From mission to microchip : a history of the California labor movement /
Glass, Fred,author.
"There is no better time than now to consider the labor history of the Golden State. While other states face declining union enrollment rates and the rollback of workers' rights, California unions are embracing working immigrants, and voters are protecting core worker rights. What's the difference? California has held an exceptional place in the imagination of Americans and immigrants since the Gold Rush, which saw the first of many waves of working people moving to the state to find work. From Mission to Microchip unearths the hidden stories of these people throughout California's history. The difficult task of the state's labor movement has been to overcome perceived barriers such as race, national origin, and language to unite newcomers and natives in their shared interest. As chronicled in this comprehensive history, workers have creatively used collective bargaining, politics, strikes, and varied organizing strategies to find common ground among California's diverse communities and achieve a measure of economic fairness and social justice. This is an indispensable book for students and scholars of labor history and history of the West, as well as labor activists and organizers."--Provided by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 455-481) and index.
Where in California is its labor history? -- On a mission : how work destroyed native California -- Striking gold -- "All that is solid melts into air" : Gold Rush San Francisco -- Work, leisure, and the struggle for the eight-hour day -- Sandlots and silver kings : the workingmen's party of California -- Building paradise : the making of the Los Angeles working class -- Newspapers, railroads, and the Los Angeles labor movement -- Land, machines, and farm labor -- The Oxnard sugar beet workers strike -- Building San Francisco -- Organizing San Francisco -- Carmen, women, and their unions -- Otistown : Los Angeles at the turn of the century -- Almost mayor : bombs, ballots, and fusion politics -- Open shop : California workers in the jazz age -- Radical responses to the great depression -- The San Francisco general strike -- The CIO : civil war and civil rights -- Arsenal of democracy : integrating industrial California during World War II -- "We called it a work holiday" : the Oakland general strike -- Hollywood to Bakersfield: poverty in the valley of plenty -- Cold war prosperity : labor becomes "middle class" -- Labor and politics -- "Si se puede" : the United Farm Workers -- The rise of public sector unionism -- Creating the conditions for teaching and learning to happen -- Feminist collective bargaining meets the civil service -- The decline of manufacturing unionism -- Justice for janitors : organizing immigrant workers -- Teachers, nurses, and firefighters : the Alliance for a Better California -- Labor and the community: Reclaiming California's future.
"There is no better time than now to consider the labor history of the Golden State. While other states face declining union enrollment rates and the rollback of workers' rights, California unions are embracing working immigrants, and voters are protecting core worker rights. What's the difference? California has held an exceptional place in the imagination of Americans and immigrants since the Gold Rush, which saw the first of many waves of working people moving to the state to find work. From Mission to Microchip unearths the hidden stories of these people throughout California's history. The difficult task of the state's labor movement has been to overcome perceived barriers such as race, national origin, and language to unite newcomers and natives in their shared interest. As chronicled in this comprehensive history, workers have creatively used collective bargaining, politics, strikes, and varied organizing strategies to find common ground among California's diverse communities and achieve a measure of economic fairness and social justice. This is an indispensable book for students and scholars of labor history and history of the West, as well as labor activists and organizers."--Provided by publisher.
Labor movement
Labor
Labor unions
From mission to microchip.