Contemporary Problems in Work and Labor in the U.S. in Historical Perspective

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

After decades of decline, recent years have witnessed a seeming uptick in labor and workplace activism in the United States. Public sector workers in red and blue states have gone on strike, while continuing to flex their muscle in the electoral arena. The COVID-19 pandemic and its fallout revealed both the precarity and power of many workers, particularly those in healthcare. Many unions and worker organizations have increasingly engaged in political battles that extend beyond the workplace; while many labor groups have worked in solidarity and coalition with racial and immigrant justice movements, police unions have lined up against them.

Yet the problems workers and their allies are responding to are not necessarily new. Rather, they reflect monumental, decades’-long shifts in the nature of work; dramatic changes in the composition of the workforce; and transformations in public policy and the organization of the American state itself. This panel brings together scholars to examine the political, historical, and institutional roots of several contemporary work- and labor-related problems. Topics covered include the political influence of the public sector workforce; coalitional dynamics between unions and social justice movements; and the development of workforces in core post-industrial industries, such as healthcare. The panel adds to this year's theme by showcasing the conditions under which democratic retrenchment, renovation, and reimagination have, and could happen, in the workplace and labor movement.

Sub Unit

• Related Groups / Labor Politics

Cosponsor

• Division 61: American Political Economy

Individual Presentations

• How the Public-Private Welfare State Makes Social Class - Trevor Brown, Cornell University

• Corporate Influence on Labor Politics: Politicization & Polarization at the NLRB - Danny R. Daneri, Syracuse University

• Tangled Fates: Casting Racial and Economic Equality in Twentieth Century America - Katie Rader, Christopher Newport University

• The Political Development of Police Organizations in American Cities - Steven White, Syracuse University

Chair

• Agustina S. Paglayan UCSD

Discussants

• Daniel Galvin Northwestern University

• Marie Gottschalk University of Pennsylvania