Maxwell School News and Commentary

“There is a very different kind of spirit right now” in the UAW, Tod Rutherford, professor of geography and the environment, tells Christian Science Monitor. “People are just saying, ‘That’s enough. We’ve got to do something, make a stand.’”

When automakers faced bankruptcy in 2008, auto workers faced a tough decision: lose jobs or agree to contract changes that would help the companies get a federal bailout. The union chose the latter. “This was a concession they had to make in order to sustain the bailouts and have some kind of recovery,” says Tod Rutherford, professor of geography and the environment.

“The UAW…strike action is ultimately trying to realize one of the Biden Administration’s core policy goals and political selling points: you can have good, family-sustaining union jobs alongside climate action. The problem is the automakers see EV production as a way to trim labor costs and shift production to non-union plants,” says Matt Huber, professor of geography and the environment.

The fellowship supported Heather C. Fischer’s recent trip to Malaysia and Thailand to study forced labor in global supply chains.

"Typically, you would expect a decrease in voter attendance because they’re [members of Parliament, MPs] working in the private sector. What you find among Labour MPs is no difference whatsoever. Among Conservative MPs you actually find that attendance increases when they have a second job. So they are more likely to attend votes," says Simon Weschle, associate professor of political science.

“Suicide was always a men’s issue,” says Michiko Ueda-Ballmer, associate professor of public administration and international affairs. During the pandemic, “suddenly, women’s suffering became visible.” For the first time, “the government was forced to confront an approach to suicide prevention that had previously focused exclusively on middle-aged men.” 

Surveys indicate that Swedish citizens display less anxiety about robots taking their jobs, in part because when companies introduce new technologies, they often pay to upgrade their workers’ skills. “If you upskill workers, you pay them more,” says Aaron Benanav, assistant professor of sociology. “That's a more durable and sustainable process.”

“There needs to be greater regulation of the staffing industry,” says Gretchen Purser, associate professor of sociology. “And we need to make it a lot easier for workers to unionize. All of the research has shown that in unionized workplaces, workers are far less likely to experience injury or fatalities.”

"Even if the vast majority of jobs are unlikely to disappear, and if many new jobs are likely to be created, the nature of work will change due to the implementation of technologies like ChatGPT. We need to shift our thinking about how that change occurs," writes Aaron Benanav, assistant professor of sociology.

“They capture the attention of management in a much more dramatic way than other forms of action and negotiation,” says Gretchen Purser, associate professor of sociology. “They’re showing the capacity for the workers to take collective action.”