The Conversation - How labor shames its traitors

Retirement doesn’t just raise financial concerns – it can also mean feeling unmoored and irrelevant

Marianne Janack, Hamilton College

If you have spent 40 years of your life working 40 hours a week, retirement isn’t just a financial consideration, writes a philosopher.

DEI policies work best when they are designed to include everyone and are backed by evidence

Henry Tran, University of South Carolina

Diversity programs that emphasize quick, symbolic wins are a lot less useful than building a shared understanding of fairness.

Trump and Harris, with starkly different records on labor issues, are both courting union voters

Robert Forrant, UMass Lowell

Union voters are particularly significant in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Nevada, three swing states where the share of voters who belong to unions is above average.

Job supervisors with disabilities can boost productivity, new research shows

Dustin Cole, Auburn University

The imperative for employers to accommodate people with disabilities is partly driven by the need to keep older workers on the job as the population ages.

What is space made of? An astrophysics expert explains all the components – from radiation to dark matter – found in the vacuum of space

Nilakshi Veerabathina, University of Texas at Arlington

While space is mostly empty, it does have some matter and particles spread throughout it.

Got an unaffordable or incorrect medical bill? Calling your hospital billing office will usually get you a discount

Erin Duffy, University of Southern California

Researchers found that nearly 74% of patients who reached out about a billing mistake received bill corrections. For those who negotiated their bills, nearly 62% saw a price drop.

Democratic Party’s embrace of organized labor in 2024 elections has long roots that had started to wither

Robert Forrant, UMass Lowell

Both sides took this marriage for granted until Southern Democrats, concerned that labor unions would organize Black workers across the South, joined pro-business Republican colleagues in Congress.

5 unsung films that dramatize America’s rich labor history

Peter Dreier, Occidental College

Inspired by real events, the films tackle issues of race, gender and class in ways that will resonate with many of today’s viewers.

Why police unions are not part of the American labor movement

Paul F. Clark, Penn State

George Floyd’s death has thrust police unions into the spotlight amid a growing recognition that they are not part of the U.S. labor movement but a narrow interest group pursuing their self-interests.

Solar geoengineering: the risks and distractions of trying to reflect sunlight to cool the Earth

Gemma Ware, The Conversation

The second of two episodes on geoengineering from The Conversation Weekly podcast examines the case against solar radiation modification.

How the 14th Amendment prevents state legislatures from subverting popular presidential elections

No, the world isn’t heading toward a new Cold War – it’s closer to the grinding world order collapse of the 1930s

Conservative opponents of DEI may not be as colorblind as they claim