Home, Labor Studies

Leaning In and Fighting Back

By Ella Mahony

Residents of Cambridge, MA often playfully call the city “The People’s Republic of Cambridge”, a tongue-in-cheek reference to its lefty politics and multicultural vibe. But the city is also well known for hosting a worldwide bastion of privilege and power, Harvard University. It is that paradox that is playing out right now at “Harvard’s Hotel”, the Hilton Doubletree Suites hotel owned by the university that lies only a mile away.

It is at the Doubletree that hotel workers have been organizing for a fair process to decide on a union with Unite-Here! Local 26, Boston’s hospitality and food service workers union. Leading the charge have been the female housekeepers that do most of the hotel’s drudge work, many of whom are immigrant women of color. They are fighting, among other things, for better insurance and a safer workplace, one where they are not expected to put their health at risk to turn over more rooms. Most importantly, they are fighting for respect and a chance for their work to be recognized. Continue reading Leaning In and Fighting Back →

Home, Labor Studies

Murphy Institute Scholarship Program Promotes Diversity in Labor

Dr. Greg Mantsios is Founder and Director of the Murphy Institute

One year ago, the Murphy Institute announced creation of a scholarship program designed to promote diversity in labor leadership and labor education. The mission of the Joseph S. Murphy Scholarship Program — named in honor of former CUNY Chancellor Joseph S. Murphy, a tireless advocate for working people — is to foster a new generation of labor leaders and labor studies educators who reflect the composition of the U.S. workforce, now nearly half women and more than 30% people of color.  We are pleased to report that our first scholarship recipients will begin their studies in September, 2014.

The 2014-15 scholarship winners will be recognized at our second annual scholarship fundraiser at the Murphy Institute on Tuesday, June 24th, 6:00  p.m. to 8:00 p.m. The event has multiple purposes, including recognition of rising leaders in the labor movement. However, our principal objective is to raise funds for continuance of the scholarship. We hope to raise $100,000 this year (and in each of the following four years) to match a challenge grant initiated by former CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein. If we are successful, it will mean $1 million dollars in scholarship money for students from diverse constituencies. Continue reading Murphy Institute Scholarship Program Promotes Diversity in Labor →

Home, Labor Studies, Urban Studies

The World Cup: Panem et Circenses et Transit (Killjoy Alert!)

Kafui Attoh is an Assistant Professor of Urban Studies at the Murphy Institute.

The World Cup is upon us! All praise be to FIFA! In less than a week, millions of people worldwide will tune into what promises to be the largest global bread and circus event of the year. Indeed, an estimated half a million fans will descend on Brazil itself — no doubt, to partake in the spectacle first hand. As is now common with these mega events, the World Cup boasts its own theme song — a predictably forgettable anthem by J-Lo and Pitbull called “We Are One (Ole Ola).” It will also have its own cuddly mascot — Fuleco, an anime-inspired “three-banded Armadillo.” Reportedly, Fuleco is modeled on an endangered species native to Brazil.

With all the makings of a Hollywood blockbuster, the World Cup is a big deal. For the host nation, the finances alone are absurd. Since “winning” the right to host the tournament seven years ago, Brazil has spent $11.3 billion on Cup related infrastructure projects. Many of these projects — despite the desperate need for hospitals and better transit — have been limited to new arenas and new stadiums. An additional $800 million has been spent on security alone as roughly 170,000 security personnel have been dispatched across the country to regulate crowds and secure arenas. “Ordem without Progresso,” as Brazilians might say.

Continue reading The World Cup: Panem et Circenses et Transit (Killjoy Alert!) →

Home, Labor Studies

Congratulations to our Labor Studies MA Graduates!

Last night we celebrated the MA graduation of twenty-four students in the Labor Studies Program. There was a strong feeling of accomplishment and happiness among students, faculty, and staff, who are all very proud of our student body.  They are not only very accomplished and committed to advance social justice, but also incredibly diverse: they come from varied national, cultural and ethnic backgrounds; they represent almost every generational group, and they work for a wide-array of organizations making an impact on the labor movement in the area.

Our 2014 Labor Studies graduates are: Ruth Basantes, Jonathan Beatrice, Samuel Bick, Pauline Boothe, Stephen Cheng, Daniel Corum, Irene Dess, Yolanda Dunn, Lydia Edmunds, William Fitzpatrick, Helen Foreman-Hines, Pamela Galpern, Thisanjali Gangoda, Dorla Grant, Eric Kaufman, Elaine Kitt, David Kranz, Ryan Lum, Jameelah Muhammad, Eduardo Rosario, Patrick Shepherd, Florence Wong, Christine Wong, and Han Chun Xin.

Home, Labor Studies

Newark Students Sit-In to Protest Charter Schools

Dr. Stephen Brier is part of the Consortial Faculty at The Murphy Institute

The current political struggle over charter schools has often pitted poor parents and students of color against teacher unions. That division has a long and bitter history that can be traced back almost half a century to the divisive 10-week long strike in fall 1968 by the United Federation of Teachers against local community control efforts to improve the New York City public schools. That epochal struggle profoundly changed the city’s racial and ethnic politics. And over the past four decades the relationship between teachers unions and communities of color has frequently been marked by sharp disagreements and sometimes open battles about the best ways to improve the public schools.

The recent charter school movement has sought to take advantage of this breech between communities of color and the labor movement, using smart tactics and a lot of hedge fund and private capital funding to develop charter schools that use public money and public spaces for private gain, all under the guise of improving education by giving parents “school choice.” The charter school movement has been able to drive a wedge that keeps the forces fighting for vital educational transformation at odds with unionized teachers and their leaders.

But in Newark, New Jersey, students recently decided to take a forceful stand on this issue. They inserted themselves directly into the charter school struggle, staging a dramatic sit-in last week against the school superintendent, Cami Anderson, because of her uncritical support for charter schools in their city. When Anderson attempted to address a Newark school board meeting last week in support of expansion of charter schools, she was confronted by Newark Student Union President Kristin Towkaniuk, who shouted “We will not move until we have justice.” It’s important to remember that the Newark public schools received a huge $100 million donation from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in 2010, funds that were earmarked for expanding “school choice” in the troubled city. Newark students are telling Zuckerberg, Anderson and other charter school supporters loud and clear that charter schools are not the answer to the systemic problems with the city’s public school system.
Photo by Paul Sableman via flickr (CC-BY).

Home, Labor Studies

South Asian Contract Workers at NYU’s Abu Dhabi Campus Exploited

Dr. Stephen Brier is part of the Consortial Faculty at The Murphy Institute

As if we needed yet another indication that New York University (NYU) exploits its employees (while also blatantly disregarding the needs and desires of its downtown neighbors), The New York Times reports on the deplorable conditions experienced by South Asian contract workers who were brought to build NYU’s glittering monument to its own hubris, the Abu Dhabi campus of the college in the United Arab Emirates. Being forced to pay labor recruiters as much as a year’s wages in order to gain the privilege of working 6 or 7 days a week, 12 hours a day (much like indentured servants in the 17th and 18th centuries), and to live in numbered “labor camps,” which are little more than prisons, led many contract workers to go out on strike for better wages and working conditions. Their efforts were met by stark repression by the Abu Dhabi government. Five years ago, NYU offered a fig-leaf when these conditions in Abu Dhabi were first revealed, claiming it had issued a “Statement of Labor Values,” which turns out not to be worth the paper it was printed on.

This system is a perfect example of who pays the price for academic and cultural globalization and exploitation, a system that NYU and its tin-eared leader, John Sexton, have proudly perfected over the past decade. If you are interested in learning more about conditions in Abu Dhabi, check out this online article by NYU journalism student Kristina Bogos, who visited one of the UAE labor camps.

Updated: 5/20 at 3:30 PM

Responding to the May 19 article in the New York Times, NYU offered “our apologies” to exploited Abu Dhabi contract workers, as reported in a follow-up article in the Times. The Times piece ends with a quotation from Ramkumar Rai, a Nepali immigrant who worked on the Abu Dhabi project who is still waiting for his final six months of pay 16 months after he left the UAE: “When will the money? If the money comes it will be O.K.”

Photo by Nick & Mindy Martin via flickr (CC-BY-NC).

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