bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Hospital Speedups and the Fiction of a Nursing Shortage
Authors: Lafer Gordon
Published: April 2013

In recent years, hospital managers and public policy makers alike have focused considerable energy on the prospect of an imminent national shortage of hospital nurses. In response, officials have urged both increased funding for nursing schools and increased importation of foreign nurses from the Philippines and other developing countries. The study below documents that this policy direction is fundamentally misguided. There is no shortage of nurses in the United States. The number of licensed registered nurses in the country who are choos ing not to work in the hospital industry due to stagnant wages and deteriorating working conditions is larger than the entire size of the imagined "shortage." Thus, there is no shortage of qualified person nel—there is simply a shortage of nurses willing to work under the current conditions created by hospital managers. Extensive survey data among both currently working nurses and those who have left the profession indicate a very strong consensus regarding the causes and potential solutions to this problem. Nurses will return to hospital work if the wages are improved and, above all, if nurse-to-patient ratios are restored to a level at which RNs believe they can provide profes sional care. If conditions are improved, enough nurses will be drawn back into the hospital industry to solve the alleged shortage. If, on the other hand, conditions remain stagnant or deteriorate further, new graduates of nursing schools will continue to abandon the profession in large numbers, and no increase in new graduates will suffice to keep hospitals adequately staffed. In a final section of the paper, a survey of magnet hospitals indicates that the industry can afford to implement improved staffing levels while remaining economically competitive.
Computerized Social Casework Recording: Autonomy and Control in Australia's Income Support Agency
Authors: Dearman Philip
Published: April 2013

This paper reports on a case study of the computerization of social work recording. The context is a large and geographically dispersed social work service that forms part of Australia's income support network, Centrelink. The study is part of a larger research project charting the effects of computerized recording on the autonomy—or sense of independence, and freedom of action—of social workers. The paper summarizes interviews with workers who responded to questions about a management information system they use to record their work, and that managers use to monitor and control certain aspects of that work. Interviewees were asked to talk about the development and implemen tation of the system, and to comment on their expectations and their feelings about the outcomes. Responses indicate a sense of frustration with a system used to monitor but not effectively regulate workloads. While computerization holds out the prospect of making procedures more rational—in the name of the imagined paperless office—it seems to have swamped these workers with new workload burdens that are difficult to escape, and to have standardized elements of judgment and decision making, leaving caseworkers with a substantially differ ent sense of autonomy.
USWA-Bargained and State-Oriented Responses to the Recurrent Steel Crisis
Authors: Bruno Robert
Published: April 2013

The contemporary American integrated steel industry is at the peak of its efficiency, cost-effectiveness, technological sophistication, and productivity. But performance standards aside, domestic steelmakers have become even less competitive and find themselves on the brink of collapse. This time, however, the industry's distress is not caused by poor market behavior, primarily or in even in sizeable part, but by a hostile set of United States government policies. In response to the enormity of the industry's present problems, the United Steelwork ers of America (USWA) proposed a full throttle, protective national public policy that prioritized steelmaking as critical to the nation's economic vitality. In doing so, the union emerged as the most potent response to the industry's severe market failures and became the lead ing advocate for rationalizing not only domestic, but also global steel markets. This work strongly indicates that if the union is to remain relevant in representing the workplace, the USWA must profoundly reconsider the value of state-oriented political action in its bargaining approach toward the industry. To attain what the bargaining process can no longer provide, politics is now essential.
Movement Theory and International Labor Solidarity
Authors: Frundt Henry J.
Published: April 2013

As international labor solidarity becomes an important counterweight to corporate globalization, practitioners can benefit from guidance that social movement theory provides. This study applies three strands of movement theory to actual and potential cross-border strategies in the Americas. It explores the structural relevance of political opportuni ties, the mobilization of networks as a resource, and the emphasis by New Social Movement theory on framing and reflexive identity. It discovers that each strand offers important insights, one clarifying limitations, a second demarcating and cultivating supporters, and a third motivating participation. Taken together, the strands comprise a dynamic basis for solidarity that enriches organizing strategies and gains measurable victories.
Low Wage Workers and High Housing Costs
Authors: Leavitt Jacqueline , Lingafelter Teresa
Published: April 2013

