Pub Date : 2021-03-01DOI: 10.1177/0160449x20985965
Paul J. Jurmo
This article begins with a brief history of two decades of U.S. workplace basic skills efforts that laid a foundation of goals, content, policies, and practices for subsequent worker education programs. It then draws on program records to present a case study of a work-related basic skills program in the New York City public transit workers’ union in the early 2000s. It describes why and how the program was begun, learners served, jobs focused on, stakeholders involved, practices used, and shorter and longer term results. It concludes with reflections on how stakeholders can use worker education to serve workers, their families and communities, employers, and unions while supporting economic and societal renewal.
{"title":"Trains, Buses, and Basic Skills: Learning in—and from—a Union Education Program for Transit Workers","authors":"Paul J. Jurmo","doi":"10.1177/0160449x20985965","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0160449x20985965","url":null,"abstract":"This article begins with a brief history of two decades of U.S. workplace basic skills efforts that laid a foundation of goals, content, policies, and practices for subsequent worker education programs. It then draws on program records to present a case study of a work-related basic skills program in the New York City public transit workers’ union in the early 2000s. It describes why and how the program was begun, learners served, jobs focused on, stakeholders involved, practices used, and shorter and longer term results. It concludes with reflections on how stakeholders can use worker education to serve workers, their families and communities, employers, and unions while supporting economic and societal renewal.","PeriodicalId":35267,"journal":{"name":"Labor Studies Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0160449x20985965","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48253256","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-01-27DOI: 10.1177/0160449X21989429
Jessica Garrick
In response to the growing absence of unions from the private sector, community-based organizations known as worker centers have emerged as a new front in protecting and organizing workers. Scholars generally argue that worker centers have converged on a model of combining service provision with organizing and advocacy, supported primarily by funding from foundations and government agencies. I draw on interviews conducted with worker center staff, a dataset compiled from their public materials, and secondary research to add to the existing literature and to argue that a clear categorization of worker centers can be derived by attention to their primary workplace strategies. First, worker centers can be meaningfully distinguished by whether they attempt to raise standards in specific industries versus responding to problems in individual workplaces. But they can also be distinguished based on the extent to which they view public policy or winning agreements with employers as the primary route to systemic improvements. These divergences in strategy echo Progressive-era debates about the role for the state in redressing workplace ills. Similar to that era, strategic differences among today’s worker centers are driven less by ideology and more by the distinct structural challenges facing workers in particular political and economic contexts.
{"title":"How Worker Centers Organize Low-Wage Workers: An Exploration of Targets and Strategies","authors":"Jessica Garrick","doi":"10.1177/0160449X21989429","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0160449X21989429","url":null,"abstract":"In response to the growing absence of unions from the private sector, community-based organizations known as worker centers have emerged as a new front in protecting and organizing workers. Scholars generally argue that worker centers have converged on a model of combining service provision with organizing and advocacy, supported primarily by funding from foundations and government agencies. I draw on interviews conducted with worker center staff, a dataset compiled from their public materials, and secondary research to add to the existing literature and to argue that a clear categorization of worker centers can be derived by attention to their primary workplace strategies. First, worker centers can be meaningfully distinguished by whether they attempt to raise standards in specific industries versus responding to problems in individual workplaces. But they can also be distinguished based on the extent to which they view public policy or winning agreements with employers as the primary route to systemic improvements. These divergences in strategy echo Progressive-era debates about the role for the state in redressing workplace ills. Similar to that era, strategic differences among today’s worker centers are driven less by ideology and more by the distinct structural challenges facing workers in particular political and economic contexts.","PeriodicalId":35267,"journal":{"name":"Labor Studies Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0160449X21989429","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43562594","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-01-15DOI: 10.1177/0160449x20987905
Bill Barry
{"title":"Book Review: When Workers Shot Back: Class Conflicts from 1877 to 1921 by Ovetz, Robert","authors":"Bill Barry","doi":"10.1177/0160449x20987905","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0160449x20987905","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35267,"journal":{"name":"Labor Studies Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0160449x20987905","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46448764","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-12-30DOI: 10.1177/0160449x20978823
Paul F. Clark
This article presents the findings of a study that examined local union new member orientation programs and their impact on member attitudes toward the union. Data for this study were collected through a survey of new members of six geographically dispersed local and regional affiliates of a large national public sector union. Members were asked about their experiences as new members. The findings provide strong evidence that high-quality new member orientation programs have a positive impact on member commitment to the union and that unions and union leaders can invest resources in initiating or improving these programs with the confidence that they will have a positive and significant impact on member attitudes. It also provides specific insights into the elements of effective new member orientation programs and includes action recommendations on how unions can use new member orientations programs to build stronger organizations.
