Jasmine Kerrissey
Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Labor Center at UMass Amherst | University of Massachusetts Amherst
Amherst, MA, UNITED STATES
Jasmine Kerrissey is an expert on labor movements, work and inequality
Expertise (7)
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.
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Education (3)
University of California, Irvine: Ph.D., Sociology
University of California, Irvine: M.A., Sociology
Cornell University: B.A., Industrial and Labor Relations
Links (3)
Select Recent Media Coverage (6)
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.
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.
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.
Union Escalates Strike at Two Major US Automakers
VOA online
2023-09-22
Jasmine Kerrissey, director of the Labor Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, told VOA that one benefit of the UAW’s strategy of gradual escalation is that it focuses public attention on its efforts. “It keeps the strike in the news cycle,” said Kerrissey, co-author of Union Booms and Busts: The Ongoing Fight over the U.S. Labor Movement. She noted that public opinion polling shows that the strikers currently enjoy broad public approval, adding, “Historically, public support has been very important in resolving strikes in unions’ favor.”
What It Would Take to Avoid a Rail Strike This Holiday Season
TIME Magazine
2022-10-12
“A hundred-plus years ago there were strikes over similar issues,” says Jasmine Kerrissey, an associate professor and director of the Labor Center at UMass Amherst. “Their slogan was ‘8 hours for work, 8 hours for rest, and 8 hours for what we will.’ And, while quality of life and the ability to take time off has always been a key issue for the labor movement, COVID has certainly shined a light on the importance of sick days and health.”
The factors driving 'Striketober'
NPR radio
2021-11-14
NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Jasmine Kerrissey, professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, about the recent wave of strikes and what it says about labor in America.
Select Publications (5)
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 ConversationJudith 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.”
Opinion—Uber and Lyft should be made to pay their fair share
Dorchester ReporterElizabeth 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. "
Union Booms and Busts The Ongoing Fight Over the U.S. Labor Movement
Book – Oxford University PressJudith Stepan-Norris and Jasmine Kerrissey
2023-06-23
Union Booms and Busts takes a bird's eye view of the shifting fortunes of U.S. workers and their unions on the one hand, and employers and their organizations on the other. Using detailed data, this book analyses union density across 11 industries and 115 years, contrasting the organizing and union building successes and failures across decades.
Waves of strikes rippling across the US seem big, but the total number of Americans walking off the job remains historically low
The ConversationJudith Stepan-Norris and Jasmine Kerrissey
2023-08-24
"More than 323,000 workers – including nurses, actors, screenwriters, hotel cleaners and restaurant servers – walked off their jobs during the first eight months of 2023. ... We see the rising number of strikes today as a sign that the balance of power between workers and employers, which has been tilted toward employers for nearly a half-century, is beginning to shift."
This Labor Day comes amid the biggest jump in union activity in decades
The Washington PostJasmine Kerrissey and Judith Stepan-Norris
2022-09-02
It was 1894, the Gilded Age — a time of extreme inequality, foul working conditions, worker unrest and violent strikes. Congress created Labor Day, a national holiday celebrating workers and labor unions. Labor Day alone didn’t change much. But from the 1930s through 1950s, labor unions were on the rise. ... Today, only 1 in 10 workers are organized, and one-third of the country’s workers earn less than $15 an hour. Research suggests that union decline has contributed significantly to the rise in inequality.
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