Jasmine Kerrissey

Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Labor Center at UMass Amherst University of Massachusetts Amherst

  • Amherst MA

Jasmine Kerrissey is an expert on labor movements, work and inequality

Contact

University of Massachusetts Amherst

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Expertise

Worker Strikes
Labor Studies
Labor Movements
Social Movements and Collective Behavior
Political Sociology of Health
Gig Economy
Worker Rights

Biography

Jasmine Kerrissey's research focuses on labor movements, work and inequality. Much of her work asks how workers' organizations have mattered, and what their decline means for workplace, economic, social and political outcomes.

She is regularly sought after by national media to discuss current issues related to labor and worker issues including by NPR, the Boston Globe and Time Magazine.

Social Media

Video

Education

University of California, Irvine

Ph.D.

Sociology

University of California, Irvine

M.A.

Sociology

Cornell University

B.A.

Industrial and Labor Relations

Select Recent Media Coverage

Smith College library staff unionizes, part of larger union trend in Mass.

WBUR  radio

2024-04-11

UMass Labor Center Director Jasmine Kerrissey comments on a unionization vote by library employees at Smith College. “There’s definitely a boom happening in Western Mass, and nationally, now around union organizing,” she says.

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The Newton strike is over. Was it worth it?

The Boston Globe  print

2024-02-03

Commenting about the end of a two-week-long teachers’ strike by teachers in the Newton public schools, Jasmine Kerrissey, director of the Labor Center at UMass Amherst, said the new pay structure for aides will reduce staff churn and ultimately benefit students.

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Newton paraprofessionals earn lower wages compared to other districts

GBH  online

2024-02-01

In an article on how paraprofessionals are underpaid in Newton, Massachusetts, Jasmine Kerrissey, director of the Labor Center at UMass Amherst, says all workers should be paid a livable wage as a matter of principle. “For Newton to be paying paraprofessionals less than $30,000, it’s sort of against those general principles,” she says.

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Massachusetts votes to keep its ‘subminimum wage’ for tipped workers

The Conversation

Jeannette Wicks-Lim and Jasmine Kerrissey

2024-11-01

Jeannette Wicks-Lim and Jasmine Kerrissey, director of the Labor Center at UMass Amherst, write about their research looking at the potential impact of Massachusetts ballot Question 5, which would phase out the state’s tipped minimum wage.

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2023’s historic Hollywood and UAW strikes aren’t labor’s whole story – the total number of Americans walking off the job remained relatively low

The Conversation

Judith Stepan-Norris and Jasmine Kerrissey

2023-12-20

UMass Labor Center Director Jasmine Kerrissey has co-authored an article on strikes by labor unions in 2023. “This crescendo of labor actions follows a relative lull in U.S. strikes and a decline in union membership that began in the 1970s,” the article notes. “Today’s strikes may seem unprecedented, especially if you’re under 50. While this wave constitutes a significant change following decades of unions’ losing ground, it’s far from unprecedented.”

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Opinion—Uber and Lyft should be made to pay their fair share

Dorchester Reporter

Elizabeth Pellerito, Jasmine Kerrissey, Steve Striffler, and Camilo Viveiros, Jr.,

2023-11-22

"If companies like Uber and Lyft are allowed to carve themselves out as employers, they also reduce their responsibility to the Commonwealth by reducing their tax burden and their investment in social programs like unemployment insurance, Paid Family Medical Leave, and Social Security. Just as voters passed the Fair Share Act for individuals in 2022, we need to make sure we don’t let these companies off the hook for paying their fair share. "

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