Housing policy becomes a labor issue when housing costs consume large portions of hard-won wage increases. The extent and the depth of today's housing crisis make this issue more pressing than at any time since the 1930s when labor's participation was critical to the passage of the U.S. Housing Act. Without the benefit of housing-subsidy programs, low-income people often pay more than half their incomes on housing. In this article, we focus on the effect of the housing crisis on members in Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 434B who represent over 100,000 homecare workers in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. Living in overcrowded and substandard housing, workers face abusive landlords, suffer feelings of powerless- ness, and endure compromised self-worth and dignity. Homecare workers use coping strategies in order to live with the problems created by the high costs of housing and poor conditions. Local unions can intervene in ways that tie housing to traditional campaigns and break new ground in the housing arena. Without labor's involvement, the ad hoc housing policy in the United States will continue to burden workers in low-wage occupations.
The Effects Of The Use Of Striker Replacement Workers In Canada: An Analysis Of Four Cases1
Authors: Singh Parbudyal , Zinni Deborah M. , Jain Harish C.
Published: April 2013

The use of striker replacements is one of the most controversial and emotional issues facing those involved with the industrial relations system. However, a paucity of research has been done on the actual use of replacement workers and how that affects industrial relations outcomes, such as strike activity. Initial research suggests that the use of replacements is associated with longer strikes, supporting the con tention that the use of replacements should be prohibited. Using four case studies, we explore some of the dynamics of strikes that utilize replacements versus those that do not. The results suggest that, in ad dition to economic factors, social and psychological variables may be intricately linked to the relationship between the use of replacements and strike activity.
Beyond Strike Support: Labor-Community Alliances and Democratic Power in New Haven
Authors: Rhomberg Chris , Simmons Louise
Published: April 2013

This paper considers how low-income workers and urban residents can cooperate in their local communities through alliances among unions and community organizations. We focus on the case of the Connecti cut Center for a New Economy, a labor-community partnership that includes the unions who represent employees at Yale University. We begin by drawing concepts from debates in political theory and labor movement practice, and then analyze recent union and community struggles in New Haven. Our analysis explores how groups may build capacity for collective voice and action, establish public spaces for social dialogue, and negotiate binding commitments around mutual concerns.
Organizing in the Context of Tribal Sovereignty: The Navajo Area Indian Health Service Campaign for Union Recognition
Authors: Kamper David
Published: April 2013

This article considers the relationships among labor union organiz ing, American Indian tribal sovereignty, and economic development, focusing on a 2001 campaign by the Laborers' International Union of North America to organize employees of the Navajo Area Indian Health Service. Relying on ethnographic methods, I examine the practices, actions, and attitudes of professional and volunteer organizers of this campaign to consider how organizers connect political conditions and strategies to verbal strategies of face-to-face interaction. This article illustrates how organizing drives conducted in Indian country must negotiate the mutually constitutive political and economic interests of tribal members. The LIUNA campaign succeeded by addressing workplace concerns within an overall context of respect for the Navajo Nation tribal government, tribal sovereignty, and tribal members' feel ings about sovereignty, even when the tribal government's actions po tentially threatened the stability and security of tribal workers' jobs.
The Squeaky Wheel's Dilemma: New Forms of Labor Organizing in the Philippines
Authors: McKay Steven C.
Published: April 2013

The paper details innovative strategies of local labor organizers to unionize workers under the hostile conditions surrounding export processing zones. The case study from the Philippines outlines a comprehensive, scalar strategy with an analysis of four key elements: first, the local political context; second, community-based organizing attentive to gender and justice issues; third, the adoption of multiple organizational forms; and fourth, the strategic extension of network ties to multiple geographic scales. Through a comparison with campaigns in other export processing zones, the study suggests that the most ef fective strategy for protecting labor rights combines social movement unionism with strategic international solidarity that supports core local efforts to organize.
A Tale of Two Factories: Successful Resistance to Sweatshops and the Limits of Firefighting1
Authors: Ross Robert J. S.
Published: April 2013

College-based U.S. anti-sweatshop activists led two solidarity campaigns challenging the proposition that global capitalism and capital mobil ity necessarily subvert local victories of workers and their unions. Critical to working-class advances are worker self defense, alliance with reformers, and positive governmental policy, but, in two cases, Kukdong/Mexmode in Mexico and BJ&B in the Dominican Republic, the third pillar of decency - public policy - has been weak or missing. These cases show that consumer support for ethical market niches can be an important weapon in the struggle for rights. Nationally based policies are no longer adequate: activists must continue to insist on labor standards in trade agreements.
Taking It to the States: The Wisconsin Labor Initiative on Health Care
Authors: Nack David
Published: April 2013

