New Immigrants, Old Unions

1993 Social Science

Author : Héctor L. Delgado
Release : 1993
Genre : Social Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 446/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis New Immigrants, Old Unions by : Héctor L. Delgado

Download or read book New Immigrants, Old Unions written by Héctor L. Delgado. This book was released on 1993. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A steady depletion in the ranks of organized labor has often been blamed on the influx of undocumented immigrant workers. Their fear of apprehension and deportation by immigration authorities has fostered the belief that they "cannot be organized." Hector Delgado challenges this view in an intricate case study of a successful union campaign waged by undocumented workers in a Los Angeles waterbed factory. Relying on rich intensive interviews and personal observation, the author relates the story of a plant where undocumented workers from Mexico and Central America voted for union representation by a two-to-one margin. He describes how they negotiated a collective bargaining agreement in the face of stiff employer opposition. Despite conventional wisdom about the ability to organize such workers, Delgado finds that factors other than citizenship status determine the outcome of unionization efforts on behalf of undocumented workers. He cites the following as primary factors that promote or retard unionization: the commitment of unions to organize undocumented workers, their length of residency in the United States, their roots and social networks, the demand for their labor, and the relatively visibility of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Los Angeles. New Immigrants, Old Unions contributes to our understanding of the experiences of contemporary American and Central American immigrants, their relationship to organized labor, and the meaning of undocumented status in their lives. Delgado's interviews with workers, labor organizers, and management reveal how and why this attempt to unionize was successful, and his findings confront the American labor movement's view of immigrant workers.

Old Labor and New Immigrants in American Political Development

2019-06-30 Political Science

Author : Gwendolyn Mink
Release : 2019-06-30
Genre : Political Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 698/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Old Labor and New Immigrants in American Political Development by : Gwendolyn Mink

Download or read book Old Labor and New Immigrants in American Political Development written by Gwendolyn Mink. This book was released on 2019-06-30. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why have American politics developed differently from politics in Europe? Generations of scholars and commentators have wondered why organized labor in the United States did not acquire a broad-based constituency or form an autonomous labor party. In this innovative and insightful book, Gwendolyn Mink finds new answers by approaching this question from a different angle: she asks what determined union labor's political interests and how those interests influenced the political role forged by the American Federation of Labor. At bottom, Mink argues, the demographic dynamics of industrialization produced a profound racial response to economic change among organized labor. This response shaped the AFL's political strategy and political choices. In her account of the unique role played by labor in politics prior to the New Deal, Mink focuses on the ways in which the organizational and political interests of the AFL were mediated by the national issue of immigration and links the AFL's response to immigration to its conservative stance in and toward politics. She investigates the political impact of a labor market split between union and nonunion, old and new immigrant workers; of dramatic demographic change; and of nativism and racism. Mink then elucidates the development of trade-union political interests, ideology, and strategy; the movement of the AFL into established state and party structures; and the consequent separation of the AFL from labor's social base.

L.A. Story

2006-08-03 Social Science

Author : Ruth Milkman
Release : 2006-08-03
Genre : Social Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 969/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis L.A. Story by : Ruth Milkman

