NEWS
- Head over to the Newsletter page to read the most recent one!
- For cutting edge work on the economy, work, and inequality, please visit the Work in Progress blog.
- Read up on the Precarious Work mini-conference here!
- Remember that new postings for general announcements, jobs, funding opportunities, etc. can be found at the Announcements page!
Welcome from the Chair.
Dear Colleagues,
I miss you all! It has been over two years since we last convened in person. And though I am grateful for the excellent programming that Gay Seidman and Tom Juravich organized for our remote meetings, I very much look forward to gathering in Los Angeles in 2022. Our plan is to hold a labor mini-conference immediately proceeding the ASA meetings. More information forthcoming!
As disruptive as COVID-19 may have been to our section’s plans, the impact on the people and issues we care about has been far greater. The pandemic has wreaked havoc on the lives of workers throughout our society and the world. The shear amount of unemployment and lost income is staggering. Doctors, nurses, and other hospital and emergency workers have risked their lives to care for the sick and endured the trauma of watching so many die. Teachers at all levels, from kindergarten through college, have scrambled to educate while keeping themselves and their students safe, often shifting back and forth between online, hybrid, and face-to-face delivery.
Transit, grocery, daycare, nursing home attendants, and other front-line workers have risked exposure on a daily basis. Indeed, as so much of the economy came grinding to a halt, “low wage”, “unskilled”, and “precarious” workers, disproportionately female and people of color, were suddenly relabeled “essential” and deemed worthy of everyone’s respect, gratitude, and (if they were lucky) hazard pay. Yet service workers from waitstaff to flight attendants report increasingly rude and aggressive behavior from customers irked by longer wait times or simple requests that they wear a mask.
For the scholars among us who study and analyze labor and labor movements, and the activists among us in the struggle for workers’ rights and a fair share of the economic pie, the pandemic has raised new concerns while exacerbating old ones. Indeed, the long-term impact of the pandemic on workers and labor markets is a series of open questions. How many workers will continue to work from home once the pandemic ends? What will this mean for labor relations? What is to be made of widespread unemployment at a time when employers are complaining that they cannot fill vacancies? Are we experiencing a shift in workers’ expectations for employment? Will it be temporary or permanent? And just what might it mean for unions and the labor movement?
As we begin to ponder and answer these questions, the Labor & Labor Movements Section should serve as an outlet to share our work. Please contribute to our listserve. Share your experiences in our newsletter. Publish preliminary thoughts and findings in the Work In Progress blog. Submit a paper for our sessions at the ASA meetings in Los Angeles. Participate in the mini-conference. I hope to see you all there!
With regards and in solidarity!
Jeff Rothstein
Professor of Sociology
Grand Valley State University
Chair, ASA Section on Labor and Labor Movements
I miss you all! It has been over two years since we last convened in person. And though I am grateful for the excellent programming that Gay Seidman and Tom Juravich organized for our remote meetings, I very much look forward to gathering in Los Angeles in 2022. Our plan is to hold a labor mini-conference immediately proceeding the ASA meetings. More information forthcoming!
As disruptive as COVID-19 may have been to our section’s plans, the impact on the people and issues we care about has been far greater. The pandemic has wreaked havoc on the lives of workers throughout our society and the world. The shear amount of unemployment and lost income is staggering. Doctors, nurses, and other hospital and emergency workers have risked their lives to care for the sick and endured the trauma of watching so many die. Teachers at all levels, from kindergarten through college, have scrambled to educate while keeping themselves and their students safe, often shifting back and forth between online, hybrid, and face-to-face delivery.
Transit, grocery, daycare, nursing home attendants, and other front-line workers have risked exposure on a daily basis. Indeed, as so much of the economy came grinding to a halt, “low wage”, “unskilled”, and “precarious” workers, disproportionately female and people of color, were suddenly relabeled “essential” and deemed worthy of everyone’s respect, gratitude, and (if they were lucky) hazard pay. Yet service workers from waitstaff to flight attendants report increasingly rude and aggressive behavior from customers irked by longer wait times or simple requests that they wear a mask.
For the scholars among us who study and analyze labor and labor movements, and the activists among us in the struggle for workers’ rights and a fair share of the economic pie, the pandemic has raised new concerns while exacerbating old ones. Indeed, the long-term impact of the pandemic on workers and labor markets is a series of open questions. How many workers will continue to work from home once the pandemic ends? What will this mean for labor relations? What is to be made of widespread unemployment at a time when employers are complaining that they cannot fill vacancies? Are we experiencing a shift in workers’ expectations for employment? Will it be temporary or permanent? And just what might it mean for unions and the labor movement?
As we begin to ponder and answer these questions, the Labor & Labor Movements Section should serve as an outlet to share our work. Please contribute to our listserve. Share your experiences in our newsletter. Publish preliminary thoughts and findings in the Work In Progress blog. Submit a paper for our sessions at the ASA meetings in Los Angeles. Participate in the mini-conference. I hope to see you all there!
With regards and in solidarity!
Jeff Rothstein
Professor of Sociology
Grand Valley State University
Chair, ASA Section on Labor and Labor Movements
