At the Altar of the Bottom Line: The Degradation of Work in the 21st Century

by Thomas Juravich

Overview

Based on extensive interviews with workers in four different industries, this book takes us behind the statistics of the economic collapse and into the lives of Americans who are struggling to make ends meet and support their families.

Tom Juravich combines oral history with social and economic analysis to provide a vivid account of the multiple challenges presented in today's workplaces.

At a Verizon call center in Andover, Massachusetts, customer service reps find themselves overwhelmed by the pace of work and the constant monitoring. They describe a daily routine marked by regimentation, intense pressure to sell, and unrelenting stress. In New Bedford, undocumented Guatemalans in the fish-processing industry are fired if they don't work fast enough, cheated out of wages, and mistreated by supervisors. Juravich describes a brutal immigration raid by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that divided families and forced workers further underground.

Juravich then takes us inside the operating rooms at the Boston Medical Center, where hospital consolidation has brought a new "bottom line" philosophy that has fundamentally altered the way patient care is delivered. Surgery takes place almost non-stop, driving some nurses from their chosen profession and leaving those who remain exhausted.

The final case study looks at the shuttering of the Jones Beloit plant, an internationally known manufacturer of machinery for the paper industry. Despite the best efforts of highly skilled and productive workers to save their plant, it was abruptly closed and they were abandoned after their CEO recklessly became involved in a shaky foreign investment.

Juravich argues that workers face a series of paradoxes in the contemporary American workplace. They can no longer assume that large established firms create good jobs. The new working conditions often resemble what was traditionally associated with marginal and low-wage employers. He concludes that we must bring a discussion about the quality of jobs back into the public discourse and that a "good jobs" strategy is a fundamental building block to economic recovery.

Workers' voices are front and center in this highly readable book. It includes striking photographs by Paul Shoul and a CD that presents a series of audio documentaries with excerpts from the interviews, as well as four original songs written and performed by Juravich.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781558497252
Publisher:	University of Massachusetts Press
Publication date:	12/01/2009
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	258
Sales rank:	973,128
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Tom Juravich is professor of labor studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. An accomplished musician, he is author of Commonwealth of Toil: Chapters in the History of Massachusetts Workers and Their Unions and editor of The Future of Work in Massachusetts, both published by the University of Massachusetts Press.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Degradation of Work in the 21st Century 1

1 Stressed: Customer Service Representatives at Verizon 15

2 Exploited: Cutting Fish in New Bedford 57

3 Exhausted: Nursing at Boston Medical 107

4 Abandoned: The Closing of Jones Beloit 145

Conclusion: Beyond the Altar of the Bottom Line 183

Appendix: On Workplace Ethnography 199

Notes 205

References 209

Acknowledgments 227

Index 229

What People are Saying About This

Ruth Milkman

This is a beautifully written, compelling portrait of four groups of Massachusetts workers. Juravich convincingly argues that their plight is tied to corporate decision-making processes that — whatever their own internal logic — make no sense for the society they so deeply affect, and are often counterproductive in their impact on worker productivity and efficiency.... The author is a gifted interviewer and his narrative lifts up the voices of workers themselves.

Editorial Reviews

"This is a beautifully written, compelling portrait of four groups of Massachusetts workers. Juravich convincingly argues that their plight is tied to corporate decision-making processes that—whatever their own internal logic—make no sense for the society they so deeply affect, and are often counterproductive in their impact on worker productivity and efficiency. . . . The author is a gifted interviewer and his narrative lifts up the voices of workers themselves."—Ruth Milkman, author of L.A. Story: Immigrant Workers

and the Future of the U.S. Labor Movement

"This book should be required reading at every statehouse in the nation. If these stories do not move legislatures to overhaul how we work, then I'm not sure what will."—Technology and Culture

From the Publisher

This book should be required reading at every statehouse in the nation. If these stories do not move legislatures to overhaul how we work, then I'm not sure what will.

Technology and Culture