A Reaching Out to Others: The Experience and Learning of Undergraduate Labor Activists

• In Event: From Motivation to Mobilization: College Student Experiences With Social Change and Justice

Abstract

Following a recent federal policy change, undergraduate students across the nation are engaging in efforts to unionize their on-campus jobs. In this phenomenological study, I examine how 29 undergraduate labor organizers experience and learn from their activism. A preliminary analysis of interviews reveals that their experience of resistance fosters sensemaking about social identities, socio-political inequalities, and the moral imperative of relational care. These findings suggest that while the college-as-employer can reinforce social inequalities through its administrative structures and functions, student workers raise imaginative possibilities about justice, solidarity, and change within and beyond the postsecondary institution.

Author

• Maria Widmer, University of Wisconsin - Madison