Power At Work

Episode #2 of the Power Half-Hour has arrived! The Power Half-Hour is a livestreamed, fast-paced, bi-weekly roundtable with a rotating group of regular guests. Our guests discuss the biggest labor story of the preceding week and the labor story everyone should be talking about over the next two weeks. Joining Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris for our second episode are:Rube...

In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Hazel Court and David Pham from the Washington Post Tech Guild organizing committee. Watch now to hear Court and Pham share the story behind the newly formed union, the challenges to organizing under Jeff Bezos, how they were able to succeed, and what’s next for the union! Follow us on social media: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠...

In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Todd Wolfson, the president of the American Association of University Professors, to discuss the attack on college campuses by the Trump administration. Watch now to hear about the efforts to deport academics and students who do not align with the current administration’s policies, strategies on how unions sho...

Power At Work is thrilled to announce the first episode of our new series  the Power Half-Hour!  The Power Half-Hour is a livestreamed, fast-paced, bi-weekly roundtable with a rotating group of regular guests. Our rotating guests will discuss the biggest labor story of the preceding week and the labor story everyone should be talking about over the next two weeks. Joining Burnes Center for Social...

In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Andres Grajales, AFGE’s Deputy General Counsel for Litigation, and Julie Wilson, NTEU’s General Counsel, to discuss the numerous lawsuits that their unions are having against the Trump administration’s assault on federal employees. Watch now to hear the top lawyers from the two largest federal employee unions...

Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris will be co-hosting this blogcast with Chris Garlock from the Labor Heritage Power Hour and Labor History Today podcasts. To celebrate Labor History Month, they will be joined by Professor Veroníca Martínez-Matsuda from the University of California, San Diego, and Professor Joe McCartin from Georgetown University to discuss the lessons from...

In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by former chair of the NLRB, Lauren McFerran, to discuss the current dire state of the NLRB. Watch now to hear McFerran discuss the implications of Gwynne Wilcox’s firing, the efforts by the Trump administration to dismantle and disempower the board, and the significance of the board maintaining its independence...

In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Dr. Heather Boushey, a member of Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers, to discuss the implications of the Trump economy on workers and worker power. Watch now to hear Heather and Seth discuss Trump’s industrial policies, the impact of tariffs and tax cuts on income inequality, the role of unions in addressing...

In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by three reporters who cover labor in different parts of the United States: Claudia Irizarry Aponte of THE CITY, Suhauna Hussain of the Los Angeles Times, and McKenna Schueler of the Orlando Weekly. Their conversation covers the recent wave of anti-union legislation in Florida; how the Trump administration’s atta...

In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Shannon Lederer, the Director of Immigration Policy at the AFL-CIO, and Daniel Costa, the Director of Immigration Law and Policy Research at EPI, to discuss the systems that allow employers to bring workers temporarily and permanently into the United States to fill their jobs and whether those systems will be...

In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Andres Chavez, Executive Director of the National Chavez Center, to celebrate his grandfather’s birthday–Cesar Chavez Day. Watch now to hear Andres share stories about labor activist and icon, Cesar Chavez, Andres’ work in preserving his grandfather’s legacy, and what we can learn from Cesar’s story to continu...

In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Paul Cole, the founder and executive director of the American Labor Studies Center, and Carole Turbin, the author of “Working Women of Collar City”, to celebrate Women’s History Month, talk about women’s role in labor history, and spotlight labor activist Kate Mullany. Watch now to learn more about Kate Mullan...

In the seventh blogcast of Power At Work’s series “What Could Happen Under Trump?”, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Ambassador Katherine Tai, the 19th U.S. trade representative, to discuss the implications of President Trump’s trade policy on worker power. Ambassador Tai was the architect of the “worker-centered trade policy” during her tenure under President...

In this live blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Sharon Block, the Executive Director of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School, Bill Samuel, the former director of government affairs at the AFL-CIO, and a live audience made up of Power At Work subscribers. For our long-term subscribers, you would know that this is the second ‘buy...

After all the waiting, all the anticipation, all the lobbying to get your union siblings to vote for your favorites, Power At Work is ready to announce the winners of the 2025 Labor Oscars. Who will take home The Worker? Watch this Labor Oscars Awards Ceremony blogcast to find out. In January, we published a list of 68 worker power films divided into four categories: Best Feature Film, Best Docume...

In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Professor Johnnie Kallas from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s School of Labor and Employment Relations. Professor Kallas is the project director of the Labor Action Tracker, a key piece of statistics that shows us the trends and data behind collective action and strikes within the previous year....

In the sixth blogcast of Power At Work’s series “What Could Happen Under Trump?”, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by President Doreen Greenwald of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) to discuss the attack on the rights of federal workers by the Trump administration. Watch now to hear President Greenwald’s response to this attack on dedicated civil serva...

In the fifth blogcast of Power At Work’s series “What Could Happen Under Trump?”, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by all four co-chairs of the Congressional Labor Caucus: Representative Debbie Dingell of Michigan 6th DistrictRepresentative Mark Pocan of Wisconsin 2nd District, Representative Donald Norcross of New Jersey 1st District, and Representative Steve Ho...

In the fourth blogcast of Power At Work’s series "What Could Happen Under Trump?”, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Steven Schwartz, LIUNA Organizing Director, Emily Stewart, SEIU Deputy Organizing Director, and David Cann, AFGE Organizing Director to discuss the future of organizing. Watch now to learn how these organizing leaders are prepared and ready...

In this special blogcast, Burnes Center Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by music and labor specialists to reveal the results of Power At Work’s #LaborGrammys2025. This awards ceremony features Elise Bryant, the founder-director of the DC Labor Chorus and co-host of the Labor Heritage Power Hour podcast; Chris Garlock, the Executive Director of the Labor Heritage Foundation and founder-coordina...

In this live blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris will review the 2024 Union Member Survey results with Aaron Sojourner, a labor economist and senior researcher at the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. Watch now to hear Harris and Sojourner interpret what these results meant for worker power and collective in the past year, and what they will mean for t...

In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Nicole Anschutz, an SEIU member and Triage Registered Nurse at Planned Parenthood North Central States, and Jeffrey Hirsch, a law professor at the University of North Carolina. For the 52nd anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, join Power At Work to reconfirm the importance of access to rep...

In the third blogcast of the new Power At Work series "What Could Happen Under Trump?", Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by three of his former colleagues in the U.S. Department of Labor: Patricia Shiu, the current Director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs at the Department of Labor, David Michaels, a professor at George Washington University...

In the second blogcast of the new Power At Work series "What Could Happen Under Trump?", Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by two top labor law academics Ben Sachs, the Kestnbaum Professor of Labor and Industry at Harvard Law School, and  Charlotte Garden, a Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School. Watch now to learn about what to expect in labo...

In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Saba Waheed, the Research Director at the UCLA Labor Center, and Rebecca Givan, an associate professor of Labor Studies and Employment Relations at Rutgers University. Watch now to learn about the most significant worker power stories over the past year. Also hear Givan and Waheed's perspectives on employer ba...