This article examines the experiences of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO and its leadership in developing and advancing a long term strategy to resolve what has become a primary collective bargaining problem: maintaining employer-based health care coverage that is both sufficient and affordable to workers, within the context of the ongoing crisis in costs inherent in the American system of privatized and fragmented health insurance. The paper explores the unique solution that has been proposed in Wisconsin: a modified single-payer plan, under the auspices of the state, but with a union-management oversight com mission, and a partnership between state government and private health care providers. The solution is assessed in terms of its political viability and the extent to which it might serve as a model for health care reform elsewhere.
"To Find Answers to the Urgent Problems of Our Society": The Alliance for Labor Action's Atlanta Union Organizing Offensive, 1969-1971
Authors: Devinatz Victor G.
Published: April 2013

The Alliance for Labor Action (ALA) was created through the joint efforts of the United Automobile Workers (UAW) and the Teamsters Union in July 1968, in opposition to the AFL-CIO's policies. The motivation behind the creation of this new labor federation, which lasted until 1972, was to organize the millions of unorganized work ers and to promote the social concerns that the two founding unions felt had been ignored since the merger of the AFL-CIO in 1955. The ALA selected Atlanta for its pilot citywide organizational campaign in an attempt to organize workers and to link them with the building of community unions that the ALA envisioned would promote its social concerns among the urban and rural poor. Although the ALA ran an innovative organizing campaign and achieved success when compared to certain standard metrics, the ALA considered the cam paign overall to be a disappointment. Lessons from this organizing drive are discussed within the context of union organizing drives in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
How Do Unions Renew? Paths to Union Renewal
Authors: Levesque Christian , Murray Gregor
Published: April 2013

How are unions responding to change? Are they renewing? Drawing on the CRIMT International Colloquium on Union Renewal, this introductory paper presents the overarching themes in this special thematic issue of Labor Studies Journal. After a synoptic overview of the range of cases and methodological issues highlighted by the papers, three sets of issues are presented: the need to enhance basic union efficiency or instrumentality, the importance of union governance and internal organization, and the need to rethink union resources. The development of collective identities, the mobilization of external expertise and networks, and the development of union leadership are identified as key resources in the union renewal process and as important subjects for further research.
Renewal in the United Faculty of Florida: Class War in Paradise?
Authors: Fiorito Jack , Gallagher Vickie Coleman
Published: April 2013

This paper reviews faculty union developments in Florida public universities during 2000-2005, a tumultuous period in which the statewide university governance board was abolished and governance was devolved to university-level boards. The Jeb Bush Administration used devolution to eliminate bargaining for thousands of faculty at eleven universities. Using a case study format and participant-observer perspective, we emphasize the perspective of key constituents from Florida State University. A union renewal lens examines various union renewal meanings and controversies over the "organizing model" and "servicing model."
Local Unions and the Restructuring of Work within the Multinational Company: Internal Solidarity and Local Context
Authors: Grenier Jean-Noël
Published: April 2013

This article focuses on the influence of a multinational corporation (MNC) on the reorganization of work and labor relations in two Canadian plants. The MNC used coercive comparisons and created a regime of cooperative competition in an effort to promote rational ization and the adoption of flexible work practices. The research used qualitative techniques including interviews, observations, informal conversations, and the study of company and union documents. The results show that both plants modified work organization and work rules in a way that was consistent with the requirements of the MNC. In one plant, however, the union was seriously weakened and unable to influence the process of change. In the other plant, the union pre served a central role and negotiated the implementation of new work practices. These differences are explained with reference to the local context and union capabilities.
Cowboy Campaigning
Authors: King Judith L. , Catlett-King Laurel C.
Published: April 2013

The 2001 right-to-work referendum in Oklahoma provided unique challenges for the labor movement. This article examines the Oklahoma campaign in the context of right-to-work and other labor referendums and discusses the consequences of particular strategies used by the labor and business campaigns. The authors argue that despite a strong member mobilization campaign, the impact of September 11 and the influence of the print media may have been determining factors in the campaign.
Labor Organizing among Mexican-born Workers in the United States
Authors: Milkman Ruth
Published: April 2013

This article surveys unionization patterns and other workplace-oriented organizing among Mexican-born workers since the mid-1990s. Although the number of Mexican-born union members grew during that decade, the unionized proportion declined, especially among noncitizens. The decline reflects the large proportion of new immigrants in the Mexican-born population and the increased geographic dispersion of immigration in recent years away from highly unionized states such as Illinois and California. Another factor is that recent Mexican immigrants are underrepresented in the most unionized sectors (such as government employment). However, unions, especially in California, have effectively mobilized Mexican immigrants into electoral politics in the 1990s, and new community-based organizations with a focus on economic justice have also recruited low-wage Mexican immigrant workers in occupations such as day labor and domestic service, in which conventional unionism is rare.
State Intervention and Trade Unions in New Zealand
Authors: Barry Michael , Walsh Pat
Published: April 2013

