Labor Pains: Inside America's New Union Movement - Couverture souple

Erem, Writer And Journalist Suzan

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1583670580 ISBN 13 : 9781583670583

Editeur : Monthly Review Press, 2001

Synopsis

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 disorganized and empowering the powerless.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Suzan Erem has worked in the union movement as an organizer, union rep, communications director, and elected officer, mainly in Chicago. She is the author of Labor Pains: Inside America's New Union Movement (Monthly Review Press). She is now a freelance writer.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Monthly Review Press
• Date d'édition: 2001
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1583670580
• ISBN 13: 9781583670583
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 160
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible