Labor Studies Journal recent issues

Community and Unions

Buttigieg, D. M., Cockfield, S., Jerrard, M., Rainnie, A. — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:47:01 PST

Subcontracted Employment and its Challenge to Labor

Wills, J. — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:47:01 PST

This article argues that subcontracted employment is becoming paradigmatic. This form of employment has stark consequences for traditional models of trade union organization that focus on collective bargaining with the employer. The article highlights the need for subcontracted workers to put pressure on the "real employer" at the top of any contracting chain. Drawing on the lessons from community-union organizing efforts and, particularly, living wage campaigns, the article suggests that trade unions can effectively work with other social movements and allies in the community to secure the political leverage needed to change the terms and conditions of subcontracted employment. The article illustrates these arguments by exploring recent experience of the living wage campaign in London. The article draws on original research material from the Homerton Hospital and Queen Mary, University of London, to explore the progress of these living wage campaigns and their wider significance for labor organization.

Community Unionism and Union Renewal: Building Linkages between Unions and Community in Victoria, Australia

Cockfield, S., Rainnie, A., Buttigieg, D., Jerrard, M. — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:47:01 PST

The purpose of this article is to identify various ways unions engage with communities and to understand the obstacles that confront union—community cooperation. Qualitative data was analyzed from multiple sources, including documentary evidence and interviews with union officials and community activists. We locate the debate on community unionism within the broader literature on union renewal and revitalization. In doing this we are able to explore the potential of different forms of union—community relationships to foster union renewal. The study reveals the diversity in relationships both within and across unions and the existence of coalitions operating at different levels within union organization. While the unions in this study were actively seeking to engage with the community, not all alliances were reflective of an inclusive social and political agenda which could constitute the basis for union renewal.

A Little Help from Our Friends: Exploring and Understanding when Labor-Community Coalitions Are Likely to Form

Tattersall, A. — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:47:01 PST

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 Relevance of Community Unionism: The Case of the Durham Miners Association

Wray, D. — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:47:01 PST

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.

The Crisis of "Social Democratic" Unionism: The "Opening up" of Civil Society and the Prospects for Union Renewal in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany

Upchurch, M., Taylor, G., Mathers, A. — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:47:01 PST

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.

An Uneasy Stability: "Unpacking" the Postwar Labor-Management Accord

Poulsen, J. D. — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:47:01 PST

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.

Book Review: Mean Things Happening in This Land: The Life and Times of H. L. Mitchell, Co-Founder of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union. By H. L. Mitchell. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2008. 384 pp. $19.95 paper

Burt, K. C. — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:47:01 PST

Book Review: Globalization & Labor: Democratizing Global Governance. By Terry Boswell and Dimitris Stevis. Lanham, MA: Rowman and Littlefield, 2008. 219 pp. $23.76 paper. Varieties of Capitalism, Corporate Governance and Employees. Edited by Shelley Marshall, Richard Mitchell, and Ian Ramsay. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2008. 312 pp. $49.95 paper

Cornelissen, J. — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:47:01 PST

Book Review: Film Noir, American Workers, and Postwar Hollywood. By Dennis Broe. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2009. 179 pp. $69.95 hardback

Glass, F. — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:47:01 PST

Book Review: Illegal People: How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants. By David Bacon. Boston: Beacon, 2008. 261 pp. $18.00 paper

Gonos, G. — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:47:01 PST

Book Review: The Global Assault on Teaching, Teachers, and Their Unions. Edited by Mary Compton and Lois Weiner. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. 281 pp. $27.95 paper

Hemenway, D. — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:47:01 PST

Book Review: Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path Toward Social Justice. By Bill Fletcher Jr. and Fernando Gapasin. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2008. 304 pp. $17.95 paper

Nissen, B. — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:47:01 PST

Book Review: The Politics of Identity: Solidarity Building among America's Working Poor. By Erin E. O'Brien. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2008. 266 pp. $28.95 paper

O'Neal-Watts, J. — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:47:01 PST

