Book Description

How the United States turns its back on the working poor.

An astonishing 35 million Americans work full time but do not make a living wage. They are nursing home staff, poultry processors, pharmacy assistants, ambulance drivers, child care workers, data entry keyers, janitors. Indeed, one in four American workers lives in or near poverty. Despite the great wealth of the United States, these low-wage employees have lower living standards than comparable workers in other industrial nations.

Beth Shulman spent several years traveling across the country talking to those living on low wages. In writing The Betrayal of Work, she provides the fullest portrait of America's working poor, dispelling a number of myths along the way: that lower unemployment has meant better living conditions for the poor; that making bad jobs into good jobs requires insurmountably difficult reforms; that low-wage work is always low-skilled. Following in the footsteps of Barbara Ehrenreich's bestselling Nickel and Dimed, The Betrayal of Work is sure to be one of the most talked about public policy books of the year. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Untenable solutions for some thorny problems
Although in the blurb on the front of this book, Barbara Ehrenreich says she wishes she'd written it herself, this book is no Nickel and Dimed; it is less readable and much more tendentious. Beth Shulman does a satisfactory problem of describing the problems low-wage workers face (although I think she could've used a lighter hand with the statistics), but her proposed solutions are radically socialistic ones that in my opinion would have a devastating effect on the fabric of life in the U.S.

She does make several incisive points, though. Contrary to what many of us believe, there is very little mobility out of low wage work, even if one works hard. Also, low wage earners in most other affluent countries are significantly better off than their counterparts in the U.S., which is touted as the Land of Opportunity.

This book, for all its shortcomings, did make me think differently about low wage earners and the problems they face, but if you're only going to read one book on the subject, I'd recommend Nickel and Dimed.

Sad Truth's Hard to Bear
Although I haven't read the oft-referenced NICKLED AND DIMED, I discovered this book totally by accident and found it both informative and True. As one of the new "working poor", I responded immediately to the personal anecdotes. I am an educated white male in my early-forties who as recently as three years ago made $35,000 a year. Now, the best job I can find is in a bookstore for $8.50 an hour! And in my own immediate family, there are three others who have been struggling to find ANY job for two years, one of whom has a BA in Accounting!! So if anything, the book's alledged questionable anecdotes criticized by others certainly speak to this reader. Indeed, one could argue that anecdotes often reveal greater Truths than dry facts....

Of course, Shulman has an agenda, but it is one backed up by facts, quoted in her book and elsewhere. It is undebatably true that the job situation in the US is changing for the worse, and it doesn't take this book, or others, to prove it, but simple observation. However, it is great to see many of the facts I've heard so many times elsewhere collected in a single volume.

Sadly, Shulman is probably preaching to the converted. While I agree with every point in the book, its doubtful a Conservative or corporate-apologist would -- but then again, they are the ones who got us in this mess and are profiting from it, so what do they care? For me, this book makes me want to read more, so I think I'll check out "Nickled and Dimed" now....

don't listen to the last reviewer
This is a well documented, highly important book in the tradition of Nickel & Dimed. If you're interested in how our society fails to provide for millions of Americans who are working far more than 40 hour weeks, read this book.

interesting but off base
For anyone interested in a grab bag of left-wing critiques and some possible corrective mechanisms of the current US job market, this is it.

The book does use extensive documentation from left-wing sources but the author also uses many anecdotes. In Ms. Shulman's world there are only hard-working oppressed employees and greedy slothful employers. Many of the methods that enhance efficiency in the market (such as monitoring employee performance) are dismissed as cruel and oppressive.

Some of Ms. Shulman's concerns and suggested corrections are perhaps worthwhile, but many aren't. More importantly, she completely dismissed or ignores some obvious trade offs. Shulman often contrasts better aspects of European labor markets with the US but never addresses their biggest drawback, higher unemployment, apparently assuming widespread equality and opportunity for all can be legislated despite years of trying without success. She may believe that low-wage workers might be better off on a generous public assistance system than in the workforce, but even that would be of no value to millions of immigrants, for whom she claims to be an advocate.

This book is really a road map for perhaps more leveled economy but one with far less opportunity for ambitious and aspiring workers at all income levels. ... Read more

Book Description

In Our Separate Ways, authors Ella Bell and Stella Nkomo take an unflinching look at the surprising differences between black and white women's trials and triumphs on their way up the executive ladder. Based on groundbreaking research that spanned eight years, Our Separate Ways compares and contrasts the experiences of 120 black and white female managers in the American business arena. In-depth histories bring to life the women's powerful and often difficult journeys from childhood to professional success, highlighting the roles that gender, race, and class played in their development.

Although successful professional women come from widely diverse family backgrounds, educational experiences, and community values, they share a common assumption upon entering the workforce: "I have a chance." Along the way, however, they discover that people question their authority, challenge their intelligence, and discount their ideas. And while gender is a common denominator among these women, race and class are often wedges between them.