The orthodox interpretation of trade union development in New Zealand (and Australia) holds that the unique antipodal systems of compulsory arbitration produced dependent union movements. This article assesses the structure and character of New Zealand unions under state intervention from three vastly different regimes. The paper examines how trade unions developed during the long era of compulsory arbitration from 1894-1991. It then considers the fate of trade unions during the hostile employment contracts era of the 1990s. The paper finally considers the recent fortunes of unions since union protections were reintroduced under the Employment Relations Act 2000. Although the structure of the union movement has changed across the three regimes, the paper finds that the union movement has retained its traditional character despite the introduction of renewal initiatives and despite the marked differences in protections afforded unions under these regimes of state intervention.
Trade Unions Walking the Tightrope in Defending Workers' Interests
Authors: Bergene Ann Cecilie
Published: April 2013

This article explores the new opportunities and barriers to global trade unionism in contemporary capitalism. Through analyzing a concrete example of a labor dispute in the textile and garment industries, employing theories on the geography of class struggle, solidarity, and global trade unionism, it is argued that there are no easy ways out when it comes to global trade union strategies. The International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation's (ITGLWF) involvement in a labor dispute with the Malaysian multinational Ramatex illustrates a currently favored global union strategy that had quite a drastic outcome. By way of conclusion, I reflect on alternative global trade union strategies, focusing particularly on rank-and-file involvement in a more concrete and proactive approach. However, it is emphasized that there are no panaceas, and that global trade union strategies must be tailored to individual circumstances. This necessitates an understanding of company strategies and having insights into the characteristics of the industry.
Union Building and Professionalism
Authors: Bruno Robert
Published: April 2013

Since at least the mid-1980s critical voices have called for reforming public education. In 1995 the Chicago Public School system was placed under the mayor's control and a labor agreement with nearly 30,000 teachers was stripped of many essential provisions. But in 2001 a leadership change at the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) promised a new representational approach that would not only win back contract rights, but also embrace a more assertive responsibility for teachers in determining how education would be delivered to the city's 400,000 school children. This work focuses on an extensive project by the CTU to have a substantive impact on school “governance” and the impact that effort had in influencing the outcome of a union leadership election.
Putting Uncle Milton to Bed
Authors: Feldman Glenn
Published: April 2013

Almost four decades ago Nobel prize-winning economist Milton Friedman published an essay on the social responsibility of business in the New York Times Magazine that has since reached legendary status. Friedman's argument—that essentially firms had no social responsibility beyond making profits—was not unknown among fellow pioneers of what has become known as neoliberalism, the “Chicago School,” or Austrian economics. Yet while the thesis was known to those specialists familiar with the work of F. A. Hayek or Ludwig von Mises, Friedman's exposition did much to popularize what had previously and largely been considered a form of rightist economic extremism. After three decades of actual neoliberal experimentation in Washington and London, the present essay looks again at what Friedman wrote. This essay finds Friedman's work to be profoundly unpersuasive—indeed much of it illogical, sophistic, and potentially foundational for a form of economic and social callousness.
What Makes for Effective Labor Representation on Pension Boards?
Authors: Weststar Johanna , Verma Anil
Published: April 2013

This article examines the efficacy of labor representation on pension boards. Using existing literature and interviews with labor trustees, this article develops a model where a more formal approach to recruitment and selection, skill acquisition, and accountability is hypothesized to aid labor trustees in achieving effective integration and representation on pension boards. Data indicate that labor trustees are placed in a challenging environment with insufficient support from their union, other trustees, or the board. These findings have important implications for the selection, training, and integration of labor trustees and the success of a labor agenda on pension issues.
The Third Sleeve
Authors: Ngoc Tran Angie
Published: April 2013

This article focuses on how the Vietnamese General Confederation of Labor (VGCL) responds to workers' strikes. A complex, non-monolithic VGCL has developed a “third sleeve,” its dynamic pro-labor press, which plays strategic mediating roles among the state, labor unions, and management. The labor newspapers use their forums to champion workers' rights and interests and empower labor unions that negotiate with state bureaucracies and management on the workers' behalf. Simultaneously, the labor press must respond to policies and agendas of the VGCL and the state, which still hold to their power to monitor and control workers' collective action.
Alternatives to the “Race to the Bottom” in Vietnam
Authors: Ngoc Tran Angie
Published: April 2013

