Writing in Union Solidarity International, Gary Herman recommends that unions add universal basic income to their list of demands.
The basic income is a response to increasing job insecurity and the spread of various forms of on-demand employment, from conventional freelancing to zero-hours contracts. Its supporters argue that unions wishing to fight for a fairer economic settlement should adopt BI as a key demand, although there is certainly evidence of ambivalence towards it within the union movement.
In making the case for unions to promote a basic income, Herman draws from the work of economist (and BIEN cofounder) Guy Standing and sociologist Erik Olin Wright.
Read the article here:
Gary Herman, “The New Unionism—Part 1: Precarity, Work and the Basic Income,” Union Solidarity International, May 18, 2016.
Photo CC Raymond “Dmitri” Beljan (flickr)
