Belabored: Toward a Liberatory Unionism, with Eve Livingston

Eve Livingston’s new book, Make Bosses Pay, aims to get young people connected to unions and to push unions to engage more with the working class as it is today: diverse, precarious, and perhaps on the brink of rebellion.

Protesters call for fair wages and pensions for workers on May 1, 2018 in London, UK (Alex Cavendish/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

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Work continues to get worse, on both sides of the Atlantic, and indeed we’re beginning to see signs of a new militancy from unionized workers, from manufacturing to healthcare. Yet many young people still don’t know how to begin organizing their workplace, or even that there are unions that could help. This week, we’re joined by Scottish labor journalist Eve Livingston, the author of a new book, Make Bosses Pay, which aims both to get young people connected to unions and to push unions to engage more with the working class as it is today: diverse, precarious, and perhaps on the brink of rebellion.

We also check in with Marissa Nuncio, director of the Garment Workers Center of Los Angeles, as California’s garment workers finally break the piece rate system and start to hold fashion brands accountable; healthcare workers on the picket lines in Buffalo, New York; the third strike at an iconic American food manufacturer this year; and look forward to a potential strike of film crew workers around the country. For Argh, we consider gig workers’ strikes in Berlin, and Americans’ endless appetite for “feel-good” poverty stories.

Thank you for listening to our 232nd episode! If you like the show, you can support us on Patreon with a monthly contribution, at the level that best suits you.

If you’re interested in advertising on the show, please email ads@dissentmagazine.org. And as always, if you have any questions, comments, or tips, email us at belabored@dissentmagazine.org

News

California to require garment industry to pay hourly wages to workers, Reuters

David Robb, IATSE & AMPTP Return To Bargaining For Day 2 Of Last-Ditch Efforts To Avert A Strike, Deadline

C. M. Lewis, The Buffalo Hospital Strike Is the Latest in a New Wave of Labor, The Nation

Michael Sainato, Wave of US labor unrest could see tens of thousands on strike within weeks, Guardian

Nick Buckley, ‘Fighting for our future’: Kellogg’s workers at all US cereal plants strike after contract with the cereal maker expires, Yahoo Finance

Workers go on strike against Kellogg’s U.S. cereal plants, NPR

Conversation

Eve Livingston

Eve Livingston, Make Bosses Pay: Why We Need Unions, Pluto Press

Argh, I wish I’d written that!

Michelle: Kali Holloway, “Feel-Good” News Story or Poverty Propaganda?, The Nation