"Teaching Flowers" reflects on humanity's deep connections to horticulture by gathering varied thoughts from seminal writers in the field. In addition, this visual article draws attention to labor issues within the U.S. floral industry by documenting the author's exploration of flowers as social sculpture in New York City.

From February to April, New America conducted over 30 interviews with experts, care providers, and union representatives, focusing on three states. This report outlines key considerations for improving care worker job quality through organizing. We also include case studies on care worker organizing in California, Illinois, Washington, and the…

This article provides a narrative response to a precariousness labour situation. The question it attempts to answer is: how does one cope with the precariousness and injustices of contemporary employment without becoming pessimistic or hopeless? The piece, based on the author's personal experience, argues that we can tell and write our career…

In this article, secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Lorretta Johnson reflects on her early work as a paraprofessional at Liberty Elementary School (Baltimore, Maryland) and what sparked her union activism nearly 50 years ago in 1966. It was that year that she and her colleagues joined the Baltimore Teachers Union…

The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) represents 72,000 academic staff at universities and colleges across the country. CAUT strives for fair working conditions, compensation and benefits to foster quality teaching and innovative research while advancing equity and human rights within our profession. Many of the institutions where…

Based on personal experiences garnered through years of adjunct instruction, the authors explore the challenges associated with working in academia without the guarantees of a long-term contract or tenure. Further, adjuncts are desperate to accept any position that is remunerative and this willingness undermines contract negotiation leverage of…

Today's movement in support of the 99 percent is a reminder that throughout U.S. history, a major engine of change has been grass-roots organizing and solidarity. Major history textbooks, however, downplay the role of ordinary people in shaping events--especially those who formed labor unions and used the strike to assert their rights. One of the…

This policy brief presents some basic facts about the retention of recent college graduates and changes in retention over time, updating an earlier report on this topic. It shows, for example, how New England compares with other Census divisions, what factors affect its ability to retain graduates, and the reasons why recent college graduates…

The alarming stories from adjunct faculty, who now comprise a majority of higher-education teachers nationally, share troubling commonalities. The frustrations are financial, personal, and professional. In decades past, most adjunct faculty worked full-time outside of academe and taught an occasional course based on a particular expertise or…

This article examines the relationship between skill acquisition and the constitution of economic selfhood in Trinidad. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork among garment workers in a context of industrial decline, I show how their formal, informal, and illicit means of acquiring sewing skills are inextricably linked to the fragmented and unstable…

Challenges associated with the increasing use of contingent faculty appointments in American higher education are mounting. The AAUP and other professional groups have identified several major problems: (1) unacceptable conditions and compensation for contingent faculty members; (2) poor learning outcomes for students; and (3) the potential…

This report presents accounts based on first-hand interviews conducted by Han Dongfang, China's leading labor rights advocate, with workers across China. Han Dongfang was a leader of the Beijing Workers' Autonomous Federation (BWAF), an independent labor group organized during the Tiananmen Square protests. Han today carries on the fight from Hong…

Describes some of the efforts colleges have undertaken to ensure that clothing with college logos is not produced in sweatshops. Outlines work by the Fair Labor Association and the Workers Rights Consortium, organizations to which many colleges belong, to set up programs to monitor factories in the United States and other countries. (SLD)

Tells how a high school newspaper staff's investigations and reports of misuse and mistreatment of teenagers by employers led to an investigation with national implications. Discusses three qualities necessary for good investigative reporting: initiative, discipline, and commitment. (GT)

Discusses how some prominent institutions prompt debate by subcontracting the labor-intensive work of putting documents online to vendors in developing countries. Libraries counter that contractors treat overseas employees well. (EV)