Jennifer Sherer, Deputy Director of the Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN) at the Economic Policy Institute, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss workers' rights. Sherer highlighted the urgent need for state-level action to protect workers, the importance of union organizing and the ongoing threats to labor standards under the current administration.
Sherer emphasized the critical role of states in safeguarding workers' rights amid federal rollbacks. She pointed out that while many states have raised their minimum wages above the federal level, some still lack basic wage protections. This disparity leaves workers vulnerable, especially as the Trump administration seeks to weaken federal labor standards. Sherer urged state policymakers to review and strengthen their labor codes, noting that even states with traditionally strong protections may need to shore up their laws to counter federal threats.
Sherer then stressed the importance of union organizing, recounting her own experience in graduate employee unionization. She highlighted how such efforts laid the groundwork for today's surge in academic labor organizing. Sherer noted that while union density has declined since its peak, there are still opportunities for growth and resistance. She pointed to successful organizing campaigns in traditionally non-union states like Alabama as evidence of workers' continued desire for collective representation.
Addressing the current administration's attacks on workers, Sherer detailed how regulatory actions are being used to cut pay, promote workplace discrimination and weaken unions. She cited specific examples, such as blocking rules to phase out sub-minimum wages for workers with disabilities and attempts to allow states to opt out of federal minimum wage standards. Sherer emphasized that these actions are part of a broader corporate and authoritarian agenda that seeks to undermine workers' rights and collective power.
To hear more about the challenges facing workers and strategies for resistance, listen to the full episode with Jennifer Sherer.
America’s Work Force is the only daily labor podcast in the US and has been on the air since 1993, supplying listeners with useful, relevant input into their daily lives through fact-finding features, in-depth interviews, informative news segments and practical consumer reports. America’s Work Force is committed to providing an accessible venue in which America's workers and their families can hear discussion on important, relevant topics such as employment, healthcare, legislative action, labor-management relations, corporate practices, finances, local and national politics, consumer reports and labor issues.
America’s Work Force Union Podcast is brought to you in part by our sponsors: AFL-CIO, American Federation of Government Employees, American Federation of Musicians Local 4, Alliance for American Manufacturing, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes-IBT, Boyd Watterson, Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, Communication Workers of America, Mechanical Insulators Labor Management Cooperative Trust, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Local 50, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Crafts, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 6, Ironworkers Great Lakes District Council, Melwood, The Labor Citizen newspaper, Laborers International Union of North America, The National Labor Office of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, North Coast Area Labor Federation, Ohio Federation of Teachers, United Labor Agency, United Steelworkers.
