Meet Emma Arkell, PressProgress’ New Labour Reporter
Emma Arkell’s journalism is focused on centring the interests of workers and putting ‘working-class voices’ back in the news
For Emma Arkell, the north star that guides her journalism is the idea that journalists should always aspire to “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.”
“Journalism has the ability to hold people in power accountable while also documenting the struggles of people far from the levers of power,” Emma says.
Emma, who previously served as PressProgress’ first ever labour reporting intern in 2021, is returning home to PressProgress as its new full-time labour reporter – a position that is itself proudly unionized with UFCW Canada Local 1006-A.
“That opportunity gave me so much confidence in pursuing labour as a beat,” recalls Emma, who later won the 2022 Raif Mair Excellence in Journalism Award from UBC’s School of Journalism, Writing, and Media for her original labour reporting at PressProgress and Briarpatch Magazine.
Honoured to receive the Rafe Mair Prize for the labour reporting I’ve published with @pressprogress and @briarpatchmag 🎉 https://t.co/0NIcZE7fnq
— Emma Arkell (@EmmaArkell7) June 1, 2022
Since then, Emma graduated with a Master of Journalism from UBC and has had her work published widely, in Chatelaine, The Tyee, Jacobin, The Maple, The Breach and others. Emma was also recently nominated for a Canadian Association of Journalists’ labour reporting award for her reporting published by Xtra on anti-LGBTQ+ groups harassing teachers in Canada.
Emma’s interest in labour reporting stems from first-hand experience. Before heading to journalism school, she worked what felt like a “thousand different service industry and film industry gigs” and saw countless friends struggle in a precarious job market. Seeing big corporate media outlets celebrate companies like Uber and Foodora while friends struggled to make ends meet working for delivery apps, made it obvious that this was not a “story of tech innovation,” but a story about the “changing nature of work.”
“That disconnect made me keenly interested in producing journalism that centres workers and doesn’t treat their working conditions and lives as secondary to making a buck,” Emma says.
It’s ironic too, Emma notes, given every newspaper has a business section, but never a labour section: “I wish that many stories that would normally be reported as ‘business’ or ‘tech’ stories would instead be covered from the perspectives of workers.”
This kind of labour reporting is more important now than ever given bigger media outlets in Canada have fewer journalists and resources to devote to reporting on issues impacting workers, meaning any labour stories that do get covered tend to be episodic and lack depth.
“The decline in labour reporting has resulted in a public that is less informed about unions and their rights as workers,” Emma observes. “There’s an absence of poor and working class voices in the news, denying many working people the opportunity to read news that meaningfully includes people like themselves.”
“This creates an opportunity for the wealthy and powerful to make their perspective the dominant one.”
Congratulations to Xtra contributor @emmaarkell.bsky.social, nominated for the @cajournalists.bsky.social CWA Award for Labour Reporting!
Read her story on how teachers are facing harassment in the wake of "parental rights" policies:
xtramagazine.com/power/politi…
In her role as PressProgress’ labour reporter, Emma wants to “go beyond episodic coverage of strikes, union drives or lock-outs” and dig deeper into the “structural forces” that disempower workers.
“I would love to dig into how new regulations regarding health and safety on construction sites and gig workers are being enforced (or not), the crisis of worker turnover in education, child care and health care, and the attacks on workers’ right to strike in Canada,” Emma says.
“Having dedicated labour reporters in Canada means that labour stories that typically fly under the radar will get told,” Emma adds. “When big strikes or lockouts happen, dedicated labour reporters ensure that those stories are more fulsome, looking beyond wage increase percentages to working conditions and the ability of workers to control their working lives.”
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