everyday Greeks, and “modernization” of collective bargaining and other labor market reforms—all of which are pretty much the opposite of the platform on which Alexis Tsipras, the prime minister, and the Syriza party were elected. So what’s happening now? Sarah Leonard, senior editor at The Nation, contributing editor to Dissent and co-founder of Belabored is just back from Greece and she joins us for an in-depth explanation of what just happened, what it means for the people on the ground, and what is next for the working people of Greece and the rest of austerity-ridden Europe. We also talk about child care workers’ fight for $15, update you on the union at Salon and yet another digital media outlet’s union win, look at what Obama’s new climate plan means for workers, and hear about one union local’s demand that the AFL-CIO disaffiliate from police unions. For “Argh,” we look at the politics (and feelings) around the office, women, and sex work. News Salon.com Recognizes Union, Ending Monthlong Standoff With Editorial Staff (International Business Times) Guardian US Votes Unanimously To Unionize (Huffington Post) Michelle: How Childcare Actually Causes Poverty in America (The Nation) Univ. of California Academic Workers’ Union Calls on AFL-CIO To Terminate Police Union’s Membership (In These Times) Sarah and Michelle: Belabored Podcast #68: Good Cop, Bad Cop, with Joshua Freeman (Dissent) Michelle: Could Obama’s Clean Energy Plan Be Good For Coal Country? (The Nation) Conversation: Sarah Leonard: How Greece Put an Anti-Austerity, Anti-Capitalist Party in Power (The Nation) Sarah Leonard: Austerity Has Been Discredited. So Why Won’t It Die? (The Nation) More coverage of Greece at The Nation Killing the European Project (New York Times) A New Left in Greece: PASOK’s Fall and SYRIZA’s Rise (Dissent) Solidarity Clinics in Athens Solidarity 4 All Donate Page for Greece Medical Solidarity Fund Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Molly Smith, In this prostitution debate, listen to sex workers not Hollywood stars (Guardian) Sarah: Alana Massey, How Men’s Emotions are Preventing Gender Equality at Work (Pacific Standard) The post Belabored Podcast #83: Austerity and Solidarity in Greece, with Sarah Leonard appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. It’s not often that labor victories are featured in the news, and even rarer that the news itself is where the victory is happening. But two flagship online publications have been talking union. Following a characteristically brash public campaign, staffers at the Gawker family of websites recently voted to unionize with Writers Guild of America East. And Salon.com staff have followed with their own campaign to unionize, also with Writers Guild. We talk to Justin Molito, WGA East’s director of organizing, on what the unionization efforts at these publications mean for the future of “alternative” media, and what online journalism and the labor movement can learn from each other as they seek to build labor power on the digital horizon. We also round up news on the fast food workers’ win in New York’s Fight for $15, Greece’s austerity battles, and the labor struggles of airport workers and shipping port truckers. With recommended reading on the value of time and the labor of care.   News Michelle: New York Fast-Food Workers Win Their Fight for $15 (The Nation) New York Plans $15-an-Hour Minimum Wage for Fast Food Workers (New York Times) Michelle: What Fast-Food Workers Are Fighting For (The Nation) Michelle: LA’s Minimum Wage Workers Just Won $15 an Hour—How Many Will Actually Be Paid That? (The Nation) Truckers At Ports Of Los Angeles, Long Beach Strike Again, Oppose Classification As Independent Contractors (International Business Times) Sarah and Michelle: Belabored Podcast #57: Organizing the South, with Ben Speight (Dissent) Public hearing held for port workers being labeled as ‘independent contractors’ (WTOC) Michelle: How Can Greece Break Out of the Austerity Trap? (The Nation) The Theatre of the Absurd: Why there is no deal to be done over Greece (Europe’s World) Greece: The Struggle Continues (Jacobin) Austerity Has Been Discredited. So Why Won’t It Die? (The Nation) Workers call off strike at LaGuardia, JFK airports after employer says it will stay neutral on union membership (New York Daily News)   Conversation: Conversation: Justin Molito, Writers Guild of America East Writers, editors at Salon move to unionize (Poynter) Gawker Media Employees Vote to Form a Union, and the Bosses Approve (New York Times) Why We’ve Decided to Organize (Gawker) Michelle: Is Gawker’s Unionization a Sign That Creative Workers Are Finally Realizing Their Worth? (The Nation)   Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: Stephanie Luce, Time Is