Labor Café Sessions 2018–19

Topic: A Labor Question Grab Bag
Friday | April 26, 2019 | 5:00–6:00 PM | Geddes Hall, Coffee House
Facilitators: Labor Café Regulars
Resources: 

• Bret Schulte, “The Future of Unions Is White-Collar,” Slate, Apr. 12, 2019
  • chosen by Kevin Christiano, Associate Professor of Sociology
• Kim Kelly, “Freelancers Want to Join Unions but Labor Laws Won’t Let Them,” Teen Vogue, Apr. 4, 2019
  • chosen by Julie Mardini, undergraduate (American Studies & Spanish ‘19)
• John Cline, “The 24/7/365 Economy, Shift Work, and Sleep,” Psychology Today, Mar. 31, 2018
  • chosen by Katie Hieatt, undergraduate (Economics & American Studies ‘20)
• Tracy Jan, “Redlining was banned 50 years ago. It’s still hurting minorities today.,” Washington Post, Mar. 28, 2018
  • chosen by Robert Caruso, undergraduate (Economics ‘22)
• Jia Tolentino, “The Gig Economy Celebrates Working Yourself to Death,” The New Yorker, Mar. 22, 2017
  • chosen by Jing Li, graduate student (Sociology)
• Victoria Waldersee, “We asked economists whether strikes really work,” Economy, Sep. 7, 2017
  • chosen by Kevin Hawkins (ND ‘81), federal labor mediator, US Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service
    

Topic: “Modern Day Slavery? An Introduction to Privatized Prisons”
Friday | March 29, 2019 | 5:00–6:00 PM | Geddes Hall, Coffee House
Facilitators: Students in Mike Hebbler’s Advocacy for the Common Good course (CSC 33900)

• Maddie Whitney (Business Analytics and Public Service ’22), Sophia Henn (Peace Studies, Music Theory, Economics ’21), Elaine Carter (Accounting ’22)

Resources: 

• Shane Bauer, “The True History of America’s Privatized Prison Industry,” TIME, Sept. 25, 2018
• ACLU, “Meet the Prison Profiteers” (video series, 2013)
• Jack Rooney, “Working to Abolish Private Prisons,” We are ND
• John Dacey, Abolish Privatized Prisons [website of ND alumnus dedicated to proving the unconstitutionality of private for-profit prisons]
• Abolish Privatized Prisons, “Abolish Private Prisons – Did You Know?,” YouTube, Jan. 20, 2019
• John Burnett, “Inside The Largest And Most Controversial Shelter For Migrant Children In The U.S.,” NPR, Feb. 13, 2019
• 13th (2016, Ava DuVernay, dir.) [requires subscription to Netflix]

Topic: “Labor’s Revival? Signs of Life in Unions and Class Politics”
Friday | February 22, 2019 | 5:00–6:00 PM | Geddes Hall, Coffee House
Facilitator: Tony Flora (AFL-CIO North-Central Indiana Chapter President)
Resources: 

• Susan Dynarski, “Fresh Proof That Strong Unions Help Reduce Income Inequality,” New York Times, Jul. 6, 2018
• Steven Greenhouse, “The strike isn’t just for wages anymore. It’s for ‘the common good,’” Washington Post, Jan. 24, 2019
• Dana Milbank, “So much for the labor movement’s funeral,” Washington Post, Jan 25, 2019​
• Jamelle Bouie, “The Democratic Promise of Ocasio-Cortez, Warren and Sanders,” New York Times, Jan. 28, 2019
• Dan Levin, “Young Voters Keep Moving to the Left on Social Issues, Republicans Included,” New York Times, Jan. 23, 2019
• Joe McCartin, “How air traffic controllers helped end the shutdown — and changed history,” Washington Post, Jan. 26, 2019
• Barry Eidlin, “Los Angeles teachers just proved that the common wisdom about unions is wrong,” Washington Post, Jan. 25, 2019

