The Newsletter of the University of Oregon Labor Education & Research Center  •  FALL 2020

News from LERC

We hope everyone is staying as safe and sane as possible during these times of crisis and opportunity for the union movement.  

In our fall newsletter we offer the following:  a summary of important LERC research on the “anti-union industry,” a report on LERC’s racial justice webinar series, a thoughtful piece on sports unionism and the power of the strike, and news from the Pacific Northwest Labor History Association (PNLHA). 

We want to affirm that LERC is adapting its educational offerings to virtual formats that we can customize to address your needs.  Also, we are continuing to conduct research on important issues that affect the well-being of workers as an ongoing commitment.

Bob Bussel, LERC Director

Why do so few American workers have unions? Understanding the anti-union industry.

Unions are one of the key strategies for improving American workers’ standard of living and decreasing inequality.  Across the country, if you compare two people who work in the same occupation and same industry, with the same education and experience, but one has a union and the other does not – the person with a union on average makes more than 10% higher wages and has a 20-205% better chance of getting health insurance or a pension through their job.

Simply put, unions enable employees at any job to negotiate with their boss for a fair share of the profits that their work creates – it’s no surprise that people who are able to engage in collective bargaining end up with fairer working conditions.  Read the full article here.

Racial Justice and Workers' Advocacy series

LERC faculty have developed our racial justice series amid recent racial and political grassroots organizing against systemic racism and white supremacy uprisings throughout the country.

Labor educators believe that a new era of truth and justice starts with confronting our movement’s troubled history with equity, inclusion, and racial injustice.  LERC's racial justice and workers' advocacy virtual series is designed to facilitate conversations and actions that will encourage participants to approach these issues honestly and critically.

The Racial Justice and Workers' Advocacy series series began with a panel on "Right-Wing Populism and its Effect on Public Policies” featuring prominent activist/scholar Bill Fletcher, Jr. and UO professor Joe Lowndes. AFSCME labor educators Paris Walker and Sandra Lane then led a workshop on "Interrupting Systems of Oppression in our Unions" that examined how institutional racism shows up in our society and the labor movement.  Next, lawyer and mediator Barbara Diamond discussed “Exploring Systemic Racism in Arbitration." The series will close with a presentation by Donna Hammond that will explore IBEW Local 48’s efforts to create an inclusive union culture.

Following the Racial Justice and Workers’ Advocacy series, LERC faculty are prepared to discuss our educational training options and workshops to advance solidarity and inclusive practices to strengthen our unions.  These trainings include:

• Facilitating conversations on equity and racial justice
• Placing racism and white supremacy in historical context with special attention devoted to the union movement’s troubled history with equity and inclusion
• Specific training on issues related to implicit bias, microaggression, bystander/upstander training, interrupting racism
• Helping unions develop specific action plans to promote equity and racial justice. 

For further information, contact Sherman Henry

The Fall 2020 edition of the Oregon Labor History Quarterly contains an announcement about a new PNLHA labor history chronology booklet, a look back at unions and the flu pandemic of 1918, the first Labor Day is remembered, and other labor history societies are highlighted. The edition also includes book reviews, a free Zoom conference, “Covid Chronicles” in British Columbia, a remembrance of the Tolpuddle Martyrs in Britain, a feature on police unions, and another on the history of postal unions now battling to save the postal service.