This case study focuses on strategic mediating roles of labor newspapers. Concentrating on minimum wage strikes from 2005 to 2006, it shows the state's pro-foreign direct investment policy, tensions between state bureaucracies and labor unions, and their debates. It demonstrates alternatives to the “race to the bottom” thesis. The larger implication is that labor organizing and spontaneous collective actions can be successful even within a one-party state. It remains to be seen how the new strike law ratified in 2006 addresses structural weaknesses of the labor unions and the state, and how it affects labor organizing for workers' rights and interests.
Mission Impossible?
Authors: Ferus-Comelo Anibel
Published: April 2013

The information and communication technology (ICT) industry has been growing phenomenally in financial and geographical terms. However, ICT production has not yet drawn the same kind of public concern about labor standards as the garment or footwear industries despite many parallels. Furthermore, union density in electronics manufacturing remains startlingly low around the world. Based on primary research in Bangalore, hailed as the “Silicon Valley of India” and Silicon Valley, California, the article has three objectives: (1) to outline some of the challenges to unionization that arise from the current forms of corporate structure in this profitable, global industry; (2) to highlight recent efforts by unions and community-based organizations to increase corporate social responsibility in various industries; and (3) to apply lessons from these examples to the high-technology industry.
“Union Yes” at a Public Ivy
Authors: Holsinger Norman K.
Published: April 2013

This study investigates predictors of prounion faculty voting intentions in a collective bargaining representational election. The research draws on a dataset developed during the course of the representational election campaign at the University of Vermont. The article explores the current context of higher education organizing in relation to the American labor movement. The literature review shows prounion attitudes, union instrumentality, demographic factors, job dissatisfaction, and active participation in the union campaign to be predictors of voting intentions. A general model of voting intentions emerges. Multiple logistic regression analysis is used to test the general model against assessments of voting intentions observed at four phases of the campaign. Specific models of voting intentions for each phase of the campaign materialize. An exploration of implications for both researchers and organizers follows.
Union Solidarity under Stress
Authors: Buhlungu Sakhela , Bezuidenhout Andries
Published: April 2013

The advent of democracy in South Africa has brought a number of benefits and opened spaces for union mobilization. It has also set in motion processes that undermine union solidarity. This article takes the most influential trade union in South Africa's history, the National Union of Mineworkers, as a case study to explore this paradox. On the basis of data generated by a range of research methods, the authors explore three themes: the occupational mobility of black mineworkers, attempts at authoritarian restoration through subcontracting, and the employment of women in a predominantly male occupation.
Online Collaborative Learning for Labor Education
Authors: Bélanger Marc
Published: April 2013

More labor organizations might adopt online collaborative learning (OCL) if it could be shown to foster solidarity, promote learning, and be linked to union activities. An online course involving thirty-three union staff members based in twenty-four countries was studied using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Findings include the following: OCL can be successfully employed for the education of union staff; the collaborative creation of a knowledge artifact that has a public life outside the course provides a crucial link to union activities; OCL can build a strong sense of community among participants; and a credential is a significant motivator.
Finding Their Voice
Authors: Lund John , DeClercq Neill , Childers Michael
Published: April 2013

After a brief review of organizing models and the current legal environment for public employee organizing, the recent successful campaign of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers to organizing Illinois state court reporters is chronicled here into five distinct but interrelated stages. Throughout this five-year campaign, which culminated in a successful representation election in Cook County and the union's first collective bargaining agreement, the union relied differentially on traditional organizing campaign tactics, as well as comprehensive and legislative-political campaigns. Although Illinois had a comprehensive public sector law, this case demonstrates public employee organizing campaigns will continue to be hard fought.
The Rise and Decline of the Democratic Organizational Culture in the South African Labor Movement, 1973 to 2000
Authors: Buhlungu Sakhela
Published: April 2013

From 1973 to 2000, the emerging black union movement in South Africa made efforts to construct a collectivist and democratic organizational culture. The development and decline of this culture correspond with three phases in the history of the black trade union movement. Political and economic changes in the past fifteen years have affected this culture, specifically the unions' political engagement and new pressures arising out of globalization. However, although it is true that union democracy in the South African labor movement is under stress, it is premature to conclude that this labor movement has become oligarchic.
Building a Future Together
Authors: Fine Janice , Grabelsky Jeff , Narro Victor
Published: April 2013

