#HotLaborSummer: Labor Management/Working Class Rhetorics

Catalog description

The U.S. labor movement is experiencing a surge of new growth. Workers at major companies like Amazon and Starbucks are unionizing. Summer 2023 saw strikes from the WGA and SAG-AFTRA, hotel workers in LA, and a very near strike by UPS Teamsters. Higher education itself is one of the labor movement hot spots. Will 2024 bring a new #HotLaborSummer? This surge presents a series of critical rhetorical situations with high and immediate stakes: how can workers convince their coworkers to unionize, or to go on strike? How can workers convince others to support their strikes? During an organizing drive or a contract campaign, workers and employers wage rhetorical battle with one another during class struggle. An enormous amount of writing is produced: press coverage, social media posts, bargaining updates, emails, and more. In this class, we?ll examine the different rhetorical strategies and genres that organized workers use to achieve their goals, with a focus on contemporary movements and current events, alongside key historical works of working class rhetoric and rhetorical scholarship. Students will choose a particular labor struggle at the beginning of the summer term and analyze the rhetorics at play in a series of scaffolded activities culminating in a final project.