"We were organized to do a job for working people. We were organized to fight for unity and understanding. We were organized to try to bring people together so that they can struggle together, without any distinctions of race, creed, color or religious or political faith."

About

Working groups support UW faculty who come together with community members to research a particular labor-related topic.

The groups produce educational resources and events, including websites, publications, seminars, books, articles and more.

To apply for funding, click here.

The emergence of a "knowledge" economy has made human capital relatively important compared to the machinery that gave rise to the industrial age. The Labor, Knowledge and Economy (LKE) working group is researching how low cost information processing has changed where and how we work, as well as how we organize ourselves.

Fall 2009 Update

With help from our RA, Andrew Childs, the LKE group met actively last year to discuss issues related to the economy, technology and the future of labor. These have resulted in research efforts and planned events for the 2009-2010 year.

The group's efforts have paid off in securing Manuel Castells of the University of Southern California as a Walker Ames Guest Lecturer. This prestigious appointment will bring one of the foremost thinkers on technology and social movements to the UW campuses from April 8 to April 10th, 2010.

LKE is also moving ahead to showcase works and writing by our members and related speakers in a seminar series on Labor Knowledge and the Economy. This will include a talk by Amy Hagopian from the School of Public Health who will discuss the consequences of the enticement of health professional from less developed countries. Also being scheduled are talks from JW Harrington, Gina Neff and Dan Jacoby. The series will be coordinated with a discussion conducted from the Economic Opportunity Institute on public disinvestment in higher education.

In the works for this fall will be a forum to explore Labor's futures. The idea is to bring labor and faculty together to discuss what the opportunities and needs are for labor to move forward. Member Dave Freiboth, Executive Secretary of the King County Labor Council, as well as David Rolf, President of SEIU local 775, Jim Gregory, Harry Bridges Chair, Gina Neff, Professor in Communication Professor, and Dan Jacoby plan to participate.

During last year, the group had opportunities to discuss papers produced by JW Harrington, on technology workers, and from Stan Sorcher on H1B (Hi-tech) visas. Other members of the LKE group pursued a variety of projects related to our central themes. Bruce Kochis was appointed to the UW Licensing Council, while continuing to work on labor and human rights issues. Howard Chizeck worked on engineering profession issues, while also developing a WIKI to facilitate conversations and collaboration among members. Although she spent the year away at Stanford University, Gina Neff continued her collaboration with the LKE. Her exciting new book, Surviving the Knowledge Economy, was reviewed by a member for Working USA. Dan Jacoby gave a talk in June to the national AAUP meeting on "Graduate Education and the Apprenticeship Metaphor" that investigates how academic professionals may think about the unionization of graduate students. He is also collaborating with Keith Nitta on an investigation into the Bellevue Teacher's strike of 2008, which they have submitted for acceptance at the American Educational Research Association.

Originally funded 2007-2008. Funding extended 2008-2009.

Website: depts.washington.edu/sswweb/bridgesctr/

This working group focuses on illuminating the ways that race, ethnicity and class shape individuals' and families' ability to balance work and care responsibilities. It was originally proposed by a set of UW faculty who saw a glaring gap in the coverage of these important "intersectionalities" in academic and popular literature.

In its first year, the group created a website, hosted a series of community events, and submitted a proposal to fund a new research project by our members on the work-life experiences of professionals of color. In its second year, it continued to organize community events and work with partners in the community, notably MomsRising and the Economic Opportunity Institute. In April 2008 the group held an interdisciplinary research conference that highlighted graduate student research on the intersections of care, work and diversity.

Fall 2008 Update

In its third year of operation, the group will be shifting their primary focus to new scholarly research with policy or other practical applications. They plan to continue supporting graduate students via a series of brown-bag research lunches in 2008-09 on various themes that emerged from the April conference. They have also received funding from both the UW's Institute on Ethnic Studies in the U.S. and the State of Washington (via the Bridges Center's Washington State Labor Research grant) to conduct a mixed-method study of the roles of the location and timing of employment and dependent care arrangements, as well as place of residence, on professionals' experiences and strategies related to work-life balance.

Originally funded 2006-2007.

