Labor Studies Journal current issue

The Legacy of Racism: A Case Study of Continuing Racial Impediments to Union Effectiveness

Nissen, B., Henry, S. — 2008-11-13

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: Dilemmas of Race and Labor in the Building Trades

Paap, K. — 2008-11-13

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: The Confluence of Two Systems of Inequality

Dickerson, N. — 2008-11-13

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.

Online Collaborative Learning for Labor Education

Belanger, M. — 2008-11-13

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: The Struggle of the Illinois Court Reporters to Win Union Recognition

Lund, J., DeClercq, N., Childers, M. — 2008-11-13

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.

Audio-Visual Review: Rustbelt Phoenix: Saving the American Steel Industry. Produced by Henry Bass. Harriman, NY: Merrimack Films, 2006. 34 min. $225 DVD

Ancel, J. — 2008-11-13

Book Review: American Working-Class Literature: An Anthology. Edited by Nicholas Coles and Janet Zandy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. 923 pp. $54.95 paper

Barry, B. — 2008-11-13

Book Review: Our Daily Bread: Wages, Workers, and the Political Economy of the American West. By Geoff Mann. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007. 264 pp. $19.95 paper. Workers and the Wild: Conservation, Consumerism, and Labor in Oregon, 1910--30. By Lawrence M. Lipin. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2007. 248 pp. $25.00 paper

Dearinger, R. — 2008-11-13

Book Review: The Search for a Civic Voice: California Latino Politics. By Kenneth C. Burt. Claremont, CA: Regina Books, 2007. 438 pp. $24.99 paper. Making Democracy Matter: Identity and Activism in Los Angeles. By Karen Brodkin. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2007. 219 pp. $23.95 paper

Johnston, P. — 2008-11-13

Book Review: I Just Got Elected--Now What? A New Union Officer's Handbook. By Bill Barry. Annapolis, MD: Self-published, 2007. 53 pp. $10.00 paper

Pattison, M. — 2008-11-13

Book Review: Labour Left Out: Canada's Failure to Protect and Promote Collective Bargaining as a Human Right. By Roy J. Adams. Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2006. 152 pp. $14.95 paper

Walchuk, B. — 2008-11-13