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38 Lab. Stud. J. 5 (2013)

handle is hein.journals/labstuj38 and id is 1 raw text is: * Official Journal of United Association for Introduction Labor Education Labor Studies Journal 38(I) 5-6 Introduction to the 2013UALE Reprints and permissions: Conference Issue sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10. 1 177/0160449X 13490406 Isj.sagepub.com Katherine Sciacchitano' and Jennifer Sherer2 The economic crisis that erupted in 2008 led to renewed attacks on labor and the living standards of workers around the world. In the United States, unions have faced inten- sifying assaults on wages, pensions, and other benefits and legal rights to organize and bargain. The highest-profile attacks have focused on public-sector unions and state- level legislation. These direct attacks are part of a broader, long-term onslaught against the public sphere, which has become increasingly contested terrain as neoliberal economic regimes seek to expand and deepen the scope for profit making. In this context, recent attacks on unions and union rights challenge not only collective bargaining and labor standards but also unions' social role as institutions that enable worker participation in democratic political debate and decision-making. Papers on the theme of Labor and the Public Sphere presented in Labor Studies Journal sessions at the 2012 United Association for Labor Education (UALE) confer- ence addressed both aspects of this crisis. The conference itself took place in the wake of the 2011 Midwest Uprising, as unions in Wisconsin and Ohio vigorously responded to attacks on public-sector workers with campaigns that raised fundamental questions about the future of public education, public services, and democracy itself. This conference issue also goes to press on the heels of an historic strike by the Chicago Teachers' Union (CTU-AFT Local 1) that sharpened these questions into full-blown critiques of privatization and that used the collective bargaining process as a vehicle for engaging teachers, parents, and community members in spirited defense of an endangered public sphere. Labor and the Public Sphere sessions at the conference included two papers chroni- cling CTU's historic responses to neoliberal education reform in Chicago, the union's internal transformation led by a rank-and-file caucus, and the current CTU leadership's two-year process of internal mobilizing and community outreach in preparation for its 'National Labor College, Silver Spring, MD, USA 2University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA Corresponding Author: Jennifer Sherer, University of Iowa, 100 BVC Rm WI30, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA. Email: jennifer-sherer@uiowa.edu

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