Lola Loustaunau

Lola Loustaunau

Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Chapter Member: Wisconsin SSN

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About Lola

Loustaunau has led multiple research projects focusing on job quality, public policy, and collective organizing among low wage workers in various sectors. Her current research focuses on the working conditions of migrant workers in food processing, and their experiences of resistance and collective action.

Contributions

In-Home Childcare Providers are Essential—And Overworked, Underpaid, and Sometimes Not Paid at All

  • Larissa Petrucci
  • Lisa Dodson
  • Lola Loustaunau

Assessing the Initial Impacts of the First Statewide Scheduling Law

  • Larissa Petrucci
  • Lina Mary Caroline Stepick
  • Ellen Kaye Scott

Publications

"The Growing Need for “Non-Traditional Hours” Met by Underpaid In-Home Providers" (with Lisa Dodson, Larissa Petrucci, Mary King, and Ellen Kaye Scott). Labor Education and Research Center (2022).

Describes the long, irregular, badly paid and too often unpaid hours home-based childcare providers work to care for the children of Oregon’s working class families.

"Unlawful: U.S. Employers Are Charged with Violating Federal Law in 41.5% of All Union Election Campaigns," (with Celine McNicholas, Margaret Poydock, Julia Wolfe, Ben Zipperer, and Gordon Lafer), Economic Policy Institute, December 11, 2019.

Shows that U.S. employers are willing to use a wide range of legal and illegal tactics to frustrate the rights of workers to form unions and collectively bargain. Finds employers are charged with violating federal law in 41.5% of all union election campaigns.

"Impossible Choices: How Workers Manage Unpredictable Scheduling Practices" (with Larissa Petrucci, Camila H. Alvarez, and Ellen Scott). Labor Studies Journal (2019): 1-28.

Draws on data from in-depth interviews conducted in Oregon in 2016, this study expands research on how workers navigate through “bad jobs” by exploring the ways in which they respond in an attempt to manage the individual impacts of precarious work arrangements. Finds that workers respond to unpredictable scheduling in four ways: they acquiesce, self-advocate, quit, or directly oppose employers. Highlights the “impossible choices” workers face as they negotiate prevalent, unpredictable work conditions, juggle work-life obligations, and struggle to remain employed.