This volume highlights the recent state of collective bargaining in eight different industries across both the private and public sectors.

Stephen J. Silvia examines the oscillations of the German economy across the entire postwar period through one of its most important components: the industrial relations system.

Dan Zuberi looks at the consequences of outsourcing hospital cleaning and food preparation from two perspectives: its impact on patient safety and its role in increasing socioeconomic inequality.

Jamie K. McCallum tells the story of SEIU's successful and aggressive campaign to organize G4S, a global security services company.

Hilgert finds that the protection of the right to refuse unsafe work, as constituted under international labor standards, is a failure and calls for a reexamination of worker health and safety policy from the ground up.

An engaging "counter-memory" of a diverse, cross-class opposition to the Vietnam War that included the labor movement, working-class students, soldiers and veterans, and Black Power, civil rights, and Chicano activists.

A groundbreaking exploration of the political, economic, and moral implications of dining out, focusing on the lives of restaurant workers in major cities across the United States.

The Chicken Trail examines the impact of globalization—and of NAFTA in particular—on the North American poultry industry, focusing on the displacement of African American workers in the southeast United States and workers in Mexico.

"The State of Working America remains unrivaled as the most-trusted source for a comprehensive understanding of how working Americans and their families are faring in today's economy."—Robert B. Reich

Portrays the struggles that Louisiana shrimp fishers endure to remain afloat in an industry beset by globalization.