How do you create a labor organizer? SLU’s Union Semester program is a good place to start. Just ask Brittany Anderson.
Brittany suspected early on that the American Dream wasn’t real for most working people. Raised in rural Minnesota by a single mom who worked multiple jobs, income inequality wasn’t a theoretical concept, it was a daily reality. So she decided to do something about it.
Brittany moved to New York City for college in 2008 and got involved with the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011. “I had no idea how huge the labor movement was, how powerful. It really opened my eyes,” she said. The young protester from the Midwest quickly found herself under the wing of seasoned union organizers, who recognized her passion and potential. They told her about the Union Semester program at CUNY’s Murphy Institute and in Spring 2014 she enrolled.
On Friday, November 15th, SLU hosted a Labor Forum on the future of labor rights. 135 people attended to hear how the labor movement can fight for workers’ rights and protections while the Trump administration continues to attempt to roll them back.
Featured speakers included:
Randi Weingarten — President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).
Steven Greenhouse — Veteran New York Times labor journalist and author of the new book, Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor.
Vincent Alvarez – President of NYC Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO
Although union density is near an all-time low, labor activism has surged in many sectors. From adjunct faculty to video game developers, digital media workers, platform app drivers, and public school teachers, labor movement activism is growing in a number of key sectors. This is happening as many full-time jobs with benefits are disappearing, consumer/student debt is skyrocketing, the “gig economy” is expanding, and economic insecurity is increasing for American workers and families. Housing and child care costs – which heavily impact workers’ income, wealth, and health – have also become more burdensome for many families. Under President Trump, a number of worker rights and protections have been weakened or denied, including:
• No movement toward federal minimum wage increase
• Weak overtime protections for salaried workers
• Allowing employers to self-report wage violations and escape penalties • Siding with employers against rights of gay and transgender workers
• (Mis)classifying Uber drivers and others as independent contractors, denying them basic rights
• Continuing ‘Right-to-Work’ efforts kickstarted by Supreme Court’s Janus decision
• Restricting workers’ right to organize at franchised businesses like McDonald’s
• De-funding and weakening OSHA
What should be Democrats’ top policy priorities to strengthen all workers’ rights? What are the most significant gaps and weaknesses in protections for worker organizing and economic rights today? ‘Right-to-work’ laws? Legal constraints against strikes and other worker actions? Minimum wage? The growing numbers of workers who fall outside the protections of the NLRA? Lack of livable safety net benefits for displaced and underemployed workers? Lack of protections for flex/gig workers? What new policies would best promote stronger worker protections and greater economic justice?
Workers’ Studio: El Co-op is a series of collaborative art projects that use art as a tool for worker-led organizing. The Workers’ Studio is nomadic, and functions mostly in Day Laborers’ Worker Centers as a weekly encounter facilitated by artist (and 2019 SLU alumna) Sol Aramendi. Aramendi works on socially engaged art collaborations that are part of an evolving social sculpture integrating labor, immigration and art. Workers use the studio to create art projects that support their organizing and advocacy. The exhibition features a series of photographs, writing and works created by the participants.
The exhibition runs through January 12th at the Queens Museum located in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Click here for more information.
The first episode features an interview with former New York Times labor reporter Steven Greenhouse, a field report on the gig economy, and on-the job profiles of a nail salon worker and one of New York City’s remaining blacksmiths. It also has a “Culture at Work” segment highlighting subway musicians.
City Works will appear the first Monday of every month at 8 PM.
With the release of their annual report on the state of labor in the United States, SLU professors Ruth Milkman and Stephanie Luce have shown that organized labor remains far stronger in New York City and state than elsewhere in the nation — but that union erosion has also contributed disproportionately to low-wage job growth.
Ten-years after the Great Recession of 2008, employment has rebounded in New York City and in New York state, where the unemployment rate was 4.0% in July 2019. However, this job growth has been disproportionately concentrated in low-wage industries, especially in the private sector. This year’s report, State of the Unions 2019, A Profile of Organized Labor in New York City, New York State, and the United States, reveals that in recent decades, losses in union membership have been disproportionately concentrated in the private sector, a trend that accelerated after the Great Recession. By contrast, in the public sector, union density has been relatively stable in the City, while declining slightly over the past few years in the U.S. and New York State. Continue reading SLU Professors Publish Annual State of the Unions Report→
We just graduated the first class from the new CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies! We never would have gotten to this point without the continuous support of the New York Labor Movement. So, this Sept. 7th, we’ll join in solidarity with our union sisters and brothers by marching in the Labor Day Parade. It’s a great opportunity to join fellow colleagues, students, alumni and faculty in showing our thanks to all helped make our school a reality.
We’ll be meeting up at 9:00 AM, and marching out at 10:00 AM. from 44th St. between 5th and Madison — less than a block from SLU!
Remember, since we are marching in the first group, you will have plenty of time to circle back to your own local to march with them!
A conversation about workers, communities and social justice
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