Download or read book Labor Politics in Latin America written by Paul W. Posner and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2018-08-14 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent decades, Latin American countries have sought to modernize their labor market institutions to remain competitive in the face of increasing globalization. This book evaluates the impact of such neoliberal reforms on labor movements and workers’ rights in the region through comparative analyses of labor politics in Chile, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela. Using these five key cases, the authors assess the capacity of workers and working-class organizations to advance their demands and bring about a more just distribution of economic gains in an era in which capital has reasserted its power on a global scale. In particular, their findings challenge the purported benefits of labor market flexibility—the freedom of employers to adjust their workforces as needed—which has been touted as a way to reduce income inequality and unemployment. In-depth case studies show how flexibilization as well as privatization, trade liberalization, and economic deregulation have undermined organized labor in all of these countries, leading to the current internal fragmentation of unions and their inability to promote counterreforms or increase collective bargaining. This assessment concludes that even with substantial variation among countries in how reforms have been implemented, most workers in the region have experienced increasing precarity, informal employment, and weaker labor movements. This book provides vital insights into whether these movements have the potential to regain influence and represent working people’s interests effectively in the future.
Download or read book Solidarity Transformed written by Mark S. Anner and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2011-04-15 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mark S. Anner spent ten years working with labor unions in Latin America and returned to conduct eighteen months of field research: he found himself in the middle of violent raids, was detained and interrogated in a Salvadoran basement prison cell, and survived a bombing in a union cafeteria. This experience as a participant observer informs and enlivens Solidarity Transformed, an illustrative, nuanced, and insightful account of how labor unions in Latin America are developing new strategies to defend the interests of the workers they represent in dynamic global and local contexts. Anner combines in-depth case studies of the auto and apparel industries in El Salvador, Honduras, Brazil, and Argentina with survey analysis. Altogether, he documents approximately seventy labor campaigns—both successful and failed—over a period of twenty years. Anner finds that four labor strategies have dominated labor campaigns in recent years: transnational activist campaigns; transnational labor networks; radical flank mechanisms; and microcorporatist worker-employer pacts. The choice of which strategy to pursue is shaped by the structure of global supply chains, access to the domestic political process, and labor identities. Anner's multifaceted approach is both rich in anecdote and supported by quantitative research. The result is a book in which labor activists find new and creative ways to support their members and protect their organizations in the midst of political change, global restructuring, and economic crises.
Download or read book Labor and the Course of American Democracy written by Charles Bergquist and published by Verso. This book was released on 1996-11-17 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The American hemisphere is now more tightly interconnected than ever before, with the trend toward greater economic, social and cultural integration apparently certain to continue. In this landmark text, Charles Bergquist offers a fresh interpretation of the historical background to this integration from the unusual perspective of labor. Focusing on slices of US history, and built around critiques of a handful of classic and influential texts, his five essays form not a conventional narrative history but rather a study in the construction of historical meaning, and an invitation to make use of history in the forging of a new, more democratic understanding of politics in the Americas. The book opens with an illustration of how the different labor systems of colonial America best explain the great disparity in development and power between the US and Latin America today. It goes on to link the origins of US imperialism to labor’s democratic studies at home, and to explore labor’s role in the Latin American social revolutions, before presenting an analysis of popular culture in the Americas in which Donald Duck is revealed as the representative of all workers. Will Donald rewrite the history books and, in our post-Cold War era, realize his democratic potential? Or will he bungle the job and succumb to the postmodern confusions of the capitalists’ “New World Order?”
Download or read book Continuity Despite Change written by Matthew E. Carnes and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2014-08-13 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the dust settles on nearly three decades of economic reform in Latin America, one of the most fundamental economic policy areas has changed far less than expected: labor regulation. To date, Latin America's labor laws remain both rigidly protective and remarkably diverse. Continuity Despite Change develops a new theoretical framework for understanding labor laws and their change through time, beginning by conceptualizing labor laws as comprehensive systems or "regimes." In this context, Matthew Carnes demonstrates that the reform measures introduced in the 1980s and 1990s have only marginally modified the labor laws from decades earlier. To explain this continuity, he argues that labor law development is constrained by long-term economic conditions and labor market institutions. He points specifically to two key factors—the distribution of worker skill levels and the organizational capacity of workers. Carnes presents cross-national statistical evidence from the eighteen major Latin American economies to show that the theory holds for the decades from the 1980s to the 2000s, a period in which many countries grappled with proposed changes to their labor laws. He then offers theoretically grounded narratives to explain the different labor law configurations and reform paths of Chile, Peru, and Argentina. His findings push for a rethinking of the impact of globalization on labor regulation, as economic and political institutions governing labor have proven to be more resilient than earlier studies have suggested.