Topic: “Work, Race, and MLK’s Legacy in 2019”
Friday | January 18, 2019 | 5-6 PM | Geddes Hall, Coffee House

Facilitators: Eve Kelly (Advisor, First Year of Studies) and Kyle Lantz (Social Concerns Seminars Director)
Resources: 

• Jason Sokol, “Which Martin Luther King Are We Celebrating Today?,” New York Times, Jan. 16, 2017
• Annette Gordon-Reed, “MLK: What We Lost,” New York Review of Books, Nov. 8, 2018
• Kiera Feldman, “Trashed: Inside the Deadly World of Private Garbage Collection,” ProPublica, Jan. 4, 2018
• USCCB, “U.S. Bishops Approved ‘Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love, A Pastoral Letter Against Racism,’” Nov. 14, 2018, plus brief backgrounders
  • What is Systemic Racism?
  • Racial Economic Inequality
  • Racism and Employment

Topic: “Quick Grub Nation: Americans’ Relationship to Food — as Workers, Consumers, and Eaters”

Friday | November 16, 2018 | 5-6 PM | Geddes Hall, Coffee House
Facilitator: Maria “Ale” Orellana Muniz (POLS ’20)
Resources: 

• McDonald’s TV/online ad: “McDonald’s is Committed to Being America’s Best First Job,” June 21, 2016
• Ilyse Liffreing, “McDonald’s deflects #Fightfor15 protests with ‘America’s best first job’ videos,” Campaign, Nov. 29, 2016
• Rachel Abrams and Robert Gebeloff, “A Fast-Food Problem: Where Have All the Teenagers Gone?,” New York Times, May 3, 2018
• Leslie Patton, “Senior Citizens Are Replacing Teenagers as Fast-Food Workers,” Bloomberg News, Nov. 5, 2018​
• Annelise Orleck and Liz Cooke (interview), “The Truth Is We Are All Fast-Food Workers Now,” Beacon Broadside, Mar. 9, 2018
• Derek Thompson, “The Paradox of American Restaurants,” The Atlantic, Jun. 20, 2017

This session of the Labor Café was part of the Chuck Craypo Memorial Series.

Topic: “Why are US wages flat despite low unemployment?”

Friday | October 26, 2018 | 5-6 PM | Geddes Hall, Coffee House

Facilitators: Dan Graff, Director, Higgins Labor Program, and Anna Scartz (ANTH & ECON ’20)

Resources:

• Dan Graff, “What’s up with wages? Nothing, and that’s a problem (not a puzzle),” The Observer, Sep. 17, 2018.
• Dan Graff, “How to wage war on low pay,” The Observer, Oct. 1, 2018.
• Amy Scott (featuring ND Professor of Economics Abigail Wozniak), “What happens when a company like Amazon raises wages everywhere?,” Marketplace, Oct 2, 2018.
• Marshall Steinbaum (with contributions by Devin Duffy (ND POLS ’15)), “A Missing Link: The Role of Antitrust Law in Rectifying Employer Power in Our High-Profit, Low-Wage Economy,” Roosevelt Institute Issue Brief, Apr 16, 2018.
• Ernie Tedeschi, “Unemployment Looks Like 2000 Again. But Wage Growth Doesn’t,” New York Times, Oct. 22, 2018.

Topic: The Devil’s Highway

Friday | September 21, 2018 | 4:30-5:30 PM | Geddes Hall Coffeehouse
Facilitator: Dan Graff, Director, Higgins Labor Program 
This special edition of the Labor Cafe featured a discussion of Luis Alberto Urrea’s The Devil’s Highway, a haunting true account of undocumented immigrants, coyotes, and border agents. It was part of a broader Center for Social Concerns book read in anticipation of Urrea’s campus visit on Oct. 2. 

Topic: “Scratch your Labor Day itch by discussing what’s on your mind about the world of work”​

Friday | August 31, 2018 | 5–6 PM | Geddes Hall Coffee House
Facilitator: Dan Graff, Director, Higgins Labor Program