Like thousands of other people from around the country and around the world, this author was heartened and inspired by the tenacity, immediacy, and creativity of the pushback by Wisconsin's public-sector unions against Governor Scott Walker's efforts to limit their collective bargaining rights. And like many others who made the trek to Madison to…

One way of describing the recent movement of thought about the academic labor system is as a series of waves. A "first wave" of labor consciousness emerged before 1970, propelling the self-organization of the academic work force, especially in public institutions, where more than half the faculty are unionized. This labor awareness was…