Well, that was ... quite a year. From the COVID-19 pandemic and the presidential election to mass protests against police violence and worker actions around the country, it's hard to even remember all that we went through in 2020. Luckily, right before New Year's Eve, we got together with four of the best young labor journalists around—Edward Ongweso Jr., Juliana Feliciano Reyes, Lauren Kaori Gurley, and Michael Sainato—to talk about the lessons we took away from the past year, and about what lies ahead.

 

Additional links/info below...

• Edward's Vice author page and Twitter page
• Edward's top stories from 2020: (1) "The Lockout: Why Uber Drivers in NYC Are Sleeping in Their Cars"; (2) "Proposition 22 Passes, But Uber and Lyft Are Only Delaying the Inevitable"; (3) "Uber Sells Off Sci-Fi Pipe Dreams. Exploiting Labor Is Its Only Plan"

 

• Juliana's Philadelphia Inquirer author page and Twitter page
• Juliana's top stories from 2020: (1) "How This Black UPS Worker Challenged Powerful Union Leaders in Philly, and Won"; (2) "Philadelphia's Labor Movement Faces a Reckoning Over the City's Powerful Police Union"; (3) "Trash Is Piling Up, But People Aren't Blaming Philly Sanitation Workers"

 

• Lauren's Vice author page and Twitter page
• Lauren's top stories from 2020: (1) "Target's Delivery App Workers Describe a Culture of Retaliation and Fear"; (2) "'I Could Show You Stuff You Wouldn't Believe:' Gravediggers Speak Out About Horrifying Conditions"; (3) "Secret Amazon Reports Expose the Company's Surveillance of Labor and Environmental Groups"

 

• Michael's Guardian author page and Twitter page
• Michael's top stories from 2020: (1) "Tesla Workers' Unemployment May Be Suspended If They Don't Return, Emails Show"; (2) "'I Cry Before Work': US Essential Workers Burned Out Amid Pandemic"; (3) "Walmart Cuts Workers' Hours but Increases Workload as Sales Rise Amid Pandemic"

 

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

• Jules Taylor, "Working People theme song"
• Hearse Pileup, "We're All Going to Hell"