Labor Archives - Page 2 of 3

Capitalism

Welcome to the Chip Wars

Intel wants another HQ2 contest, this time for chip manufacturers.

September 15, 2021 • by Pat Garofalo

_____ The Amazon “HQ2” contest—in which hundreds of cities threw everything including the kitchen sink at Amazon in the hopes of landing a new facility—was a national embarrassment showing just how tight corporate America’s grip on economic development policy is (at least until New York said no way). In a recent interview with ...

Journalism

Branding Myself

How a freelance writer’s summer internship made her reconsider how to market herself

September 1, 2021 • by Hannah Hightman

_____ This past summer, I was an intern at Sarankco, a creative studio and consultancy located in Manhattan. According to the firm’s website, Sarankco specializes in “developing brands that create awareness; designing experiences that influence behavior; and creating communications that drive engagement.” As a freelance writer who had previously written for The ...

Economy

Executives at Gig Companies Say the Darndest Things

Unproductive Labor, Episode One

May 12, 2021 • by Luke Mergner and Pete Sinnott

This is the first episode of Unproductive Labor, a podcast made with support from Public Seminar. Make sure to not miss any episodes by subscribing on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. The innovations of the gig economy are not just about technology but change our expectations, and the ...

Labor

The Past and Future of the Office

Past Present Podcast, Episode 278

May 4, 2021 • by Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: New York magazine published a sprawling collection of essays about experiences of office life. Natalia referred to this Atlantic article about the persistence of deep cleaning protocols despite evidence that the coronavirus does not spread on surfaces. Niki cited historian ...

Labor

In Honor of Essential Workers

Take a minute on this Labor Day to think about a future for labor beyond Trump

September 3, 2020 • by Helaine Olen

----------- This is our fourth Labor Day weekend in Trump’s America. In no way, can we say it is a good year for American workers. We plunged from record employment to near Great Depression levels of unemployment within a matter of weeks, as the nation all but shut down in response ...

Economy

How to Reopen the American Economy Now

We don’t have to choose between a depression and tens of thousands of avoidable deaths

August 24, 2020 • by Teresa Ghilarducci

And, of course, economists are on the case. In my favorite economic paper on the COVID-19 economy, Harvard University economist James Stock describes a new family of epidemiological-economic models that provide guidance about how best to reopen the economy. Here are his smart reopening requirements: promote collective behaviors to stop the spread of the ...

Feminism

Wages Against Essential Work

Our undervaluation of traditionally female work is coming home to roost

July 9, 2020 • by Alissa G. Karl

The streets around Highland Hospital, a few blocks from my house in Rochester, New York, are lined with signage “thanking” and “supporting” the “essential” workers who labor there. Many signs are hand-made, propped on porches or taped to light poles; others are mass-produced, like campaign signs, anchored into residential lawns. ...

Fashion

Creative Careers: Making A Living With Your Ideas

A journey through fashion and design

June 17, 2020 • by B Jeffrey Madoff

I graduated from the University of Wisconsin in, Madison with a double major in philosophy and psychology. I tried to get a job as a sage, but he wisdom factories weren’t hiring, so I got a job in a small clothing boutique. One day a friend of mine called and ...

Creative Careers: Making A Living With Your Ideas

Labor

I, Face Mask

A reconsideration of the classic essay, “I, Pencil”

May 27, 2020 • by Fred Block

“I, Pencil” uses a genealogy of an ordinary lead pencil to explain that nobody knows how to make one. It is, rather, the genius of the market system that coordinates the efforts of people around the world to manufacture the final product. They include loggers in Northern California, graphite miners ...

Capitalism

Job Market Astrology

When they were kicked to the curb, jobless workers mostly blamed themselves: Enter career coaches

May 21, 2020 • by Patrick Sheehan

Roberta is not a Tarot card reader. She is a professional “career coach” who specializes in guiding the white-collar unemployed through hard times. Roberta is manning a vendor booth at the 2019 National Career Development Association (NCDA) and she is taking me through the first step she takes with clients ...

Labor

Why the Pandemic Paves the Way for Labor Reform

COVID-19 is a natural disaster, but the plight of American workers is man-made.

May 21, 2020 • by Sharon Block and Benjamin Sachs

Every worker in America has been affected by the coronavirus. Since the stay-at-home orders went into place, more than 30 million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits. Millions more, deemed “essential” workers, are taking life-threatening risks by simply continuing to do their jobs. Others are sudden telecommuters, putting in three hours a day extra on ...

Labor

Meatpacking Plants and the Defense Production Act

Past Present, Episode 227

May 5, 2020 • by Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: President Trump has used the Defense Production Act to order meatpacking plants to stay open, even as these factories have become hotspots for coronavirus infection. Niki commented on how Upton Sinclair’s classic novel, The Jungle, exposed the horrible ...