At colleges and universities across the country, a heated battle is playing out right now over workers' right to organize and have a say over how the institutions they keep afloat with their labor are run. From graduate student-worker unionization efforts and strikes at Temple University, the University of California, Columbia University, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern University, Northeastern University, the University of Chicago, and Indiana University, to faculty strikes (and near-strikes) at the University of Illinois at Chicago, The New School, Howard University, etc., to workers across the higher ed sector striking in the UK, the academic labor movement is one of the most explosive sites of labor struggle right now. Meanwhile, the administrative class is working overtime to not only slow down this movement, but to squash it altogether. As we speak, full-time and adjunct faculty at Rutgers University are prepared to strike for the first time in school history after months and months of bad-faith bargaining and union-busting from the university administration; at the same time, the Duke University administration has not only refused to acknowledge its graduate student-workers' right to unionize, but it has vowed to go to the National Labor Relations Board in the hopes of stripping that right from graduates at all private universities.
In this panel episode, we talk with worker-organizers from Duke and Rutgers about the struggles taking place at their institutions and across higher ed. Panelists include: Matt Thomas, a PhD student in the English Department at Duke University and co-chair of the Duke Graduate Student Union; Kristina Mensik, a PhD student in the Political Science Department at Duke University and a member of the Duke Graduate Student Union; Bryan Sacks, an adjunct professor of Religion and Philosophy at Rutgers and vice president of the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union (PTLFC-AAUP-AFT); Todd Wolfson, associate professor of Journalism and Media Studies at Rutgers and general vice president of Rutgers AAUP-AFT
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Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)
Happy Birthday, Evan (w/ Amy Chamberlin & Jana Murphy)
Texas Environmental Workers Union (w/ Chloe Torres and Brandon Marks)
Live Show: Organize, Fight, Win (w/ Michelle Valentin Nieves & Harry Marino)
Embodying Degrowth (w/ The Maintainers)
What Could a Worker-Focused Just Transition Look Like? (w/ Megan Milliken Biven, James Hiatt, & Clarke)
Where Do Railroad Workers Go from Here? (w/ Jay, Marilee Taylor, John Tormey, & Matt Parker)
Holiday Season on the Picket Line (w/ Marcques Derby)
Fabio Bosco
Phones Down, Fists Up (w/ Tiffany Murray)
In Key Swing States, Union Members Are the Last Line of Defense (w/ Maggie Acosta, Bryan Villarreal-Vasquez, & Sheila Silver)
Vince Quiles
Alabama Paper Mill Workers Want Their Lives Back (w/ Jacob Morrison)
**In the Name of the Father (w/ Aaron Moritz & Shawn Vulliez)** PATREON EXCLUSIVE
Jonnie Lane
Leo Lindner
For Evan (w/ Ken Seyfried, Eric Seyfried, Amy Chamberlin, Erica Erskine, Jana Murphy, & Austin LiPuma)
Countdown to Midnight (w/ Jay & Joe)
Is the US Headed for a National Rail Strike? (w/ Mel Buer, Jeff Kurtz, & Ron Kaminkow)
**Gen Z for Change (w/ Elise Joshi & Sean Wiggs)** PATREON EXCLUSIVE
Amazon Keeps Firing Union Organizers (w/ Matt Littrell)
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