"The coronavirus pandemic threw life into a tumult for American workers, igniting new class struggles and further stoking those already under way. Across the country, essential workers lashed out against low wages, long hours, and safety risks, both with labor union backing and without it. Nurses, teachers, grocery clerks, farmers, food processing workers, and many more fought for higher wages, paid sick leave, better healthcare, and, above all else, increased safety protocols, attracting public support at a level unseen in the twenty-first century. The explosion in worker anger and the resurgence of organized labor's popularity may seem like short-term consequence of the coronavirus crisis, but both trends were long in the making and are likely to last far beyond the pandemic. In Essential , award-winning sociologist Jamie McCallum uncovers the deep roots and seismic impact of essential workers' rage, arguing that today's widespread labor unrest and militancy is both the result and the repudiation of decades of austerity. The turn toward small government in the 1980s, McCallum shows, meant the slow unravelling of the nation's social safety net and regulatory standards. Ever since, underpaid workers have since found themselves increasingly vulnerable to employer abuse and neglected by the state. In the wake of the Great Recession, these workers' ranks-and their anger-swelled, as low-wage, unstable jobs and subpar working conditions became the norm nationally. Intermittent waves of labor protest subsequently rocked America throughout the 2010s. But only in the course of performing high-risk, low-paid jobs throughout the pandemic, McCallum finds, did many essential workers across the United States begin to think of themselves of a marginalized class, lauded by the public as heroes but ruthlessly exploited by their employers. Through in-depth research conducted as the pandemic unfolded, McCallum traces the evolution of workers' class consciousness and militancy, showing how essential workers fought to improve not only their collective working conditions but also the living conditions of all of us. Highly organized, massive strikes of healthcare workers and other frontline employees achieved tangible gains for workers and the public, from high-tech air ventilators in classrooms and sufficient PPE in nursing homes to increased wages and more paid leave. Amid these gains, Untitled reveals, work stoppages attracted a level of public support unseen in decades, and calls for living wages, universal childcare and healthcare, and robust corporate regulation entered the political mainstream. However long the Great Resignation lasts, demands for worker justice are poised to shape national policy for years to come as politicians on the left embrace a more forceful class politics. Increased government spending on human infrastructure is a start, McCallum concludes, but a real recovery from the pandemic will require a coordinated effort to unionize ordinary workers and build working-class power at every level of society. Combining deep research with immersive storytelling, Essential is indispensable reading for anyone seeking to understand the past and future of the American working class."
