Los Angeles: hotel workers’ strike ignites backlash among academics

Academics are boycotting their annual meeting after they say leadership spurned a union request to move online or cancel

The union representing thousands of hotel workers on strike in Los Angeles is clashing with a group of political scientists over a request to move its gathering out of the city. It has sparked tensions within the professional group, as members – experts in power and politics – are dissenting over how they ought to respond.

About 6,000 political scientists were to descend on downtown Los Angeles for days of paper reviews, networking events and off-site happy hours at their flagship annual convention by the American Political Science Association (APSA) in late August. It would be the largest conference happening in the city over Labor Day weekend, according to the union.