Pub Date : 2023-04-20DOI: 10.1177/07308884231168042
D. Cornfield
This symposium issue of Work and Occupations on “The New Labor Activism” develops a new generation of labor sociology research for comprehending and sustaining the contemporary labor mobilization in the U.S., the largest labor mobilization since the 1930s. The symposium responds to the question raised in the June, 2022 report of the Worker Empowerment Research Network about the sustainability of the new labor activism. The symposium essays focus on the themes of “history,” “intersectionality,” “worker agency,” and “hierarchy” and continue the post-World War II transition of the field from a union-centered toward a worker-centered labor sociology.
{"title":"The New Labor Activism, a New Labor Sociology","authors":"D. Cornfield","doi":"10.1177/07308884231168042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07308884231168042","url":null,"abstract":"This symposium issue of Work and Occupations on “The New Labor Activism” develops a new generation of labor sociology research for comprehending and sustaining the contemporary labor mobilization in the U.S., the largest labor mobilization since the 1930s. The symposium responds to the question raised in the June, 2022 report of the Worker Empowerment Research Network about the sustainability of the new labor activism. The symposium essays focus on the themes of “history,” “intersectionality,” “worker agency,” and “hierarchy” and continue the post-World War II transition of the field from a union-centered toward a worker-centered labor sociology.","PeriodicalId":47716,"journal":{"name":"Work and Occupations","volume":"50 1","pages":"316 - 334"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43912504","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-12DOI: 10.1177/07308884231168793
Thomas A. Kochan, Janice R. Fine, K. Bronfenbrenner, S. Naidu, Jacob Barnes, Yaminette Diaz-Linhart, John Kallas, Jeonghun Kim, Arrow Minster, Di Tong, Phela Townsend, Danielle Twiss
American workers are currently engaged in an upsurge in collective actions aimed at achieving a stronger voice and representation at work; this desire for increased voice at work is also evident in survey data. However, union organizing drives in the United States typically meet with strong employer resistance, and such resistance reduces the likelihood that the organizing effort will be successful. In addition to unions, a broad array of other efforts has been initiated to strengthen worker voice and representation. The authors discuss these efforts, including worker centers, and observe that there is no “one size fits all” approach to contemporary worker organizing.
{"title":"An Overview of US Workers’ Current Organizing Efforts and Collective Actions","authors":"Thomas A. Kochan, Janice R. Fine, K. Bronfenbrenner, S. Naidu, Jacob Barnes, Yaminette Diaz-Linhart, John Kallas, Jeonghun Kim, Arrow Minster, Di Tong, Phela Townsend, Danielle Twiss","doi":"10.1177/07308884231168793","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07308884231168793","url":null,"abstract":"American workers are currently engaged in an upsurge in collective actions aimed at achieving a stronger voice and representation at work; this desire for increased voice at work is also evident in survey data. However, union organizing drives in the United States typically meet with strong employer resistance, and such resistance reduces the likelihood that the organizing effort will be successful. In addition to unions, a broad array of other efforts has been initiated to strengthen worker voice and representation. The authors discuss these efforts, including worker centers, and observe that there is no “one size fits all” approach to contemporary worker organizing.","PeriodicalId":47716,"journal":{"name":"Work and Occupations","volume":"50 1","pages":"335 - 350"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-04-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46064657","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-03DOI: 10.1177/07308884231165079
T. Dowd, Ju Hyun Park
Music composers exemplify precarious work: they historically have been freelancers and have relied on multiple jobs to subsidize their creative work. We focus here on the gender pay gap amidst such precariousness—heeding their income earned solely from composition and from the totality of jobs recently held. There is no gender pay gap when it comes to income earned from composition but there is a significant gap for income earned from all jobs, showing that women composers face relative disadvantage in subsidizing their creative work. We also find that men and women composers experience different and racialized returns to their capitals and career positioning when navigating precarious work. These findings have lessons for multiple literatures—including those on the new sociology of work and on creative careers.
{"title":"She Still Works Hard for the Money: Composers, Precarious Work, and the Gender Pay Gap","authors":"T. Dowd, Ju Hyun Park","doi":"10.1177/07308884231165079","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07308884231165079","url":null,"abstract":"Music composers exemplify precarious work: they historically have been freelancers and have relied on multiple jobs to subsidize their creative work. We focus here on the gender pay gap amidst such precariousness—heeding their income earned solely from composition and from the totality of jobs recently held. There is no gender pay gap when it comes to income earned from composition but there is a significant gap for income earned from all jobs, showing that women composers face relative disadvantage in subsidizing their creative work. We also find that men and women composers experience different and racialized returns to their capitals and career positioning when navigating precarious work. These findings have lessons for multiple literatures—including those on the new sociology of work and on creative careers.","PeriodicalId":47716,"journal":{"name":"Work and Occupations","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42508873","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-03DOI: 10.1177/07308884231162942
Tamara L. Lee, M. Tapia
Consistent with our calls for critical approaches to traditional Industrial Relations questions, we argue that it is important to consider whether the “major upsurge in union organizing” is more accurately framed as a continuation of long-running democracy fights against systemic inequity and injustice. Thus, we bring focus to “whole worker” organizing, as well as the structural limitations of our labor laws and institutions, to illuminate counter-narratives to the way we tell stories about contemporary worker organizing.
