Barry Eidlin

What the LA teachers’ strike tells us about labor’s future

On January 25, the Washington Post published a piece of mine on the recently-concluded Los Angeles teachers’ strike. While it was certainly a decisive victory for the members of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), the LA teachers’ union, it also has broader implications for the US labor movement more broadly—particularly in light of last year’s Supreme Court…

Talking with Heartland Labor Forum about the Class Idea

On December 27, 2018, I had the chance to sit down with Jacob White of Heartland Labor Forum to talk about my book. HLF is a weekly radio show on KKFI 90.1 FM in Kansas City, Missouri that was founded by the Worker Education and Labor Studies Program at the University of Missouri–Kansas City. While…

An introduction to comparative-historical sociology

I recently received one of those e-mails that we as professors dream of receiving: an e-mail from a student asking for reading recommendations to get better acquainted with my chosen field of study. In my case, this involved introducing my student to the world of comparative-historical sociology.

Taking Stock of the Labor Movement for Labor Day

To mark the Labor Day holiday, I wrote a piece for the Washington Post taking stock of the current state of the US labor movement, and thinking of what its past can tell us about the road ahead. While unions have taken a beating over the past several decades, this Labor Day is somewhat different in…

Labor and the Class Idea on Beneath the Surface with Suzi Weissman

Just in time for the Labo(u)r Day long weekend, I was invited on to Suzi Weissman’s great radio show, Beneath the Surface, to discuss my book. Suzi always asks great questions, which made this interview a real treat. We spent some time getting into what exactly I mean by this concept of “the class idea,”…

“Academic, but not painfully so…”

That’s the key take-away point about my book from its first review, published in Labor Notes magazine. The review is written by Steve Downs, a long-time leader and activist in Transportation Workers Union Local 100, the union representing New York City transit workers. It’s particularly gratifying to me that the book has something to offer not…

Labor and the Class Idea on Political Eh?conomy Radio

Michal Rozworski is a smart lefty economist from Canada. He runs a smart blog, as well as a smart podcast, both called “Political Eh?conomy” (because Canadians say “eh?” a lot, and it’s about political economy, get it?). On July 26 I was able to join Michal as a guest on his podcast, where we talked…

A step backwards for worker freedom

Today, the US Supreme Court issued its worst decision on labor rights in decades in Janus v. AFSCME. The 5-4 decision uses a narrow conception of individual rights to declare that workers are free to opt out of paying for the cost of negotiating and enforcing union contracts from which they benefit. It does so by stating…

Awards Season

I was both honored and humbled to learn recently that I am the 2018 recipient of the Canadian Sociological Association’s Early Investigator Award. I’ll have to wait until 2019 to pick up the actual hardware, since this year’s CSA meeting is pre-empted by the International Sociological Association Meeting in Toronto, but I’ll take the official…

Commenting on the G7 summit in Quebec

The G7 summit in La Malbaie, Quebec wrapped up this past weekend. While most of the coverage focused on President Trump’s petulant behavior and his refusal to sign onto the closing communiqué, some reporters did want to know about the actual issues surrounding the summit, and the efforts of those who disagree with the political…

Labor and the Class Idea on the New Books Network

I recently had a chance to talk about my book, Labor and the Class Idea in the United States and Canada, with Sarah Patterson for the New Books in Sociology Network podcast. You can listen here.

Talking social movements on CBC

On Thursday, June 7, 2018, I got to discuss some of the core issues I bring up in my Contemporary Social Movements class with CBC Saskatchewan listeners on Blue Sky with Garth Materie: why and when do people mobilize? When can protests work? How do movements win? It was an interesting experience doing a call-in…