Belabored Podcast #77: Should the Labor Movement Support Basic Income?

This week, Sarah and Michelle invited Hack the Union editor Kati Sipp to explain universal basic income, and why it’s an important idea for workers. They discuss automation, which parts of the social safety net UBI would replace, and what it has to do with the unwaged work that women do in the home.

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As the shape of the workplace—and of the workforce—has changed in recent years, many workers have been left behind, left out of a social safety net that was designed around an eight-hour industrial work day and a “family wage.” Some organizers, including Kati Sipp, our guest on this week’s podcast, have begun thinking of ways to solve this problem and to deal with automation. Sipp has been looking into the Universal Basic Income, and she joins us to explain what this policy is, which parts of the social safety net it would replace, why it matters for workers, and what it has to do with the unwaged work that women do in the home.

We also check in on Democrats’ standing in the battle over the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, another battle over so-called right-to-work legislation in Missouri, a lawsuit trying to keep home care workers from getting minimum wage protections, and what you can do (besides feel guilty) about the working conditions of nail salon employees. And for “Argh,” we think about the work of mothers, and of freelancers.

News

Michelle: How Can You Get an Ethical Manicure? Support Worker Organizing (The Nation)

4 ways women can help clip nail salon abuses (amNewYork)

Sarah: When Will We Stop Exploiting Home-Care Workers? (DAME)

The 10 biggest lies you’ve been told about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (Salon)

Senate Democrats Foil Obama on Asia Trade Deal (New York Times)

Senate Cuts Deal To Pass Obama’s Secretive Trade Bills (Huffington Post)

Sarah and Michelle: Belabored #73: Shedding Light on TPP Secrets, with Celeste Drake (Dissent)

Missouri lawmakers send Nixon ‘right-to-work’ measure (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Conversation:

Kati Sipp, creator of Hack the Union

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