Download or read book L.A. Story written by Ruth Milkman. This book was released on 2006-08-03. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sharp decreases in union membership over the last fifty years have caused many to dismiss organized labor as irrelevant in today's labor market. In the private sector, only 8 percent of workers today are union members, down from 24 percent as recently as 1973. Yet developments in Southern California—including the successful Justice for Janitors campaign—suggest that reports of organized labor's demise may have been exaggerated. In L.A. Story, sociologist and labor expert Ruth Milkman explains how Los Angeles, once known as a company town hostile to labor, became a hotbed for unionism, and how immigrant service workers emerged as the unlikely leaders in the battle for workers' rights. L.A. Story shatters many of the myths of modern labor with a close look at workers in four industries in Los Angeles: building maintenance, trucking, construction, and garment production. Though many blame deunionization and deteriorating working conditions on immigrants, Milkman shows that this conventional wisdom is wrong. Her analysis reveals that worsening work environments preceded the influx of foreign-born workers, who filled the positions only after native-born workers fled these suddenly undesirable jobs. Ironically, L.A. Story shows that immigrant workers, who many union leaders feared were incapable of being organized because of language constraints and fear of deportation, instead proved highly responsive to organizing efforts. As Milkman demonstrates, these mostly Latino workers came to their service jobs in the United States with a more group-oriented mentality than the American workers they replaced. Some also drew on experience in their native countries with labor and political struggles. This stock of fresh minds and new ideas, along with a physical distance from the east-coast centers of labor's old guard, made Los Angeles the center of a burgeoning workers' rights movement. Los Angeles' recent labor history highlights some of the key ingredients of the labor movement's resurgence—new leadership, latitude to experiment with organizing techniques, and a willingness to embrace both top-down and bottom-up strategies. L.A. Story's clear and thorough assessment of these developments points to an alternative, high-road national economic agenda that could provide workers with a way out of poverty and into the middle class.

The Jewish Unions in America

2018-02-06 History

Author : Bernard Weinstein
Release : 2018-02-06
Genre : History
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 565/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis The Jewish Unions in America by : Bernard Weinstein

Download or read book The Jewish Unions in America written by Bernard Weinstein. This book was released on 2018-02-06. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Newly arrived in New York in 1882 from Tsarist Russia, the sixteen-year-old Bernard Weinstein discovered an America in which unionism, socialism, and anarchism were very much in the air. He found a home in the tenements of New York and for the next fifty years he devoted his life to the struggles of fellow Jewish workers. The Jewish Unions in America blends memoir and history to chronicle this time. It describes how Weinstein led countless strikes, held the unions together in the face of retaliation from the bosses, investigated sweatshops and factories with the aid of reformers, and faced down schisms by various factions, including Anarchists and Communists. He co-founded the United Hebrew Trades and wrote speeches, articles and books advancing the cause of the labor movement. From the pages of this book emerges a vivid picture of workers’ organizations at the beginning of the twentieth century and a capitalist system that bred exploitation, poverty, and inequality. Although workers’ rights have made great progress in the decades since, Weinstein’s descriptions of workers with jobs pitted against those without, and American workers against workers abroad, still carry echoes today. The Jewish Unions in America is a testament to the struggles of working people a hundred years ago. But it is also a reminder that workers must still battle to live decent lives in the free market. For the first time, Maurice Wolfthal’s readable translation makes Weinstein’s Yiddish text available to English readers. It is essential reading for students and scholars of labor history, Jewish history, and the history of American immigration.

Immigration and American Unionism

2018-08-06 Political Science

Author : Vernon M. Briggs, Jr.
Release : 2018-08-06
Genre : Political Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 31X/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Immigration and American Unionism by : Vernon M. Briggs, Jr.

Download or read book Immigration and American Unionism written by Vernon M. Briggs, Jr.. This book was released on 2018-08-06. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the year 2000 the AFL-CIO announced a historic change in its position on immigration. Reversing a decades-old stance by labor, the federation declared that it would no longer press to reduce high immigration levels or call for rigorous enforcement of immigration laws. Instead, it now supports the repeal of sanctions imposed against employers who hire illegal immigrants as well as a general amnesty for most such workers. In this timely book, Vernon M. Briggs, Jr., challenges labor's recent about-face, charting the disastrous effects that immigration has had on union membership over the course of U.S. history.Briggs explores the close relationship between immigration and employment trends beginning in the 1780s. Combining the history of labor and of immigration in a new and innovative way, he establishes that over time unionism has thrived when the numbers of newcomers have decreased, and faltered when those figures have risen.Briggs argues convincingly that the labor movement cannot be revived unless the following steps are taken: immigration levels are reduced, admission categories changed, labor law reformed, and the enforcement of labor protection standards at the worksite enhanced. The survival of American unionism, he asserts, does not rest with the movement's becoming a partner of the pro-immigration lobby. For to do so, organized labor would have to abandon its legacy as the champion of the American worker.

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