My mother helped organize one of the first unions for university staff in the country. The professors were organized, the maintenance workers were organized, but the employees in the middle (predominantly women) were not. They were scandalously underpaid with no job security. She and her colleagues had to strike to get recognition, and they were out for a month - walking picket lines in winter coats. The university tried to operate with scabs - some of them women my mother knew - and it was a fiasco. Managers begged the administration to recognize them, and they finally did. My mother got raises, promotions, great health care, a pension, free tuition and other benefits. I was so proud of her, and their movement went on to inspire employees at other universities across the country. Unions are definitely not only for traditional blue collar staff.
Love this. Big fan of Kim’s work, can’t wait to read the book.
It drives me up the wall when people say “white collar workers” don’t need to organize. My grandfather participated in the Flint sit-down strike and was one of the first UAW members. He was a “tool and die man” designing and making the tools that people used to make cars. It was a high paid specialty that he took a lot of pride in and did a lot of continuing education throughout his 50+ year career.
I am a software engineer. My expertise is in developer tools. It is literally the exact same job.
I have a similar amount of skill, decision making in my day and status in my community. You can say I’m white collar and he was blue collar if you want because I don’t work in a factory but his job sent 6 kids to college and bought him a 50 acre farm and I was only able to buy a 1200 sqft apartment in part because he left me $10k to put towards the down payment.
My mom worked for 31+ years for the state of Michigan as an assistance payments worker at ... IDK what to even call it. The place where you apply for Food Stamps! When she started, they called it Department of Social Services; then a Republican governer changed the name to Family Independence Agency, and now I think it's called DHHS, Dept of Health and Human Services, or DHS? Anyway, she was a member of the AFL-CIO - that was their union. I always thought it was funny she was in the same union as the car factory employees. When I worked as an LPN, I was in the SEIU.
I come from a very pro-union family. My Dad was a typesetter who was on the union board for years. I often have to remind people that unions aren’t just about wages but also about healthcare and vacations and support for a safe work place. I worked at a large Canadian bookstore as middle management and unequivocally refused when upper management wanted us to “spy” on staff who were trying to unionize. And pushed back at the union busting meetings they tried to have. Retail work really needs a union.
Could not love this interview more! Just the other day I got furious listening to the local radio guys because they were chatting amiably with our very right-wing and wealthy state governor about changes in forest fire policy, and they said that the day before they'd had two timber guys in "and it was so good to see men who'd been *working*." Because, you know, only people who've been out in the woods cutting down trees are truly working. Not the overstretched nurses at the hospital or the service industry our entire county relies on who are being completely driven out of the rental market. I just about blew my top.
Aaahhh this made me so happy this morning! Reminds me of the argument I had with my Tea Party (former) boss who thought only auto workers deserved unions. And I was like, do you think each auto worker builds the whole car? Have you seen an assembly line? How is one guy riveting the same thing for 12 hours not similar to Burger King?
But also I want to use this moment to shout out one of my favorite humans, my friend Phil "Felix" Rosner, a lifelong Communist who fought in the Austrian resistance against Hitler. Too many fantastic stories, but after he came to the US he was a union organizer in the garment district and was very proud that his union got the first front office jobs for Black women in the industry. He also had lots of tips about what to do when clubbed by police and how to get them off the horses.
The city workers in Richmond VA are trying to unionize, but they’ve also including the police force as part of that effort. So now I’m torn because I’ve seen how unaccountable the police already are and I don’t want to further entrench their power. If anyone has thoughts to help me think this through id appreciate it.
Seems strange to me that the city workers are including the police. I thought the cops usually had their own unions. I don't know if my thoughts help any but I think police unions have too much power, and they help keep killer cops on the street and stop police from being held accountable. If they want to unionize to fight for more pay and benefits, fine, but the unions shouldn't be involved in getting them lawyers when they kill unarmed civilians. (edited for grammer - took out an "an").
This is a conundrum Jeremy. I'm also surprised like KareBear that the police aren't already unionized? I live in Oakland and our dock workers union has been very supportive of all the labor and anti-police brutality protests and there is significant tension between the police and all other labor organizing. To me, the presence of the cops outweighs the good. There is so much progressive effort where I live and it is always undone by city management. Their relationship with the police is depressingly cozy.
I’ve added this to my TBR list, and I’m so excited to read it! What a great interview. I’m fiercely involved in my academic faculty union, and I think a lot about who is included in the labour movement and who isn’t, how to make everything we do more accessible and more equitable, how to bring more people into an ungovernable and radically inclusive labour ecosystem. I can’t wait to read Kim’s book.
I just ordered Kim's book from The Free Library of Philadelphia! I have been interested in labor organizing, and wish I was in a union but I was under the impression university staff weren't the union type. Looks like I was wrong!
Thank you for this. I am grateful for additional language to help me have this conversation with others. As a daughter of a blue-collar union father and having recently left a white-collar hellscape, I placed this book on hold from my local library immediately.
Love this! My great aunt was a union organizer at an Indiana steel mill back in the day. She was a badass and I'm sorry I didn't get to hear more of her stories as a adult. She died at 90 about 15 years ago.
I am so excited to read this! Kim is speaking next Tuesday 6/21 as part of my local library system's Authors! series. If you're in the Toledo/Northwest Ohio area, the event is at the Main branch of the Toledo Lucas County Public Library and begins at 6:30!
I can’t wait to read this!!!! I have been wanting to do more labor history and this is just the push I need. The main question....why is everyone so uncomfortable with unions? Not even management, but workers.
Please, please would love to see the section that got cut on the paniolo of Hawaiʻi...I bet the Paniolo Preservation Society here in Waimea would be super interested!
