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SLU Alum Liam Lynch Fights for Worker Safety During Pandemic

Liam Lynch (M.A. Labor Studies 2015) is on the front lines of the COVID-19 response. Not in a hospital, but in a classroom. Not wielding a stethoscope and a thermometer, but a Powerpoint presentation and the law.

Liam works as a Safety & Health Specialist with the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH), a non-profit comprised of workers, unions, community-based organizations, workers’ rights activists, and health and safety professionals committed to defending every individual’s right to a safe and healthy workplace. Continue reading SLU Alum Liam Lynch Fights for Worker Safety During Pandemic →

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New Labor Forum Highlights: April 2020

The New Labor Forum has a monthly newsletter on current topics in labor, curated by the some of the most insightful scholars and activists in the labor world today. Check out some highlights from the latest edition below.

The whiplashing, inept national response to the coronavirus pandemic puts on full view our threadbare national social safety net and slim worker protections. In 2018, 45 percent of working-age adults, or 87 million people, confronted illness with insufficient health coverage or none at all for at least part of the year. The piecemeal U.S. unemployment system, erected in the 1930s to keep the jobless masses from communist alignment, is insufficient even during periods of low unemployment, but wholly inadequate to the current task of responding to the massive shuttering of businesses. At the outset of the pandemic, about a quarter of U.S. workers got no paid sick leave, and could be fired at will for nearly any reason, including calling in sick. A majority of these workers are made doubly vulnerable by their low wages that force them to live paycheck to paycheck. And it also turns out that many of them happen to be “essential workers,” in the idiom of today’s pandemic, who harvest crops, stock supermarket shelves, and ship prized staples like toilet paper from Amazon warehouses.
Progressive activists, policy makers, and intellectuals have begun to propose organizing and policy solutions to the underlying injustices made especially apparent by the coronavirus pandemic. Among the scholar-activists engaged in this effort are New Labor Forum consulting editors and faculty at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies , publisher of the journal. With this newsletter, we offer a selection of their recent writings on the crisis. And we end with a virtual talk by Naomi Klein, discussing how to resist “disaster capitalism” in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
Table of Contents
  1. If this is war, here’s what to do / Josh Freeman and Marc Kagan, New York Daily News
  2. It Didn’t Have to be Like This / Stephanie Luce, Labor Notes
  3. Three Truths and a Lie: A Version for Organizers / Deepak Bhargarva and Dorian Warren, The Nation
  4. Video: Naomi Klein Presents: Coronavirus Capitalism – and How to Beat it / Naomi Klein

Photo by Can Pac Swire via flick (cc-by-nc)

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SLU Instructor Jacob Carlson Advocates for Rent Moratorium in NYTimes

Economic pressures of coronavirus bearing down increasingly on people living in the United States. Unemployment has skyrocketed. And rents are due. In a NYTimes opinion column today, SLU Urban Studies instructor H. Jacob Carlson, along with NYU’s Gianpaolo Baiocchi, argued that the moment demands nothing short of a rent moratorium:

We need Congress to enact an immediate, 90-day national rent moratorium — a temporary suspension of rent payments that will keep families in their homes before other dominoes start to fall.

This would be a bailout for people — for the countless families already facing difficulties making their next rent payment and who soon will face the real prospect of eviction. If we do not act now, people will lose their access to housing. The social impact of evictions on individuals, families and communities will be brutal.

They observe that 47 percent of renters spend more than a third of their income on rent, and that, “57 percent of renters could not afford an unexpected expense of $400 with the money they have on hand.” Given the precarious situation renters were in before the crisis, the current situation is utterly untenable. And the measures in place aren’t enough.

The eviction moratorium in states like New York is a crucial start but only delays the inevitable. After June 20, when Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s 90-day stay will have lifted, renters will face unpayable debt of months of back-rent and fees, as well as damaged credit. Housing courts will swell with the backlog, and many people will be evicted. Similarly, while freezing rents going up for lease renewal is useful, it will not be enough for families unable to pay current rent prices.

Read the full column here.