Book Review: Wrestling with Starbucks: Conscience, Capital, Cappuccino. By Kim Fellner. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2008. 283 pp. $24.95 hardback

Oppenheimer, C. — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:47:01 PST

Book Review: Political Solidarity. By Sally J. Scholz. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2008. 286 pp. $55 hardback. The Cost of Privilege: Taking on the System of White Supremacy and Racism. By Chip Smith. Fayetteville, NC: Camino Press, 2007. 466 pp. $19.95 paper

Shor, F. — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:47:01 PST

Book Review: I Am a Teamster: A Short, Fiery Story of Regina V. Polk, Her Hats, Her Pets, Sweet Love, and the Modern-Day Labor Movement. By Terry Spencer Hesser. Chicago: Lake Claremont Press, 2008. 157 pp. $15.95 paper

Simmons, L. — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:47:01 PST

Book Review: Wage Theft in America: Why Millions of Working Americans Are Not Getting Paid-- And What We Can Do about It. By Kim Bobo. New York: New Press, 2009. 314 pp. $17.95 paper

Simpson, P. — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:47:01 PST

Book Review: NAFTA from Below: Maquiladora Workers, Farmers, and Indigenous Communities Speak Out on the Impact of Free Trade in Mexico. Edited by Martha A. Ojeda and Rosemary Hennessy for Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras. Mattoon, IL: United Graphics Incorporated, 2006. 177 pp. $25 paper. Latina Activists across Borders: Women's Grassroots Organizing in Mexico and Texas. By Milagros Pena. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007. 174 pp. $21.95 paper. $74.95 hardback

Winning, S. — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:47:01 PST

Challenges and Possibilities for Democratic Grassroots Union Elections in China: A Case Study of Two Factory-Level Elections and Their Aftermath

Chan, A. — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:30:09 PDT

In 2001 and 2002, Reebok facilitated democratic trade union elections at two of its supplier factories in China. After initial successes in one factory in bargaining with management to improve conditions, in the end the experiment failed. This article describes in detail the election process, the elections’ aftermath, and the power dynamics of the actors involved (Reebok, the supplier companies’ management, the workers, their newly elected trade union committees, the district-level trade unions, and the Chinese trade union federation). The article analyzes the reasons behind this failed experiment and concludes by arguing that in a new changed climate today, both within China and within the international trade union movement, the Reebok experiment is worth reexamining.

Setting the Stage for Cross-Border Solidarity: Movement Spillover and Early Mobilization in the Nicaragua Labor Rights Campaign

Wimberley, D. W. — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:30:09 PDT

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

Cooper, R., Ellem, B., Briggs, C., van den Broek, D. — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:30:09 PDT

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.

Corporate Employee Representation, Union Strategies, and Third-Party Union-Linked Monitoring: Germany's BASF in Brazil as a Critical Case Study

Candia Veiga, J. P., Martin, S. B. — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:30:09 PDT

This article examines an unusual experiment in Brazil with an employee "social dialogue" process established at the BASF chemical company, following the broad outlines of European works councils (EWCs) created in the 1990s under European Union requirements for large companies operating in that region. The new representation-cum-consultation scheme was created under a global push by BASF’s German headquarters to emulate EWCs in its various regional operations overseas, though also in response to union pressures. Once the structure was in place, management attempted, with at least partial success, to carry out a pre-emptive strategy of "venue-shifting." Nonetheless, unions avoided institutionalized co-optation or management "divide and rule" and expanded the agenda of consultation and negotiation beyond their traditional scope. Third-party union-linked monitoring—quite distinct from typical "independent monitoring"—helped raise the salience and legitimacy of various union and worker grievances.

Evidence of Bias in the Chicago Tribune Coverage of Organized Labor: A Quantitative Study from 1991 to 2001

Bruno, R. — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:30:09 PDT

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.