My mother helped organize one of the first unions for university staff in the country. The professors were organized, the maintenance workers were organized, but the employees in the middle (predominantly women) were not. They were scandalously underpaid with no job security. She and her colleagues had to strike to get recognition, and they were out for a month - walking picket lines in winter coats. The university tried to operate with scabs - some of them women my mother knew - and it was a fiasco. Managers begged the administration to recognize them, and they finally did. My mother got raises, promotions, great health care, a pension, free tuition and other benefits. I was so proud of her, and their movement went on to inspire employees at other universities across the country. Unions are definitely not only for traditional blue collar staff.
Love this. Big fan of Kim’s work, can’t wait to read the book.
It drives me up the wall when people say “white collar workers” don’t need to organize. My grandfather participated in the Flint sit-down strike and was one of the first UAW members. He was a “tool and die man” designing and making the tools that people used to make cars. It was a high paid specialty that he took a lot of pride in and did a lot of continuing education throughout his 50+ year career.
I am a software engineer. My expertise is in developer tools. It is literally the exact same job.
I have a similar amount of skill, decision making in my day and status in my community. You can say I’m white collar and he was blue collar if you want because I don’t work in a factory but his job sent 6 kids to college and bought him a 50 acre farm and I was only able to buy a 1200 sqft apartment in part because he left me $10k to put towards the down payment.
My mom worked for 31+ years for the state of Michigan as an assistance payments worker at ... IDK what to even call it. The place where you apply for Food Stamps! When she started, they called it Department of Social Services; then a Republican governer changed the name to Family Independence Agency, and now I think it's called DHHS, Dept of Health and Human Services, or DHS? Anyway, she was a member of the AFL-CIO - that was their union. I always thought it was funny she was in the same union as the car factory employees. When I worked as an LPN, I was in the SEIU.
I come from a very pro-union family. My Dad was a typesetter who was on the union board for years. I often have to remind people that unions aren’t just about wages but also about healthcare and vacations and support for a safe work place. I worked at a large Canadian bookstore as middle management and unequivocally refused when upper management wanted us to “spy” on staff who were trying to unionize. And pushed back at the union busting meetings they tried to have. Retail work really needs a union.
Could not love this interview more! Just the other day I got furious listening to the local radio guys because they were chatting amiably with our very right-wing and wealthy state governor about changes in forest fire policy, and they said that the day before they'd had two timber guys in "and it was so good to see men who'd been *working*." Because, you know, only people who've been out in the woods cutting down trees are truly working. Not the overstretched nurses at the hospital or the service industry our entire county relies on who are being completely driven out of the rental market. I just about blew my top.
Aaahhh this made me so happy this morning! Reminds me of the argument I had with my Tea Party (former) boss who thought only auto workers deserved unions. And I was like, do you think each auto worker builds the whole car? Have you seen an assembly line? How is one guy riveting the same thing for 12 hours not similar to Burger King?
But also I want to use this moment to shout out one of my favorite humans, my friend Phil "Felix" Rosner, a lifelong Communist who fought in the Austrian resistance against Hitler. Too many fantastic stories, but after he came to the US he was a union organizer in the garment district and was very proud that his union got the first front office jobs for Black women in the industry. He also had lots of tips about what to do when clubbed by police and how to get them off the horses.
The city workers in Richmond VA are trying to unionize, but they’ve also including the police force as part of that effort. So now I’m torn because I’ve seen how unaccountable the police already are and I don’t want to further entrench their power. If anyone has thoughts to help me think this through id appreciate it.
Seems strange to me that the city workers are including the police. I thought the cops usually had their own unions. I don't know if my thoughts help any but I think police unions have too much power, and they help keep killer cops on the street and stop police from being held accountable. If they want to unionize to fight for more pay and benefits, fine, but the unions shouldn't be involved in getting them lawyers when they kill unarmed civilians. (edited for grammer - took out an "an").
This is a conundrum Jeremy. I'm also surprised like KareBear that the police aren't already unionized? I live in Oakland and our dock workers union has been very supportive of all the labor and anti-police brutality protests and there is significant tension between the police and all other labor organizing. To me, the presence of the cops outweighs the good. There is so much progressive effort where I live and it is always undone by city management. Their relationship with the police is depressingly cozy.
I’ve added this to my TBR list, and I’m so excited to read it! What a great interview. I’m fiercely involved in my academic faculty union, and I think a lot about who is included in the labour movement and who isn’t, how to make everything we do more accessible and more equitable, how to bring more people into an ungovernable and radically inclusive labour ecosystem. I can’t wait to read Kim’s book.
I just ordered Kim's book from The Free Library of Philadelphia! I have been interested in labor organizing, and wish I was in a union but I was under the impression university staff weren't the union type. Looks like I was wrong!
Thank you for this. I am grateful for additional language to help me have this conversation with others. As a daughter of a blue-collar union father and having recently left a white-collar hellscape, I placed this book on hold from my local library immediately.
Love this! My great aunt was a union organizer at an Indiana steel mill back in the day. She was a badass and I'm sorry I didn't get to hear more of her stories as a adult. She died at 90 about 15 years ago.
I am so excited to read this! Kim is speaking next Tuesday 6/21 as part of my local library system's Authors! series. If you're in the Toledo/Northwest Ohio area, the event is at the Main branch of the Toledo Lucas County Public Library and begins at 6:30!
A question. What is a “music vertical?” I have some guesses but am not sure. Thanks!
"Vertical" is a journalistic term to describe a section — as in, Kim wrote for the music section of Vice.
I can’t wait to read this!!!! I have been wanting to do more labor history and this is just the push I need. The main question....why is everyone so uncomfortable with unions? Not even management, but workers.
Please, please would love to see the section that got cut on the paniolo of Hawaiʻi...I bet the Paniolo Preservation Society here in Waimea would be super interested!
I just love Kim, so much.