Today I have the pleasure of speaking with professor of sociology at Middlebury College, workers’ rights activist, and the author of two books on labor, Jamie McCallum. 

Jamie’s latest effort titled, Worked Over: How Round-the-Clock Work is Killing the American Dream; addresses the loss of agency the average American worker has in managing their work - life balance and why labor’s next big battle may not just be about wages but about time too. 

We’ll start our conversation by understanding the give and take relationship labor and management have shared over the ages and how this paradigm shifted from the agrarian task-based formula to a “time is money” model with the advent of clocks. 

Next, we’ll investigate the 1970’s resurgence of Corporate Class Power and how it has led to the extremes in income inequality we see today and how this resurgence has led to a dynamic which enables a CEO to make over 350 times what the average worker does. 

Later, we’ll discuss the triple threat that is unique to US workers and how over scheduling, under scheduling and volatile work hours contribute to work instability and why the American Dream is alive in well in other nations but is falling further away from the grasp of many Americans. 

 And we’ll finish our conversation by discussing why Jamie believes “we should redesign our economy so that trading most of our waking hours for money, isn’t the only pathway to a dignified life,”

The Show Notes

Jamie McCallum
https://www.jamiekmccallum.com/

Worked Over
https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/jamie-k-mccallum/worked-over/9781541618343/

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