Download or read book Rebels Reformers and Racketeers written by Herman W. Benson and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2005 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This volume fillls a neglected chapter in contemporary history. The Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, which provided federal support for civil liberties and fair elections in unions, triggered a wave of insurgency as reformers throughout the labort movement fought to gain control of their unions by strengthening union democracy and eradicating corruption. This is their story." -- Back cover.
Download or read book Rebels Reformers and Racketeers written by Herman W. Benson and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This volume fills a neglected chapter in contemporary labor history. The adoption of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, which provided federal support for civil liberties and fair elections in unions, triggered a wave of insurgency as reformers throughout the labor movement fought to gain control of their unions by strengthening union democracy and eradicating corruption. This book tells their story." -- p. [245].
Download or read book Breaking the Devil s Pact written by James B. Jacobs and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2013-03-25 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1988, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani brought a massive civil racketeering suit against the leadership of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), at the time possibly the most corrupt union in the world. The lawsuit charged that the mafia had operated the IBT as a racketeering enterprise for decades, systematically violating the rights of members and furthering the interests of organized crime. On the eve of trial, the parties settled the case, and twenty years later, the trustees are still on the job. Breaking the Devil's Pact is an in-depth study of the U.S. v. IBT, beginning with Giuliani's lawsuit and the politics surrounding it, and continuing with an incisive analysis of the controversial nature of the ongoing trusteeship. James B. Jacobs and Kerry T. Cooperman address the larger question of the limits of legal reform in the American labor movement and the appropriate level of government involvement.
Download or read book Mobsters Unions and Feds written by James B. Jacobs and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2007-05 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first book to document organized labor and the massive federal clean-up effort.
Download or read book Shadow of the Racketeer written by David Scott Witwer and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A detailed account of labor corruption in the 1930s and the zealous journalist who railed against it
Download or read book Save Our Unions written by Steve Early and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Save Our Unions: Dispatches From A Movement in Distress brings together recent essays and reporting by labor journalist Steve Early. The author illuminates the challenges facing U.S. workers, whether they're trying to democratize their union, win a strike, defend past contract gains, or bargain with management for the first time. Drawing on forty years of personal experience, Early writes about cross-border union campaigning, labor strategies for organizing and health care reform, and political initiatives that might lessen worker dependence on the Democratic Party. Save Our Unions contains vivid portraits of rank-and-file heroes and heroines, both well-known and unsung. It takes readers to union conventions and funerals, strikes and picket-lines, celebrations of labor's past and struggles to insure that unions still have a future in the 21st century. The book's insight, analysis and advocacy make this an important contribution to the project of labor revitalization and reform"--
Download or read book Sisters in the Brotherhoods written by J. LaTour and published by Springer. This book was released on 2008-08-04 with total page 640 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sisters in the Brotherhoods is an oral-history-based study of women who have, against considerable odds, broken the gender barrier to blue-collar employment in various trades in New York City beginning in the 1970s. It is a story of the fight against deeply ingrained cultural assumptions about what constitutes women's work, the middle-class bias of feminism, the daily grinding sexism of male co-workers, and the institutionalised discrimination of employers and unions. It is also the story of some gutsy women who, seeking the material rewards and personal satisfactions of skilled manual labour, have struggled to make a place for themselves among New York City's construction workers, stationary engineers, firefighters, electronic technicians, plumbers, and transit workers. Each story contributes to an important unifying theme: the way women confronted the enormous sexism embedded in union culture and developed new organisational forms to support their struggles, including and especially the United Tradeswomen.
