商业周刊:工会组织力量虚弱, 雇员自发组织罢工(4)（在线收听）

Beyond the growing number of union alternatives, demonstrations by employees are part of a rise in political activity overall.

除参与工会活动外衍生出的越来越多的其它途径，员工发起的示威运动也是政治活动激增的表现。

The years since the 2016 election have witnessed the largest protests in U.S. history,

自2016年大选以来，美国历史上发生了规模最大的抗议活动，

inspiring a lot of people—particularly college-educated twenty somethings—to demonstrate for the first time.

激励了许多人，特别是受过大学教育的20多岁的年轻人首次参与到示威活动中。

And while a Black Lives Matter protest or a Women's March on Washington may seem unrelated to work, they can inspire people to speak out for other causes.

尽管黑人有所谓（Black Lives Matter）抗议和在华盛顿进行的女性游行（Women's March）似乎与工作无关，但它们都激励人们敢于为自己发声。

"I think there's a real desire for working people to not segment their lives so much," says Sharon Block,

哈佛法学院劳动与工作项目执行主任莎伦·布洛克表示，

executive director of the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School.

“我认为，劳动者不想把自己的生活分割得支离破碎。

Companies know that, too. That's why places such as Comcast, Facebook, and Google gave workers time off to join political protests in 2016.

公司也了解这种情况，所以康卡斯特、脸书和谷歌等公司才会让员工在2016年去参加政治抗议。

The problem, Block says, is that political issues are often workplace issues, too.

布洛克说，“问题在于政治问题通常也都与工作有关。

"Immigration, racial justice, gender equality—people are seeing these things as interconnected,

人们认为移民、种族正义、性别平等等问题相互关联，

and that's giving rise to movements that aren't so easy to characterize but are very powerful."

从而出现了一些较难界定、但影响极大的示威活动。”

Companies are working as hard as ever to prevent workers from coming together—in any way, traditional or via social media.

公司还在努力阻止员工以传统方式或通过社交媒体结群。

The Supreme Court has so far been sympathetic. Buried in the language of one 2018 decision was a hint of further curtailments.

到目前为止，最高法院一直显露支持的姿态。但2018年的一项决议却预示着最高法院将进一步限制示威活动的举行。

For years the National Labor Relations Act has been assumed to protect workers acting together, whether to form a union or otherwise, Block says.

布洛克说，“多年来，《国家劳工关系法》一直被认为是对劳动者的集体行动进行保护，不管劳动者是否组成了工会。

"The court signaled they might be interested in revisiting the legal protections for workers acting outside a union context,

法院表示，他们可能重新审视对员工在工会以外组织的活动给予法律保护的情况，

which would mean you could be fired for engaging in any kind of collective activity. That would be really serious."

这意味着员工可能因为参与非工会组织的集体行动而被解雇，那可真是太严重了。”

At the moment, a tight labor market and companies' fears of bad publicity provide some protection. But just some.

目前，紧缩的劳动力市场和公司对负面宣传的担忧为员工提供了些许保护，但保护力度很小。

If unemployment rises or executives begin to ignore public outcries, workers become far more vulnerable.

如果失业率上升或高管开始忽视公众抗议，那么员工的利益会更容易受到损害。

Organizers are also thinking about the potential costs of their tech tools, especially when it comes to privacy and security.

活动组织者也在考虑技术工具的潜在成本，特别是有关隐私和安全方面的问题。

Coworker.org introduced a secure drop at the request of tech workers who use its platform. The future, Kutch says, is in using the internet for leadership development.

Coworker.org应使用其平台的技术人员的要求，引入了安全删除措施。卡奇说，“未来是利用互联网发展领导力。

"In many ways, it looks more traditional: How do we create new institutions that can be a power center for workers?" she says.

在许多方面，这看起来更为传统：我们如何创建可以成为员工权力中心的新机构？

"The internet is one way to do that, but it's not the only way."

互联网是一种解决方式，但并不是唯一的选择。”