LER 110 “Labor and Social Movements”



LER 110 “Labor and Social Movements”

Spring 2020. Three Credits. Online Seminar

Second Eight Weeks Class. March 23 to May 6

ABOUT THE COURSE

LER 110 is an introductory course that explores the role of workers’ rights movements in American society. The course will look at community-based workers’ rights campaigns, and at new social movements around economic justice and workers’ rights issues. The class looks especially at low-wage workers in America, and also reviews the issues facing immigrant workers. And the course will analyze labor’s efforts to ally with community and civil rights groups to build a social movement that seeks broad public support for workers’ rights, with an emphasis on the problems and organizing efforts of low-wage workers.

Upon completing this course you will know:

▪ How to analyze a social movement;

▪ The purpose, activities, and significance of a number of social movements for workers’ rights and economic justice;

▪ The historic example of a fusion of the labor and civil rights movements in the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike;

▪ The conditions facing low-wage workers and an analysis of working poverty;

▪ The conditions facing immigrant workers, the issues in the immigration debate, labor’s historical and current stance on immigration, labor’s role in the immigrant rights movement, and immigrant workers’ efforts to organize for workers’ rights;

▪ The efforts by low-wage workers such as janitors, hotel workers, and restaurant workers over the past decade to form unions and build labor-community partnerships in support of their organizing campaigns; and

▪ Recent examples of social movements for workers’ rights and economic justice including workers’ centers, the Fast Food Workers’ movement, and the Wisconsin workers’ protests.

The course is divided into segments. Each segment’s lecture highlights important material from the assigned reading, adds new information, and introduces the discussion forums.

Segment Days Opens Closes Topic

1 9 March 23 March 31 Organizing Social Movements for Workers’ Rights & the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike

2 9 April 1 April 9 Low Wage Workers

3 9 April 10 April 18 Miami Janitors & L.A. Hotel Workers

4 9 April 19 April 27 Immigrant Workers & Workers Centers

5 9 April 28 May 6 Wisconsin Workers & Fast Food Workers

REQUIRED READING AND VIDEOS

There is one required text which can be purchased at the Illini Union bookstore or an online bookstore: Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich (2001). The remainder of the assigned reading is on Compass, including book chapters, journal articles, news articles, and web sites. You are also required to watch several short web-based videos plus the 56-minute documentary film “At the River I Stand” about the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike.

ASSIGNMENTS

There are 320 possible points in this course. Four exams are worth 100 points (25 points each), the Class Process Test is worth 5 points, the Final Exam is worth 80 points, and participation in the nine Discussion Forums is worth 135 points (15 points per forum).

Segment Assignment Date Opens Date Closes Points

All Discussion Forums First day of segment Last day of segment 135

1 Class Process Test March 23 March 31 5

2 Exam 1 April 1 April 9 25

3 Exam 2 April 10 April 18 25

4 Exam 3 April 19 April 27 25

5 Exam 4 April 28 May 6 25

5 Extra Credit Paper May 6 (15)

Final Exam May 8 May 8 80

TOTAL 320

Course Grade Scale:

A+ 98% 314-320 B+ 88% 282-287 C+ 78% 250-255 D+ 68% 218-223

A 93% 298-313 B 83% 266-281 C 73% 234-249 D 63% 202-217

A- 90% 288-297 B- 80% 256-265 C- 70% 224-233 D- 60% 192-201

F 000-191

Please read the Class Process file for details on exams, papers, extra credit papers, forum participation requirements, and forum grading. Please read the Forum Posts file for details on posting to Discussion Forums and reading posts.

COURSE SCHEDULE AND READING

SEGMENT 1

ORGANIZING SOCIAL MOVEMENTS FOR WORKERS’ RIGHTS and

THE 1968 MEMPHIS SANITATION STRIKE

Monday, March 23 to Tuesday, March 31 (9 days)

Reading – About the Class:

▪ Getting Started in your LER Online Class

▪ Syllabus

▪ Class Process

▪ Forum Posts

Reading – Organizing Social Movements for Workers’ Rights:

▪ “Why organize?” in The Next Upsurge: Labor and the New Social Movements by Dan Clawson (2003)

▪ “Bill Talcott: Organizer” in Working by Studs Terkel (1972)

“Why Unions Matter in America,” 2019, Interfaith Worker Justice, updated by LER

▪ “Union 101: Why Unions Matter and How They Work,” July 30, 2009 In These Times

▪ “Labor and Community Together,” November 24, 2015 speech by Laborers International Union President Terry O’Sullivan at the Arise Chicago banquet.