In Our Separate Ways, you will find candid discussions about stereotypes, learn how black women's early experiences affect their attitudes in the business world, become aware of how white women have-perhaps unwittingly-aligned themselves more often with white men than with black women, and see ways that our country continues to come to terms with diversity in all of its dimensions.

Whether you are a human resources director wondering why you're having trouble retaining black women, a white female manager considering the role of race in your office, or a black female manager searching for perspective, you will find fresh insights about how black and white women's struggles differ and encounter provocative ideas for creating a better workplace environment for everyone.

... Read more

Reviews (8)

TRUTH HUURTS?
GOOD BOOK. BUT I HAVE NEVER HAD AN INTERRACIAL FRIENDSHIP WITH A WHITE AMERICAN WOMAN. MY FRIENDS WERE EITHER EUROPEAN, ASIAN, AFRICAN, CARIBBEAN, SOUTH AMERICAN, OR BLACK. IM NOT EVEN INTERESTED IN CLOSING THE GAP WE'VE HAD BETWEEN EACH OTHER SINCE SLAVERY. AND EVEN IF WHITE WOMEN AND BLACK WOMEN ARE FRIENDS IN CORPORATE AMERICA, BLACK WOMEN STILL GET PAID LESS. ITS UNFAIR AND I DONT WANT ANYTHING TO DO WITH SOMEONE WHO THINKS THE WORD WOMAN, FEMININE, OR LADY MEANS WHITE.

At the Sharp End
Bell and Nkomo dive straight to the heart of the matter. They base their findings on comprehensive personal interviews of African-American and white women working as managers or executives. Ultimately, the authors hit the reader over the head with the obvious: People from strikingly different backgrounds bring profound personal differences to the workplace. Too often, organizations stupidly attempt homogenizing everyone into minor variations on the existing (typically---older, white, and male) leadership theme. Unusually (Bell and Nkomo cited no such cases), organizations may wisely embrace the differences so that the organization and its people benefit from a more perceptive and inclusive world view.

Folks who need not spend their working hours "fitting in" contribute (A) more (B) less to the organization. Leaders who accept their people for who and what they are get (A) more (B) less from their subordinates. Guess where the authors suggest the readers take their outfits.

Imagining and working with the Other
If you are wondering why the Black woman in your section of your company doesn't seem to want to socialize with you or seems guarded around her White co-workers or why the White women in your organization get all riled up about sexism but are silent when it comes to racism this is the book for you. I recommend this book along with Divided Sisters for those who really want Black and White women to unite in the workplace. These two tomes will give you more than a clue. They'll give you guidelines as how to build a truly "diverse" workplace where everyone is welcomed AS THEY ARE and not as stereotypes others want them to play out. If you are a Black woman, you'll understand why you see your work status merely as a "job" and not as a career and why you feel so much like an outsider looking in at your organization.

The only reason I didn't give this book 5 stars is that I wanted more in-depth analysis of how the White female managers confronted the idea of Black women as equals (and not just on the job), something I've experienced that White women have a difficult time doing in the workplace.

Insight into the Other
If you are wondering why the Black woman in your section of your company doesn't seem to want to socialize with you or seems guarded around her White co-workers or why the White women in your organization get all riled up about sexism but are silent when it comes to racism this is the book for you. I recommend this book along with Divided Sisters for those who really want Black and White women to unite in the workplace. These two tomes will give you more than a clue. They'll give you guidelines as how to build a truly "diverse" workplace where everyone is welcomed AS THEY ARE and not as stereotypes others want them to play out. If you are a Black woman, you'll understand why you see your work status merely as a "job" and not as a career and why you feel so much like an outsider looking in at your organization.

The only reason I didn't give this book 5 stars is that I wanted more in-depth analysis of how the White female managers confronted the idea of Black women as equals (and not just on the job), something I've experienced that White women have a difficult time doing in the workplace.

Our Separate Ways: Black and White Women
This book is a must for anyone who is interested in the career paths of women in the corporate world. That would include spouses of, grown children of, and parents of women. It is based upon Harvard research including in-depth case studies of both white and black women from childhood to the present day, career journeys one will find fascinating. When the reader returns to his/her workplace after completing this book, diversity will take on a more significant meaning. This book is also a useful tool in college career development classes. Rather than a dull read, it keeps the reader coming back for more. ... Read more

Book Description

According to author Glenn Solomon, the "at-will" employment rule has undermined economic security and basic civil rights for decades. In this book he exposes it for what it is and tells workers how to maximize their job protection. The rule essentially is that anyone can be fired at any time, with or without warning, for any reason not specifically prohibited by law (such as race). Moreover, it is extremely difficult to prove wrongful termination in court. Solomon discusses exceptions to the rule (government and union workers) and dispels popular myths about employee rights (many people believe they can only be fired for just cause). Although it deals with sometimes complex legal concepts, the book is written in a style accessible to the average reader. Real-life cases illustrate the author's points throughout. Important topics include contracts, discrimination, deciding whether or not to sue, and setting a damage amount. Solomon concludes with a proposal for a "workplace without fear" and replaces the at-will rule with a for-cause standard for terminating employment. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Don't Go Home Without It
If you are one of the many that have to work for a living, the information contained in this book is important and a little scary. Easy to understand and written with a laid back humor this book informs you of your rights and obligations as an employee. It contains practical information, suggestions and various resources.

