Home, Labor Studies, Student Work

#MovementEquality

By Tamara Robinson

I consider myself an ally to my LGBTQ brothers and sisters, and I am damn proud of it.

This can make me less proud of the labor movement I am so committed to due to its tendency to overlook the experiences of gay, lesbian, trans, queer, bi-sexual, gender questioning, and otherwise unconventionally-sexed individuals in the workplace in the fight for workers’ rights.

This tendency to overlook falls into an all-too-familiar pattern in which social movements fight for the empowerment of marginalized groups by waging a segmented battle for air time, resources, and legal wins. In this model, a “victory” carves out one minority population’s access to a right or institution from which they were previously excluded, with the hope that this will leave breadcrumbs so that the next group can take up the fight. Continue reading #MovementEquality →

Home, Murphy News

NYC Organizers Share Lessons from Spanish Anti-Austerity Movements at Murphy

This article was originally featured on The Indypendent.

By Janaki Chadha

After Greece, Spain has been one of the European countries hardest hit by the economic crisis that began in 2008. Unemployment stands at almost 25% and for young people it is twice that high. Spanish voters registered their desire for change in municipal elections on May 24 that brought leftist to power in Madrid, Barcelona and a half dozen other cities.

NYC to Spain, a diverse group of 20 mostly New York City-based activists, was on hand to witness and learn from Spain’s democratic uprising. On Tuesday evening, they gathered at the Murphy Institute to share their experiences and observations on Spain’s vibrant social movements. A crowd of about 100 people was on hand.

“We all know that the context is really different, but there are still commonalities,” said Lucas Shapiro, one of the organizers of the delegation. “Part of the importance of global solidarity is to be able to learn from other movements.” Continue reading NYC Organizers Share Lessons from Spanish Anti-Austerity Movements at Murphy →

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News Roundup 7/10/15

Happy hot, hot Friday. The world continues to turn — a promising week on the civil rights front, a high-intensity time on the geopolitical stage. Here’s what you might have missed:

  • South Carolina takes the confederate flag down from its state house. #finally. Check out Wanda Williams-Bailey, Strom Thurmond’s granddaughter — an interracial woman — talk about the decision on Democracy Now.
  • In somewhat related news, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the appointment of the Attorney General as a special prosecutor in all cases involving unarmed or potentially unarmed civilians killed by the police — a welcome step in the right direction. (via CNN)
  • The Obama administration is set to release new regulations on segregation “designed to repair the law’s unfulfilled promise and promote the kind of racially integrated neighborhoods that have long eluded deeply segregated cities like Chicago and Baltimore” (via Washington Post)
  • Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association will be tried before the Supreme Court next term, which starts in October. Learn more about the potential effects on public sector unionism at SCOTUSblog.
  • In the face of civil rights advances for same-sex couples, the culture appears to be shifting to final discussing the plight of transgender individuals. The NYTimes ran a feature this week highlighting some of their stories. Read about Joni Christian, a union member and transgender woman.
  • London Underground employees went on strike yesterday for the first time in 13 years.
  • After a resounding “No” vote by Greeks to the last deal on the table with Greece’s creditors, PM Alexis Tsipras has surprised many by offering a deal with similarly harsh austerity measures.
  • Rumors have it that the US State Department is reclassifying Malaysia’s status as a human rights violator in order to allow the Southeast Asian country to remain in TPP negotiations. If true, it would mean that human rights violations are “being trumped by corporate trade.”

Photo by Will Spaetzel via flickr (CC-BY-NC-SA).

Home, Labor Studies, Urban Studies

Tube Shutdown: London Underground Workers on Strike

For the first time in 13 years, the London Tube was shut down today, as workers went on strike after the London Underground (LU) and the unions failed to agree to a deal over pay and night-time service.

After a 36 hour total-network shutdown of approximately 20,000 workers, the strike technically ends at the end of today (Thursday). Service tomorrow morning will be significantly reduced.

Photo by David McKelvey via flickr (CC-BY-NC-SA).

Home, Labor Studies, Media

Making History: Banning the Box & Labor in Queer America

Audio

 

We’re living in historic times. Over the past few months, we’ve seen marriage equality become the law across the United States. More locally, we’ve seen the NYC Fair Chance Act fundamentally alter the economic opportunity landscape for those with criminal records, requiring public and private sector employers to wait until after a conditional job offer to make any inquiries about criminal history.

Just how did we get here? On this week’s edition of Building Bridges Radio with Mimi Rosenberg and Ken Nash, the hosts talk with Miriam Frank, author of Out in the Union: A Labor History Of Queer America, along with Brandon Holmes, Community Civil Rights Organizer with VOCAL-NY, which has been instrumental in NYC’s Ban the Box efforts.

Check it out.

Home, Labor Studies, Workforce

In Search of a Model: Workforce Development in Corporate America

How have decades of union busting, “right-to-work” and the decline of organized labor affected workforce development? According to Corporate America beat back its best job trainers, and now it’s paying a price, a post on the Washington Post’s Wonkblog by Lydia DePillis, they’ve led to a decline in overall job preparedness — alongside an ever-growing need for an educated workforce.  DePillis writes:

Although unions have historically constructed high-quality educational pipelines to well-paying jobs in cooperation with employers, labor has lost ground over the years. In the absence of union training programs, businesses in vast sectors of the economy are scrambling to meet their workforce needs through other means, like piecemeal job training programs and partnerships with community colleges, with few solutions that have really broad reach.

…

Over the years, [costs have] shifted to workers and the public education system. Companies in general have been spending less on training, as jobs have grown more transitory. Companies don’t see the point in investing in someone who’ll only stick around for a few years, if that, particularly when economic prospects are uncertain. So, at a time when manufacturing requires more sophisticated knowledge, the companies have found themselves without a base of trained workers, leading to complaints about a “skills gap.”

For the full article, visit the Washington Post.

 

Photo by Bill Jacobus via flickr (CC-BY).

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