Why have not worker centers and building trades unions formed alliances to advance their common interests? Why do many construction unionists perceive worker centers as threats? Why do worker centers regard building trades' locals with suspicion? What can be done to promote communication and collaboration between worker centers and labor unions in the construction industry? This article examines the characteristics of both building trades unions and worker centers, analyzes opportunities for collaboration and conflict between the two kinds of organizations, discusses the impact of immigration on construction unionism, and describes two brief examples of building trades union and worker center collaboration.
Immigrant Construction Workers and Health and Safety
Authors: Nissen Bruce , Angee Alejandro , Weinstein Marc
Published: April 2013

Immigrants are a growing percentage of the U.S. construction labor force, so the safety of their working conditions deserves study. This article reports on research surveying 283 immigrant construction workers in south Florida about their safety training, use of personal protective equipment, and employer safety practices. Potential impacts of unionized status and documented legal status are tested through regression analysis. Results show only a minor positive relationship of unionization with more training and safer conditions and essentially no relationship between documented legal status and training or safe conditions. Reasons for the weak results are discussed, and further research questions are posed.
The Role of Labor Struggle in the Shifting Ethnic Composition of Labor Markets
Authors: Schwartzman Kathleen C.
Published: April 2013

One dominant theme of the current immigration debate is that immigrants (and particularly the undocumented) fill jobs that nobody wants. While it is sometimes recognized that immigrants fill occupations previously occupied by African Americans, commentators seldom acknowledge that in some cases, this substitution is a response to rising labor conflict. The article presents quantitative and qualitative evidence that allows the rejection of the conventional wisdom (jobs that nobody wants) and advances an alternative hypothesis: immigrant hiring was a management strategy to deal with rising native labor agitation. I use the case of poultry processing in the southeastern United States to elaborate this argument.
As Easy as ABC?
Authors: Brown Tony
Published: April 2013

This article examines the emergence of privatized child care in Australia and the efforts of one trade union to organize previously unorganized child care workers. The rapid growth of private child care delivery and the profits that are being generated are recent phenomena in Australia. The company that has emerged as the biggest provider is now expanding into the North American market and believes that its model is transferable into other human services areas, such as aged care. The article considers these developments in the context of the spread of precarious work and the new organizing methods being adopted by the child care workers' union to recruit members and establish their power within the industry.
Polish Workers in Ireland
Authors: Turner Thomas , D'Art Daryl , Cross Christine
Published: April 2013

Since 1990, Ireland has experienced rapid economic growth and a corresponding increase in immigrant workers, particularly of Polish origin. On the basis of survey evidence, the relatively low level of unionization among Polish workers is examined. Although attitudes to trade unions are positive, there is a high level of satisfaction generally with work, pay, and conditions among Polish immigrant workers. A sense of injustice or grievance appears to be largely absent with regard to either pay and working conditions or their treatment by employers, supervisors, and immediate Irish workers. The general picture is one of a relatively contented proletariat.
Setting the Stage for Cross-Border Solidarity
Authors: Wimberley Dale W.
Published: April 2013

From 1996 to 2001, a network of U.S. organizations and activists intensively pressed corporations and government agencies to stop thwarting workers’ efforts to unionize Nicaragua’s assembly-for-export garment factories. Preexisting transnational mobilization— goal-seeking remnants of the 1980s U.S. Central America peace movement, networked with elements of Nicaragua’s Sandinista movement—propelled this cross-border campaign into existence. Some campaign organizations had U.S. union ties, but others, including some of the most pivotal organizations, did not; this and other forms of diversity strengthened the campaign by facilitating an effective interorganizational division of labor. The campaign adopted strategies that took into account its power relations with opponents and the other opportunity structures it was dealt, and it developed effective frames to recruit old and new activists to carry out this new mission.
Anti-unionism, Employer Strategy, and the Australian State, 1996–2005
Authors: Cooper Rae , Ellem Bradon , Briggs Chris , van den Broek Diane
Published: April 2013

One of the outstanding features of contemporary Australian industrial relations has been the dramatic growth in employer de-collectivization strategies. Four dimensions of employer strategies, sometimes interlinked and overlapping, are identified and analyzed in this article—employer lockouts, individualization of bargaining, counters to organizing campaigns, and the use of human resource initiatives in areas such as recruitment and selection. While some tactics have emerged organically through new management practices, the reconfiguration of employer strategies has been primarily state-led; legislative and non-legislative interventions have created opportunities, incentives and pressures for firms to adopt anti-union strategies.
Evidence of Bias in the Chicago Tribune Coverage of Organized Labor
Authors: Bruno Robert
Published: April 2013