Download or read book Linked Labor Histories written by Aviva Chomsky and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2008-04 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An analysis of migration, labor-management collaboration, and the mobility of capital based on case studies in New England and Colombia.
Download or read book Reconsidering Southern Labor History written by Matthew Hild and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2020-11-03 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: United Association for Labor Education Best Book Award The American Dream of reaching success through sheer sweat and determination rings false for countless members of the working classes. This volume shows that many of the difficulties facing workers today have deep roots in the history of the exploitation of labor in the South. Contributors make the case that the problems that have long beset southern labor, including the legacy of slavery, low wages, lack of collective bargaining rights, and repression of organized unions, have become the problems of workers across the country. Spanning nearly all of U.S. history, the essays in this collection range from West Virginia to Florida to Texas. They examine vagrancy laws in the early republic, inmate labor at state penitentiaries, mine workers and union membership, and strikes and the often-violent strikebreaking that followed. They also look at pesticide exposure among farmworkers, labor activism during the civil rights movement, and foreign-owned auto factories in the rural South. They distinguish between different struggles experienced by women and men, as well as by African American, Latino, and white workers. The broad chronological sweep and comprehensive nature of Reconsidering Southern Labor History set this volume apart from any other collection on the topic in the past forty years. Presenting the latest trends in the study of the working-class South by a new generation of scholars, this volume is a surprising revelation of the historical forces behind the labor inequalities inherent today. Contributors: David M. Anderson | Deborah Beckel | Thomas Brown | Dana M. Caldemeyer | Adam Carson | Theresa Case | Erin L. Conlin | Brett J. Derbes | Maria Angela Diaz | Alan Draper | Matthew Hild | Joseph E. Hower | T.R.C. Hutton | Stuart MacKay | Andrew C. McKevitt | Keri Leigh Merritt | Bethany Moreton | Kristin O’Brassill-Kulfan | Michael Sistrom | Joseph M. Thompson | Linda Tvrdy
Download or read book Care Work and Class written by Merike Blofield and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Examines the movement for labor reform among domestic workers in Latin America. Explores how domestic workers' mobilization, strategic alliances, and political windows of opportunity can lead to improved rights"--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book Latin American Migrations to the U S Heartland written by Linda Allegro and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2013-05-22 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection examines Latina/o immigrants and the movement of the Latin American labor force to the central states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Arkansas, Missouri, and Iowa. Contributors look at outside factors affecting migration, including corporate agriculture, technology, globalization, and government. They also reveal how cultural affinities like religion, strong family ties, farming, and cowboy culture attract these newcomers to the Heartland. Throughout, essayists point to how hostile neoliberal policy reforms have made it difficult for Latin American immigrants to find social and economic stability. Filled with varied and eye-opening perspectives, Latin American Migrations to the U.S. Heartland reveals how identities, economies, and geographies are changing as Latin Americans adjust to their new homes, jobs, and communities. Contributors: Linda Allegro, Tisa M. Anders, Scott Carter, Caitlin Didier, Miranda Cady Hallett, Edmund Hamann, Albert Iaroi, Errol D. Jones, Jane Juffer, László J. Kulcsár, Janelle Reeves, Jennifer F. Reynolds, Sandi Smith-Nonini, and Andrew Grant Wood.
Download or read book Braceros written by Deborah Cohen and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2011-02-15 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the beginning of World War II, the United States and Mexico launched the bracero program, a series of labor agreements that brought Mexican men to work temporarily in U.S. agricultural fields. In Braceros, Deborah Cohen asks why these migrants provoked so much concern and anxiety in the United States and what the Mexican government expected to gain in participating in the program. Cohen creatively links the often-unconnected themes of exploitation, development, the rise of consumer cultures, and gendered class and race formation to show why those with connections beyond the nation have historically provoked suspicion, anxiety, and retaliatory political policies.