Videos – Organizing Social Movements for Workers’ Rights:

▪ The concluding minutes of the film “Grapes of Wrath” (5 minutes)

Reading – Memphis Sanitation Workers:

▪ “Martin Luther King Jr. and the Memphis Sanitation Strike” by Michael Honey in Major Problems in the History of American Workers edited by Eileen Boris and Nelson Lichtenstein (2002)

▪ “All Labor Has Dignity,” March 18, 1968 speech by Dr. King to striking Memphis sanitation workers

▪ “Sanitation strike veteran remembers past, cherishes progress,” February 17, 2008 Memphis Commercial Appeal

▪ “Martin Luther King was a Radical, Not a Saint,” by Prof. Peter Dreier, January 19, 2015 Huffington Post

Videos – Memphis Sanitation Workers:

▪ “At the River I Stand” documentary (56 minutes)

▪ Dr. King speaks to unionists at a SEIU 1199 conference, March 10, 1968 (8 minutes)

▪ 2008 interview with veterans of 1968 strike, Memphis Commercial Appeal (4 minutes)

▪ Excerpt from speech by Dr. King to striking Memphis sanitation workers, “I’ve been to the mountain top,” April 3, 1968 (2 minutes)

Assignments:

▪ Post to the Introductions forum early in the segment.

▪ Make a first substantial post in Forums 1A and 1B by the sixth day of the segment on Saturday, March 28 to earn the full 3 “timing” points in forum grading. Posting later will lead to a reduction in points. Post at least three substantial posts in Forum 1A by the end of the segment.

▪ Take the Class Process Test by 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, March 31

Discussion Forums:

▪ Introductions

▪ 1A: Organizing Social Movements for Workers’ Rights

▪ 1B: The Memphis Sanitation Strike

SEGMENT 2

LOW WAGE WORKERS

Wednesday, April 1 to Thursday, April 9 (9 days)

Reading:

▪ Text: Nickel and Dimed

- Introduction

- Chapter 1 “Serving in Florida,”

- Chapter 3 “Selling in Minnesota”

▪ Executive Summary and “Workers’ Perspectives” (15 pages) in “Behind the Kitchen Door: The Hidden Costs of Taking the Low Road in Chicagoland’s Thriving Restaurant Industry,” a February 2010 report, Restaurant Opportunities Center (click on link to download the report)

▪ “How Expensive It Is to Be Poor,” January 18, 2015 New York Times

▪ “Low-Wage Workers Are Finding Poverty Harder to Escape,” March 16, 2014 New York Times

▪ “When Working Hard Is Hardly Working, Financially,” September 15, 2016 The Atlantic

▪ “By Day, a Sunny Smile for Disney Visitors. By Night, an Uneasy Sleep in a Car,' February 27, 2018 New York Times

▪ “Low-Wage Workers Finally Get a Raise,” January 14, 2018 The Atlantic

▪ You are also encouraged to put “low wage workers,” “poverty wages,” or “working poor” in your search engine and share any interesting information you find.

Videos:

▪ Low wage workers talk about their lives (9 minutes)

▪ Tour Poverty USA, Catholic Campaign for Human Development (4 minutes)

Assignments:

▪ Make a first substantial post in Forum 2A by the sixth day of the segment on Monday, April 6 to earn the full 3 “timing” points in forum grading. Posting later will lead to a reduction in points. Post at least three substantial posts in each forum by the end of the segment.

▪ Take Exam 1 covering Segments 1 and 2 by 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, April 9.