"Popcorn and Politics": Teaching Politics through Film

Chang, T. F. H., Cryer, M. T. — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:30:09 PDT

Book Review: State of the Unions: How Labor Can Strengthen the Middle Class, Improve Our Economy, and Regain Political Influence. By Phil M. Dine. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008

Ashby, S. — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:30:09 PDT

Book Review: What Do We Owe Each Other? Rights and Obligations in Contemporary American Society. Edited by Howard L. Rosenthal and David J. Rothman. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishing, 2008. 123 pp. $39.95 hardback

Drake, D. — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:30:09 PDT

Book Review: The Great Strikes of 1877. Edited by David O. Stowell. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2007. 216 pp. $25.00 paper

Dunphy, J. — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:30:09 PDT

Book Review: Staley: The Fight for a New American Labor Movement. By Steven K. Ashby and C. J. Hawking. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2009. 358 pp. $75.00 hardback, $25.00 paper

Early, S. — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:30:09 PDT

Book Review: European Unions: Labor's Quest for a Transnational Democracy. By Roland Erne. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press, 2008. 260 pp. $29.95 hardcover

Greven, T. — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:30:09 PDT

Book Review: How the University Works: Higher Education and the Low-wage Nation. By Marc Bousquet. New York: New York University Press, 2008. 281 pp. $19.80 paper

Lacarte, S. — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:30:09 PDT

Book Review: What Do Unions Do? A Twenty-Year Perspective. Edited by James T. Bennett and Bruce E. Kaufman. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishing, 2007. 660 pp. $39.95 paper

Nissen, B. — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:30:09 PDT

Book Review: The Revival of Labor Liberalism. By Andrew Battista. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008. 268 pp. $45.00 cloth

White, S. W. — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:30:09 PDT

Book Review: Making a Living: Work and Environment in the United States. By Chad Montrie. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2008. 192 pp. $17.95 paper

Wirth, T. — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:30:09 PDT

PATCO's 1981 Strike: Leadership Coordinates--A Unionist's Perspective

Shostak, A. B. — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:47:02 PDT

The PATCO Strike: More than Meets the Eye: Response to Art Shostak

Fantasia, R. — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:47:02 PDT

Hotheads of the World Unite!: A Response to Art Shostak

Rooks, D. — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:47:02 PDT

Societal Context of Labor Union Strategy: The Case of Turkey

Adaman, F., Bugra, A., Insel, A. — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:47:02 PDT

This article questions the societal context of labor union strategy for the case of Turkey, where the legacy of the military junta of 1980—1983 is still vivid. The results by and large indicate a clear rupture between unionized and nonunionized workers, a fact that highlights the significance of innovative union strategies directed at expanding membership in a way to include atypical workers so as to resist union decline. This rupture also points, however, to the reasons why such strategies might not be forthcoming where they are especially needed. Where unions have a precarious existence, the expansion of the membership base could be the only way to gain legitimacy and power. Yet, it is precisely their precarious existence that might condemn unions to a myopic strategy, leading them to concentrate on the interests of their limited membership that they try to maintain at all cost.

The Role of Labor Struggle in the Shifting Ethnic Composition of Labor Markets

Schwartzman, K. C. — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:47:02 PDT

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.

Displacement-Related Earnings Losses: Evaluating Trade Adjustment Assistance and Wage Insurance

White, R. — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:47:02 PDT

The author examines the effectiveness of stylized versions of the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) and Alternative TAA (or wage insurance) programs in reducing displacement-related earnings losses. Wage insurance subsidies and returns to TAA-funded training are applied to estimates of proportional earnings losses, reported by White, that were generated using National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 data spanning the period from 1979 to 2000. Wage insurance reduces the typical worker's losses by 14.4 percent, while TAA-funded training is estimated to reduce losses by 23.7 percent. However, variation in the time paths and magnitudes of losses produces considerable variation in the effects of these programs across worker types.

As Easy as ABC?: Learning to Organize Private Child Care Workers

Brown, T. — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:47:02 PDT

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.