A must read
Wow! Check the color of your socks. (Read this book to learn why.) I thought we Americans had job security. Count me among the misinformed. This book will open your eyes. It's full of spunk and spiced with subversion. Read it now!

Read This Book
You Could Be Fired for Reading This Book is an important book for anyone with a job. The fact that most workers are employed "at-will" (at the will of the employer) and, therefore, disturbingly vulnerable to losing their jobs is crucial information and not very well known. Author Glenn Solomon explains this basic employment reality -- and how we got there -- and presents ways to combat it, both on the job and if one is fired. With engaging style and wit, Solomon brings his legal expertise to an important subject whose time has come.
As Solomon guides the reader through the reality of being an "at-will" employee, he dispels often-held myths of employment protection and gives guidelines for genuine empowerment. There are things that can be done to make one's job more secure, as well as pitfalls to avoid. And should one lose one's job unfairly (all too common in the "at-will" universe), Solomon gives a step-by-step description of the processes involved in filing a claim. You Could Be Fired for Reading this Book is both an interesting eye-opener and an important resource to have on hand. ... Read more

Book Description

Developing a strong theoretical base for research and practice in industrial relations and human resource management has to date remained a largely unfulfilled challenge. This pioneering volume helps close the theory gap by presenting contributions from fifteen leading scholars that develop and extend theoretical perspectives on work and the employment relationship. Subject areas covered include theories of employment relations systems, varieties of capitalism, the labor process, new institutional economics, individual work motivation, strategic human resource management, a theory of transaction costs and employment contracts, efficiency versus equity, and comparative industrial relations. ... Read more

Book Description

For retired steelworkers in Youngstown, Ohio, the label "working class" fits comfortably. Questioning the widely held view that laborers in postwar America have adopted middle-class values, Robert Bruno shows that in this community a blue-collar identity has provided a positive focus for many residents. The son of a Youngstown steelworker, Bruno returned to his hometown seeking to understand the formation of his own working-class consciousness and the place of labor in the larger capitalist society. Drawing on interviews with dozens of former steelworkers and on research in local archives, Bruno explores the culture of the community, including such subjects as relations among co-workers, class antagonism, and attitudes toward authority. He describes how, because workers are often neighbors, the workplace takes on a feeling of neighborhood. He also demonstrates that to understand class consciousness one must look beyond the workplace, in this instance from Youngstown's front porches to its bowling alleys and voting booths.Written with a deeply personal approach, Steelworker Alley is a richly detailed look at workers which reveals the continuing strength of class relationships in America. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A very insightful book.
Having grown up in Youngstown, I can fully appreciate the degree to which the author has captured the spirit of the mills and the working class. Anyone interested in labor studies will find this a book well worth reading.

A Good Read!!!
Bruno's first and hopefully not his last!

You don't have to bea steelworker or from Youngstown to enjoy this book. Bruno's Yongstownis recognizable to all no mater where you live.

His portait of his hometown captures his family and neighbors who come alive in this interesting new work. Moreover, he has something to say and hesays it well! ... Read more

Book Description

This is the first of a two-volume treatment of slavery, capitalism and politics in the forty years before the Civil War.It is both a novel reinterpretation, from a Marxist perspective, of American political and economic development and a synthesis of existing scholarship on the economics of slavery, the origins of abolitionism, the proslavery argument and the second party system. With its sequel, this book will locate the political struggles of the antebellum period in the international context of the dismantling of unfree labor systems.It will also show that the Civil War should be seen as America's "bourgeois revolution." ... Read more

Reviews (1)

balanced study of the conflicts within the slave South
The emphasis here is upon the "class" tensions within the slave South and between the North with its "wage labor" and the South with its slave labor. Far too many historians in recent years have been afraid to use the concepts of "class" and "capitalism" for fear of being tainted with the brush of Marxism. But these are clearly terms and concepts the abolitionists and the pro-slavery thinkers themselves used in their attempts to make sense of their world. Ashworth does an admirable job of employing these concepts while avoiding the pitfalls of dogmatism and economic reductionism. He draws inspiration from Antonio Gramsci's concept of "hegemony" to provide his class and material analysis with a balance that emphasizes the complexities of human motivation.

The author clearly reveals the points at which the slave system was in inner conflict and shows how the southern attempts to provide an intellectual defense of slavery were doomed to fail because of the conflicts and tensions within the southern class system. He goes on to detail the ideology and the foundations of the Jacksonian Democrats, the Whig Party, and the Republican Party and in the process gives the reader a balanced perspective on the forces that led to the Civil War. This is a book that should be read by anyone interested in why the two sections of the country were so different and came to think of themselves as different peoples. ... Read more

Book Description

The 1990s were years of turmoil and transformation in American workexperiences and employment relationships. Trends including the growth ofcontingent labor, the erosion of the stable employment contract, therestructuring of jobs and companies, and the emergence of opportunity-enhancingemployee participation programs reconfigured occupations, career paths, andlabor market opportunities. Vicki Smith analyzes this shift, asking how workersnavigated their way across the divide between bad jobs and good jobs, betweenjobs organized hierarchically and jobs requiring greater worker involvement, andbetween temporary and stable work.

