On Labor Day, Ashley Bishop sat down with Dave Kamper, longtime organizer, labor historian, and author of the forthcoming book “Who’s Got the Power: The Resurgence of American Unions,” to talk about the labor movement’s recent past, uncertainty under Trump, and why he has hope that this latest upsurge will prove more than yet another “false dawn.”
“The American labor movement is one false dawn after another. When I first got involved in unions, you had the UPS strike of 1997, which people said, this is going to change the movement. This was a huge strike. It was very successful. This was going to drive things. And then two years later, you had the battle in Seattle, the WTO protests where environmentalists and union people were side by side, fighting. And it felt like this was going to bring something—and then it didn’t.
And so, there’s lots of reasons to be skeptical. But what I would say is that the last five years—despite the last seven months being terrible—the last five years have seen more labor energy and more labor success than we’ve seen in our lifetime.”
“Who’s Got the Power: The Resurgence of American Unions” is out on October 14. You can pre-order your copy here.
Watch the full interview with Dave Kamper above.
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