Digital Piecework
Homework and piece pay in the garment industry were largely abolished by the global labor struggles that preceded the New Deal. Silicon Valley capitalists have brought the model back.
Winter 2025
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The Hustle Economy
Today, inequality—especially racial inequality—is not only produced through the job market but through people’s ability to hustle.
Bodies on the Line
Introducing our Fall 2020 special section, “Technology and the Crisis of Work.”
Work in the Time of Coronavirus 
Since March, the hosts of the Belabored podcast have been reporting on about what workers are facing during the crisis, and how they have been fighting back. Read four of their stories here.
Belabored: The Senate Fiddles While America Burns, with Rebecca Dixon
The Democrats in the House just passed a new stimulus bill, but what are its odds of passing the Senate? Rebecca Dixon of the National Employment Law Project breaks it down.
Belabored: Is it Safe to Go Back to School?
Three education workers talk about school reopening, and their struggle to protect their health and that of their students.
Belabored Podcast #205: Wildcat Sports Strike Wave, with Dave Zirin
The athletic strikes may have been short-lived, but they made a huge impact, disrupting the pretense of normalcy that sports entertainment normally helps viewers create.
Detroit’s Embattled Nursing Home Workers Delay Strike
After a plea from Governor Whitmer, nursing home workers will suspend a planned strike for thirty days while negotiations continue. The drive for collective action comes after months of stress and anguish.
Belabored Podcast #204: Protect the Post Office
As public fear rises over potential disruptions to mail-in voting in the lead-up to the election, we talk with three postal workers about what’s happening to our mail and the people who handle it.
In Memory of David Bensman, 1949–2020
We remember longtime Dissent editorial board member David Bensman.
Tenant Unions for the Future
Calls to rent strike have yet to cohere into a national political movement. But as the economic crisis deepens, tenants’ fates will ultimately be decided by their level of collective organization.
Family Child-Care Providers Unionize in California
Rosa Carreño hopes her new union will lead to more support from the state. “The parents can’t go to work if they don’t have a safe place for their children to stay.”
Belabored Podcast #203: What the Pandemic Taught Us About Basic Income, with Barb Jacobson
The beginning of the pandemic saw governments around the world experimenting with ways to pay people to stay home. What have we learned?
“I’m Not Going to Risk My Life for Lipstick”
Sephora workers are weighing their growing economic insecurity against the health risks of returning.
Jeff Bezos Praises Amazon’s COVID-19 Response. Workers Tell Another Story.
In Shakopee, Minnesota, workers at the fulfillment center MSP1 organize walkouts over firings and coronavirus policies.
