![Hundreds of male and female Shirtwaist strikers march to City Hall. Placard says "Union Contract [illegible]".](https://marxistsociology.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/5279167755_cffac09144_o-669x272.jpg)
How Antitrust Law Can Help Rebuild Labor
Antitrust and labor reformers can serve as complementary components of a progressive coalition to take power from corporations and govern corporations and markets in the public interest.
Japan’s work style reform and the paradox of its promotion of side jobs
The government emphasizes fukugyō as a means of free choice and achieving good work-family balance. However, the reality of fukugyō is often far from the ideal picture painted by the government. Fukugyō workers typically experience low wages, employment insecurity, a lack of social protection, and limited opportunities for upward career mobility.
From union networks to Lula Livre: contemporary US-Brazil transnational labor strategies
That striking image of US-Brazil labor solidarity is only one snapshot of a transnational union partnership which has proved to be long-lasting and institutional, yet adaptable. New political, social and legal convergences have brought the labor movements of these two countries closer together over the past decade, as both are now contending with challenges to their representativeness and social legitimacy in times of extreme political polarization and growing labor precarity.
Dying to work: Hawai’i hotel workers organize in the face of autoimmune capitalism
Our research, done in consultation with the hotel workers’ union, reveals on the one hand, a morbid correlation between the reopening of tourism and deaths across the state, and on the other, the life-affirming ethic of collective care, with unionized workers persistently pushing for safe hotels, recall rights, better pay, and the well-being of all hospitality workers, their communities, as well as tourists.
Marxist Sociology Blog Podcast Episode 3: Johnnie Lotesta and Tom VanHeuvelen on Right to Work Laws
After an extended hiatus, we are back with another episode of the Marxist Sociology Blog Podcast! Click above to listen, or find us wherever you get your podcasts. You can find the transcript below. Introduction Hello, and welcome to episode 3 of the Marxist Sociology Blog Podcast. It’s [...]
Amazon Shows Us the Many Faces of Worker Alienation and Resistance Today
Once again we find ourselves in moments of economic crisis. As we battle through inflation and rounds of devaluation, thousands of workers around the world have lost their livelihoods. Yet amidst this all, we have seen workers across the globe go on strike and protest. A manifestation of these [...]
Behind the Foxconn Uprising: “Gig Manufacturing” and the Politics of Social Reproduction
Put together, these factors create a dilemma for these workers: dire need of cash income keeps propelling rural parents, who make a significant portion of the workforce, to come to work at Foxconn; the family’s demand for caring and emotional labor, on the other hand, is pulling workers, especially mothers, back to the family. In the end, many of the workers end up turning this job a seasonal gig.
What can US labor learn from multi-employer bargaining in South Korea?
The capitalist system has been utilizing the tactic of workplace fissuring to weaken the organizing power and bargaining position of US unions. This has led to a decline in worker's ability to negotiate fair wages and benefits. However, as an alternative strategy, unions have begun to adopt multi-employer bargaining [...]
Sticking it to the workers: The international race to keep Vietnamese factories open
Low wages and the necessity to work continue to undergird the Vietnamese economy. A web of international finance and corporations like Intel, Samsung, and Nike systematically transfer labor power and its value to their balance sheets and to shareholders. This is simply an old form of imperialism dressed up now in the guise of the free market.
Union advantage? Most workers in Niagara don’t see it that way
Why don’t people always act in their own collective self-interest? This classic puzzle in sociological analysis led us to question why so many workers – even the most precarious among them – were so disinterested in unions as a means to achieve higher pay and better working conditions. If [...]