[EVENT | December 15] Belabored Live: Essential Workers in Crisis

[EVENT | December 15] Belabored Live: Essential Workers in Crisis

Join us on Thursday, December 15 for a live episode of Belabored.

On Thursday, December 15 at 7:00 p.m. (EST), Belabored co-hosts Sarah Jaffe and Michelle Chen will host a live podcast episode about what the past year has meant for workers. Almost three years into COVID-19, working people have had enough. We’re seeing upticks in unionization, strikes, and other forms of workplace resistance. We’re also seeing workers quitting so-called “essential” jobs at record rates, leaving their former coworkers in the unenviable position of picking up the slack while also battling to improve their conditions—and those of the people they care for, in many cases.

To wrap up the year and our in-depth series on the ongoing pandemic’s effect on workers, Sarah and Michelle will host a live podcast episode with two rank-and-file leaders in two of those fields in crisis: nursing and public school teaching. Join them and their guests:

Elizabeth Lalasz is a registered nurse, union steward, and professional practice committee member with National Nurses United. She has worked three times on COVID units over the course of the pandemic.

Jia Lee has been a special education teacher for over twenty years in the New York City Department of Education and has served as a union chapter leader since 2005. She is a steering member of the Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE), a caucus within the United Federation of Teachers, and a steering member of Black Lives Matter at Schools, NYC. She organizes with NYCOPTOUT to resist high stakes standardized testing in NYC and at the state and national level. In 2015, she testified before the U.S. H.E.L.P. Senate Committee on the Reauthorization of I.D.E.A. on Testing and Accountability and spoke out as a conscientious objector of high stakes standardized testing. Jia served as an advisor for anti-racist curriculum development for the Coalition for Asian American Children + Families and is currently on a year long sabbatical to continue research for this work.

We’ll be streaming the event on Zoom. To watch and submit questions live during the event, RSVP here.


Socialist thought provides us with an imaginative and moral horizon.

For insights and analysis from the longest-running democratic socialist magazine in the United States, sign up for our newsletter: