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Subscribe to Working-Class Perspectives - Working-Class Perspectives offers weekly commentaries on current issues related to working-class people and communities. Contributors discuss a variety of issues, from what class means to how it intersects with race and gender to how class is shaping American politics. We welcome relevant comments of 500 words or less.
For questions or comments about this blog, e-mail Sherry Linkon. For assistance with news stories about working-class politics and culture, call or e-mail John Russo, 330-207-8085. Categories
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The State of the Working Class
Listen to Working-Class Perspective editor Sherry Linkon's recent interview about Working-Class Studies on KERA's Think with Krys Boyd.Links
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Category Archives: Labor and Community Activism
Essential Workers Take Action
During the pandemic, the working class that had been invisible to many suddenly became “essential.” In some cities, people came on their balconies in their homes to applaud these workers whose jobs in food service, to health care, transportation, and … Continue reading
Envisioning a 21st-Century Worker-Centered Social Compact
On June 2-3, 2022, my colleagues at Georgetown University’s Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor & the Working Poor will host the next installment in a series of convenings, webinars, and discussions we inaugurated in April 2021, inviting a wide range of … Continue reading
A Movement Moment and a Real NLRB
Finally, it’s a new morning for workers in America. For at least a brief time, while the Biden administration is alive, even if unwell, and the Supreme Court has not yet brought the darkness and ended our parade, opportunity is … Continue reading
Posted in Contributors, Issues, Labor and Community Activism, Understanding Class, Wade Rathke
Tagged labor movement, labor organizing, NLRB
2 Comments
We Told You So: On Trade, the Working Class Was Right
It seems impolite to say “we told you so,” but the working class and labor unions were so unjustly maligned more than two decades ago—when they fought the push to expand unfettered global trade—that it seems more than fair to … Continue reading
Why There’s More Labor Media Coverage
It seems like workers and their unions are in the news more than ever lately. Starbucks baristas, Amazon warehouse workers, John Deere strikers, and even New York Times tech workers, who just unionized, have all starred in the recent swell … Continue reading
The Power of Recognizing Higher Ed Faculty as Working-Class
Just over 20 years ago, Michael Zweig published The Working Class Majority: America’s Best Kept Secret. At that year’s How Class Works conference at SUNY Stony Brook, academics from history, political science, labor and industrial relations, and other fields debated … Continue reading
Building Back Better?
As we await U.S. Senate action on President Biden’s Build Back Better plan, it is worth reflecting on what the past few tumultuous months have meant for U.S. workers. Much has happened in the short time since the summer drew … Continue reading
The Unanswered Question about the Future of US Labor Unions
Within six months the two men who have led the AFL-CIO for more than twenty-five years, John J. Sweeney and Richard Trumka, have passed away. In reflecting on Trumka’s sudden passing and the likely transition of leadership within the dominant … Continue reading
Posted in Contributors, Issues, Labor and Community Activism, Wade Rathke
Tagged AFL-CIO, labor organizing, labor unions
1 Comment
The Downward Path We’ve Trod: Reflections on an Ominous Anniversary
This week marks the 40th anniversary of an illegal strike by the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) that was decisively broken by President Ronald Reagan. That strike began on August 3, 1981, when more than 12,000 air traffic controllers … Continue reading
Posted in Contributors, Issues, Joseph A. McCartin, Labor and Community Activism
Tagged labor activism, labor unions, PATCO strike
2 Comments
Amazon and the Southern Key
Though expected, the union defeat at Amazon’s Bessemer, Alabama fulfillment center was a gut punch to the labor movement not only in the United States, but globally. Amazon workers in other countries had expressed solidarity with Bessemer through direct action, … Continue reading
Posted in Contributors, Issues, Labor and Community Activism, Wade Rathke
Tagged Amazon, labor movement, NLRB, Southern unions
3 Comments
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