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How Do Religious Groups Respond to Class and Inequality? Religion, Socioeconomics, and Political Behavior in the 2000 Election

Zullo, R. — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:19:51 PST

Using a county-level population analysis, the author examines whether the interaction between religious groups and class and inequality predict voter turnout and voter preference for George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential election. Results indicate that for counties with high densities of mainline Protestants, lower income, and lower education meant depressed voter turnout and higher Bush support; with high densities of Jewish adherents, lower income yielded elevated voter turnout, while lower income along with less education equated with less Bush support; with high densities of Catholics, lower income meant higher voter turnout; with high densities of Evangelicals, lower income yielded depressed voter turnout; however, lower income and less education correlated with less Bush support. These patterns held for county income inequality when median income was controlled. The results challenge the perception that Evangelical groups in lower-SES regions persuaded members and their acquaintances to vote against their economic interests. Rather, the results imply that mainline Protestant groups in lower-SES regions successfully shifted votes to Bush. The findings suggest that outreach by labor and other progressives to Evangelicals, especially those in poorer regions, can lead to political collaboration.

It Isn't Always Rational: The Psychology of Voting and Lessons for Labor

Piszczek, M., Kaminski, M. — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:09:02 PST

Although labor studies research has commonly looked to sociology, history, and economics for new perspectives, behavioral psychology has largely been underutilized. This article provides a popular psychological model of behavior and examples of its application in issues of interest to labor, specifically the Employee Free Choice Act and the auto industry "rescue." It is the authors’ belief that considering such models will provide a different viewpoint through which to analyze labor issues and promote further integration of psychology and labor studies.

Changing Union-Party Relations in Canada: The Rise of the Working Families Coalition

Walchuk, B. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:40:27 PST

The traditional understanding of union-party relations in Canada suggests that the social-democratic New Democratic Party (NDP) is the party of organized labour. Reality, however, dictates that this is no longer the case. This paper examines the rise of the Working Families Coalition (WFC) and its effects on union-party. While popular rhetoric suggests that the Coalition is simply a front for the Liberal Party, a more in-depth analysis suggests otherwise. The paper suggests that the emergence of the WFC has significantly changed the union-party relationship in Ontario and consequently has altered the political strategy of the labour movement.

Political Activism as Part of a Broader Civic Engagement: The Case of SEIU Florida Healthcare Union

Nissen, B. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:40:27 PST

This article examines the impact of a Florida health care union’s political activities on broader member "civic engagement." Its grassroots political approach (membership education, leadership development, mobilizational structures, and capacity) and a broad "public interest" framing of goals has stimulated new forms of civic engagement by its volunteer leaders and members. Alternative explanations of its success in terms of membership demographics and method of conducting political activities is conducted, with the latter providing most of the explanation. This approach to politics is commended to the labor movement at large, both for its effectiveness and its legitimizing role in U.S. public opinion.

Contemporary Party-Union Relations in Canada

Savage, L. — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:03:21 PST

The longstanding political alliance between the Canadian labor movement and the New Democratic Party (NDP) has experienced new stresses in recent years. Whereas the NDP was widely considered the political arm of the labor movement during the Keynesian post-war period, under neoliberalism, the relationship between most unions and the NDP has become more tactical and less cohesive. This article surveys contemporary party-union relationships in Canada, at both the federal and provincial levels, with a view to demonstrating that weakening party-union relations are rooted in larger macro-economic and political transformations and are shaped by factors related to region and language.

The Social Innovations of Autogestion in Argentina's Worker-Recuperated Enterprises: Cooperatively Reorganizing Productive Life in Hard Times

Vieta, M. — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:43:31 PDT

Argentina’s worker-recuperated enterprises (empresas recuperadas por sus trabajadores [ERTs]) have shown to be promising grassroots solutions by workers to the sociopolitical and socioeconomic crises that resulted from the country’s collapsing neoliberal model at the turn of the millennium. The author first explores the historical conjuncture in which ERTs emerged. Second, the author theoretically situates ERTs’ practices of autogestión (self-management) and workers’ cooperativism. Third, he sketches out their most common microeconomic and organizational challenges. Last, the author maps out four "social innovations" being spearheaded by ERTs, appraising the social and economic transformations that these innovations prefigure, especially during hard economic times.

"Why Should the Business Agents Be Bigger Than the Organization?": A Study of Failed Rebellion in New York City's Painters' Union, 1947 to 1973

McCarthy, M. A. — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:45:01 PDT

Union democracy has tended to result in prolabor contracts in the American labor movement. However, many rank-and-file movements attempting to transform staff-led unions into democratic ones have experienced failure. The author examines some of the reasons why insurgent democracy movements are often unable to institute lasting democratic structures and militant reforms in the building trades, through an in-depth analysis of a failed rebellion in New York City’s painters’ union from 1947 to 1973. In contrast to recent literature that explains success and failure by emphasizing the traits of the general membership and the tactics of insurgent reformers, the author argues that fuller attention should be given to the union characteristics that generate staff power. In particular, the author shows that job allocation through the hiring hall is one means by which a corrupt staff can discipline an insurgent membership. The author also shows that when these conditions are undermined through contestation, staff-employer collusion can continue to make discipline through job allocation possible.

