A Racial Reckoning in Industrial Relations: Storytelling as Revolution from Within

Traditional industrial relations theories of organizing, employment relations, and economic democracy are cloaked in the language of color-blindness, with conceptualizations of justice and class identity viewed through the lens of dominant social identity groups. This has led to theoretical distortions and incomplete notions of worker justice--consistent with systemic biases that reinforce and perpetuate discrimination.

This research volume takes a different approach. Through the counternarratives of our contributors--artists, activists, union organizers, and scholars with academic and lived expertise within the world of work--we bring forth a racial reckoning in industrial relations theory and praxis. Specifically, the collection of voices presented here embrace the traditions and tenets of critical race theory and intersectionality (CRT/I) to acknowledge and deconstruct the false realities that thrive in traditional identity-neutral approaches to understanding industrial relations systems and the greater social systems that govern the relationships between actors.

Consisting of traditional chapters, commentary pieces, dialogues between practitioners and scholar-activists, and art and graphic illustrations, this volume challenges the traditional hierarchies of knowledge production in academia. It uplifts the diversity of voices and possibilities for storytelling and issues concrete calls to action to the industrial relations academic and movement power brokers (gatekeepers). At a time of historic racial uprising, innovative labor contestations, and global crises amplified by structural oppressions, it offers a path forward with crucial implications for the future of work and worker mobilization.

Contributors: Vicko Alverez, independent author; Valery Alzaga, Global Labor Justice-International Labor Rights Forum; Nicole Burrowes, Rutgers University, Department of History; J. Mijin Cha, Cornell University, Occidental College/Worker Institute; Sheri Davis-Faulkner, Rutgers University, Center for Innovation in Worker Organization (CIWO) and Department of Labor Studies and Employment Relations; Harmony Goldberg, Grassroots Policy Project
Haven Media, Inc.; Tamara L. Lee, Rutgers University, Department of Labor Studies and Employment Relations; Austin McCoy, Auburn University, Department of History; Javier Morillo, Rutgers University, Center for Innovation in Worker Organization (CIWO) Fellow; Kasi Perreira, Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO; Danielle T. Phillips-Cunningham, Texas Woman's University, Multicultural Women's and Gender Studies; Sanjay Pinto, Cornell University, The Worker Institute; Salil Sapre, Michigan State University, School of Human Resources and Labor Relations; Erica Smiley, Jobs With Justice
Maite Tapia, Michigan State University, School of Human Resources and Labor Relations, WILL Empower; Naomi R Williams, Rutgers University, Department of Labor Studies and Employment Relations; Larry Williams, Jr., UnionBase.org

Dr. Tamara L. Lee, Esq. is an assistant professor of labor studies at Rutgers University, where her research confronts the intersection of labor and racial justice, cross-movement solidarity building, and the impact of radical adult education on workplace democracy in Cuba and the United States. She is the co-founder of Haven, a collective of Black, Indigenous. and women and nonbinary folks of color committed to building a safe space for storytelling, free from white supremacy and its systems.

Sheri Davis-Faulkner is the associate director of the Center for Innovation in Worker Organization. She is also an assistant professor of professional practice in the Labor Studies and Employment Relations Department of the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University. She co-directs the WILL (Women Innovating Labor Leadership) Empower program. Davis-Faulkner has been a member of the Crunk Feminist Collective since 2009 and currently serves as board chair of the National Black Worker Center. She is a steering committee member with the Advancing Black Strategist initiative and for the fledgling Philadelphia Black Worker Center.

Naomi R Williams received a PhD in US history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. An assistant professor at Rutgers University's School of Management and Labor Relations, Williams's primary research areas include US working-class history and politics. Their research examines the ways working people impact local and national political economies and the ways workers participate in collaborative social justice movements. Williams engages working-class history in urban settings, looking at low-wage service work, industrial employment, and workers in higher education. They are currently revising a book manuscript, Workers United: Race, Labor, and Coalition Building in Deindustrialized America, on the transformation of class identity and politics in the late 20th century.

Maite Tapia is an associate professor at the School of Human Resources and Labor Relations at Michigan State University. Her research focuses on worker voice within the workplace, as well as worker organizing and movement building within the broader society, paying specific attention to workers' social identities and structural racism.