Strike Syllabus Week 6: Unions, Unions, Unions! Past, Present, and Future Organizing
Channel: Strike University
Date: 2020-05-04

Week 6’s presentation takes us to unions: what are they, what are their origins, how they work, and what is their role in the current labor market. The presenters, Thomas (he.him) & Eugene (he.him), will be discussing the history of unions in the United States using a few case studies. They will also contextualize the rise and fall of union participation in the US as it pertains to other topics covered in the syllabus up to this point. Globally, they will observe how shifting labor markets and globalization have created unique opportunities both for labor organizing and union busting. They will also show how unionizing has always been about the intersections of race and class. Coming into the present, they will focus on current labor issues and how they relate to union organizing and union power. Not to leave out COLA, they will gesture to some of the issues with the graduate student union in the UCs and talk about where the COLA movement is going in relation to their particular union.