On the Contrary

2016-08-162017-07-11 Jay Youngdahl, Ai-jen Poo and Palak Shah

In this article, views of Jay Youngdahl are expressed followed by a response from Ai-jenPoo and Palak Shah Greed-Washing the On-Demand

On the Contrary

2015-12-282016-03-30 Bill Fletcher, Jr, Amy Dean and Michael M. Oswalt

Responses to “Careful What You Wish For”

[Responses to “Careful What You Wish For”] Response by Bill Fletcher, Jr Lance Compa has written a compelling critique of many

Collection: International Ladies Garment Workers Union Photographs (1885-1985)

On the Contrary

2015-12-282019-06-17 Lance Compa

Careful What You Wish For: A Critical Appraisal of Proposals to Rebuild the Labor Movement

Alarmed at declining union density and frustrated with the National Labor Relations Act, many worker advocates want to ditch the NLRA, forsake traditional unions, and start the labor movement afresh. But they should not let novelty overwhelm judgment. Many of these new ideas are clever in theory, but in practice…

On the Contrary

2015-10-162018-05-04 Lance Compa

For Rooted Unions: Lance Compa’s Reply to New Labor Forum Debate Respondents

See original article here. See responses here. Thanks to all the contributors for their incisive and challenging responses to “Careful

White and African American males hold signs that read: "The Dress Shipping Clerks' Won't Cross the Picket Line. We Stand United with the Dressmakers Union!" 1958.

Featured On the Contrary The Environment

2015-06-082019-06-17 Sean Sweeney

Green Capitalism Won’t Work

For the last 20 years, unions in the U.S. and internationally have generally accepted the dominant discourse on climate policy, one that is grounded in assumptions that private markets will lead the “green transition,” reduce emissions, and stabilize the climate over the longer term. Indeed, unions began attending the climate negotiations convened by the UN in the early 1990s, a time when the “triumph of the market” went unchallenged and the climate debate was awash with neoliberal ideas. Unions therefore focused on articulating the need for “Just Transition” policies.

Class Featured On the Contrary

2015-01-172018-06-21 Richard Kahlenberg and Julie Park

Class-Based Affirmative Action

In the press, debates over affirmative action in higher education pit liberals (who support taking race into account in admissions) and conservatives (who oppose it). But there is a third way on the issue—affirmative action based on class, rather than race—which is far more progressive than our current system of racial preferences, the class-based approach is quickly gaining ground.

International Labor & Politics On the Contrary

2014-08-142018-06-21 Andrew Ross and Jo-Ann Mort

Should Labor Boycott Israel?

The BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) campaign is shaping up as one of these historical moments when everyone has to choose which side they are on. Trade unionists have good reason to know what this feels like. Labor history is punctuated with similar contests, when nuanced views on strategy have run their course and we are left with a stark moral choice.

On the Contrary U.S. Politics & Society

2014-06-042018-06-21 Kathi Weeks

The Problems with Work

Despite my use of the singular in the title, The Problem with Work: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics, and Postwork Imaginaries (2011) explores several problems with work. My focus is not so much on the difficulties of this or that job but on the failures of the system of waged work together with the values and ways of life that support and are produced by it. Some of these problems fit under three general headings: underwork, overwork, and non-work.

On the Contrary

2014-01-242015-01-14 Ivan Greenberg

Impossible Unity: Adjuncts and Tenure-Track Faculty

n 2005, an estimated 42.6 million Americans (about 31 percent of the U.S. workforce) toiled as contingent workers outside full-time, regular year-round employment. And the problem is getting worse. By 2020, more than 40 percent may work under insecure conditions: underpaid and without job protection as well as lacking many benefits such as health insurance, pensions, and vacations with pay. Unionizing this large segment of the workforce has proved difficult. Only about 6 percent of part-time employees are union members, compared to 12.5 percent for full-timers.

On the Contrary

2014-01-242015-01-14 Eve S. Weinbaum and Max Page

Solidarity: An Argument for Faculty Unity

As in many industries and professions, stable and coveted careers in higher education have transformed into contingent, low-paid jobs. As tenured full professors retired, they were replaced with adjuncts, part-time instructors, full-time non-tenure-system faculty, and other “contract” faculty. The shift was rapid and dramatic: from 1975 to 2010 part-time faculty increased by 300 percent, and the full-time tenure-track professoriate lost more than half its members.