{"title":"A Critical Industrial Relations Approach to Understanding Contemporary Worker Uprising","authors":"Tamara L. Lee, M. Tapia","doi":"10.1177/07308884231162942","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07308884231162942","url":null,"abstract":"Consistent with our calls for critical approaches to traditional Industrial Relations questions, we argue that it is important to consider whether the “major upsurge in union organizing” is more accurately framed as a continuation of long-running democracy fights against systemic inequity and injustice. Thus, we bring focus to “whole worker” organizing, as well as the structural limitations of our labor laws and institutions, to illuminate counter-narratives to the way we tell stories about contemporary worker organizing.","PeriodicalId":47716,"journal":{"name":"Work and Occupations","volume":"50 1","pages":"393 - 399"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48255849","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-29DOI: 10.1177/07308884231167082
Alford A. Young
Selected lower-tier occupational sectors were defined as essential during the early phase of the Covid crisis. Accordingly, that period provided an opportunity to explore whether certain African American lower-tier workers might have acquired a greater sense of dignity and value for their work. By drawing from the author's earlier research on low-income African Americans and a recent study of such workers, this essay explores how considerations of value and dignity in the workplace during early Covid inform about the prospects for organizing such lower-tier workers for union participation.
{"title":"Resurfacing Dignity as a Tool for the Unionization of African American Lower-Tier Workers","authors":"Alford A. Young","doi":"10.1177/07308884231167082","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07308884231167082","url":null,"abstract":"Selected lower-tier occupational sectors were defined as essential during the early phase of the Covid crisis. Accordingly, that period provided an opportunity to explore whether certain African American lower-tier workers might have acquired a greater sense of dignity and value for their work. By drawing from the author's earlier research on low-income African Americans and a recent study of such workers, this essay explores how considerations of value and dignity in the workplace during early Covid inform about the prospects for organizing such lower-tier workers for union participation.","PeriodicalId":47716,"journal":{"name":"Work and Occupations","volume":"50 1","pages":"385 - 392"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42794816","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-29DOI: 10.1177/07308884231163135
L. Hipp, Martin Krzywdzinski
The COVID-19 pandemic has altered how and when we work. Suddenly, organizations had to grant the possibility of working from home to all employees whose presence on-site was not necessary, independent of rank and job. In light of this experience, a return to permanent presence in the office for all has become unlikely. As remote work has both positive and negative implications for employees, their organizations, and workplace institutions, this contribution seeks to answer the following questions: First, what are the challenges for workplace equity and employee well-being that arise from the increased use of remote work? Second, what can be done to ensure that remote work actually benefits employees? Third, what are the implications of the increased use of remote work for the labor movement?
{"title":"Remote Work: New Fields and Challenges for Labor Activism","authors":"L. Hipp, Martin Krzywdzinski","doi":"10.1177/07308884231163135","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07308884231163135","url":null,"abstract":"The COVID-19 pandemic has altered how and when we work. Suddenly, organizations had to grant the possibility of working from home to all employees whose presence on-site was not necessary, independent of rank and job. In light of this experience, a return to permanent presence in the office for all has become unlikely. As remote work has both positive and negative implications for employees, their organizations, and workplace institutions, this contribution seeks to answer the following questions: First, what are the challenges for workplace equity and employee well-being that arise from the increased use of remote work? Second, what can be done to ensure that remote work actually benefits employees? Third, what are the implications of the increased use of remote work for the labor movement?","PeriodicalId":47716,"journal":{"name":"Work and Occupations","volume":"50 1","pages":"445 - 451"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46320845","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-22DOI: 10.1177/07308884231165077
J. Sallaz, Sara Gia Trongone
A recent upsurge in organizing by workers in the United States presents an opportunity to reconsider the state and fate of the US labor movement. We argue that the conceptual apparatus of strategic action fields offers a tool to contextualize this development. In particular, it shines light upon categorization struggles, delegation of labor within the field, relationships among labor organizations, and strategies to change the rules of the field-game. Interpreting the trends reported by the Worker Empowerment Research Network through the lens of field theory cannot predict the future but can make sense of present obstacles and opportunities.