Download or read book Discrimination in Latin America written by Hugo opo and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2009-12-03 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While there is a strongly held belief that Latin American societies are highly discriminatory, the economic profession has found relatively little evidence for this perception, and until recently other social sciences had prevailed in the discussion of this timely and relevant topic. The development of new tools for analyzing the economic mechanisms underlying discrimination, however, has opened up several avenues for research. This book presents a set of studies on contemporary discrimination in Latin America that takes advantage of these new tools by focusing on social interactions that range from cooperation, group formation, and the impact of migration in poor families to specific markets such as housing and labor. The techniques applied include traditional regression analysis, experimental approaches, and audit studies, as well as structural methods. This wide range of analytical approaches leads to findings that confirm some of the common perceptions regarding discrimination but challenge the conventional wisdom in other regards In some instances the long-held conventional wisdom may not hold at all. Latin Americans do not discriminate more or less than inhabitants of other regions, and the discrimination that does occur appears largely to stem from lack of information on individuals a result of great interest in colleges and universities that teach courses on Latin American development both at the undergraduate and graduate level. Furthermore, this book s findings extend to the political arena, as they challenge standard policies that have been ineffective for decades. Finally, this book should be of interest to researchers, as the empirical methods employed are at the vanguard of the profession. In fact, in addition to the contribution that this volume makes to the literature on discrimination, it also has the potential to contribute more broadly to labor economics, development economics and experimental economics, as well as to Latin American studies.
Download or read book Battling for American Labor written by Howard Kimeldorf and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1999-12 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This riveting, nuanced book takes seriously the workplace radicalism of many early twentieth century American workers. The restriction of working class militancy to the workplace, it shows, was no mere economism. Organizational rather than psychological in orientation, Battling For American Labor accounts for both the early preference of dockworkers in Philadelphia and hotel and restaurant workers in New York for the IWW rather than the AFL and for the reversal of this choice in the 1920s. In so doing, it points the way to a fresh reading of American labor history."—Ira Katznelson, Columbia University "Howard Kimeldorf's book, based on sound and solid historical research in archives, newspapers, journals, memoirs and oral histories, argues that workers in the United States, regardless of their precise union affiliation, harbored syndicalist tendencies which manifested themselves in direct action on the job. Because Kimeldorf's book reinterprets much of the history of the labor movement in the United States, it will surely generate much controversy among scholars and capture the attention of readers."—Melvyn Dubofsky, Binghamton University, SUNY "Howard Kimeldorf's new book is a very exciting accomplishment. This book will surely leave a major imprint on labor history and the sociology of labor. Kimeldorf's focus on repertoires of collective action and practice instead of ideology is a particularly important contribution; one that will force students of labor to rethink many worn-out arguments. After reading Battling For American Labor, one will no longer be able to assume the IWW's defeat was inevitable, or take seriously psychological theories of worker consciousness."—David Wellman, author of The Union Makes Us Strong
Download or read book We Are in This Dance Together written by Nancy Plankey-Videla and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2012-07-04 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Changes in the global economy have real and contradictory outcomes for the everyday lives of women workers. In 2001, Nancy Plankey-Videla had a rare opportunity to witness these effects firsthand. Having secured access to one of Latin America's top producers of high-end men's suits in Mexico for participant-observer research, she labored as a machine operator for nine months on a shop floor made up, mostly, of women. The firm had recently transformed itself from traditional assembly techniques, to lean, cutting-edge, Japanese-style production methods. Lured initially into the firm by way of increased wages and benefits, workers had helped shoulder the company's increasing debts. When the company's plan for successful expansion went awry and it reneged on promises it had made to the workforce, women workers responded by walking out on strike. Building upon in-depth interviews with over sixty workers, managers, and policy makers, Plankey-Videla documents and analyzes events leading up to the female-led factory strike and its aftermath—including harassment from managers, corrupt union officials and labor authorities, and violent governor-sanctioned police actions. We Are in This Dance Together illustrates how the women's shared identity as workers and mothers—deserving of dignity, respect, and a living wage—became the basis for radicalization and led to further civic organizing against the state, the company, and the corrupt union to demand justice.
Download or read book The Latin American Subaltern Studies Reader written by Ileana Rodríguez and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2001-09-24 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DIVArgues for the saliency of the category of the subaltern over that of class./div
Download or read book The Gendered Worlds of Latin American Women Workers written by Daniel James and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Latin American countries, the modern factory originally was considered a hostile and threatening environment for women and family values. Nine essays dealing with Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Guatemala describe the contradictory experiences of women whose work defied gender prescriptions but was deemed necessary by working-class families in a world of need and scarcity. 19 photos.
Download or read book Handbook of Latin American Studies written by and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 808 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contains scholarly evaluations of books and book chapters as well as conference papers and articles published worldwide in the field of Latin American studies. Covers social sciences and the humanities in alternate years.
Download or read book Latin American Labor Studies written by John D. French and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 66 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Labor in Latin America written by Charles W. Bergquist and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