Crossing the Great Divide uses original case study data from four diverseorganizational settings around the country. Smith compares the situations ofnonunionized, white-collar workers at a photocopy service firm; unionized blue- collar workers in a wood-products processing factory; temporary assemblers andclerical workers in a high-tech firm; and unemployed managers, technicalworkers, and professionals participating in a job search club.

The very different experiences revealed in Crossing the Great Divide highlightthe way diverse new relationships between companies and their employees play outin workplaces, where new forms of work organization simultaneously createopportunity, instability, and risk for workers. Smith's goal is to construct anew framework of employment that accommodates the unpredictability andturbulence of the 21st century, but that is also "characterized at its core byattachment, reward, protection, commitment, and dignity." ... Read more

Book Description

- Learn how to get started in the TV and movie business - Prepare your child for auditions - Understand your child’s rights - Avoid getting ripped off by agents ... Read more

Reviews (1)

THE GENTEEL POOR FIGHT BACK: VALUABLE 19TH CENTURY HISTORY
Dr. Kathleen Waters Sander (Ph.D. - History, U. of MD.) has written an extremely valuable book centered on the women's industrial exchange movement of the 19th century.Ruthless 19th century capitalism (also known as "capitalism at its finest") was not controlled or regulated by government, and offered no "safety nets" or benefits.Many individuals and families lived the "genteel life" during the 19th century fortemporary periods, then were unceremoniously tossed off of the gravy train into the world of poverty.....a world for which they were often tragically unsuited, often even than those impoverished their entire lives.

The women's exchange movement provided relief for previously "genteel" women suddenly or graduallyreduced to circumstances bordering on desperation. In more than 70 American cities, a system of consignment retail shops was set up in which
"consignors" (previously genteel but subsequently impoverished women) could offer domestic products (mostly sewing and needlework items) for sales anonymously.The "shame" of impoverishment was hidden, capitalism's sins were uncomplained about, and some income for desperate women and their dependents was achieved. The brutal policing visited on those who complained about expoitation by the capitalist system was escaped.

The women's industrial exchange movement was remarkable for its ingenuity and its imagination, and also for its longevity.Today, women's industrial exchange tea rooms and other facilities still operate and function, in some situations (as in Baltimore, Maryland) in facilities more than a century old.

At the dawn of the 21st century, the model and mentality of the women's industrial movement, described well by Dr. Sander, is a shining light of hope for impoverished people in a world where protections against capitalistic rapacityand greed are clearly disappearing completely.Neither government nor disappearing "benefits" (retirement pensions, health insurance, etc.) offered by companies to gullible employees seem likely to protect vulnerable people any longer.The loss of government promised "benefits" in all catagories seems very likely for the great majority of citizens as the new century progresses.

Self-help actions independent of government and employers alike seem the best hope.The women's industrial exchange movement of the 19th century is a splendid model of how independent self-help action can work.It's truly inspiring, and a detailed history of its origins, successes, problems, and management such as that offered by Dr. Kathleen Sander is worth reading. ... Read more

Book Description

An invaluable educational resource for introducing Studs Terkel's classic work of oral history to today's students. Pulitzer Prize-winning writer/journalist Studs Terkel is world famous for his oral histories, considered an innovator in modern ethnographic research. Working, Terkel's most popular book, provides a powerful and original perspective on one of the most basic components of human experience: work. The farmer, receptionist, college professor, mail carrier, stockbroker, athlete, and many others share their daily routines and dreams in their own words. Working has long been recognized as an ideal teaching tool, presenting provocative material certain to engage students, ignite classroom discussion, and inspire thoughtful writing. Now, helping educators discover a variety of approaches for using Working in the classroom, Rick Ayers presents a comprehensive teaching guide to this celebrated classic. With its 200 pages of classroom materials--including questions, topics for discussion, tips for taking oral histories, and a bibliography of related resources--Ayers' teaching guide is certain to be welcomed by educators everywhere. As an added bonus, it includes a new interview with Terkel himself, offering insight into the making of Working. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The best book about Korean society during the 1970s-90s
In their book 'Empire', Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri talked about the 1996-7 workers' general strike in Seoul, South Korea as one of the historical events against Empire.

Koo's book about working-class formation in Korea shows and analyzes how progressive and sometiems militant working-class movement of a large scale has been possible and grown up as a major political force in one of the East Asian countires which often have been well known for their docility of labor forces under conservative political rule.

This book has several merits:

1) it shows the process of working-class formation in the context of contemporary Korean development. Many books about Korean development have been written mainly in an economistic way. This book reveals people's lives and voices more realistically in the historical process.

