Reorganizing the Rust Belt: An Inside Study of the American Labor Movement / Edition 1

by Steve Lopez

Overview

This gripping insider's look at the contemporary American trade union movement shows that reports of organized labor's death are premature. In this eloquent and erudite narrative, Steven Henry Lopez demonstrates how, despite a hostile legal environment and the punitive anti-unionism of U.S. employers, a few unions have organized hundreds of thousands of low-wage service workers in the past few years. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has been at the forefront of this effort, in the process pioneering innovative strategies of grassroots mobilization and protest. In a powerful ethnography that captures the voices of those involved in SEIU nursing-home organizing in western Pennsylvania, Lopez illustrates how post-industrial, low-wage workers are providing the backbone for a reinvigorated labor movement across the country.

Reorganizing the Rust Belt argues that the key to the success of social movement unionism lies in its ability to confront a series of dilemmas rooted in the history of American labor relations. Lopez shows how the union's ability to devise creative solutions—rather than the adoption of specific tactics—makes the difference between success and failure.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520235656
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	04/05/2004
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	314
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)
Lexile:	1510L (what's this?)

About the Author

Steven Henry Lopez is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Ohio State University.

Table of Contents

Preface: Postindustrial Pittsburgh: Low-Wage Work and the Challenge for American Labor
Acknowledgments

1. Introduction: From Business Unionism to Social Movement Unionism

PART I: CONFRONTING WORKING-CLASS ANTIUNIONISM
INTRODUCTION TO PART I: ROSEMONT PAVILION

2. "See You Next Year": The Failure of Traditional Organizing Tactics

3. "It’s a Union": Why Face-to-Face Organizing and Collective Action Tactics Succeed

Epilogue to Part I: Organizing and Organization

PART II: DEALING WITH ORGANIZATIONAL LEGACIES
INTRODUCTION TO PART II: THE NEW URBAN POLITICS OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

4. "Save Our Kanes": Bypassing Organizational Structures

5. "We Want a Contract": Confronting Business Union Organization

Epilogue to Part II: Social Movement Unionism and the Problem of Power

PART III: SOCIAL MOVEMENT UNIONISM: CHALLENGING THE POWER OF CAPITAL
INTRODUCTION TO PART III: MEGACORP AND THE SEIU IN PENNSYLVANIA

6. "We Will Not Be Silenced": Escalating Mobilization

7. "Whatever It Takes, as Long as It Takes": Exploiting Antiunionism

Epilogue to Part III: The Ambiguity of Victories

Conclusion: Social Movement Unionism and Social Movement Theory
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
Index