World of Work: A History of US Labor and the Future of Work

This course will look at the past, present, and future of unions and work. In the late 19th century, unions established a presence despite regular violence and opposition. Workers organized on an unprecedented scale in the 1930s, leading to a period of prosperity and labor peace in the post WWII era. In the late 1970s and 1980s the business community launched an assault on union influence that has reduced American union workers from 35% to 10%. Finally, the course will focus on today’s increasingly precarious conditions at work, the gig economy, some of the new forms of organizing, and whether organized labor can address income inequality and global corporate power.

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