{"title":"Toward a Field of Labor Activism","authors":"J. Sallaz, Sara Gia Trongone","doi":"10.1177/07308884231165077","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07308884231165077","url":null,"abstract":"A recent upsurge in organizing by workers in the United States presents an opportunity to reconsider the state and fate of the US labor movement. We argue that the conceptual apparatus of strategic action fields offers a tool to contextualize this development. In particular, it shines light upon categorization struggles, delegation of labor within the field, relationships among labor organizations, and strategies to change the rules of the field-game. Interpreting the trends reported by the Worker Empowerment Research Network through the lens of field theory cannot predict the future but can make sense of present obstacles and opportunities.","PeriodicalId":47716,"journal":{"name":"Work and Occupations","volume":"50 1","pages":"428 - 435"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44967934","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-15DOI: 10.1177/07308884231162953
Andreas Damelang, Michael Otto
We study the effects of robotization on unemployment risk for different types of workers. We examine the extent to which robotization increases inequality at the skill level and at the occupational level using two theoretical frameworks: skill-biased technological change and task-biased technological change. Empirically, we combine worker-level data with information on actual investments in industrial robots. Zooming in on the German manufacturing industry, our multivariate results show that robotization affects different types of workers differently. We do not observe an increase in unemployment risk for low- and medium-skilled, but we find a considerably lower unemployment risk among high-skilled workers. Moreover, the unemployment risk is significantly higher in occupations with highly substitutable tasks, but only in industries that invest largely in robots.
{"title":"Who is Replaced by Robots? Robotization and the Risk of Unemployment for Different Types of Workers","authors":"Andreas Damelang, Michael Otto","doi":"10.1177/07308884231162953","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07308884231162953","url":null,"abstract":"We study the effects of robotization on unemployment risk for different types of workers. We examine the extent to which robotization increases inequality at the skill level and at the occupational level using two theoretical frameworks: skill-biased technological change and task-biased technological change. Empirically, we combine worker-level data with information on actual investments in industrial robots. Zooming in on the German manufacturing industry, our multivariate results show that robotization affects different types of workers differently. We do not observe an increase in unemployment risk for low- and medium-skilled, but we find a considerably lower unemployment risk among high-skilled workers. Moreover, the unemployment risk is significantly higher in occupations with highly substitutable tasks, but only in industries that invest largely in robots.","PeriodicalId":47716,"journal":{"name":"Work and Occupations","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47463956","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-14DOI: 10.1177/07308884231162933
T. Kristal
Unions are known to increase earnings and wage equality. Therefore, indications for recent union revitalization provoke the question of what unions would do today were they to restore their union density and hence power to the level of the early 1980s (about 20%). This article presents wage estimates for 1983 to 2020, assuming a 20% union density from 1983 onward, revealing higher earnings and lower wage inequality. However, since union membership today typifies low-wage workers with weaker bargaining power than formerly, the benefits from restoring union density and power will likely be lower today than in the past.
{"title":"What Can Unions Do? An Impact Estimate for an Increase in the US Private-Sector Unionization Rate on Workers’ Earnings","authors":"T. Kristal","doi":"10.1177/07308884231162933","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07308884231162933","url":null,"abstract":"Unions are known to increase earnings and wage equality. Therefore, indications for recent union revitalization provoke the question of what unions would do today were they to restore their union density and hence power to the level of the early 1980s (about 20%). This article presents wage estimates for 1983 to 2020, assuming a 20% union density from 1983 onward, revealing higher earnings and lower wage inequality. However, since union membership today typifies low-wage workers with weaker bargaining power than formerly, the benefits from restoring union density and power will likely be lower today than in the past.","PeriodicalId":47716,"journal":{"name":"Work and Occupations","volume":"50 1","pages":"400 - 411"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46390142","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-13DOI: 10.1177/07308884231162944
Larry W. Isaac
I consider the current labor upsurge in context of prior pro-labor transformative turning points in U.S. labor history, all of which involved major changes in political culture. My assessment of key conditions in the current moment centers on three important conditions for changing political culture: (a) anti-racist civil rights-based social movement unionism; (b) changing discourse about the role of unions in political economy; (c) the weak position of labor law. Taken in combination, labor in the current conjuncture faces a steep, but not impossible, uphill climb.
{"title":"Turning Points in U.S. Labor History, Political Culture, and the Current Upsurge in Labor Militancy","authors":"Larry W. Isaac","doi":"10.1177/07308884231162944","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07308884231162944","url":null,"abstract":"I consider the current labor upsurge in context of prior pro-labor transformative turning points in U.S. labor history, all of which involved major changes in political culture. My assessment of key conditions in the current moment centers on three important conditions for changing political culture: (a) anti-racist civil rights-based social movement unionism; (b) changing discourse about the role of unions in political economy; (c) the weak position of labor law. Taken in combination, labor in the current conjuncture faces a steep, but not impossible, uphill climb.","PeriodicalId":47716,"journal":{"name":"Work and Occupations","volume":"50 1","pages":"359 - 367"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49585393","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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