2) while describing the historical process, Koo also tries to put his arguments on the theoretical base of weorking-class formation, especially E. P. Thompson. I think his way of doing this is very successful in this book.

3) Many books about working-class formation are mainly about the histories in the European context or Latin America. This book shows uniquely how the process has happened in the context of East Asian development.

His book is not only describing but also theoretical and analytical. And his book does not lose both academic rigidity as well as sympathy for workers' movement for social progress. With in-depth interviews of labor movement activists and the use of many domestic materials, Koo also could escape superficial observations and dry abstraction.

I find that this is one of the great books not only about contemporary Korean society but also about global working-class history. Additionally, regarding informative social (movement) history of Korea of the same period, I strongly recommend Nancy abelmann's book about famers' movement and Sunhyunk Kim's book about civil movements. ... Read more

Book Description

Affirmative action originated as a plan to correct the historical disadvantage of women and people of color—to make the system more fair. Yet, for over twenty years, it has been repeatedly attacked for being unfair to whites, and even un-American.

Guinier and Sturm begin with a critique of affirmative action as it stands now, arguing that a system of selection that determines "qualification" from test scores and then adds on factors like race and gender doesn't work—either for the people it includes or the people it leaves out. But they go further, asking us to rethink how we evaluate merit.

Marshaling lively examples from education and the workplace, they expose the failure of tests to predict success. They provide evidence that people's success depends on the opportunities they have to perform, and that institutions do best when they are open to unanticipated contributions. Offering a model of selection based on performance, not prediction, the authors' reconception of an old ideal suggests at once a smart business practice and a step toward the promise of democratic opportunity. Paul Osterman, Stephen Steinberg, Peter Sacks, and others respond.

NEW DEMOCRACY FORUM
A series of short paperback originals exploring creative solutions to our most urgent national concerns. The series editors (for Boston Review), Joshua Cohen and Joel Rogers, aim to foster politically engaged, intellectually honest, and morally serious debate about fundamental issues—both on and off the agenda of conventional politics. ... Read more

Book Description

The U.S. labor movement may be on the verge of massive growth, according to Dan Clawson.He argues that unions don't grow slowly and incrementally, but rather in bursts. Even if the AFL-CIO could organize twice as many members per year as it now does, it would take thirty years to return to the levels of union membership that existed when Ronald Reagan was elected president. In contrast, labor membership more than quadrupled in the years from 1934 to 1945. For there to be a new upsurge, Clawson asserts, labor must fuse with social movements concerned with race, gender, and global justice.

The new forms may create a labor movement that breaks down the boundaries between "union" and "community" or between work and family issues. Clawson finds that this is already happening in some parts of the labor movement: labor has endorsed global justice and opposed war in Iraq, student activists combat sweatshops, unions struggle for immigrant rights. Innovative campaigns of this sort, Clawson shows, create new strategies—determined by workers rather than union organizers—that redefine the very meaning of the labor movement. The Next Upsurge presents a range of examples from attempts to replace "macho" unions with more feminist models to campaigns linking labor and community issues and attempts to establish cross-border solidarity and a living wage. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Upsurge Fantasy
The central premise of this book is that a progressive "political-social-economic reversal" is likely to occur in the United States and will be driven by a transformed and advancing labor movement. This contention is made against the fact that the unionization rate of private sector workers in the US has dropped from 39 to 9 percent in the last fifty years. The author's optimism is based on some recent organizing successes and on the possibilities of drawing upon a social movement paradigm. However, it is problematical that the author does little in the way of exploring the ideological or political basis for any such upsurge.

In the 1990s some unions took advantage of the community support systems of "ghettoized" Latinos and blacks doing low-wage service work to apply militant pressure and win labor contracts for such workers as janitors, nursing home attendants, and dry-wall workers, etc. In a different vein, Harvard clerical workers were able to develop a potent solidarity over the course of fifteen painstaking years of developing relationships resulting in a unique and cooperative contract with Harvard University. However, few workers now live in small urban communities where many may work for the same or similar employers. Suburbanization has undermined that key basis of worker solidarity. The focus on immigrant communities and unique organizing situations seems to write off the vast majority of American workers.

The author casts a longing eye on the civil and feminist movements of the past as possible paradigms for a renewed labor movement. But he does not acknowledge the fundamental difference between movements trying to exercise basic political rights and one that is cast as infringing on private property rights, which is exactly how corporations view unionization drives. The Civil Rights movement led to general public pressure to stop the deprivation of basic rights to all citizens. Any number of other movements such as the 1960s anti-war movement, the environmental movement, and more recently the anti-sweatshop movement has successfully illuminated various flaws or hypocrisies in our political and economic systems. However, none of those movements has posed a fundamental challenge to the capitalistic economic system.

