Today’s links Housing is a labor issue: The eternal labor September bodes well for the American housing crisis. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. This day in history: 2003, 2008, 2015, 2018, 2022 Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading Housing is a labor issue (permalink) There’s a reason Reagan declared war on unions before he declared war on everything else – environmental protection, health care, consumer rights, financial regulation. Unions are how working people fight for a better world for all of us. They’re how everyday people come together to resist oligarchy, extraction and exploitation. Take the 2019 LA teachers’ strike. As Jane McAlevey writes in A Collective Bargain, the LA teachers didn’t just win higher pay for their members! They also demanded (and got) an end to immigration sweeps of parents waiting for their kids at the school gate; a guarantee of green space near every public school in the city; and on-site immigration counselors in LA schools: https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/23/a-collective-bargain/ Unionization is enjoying an historic renaissance. The Hot Labor Summer transitioned to an Eternal Labor September, and it’s still going strong, with UAW president Shawn Fain celebrating his members victory over the Big Three automakers by calling for a 2028 general strike: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/uaw-general-strike-no-class The rising labor movement has powerful allies in the Biden Administration. NLRB general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo is systematically gutting the “union avoidance” playbook. She’s banned the use of temp-work app blacklists that force workers to cross picket lines: https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/30/computer-says-scab/#instawork She’s changed the…Pluralistic: Housing is a labor issue (13 Dec 2023)