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Student Continuity & Distance Learning Updates

During this very difficult period, SLU is guided by two principles: First and foremost, we are dedicated to the health and safety of our students, faculty, and staff. We are doing everything we can to mitigate the impact of the current public health crisis on our School community. Second, we are committed to maintaining the continuity of our academic programs, courses, and services. To meet these objectives, we have transitioned to distance learning and remote work effective Thursday, March 19th.

We thank you for your patience as we continue to develop and improve the systems that will allow our students to complete the semester—and our faculty and staff to carry on their work—remotely. The important point is that we all share a common goal and we are all working together. In that way, we will weather the storm!

COMMUNICATIONS

Although there is no faculty or administrative staff working at our 43rd Street campus, we will all be working remotely and available via e-mail, phone, and various advanced technologies. You can reach a live SLU operator who will assist you or direct your call during regular business hours by calling (646) 313-8300.

DISTANCE LEARNING

In moving to online instruction, we have focused on technologies that are the most effective and the most equitable. SLU’s faculty and staff have been working tirelessly to ensure that the educational objectives of courses and goals of programs can be met through various methods of delivery. Until further notice, courses will be conducted using remote tools including telephone conferencing, email, Blackboard, ZOOM, and a range of other technologies designed for remote learning. Faculty have reached out to all their students to inform them about the mode of distance learning that will be utilized. If you have any questions or concerns regarding your course(s), please reach out to your instructor or call the SLU main desk at (646) 313-8300.

FOR MORE UPDATES AND RESOURCES FROM CUNY, PLEASE VISIT HERE.

Photo by Aaron Yoo via flickr (cc-by-nd)

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Prof. Deepak Bhargava on Nonprofits in the Time of Coronavirus

Writing in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, three writers grappled with a thorny question: what happens to nonprofits under the conditions of economic contraction sure to result from the coronavirus?

Democracy Alliance president Gara LaMarche, Progressive Multiplier Fund executive director Philip Radford and Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation at Georgetown University ED Sonal Shah write:

…[N]onprofits, especially groups providing and advocating for a social safety net, are typically underfinanced. A report released by Candid shows that half of all U.S. nonprofits are operating with less than one month’s cash reserves, leaving those organizations particularly vulnerable.

If normal patterns follow, we won’t see them getting the help they need from grant makers. Generally, foundations give 5 percent of the average value of their endowment from the previous three years, meaning a steady decline in giving during and after a recession. 

What’s worse, according to data provided by Candid, foundation investments in helping nonprofits achieve financial sustainability after the last recession dropped more precipitously than their overall giving. During recessions is precisely when we should be both supporting and strengthening nonprofits, especially those that serve the neediest and advocate for them.

So what is to be done? The writers spoke to SLU professor Deepak Bhargava, who explained that “in economic downturns, we must do everything in our power to protect and expand the social safety net that offers a lifeline to those who are most deeply impacted and also strengthen the community-led organizations that advocate for that safety net. The community-based nonprofits that serve, organize with, and advocate for low-income people are on the front lines.  They are and yet are also most at risk during an economic crisis.”

So what does that look like? The authors advocate for philanthropists to act now in order to push Congress in the right direction, and to help nonprofit groups weather the storm by taking the following three steps:

  1. Help groups quickly test efforts to improve their fundraising efforts.
  2. Show groups how to turn increased public awareness into long-term financial viability.
  3. Increase flexibility and loosen restrictions on low-interest loans and other program-related investments.

Read the full article here.

Photo by Daniel Foster via flickr (cc-by-nc-sa)

Home, Murphy News

SLU Newsflash: All SLU Public Events Currently On Hold

Due to public safety measures related to the Coronavirus, all in-person events at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies (SLU) have been suspended through at least April 19, 2020.

Planning is underway to hold some upcoming programs – including Organizing 2.0 – as live-streamed web conferences, with all speakers and attendees participating remotely.
Please stay tuned for further information about the ongoing suspension of in-person events, as well as plans for live streams and web conferences. We will send you email updates, as well as add the latest information to the SLU website and to social media.
Questions? Email us: events@slu.cuny.edu
We hope that you and your family stay safe and be well during this public health crisis.

Public Domain photo via flickr

A conversation about workers, communities and social justice

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