Political (Jacobin) Michelle: Bryce Covert, Is There Room for Women Workers Under Capitalism? (The Nation) Event: Erik Loomis in conversation with Sarah Jaffe, Wednesday July 29, 61 Local, 61 Bergen St, Brooklyn. The post Belabored Podcast #82: Labor Rising in New Media, with Justin Molito appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. Over the past few years, the study of the “history of capitalism” has taken off within the academy, as historians dig into the stories of the people and companies that have shaped the way capitalism operates. Our friends Betsy Beasley and David Stein host a monthly podcast, Who Makes Cents?, that delves into this history, interviewing scholars whose work covers issues from vagrancy to gentrification, electrical power to the coca leaf, and applying the lessons from their work to the issues and struggles of today. Betsy and David joined us for a special live crossover Belabored/Who Makes Cents? podcast, where we talked about why it’s important to study the history of capitalism, the connections between care work and supply-chain labor, how to stop discussing the economy like it’s a natural phenomenon, and what to do when Walmart won’t answer your calls. Plus, audience questions on the sharing economy and new social movements. Extra thanks to our friends at 61 Local in Brooklyn for hosting our event! Links: Who Makes Cents? Podcast Broadcasting Capitalism’s History: Betsy and David explain Who Makes Cents? The post Belabored Podcast #81: Live, with Who Makes Cents? appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. Corporations have been exploiting digital technology to control markets, surveil consumers, and disempower workers. But can labor seize technology for good? What if you could run a workplace organizing campaign through your smartphone or counter anti-union propaganda through instant social media blasts to co-workers? We speak with Mark Zuckerman, president of The Century Foundation, about the potential of “virtual labor organizing,” and how unions can use digital platforms to facilitate unionization and empower workers. We also look at the underbelly of Uber’s “sharing economy” and whether a recent legal dispute could force the car-service app to admit it’s actually a boss. Plus: news on the latest drama surrounding the Trans Pacific Partnership, a labor revolt in Vermont led by Ben & Jerry’s dairy workers, and a bonus clip of Verizon’s anti-labor propaganda. Finally, recommended reading on charter school unions and Charleston’s history of racial justice struggles. News Migrant Farmworkers Ask Ben & Jerry’s to Provide “Milk With Dignity,” Prepare National Day of Action (Toward Freedom) Michelle: This Will Make You Think Twice About Downing That Pint of Ben & Jerry’s in One Sitting Migrant Justice Leaked Verizon Wireless Anti-Union Video Tells Workers to “Do Your Research” (Occupy Wall St.) Verizon Wireless Workers Make History in Brooklyn (In These Times) Conversation: Sarah Leberstein, National Employment Law Project: Uber Driver Is Employee, CA Labor Commission Rules Michelle: Could This Be the Biggest Blow Yet to Uber’s Business Model? (The Nation) Mark Zuckerman, Century Foundation: Virtual Labor Organizing Can an app save the American labor movement? (Waging Nonviolence) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Rachel M. Cohen, “When Charters Go Union” (The American Prospect) Sarah: Lee Sustar, Charleston and the crucible of race and class (Socialist Worker) New York listeners: join us on July 7 at 61 Local in Brooklyn for Belabored Live! with Who Makes Cents. The post Belabored Podcast #80: Class Struggle? There’s An App for That appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. It’s been a big couple of weeks for low-wage workers: the Fight for $15 convention, new cities moving to $15 an hour (or discussing it), the Walmart shareholders meeting and attendant protests, new reports on the conditions of workers of color in retail, and the first wage board hearing here in New York State. Irene Tung of the National Employment Law Project testified before the wage board, and joins us this week to talk about this unconventional way that New York fast food workers might see a raise. We also discuss Walmart and hear from the workers who traveled to Bentonville to make their voices heard (and confront their CEO), look at Hillary Clinton’s words to the Fight for $15 convention, and get an update on what’s happening in Bangladesh two years after the Rana Plaza collapse. And for “Argh” we think about one of our favorite subjects: the corporatization of the university and its discontents.   