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

Lopez, Steven Henry

ISBN 10: 0520232801 / ISBN 13: 9780520232808

Published by University of California Press, 2004

About this Item

Good - Bumped and creased book with tears to the extremities, but not affecting the text block, may have remainder mark or previous owner's name - GOOD Standard-sized.

Seller Inventory # M0520232801Z3

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Reorganizing the Rust Belt: An Inside Study of the American Labor Movement
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication Date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0520232801
• ISBN 13: 9780520232808
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

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.

About the Author

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