Labor leaders contend newspaper coverage of unions is unjustifiably negative and is usually fixated on conflict and corruption. While this attitude is broadly shared across the union spectrum, there has been little actual objective analysis of labor news reporting to substantiate or discredit the common belief. In an attempt to assess the accuracy of labor’s claim, a ten-year content analysis of industrial relations coverage in the Chicago Tribune was conducted. Unlike conventional media studies of organized labor, the Tribune analysis is an attempt to define and quantify the “tone” of news coverage on the basis of multiple content variables.
The Legacy of Racism
Authors: Nissen Bruce , Henry Sherman
Published: April 2013

The authors examine the past and present racial dynamics in a Florida public sector union, with special emphasis on a union local led by one of the authors. Past white racial exclusionism and struggle have created a “fortress mentality” among some of the union's African American leadership and membership that focuses on racial control rather than organizing and growth. This is more pronounced in an older generation that lived through earlier struggles against white discrimination. Using writings by Robin D. G. Kelley, Manning Marable, and Bill Fletcher, the authors draw general conclusions on what types of practice are most likely to counter racial impediments to union effectiveness.
How Good Men of the Union Justify Inequality
Authors: Paap Kris
Published: April 2013

This article draws on ethnographic data to illuminate the problematic position of organized labor in terms of race and gender in the building trades. It argues that construction unions today are caught between the larger legal and moral mandates for equal opportunity and the reproduction of white and male privilege that benefit the majority of the union members. Unions are seen as needing to be highly responsive to matters of discrimination and harassment and thus less able to support and protect the traditional white male worker. On the other hand, union representatives are likely to be drawn from the workplace and thus previously socialized into the industry's distinct workplace cultures. These cultures, as demonstrated, simultaneously promote and make invisible patterns of racism and sexism. When these patterns are made invisible, union representatives are unlikely to intervene in much that occurs. As a result, unions satisfy neither constituency. Implications of this for the construction workplace and the larger labor movement are discussed.
Occupational and Residential Segregation
Authors: Dickerson Niki
Published: April 2013

This study considers whether the social organization of the metropolitan area in which black and white men and women prepare for the labor market during youth affects their likelihood to work in occupations overrepresented by blacks or whites as adults. Findings based on the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, census data, and regression analysis suggest that residential segregation affects the likelihood that whites will be segregated from blacks into better-paying occupations that are overrepresented by other whites in the labor market. Furthermore, black women who lived in more segregated cities during their youth are more likely to be concentrated into typically lower-paying occupations overrepresented by other black women and are less likely to work in typically white male occupations that tend to be better remunerated.
A Little Help from Our Friends
Authors: Tattersall Amanda
Published: April 2013

Union renewal and coalition unionism are widely considered necessary; however, the reasons why a union might participate in a coalition is undertheorized. This article considers six factors that help explain when a union is likely to form a coalition with a community organization, which are explored in a case study comparison of two coalitions in Australia and Canada. Preexisting union identities, common interest, and decentralized union structures make coalition formation more likely and shape the degree of union member participation in coalitions. Unions are likely to engage in coalitions when there is a coincidence of crisis and perceived opportunity for coalition practice, while noting that the depth of union engagement is greatly affected by the type of union actors that initiate coalition participation (whether leaders, organizers, or stewards). Different passages for coalition unionism are possible, and they can originate inside unions or be provoked externally by community organizations.
The Crisis of “Social Democratic” Unionism
Authors: Upchurch Martin , Taylor Graham , Mathers Andy
Published: April 2013

This article defines and explores the crisis of social democratic trade unionism in three countries in western Europe. The authors contend that a particularized form of postwar trade union orientation was socially constructed in Britain, Germany, and France in which a party union nexus gave special privileges to unions in return for compliance with state policies in the national interest. This arrangement has broken down in recent years under the pressure of global product market competition. As a result, trade unions are being forced to adopt alternative strategic orientations, involving both a fracture in the party union nexus and a willingness to work within wider civil society.
The Relevance of Community Unionism
Authors: Wray David
Published: April 2013

This article is based upon the recent history of the Durham Miners Association (DMA), a constituent part of the National Union of Mineworkers. Following that closure of the last remaining colliery in 1993, the DMA went into a period of decline, but in recent years has undergone a significant resurgence in membership and a growing determination within the communities to maintain the culture and traditions associated with the industry and the union in Durham. This is a phenomenon that stands in contradiction with the situation in other postindustrial communities around the UK. The article will outline the reasons for that resurgence, and in doing so will suggest that the experiences of the DMA, and the mining communities that were once it’s heartland, have much to offer those interested in the concept of community unionism.
Local Union Strategies in Cross-Border Alliances
Authors: Lévesque Christian , Murray Gregor
Published: April 2013

