posts from the year2020

Remembering Our Friend and Colleague, Professor David H. Bensman

by on August 3, 2020

Remembering Our Friend and Colleague, Professor David H. Bensman

A champion for workers, Bensman mentored two generations of future labor activists, organizers, and scholars during a 42-year career at Rutgers.

By Steve Flamisch originally published at Rutgers site

David H. Bensman, a respected professor and labor historian who retired last month as the longest-serving active faculty member in the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, died on July 25.

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“The pandemic has revealed to many that care work is vital work”: A Conversation with Memphis Advocates for Radical Childcare (M.A.R.CH.) co-founder Phuong Nguyen

by on August 1, 2020

This is the last in a series of essays on “Higher Ed Wall-to Wall in Tennessee,” which will continue for the rest of this week. This series of posts highlights voices and union-led campaigns on higher-ed campuses across Tennessee. We offer both a picture of the challenges that we face and perhaps some organizing solutions, particularly to other higher education employees in right-to-work states, to help navigate the shifting academic terrain that we are experiencing in the face of COVID-19.

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The Irony of Essential Work: COVID-19’s Impact on Campus Workers

by on July 31, 2020

This is the fourth in a series of essays on “Higher Ed Wall-to Wall in Tennessee,” which will continue for the rest of this week. This series of posts highlights voices and union-led campaigns on higher-ed campuses across Tennessee. We hope to offer both a picture of the challenges that we face and perhaps some organizing solutions, particularly to other higher education employees in right-to-work states, to help navigate the shifting academic terrain that we are experiencing in the face of COVID-19.

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“Everything you do as a grad student is a gamble”: The graduate student employee COVID-19 experience

by on July 30, 2020

This is the third in a series of essays on “Higher Ed Wall-to Wall in Tennessee,” which will continue for the rest of this week. This series of posts highlights voices and union-led campaigns on higher-ed campuses across Tennessee. We hope to offer both a picture of the challenges that we face and perhaps some organizing solutions, particularly to other higher education employees in right-to-work states, to help navigate the shifting academic terrain that we are experiencing in the face of COVID-19.

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“Who can plan their life just one year in advance?”: Non Tenure-Track Labor in Times of Crisis

by on July 29, 2020

This is the second in a series of essays on “Higher Ed Wall-to Wall in Tennessee,” which will continue for the rest of this week. This series of posts highlights voices and union-led campaigns on higher-ed campuses across Tennessee. We hope to offer both a picture of the challenges that we face and perhaps some organizing solutions, particularly to other higher education employees in right-to-work states, to help navigate the shifting academic terrain that we are experiencing in the face of COVID-19.

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Essential or Expendable? Working in Higher Education during COVID-19

by , , on July 28, 2020

This is the first in a series of essays on “Higher Ed Wall-to Wall in Tennessee,” which will continue for the rest of this week. This series of posts highlights voices and union-led campaigns on higher-ed campuses across Tennessee. We hope to offer both a picture of the challenges that we face and perhaps some organizing solutions, particularly to other higher education employees in right-to-work states, to help navigate the shifting academic terrain that we are experiencing in the face of COVID-19.

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Verónica Martínez-Matsuda on Her New Book, Migrant Citizenship

by on July 23, 2020

Our series of interviews with authors of new books in labor and working-class history continues with Verónica Martínez-Matsuda. The University of Pennsylvania Press published her Migrant Citizenship: Race, Rights, and Reform in the U.S. Farm Labor Camp Program in June. Martínez-Matsuda, an associate professor in the Department of Labor Relations, Law, and History at the Cornell ILR School, answered questions from Jacob Remes.

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Lecturer Organizing and COVID-19

by on July 21, 2020

The public health and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated the problems with America’s two-tier system of college teaching.

Because most non-tenure track instructors make low wages, those fortunate enough to retain their jobs are unlikely to have the space or technology or support from home that they need to provide excellent instruction remotely.

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