Friday, May 7, 2021, 5:00–6:00 p.m.

Topic: The Paid Leave Priority
Facilitator: Jade Moss (Finance and Gender Studies ’21)
Resources:

• Jade Moss, “Reimagining a Nondiscriminatory Just Wage,” The Labor Question Today [Higgins Labor Program blog], Apr. 19, 2021
• Kelly Anne Smith,  “Is Paid Parental Leave Finally Coming to the U.S.?” Forbes, Apr. 19, 2021
• Lee Savio Beers, “Now Is the Moment We’ve Been Waiting for: It’s Time to Pass Paid Family and Medical Leave,” The Hill, Apr. 27, 2021
• Edward-Isaac Dovere, “The First Congressman to Take Parental Leave Is Ready to Fight for It,”The Atlantic, Apr. 27, 2021
• German Lopez, “Biden’s federal paid leave plan, explained in 600 words,” Vox, Apr. 23, 2021

Friday, April 9, 2021 | 5:00–6:00 p.m.

Topic: Is This a New Moment for the Labor Movement? Amazon vs. Unions in Alabama and Beyond
Facilitators: Dan Graff, Director, Higgins Labor Program
Resources:

• Michael Corkery, “Organizing Gravediggers, Cereal Makers and, Maybe, Amazon Employees,” The New York Times, Mar. 23/upd. Mar. 25, 2021
• David Streitfeld, “How Amazon Crushes Unions,” The New York Times, Mar. 16/upd. Mar. 18, 2021
• Michael Sainato, “Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama make the final push toward unionizing,” The Guardian, Mar. 21, 2021
• President Joe Biden, “President Biden On Workers’ Rights to Organize & Unionize,” The White House (YouTube channel), Feb. 28, 2021
• Rachel Sandler, “Sen. Rubio Backs Amazon Union Drive—A Rare Move For A Republican,” Forbes, Mar. 12, 2021
• Jay Carney, “It’s time to raise the federal minimum wage,” Amazon, Jan. 26, 2021
• Nelson Lichtenstein, “Can a grand bargain empower Amazon’s workers and limit corporate power?,” The Washington Post, Mar. 25, 2021
• John W. Miller, “The fight to unionize Amazon is the most important labor story of this century,” America, Mar. 25, 2021
•  Sarah Jones, “The PRO Act Could Do More Than Revive Unions,” New York, Mar. 13, 2021
• Josh Dzieza, “Why the Amazon union vote is bigger than Amazon,” The Verge, Mar. 28, 202

Friday, March 5, 2021 | 5:00–6:00 p.m.

Topic: The Care Economy: What is it? Who works in it, and why are they paid so poorly? And what is the Biden Administration’s vision for it?
Facilitators: Dan Graff, Director, Higgins Labor Program
Resources:

• Ai-jen Poo, “How ‘Roma’ Reveals the Complex Reality of Domestic Work,” The Hollywood Reporter, Dec. 14, 2018
• Ai-jen Poo, “The People Who Look After Your Children Deserve Basic Rights,” New York Times, Jul. 14, 2019
• William E. Spriggs, “Building Back the Care Economy,” The American Prospect, Oct. 21, 2020
• David Dayen, “An Interview With Ai-jen Poo,” The American Prospect, Oct. 21, 2020
• Ellen Wulfhorst, “U.S. domestic workers seen better off under Biden presidency,” Reuters, Nov. 12, 2020
• Carrie N. Baker, “A New Era for Women: Biden’s Plan to Invest in Workers and Families,” Ms., Feb. 10, 2021

Friday, February 5, 2021 | 5:00–6:00 p.m.

Topic: Memories of Tony Flora
 

Friday, November 6, 2020 | 5:00–6:00 p.m.

Topic: What’s next for labor policy in the wake of the US presidential election?
Facilitators: Diana Hess, St. Joseph County Councilwoman, & Robert Caruso (ND ’22), Higgins Labor Program Student Assistant
Resources:

• Celine McNicholas, Margaret Poydock, and Lynn Rhinehart, “Unprecedented: The Trump NLRB’s Attack on Workers’ Rights,” Economic Policy Institute, Oct. 16, 2019
• New York Times Editorial Board, “Trump’s War on Worker Rights,” New York Times, June 3, 2019
• Megan Casella, “Unions Predict a Great Awakening During a Biden Presidency,” Politico, Oct. 9, 2020
• Wilford H. Stone, “A look at Joe Biden’s plan to strengthen unions and the NLRB,” The Gazette, Sep. 25, 2020
• Steven Malanga, “Unions Biden Their Time,” City Journal, June 28, 2020
• Steven Greenhouse, “The Worker’s Friend? Here’s How Trump Has Waged His War on Workers,” The American Prospect, Aug. 30 2019

Friday, October 2, 2020 | 5:00–6:00 p.m. 

Topic: Farm & Food Workers during the Pandemic
Facilitators: Leonel Lopez, Worker Rights and Protection Project, Indiana Legal Services &Stasia Reisinger (ND ’21), Just Wage Research Assistant
Resources:

• Anastasia Reisinger, “Quintessential Workers: Demanding Human Dignity for Farm Labor,” The Labor Question Today (The Higgins Labor Program Blog), Jun. 8, 2020
• Kimberly Kindy, “More than 200 meat plant workers in the U.S. have died of covid-19. Federal regulators just issued two modest fines.,” Washington Post, Sep. 13, 2020
• John Bowe, “The Immokalee Way: Protecting Farmworkers Amid a Pandemic,” The Nation, Sep. 14, 2020
• Lilly Fowler, “Migrant workers leave WA farms, risking poverty instead of coronavirus” Crosscut, Sep. 14, 2020
• “COVID’s Hidden Toll,” PBS Frontline, Jul. 21, 2020
• Mary Kate McCoy, “Advocates Raise Alarm About Migrant Worker Safety Amid COVID-19,” Wisconsin Public Radio, Apr. 15, 2020

Friday, September 4, 2020 | 5:00–6:00 p.m. 

Topic: Essential Work/Disposable Workers: Why are so many jobs deemed critical in the pandemic paid so poorly?
Facilitators: Dan Graff, Director, Higgins Labor Program, and Emily Merola (ND ’20), Research Associate, Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities

Resources:

• Annie Lowrey, “Don’t Blame Econ 101 for the Plight of Essential Workers,” The Atlantic, May 13, 2020
• Katie Johnston, “Will anything change for the low-wage essential workers once hailed as heroes?,” Boston Globe, Aug. 3, 2020
• Somini Sengupta, “Heat, Smoke and Covid Are Battering the Workers Who Feed America,” The New York Times, Aug. 25, 2020
• “Tracking the COVID-19 Recession’s Effects on Food, Housing, and Employment Hardships,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Aug. 21, 2020
• Tracy Hadden Loh, Annelies Goger, and Sifan Liu, “‘Back to work in the flames’: The hospitality sector in a pandemic,” Brookings Institution, Aug. 20, 2020
• “COVID-19: Workers’ Compensation,” National Conference of State Legislatures, Jul. 28, 2020