Succinctly answer the following question in 400 words or less:
Historical efforts on the part of unions have been effective in many ways. For instance, unions challenged child labour, and brought us the weekend and the eight-hour work day.
But we still live under a capitalist mode of production.
Change is often conceptualized in a linear way, as something that ruptures with the emergence of new things. How do we make sense of this when considering labor relations/conditions in the U.S. historically, and in the present?
Using a couple of specific examples to illustrate your argument, briefly compare and contrast a) Barbara Ehrenreichs study of working conditions under neoliberal capitalism, with b) the plight of workers in Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. With specific consideration to conditions and relations of labour, what, in your view, is new, and what has been renewed/perpetuated?