Do the restructuring of production networks, the decentralization of collective bargaining, and the rearticulation of work sites one to another across borders prompt local unions to engage in cross-border solidarities? Drawing on three cases in Mexico and three cases in Canada, this study identifies three patterns of local union involvement in cross-border alliances: defensive isolationism, risk aversion, and proactive solidarity. Four factors are associated with greater union involvement in cross-border alliances: local union power resources, especially discursive capacity or narrative framing; the orientation of the national or industry union; the thickness of and resources provided by international regulation; and the articulation between these different levels.
An Uneasy Stability
Authors: Poulsen Jane D.
Published: April 2013

This article investigates the processes contributing to stable labor-management relations in the U.S. coal mining and tire manufacturing industries during the first decades after World War II. Consistent with recent research, the analysis finds persistent resistance to postwar accords in these industries. However, both the nature of this resistance and the strategies used to counter it varied. The article argues that institutional arrangements governing collective bargaining help explain these differences. By delimiting authority on both sides of the labor contract, organizational procedures supported distinctive forms of cross-class compromise and shaped the strategies of the opposition.
Synchronizing Meanings and Other Day Laborer Organizing Strategies
Authors: Camou Michelle
Published: April 2013

Day labor centers have been proposed as a mechanism for curbing the exploitation and abusive conditions faced by immigrant day laborers soliciting work from urban street corners. Transitioning day laborers from street corners to centers is certainly not easy, and it involves active organizing. This article examines efforts to organize day laborers toward a day labor center in Denver, Colorado. The author finds that a key strategic consideration in organizing day laborers toward centers involves questions about the meanings and purposes of day labor centers. In Denver, organizers and day laborers held different notions of what centers should be and should mean, with organizers emphasizing solidarity and collective action and day laborers emphasizing material reward. Strategically, reconciling collectivist and materialist views of day labor centers is an important task of day labor organizing.
Retheorizing Participation in the Underground Economy
Authors: Williams Colin C.
Published: April 2013

Until now, participation in underground work has been explained either through a structuralist lens as driven by “exclusion” from state benefits and the circuits of the modern economy or through a neoliberal and/or poststructuralist lens as driven by the voluntary “exit” of workers out of formal institutions and into this alternative economic environment. Reporting the results of an extensive twenty-seven-nation European survey, this article reveals how such either-or explanations need to be transcended and displays the need for future research to analyze how both exit and exclusion are variously entwined in different settings so as to achieve a more context-bound understanding.
Justice for Roofers
Authors: Roca-Servat Denisse
Published: April 2013

The author describes and analyzes a comprehensive union organizing campaign in the building and construction trade unions. Justice for Roofers is exceptional not only in that it involves Latino immigrants in Arizona, a state known for its harsh anti-immigrant and antilabor laws but also because it uses a comprehensive union organizing model tailored to the industry. Examining the different actors, strategies, and actions used in this organizing campaign is significant for understanding the roles of immigrant workers’ union organizing in the construction industry and in the United States.
The Persistence of Republicanism
Authors: Cassano Graham , Rondinone Troy
Published: April 2013

The authors argue that there have been moments in American history when a class analysis entered into popular discourse. What has been “exceptional” about American history is the manner in which that class analysis emerged. When Americans speak the language of “class” and “class warfare,” it is often clothed in the rhetoric of labor republicanism. That is, rather than offering a systemic analysis of capitalist processes, American labor republicanism offers a class analysis that sets a small set of bad acting “elites” and their dependents against the mass of American workers. The authors trace this discourse from Franklin Roosevelt’s 1936 description of “economic royalists” to Lou Dobbs’s nativist attack on “corporate elites” and undocumented workers. As the United States enters a new period of “class awareness” and economic crisis, this republicanism returns to haunt public discourse.
Between Fragmentation and Globalization
Authors: Langevin Mark S.
Published: April 2013

Labor leaders and theorists in the United States have called for greater international labor cooperation and solidarity in the face of economic globalization and the declining fortunes of many private sector unions. However, these calls have not adequately analyzed the important role U.S. public sector unions play in the national labor movement and their efforts to confront the threat of the privatization of public services through international labor cooperation. In this exploratory article, the author offers an analysis of U.S. public sector unions, their recent international programs and experiences, and the obstacles and opportunities for coordinating efforts to engage, and possibly transform, international labor cooperation. The author argues that the rising fortunes of most public sector unions are accompanied by increasing interunion contestation and fragmentation, leaving affiliation with the global union federations as the primary, albeit external, source of national coordination.