Media Coverage
Changing the narrative is never enough. But positive coverage helps.

ian masters head shot

Reinvigorating the Labor Movement as Strikes and Union Negotiations Gain National Attention: What it will take to revitalize the lethargic U.S. labor movement?

Background Briefing with Ian Masters · Reinvigorating the Labor Movement as Strikes and Union Negotiations Gain National Attention With the nation’s second biggest school district on strike today as labor struggles and union organizing at Trader Joes, Starbucks, Amazon and others get national attention, Ian Masters & Jane McAlevey assess what it will take to reinvigorate the lethargic U.S. Read More

UC strikers in the street

The Union Membership Rate Has Dropped to a Historic Low. It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way.: A new report offers a grim look at that the state of labor nationally, but that’s not the whole picture.

Jane McAlevey’s quote in the article states the case clearly: Some advocates believe that focusing on building union power through worker organizing, rather than first seeking policy changes, holds the key to reversing the decline of union density.  Jane McAlevey, a senior policy fellow of with the Labor Center at the University of California, Berkeley, puts the problem with union strategy bluntly: ​“It’s a lack of ambition and it’s risk aversion, but fundamentally, it’s a lack of faith in workers.” Read More

UC strike discusssion

A Conversation about the Current UC strike and more: Union organizer and on-strike UC Academic Researcher Jane McAlevey and UC Labor Historian Nelson Lichtenstein

[NOTE that the actual conversation begins at minute 14:50] Nelson Lichtenstein and I had a conversation online the evening of November 29th. We discussed the history of the UAW first, as he is a top expert on the union and Walter Reuther, and then brought that history forward to inform the current strike by UAW – UC workers (I am one of the 48,000 on strike!). Read More