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Labor in the New Urban Battlegrounds examines a diverse array of innovative strategies for revitalizing the labor movement by forming alliances outside the workplace with a variety of community groups, social movements, and faith-based organizations, particularly those that address civil rights, immigrant rights, and consumer concerns. This book presents case studies of issues—such as living wages, community development corporations, and local politics—around which urban coalitions are built in “union towns” (New York City, Boston, Buffalo, and Seattle), “frontier cities” (Los Angeles, Miami, San Jose, and Nashville), and European cities (London, Frankfurt, and Hamburg).
Introducing the role of urban social context in the field of labor revitalization, the editors have chosen cases with different outcomes—cities in which strong coalitions have enabled new union influence are contrasted with those in which such coalition building has been thwarted. As they survey the successes and failures of the new urban labor movement, the editors and contributors conclude that actor choice, strategic innovation, coalition building, and the urban context of labor organizing are key elements in the revitalization of the labor movement and the renewal of democracy. This book will allow the labor leaders of the future to learn from the recent experiences of their peers throughout the United States and Europe.
Ron Applegate, Cornell University
Barbara Byrd, University of Oregon
William Canak, Middle Tennessee State University
Daniel B. Cornfield, Vanderbilt University
Benjamin Day, Mass-Care: The Massachusetts Campaign for Single Payer Health Care
Peter Evans, University of California, Berkeley
Lou Jean Fleron, Cornell University
Ian Greer, Cornell University and Leeds University
Marco Hauptmeier, Cornell University
Jane Holgate, London Metropolitan University
Otto Jacobi, Laboratorium Europa
Heiwon Kwon, Cornell University
Stephanie Luce, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Bruce Nissen, Florida International University
David Reynolds, Wayne State University
Nari Rhee, University of California, Berkeley
Monica Russo, SEIU
Julie A. Sadler, University of Delaware
Jefferey M. Sellers, University of Southern California
Lowell Turner, Cornell University
Jane Wills, University of London
Reviews
" Labor in the New Urban Battlegrounds is a richly detailed book that produces important insights into what unions need to consider as they weigh their options, identify allies, and attempt to build social justice infrastructures capable of research and mobilization. The case studies of 'union towns' and 'frontier towns' are especially fascinating and express the importance of urban context and history in concrete terms. . . . It should be of great interest to labor scholars as well as scholars of community organizing in the U.S. context."—Michelle Camou, Urban Affairs Review
“As multinational corporations dominate more aspects of our daily lives, it is critical that we develop global strategies for solving local problems. This important new book does just that. By comparing local union organizing campaigns from around the world, this talented group of labor researchers makes a unique contribution to our understanding of the global labor movement.”—Bruce Raynor, General President, UNITE HERE!
About the Author
Lowell Turner is Professor of International and Comparative Labor, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University. He is the author of Democracy at Work and Fighting for Partnership and coeditor of Rekindling the Movement: Labor's Search for Relevance in the 21st Century, all from Cornell. Daniel B. Cornfield is Professor of Sociology at Vanderbilt University and editor of Work and Occupations. He is the author of Becoming a Mighty Voice: Conflict and Change in the United Furniture Workers of America and editor or coeditor of several books, including Labor Revitalization: Global Perspectives and New Initiatives. Peter Evans is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Embedded Autonomy, editor of Livable Cities?, and coeditor of Bringing the State Back In.
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