Download or read book We Are the Union written by Dana L. Cloud and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this extraordinary tale of union democracy, Dana L. Cloud engages union reformers at Boeing in Wichita and Seattle to reveal how ordinary workers attempted to take command of their futures by chipping away at the cozy partnership between union leadership and corporate management. Taking readers into the central dilemma of having to fight an institution while simultaneously using it as a bastion of basic self-defense, We Are the Union offers a sophisticated exploration of the structural opportunities and balance of forces at play in modern unions told through a highly relevant case study. Focusing on the 1995 strike at Boeing, Cloud renders a multi-layered account of the battles between company and the union and within the union led by Unionists for Democratic Change and two other dissident groups. She gives voice to the company's claims of the hardships of competitiveness and the entrenched union leaders' calls for concessions in the name of job security, alongside the democratic union reformers' fight for a rank-and-file upsurge against both the company and the union leaders. We Are the Union is grounded in on-site research and interviews and focuses on the efforts by Unionists for Democratic Change to reform unions from within. Incorporating theory and methods from the fields of organizational communication as well as labor studies, Cloud methodically uncovers and analyzes the goals, strategies, and dilemmas of the dissidents who, while wanting to uphold the ideas and ideals of the union, took up the gauntlet to make it more responsive to workers and less conciliatory toward management, especially in times of economic stress or crisis. Cloud calls for a revival of militant unionism as a response to union leaders' embracing of management and training programs that put workers in the same camp as management, arguing that reform groups should look to the emergence of powerful industrial unions in the United States for guidance on revolutionizing existing institutions and building new ones that truly accommodate workers' needs. Drawing from communication studies, labor history, and oral history and including a chapter co-written with Boeing worker Keith Thomas, We Are the Union contextualizes what happened at Boeing as an exemplar of agency that speaks both to the past and the future.
Download or read book Embedded with Organized Labor written by Steve Early and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2009-07 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes how union members have organized successfully, on the job and in the community, in the face of employer opposition now and in the past in a series of essays—an unusual exercise in “participatory labor journalism.” From publisher description.
Download or read book On New Terrain written by Kim Moody and published by Haymarket Books. This book was released on 2017-11-20 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A detailed and provocative study of how capital has changed since the 1980s and its effects on the working class and political parties in the USA.” —Scottish Left Review On New Terrain challenges conventional wisdom about a disappearing working class and the inevitability of a two-party political structure as the only framework for struggle. Through in-depth study of the economic and political shifts at the top of society, Moody shows how recent developments in capitalist production impact the working class and its power to resist the status quo. He argues that this transformed industrial terrain offers new possibilities for organization in the workplace and opens doors for grassroots, independent political action strengthened by reemerging labor and social movements. From the logistics revolution to the unprecedented concentration of business and wealth in the hands of the one percent, On New Terrain examines the impact of the current economic terrain on the working class in the United States. Looking beyond the clichés of precarity and the gig economy, Moody shows that the working class and its own self-activity are essential in the global battle against austerity. “[A] masterful and much-needed book.” —Solidarity “Immediately shakes the reader by offering a hard hitting, concrete and sober analysis of the transformation of both the capitalist and working classes of the USA.” —Bill Fletcher, Jr., coauthor of Solidarity Divided “He explodes myths about the gig economy and the potential to transform the Democratic Party. Readers will put the book down convinced that there is a way for workers to win.” —LaborNotes
Download or read book Working Construction written by Kris Paap and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-05 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kris Paap worked for nearly three years as a carpenter's apprentice on a variety of jobsites, closely observing her colleagues' habits, expressions, and attitudes. As a woman in an overwhelmingly male—and stereotypically "macho"—profession, Paap uses her experiences to reveal the ways that gender, class, and race interact in the construction industry. She shows how the stereotypes of construction workers and their overt displays of sexism, racism, physical strength, and homophobia are not "just how they are," but rather culturally and structurally mandated enactments of what it means to be a man—and a worker—in America.The significance of these worker performances is particularly clear in relation to occupational safety: when the pressures for demonstrating physical masculinity are combined with a lack of protection from firing, workers are forced to ignore safety procedures in order to prove—whether male or female—that they are "man enough" to do the job. Thus these mandated performances have real, and sometimes deadly, consequences for individuals, the entire working class, and the strength of the union movement.Paap concludes that machismo separates the white male construction workers from their natural political allies, increases their risks on the job, plays to management's interests, lowers their overall social status, and undercuts the effectiveness of their union.