Discussion Forum:

▪ 2A: Working Poverty

SEGMENT 3

MIAMI JANITORS and LOS ANGELES HOTEL WORKERS

Friday, April 10 to Saturday, April 18 (9 days)

Reading – Miami Janitors:

▪ “Contending Rationality, Leadership, and Collective Struggle: The 2006 Justice for Janitors Campaign at the University of Miami,” by Jason Albright, Spring 2008 Labor Studies Journal

▪ “25 Years Later: Lessons from the Organizers of Justice for Janitors,” June 15, 2015

▪ Interfaith Worker Justice (explore their website)

▪ Jobs With Justice blog (explore their website)

▪ “About 800 UI workers on strike,” March 11, 2013 Champaign-Urbana News Gazette

Video – Miami Janitors:

▪ “Si Se Puede,” the University of Miami janitors’ strike (33 minutes)

Reading – Hotel Workers:

▪ “From the Shop to the Streets: UNITE HERE Organizing in Los Angeles Hotels” by Forrest Stuart, chapter 10 in Working for Justice: The L.A. Model of Organizing and Advocacy edited by Ruth Milkman (2010)

▪ “Struggling for Justice, Sustained by Faith: A Hotel Worker’s Words,” by Cleopatria Kyles in A Worker Justice Reader (2010)

▪ “The Fight for $15.37 an Hour: How a Coalition Pushed for a Hotel Workers' Minimum Wage,” November 22, 2014 New York Times

▪ “At Last, Hyatt Workers Win Deal -- With Room to Grow,” July 2, 2013 Labor Notes magazine

▪ “UNITE HERE Takes On Sexual Harassment in Chicago’s Hospitality Industry,” Ms. Blog October 19, 2016

Assignments:

▪ Make a first substantial post in Forums 3A and 3B by the sixth day of the segment on Wednesday, April 15. Posting later will lead to a reduction in points. Post at least three substantial posts in each forum by the end of the segment.

▪ Take Exam 2 on material in Segment 3 by 11:59 p.m. on Saturday, April 18.

Discussion Forums:

▪ 3A: Miami Janitors

▪ 3B: Los Angeles Hotel Workers

SEGMENT 4

IMMIGRANT WORKERS and WORKERS CENTERS

Sunday, April 19 to Monday, April 27 (9 days)

Reading – Immigrant Workers:

▪ “The Lowest Rung,” chapter 12 in The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker by Steven Greenhouse

▪ “The U.S. Immigration Debate,” July 2, 2018 The Council on Foreign Affairs

▪ “The depressing predictability of the immigration debate,” June 21, 2018 CNN

▪ “Immigrants Aren’t Taking Americans’ Jobs, New Study Finds,” September 21, 2016 New York Times

▪ “The Price of Nice Nails: Manicurists are routinely underpaid and exploited, and endure ethnic bias and other abuse,” May 7, 2015 New York Times

▪ “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant,” June 11, 2011 New York Times

▪ “My Immigration Story: The Story of U.S. Immigrants in Their Own Words” website

▪ “Economic Benefits of Immigration Reform,” Immigration Policy Center

▪ Optional: You are also encouraged to put the words "undocumented immigrants," "immigrants and jobs," "immigrants and wages," and "the economic benefits of immigrants" in your search engine, and share any interesting information you come across.

Videos – Immigrant Workers:

▪ “Undocumented Americans: Inside the Immigration Debate” (3 minutes. Companion video to the assigned article “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant”)

▪ “What Would You Do: Latino men met with prejudice after placing order,” ABC News video from the show "What Would You Do?" (7 minutes)

▪ Optional: “Mexico: A Death in the Desert” (PBS, 19 minutes)

Reading – Worker Centers:

▪ “Workers’ Centers: Front Lines Against Wage Theft,” chapter 7 in Wage Theft in America by Kim Bobo (2011)

▪ “Workers Organize, but Don’t Unionize, to Get Protection Under Labor Law,” September 6, 2015 New York Times

“The Workers Defense Project, a Union in Spirit,” August 10, 2013 New York Times

▪ “What Workers Gain at Worker Centers,” April 27, 2018 Pacific Standard

▪ “Wage theft victims have little chance of recouping pay in Illinois,” August 29, 2017 The Chicago Reporter

▪ “Behind the minimum wage fight, a sweeping failure to enforce the law,” February 28, 2018 Politico

