LABOR IN CRISIS
ASA Labor and Labor Movements Section Mini-Conference
Los Angeles – August 5, 2022
left to right: J. R. Hernandez, Chief of Staff and Organizing Director for Korean Immigrant Worker Advocates (KIWA) and Juan Ramirez, Vice President of the American Federation of Teachers (UTLA and AFT), and Barry Eidlin, LLM Council member and Associate Professor at McGill University.
The Labor & Labor Movements section invites proposals for plenaries, panels, and papers addressing all issues of labor, labor movements, unions, and conditions of employment for a mini-conference on Labor in Crisis. Those located at the intersection of labor and race, gender, sexual orientation, or immigration, as well as those focusing on global labor studies, and/or analyzing labor in the global economy are strongly encouraged.
COVID-19 has sparked broad conversations around crises of labor and work. Even as the global pandemic persists, COVID-19 is projected to have lasting impacts on work and labor around the world. From offices to factories and throughout the service sector, the pandemic has upended work itself. Meanwhile, evidence is mounting that COVID-19 has encouraged workers to reappraise their expectations of work. From the “great resignation” and spike in strikes in the U.S., to the labor shortages throughout global supply chains, workers are demanding better wages, benefits, and working conditions.
While these issues have recently captured the public’s imagination, as labor scholars we know that labor is in a perpetual state of crisis. We have been studying the degradation of work and precariousness of labor, workers’ struggles to mobilize and labor unions’ efforts to organize. Our research illuminates the dynamics behind all sorts of discrimination and bias in the workplace, from the corporate boardroom to the global factory. Labor activism and labor movements are born of crisis.
The mini-conference will the first time in three years that we will come together as labor scholars to discuss the changes we are seeing work, labor, and labor movements. This will, no doubt, include discussions around the impact of COVID-19 that are on everyone’s minds. More importantly, it is our opportunity to continue discussing the ongoing research in our field illuminating the trends in workplace behavior, labor union activism, and worker movements that inform our understanding of the crises of the day.
COVID-19 has sparked broad conversations around crises of labor and work. Even as the global pandemic persists, COVID-19 is projected to have lasting impacts on work and labor around the world. From offices to factories and throughout the service sector, the pandemic has upended work itself. Meanwhile, evidence is mounting that COVID-19 has encouraged workers to reappraise their expectations of work. From the “great resignation” and spike in strikes in the U.S., to the labor shortages throughout global supply chains, workers are demanding better wages, benefits, and working conditions.
While these issues have recently captured the public’s imagination, as labor scholars we know that labor is in a perpetual state of crisis. We have been studying the degradation of work and precariousness of labor, workers’ struggles to mobilize and labor unions’ efforts to organize. Our research illuminates the dynamics behind all sorts of discrimination and bias in the workplace, from the corporate boardroom to the global factory. Labor activism and labor movements are born of crisis.
The mini-conference will the first time in three years that we will come together as labor scholars to discuss the changes we are seeing work, labor, and labor movements. This will, no doubt, include discussions around the impact of COVID-19 that are on everyone’s minds. More importantly, it is our opportunity to continue discussing the ongoing research in our field illuminating the trends in workplace behavior, labor union activism, and worker movements that inform our understanding of the crises of the day.
