The Labor Question Today

REIMAGINING A NONDISCRIMINATORY JUST WAGE Submitted by Dan Graff on April 19, 2021 – 3:19pmfeaturing guest blogger Jade Moss (’21) The assertion that a just wage should be anti-discriminatory seems like not only a given, but something that we should have already achieved today. Indeed, the United States has federal legislation that protects against discrimination…

A LABOR DAY REFLECTION Submitted by Dan Graff on October 15, 2020 – 12:02pm featuring guest blogger John Houk [Note: This reflection was written on September 7, 2020 — Labor Day. Mr. Houk shared it via email with a group of parishioners at St. Augustine’s Catholic Church (South Bend), and I asked for permission to…

KEEPING SOME HEALTHY STRESS ABOUT THE LABOR QUESTION DURING THE PANDEMIC AND BEYOND Submitted by Dan Graff on September 20, 2020 – 12:21pm featuring guest blogger EMILY MEROLA (ND ‘20) Recent research about decision making has contributed to a better understanding about how people respond to times of crisis. Rather than experiencing continuous waves of panic,…

WHAT GOES INTO A POLICY DECISION, AND WHO’S AT THE TABLE? Submitted by Dan Graff on September 4, 2020 – 4:45pm featuring guest blogger EMILY MEROLA (ND ‘20) Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, people have been affected by decisions made under crisis—they come from federal, state, and local government leadership, as well as from those overseeing operations…

THE US SUPREME COURT AFFIRMS LABOR EQUALITY FOR LGBT WORKERS Submitted by Dan Graff on June 23, 2020 – 9:40am featuring guest blogger TOM KELLENBERG (ND ‘80) In a landmark decision on June 15, 2020, the US Supreme Court ruled in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964…

QUINTESSENTIAL WORKERS: DEMANDING HUMAN DIGNITY FOR FARM LABOR Submitted by Dan Graff on June 8, 2020 – 5:36pm featuring guest blogger ANASTASIA REISINGER (ND ‘21) How often do you consider the sources of the produce you consume each day? Do you think about the long process that went into delivering that tomato on your burger, traveling from field…

COVID-19 AND THE REBIRTH OF SOLIDARITY Submitted by Dan Graff on May 12, 2020 – 9:31am BY DAN GRAFF, DIRECTOR, HIGGINS LABOR PROGRAM, & PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME This would seem the perfect time for a blog called “The Labor Question Today,” as the novel coronavirus has upended…

CHALLENGING TRUMP’S BORDER POLICY IN A SONG: ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO’S “SILVER CITY” Submitted by Dan Graff on January 23, 2019 – 6:01pm I write this in the midst of the longest government shutdown in US history — 25 days and counting — idling 800,000 federal workers, disrupting public services, and threatening to push the economy into…

ENVISIONING A JUST WAGE ECONOMY Submitted by Dan Graff on November 8, 2018 – 3:51pm Taking Catholic Social Teaching (CST) as inspiration, in particular Pope John Paul II’s claim that “a just wage is the concrete means of verifying the justice of the whole socioeconomic system,” the Higgins Labor Program at the Center for Social Concerns is…

HOW TO WAGE WAR ON LOW PAY Submitted by Dan Graff on November 8, 2018 – 3:43pm When the stock market crash of 1929 ushered in the worst economic crisis in U.S. history, the American people and policymakers combined to remake the democratic capitalist order with workers and consumers at the center. The New Deal — the…