In These Times| In 1996, There Was Union Summer. This Year, There’s “Labor Spring.”

For In These Times, Professors Cindy Hahamovitch, William P. Jones, and The KI’s own Joseph McCartin connect the heat of 1996’s Union Summer to the fervor of #LaborSpring – a moment sweeping campuses from The University of Hawaii to Vanderbilt to Howard University

Something is stirring this spring. People in the U.S. are becoming increasingly interested in what commentators once called “the labor question,” following recent organizing victories at Starbucks, Amazon and Apple stores; well-publicized strikes of teachers, nurses and railway workers; and the unionization of staff, graduate assistants and even faculty at scores of campuses, including the recent successful strike of nearly 50,000 academic workers on the campuses of the University of California.

Evidence of this mood shift is unmistakable this spring as students, campus staff and faculty, together with unions and community allies, are coming together on or adjacent to more than 50 campuses nationwide — including ours — to engage in a remarkable national teach-in on worker rights and organizing called Labor Spring …