Tom Juravich
Professor of Labor Studies and Sociology | University of Massachusetts Amherst
Amherst, MA, UNITED STATES
Tom Juravich studies work, workers and the labor movement.
Expertise (5)
Labor Unions
Ethnographic Research
Labor Movements
Work and the Labor Process
Working Class and Union Culture
Biography
Tom Juravich studies work, workers and the labor movement. He is currently researching wage theft and the work of undocumented workers in residential construction. He is also part of an NSF grant exploring the impact of artificial intelligence and computer based technology on the future of work.
He teaches strategic corporate research and campaigns to a variety of union, community and environmental groups and is the designer and webmaster of www.StrategicCorporateReseach.org, a comprehensive website for conducting corporate research in the U.S. and Canada.
Juravich serves as chair of the Labor and Labor Movements section of the American Sociological Association and is on the editorial boards of the New Labor Forum and the Labor Studies Journal. A singer and songwriter, Juravich’s latest recordings include "Altar of the Bottom Line" and "Tangled in Our Dreams (with Teresa Healy)."
Education (3)
University of Massachusetts Amherst: Ph.D., Sociology
State University of New York, Albany: M.A., Sociology
State University of New York, Albany: B.A., Sociology/Psychology
Links (5)
Select Recent Media Coverage (5)
Can workers learn to respect those who choose not to?
Esquire Middle East online
2023-05-16
Tom Juravich, professor of sociology and labor studies, comments in an article about the diminishing view of the value of work. Juravich says, “I don’t think policy people have understood how big this shift in thinking about work is yet and I don’t see effective change coming one ‘mom and pop’ business at a time. What it will take are major employers—an Amazon, a Google—to make a bold experiment in changing working hours, and so far they seem to be doing very little to set new standards.
Northeastern dining hall workers approve most lucrative contract in Local 26 history
The Boston Globe print
2022-09-13
Not long ago, the gold standard was $15 an hour, said Thomas Juravich, a labor studies professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Now it’s been pushed to $30, which will help more people afford to live in a high-cost city like Boston. “That kind of fairness and dignity allows you to have a life and live a life. And those who work in hotels and cafeterias should be able to have those lives too, not just professionals,” Juravich said.
Boston's Museum of Fine Arts agrees to first union contract with workers
CBS News online
2022-06-29
When the coronavirus pandemic hit, museums were forced to shut down and lay off workers, and many employees realized they had few legal protections, said Tom Juravich, a professor of sociology and labor studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Museums have treated their rank-and-file employees as little more than servants for years, and more workers have been unionizing as attitudes change among younger employees, especially, Juravich said.
Brookline schools to reopen Tuesday after district, teachers union reach tentative agreement
WBUR radio
2022-05-17
Tom Juravich, a labor historian and professor at the UMass Amherst Labor Center, said he sees the Brookline Educators Union strike as part of a growing movement of teachers across the country. "They have had to go through some of the most difficult times in COVID, especially being the first line of defense with kids' mental health and their issues at home," he said.
Worker who fought for union at Logan Airport restaurants is fired after union win
The Boston Globe online
2022-03-03
Tom Juravich, a labor professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said that the termination appeared to be “blatantly illegal,” and that Gluskin-Braun would likely be reinstated and awarded back pay. But the process won’t be quick, and it could put a damper on newly unionized workers’ excitement — and stall contract negotiations in the process. “The point is they’ve taken the steam out of the union,” he said. Firing an activist sends a message to workers: “If they can do this to one of their leaders, they can do this to anybody.”
Select Publications (2)
We need new tools to deal with epidemic of wage theft
CommonWealth MagazineTom Juravich
2022-04-30
"Massachusetts needs new legislation to curb wage theft because what happened in Amherst should have never happened and should never happen again. Nine undocumented Hondurans worked 10 hours a day, six days a week for five weeks in a row hanging sheetrock in a new apartment complex in Amherst. Collectively they were owed $50,173 for their labor – but they did not receive one penny in wages."
“Bread and Roses”
Labor Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas2020-05-07
This paper traces the history of the song “Bread and Roses” to examine labor culture and the role of song in the labor movement. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, “Bread and Roses” was included in several of the first generation song books produced by unions that reflected an expansive and inclusive labor culture closely connected with the Left.
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