074 - Section on Labor and Labor Movements Invited Session. Power by Disruption: Strikes, Comprehensive Campaigns, and Beyond

Session Submission Type: Invited Session

Description

The precipitous decline in union density in the U.S. has accompanied a steep decline in strikes. Changes in employment relations and weakened regulatory protections have neutralized the strike threat in many workplaces. In recent years, some workers have continued to strike effectively. At the same time, comprehensive campaigns – while clearly not a panacea – have wielded community, corporate, and political threats to win new union contracts. Under what conditions can the strike still be effective? The comprehensive campaign? What characteristics of the industrial relations and regulatory environment limit the efficacy of such practices? What emergent forms of disruptive labor practice promise new inroads into worker power?

Sub Unit

• Section on Labor and Labor Movements

Session Organizer

• Joshua Bloom, University of Pittsburgh

Presider

• Tamara Kay, University of Notre Dame

Panelists

• Frances Fox Piven, City University of New York

• Tom Juravich, University of Massachusetts

• Jono Shaffer, Service Employees International Union

• Maida Rosenstein

• Pablo U. Gaston, University of California, Berkeley