In the decades prior to WWI, before the resurgence of labor in the 1930s, sizeable segments of the American working class were well aware that capitalism took away control of their economic destinies. The Knights of Labor, the IWW, and the socialists all contested this loss of control. But their influence had largely disappeared by the late 1920s. It was, in fact, the extreme excesses of capitalism, coupled with the fact of an urbanized working class, which led to the resurgence of labor in 1930s. Despite unemployment rates of 30 percent, the state and economic elites were able to contain discontent by creating a labor relations system whereby unions partnered with management in a social accord where adequate wages and benefits were the quid pro quo for restraining worker activism. The grievance systems found in most bargaining agreements were elementary forms of workplace systems of justice. However, in no sense, did workers achieve democracy within workplaces.

What is to be learned about the labor upsurge of the 1930s? As noted, a sizeable minority of the working class gained mostly material benefits along with some job security. But a majority of the working class was not included in this compact, especially blacks and women. Was there a transformation in the political thought of the working class? At best, this labor upsurge resulted in a short lived, mildly social democratic slant in the larger political system. In the last 30 years the American working class has supported politicians who have constructed a global neoliberal system that has been highly detrimental to their interests.

A key theme in the book is that had the labor movement joined with social movements over the past decades, the economic terrain would now be favorable to workers. But the constituencies and relationship to the remainder of society of unions and single issue movements are sufficiently different to call into question any synergistic joining together. The author continues this theme by calling for a "fusion" of labor with progressive movements. Other than a few isolated instances of labor-community actions and some middle-class college kids smearing egg on the face of some oblivious college administrators, the nature of how this fusion would work is not addressed. Actually, some critics see serious shortcomings in emphasizing the mobilization of close-knit communities in union campaigns, calling it "militancy without democracy." Worker democracy to many is no less than the full participation of workers or elected representatives in most workplace decision making.

This author, like most labor advocates, does not address whether American labor unions effectively serve the interests of the working class. The labor-friendly institutions of European social democracies provide one measuring standard. A combination of labor-influenced political parties, works councils, and active employment policies surpass the minimalist American system. Furthermore, those bodies and structures serve the entire working class and not the small minority found in American unions. European unions operate within the confines of this system.

In addition, labor commentators seldom comment on the political sophistication and participation of the American working class. Given the fact that economic and political elites have generally constructed a political and economic system that immensely benefits them, it is difficult to understand a labor strategy that does not directly and substantially attempt to transform that system. Ad hoc organizing or single issue mobilizations are unlikely to substantially alter the status quo.

The reader is left wondering what is the basis for any sort of progressive upsurge. The forces and thinking for such an upsurge simply do not exist. The labor movement has not in 80 years led a radical challenge to the current economic system that favors the few over the many. Of course, if unemployment ever reaches 30 percent again, there will be an upsurge of some type. But the author's suggestion of an upsurge is not based on that occurring. ... Read more

Book Description

Dozens of professional resume writers share their secrets and sample resumes for landing the fastest-growing and highest-paying jobs. Shows readers how to present technical skills in reader-friendly language that employers demand. Over 180 pages of sample resumes targeted to high-tech jobs—from entry-level to executive. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Great Resource
I found this to be more useful than other resume books because it was current AND was geared towards our industry. The reference samples and layout ideas gave me the "jump start" I needed. ... Read more

Book Description

The American labor market faces many deep-rooted problems, including persistence of a large low-wage sector, worsening inequality in earnings, employees lack of voice in the workplace, and the need of employers to maximize flexibility if they are to survive in an increasingly competitive market. The impetus for this book is the absence of a serious national debate about these issues.

The book represents nearly three years of deliberation by more than 250 people drawn from business, labor, community groups, academia, and government. It traces todays labor-market policy and laws back to the New Deal and to a second wave of social regulation that began in the 1960s. Underlying the current system are assumptions about who is working, what workers do, and how much job security workers enjoy. Economic and social changes have rendered those assumptions invalid and have resulted in mismatches between labor institutions and efficient and equitable deployment of the workforce, as well as between commitments to the labor market and family responsibilities. This book should launch a national dialogue on how to update our policies and institutions to catch up with the changes in the nature of work, in the workforce, and in the economy. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Poorly written/some good insights
The poor, repetitious writing may be due to the fact that there was a "group effort" preparing and writing the book.There are a lot of good insights comparing the "old economy" labor force and the "new economy" labor force.The reader, however, must perservere to get through the repetition and disorganization.There are few short but interesting case studies in Chapter 3, and lots of left-wing policy recommendations throughout the book. ... Read more

Book Description

In an effort to understand the roots of gender inequality, Myra Strober and Agnes Miling Kaneko Chan conducted an extensive survey of the 1981 graduates of Stanford and Tokyo Universities--parallel populations in historically very different cultures. First-hand comments from the graduates are combined with quantitative analyses for a lively examination of the career and family choices of these highly educated women and men. The authors take a fresh look at the widespread belief that U.S. gender equity is light years ahead of Japan's. The elite group of Japanese and Americans in their study describe surprisingly similar experiences as they faced the job market and began raising families. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Comparing the Gender Gap in the U. S. and Japan
The Road Winds Uphill All The Way: Gender, Work and Family in the United States and Japan. By Myra H. Strober and Agnes M. K. Chan. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1999, 276 pp.