Between Fragmentation and Globalization: U.S. Public Sector Unions and International Labor Cooperation

Langevin, M. S. — Mon, 18 May 2009 09:36:47 PDT

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.

The Persistence of Republicanism: Class War Talk, American Style

Cassano, G., Rondinone, T. — Mon, 18 May 2009 09:36:47 PDT

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.

Are "the Poor" Part of the Working Class or in a Class by Themselves?

Metzgar, J. — Wed, 13 May 2009 09:08:21 PDT

Drawing on the work of political economist Michael Zweig and sociologist Michele Lamont, as well as other sociological work on working-class life, this reflective essay argues for eliminating "the poor" as a social category but explains why that will be difficult due to both working-class and middle-class ways of construing classes in the United States.

Justice for Roofers: Toward a Comprehensive Union Organizing Campaign Involving Latino Construction Workers in Arizona

Roca-Servat, D. — Tue, 12 May 2009 12:58:44 PDT

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.

Long Live the Statistical Middle Class!

Pizzigati, S. — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 09:13:18 PDT

Many labor activists consider "middle class" a sloppy formulation that serves to marginalize working-class history and heritage—and obfuscate the exploitation of one class by another. But "middle class," as a concept, actually does double duty. The middle class exists as both a historic construct and a statistical reality. Middle-class people, statistically speaking, earn incomes squarely in the middle of a society’s income distribution. The higher the share of a society’s populace that falls within a "middle class" range, researchers on economic inequality have shown, the healthier the society for working people—and everyone else as well.

Retheorizing Participation in the Underground Economy

Williams, C. C. — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:26:47 PST

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.

The Carpenter in the Union Hall: Teaching Labor and Religion

Mishler, P. C. — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:01:32 PST

Fighting for Equal Treatment: How the UAW Won Domestic Partnership Benefits and Discrimination Protection for Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Members

Bielski Boris, M. — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 14:07:15 PST

This article explores how the United Auto Workers (UAW) came to address the issues of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender/sexual (LGBT) union members. The UAW demonstrated its commitment to LGBT concerns through its successful fight to provide health care benefits to same-sex domestic partners during the contract negotiations of 1999 with the "Big Three" U.S. automakers. The UAW, however, does not fit the structural or demographic profile of a union likely to be proactive on LGBT issues because the union represents predominantly blue-collar men in private sector manufacturing jobs. An intensive qualitative case study of the UAW’s response to sexual orientation concerns was conducted to explore the adequacies of the predominant theories regarding labor unions and sexual orientation. The case study found that the responsiveness of the UAW was associated with individual and collective agency, the support of outside allies, and ideological traditions of social movement unionism.

Local Union Strategies in Cross-Border Alliances: From Defensive Isolation to Proactive Solidarity

Levesque, C., Murray, G. — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:25:09 PST

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.

Good Work, Sister! Women Shipyard Workers of World War II: An Oral History: By the Northwest Women's History Project [audio-visual review]

Goodier, S. — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 11:38:46 PST

Gender and Globalization: Opportunities and Constraints Faced by Women in the Construction Industry in India

Baruah, B. — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 10:04:17 PST

This article identifies the opportunities and constraints faced by female construction workers in urban India through empirical research conducted in the city of Ahmedabad. The Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) conducted two surveys in 1998 and 2003 to understand the needs and priorities of construction workers in the context of economic globalization. A third survey was conducted in 2007 to assess the impacts of construction training programs conducted by the SEWA Housing Trust. While enthusiastically endorsing the role that training and certification can play in providing skilled women with quality employment opportunities, the author emphasizes the need for wider policy intervention at the state and national level to ensure that such programs have replicable, sustainable, and gender-equitable results.

The American Federation of Teachers in the Middle East: Teacher Training as Labor Imperialism

Sukarieh, M., Tannock, S. — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:53:29 PDT

The American Federation of Teachers’ (AFT) international program is one of the largest of any labor union in the United States, running operations in countries around the world, from Bolivia to Burma and Kenya to Kazakhstan. In this article, the authors analyze the AFT’s recent interventions in the Middle East and, in particular, Lebanon. Contrary to the AFT’s high-minded rhetoric of global labor solidarity, philanthropic goodwill, and democracy promotion, the authors argue that the AFT’s Middle East programs serve U.S. government foreign policy interests in maintaining and extending American control and influence over the region.

Shipbreakers Directed by Michael Kot: Workingman's Death: 5 Portraits of Work in the 21st Century Directed by Michael Glawogger [Audio-Visual Review]

Dannin, E. — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:09:44 PDT