An Open Letter to the American Political Science Association
If the last year has proven anything, it is that labor is on the march. Workers across industries are fighting for economic justice in the face of an ongoing pandemic, rising inflation, stagnant wages, industry consolidation, wealth concentration, and automation. The Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA are striking for better pay and residuals, improved health and retirement funds, and protection from companies using AI to replace creative professionals. UPS workers recently voted overwhelmingly (97%) to authorize a strike demanding an end to the two-tier wage system and better pay and benefits, citing soaring company profits, inflation, and increasing pressure to deliver more packages in less time. In Canada, UNIFOR — representing over 3,700 grocery store workers across the Greater Toronto Area — have voted 100% in favor of a strike demanding a return to pandemic-era essential worker pay, greater job security, and more predictable hours.
Academic workers are concurrently organizing against poor working conditions in universities. At the University of Michigan, almost 2,400 graduate student workers have led the longest strike in the union’s forty-nine-year history, demanding pay raises to keep up with inflation, better support for international students, and more robust protections from sexual harassment. Academic workers in the University of California system led the largest strike in the United States in 2022 for a substantial increase to the minimum salary of $23,250.00. At Rutgers University, three unions representing 9,000 faculty, staff, and graduate student workers engaged in the first strike of the university’s 257-year history. Adjuncts at the New School walked out to demonstrate for better pay and job security. The University of Illinois Chicago Faculty United Union struck for higher minimum salaries, pay increases that keep up with inflation, and better job security for non-tenure track faculty. It is clear that the intensity of academic labor organizing parallels and is inseparable from the broader labor movement currently taking shape.
The similarity of demands amongst striking workers inside and outside universities demonstrates the urgency and importance of solidarity, but recent actions by the American Political Science Association (APSA) are a step in the wrong direction.
UNITE HERE Local 11 represents over 32,000 workers employed in hotels, restaurants, airports, sports arenas, and convention centers throughout Southern California and Arizona. As of writing, over 40 hotels in the L.A. area do not have a contract with UNITE HERE and could strike at any moment. This includes the JW Marriott, where the APSA is scheduled to hold their annual meeting. Striking workers are demanding better pay to continue living in an increasingly expensive Los Angeles. Rising rents and gentrification have not only made workers incredibly rent-burdened, but have forced them to make lengthy, multi-hour commutes. The union is also demanding hotels remove barriers for the formerly incarcerated to get hotel jobs and a stop to discrimination against applicants based on immigration status. These issues are crucial to advancing not only economic but racial justice, as the two are inseparable.
We, members of the Labor Tech Research Network (LTRN), stand in solidarity with UNITE HERE Local 11. LTRN is a group of over 450 scholars, activists, and practitioners with expertise in labor and technology. Our members live, work, and conduct research in over 50 countries, including India, Bangladesh, China, Turkey, Brazil, Palestine, Canada, and the U.S. and U.K. The APSA claims that its most precarious members would be harmed if the association canceled their annual meeting. They claim that “cancellation would have a negative impact on many of our members, particularly those at a career stage where being able to present and network at the meeting are crucial to their professional development. International scholars have visa and other travel considerations that would be severely disrupted by cancellation […] in light of the interests of our membership — especially underrepresented scholars, scholars from the Global South, and non-tenured scholars — we must maintain the Meeting in Los Angeles.”
We reject the APSA’s framing. Our advancement does not come at the expense of other workers. Our families, friends, neighbors, and students work these jobs in hotels and restaurants. Many of us have done these jobs ourselves. Academic workers make similar demands of our employers. Whereas APSA suggests it is in their members’ interests to continue holding the conference, we believe that members’ interests are not mutually exclusive from those of organized labor.
We therefore demand that APSA meet the union’s request that the annual meeting be moved to a virtual format, postponed, relocated to a different city, or canceled altogether.
Many have already withdrawn from APSA: The Latino Caucus of Political Science has withdrawn and canceled their workshop; Cornell University Press and Temple University Press are no longer hosting physical booths; and individual members are canceling their trips and moving their presentations online. Other associations have similarly withdrawn from or postponed conferences in solidarity with the union, including the Council of State Governors West, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation; the Democratic Governors Association; and the Japanese American Citizens League. It is time the APSA did the same.
In solidarity,
The Labor Tech Research Network