News Michelle: $1,000 for a Dead Family Member—Is That Justice for Bangladesh’s Garment Workers? (The Nation) Michelle: This Is Black Friday in Bangladesh (The Nation) Sarah: Workers Confront Walmart Executives at Star-Studded Company Event (Truthout) Michelle: How the Retail Industry Keeps People of Color in Poverty (The Nation) Clinton backs labor, hints at $15 minimum wage (Vox) Slay seeks to raise minimum wage in St. Louis to $15 an hour (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) Ferguson Commission hears of economic struggles (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)   Conversation: Irene Tung, National Employment Law Project Cuomo Says He Will Create Labor Board To Investigate Fast Food Wages (The Albany Project) Michelle: The Fight For $15 Just Won a Powerful Supporter: Governor Cuomo (The Nation)   Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: Amanda Taub, I was a liberal adjunct professor. My liberal students didn’t scare me at all. (Vox) Michelle: Lee Siegel, Why I Defaulted on My Student Loans (New York Times) The post Belabored Podcast #79: On Board for $15 appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. In light of an unprecedented wave of labor organizing among graduate students, you might think the American college campus is being radicalized by an insurgency of revolutionary grad assistants. Actually, it’s more like graduate students are finding it harder and harder to survive on meager stipends under exploitative working conditions, and are becoming increasingly disillusioned with the commercialization of higher education in general. In response, many are finding creative ways to organize for fair pay and working conditions and more rights on a job that, until recently, many didn’t even consider a real job. This week, we bring you a live recording of Dissent’s recent forum on graduate student organizing, with Ella Wind of NYU, Kelly Goodman of Yale, Andrea Crow and Lindsey Dayton of Columbia, Cristina Groeger of Harvard, and Eli Nadeau of the New School for Social Research. They discuss the prospects for building an academic labor movement and, more specifically, the campaign to reverse a longstanding National Labor Relations Board precedent that bars graduate students from unionizing. In other news, we look at minimum wage hikes from coast to coast, growing inequality around the world, and adjunct labor in the classroom.   News Michelle: LA’s Minimum Wage Workers Just Won $15 an Hour—How Many Will Actually Be Paid That? (The Nation) #LARaiseTheWage Report: Global inequality continues to rise (Al Jazeera America) Original OECD report   Conversation: Michelle: Could Yale Graduate Students Be the Next to Unionize? (The Nation) NYU Victory: A Catalyst for University Organizing? (Dissent) GSOC-UAW Local 2110 Graduate Employees and Students Organization (GESO) GWC-UAW Local 2110 Graduate Workers of Columbia Hearings begin in New School grad-union recognition case (Capital New York)   Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Laura McKenna, The Cost of an Adjunct (The Atlantic) The post Belabored Podcast #78: The Union and the University appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. As the shape of the workplace—and of the workforce—has changed in recent years, many workers have been left behind, left out of a social safety net that was designed around an eight-hour industrial work day and a “family wage.” Some organizers, including Kati Sipp, our guest on this week’s podcast, have begun thinking of ways to solve this problem and to deal with automation. Sipp has been looking into the Universal Basic Income, and she joins us to explain what this policy is, which parts of the social safety net it would replace, why it matters for workers, and what it has to do with the unwaged work that women do in the home. We also check in on Democrats’ standing in the battle over the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, another battle over so-called right-to-work legislation in Missouri, a lawsuit trying to keep home care workers from getting minimum wage protections, and what you can do (besides feel guilty) about the working conditions of nail salon employees. And for “Argh,” we think about the work of mothers, and of freelancers. News Michelle: How Can You Get an Ethical Manicure? Support Worker Organizing (The Nation) 4 ways women can help clip nail salon abuses (amNewYork) Sarah: When Will We Stop Exploiting Home-Care Workers? (DAME) The 10 biggest lies you’ve been told about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (Salon) Senate Democrats Foil Obama on Asia Trade Deal (New York Times) Senate Cuts Deal To Pass Obama’s Secretive Trade Bills (Huffington Post) Sarah and Michelle: Belabored #73: Shedding Light on TPP Secrets, with Celeste Drake (Dissent) Missouri lawmakers send Nixon ‘right-to-work’ measure (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) Conversation: