The Future We Need by Erica Smiley & Sarita Gupta - Harmony of Interest Book Talks

Empathy Media Lab

In The Future We Need, Erica Smiley and Sarita Gupta bring a novel perspective to building worker power and what labor organizing could look like in the future, suggesting ways to evolve collective bargaining to match the needs of modern people—not only changing their wages and working conditions, but being able to govern over more aspects of their lives.

Weaving together stories of real working people, Smiley and Gupta position the struggle to build collective bargaining power as a central element in the effort to build a healthy democracy and explore both existing levers of power and new ones we must build for workers to have the ability to negotiate in today and tomorrow's contexts. The Future We Need illustrates the necessity of centralizing the fight against white supremacy and gender discrimination, while offering paths forward to harness the power of collective bargaining in every area for a new era.

Buy your copy: https://www.thefutureweneed.com/#buy

About the Authors

Erica Smiley is the executive director of Jobs With Justice. A long-time organizer and movement leader, Smiley has been spearheading strategic organizing and policy interventions for Jobs With Justice for nearly 15 years.

For more information, visit https://www.jwj.org/staff-members/erica-smiley.

Sarita Gupta is director of the Ford Foundation's Future of Work(ers) program, with more than two decades of experience building coalitions and policies that protect, and advance the rights of workers.

For more information, visit https://www.fordfoundation.org/about/people/sarita-gupta/.

About Empathy Media Lab

The Harmony of Interest Book Talk series interviews authors about their work while exploring ideas that positively shape our world.

Empathy Media Lab is produced by Evan Matthew Papp and we are a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. Support media, authors, artists, historians, and journalists, who are fighting to improve the prosperity of the working class.

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