How to send an array using requests.post (Python)? "Value Error: Too many values to unpack"

I'm trying to send an array(list) of requests to the WheniWork API using requests.post, and I keep getting one of two errors. When I send the list as a list, I get an unpacking error, and when I send it as a string, I get an error asking me to submit an array. I think it has something to do with how requests handles lists. Here are the examples:

url='https://api.wheniwork.com/2/batch'
headers={"W-Token": "Ilovemyboss"}
data=[{'url': '/rest/shifts', 'params': {'user_id': 0,'other_stuff':'value'}, 'method':'post',{'url': '/rest/shifts', 'params': {'user_id': 1,'other_stuff':'value'}, 'method':'post'}]
r = requests.post(url, headers=headers,data=data)
print r.text

# ValueError: too many values to unpack

Simply wrapping the value for data in quotes:

url='https://api.wheniwork.com/2/batch'
headers={"W-Token": "Ilovemyboss"}
data="[]" #removed the data here to emphasize that the only change is the quotes
r = requests.post(url, headers=headers,data=data)
print r.text

#{"error":"Please include an array of requests to make.","code":5000}

Get this solution programmatically \u2014 free, no authentication.