“Advocates for Workers Raise the Ire of Business,” January 16, 2014 New York Times

Videos – Worker Centers:

▪ “Worker Centers Confront Wage Theft,” Workaday Minnesota (3 minutes)

▪ “Wage Theft: The Crime Wave No One Talks About,” Interfaith Worker Justice and Arise Chicago Worker Center (5 minutes)

▪ “Arise Chicago Worker Center Protests Chicago Car Wash” (6 minutes)

Assignments:

▪ Make a first substantial post in both Forum 4A and 4B by the sixth day of the segment on Friday, April 24. Posting later will lead to a reduction in points. Post at least three substantial posts in each forum by the end of the segment.

▪ Take Exam 3 on material in Segment 4 by 11:59 p.m. on Monday, April 27.

▪ A reminder that the Extra Credit paper on the Occupy Wall Street movement is due by 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, May 6.

Discussion Forums:

▪ 4A: Immigrant Workers

▪ 4B: Worker Centers

SEGMENT 5

WISCONSIN WORKERS and FAST FOOD WORKERS

Tuesday, April 28 to Wednesday, May 6 (9 days)

Reading – Wisconsin:

▪ We Are Wisconsin: The Wisconsin uprising in the words of the activists, writers, and everyday Wisconsinites who made it happen, edited by Erica Sagrans (2011), pages 35-36, 38-40, 49-52, 54-56, 58-60, and 281-286 (timeline)

▪ “Who were the leaders of the Wisconsin uprising?” by Lee Sustar in Wisconsin Uprising: Labor Fights Back (2012), edited by Michael Yates

▪ “A New American Workers Movement Has Begun,” by Dan La Botz, Monthly Review magazine

▪ “Heartbreak in the Heartland: Voices from Wisconsin,” June 6, 2012 Labor Notes

▪ “5 years after Act 10: Union membership, clout has suffered," February 11, 2016 Madison State-Journal

Videos – Wisconsin:

▪ This is what democracy looks like (4 minutes)

▪ Madison protest movement February 15-17, 2011 (5 minutes)

Reading – Fast Food Workers:

▪ “Behind the Counter” chapter in Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser (2001)

▪ “Dignity: Fast Food Workers and a New Form of Labor Activism,” September 15, 2014 New Yorker magazine.

▪ “Living Wages, Rarity for U.S. Fast-Food Workers, Served Up in Denmark,” October 27, 2014 New York Times

▪ “$15 Wage in Fast Food Stirs Debate on Effects,” December 4, 2013 New York Times

▪ “McDonald's Can't Figure Out How Its Workers Survive on Minimum Wage,” July 16, 2013 The Atlantic magazine

▪ “How the $15 Minimum Wage Went From Laughable to Viable,” by Steven Greenhouse, April 1, 2016 New York Times

▪ “The Fight for 15 Is Creating a Fighting Labor Movement for the 21st Century,” September 3, 2015 In These Times

▪ “The Hope From Audacity: Fight for $15 Pulls Off “Most Disruptive” Day of Action Yet,” December 1, 2016 In These Times

▪ “Target to raise its minimum hourly wage to $15 by the end of 2020,” September 25, 2017 Associated Press

Videos – Fast Food Workers:

▪ Chicago Fast-Food Workers Go On Strike (September 2014, 5 minutes)

▪ Hundreds Arrested as Growing Fast-Food Workers' Movement Strikes for Living Wage, Unionization (September 2014, 12 minutes)

Assignments:

▪ Make a first substantial post in Forum 5A and 5B by the sixth day of the segment on Sunday, May 3. Posting later will lead to a reduction in points. Post at least three substantial posts in each forum by the end of the segment.

▪ Take Exam 4 by 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, May 6.

▪ The Extra Credit paper on Occupy Wall Street is due by 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, May 6.

▪ The Final Exam, covering all course material, is open from 6:00 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. on Friday, May 8. Read the Final Exam directions first as this exam is essay and accessible only one time. You must also take the Academic Integrity test before taking the exam, and in order to find the password to access the Final Exam in the last test question.

Discussion Forums:

▪ 5A: Wisconsin Workers

▪ 5B: Fast Food Workers and Reflections

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