Stober and Chan maintain that theeconomic position of women in the United States bears a number of uncannysimilarities to that of Japanese women. This is one of a number ofdisconcerting conclusions they draw from a study of the Stanford and Tokyo(Todai) University graduating classes of 1981, surveyed roughly a decadeafter graduation. Readers interested in the details of campus life in thesetwo schools will come away disappointed, but those seeking to learn whathappened to the graduates later in life will be richly rewarded.

The book focuses on the difficulty of combining work and family for thoseentering, or seeking to enter, the highest echelons of the professions andmanagement.Strober and Chan recognize the distinctiveness of their elitesample, but this is clearly an important group.They typically set thetrends for their respective societies, and will likely formulate thework-family policies that govern the daily work routines of theircountry-men and women.

Strober and Chan recall their personalchild-care dilemmas after returning to work in Washington, D. C. and Tokyo,respectively. Their stories immediately draw the reader into the questionof which country poses a greater array of obstacles for working mothers toovercome. Yet it is the statistical similarities between Japan and the U.S. that Strober and Chan return to throughout the book.

Thefemale-male ratio of earnings for full time earners ten years aftergraduation was .80 for the Stanford graduates, nearly identical to the .79ratio found in the Todai sample. Moreover, men and women in bothcountries expected the gender gap to widen as their careers unfolded.Whenrespondents were asked what they expected to earn at the peak of theircareers, the female/ male ratio is a dramatic .459 in the Stanford sampleand .548 in the Todai sample. In other words, women graduating from thesetop-ranked schools expected to make about half as much as their malecounterparts at the peak of their careers.

A number ofcountervailing differences account for these similarities. Todai women werea small and very elite group, which contributed to a smaller gap in theTodai sample. At the same time, earnings inequality is narrower in Japanthan in the United States, which tends to mute the gender gap in earnings.On the other hand, child care options are broader in the United States, butstill far from adequate. Stanford women reported more numerous child careoptions, and were less likely to experience career interruptions afterchildbirth. Some Todai mothers reported being forced to quit their jobsafter the birth of a child, an experience not mentioned by the Stanfordwomen.

Who took care of the children? It depends on who you ask.Just over half of the Stanford fathers reported sharing child care equallywith their wives when they were not at work, but only thirty percent oftheir female counterparts reported being in such marriages. This gap growsto 56 percent versus 21 percent among Stanford parents working full time.Responses to the slightly different child care question posed to the Todaisample suggests an even lower level of participation by men in parenting.Most of the Todai fathers (60 percent) said they spend less than half oftheir free time on their children, while nearly all (97 percent) of theworking Todai mothers said they spend half or more of their free time withtheir children. There are many other interesting analyses,including an examination of the effect of relative earnings on the share ofhousework in the two samples, and the determinants of earnings.Thebargaining model of housework appears to fit the U. S. data but receiveslittle support in the Japanese analysis. Working in a large firm shapedearnings in Japan: women were less likely to be employed in these firms,and received a lower premium when they did.Male Stanford graduates fromupper-class backgrounds earned significantly more than their classmates.Analysts of gender, earnings, and family relations will find many suchinteresting results to ponder.

The Japanese birth rate (1.57children per woman ) is well below the replacement level.Strober and Chansuggest that policy changes should be made to help make it more feasiblefor women to combine work with motherhood. They recommend efforts to reducegender discrimination and occupational segregation, and call for moreflexible employment and high quality child care. They recommend similarreforms in the United States, which are aimed at promoting gender equityrather than fertility levels.

This thoughtful and timely bookdeserves a wide audience. Clearly written, it isaccessible to the generalpublic, upper-level undergraduates and graduate students. The presentationof the survey results and statistical findings are supplemented withinformative quotations from the respondents.Its policy recommendationsflow directly from the meticulously documented findings. This work shouldprovide further impetus to comparative research on gender inequality.

Reviewed by Jerry A. Jacobs, Professor of Sociology, University ofPennsylvania ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Reviews from JAPA, Chicago Enterprise & Economic Geography.
"This book is an important contribution to the debate on the impact of public policies on business behavior and the distribution of the benefits of economic growth among various population groups."
Journal of the American Planning Association

"A manual of sorts for any region across the country frustrated by high unemployment and declining wages."
Chicago Enterprise

"Perhaps the best information available anywhere on econometric estimation of causal relationships between state and local public policy initiatives and purported economic development outcomes."
Economic Geography

Reviews from JAPA, Chicago Enterprise & Economic Geography.
"This book is an important contribution to the debate on the impact of public policies on business behavior and the distribution of benefits of economic growth among various population groups."
Journal of the American Planning Association

"A manual of sorts for any region across the country frustrated by high unemployment and declining wages."
Chicago Enterprise

"Perhaps the best information anywhere on the econometric estimation of causal relationships between state and local public policy initiatives and purported local economic development outcomes."
Economic Geography ... Read more

Book Description

Labor Pains is an insider's account of the struggle to rebuild a vibrant and powerful trade union movement in the United States. It takes as its starting point the daily experience of a union organizer, and brings that experience to life. It enables us to grasp how the conflicting demands of race, class, and gender are lived in the new union movement.