"Bearing All the Hallmarks of Oppression": Union Avoidance in Europe's Largest Low-cost Airline

O'Sullivan, M., Gunnigle, P. — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:47:02 PDT

Ryanair is now Europe's largest low-cost airline. It is also one of the most controversial, due to its outspoken boss, its cost-containment strategies, and its hostile relations with organized labor. Ryanair has consistently denied accusations that it is antiunion, stating that it respects the right of workers to organize and even claiming to be a champion of its employees' right to non-unionization. However, this claim does not hold up in the face of extensive evidence of union suppression. This article addresses such evidence, particularly, the various methods by which Ryanair has avoided and suppressed unions. In Ireland, Ryanair successfully crushed an organizing campaign by the country's largest union, the Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union, after a lengthy and bitter strike. The only other union continuing to challenge Ryanair is the Irish Airline Pilots Association. However, its efforts recently suffered a major setback when the Supreme Court ruled that Ryanair's nonunion "employee representative committees" were a form of collective bargaining, allowing the company to affirm its nonunion status.

Book Review: Best Care Anywhere: Why VA Health Care Is Better than Yours. By Phillip Longman. Sausalito, CA: PoliPoint Press, 2007. 159 pp. $14.95 paper

Dunphy, J. — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:47:02 PDT

Book Review: For Jobs and Freedom: Race and Labor in America since 1865. By Robert Zieger. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2007. 276 pp. $37.50 hardcover. Class and the Color Line: Interracial Class Coalition in the Knights of Labor and the Populist Movement. By Joseph Gerteis. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007. 274 pp. $23.95 paper

Lloyd, J. — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:47:02 PDT

Book Review: Union-Free America: Workers and Anti-Union Culture. By Lawrence Richards. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2008. 264 pp. $40 hardcover

Nissen, B. — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:47:02 PDT

Book Review: You Work Tomorrow: An Anthology of American Labor Poetry, 1921--41. Edited by James Marsh. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2007. 223 pp. $22.95 paper

Nowak, M. — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:47:02 PDT

Book Review: Taking on the Big Boys: Or Why Feminism Is Good for Families, Business, and the Nation. By Ellen Bravo. New York: The Feminist Press at CUNY, 2007. 294 pp. $15.95 paper

O'Neal-Watts, J. — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:47:02 PDT

Book Review: Black Milwaukee: The Making of an Industrial Proletariat, 1915--1945. 2nd ed. By Joe William Trotter Jr. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007. 368 pp. $30.00 paper

Pelz, W. A. — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:47:02 PDT

Book Review: Economics for Everyone: A Short Guide to the Economics of Capitalism. By Jim Stanford. London: Pluto Press, 2008. 350 pp. $22.95 paper

Savage, L. — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:47:02 PDT

Book Review: Global Unions: Challenging Transnational Capital through Cross-Border Campaigns. Edited by Kate Bronfenbrenner. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2007. 261 pp. $22.50 paper

Taylor, D. — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:47:02 PDT

Workers' Rights as Human Rights: Legal Debate and Impact on Workers

Kaminski, M., Moccio, F. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:11:05 PST

Workers' Rights as Human Rights: Organized Labor and Rights Discourse in Canada

Savage, L. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:11:05 PST

In the wake of a series of prolabor Supreme Court decisions in Canada, the mantra of "workers' rights as human rights" has gained unprecedented attention in the Canadian labor movement. This article briefly reviews the Canadian labor movement's recent history with the Supreme Court before arguing that elite-driven judicial strategies, advocated by several academics and Canadian unions, threaten, over time, to depoliticize traditional class-based approaches to advancing workers' rights. The argument is premised on the notion that liberal human rights discourse does little to address the inequalities in wealth and power that polarize Canadian society along class lines.