Kati Sipp, creator of Hack the Union Subscribe to the Hack the Union newsletter Kati Sipp: Why Labor should join the fight for Universal Basic Income (Hack the Union) Facebook group: Call labor unions to support basic income Thinking Utopian: How about a universal basic income? (Washington Post) Rethinking the Idea of a Basic Income for All (New York Times) Towards a Basic Income Law (P2P Foundation) How a Universal Basic Income Would Affect Poverty (Demos) Giving All Americans a Basic Income Would End Poverty (Slate) Basic income and the technological transition Should feminists support basic income? Basic Income on Reddit Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: Sheila Bapat, The Mother’s Day Myth: How We Thank Moms for Their ‘Free’ Labor (RH Reality Check) Michelle: Sarah Grey, Four Myths About the “Freelancer Class” (Jacobin) The post Belabored Podcast #77: Should the Labor Movement Support Basic Income? appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. This May Day, we bring you voices from two labor frontlines. First, we hear from the streets of Baltimore, where United Workers organizer Todd Cherkis is helping mobilize community members against police terror and for economic justice. Then, OUR Walmart activist Venanzi Luna talks about her experience organizing coworkers and confronting anti-union hostility at her store, which was recently abruptly shuttered in a move that activists call retaliation. We also bring you a slew of strikes—the ILWU’s May 1 port shutdown to protest police brutality, West Coast port truck drivers battling wage theft, federal contract workers demanding $15 and a union—plus the latest on the Trans Pacific Partnership. With recommended reading on embattled nurses and the decline of the eight-hour day. News ILWU announces it will shut down Bay Area ports to protest police brutality (Daily Kos) Live stream of the event at KPFA The Battle Over the Trans-Pacific Partnership and “Fast Track” Gets Hot (Truthout) Michelle and Sarah: Belabored #73 with Celeste Drake Alleging Millions in Wage Theft, West Coast Port Truckers Strike (In These Times) Sarah: Port Trucking Companies Steal More Than $1 Billion in Wages From Drivers (In These Times) Michelle: Federal Contract Workers Just Went on Strike in DC (The Nation) Conversation: United Workers Michelle: Baltimore’s Inescapable Inequality (The Nation) OUR Walmart Sarah: What’s the Real Reason Behind Walmart’s Store Shutdowns? (DAME) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Alexandra Robbins, “Doctors Throwing Fits,” Slate Sarah: Nathan Schneider, “Have We Seen the End of the 8-Hour Day?” The Nation The post Belabored Podcast #76: May Day Special! Labor Shuts It Down From Baltimore to Long Beach appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. This Wednesday, Tax Day saw nationwide protests not against taxes, but in favor of a living wage, as the Fight for $15 brought together fast food workers, home care and child care workers, college students, adjunct professors, Black Lives Matter activists, and even construction workers in strikes and demonstrations across the country and the world. We hear from health workers Agnes Maitland and Urcelyn, and Eugene Allen of 32BJ in New York, and Atlanta workers Mardie Hill, Dawn O’Neal, and Antwon Brown about why they joined the movement and what they hope it will achieve. We also look at the surprise closing of a Walmart store in California, the continuing fight for fair scheduling, the latest action by workers from Wells Fargo bank, and Quebec’s student strikes and anti-austerity protests. And we raise our hats this week to articles that reminded us of how hard it is to find work when you’ve had a felony conviction, and that education is not actually going to solve inequality. News Quebec: Students, Solidarity Strikes and Shutting Down Austerity at the Point of Production (Truthout) Quebec Student Leader: We Will Not Let Ourselves Be Ripped Off Language and Dissent: Translations & Dispatches from the Anti-Austerity Struggle in Quebec Sarah: The People’s LRAD (Dissent) Michelle: Can Labor Bring Wall Street Back to Main Street? (The Nation) Sarah: Could Teller Organizing Help Halt Bank Abuses? (In These Times) Retailers Scrutinized for Schedules and Staffing (New York Times) 530 Pico Rivera Walmart employees laid off after sudden closure of supercenter (San Gabriel Valley Tribune) Conversation Sarah: Glass Ceiling? Some of Us Are Still Trying to Earn a Living Wage (DAME) Michelle: Yesterday’s #FightFor15 Protests Were Big—and the Movement Is Only Growing (The Nation) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Elias Isquith, America’s criminal justice disgrace: How Apple’s ban of former felons reveals the long road to real reform (Salon) Sarah: Bryce