The role of the unions is defined mainly by larger economic and political agendas. While keeping these agendas clearly in sight, Erem focuses primarily on aspects of the life of the union which often remain hidden. The personal crises of union members become entangled in the work of the union. The energies of the union are focused not only on winning gains from bosses but also on maintaining internal cohesion and morale among workers. Barriers of race, age and gender are constantly negotiated and overcome, and conflicts flare up across them at moments of tension. And union life goes on not only when the workers have made their point, or won a victory, but after defeat as well. The personalities and ambitions of union organizers converge at times and become a source of tension at others. Each individual within the larger collective has their own task of finding a viable balance between public and private selves.

These intersecting lines of force are imaginatively recreated in this book. Erem writes as a woman in a union movement which is dominated by men; as the child of immigrants in a movement whose members are increasingly immigrants themselves; as one who finds herself in the racial no man's land between black and white. While never underestimating the obstacles in the way of the union movement, she makes a powerful and passionate case for organizing the unorganized and empowering the powerless. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Real Labor Activists Tell it Like It Is
Ever since John Sweeny displaced the old guard at the AFL-CI0 and began to revive a moribund but important labor movement, we've read a great deal about this new face of labor. We've read about the focus on service employees -- who are predominantly women and people of color -- we've learned about aggressive organizing tactics and corporate campaigns, we've seen the leaders of the movement featured in labor publications and we've even heard about the members, activists and staffers who are the ground troops in this war.

Suzan Erem's book, Labor Pains, is unusual in that it makes us live through the beginnings of that movement. We don't just read about it; Erem's writing has the ability to bring you into it and you see if from the inside -- warts and all.

She does this by conncecting with reader not as an activist or leader -- but as a human being. The labor movement is made up of human beings who have the same problems and concerns that everyone else has, including raising children, paying the rent and even keeping warm during the long Chicago winter. It has been a shortcoming of writing about labor that the authors seem to think that the only humans are the "objects" of the organizing drives, the potential and actual bargaining unit employees, except, of course, when they have something bad to say about the leaders.

Erem doesn't have something bad to say -- or something good, for that matter. She just tells it as it is. Yes, the movement is made up of men and women struggling to create a better world, but these men and women can -- like everyone else -- be motivated by racism or nationalism, sexism and careerism. Not to say that is to patronize the reader and to call into question all of the "happy" truths of the movement. Those interested in the new labor movement can balance the truth about our humanity with the fact of our commitment.

I especially recommend this book to those many young people who come to the movement with high hopes of making a difference. It says that you have good reason for those hopes, but here are some landmines to avoid. These readers will all thank Erem for sharing the shortcomings of our activists and our movement -- including her own --with them, while also confirming that their hope to make a difference by organizing working people into unions is still well placed.

Often Poetic Picture of the Gritty Side of Labor Organizing
Often Poetic Picture of the Gritty Side of Labor Organizing

Labor Pains is a good read and a thoughtful and perceptive description of the work of a labor organizer for SEIU Local 73. The author, Suzan Erem, is a woman with the soul of a poet who fought on behalf of workers to organize. Much that I had read previously about such efforts to establish and maintain unions has been either inspirational, like the splendid song of the French Revolution, the Marseillaise, or tedious, like descriptions of Madam Lafarge's knitting. This is neither: it is the well-observed descriptive account of activities of a dedicated witness to, and participant in, the efforts by the labor movement to secure power and justice. In some senses it is about love and perhaps even the ecstasy of the moment but more important it is as the title, Labor Pains, perceptively suggests, about what comes after the love and the moment and before the exhilarating and painful moment of birth.

Labor Pains is about Suzan Erem's moments of discomfort and doubt. It is also about her persistence and her effort to maintain balance and idealism. She does not always succeed and tells us about the failure of her marriage and the organizing efforts that didn't work. But she also provides graphic descriptions of efforts that did work and the pleasure she took in those moments.

Erem is particularly good at describing the people she worked with and the role of the media in the struggle to organize. Her primary job was not only to organize, but also to get the story out. The story is not always happy or glamorous but it is well described. In one scene a small band of organizers hang a banner over an overpass to draw the media's attention to a strike they are organizing against a Chicago hospital. It is a very cold early winter Chicago morning on Lake Shore Drive and the effort seems almost futile, perhaps crazy. But it works and the media event draws attention to the union's struggle and helps in the winning effort organize the hospital and bring about an improved wage scale and other benefits through the protection of the union.

Erem describes her work in the labor movement both as an attempt to "scratch our mark on history" and to tell the story of the workers, a story that might otherwise not be told. She has done this well in Labor Pains and she has also told us her own story. It was a story worth telling. I expect she will have more stories to tell us. ... Read more