{"title":"The Impact of New Member Orientation Programs on Union Member Commitment: Evidence from a National Study in a Post-Janus Setting","authors":"Paul F. Clark","doi":"10.1177/0160449x20978823","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0160449x20978823","url":null,"abstract":"This article presents the findings of a study that examined local union new member orientation programs and their impact on member attitudes toward the union. Data for this study were collected through a survey of new members of six geographically dispersed local and regional affiliates of a large national public sector union. Members were asked about their experiences as new members. The findings provide strong evidence that high-quality new member orientation programs have a positive impact on member commitment to the union and that unions and union leaders can invest resources in initiating or improving these programs with the confidence that they will have a positive and significant impact on member attitudes. It also provides specific insights into the elements of effective new member orientation programs and includes action recommendations on how unions can use new member orientations programs to build stronger organizations.","PeriodicalId":35267,"journal":{"name":"Labor Studies Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0160449x20978823","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46383770","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-12-24DOI: 10.1177/0160449x20982143
R. March
{"title":"Book Review: The Art of Organizing: The Boston Museum of Fine Arts Union Drive, by Michael Raysson","authors":"R. March","doi":"10.1177/0160449x20982143","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0160449x20982143","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35267,"journal":{"name":"Labor Studies Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0160449x20982143","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44328519","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-12-01DOI: 10.1177/0160449X19857235
Tesa Rigel Hines
Demographic group representation in medium and large private-sector employers was analyzed using multiple regression and EEO-1 data. Across 21 years (1996-2016), these data show an underrepresentation of white women and nonwhites in official and managerial positions, though this is increasing. Nonwhite men are also underrepresented in professional positions, and increasing. Nonwhite employees are overrepresented and increasing representation across other occupational categories. Unemployment rates, a Democratic president, and charges of discrimination are among the control variables with model significance. Across the workforce, we are making progress toward more diversity, but significant issues remain, especially for nonwhite employees.
{"title":"Demographic Group Representation in Occupational Categories: A Longitudinal Study of EEO-1 Data","authors":"Tesa Rigel Hines","doi":"10.1177/0160449X19857235","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0160449X19857235","url":null,"abstract":"Demographic group representation in medium and large private-sector employers was analyzed using multiple regression and EEO-1 data. Across 21 years (1996-2016), these data show an underrepresentation of white women and nonwhites in official and managerial positions, though this is increasing. Nonwhite men are also underrepresented in professional positions, and increasing. Nonwhite employees are overrepresented and increasing representation across other occupational categories. Unemployment rates, a Democratic president, and charges of discrimination are among the control variables with model significance. Across the workforce, we are making progress toward more diversity, but significant issues remain, especially for nonwhite employees.","PeriodicalId":35267,"journal":{"name":"Labor Studies Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0160449X19857235","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43588262","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-12-01DOI: 10.1177/0160449X19862611
John Mashayamombe
The South African mining sector has experienced labor conflicts characterized by militancy and violence. Militancy and violence was evident along South Africa’s platinum belt between 2012 and 2014. In the case of Huntington mine, about three hundred workers managed to pull a spectacular strike action when they captured mine equipment and threatened to destroy it if their demands were not met. Drawing together concepts of space, power, and agency, it is argued that the wildcat strike was a failure because power resources were not consolidated and used effectively. As a result, their demands were not met, and they lost their jobs at Huntington mine.
{"title":"Evaluation of Labor Agency Strategy: The Case of a Strike at a South African Opencast Mine in 2012","authors":"John Mashayamombe","doi":"10.1177/0160449X19862611","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0160449X19862611","url":null,"abstract":"The South African mining sector has experienced labor conflicts characterized by militancy and violence. Militancy and violence was evident along South Africa’s platinum belt between 2012 and 2014. In the case of Huntington mine, about three hundred workers managed to pull a spectacular strike action when they captured mine equipment and threatened to destroy it if their demands were not met. Drawing together concepts of space, power, and agency, it is argued that the wildcat strike was a failure because power resources were not consolidated and used effectively. As a result, their demands were not met, and they lost their jobs at Huntington mine.","PeriodicalId":35267,"journal":{"name":"Labor Studies Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0160449X19862611","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41806438","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-10-31DOI: 10.1177/0160449X20967098
E. Webster, Kally Forrest
The International Labour Organization (ILO) at times played an important role in challenging race discrimination in the workplace, both as apartheid legislation intensified and in the new democratic South Africa. The controversy around forced labor, and the participation of independent African countries in the ILO, ultimately led to the withdrawal of South Africa. Subsequently, ILO Conventions and the 1964 Declaration influenced the government to establish the 1978 Wiehahn Commission to examine industrial relations. Its recommendations led to extensive unionization. The ILO was initially reluctant to recognize the independent unions but subsequently worker organizational power led to its support. Later, it contributed to creating a post-apartheid workplace order. However, despite its intention to build an inclusive industrial relations system, many workers remain excluded from the regulatory framework and the labor movement. The ILO’s rigid binary between direct coercion on the one hand and the voluntary recruitment of workers on the other does not capture the continuity from slavery, indentured labor, and the migrant labor system through to use of casual labor in contemporary South Africa. The ILO seems more comfortable with traditional unions and clear-cut employer-employee relationships.
