Against Normalcy: A Collective Testimony of Student Workers Organizing during the Pandemic

Gabriel Antonio Solis, Tania L. Balderas, Iuri Bauler Pereira, Samantha R. Cooney, Cynthia Yuan Gao, David Helps, Ramona R. Malczynski, Emma B. Mincks, Isobel Plowright, Joseph A. Ukockis, Lauren Whitmer

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

In the Spring of 2020, the onset of the global pandemic intensified existing inequalities, but also accelerated organizing within some of the most precarious economic sectors. The neoliberal university was no exception to this general trend, and from 2020 until 2022, student workers organized for union contracts, just pandemic responses, independent arbitration for harassment and improved conditions at their workplaces. In those years, while neoliberal universities issued empty calls for community, and a prompt return to normalcy, student workers mobilized themselves and won unprecedented gains from their institutions, rejecting administrative pleas for the defense of the status quo. The following Report from the Field, details the struggle of student workers organizing from 2020 to 2022 at the University of New Mexico, the University of Michigan, New York University, and Columbia University, and offers a collectively authored reflection on the challenges, victories and future concerns of its respective movements.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)209-223
Number of pages15
JournalInternational Labor and Working-Class History
Volume104
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 3 2023
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • History
  • Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

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