Mapping the Boundaries of Human Rights at Work: Questioning How the ILO Defines Labor Rights and Social Justice

Hilgert, J. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:11:05 PST

Over the past twenty years, International Labour Standards have been cited increasingly as the authoritative, worldwide body of jurisprudence on workers' rights as human rights. Continuing the debate on what constitutes labor rights, the author contrasts the definition of workers' rights under international human rights standards with U.S. labor history's notion of "pure and simple unionism," examining the boundaries of rights defined by international standards in a comparative historical context. The standards examined include workers' right to organize; coercive employer speech; access to employer premises; nonmajority representation; the right to strike, picket, and boycott; union security clauses; the scope of bargaining; government enforcement; and the legal doctrine of employer association rights. Aligning U.S. labor relations law with international human rights standards would in part be a social advancement, but significant aspects of the standards advocate pure and simple unionism more than the original National Labor Relations Act, raising questions about how labor movements should use international standards as advocacy tools and public policy goals.

Synchronizing Meanings and Other Day Laborer Organizing Strategies: Lessons from Denver

Camou, M. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:11:05 PST

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.

Would the Employee Free Choice Act Effectively Protect the Right to Unionize?: Evidence from a South Florida Nursing Home Case

Nissen, B. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:11:05 PST

This article examines in detail union busting in a nursing home facility in Florida and asks whether the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) would have protected workers' freedom to choose if it had been in effect at the time. It systematically applies EFCA's provisions to the events of the case and concludes that EFCA would have been helpful to the workers. However, EFCA would not have erased all obstacles to free employee choice, especially for low-wage workers like these. It also reveals that one of the least known features of EFCA would have been most crucial in this case.

The Rise and Decline of the Democratic Organizational Culture in the South African Labor Movement, 1973 to 2000

Buhlungu, S. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:11:05 PST

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.

Polish Workers in Ireland: A Contented Proletariat?

Turner, T., D'Art, D., Cross, C. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:11:05 PST

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.

Book Review: The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker. By Steven Greenhouse. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008. 365 pp. $24.95 hardcover

Barry, B. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:11:05 PST

Book Review: Why Is There No Labor Party in the United States? By Robin Archer. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007. 368 pp. $35.00 hardcover

Bruno, B. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:11:05 PST

Book Review: Black and Blue: African Americans, the Labor Movement, and the Decline of the Democratic Party. By Paul Frymer. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008. 202 pp. $24.95 paper

Bussel, B. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:11:05 PST

Book Review: Surviving the New Economy. Edited by John Amman, Tris Carpenter, and Gina Neff. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2007. 232 pp. $32.95 paper

Harper-Anderson, E. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:11:05 PST

Book Review: Encyclopedia of U.S. Labor and Working-Class History. By Eric Arnesen. New York: Routledge, 2007. 2,064 pp. $565.00 hardback

Lancaster, G. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:11:05 PST

Book Review: Justified by Work: Identity and the Meaning of Faith in Chicago's Working-Class Churches. By Robert Anthony Bruno. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2008. 273 pp. $24.95 paper

Mishler, P. C. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:11:05 PST

Book Review: The Man Who Hated Work and Loved Labor: The Life and Times of Tony Mazzocchi. By Les Leopold. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2007. 544 pp. $24.95 paper

Nack, D. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:11:05 PST

Book Review: Trade Union Responses to Globalization. Edited by Verena Schmidt. Geneva: International Labour Office, 2007. 195 pp. $24.95 paper

Nissen, B. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:11:05 PST

Book Review: US Labor in Trouble and Transition: The Failure of Reform from Above, the Promise of Revival from Below. By Kim Moody. New York: Verso, 2007. 289 pp. $29.95 paper

Shor, F. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:11:05 PST

Book Review: Morgan Park: Duluth, U.S. Steel, and the Forging of a Company Town. By Arnold R. Alanen. Minneapolis:University of Minnesota Press, 2007. 338 pp. $24.95 paper

Stanger, H. R. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:11:05 PST

Book Review: The Sex of Class: Women Transforming American Labor. Edited by Dorothy Sue Cobble. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2007. 327 pp. $49 hardback

Syphax, Y. J. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:11:05 PST

Book Review: Labor-Environment Coalitions: Lessons for a Louisiana Petrochemical Region. By Thomas Estabrook. Amityville, NY: Baywood Publishing Company, Inc.,2007. 232 pp. $49.95 hardcover

Walchuk, B. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:11:05 PST