{"title":"The Role of the ILO during and after Apartheid","authors":"E. Webster, Kally Forrest","doi":"10.1177/0160449X20967098","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0160449X20967098","url":null,"abstract":"The International Labour Organization (ILO) at times played an important role in challenging race discrimination in the workplace, both as apartheid legislation intensified and in the new democratic South Africa. The controversy around forced labor, and the participation of independent African countries in the ILO, ultimately led to the withdrawal of South Africa. Subsequently, ILO Conventions and the 1964 Declaration influenced the government to establish the 1978 Wiehahn Commission to examine industrial relations. Its recommendations led to extensive unionization. The ILO was initially reluctant to recognize the independent unions but subsequently worker organizational power led to its support. Later, it contributed to creating a post-apartheid workplace order. However, despite its intention to build an inclusive industrial relations system, many workers remain excluded from the regulatory framework and the labor movement. The ILO’s rigid binary between direct coercion on the one hand and the voluntary recruitment of workers on the other does not capture the continuity from slavery, indentured labor, and the migrant labor system through to use of casual labor in contemporary South Africa. The ILO seems more comfortable with traditional unions and clear-cut employer-employee relationships.","PeriodicalId":35267,"journal":{"name":"Labor Studies Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0160449X20967098","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43692383","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-10-13DOI: 10.1177/0160449x20963184
Jesse Chanin
When American Federation of Teachers-Local 527 launched their collective bargaining campaign in 1965, they were one of five mostly segregated teachers’ locals in New Orleans and represented a minority of the system’s educators. Spurred on by the National, who saw them as the lynchpin to organizing the South, they held a three-day job action, the first teachers’ strike in the South, in 1966 and then a longer nine-day strike in 1969. Through these mobilizations, they connected their demand for collective bargaining to racial and economic equity in the schools, aligning themselves with Black students, parents, and lower paid support workers. In the early 1970s, New Orleans underwent an ambitious faculty desegregation program that transformed the schools and led to the merger between Local 527 and the majority-white National Education Association (NEA) local to form the United Teachers of New Orleans (UTNO). Although faculty desegregation was a top-down reform, the union capitalized on teacher integration to form intentional alliances across race and mobilize new members. Following the merger, UTNO renewed their call for collective bargaining, eventually pressuring the board to approve an election in 1974. I argue that by positioning racial justice as central to their union organizing, prioritizing participatory democracy among membership, and engaging in civil rights unionism, UTNO succeeded in achieving collective bargaining when so many other Southern cities failed.
{"title":"Civil Rights, Labor Conflict, and Integration: New Orleans Educators’ Struggle for Collective Bargaining 1965-1974","authors":"Jesse Chanin","doi":"10.1177/0160449x20963184","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0160449x20963184","url":null,"abstract":"When American Federation of Teachers-Local 527 launched their collective bargaining campaign in 1965, they were one of five mostly segregated teachers’ locals in New Orleans and represented a minority of the system’s educators. Spurred on by the National, who saw them as the lynchpin to organizing the South, they held a three-day job action, the first teachers’ strike in the South, in 1966 and then a longer nine-day strike in 1969. Through these mobilizations, they connected their demand for collective bargaining to racial and economic equity in the schools, aligning themselves with Black students, parents, and lower paid support workers. In the early 1970s, New Orleans underwent an ambitious faculty desegregation program that transformed the schools and led to the merger between Local 527 and the majority-white National Education Association (NEA) local to form the United Teachers of New Orleans (UTNO). Although faculty desegregation was a top-down reform, the union capitalized on teacher integration to form intentional alliances across race and mobilize new members. Following the merger, UTNO renewed their call for collective bargaining, eventually pressuring the board to approve an election in 1974. I argue that by positioning racial justice as central to their union organizing, prioritizing participatory democracy among membership, and engaging in civil rights unionism, UTNO succeeded in achieving collective bargaining when so many other Southern cities failed.","PeriodicalId":35267,"journal":{"name":"Labor Studies Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0160449x20963184","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41329056","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-10-09DOI: 10.1177/0160449x20962240
Evan C. Rothera
{"title":"Book Review: The World in a City: Multiethnic Radicalism in Early Twentieth-Century Los Angeles, by Struthers, David M","authors":"Evan C. Rothera","doi":"10.1177/0160449x20962240","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0160449x20962240","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35267,"journal":{"name":"Labor Studies Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0160449x20962240","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42480506","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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