Power At Work

Legal experts Charlotte Garden, Michael Z. Green, and Jeffrey Hirsch discuss the business community's legal attacks on the NLRB. They cover the pending Supreme Court case Starbucks v. McKinney, the constitutionality of the NLRB, and labor relations legal infrastructure.

In this blogcast, Burnes Center Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Johnnie Kallas, Assistant Professor at the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois and Program Director of the Labor Action Tracker, to discuss the Labor Action Tracker 2023 Annual Report. Listen to their conversation as they dissect the report's numbers, discuss 2023 strike activity, and make predictions for the next year. You don't want to miss the latest Power at Work Blogcast! The Labor Action Tracker 2023 Annual Report can be viewed here.   Follow us on social media: ⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn Johnnie Kallas is an Assistant Professor at the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois. He received his PhD from Cornell University's ILR School. He is the Project Director of the Labor Action Tracker. His research focuses on strikes and labor militancy in the United States, with a special interest in healthcare. Subscribe to the Power At Work Blog. 

In this podcast, Burnes Center Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Tia Koonse, Legal and Policy Research Manager at the UCLA Labor Center, and Todd Vachon, Assistant Professor in the Department of Labor Studies and Employment Relations and the Director of the Labor Education Action Research Network at Rutgers University. Listen to their conversation on the results of the 2023 BLS Union Members Survey, just transition in climate change and automation, and the business community's growing attacks on the NLRB. You don't want to miss this edition of the Power Hour! Follow us on social media: ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠ ⁠⁠LinkedIn Todd E. Vachon, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Labor Studies and Employment Relations (LSER) and the Director of the Labor Education Action Research Network (LEARN) at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. As the Director of LEARN, Todd oversees the University’s labor education programs, including classes and workshops for workers, unions, and other organizations and public programming designed to: (a) strengthen the community at work, (b) facilitate its organization on a more democratic basis, and (c) address unjustified inequalities of power and wealth in society. Todd is also the author of Clean Air and Good Jobs: U.S. Labor and the Struggle for Climate Justice (Temple University Press, 2023). Tia Koonse is the Legal and Policy Research Manager at the UCLA Labor Center, where she provides legal research on low-wage industries and program support for ReWork: The Worker Justice Institute and the Black Worker Center. She holds a law and a master’s degree (’11) in urban planning from UCLA’s Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy, with concentrations in Critical Race Studies and Community Development and Housing. Tia is an author of the UCLA Labor Center report "Automation and the Future of Dockwork at the San Pedro Bay Port Complex." Subscribe to the Power At Work Blog.   

Due to technical difficulties, the Power At Work Blog was unable to share this month's Workers by the Numbers stream live, but you can still catch our labor experts' latest takes on the January BLS report. Watch below to hear a conversation between Alicia Modestino, Seth Harris, and Aaron Sojourner recorded live at 9 AM on February 2, 2024, the morning of the BLS report's release. Alicia Modestino, Associate Professor at Northeastern University, hosts this month's Workers by the Numbers Blogcast. Listen to her in conversation with Aaron Sojourner and Seth Harris as they discuss the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ jobs, wages, and unemployment report for January 2024. This conversation was recorded on February 2, 2024. You don't want to miss this Numbers Day blogcast! Follow us on social media: ⁠TikTok⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ ⁠Twitter⁠ ⁠Facebook⁠ ⁠LinkedIn  Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Overcast. Aaron Sojourner is a labor economist and senior researcher at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment research. He has served as a Senior Economist for labor at the White House's Council of Economic Advisors. Seth Harris is a Distinguished Professor of Practice at Northeastern University and Affiliated Faculty and a Senior Fellow at the Burnes Center for Social Change (and its partner project The GovLab) where he runs the Initiative on Labor and Economic Justice. Prior to joining Northeastern University, Professor Harris was the Deputy Assistant to the President for Labor and the Economy and Deputy Director of the Biden White House’s National Economic Council.

