Belabored Podcast #38: Caring for America, with Eileen Boris and Jennifer Klein

This week, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Harris v. Quinn, a case that could break public-sector unions around the country. Sarah and Michelle talk to Eileen Boris and Jennifer Klein, the authors of Caring for America: Home Health Workers in the Shadow of the Welfare State, about the case, the formation of home care workers’ unions, and the potential ramifications for all public sector workers.

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This week, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Harris v. Quinn, a case that could break public-sector unions around the country. Ostensibly about whether home health care aides can be required to pay their fair share of union representation costs, in reality it’s a much bigger, much scarier story. Sarah and Michelle talk to Eileen Boris and Jennifer Klein, the authors of Caring for America: Home Health Workers in the Shadow of the Welfare State. Boris, the Hull professor and chair of the Department of Feminist Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara, and Klein, Professor of History at Yale University and a co-director of Yale’s Initiative on Labor and Culture, discuss the case, the formation of home care workers’ unions, and the potential ramifications for all public sector workers.

Michelle and Sarah also discuss the NLRB’s complaint against Walmart and strikes at the Pentagon, global inequality and disaster capitalism in New Orleans, and have a spiritually-flavored “Argh! I Wish I’d Written That”.

News:

Pentagon Workers Strike

Feds Charge Walmart With Breaking Labor Law In Black Friday Strikes

Labor wins two rulings, Walmart vows to fight back

7,000 New Orleans Teachers Fired Improperly, Appeals Court Says

Michelle: New Orleans Teachers Get Justice But Schools Still Imperiled By Reform

The Global Elite: Rigging the Rules that Fuel Inequality

Oxfam report: Working for the Few

Interview with Eileen Boris and Jennifer Klein:

Caring for America: Home Health Workers in the Shadow of the Welfare State

Home-Care Workers Aren’t Just “Companions”

Eileen Boris and Jennifer Klein’s Amicus Brief for Harris v. Quinn

Areesa Johnson, Illinois Home Health Worker, on Harris v. Quinn