Download or read book A Short History of the U S Working Class written by Paul Le Blanc and published by Haymarket Books. This book was released on 2017-01-15 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “His aim is to make the history of labor in the U.S. more accessible to students and the general reader. He succeeds” (Booklist). In a blend of economic, social, and political history, Paul Le Blanc shows how important labor issues have been, and continue to be, in the forging of our nation. Within a broad analytical framework, he highlights issues of class, gender, race, and ethnicity, and includes the views of key figures of United States labor. The result is a thought-provoking look at centuries of American history from a perspective that is too often ignored or forgotten. “An excellent overview, enhanced by a valuable glossary.” —Elaine Bernard, director of the Harvard Trade Union Program
Download or read book Rebels and Mafiosi written by James Fentress and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-10-18 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For centuries, Sicilian "men of honor" have fought the controls of government. Between 1820 and 1860, rebellions shook the island as these men joined with Sicily's intellectuals in the struggle for independence from the Bourbon Kingdom of Naples. This lively account—the first to locate the emergence and evolution of the mafia in historical perspective—describes how those rebellions led to the birth of the modern mafia and traces the increasing influence of organized crime on the island. The alliance between two classes of Sicilians, James Fentress shows, made possible both the revolution and the mafia. Militancy in the ranks of the revolution taught men of honor how to organize politically. Communities then resisted the demands of central government by devising alternative controls through a network of local groups—the mafia cosche.Fentress tells his operatic story of honor and crime from the viewpoint of the Sicilians, and in particular of the great city of Palermo—from Garibaldi's historic arrival in 1860 to the spectacular mafia trials around the turn of the century. Drawing on police archives, trial records, contemporary journalism, and government reports, he describes how enduring political power plus a (richly deserved) reputation for violence helped the mafia secure covert relationships with groups that publicly denounced them. These contacts still protect today's mafiosi from Rome's efforts to eradicate the organization. The history of the mafia is indeed, Fentress shows, the history of Sicily.
Download or read book The Civil Wars in U S Labor written by Steve Early and published by Haymarket Books. This book was released on 2011-03-15 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Should be required reading for all workers’ rights advocates.” —Bernie Sanders Between 2008 and 2010, the progressive wing of the US labor movement tore itself apart in a series of internecine struggles. More than $140 million was expended, by all sides, on organizing conflicts that tarnished union reputations and undermined the campaign for real health care and labor law reform. Campus and community allies, along with many rank-and-file union members, were left angered and dismayed. In this incisive book, labor journalist Steve Early draws on scores of interviews and on his own union organizing experience to explain why and how these labor civil wars occurred. He examines the bitter disputes about union structure, membership rights, organizing strategy, and contract standards that enveloped SEIU, UNITE HERE, the California Nurses Association, and independent organizations like the Federación de Maestros de Puerto Rico and the new National Union of Healthcare Workers in California. Along the way, we meet rank-and-file activists, local union officers, national leaders, and concerned friends of labor who were drawn into the fray, as Early considers the quest to stem the tide of the labor movement’s long decline.
Download or read book Cooperatives at Work written by George Cheney and published by Emerald Group Publishing. This book was released on 2023-01-25 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cooperatives at Work presents a range of success stories in employee ownership and worker cooperative enterprise, showcasing how such firms can embody important and highly contested ideals of democracy, equity, and social transformation.
Download or read book Where Do We Go from Here written by Mark Major and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2010-03-19 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Progressive politics has long been in crisis in the United States. As the radical Left realizes the dire consequences of defining themselves solely by what they are against, this collection challenges leading engaged academics and activists to show how radical politics can lead to a more fruitful democracy. Dealing with pressing issues of the day such as health care, race, immigration, religion, foreign policy, unions, feminism, liberalism, education, and the media, this edited volume looks at the prospects for a progressive turn in U.S. politics. In doing so, it hopes to inspire the radical imagination by showing where we can go from here. As technology continues to enable greater access to ideas around the world, the power of intellectuals is greater than ever. And given that the world is full of crushing poverty, sexism, uneven development, environmental degeneration, religious fanaticism, racism, and imperialism, the need for intellectuals to inspire the radical imagination by championing principles of economic and social justice, democracy, and universality is also greater than ever. However, political visions are required to guide that struggle. This is the aim of this book.
Download or read book Blood Runs Coal The Yablonski Murders and the Battle for the United Mine Workers of America written by Mark A. Bradley and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2020-10-13 with total page 455 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A vivid account of “one of the most shocking episodes in organized labor’s blood-soaked history” (Steve Halvonik, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). In the early hours of New Year’s Eve 1969, in the small soft coal mining borough of Clarksville, Pennsylvania, longtime trade union insider Joseph “Jock” Yablonski and his wife and daughter were brutally murdered in their old stone farmhouse. Behind the assassination was the corrupt president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), Tony Boyle, who had long embezzled UMWA funds, silenced intra-union dissent, and served the interests of Big Coal companies—and would do anything to maintain power. The most infamous crimes in the history of American labor unions, the Yablonski murders catalyzed the first successful rank-and-file takeover of a major labor union in modern US history. Blood Runs Coal is an extraordinary portrait of one of the nation’s major unions on the brink of historical change.