Covert, Education Alone Won’t Put an End to Equal Pay Days (The Nation) The post Belabored Podcast #75: What’s Next in the Fight for $15? appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. What to expect when you’re expecting? Not much if you’re a low-wage working woman who happens to be pregnant, and your boss doesn’t understand the law. Last week, however, a UPS worker named Peggy Young was vindicated when the Supreme Court ruled the company had unfairly denied her reasonable accommodations on the job. Though the ruling came down long after her baby was born, it adds momentum to a nationwide push for basic protections for pregnant people’s rights at work—bolstered by new regulatory guidelines for pregnant workers and enhancements to the Americans with Disabilities Act. On the ground, it’s a much bumpier road, even though it’s become increasingly common for women to work during their pregnancy. We hear from Latavia Johnson, a Walmart worker in Illinois, and Melissa Josephs, Director of Equal Opportunity Policy at Women Employed, an Illinois-based organization that successfully campaigned for a new state law to protect pregnant worker’s rights. In other news, we talk about Silicon Valley’s sexism problems in the wake of the Ellen Pao verdict, the next moves in the Fight for 15, and labor struggles around school reform and credit checks for job applications in New York. With recommended reading on dreaming of a new world of sports, and a report on the real-life nightmares faced by minimum wage workers. News Five Things to Know About McDonald’s Wage Announcement (Fight For $15) Sarah: Is There Anything to Gain From Ellen Pao’s Loss? (DAME) Bumpy Road for Bill to Ban Credit Checks for Job Applicants (New York Times) NYC Coalition to Stop Credit Checks in Employment Cuomo Gets Deals on Tenure and Evaluations of Teachers (New York Times) Budget Deal Includes Tax Breaks For Luxury Yachts, Private Planes (The Albany Project) Conversation: Melissa Josephs of Women Employed and Walmart worker Latavia Johnson Michelle: The Unexpected Burden of Pregnancy at Work (The Nation) Michelle: Should You Lose Your Job Just Because You’re Pregnant? (The Nation) Michelle: Pregnant Women Just Earned More Workplace Rights in Illinois (The Nation) Michelle: Walmart’s Pregnancy Policy May Make You Sick (The Nation) Sarah: A Load Off the Minds (And Feet) of Pregnant Workers in NYC (In These Times) Sarah: Opting for Free Time (In These Times) Peggy Young’s Victory Is Not Enough (U.S. News) Police Officer Forced Onto Leave That Will Run Out Before Her Baby Is Even Born (ThinkProgress) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Chico Harlan, After a story is published, a minimum wage worker loses her job (Washington Post) Sarah: Dave Zirin, A World of Sports Worth Fighting For (The Nation) The post Belabored #74: Labor Pains, with Melissa Josephs and Latavia Johnson appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. What is the Trans-Pacific Partnership? It’s hard to know, since like many trade deals, this massive plan with ramifications for workers around the globe, not to mention environmental protections that affect our ability to deal with climate change, is being negotiated almost entirely in secret. But our guest this week, Celeste Drake, Trade & Globalization Policy Specialist at the AFL-CIO, knows as much as anyone outside of a few locked rooms knows about the TPP, so we asked her to fill us in on what’s happening—and why the whole thing has to be so hush-hush, anyway. We also bring you updates from Wisconsin, where Scott Walker is up to no good, from McDonald’s, where workers are being told to use condiments for first aid cream, on the continuing precarious conditions of guestworkers, and one company’s novel solution to women’s global oppression. And for Argh, we think about women in tech, and why maybe we should let go of this whole “work” thing anyway. News McDonald’s workers: We get burned on the job, told to ‘put mayonnaise on it’ (Daily Kos) Sarah: Scott Walker pushes through “right-to-work” law — and labor takes another hit (Salon) Scott Walker signs right-to-work bill (The Wisconsin Journal Sentinel) Michelle: This Boutique Bakery Was Paying Its Workers Peanuts (The Nation) GAO Report Sarah: Can Uber’s New Plan Really Drive Gender Equality? (The Daily Dose) Uber lawsuit Uber and Lyft face independent contractor challenges (Pittsburgh Post Gazette) Conversation: Celeste Drake, AFL-CIO Trade and Globalization Policy Specialist Michelle: Backdoor Talks on Trans-Pacific Trade Deal Aim to Globalize Corporatocracy (In These Times) Michelle: How US ‘Free Trade’ Policies Created the Central American Migration Crisis (The Nation) Michelle: Patents Against People: How Drug Companies Price Patients out of Survival (Dissent) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Leigh Harper, Meet the creative underclass of the tech industry (Quartz) Sarah: Brian Dean, Antiwork – a radical shift in how we view “jobs” (Contributoria) The post Belabored Podcast #73: Shedding Light on TPP Secrets, with Celeste Drake appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. Lawmakers across the country are racing to pass so-called “right-to-work” legislation, the euphemistically named union-busting policy that restricts the collection of fees from all workers covered by a union contract. Militating against the principle of the union shop, right-to-work campaigns have pushed bills in various states, coupled with court battles and fierce anti-union rhetoric peddled by politicians like Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. This week, Loyola University historian Elizabeth Shermer speaks with Belabored about the politics and history of right-to-work policies, and what labor can do to fight back. We also discuss the groundbreaking new student debt strike led by the Debt Collective, the truth about Walmart’s wage hike, the battle in Seattle for fair wages, and catering workers pressuring airlines to beef up their paltry healthcare benefits. With recommended reading about the evils of “workforce management” technology and the broken workers’ compensation system. News Sarah: ‘We won’t pay’: students in debt take on for-profit college institution (The Guardian) Michelle: What Happens if You Refuse to Pay Off Your Student Debt? (The Nation) Michelle: What You Should Know About Walmart’s Raise (The Nation) How Seattle Led the Country’s Wage Revolution (Yes! Magazine) Michelle: It Would Cost Just 5 Cents More Per Plane Ticket to Get Airport Catering Workers Some Decent Healthcare (The Nation) Conversation: Elizabeth Shermer, Loyola University Chicago Elizabeth Shermer: Democracy on the Defensive in Michigan (LAWCHA) As White House defends unions, states go on the attack (Al Jazeera America) In Wisconsin’s Battle Against Right to Work, Labor Goes Through the Motions (In These Times) The Folly of “Right to Work” (Dissent) The Ugly Racial History of “Right to Work” (Dissent) Michelle: Despite Exemptions, Police and Firefighters Show Labor Solidarity in Michigan Right-to-Work Battle (In These Times) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: Michael Grabell and Howard Berkes, The Demolition of Workers’ Comp (ProPublica) Michelle: Esther Kaplan, The Spy Who Fired Me (Harper’s) The post Belabored Podcast #72: The Right to Work for Less, with Elizabeth Shermer appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. MacArthur Fellow, founder of Domestic Workers United, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, co-founder of Caring Across Generations—Ai-jen Poo has many titles and accolades to her name. She’s now added another one to the list: author, of the new book The Age of Dignity: Preparing for the Elder Boom in a Changing America. In that book, she makes the case that the United States needs to create a new caring infrastructure to deal with its aging population—and that, importantly, that infrastructure needs to ensure that caring jobs are good jobs, paid well, with reasonable hours and the respect that is too often denied to care workers. She joins us this week to talk about her book, her work organizing domestic workers, how care work is undervalued, and how racism and sexism contributed to the crisis in caring labor. We also bring you an update from the United Steelworkers’ growing oil strike, a look at the labor strife slowing down West Coast ports, the bad news from Illinois, where the new governor is declaring a war on public sector unions, and some good news from right here in New York, where the Cablevision workers have won a three-year-plus struggle for a union. For “Argh,” we revisit the working conditions of home care aides and of freelance journalists. News Managers bunk down at US refineries as United Steelworkers strike enters third week (Reuters) Nurses join oil workers’ strike at Tesoro refinery (Contra Costa Times) Labor Network for Sustainability Calls for Support for Oil Strikers (Labor Network for Sustainability) In Stand for People and Planet Over Profit, Green Groups Back Oil Worker Strike (Common Dreams) Oil Workers Threaten to Expand Strike to Long Beach Port (Bloomberg) As strike continues, Exxon Mobil offers a bonus for a five-year deal in Beaumont (Houston Chronicle) Class Struggle Environmentalism (Jacobin) Dock workers labor dispute: more cargo ships backed up at west coast hub in US (The Guardian) Republicans Think They’ve Finally Figured Out How to Kill Unions (The New Republic) Sarah: How 262 Cable Technicians Defeated A Union-Busting Giant (The Nation) Conversation: The Age of Dignity: Preparing for the Elder Boom in a Changing America by Ai-jen Poo Caring Across Generations Domestic Workers United Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: Bryce Covert, Meet The Workers Caring For Our Elderly While Living In Poverty (ThinkProgress) Michelle: David Uberti, New survey reveals everything you think about freelancing is true (Columbia Journalism Review) The post Belabored Podcast #71: Building Care, with Ai-jen Poo appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. Behind every drop of the nation’s black gold is the blood, sweat and tears of union workers. Today U.S. oil workers are on strike, in the largest walkout since 1980. After contract talks broke down on Sunday, United Steelworkers launched a work stoppage at nine refinery sites, representing an estimated 10 percent of the country’s refining capacity. So far only one refinery has been fully shuttered, but if the strike spreads to all USW members, nearly two-thirds of total domestic fuel production could be halted. The union was pushing back against Royal Dutch Shell, which had been bargaining on behalf of various companies, on critical workplace safety problems as well as issues involving health benefits and the use of temp labor. We spoke to Steve Garey, president of United Steelworkers local 12-591 in Mount Vernon, WA, about what’s at stake for USW workers, the decision to strike, and how the industry has undermined worker safety over the years and put us all at risk. In our news roundup, we loook at Syriza’s backlash against “free trade” in Greece, a bill for cheerleader equity in California, the fight against sexual harassment at Ford, and a win for domestic worker justice in Lebanon. And we recommend reading on emotional labor at McDonald’s and peak everything in China. News Syriza Official Vows to Kill EU-US Trade Deal as ‘Gift to All European People’ (Common Dreams) California Rep. Introduces Bill To Force NFL To Start Paying Cheerleaders Minimum Wage (ThinkProgress) Women Sue Ford Over Sexual Harassment (Labor Notes) Region’s first domestic workers union fights for life (The Daily Star) Conversation: Steve Garey, United Steelworkers local 12-591 US oil workers strike over pay, benefits and safety (Al Jazeera America) Refinery Shuts as U.S. Oil Workers Strike Reaches Second Day (Bloomberg Business) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Matt Sheehan, China Nears Peak Coal, But Its Rustbelt Pays the Price (The World Post) Sarah: Bryce Covert, A Job at McDonald’s Now Includes Singing and Dancing on Demand (The Nation) The post Belabored Podcast #70: Striking Oil, with Steve Garey appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. We hear a lot (and talk a lot here on Belabored) about the decline of stable jobs for working-class people, the collapse of manufacturing in the United States, the casualization of work, and the hollowing-out of the middle class. But what do those workplace changes mean for the working-class family? We ask Andrew Cherlin, Johns Hopkins University sociologist and author of a new book, Labor’s Love Lost, that looks at the rise and fall of the nuclear family in America, our cultural longing for the “Leave it to Beaver” ideal, and how the workplace shapes our family life. In our news roundup, we look at Obama’s workplace proposals in the State of the Union (and whether they’re likely to go anywhere), the “Reclaim MLK” actions on Martin Luther King Day weekend, and the latest attack on the rights and work of home care workers. We also hear from Vermonters who are not willing to let single-payer healthcare go without a fight. And for “Argh” we discuss striking mental health care workers under the Affordable Care Act, and ask who Haiti’s so-called “recovery,” years after its devastating earthquake, is serving. News Sarah: The Sick Leave Policy Democrats Needed in November (The Week) Michelle: Walmart’s Pregnancy Policy May Make You Sick (The Nation) Can the U.S. Ever Fix Its Messed-Up Maternity Leave System? (Bloomberg Businessweek) Airport workers, others protest on Martin Luther King birthday (Reuters) Michelle: Judge Rules That Home Care Workers Are Really Just ‘Companions’ (The Nation) Healthcare is a Human Right Campaign Open Letter Calling Legislators to Action (Vermont Workers’ Center) Conversation: Labor’s Love Lost: The Rise and Fall of the Working-Class Family in America, by Andrew Cherlin Andrew Cherlin: The Real Reason Richer People Marry (The New York Times) Michelle: America’s Workplaces Are Hostile to Families’ (The Nation) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Sarah: Sam P. K. Collins, Meet The Mental Health Care Workers On The Front Lines Of A Statewide Strike (ThinkProgress) Michelle: Nixon Boumba, It’s been five years since Haiti’s earthquake. And the ‘redevelopment’ hasn’t been about helping Haitians. (The Washington Post) The post Belabored Podcast #69: Laborers and Lovers, with Andrew Cherlin appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. 