Race and labor have been at the heart of radical struggles in the United States, from the abolitionist movement in the nineteenth century to the current movement for immigrant workers' rights. This working group explores the historical links between race, radicalism, and labor in the U.S., with an eye toward generating critical reflections and interpretations for today's on-going struggles for democracy and justice, within and beyond the U.S.

Since 2005, the Race, Radicalism and Labor working group has funded many research and public history projects, including the award-winning Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project.

In 2008, the group provided funds in support of the visit of Reverend James Lawson to the UW Tacoma campus during Black History Month 2008, February 25 to 27. Lawson visited in order to engage in scholarly work and dialogue with students, faculty and the religious and labor community. Streaming video of Lawson's visit is available on-line.

Fall 2009 Update

Most recently, the group supported Dr. Kimberley L. Phillips from College of William and Mary in presenting "'Will the Battlefield Kill Jim Crow?': Black Freedom Struggles in the Korean War Epoch" on February 25, 2009 at Seattle's Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center. Phillips discussed the tensions and contradictions of nonviolent struggles for freedom and racial justice and African Americans' participation in U.S. military campaigns in Asia.

Meanwhile, the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project continues to expand. In October 2009, the project's latest section debuted, the Farm Workers in Washington State History Project. The multi-media website details and documents the history of Washington's farm workers and explores their labor and political activism.

Originally funded 2005-2006. Funding extended 2006-2007.

Website: depts.washington.edu/ilwu

The Union Democracy Re-Examined working group is currently completing several years of research on democratic practices within the International Longshore and Wharehouse Union (ILWU).

The group's major products include a series of prize-winning undergraduate posters (available to unions on demand) and a journal article published in Politics & Society. Titled "Union Democracy Re-examined," the article argues that the ILWU serves as a model for a more participatory, rank-and-file driven democracy than currently exists in most unions. They have also produced materials that will be made publicly available through their own website, as well as the Waterfront Workers History Project.

The working group has enjoyed the support of the officers, education committees and pensioners of Locals 23 and 19. They have received unprecedented access to union archives at the local and international level and to rarely analyzed data on union electoral participation. They have given papers at conferences, run a conference featuring a important international scholars, and worked with the ILWU education department and local committees to provide aimed younger members with information about their union's history and democratic practices.

Fall 2009 Update

Currently redirecting their efforts towards exploring how the ILWU reproduces its radical and democratic organizational culture, the group is entering the second year of a $300,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) grant funding a longitudinal survey of changes in ILWU member preferences and beliefs over time. The group recently received an additional $50,000 from the NSF for the project as a whole to continue its research on the ILWU and $10,000 from the NSF to support undergraduate research on ILWU work stoppages over the history of the union.

Last year, the working group received a $10,000 Washington State Labor Research Grant to examine the complicated relationship between ILWU contract negotiations, state politics and the larger economy. This will help us better understand the ILWU's powerful political and economic roles. Graduate student team member Devin Kelly performed content analysis of ILWU contracts and negotiations, along with legislative reports, press coverage and statements made by public officials. This paper will be available on the Bridges Center's and project's websites soon, and the group aims to publish the paper soon.

Finally, Levi and Agnone presented results of their research at a special American Sociological Association plenary panel on "Consequences of the San Francisco General Strike of 1934" commemorating the 75th anniversary of the San Francisco general strike. The project also displayed posters at the ILWU Convention in Seattle this June, and was invited to participate in an upcoming ILWU leadership training event, LEAD, to take place in September, 2010.

Originally funded 2004-2005. Funding extended 2005-2006 and 2006-2007.

Website: depts.washington.edu/dock

The Waterfront Workers History Project is developing a public history project that explores the history of waterfront workers and their unions on the West Coast from the 1880s to the present. The heart of the project will be a multi-media website that displays this research in ways that can be used by union members, students, teachers, researchers, and the general public.

With the help of a team of research assistants, the group has made remarkable progress. Working with Ron Magden's amazing collection of archival materials, the team has created a digital archive of nearly 200 photographs showing waterfront workers from the 1880s to the present. Thanks to Gene Vrana, who loaned the group an invaluable collection from the ILWU Archives, they have also digitized every known copy of the Waterfront Worker, the rank and file newspaper that helped radicalize the waterfront in the early 1930s, spurring the 1934 strike and the creation of the ILWU.

Funded 2008-2009.