A Third of Your Life

New Jersey recently became the 11th state to enact labor protections for housecleaners, nannies, and other domestic workers. New Labor organizer and SMLR alumna Jenifer Garcia takes you inside the long campaign that made it happen. Naomi R Williams, assistant professor in the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, leads the discussion.

A devastating fire at the Frederick Douglass School in 1913 signals the growing racism that will soon threaten the entire community of Quakertown, Texas. Danielle Phillips-Cunningham, associate professor in the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, talks to Alma Clark and Dianne Randolph about the town’s legacy and their work to memorialize it.

Formerly enslaved Black Americans established their own community in Denton, Texas in the late 1800s. It grew into a socially vibrant, economically prosperous town. Danielle Phillips-Cunningham, associate professor in the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, talks to Alma Clark and Dianne Randolph, who are working to preserve the town’s history.

Can you really get the job you want without a college degree? Michelle Van Noy, director of the Education and Employment Research Center in the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, talks to Clayton Lord (SHRM Foundation) and Jason Tyszko (U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation) about non-degree credentials and skills-based hiring.

Writers Guild of America, East President Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, a 1992 Rutgers alumna, takes you behind the scenes of the strike that shut down film and television productions and led to a historic new contract. Susan Schurman, Distinguished Professor in the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, leads the discussion.

How do we stop climate change without hurting the workers and communities who rely on fossil fuel jobs? Todd Vachon, assistant professor in the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, shows the way in his book, “Clean Air and Good Jobs.” Les Leopold, J. Mijin Cha, and Dimitris Stevis join the discussion.

A new report by the Rutgers Center for Women and Work reveals many of New Jersey’s Latina immigrants are struggling with low wages, non-existent benefits, no childcare, and no time off. Lead author Glenda Gracia-Rivera shares gripping stories and reveals how the Hispanic Women’s Resource Centers are helping.

Nannie Helen Burroughs was a visionary Black educator, labor leader, and suffragist who founded the National Training School for Women and Girls in 1909. Danielle Phillips-Cunningham, associate professor in the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, wants to make her a household name.

William Lucy co-created the iconic slogan that rallied Black workers during the Memphis sanitation strike of 1968, and he became a leading figure in the civil rights movement and the labor movement. Francis Ryan, a labor historian in the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, talks to Lucy about his career.

Our co-workers can make or break how we feel and what we accomplish on the job. Friends, enemies, two-faced frenemies, even small talk can affect us in surprising ways. Jessica Methot, associate professor in the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, untangles the complex web of workplace relationships.