2014 closed out with a wave of protests against police violence, and now, with police-community tensions coming to a boil, across New York City, 2015 has begun with a wave of cop rebellion, from the fighting words of a police union chief to a coordinated back-turning against the Mayor, to an apparent work slowdown, as summonses and arrests take a mysterious dive. We peer behind the blue wall this week with historian Josh Freeman, to discuss how police and their unions fit within the labor movement, and parse the political contradictions of uniformed officers getting organized on the one hand, and serving as agents of the establishment on the other. Our news round-up features new family-friendly workplace laws in 2015, the latest effort to leave more food stamp recipients empty-handed, anti-austerity battles in Greek politics, and struggles for safety among Latino construction workers. Plus some recommended reading on an innovative organizing campaign in an online school system, and the subtle politics of slacking. News Michelle: America’s Workplaces Are Hostile to Families (The Nation) Food stamp benefit cut may force a million people into ‘serious hardship’ (Al Jazeera America) Alexis Tsipras or Antonis Samaras? Greece begins to weigh up the options (The Guardian) Construction Work Is Getting More Deadly, But Only For Latinos (Buzzfeed) Conversation: Joshua Freeman, Professor of History at the Murphy Institute, Queens College, and the CUNY Graduate Center Police unions, organized labor have rarely seen eye to eye (Al Jazeera America) Smash the Lynch Mob (Jacobin) Stop Kidding Yourself: The Police Were Created to Control Working Class and Poor People (LAWCHA) The NYPD Slowdown Is Proving That ‘Broken Windows’ Is a Failure. Isn’t It Time to Drop It? (The Root) Michelle: How Should Labor Respond to Police Unions? (The Nation) Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Samantha Winslow, Virtual Teaching, Real Organizing (Labor Notes) Sarah: Lindsay Beyerstein, Slacking Workers of the World Unite (In These Times) The post Belabored Podcast #68: Good Cop, Bad Cop, with Joshua Freeman appeared first on Dissent Magazine.

As protests continue to grow around the country under the banner “Black Lives Matter,” workers in the Walmart and fast food organizing campaigns have linked their struggles to those of people calling for justice for Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and other black people killed by police. We talk to Washington, D.C. Walmart worker Glova Scott and St. Louis Burger King worker Carlos Robinson about their strikes over the last two weeks and the connection to calls for boycotts and further action by the growing racial justice movement. We also speak with graduate student worker Jon LaRochelle at the University of Oregon about the graduate students’ strike for paid family leave, and are joined by Lindsey Dayton and Olga Brudastova of Columbia University to discuss their drive for graduate student union recognition. And we take on the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision that workers’ time doesn’t matter and the passage of a retail workers’ bill of rights. Finally, for a holiday-season “Argh,” we look at the secret lives of airport workers, and why working people have a harder time getting married.   News Michelle: Want to Exploit Retail Workers? In San Francisco, It’ll Cost You Workers at Amazon Warehouses Won’t Get Paid for Standing in Security Lines Panel of Ivy League Graduates Determines That Wage Laborers Should Perform Required Tasks For Employers Without Compensation Michelle: Supreme Court Case Shows How Amazon Legally Cheats Workers University of Oregon strike ends after 22-hour mediation session University of Oregon Graduate Teaching Fellows on Strike Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation at University of Oregon Michelle: How Did These Graduate Students Improve Their Working Conditions? They Went on Strike!   Conversation Sarah: Why the Ferguson Protesters Marched on Walmart Michelle: Black Friday Rage, from Ferguson to Walmart Sarah: Black Poverty is State Violence, Too: Why Struggles for Criminal Justice and Living Wage are Uniting Michelle: Bodies on the Gears on Black Friday A Herstory of #BlackLivesMatter Ferguson Response   Argh! I Wish I’d Written That Sarah: Melissa Chadburn, The Secret Life of the American Airport Worker (Jezebel) Michelle: Andrew Cherlin, The Real Reason Richer People Marry (New York Times) The post Belabored Podcast #67: Bodies On the Gears appeared first on Dissent Magazine.