(Photo: AP/Seth Wenig)
All in all, the year between yesterday's Labor Day and last year's had a surprising amount of good news for workers. No, their incomes weren't rising, their rate of unionization was still dismally low, the Republican governor of Illinois is hell-bent on destroying the state's public-sector unions, and if Sam Alito gets his way, the Supreme Court will try to gut those unions during its next session. All that said, during the past 12 months, workers made more gains in legislation, administrative rulings, and some courts-including the court of public opinion- than they had since before the Reagan years.
At The American Prospect, we remain dedicated to the plight of working people, labor unions, and the organized-worker movement more generally, and are committed to covering the daily fights for worker justice. In recognition of that fact, here's a round-up of our best labor coverage from the past year.
It may seem like old news now, but as Prospect editor-at-large Harold Meyerson first explained, workers have increasingly turned to street protests and state ballot initiatives to get minimum-wage hikes and a number of other worker-friendly policies. He details how the origins of the Fight for 15 came about and why other efforts amongst baristas and retail workers failed to gain traction…thus the focus on McDonald's.
As Prospect writing fellow Rachel Cohen reported after the 2014 midterm elections, minimum wage initiatives did quite well in a number of red states. Still, that was minimum consolation for an otherwise poor showing for Democrats nationally.
With the recent news that Victoria's Secret, Gap, and other prominent retailers have pledged to be more transparent in scheduling practices, an additional front in the labor movement has been the increasingly prevalent use of algorithm-based scheduling of low-wage workers. Dan Clawson and Naomi Gerstel laid out the facts on the troubling management practice, which results in hectic personal lives and unsteady working lives.
In January, the Prospect co-sponsored the "American Labor Movement at a Crossroads" conference, and published a number of articles on the importance of pushing new strategies to the forefront of the movement. Here's a quick breakdown:
- Sarita Gupta, leader of Jobs with Justice, argued that workers need to find an entirely new way to bargain with their employers.
- Labor law professor Lance Compa said the labor movement indulges too much in self-pity. "We often go too far in decrying unions' fate," he wrote. "Get a grip; the labor movement is stronger than it looks. A lot of good organizing is going on."
- Harold Meyerson explored the organizing dilemma in which labor's focus on minimum-wage hikes might not necessarily lead to (much-needed) gains in membership.
- Catherine Fisk, a labor professor at the University of California, Irvine, argued that members-only unions must be promoted in light of the increasing number of "right to work" laws.
- For labor, it's time to organize in new, unexplored ways. That's what Karen Nussbaum, head of the AFL-CIO's Working America effort, says. But how do we get there? "Is our aim to improve working conditions, or is it to build a more powerful working class?" she wrote. "These are related, clearly, but suggest different strategies and structures."
- Sejal Parikh insightfully contended that organized labor has not found the new winning model. If we had, we would have learned about the terrible working conditions of retail workers at Wet Seal from labor advocates- not from Reddit.
- Richard Kahlenberg and Moshe Marvit argued that workers can increase their rights by basing their case on civil rights.
- Rich Yeselson takes an expansive look at the labor movement's rich history of worker solidarity and asks whether the unprecedentedly diverse members of today's organized labor can bring about a new sense of solidarity--one that can reunite the working class.
The Prospect has not shied away from the fact that the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal is a bust for American workers, and beyond. But as Prospect co-editor Robert Kuttner wrote this spring, it's not only a bust for workers, it's an outright gift for global corporations.
Remaining on the labor beat, Kuttner presciently illuminated how wage theft has become a first-tier issue for the movement. And in June, he pointed out the conundrum that has been thrust upon tenured faculty in Wisconsin by labor foe Governor Scott Walker. "It's another attack on a public institution, in the wake of his successful campaign to weaken collective bargaining rights for Wisconsin public employees," Kuttner wrote. "It is a thinly disguised assault on a university perceived as a hotbed of liberals and liberalism. And it continues Walker's faux-populist theme by seemingly going after a bastion of privilege-the elite, pointy-headed professoriate."
Our summer issue highlighted the multitude of ways workers can fight back for better pay, better conditions, and more respect, starting with Meyerson's ingenious feature on how today's American South is eerily similar to that of the antebellum, slavery-dependent South. The issue also included the following:
- Heather Rogers reported on how home-care workers are fighting back to gain worker rights that others have long taken for granted.
- Rachel Cohen dived into a developing new trend: Charter-school teachers unionizing. How is it going, and what are the prospects for continued organizing?
- Justin Miller explored the "adjunctification" of higher education in the U.S. More and more part-time faculty are being treated like dirt, and standing up and organizing. What's the impact on higher education?
- Jeffrey Sachs argued that, contrary to popular belief, robot labor can coexist with human labor-so long as government intervenes to make sure prosperity is broadly shared.
- And finally, here's why global "standards" won't improve the exploitative garment industry in Southeast Asia.
Digital media is becoming a new front of unionization. Here's why, and how.
Paid sick leave is gaining momentum across the country, which is good news. But the issue's success relies on a huge surge of grassroots organizing.
Public unions are facing a new Supreme Court case that could deal a deadly blow. But unions are getting ready. And here's why liberals shouldn't give up on public sector unions
The Black Lives Matter movement has become the most important grassroots effort in the country. Managing Editor Amanda Teuscher discussed the ways the movement can collaborate with the Fight for 15 and other fights for economic justice-and is already doing so.
More has happened-a surprising share of it good-on the labor beat in the past year than in many previous years combined. Count on the Prospect to bring you the latest and most promising efforts to come in organized labor.