During this blogcast moderated by Seth Harris, Former top Biden White House labor advisor, former Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor, and a Senior Fellow at the Burnes Center for Social Change at Northeastern University, our guest labor experts will react to and analyze the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2023 Union Member Survey, which reports on how many American workers are union members as well as America’s union density rate --- in other words, the percentage of workers in unions. This blogcast was aired and recorded live on January 23. This blogcast features ⁠Vonda McDaniel⁠, President of the Central Labor Council of Nashville and Middle Tennessee and AFL-CIO Executive Council member, and ⁠Heidi Shierholz⁠, President of the Economic Policy Institute as they analyze BLS's 2023 Union Members Survey results. Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Overcast. Follow us on social media: ⁠TikTok⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ ⁠Twitter⁠ ⁠Facebook⁠ ⁠LinkedIn Vonda McDaniel joined the United Rubber Workers (URW) in 1992 at the Bridgestone-Firestone Lavergne Plant, where she has worked for the last 26 years. Shortly after joining the Union, she became a Shop Steward which began her Union journey. In 1995, URW merged with the United Steelworkers (USW), opening up new opportunities for her as a young activist. Vonda was trained in the USW’s Women of Steel initiative, which equipped her with vital tools to become a leader in her Union and community. She went on to become a trainer in the program herself. After 10 years as a local Union Pension and Insurance Representative, Vonda was elected President of the Central Labor Council of Nashville and Middle Tennessee in 2013.Heidi Shierholz, who served the Obama administration as chief economist at the Department of Labor, has been a consistent and leading voice for a worker-centered policy agenda that prioritizes economic and racial justice. Taking the helm at EPI after former President Thea Lee departed to work for the Biden administration, Shierholz is strengthening EPI’s ability to deliver economic analysis that challenges and transforms the mainstream narrative about the economy. Under her leadership, EPI is focused on fighting for and winning federal, state, and local legislative and regulatory reforms that support collective bargaining; increase worker power; improve wages, benefits, and working conditions; and reduce racial and gender inequities.

Listen to Burnes Center Senior Fellow Seth Harris in conversation about podcasting in the labor movement with Judy Ancel, executive producer of the "Heartland Labor Forum;" Max Alvarez, host of "Working People" and Editor-In-Chief of the Real News Network; and Mel Buer, staff reporter at the Real News Network and host of the "Real News Network Podcast." Seth and guests discuss why they started their podcasts and some of the biggest current issues in the labor movement like union reform, the strengths and weaknesses of American labor law, and the importance of labor leadership. **This blogcast is brought to you by Union Built PC: ⁠https://unionbuiltpc.com/⁠ ** Listen on ⁠Spotify⁠, ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠, and ⁠Google Podcasts.⁠ Follow us on social media: TikTok Instagram Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Maximillian Alvarez is editor-in-chief at the Real News Network and host of the podcast Working People, available at InThe​se​Times​.com. He is also the author of The Work of Living: Working People Talk About Their Lives and the Year the World Broke. Judy Ancel produces the Heartland Labor Forum and coordinates the team of volunteers who do the show. She is a labor educator, recently retired from UMKC, and prides herself on teaching people to question authority, especially at work and stand up for their rights. Judy is also active in Missouri Jobs with Justice and the Cross Border Network. Mel Buer is a staff labor reporter for The Real News Network and host of the Weekly Real News Network Podcast. Prior to joining TRNN, she worked as a freelance reporter covering Midwest labor struggles, including reporting on the 2021 Kellogg's strike and the 2022 railroad workers struggle. In the past she has reported extensively on Midwest protests and movements during the 2020 uprising and is currently researching and writing a book on radical media for Or Books.

Alicia Modestino, Associate Professor at Northeastern University, hosts this month's Workers by the Numbers Blogcast. Listen to her in conversation with Kate Bahn and Harry Holzer as they discuss the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ jobs, wages, and unemployment report for December 2023. This conversation was aired live on the homepage of the blog at 12:00 PM ET on Friday, January 5 You don't want to miss this Numbers Day blogcast! Don't forget to subscribe to the blog: https://poweratwork.us/

Burnes Center Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Cynthia Estlund, author and Professor at NYU School of Law, and Steven Greenhouse, Senior Fellow at the Century Foundation. Listen to their conversation on the importance of collective bargaining in 2023, the trends leading into 2024, and the future of worker power.

Alicia Modestino, Associate Professor at Northeastern University, hosts this month's Workers by the Numbers Blogcast. Listen to her in conversation with Elise Gould and Rick McGahey as they discuss the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ jobs, wages, and unemployment report for November 2023. This conversation was aired live on the homepage of the blog at 12:00 PM ET on Friday, December 8. You don't want to miss this Numbers Day blogcast! Don't forget to subscribe to the Power At Work Blog: https://poweratwork.us/

Listen to Burnes Center Senior Fellow Seth Harris in conversation with Bill Herbert, executive director of the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining, Joseph van der Naald, PhD candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City, and Scott Phillipson, president of SEIU Local 200. Seth and guests discuss trends in organizing among higher education workers, including graduate and undergraduate students, Ruth Milkman's union density report, and current organizing efforts at Universities like Emory, Syracuse, and California State. **This blogcast is brought to you by Union Built PC: https://unionbuiltpc.com/ **