With the "Great Resignation" making headlines across the country, increasing numbers of workers are expressing frustration with their employers. Professor Jasmine Kerrissey, faculty in the department of Sociology and the UMass Labor Center as well as a research affiliate with the Center for Employment Equity, has been featured widely providing her perspective on the shifting labor market and increase in worker organization and action in the past few months.
Prof. Kerrissey, along with Professor Judy Stepan-Norris of the University of California Irvine, authored an analysis of the "Great Resignation" for The Washington Post breaking down how the current environment of worker dissatisfaction, specifically strike actions, compares to data collected over the past 100 years. Read the full op-ed online.
Kerrissey was also interviewed on NPR's All Things Considered discussing the wave of worker strikes across the country, and the three major themes she sees playing out that have lead to this moment, including two-tier systems where newer hires are compensated at lower rates or given worse benefits packages, control over time and place, and wages, especially in light of increasing CEO compensation. The interview is available on the NPR website.