LABOR STUDIES
2007
Charles Koeber*
Wichita State University
Our division advocates equality, justice, democracy, recognition, appreciation, and respect for those who work. The scholarship of our members addresses challenges faced by a national and global labor force in changing economies and workplaces. This diverse labor force can be found in fields or factories, behind counters or computers, in hospitals or hotels, and many other sites. Some workers are employed in full-time and regular employment, others in the growing segment of less stable and predictable marginal and contingent work. Some work for wages, others perform unpaid work as caretakers of households, children, or as volunteers. Our membership consists of scholars and activists who are committed to exposing, understanding, and opposing the unwarranted subordination of workers. We believe that in a just world, people would not be subject to unequal treatment in the workplace because of their race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, disability or other characteristics. In a just world, workers would not lack basic needs because corporations and corporate-funded governments prioritize the interests of big business over human welfare.
One project that fits the mission of our division is a pact between the United Steelworkers and the International Association of Machinists, who have recently signed agreements with Amicus, the UK’s largest private sector union, and the German engineering union, Ig-Metall. This could be an important first step toward creating a very large and powerful international union. By presenting a unified front against transnational corporations, with more than six million members, this union could stop their employers from exploiting international labor markets to leverage down wages, fringe benefits, and the quality of work life. Another project is the Living Wage Movement which asserts that no one who works for a living should be poor. This movement has proposed and had passed into law living wage ordinances in many U.S. cities. Community organizations, such as ACORN or the Industrial Areas Foundation, establish a wage floor which accounts for the high cost of living in metropolitan areas and exceeds the federal and state minimum wage. Once passed, living wage ordinances enable lower-wage retail and service workers and those who work for city contractors to live above the poverty level. Living wage ordinances have been passed in many cities such as Los Angeles, Baltimore, Chicago, and San Jose. A movement of college students is also working to pass living wage ordinances on campuses.
One difficulty we confront is that now, more than ever, the needs of people are subordinated to the imperatives of large transnational corporations. Driven by the political and economic inertia of a rapidly expanding global capitalism, corporations exploit workers in new labor markets, while degrading work, displacing workers, and undermining the power of unions in established labor markets. As a result, workers in newly emerging markets confront battles won by the American labor movement decades ago while American workers find themselves revisiting many of these same old battles again. We believe that in a just world the rights of workers would not be sacrificed for the profits of transnational corporations.
Some books that we recommend to SSSP Colleagues:
Beck, Ulrich. 2000. The Brave New World of Work. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Braverman, Harry. 1974. Labor and Monopoly Capital. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Clawson, Dan. 2003. The Next Upsurge: Labor and the New Social Movements. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press.
Ehrenreich, Barbara. 2001. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. New York: Metropolitan.
Gottfried, Heidi and Reese, Laura (eds.). 20004, Equity in the Workplace: Gendering Workplace Policy Analysis. Lanham : Lexington Books, 2004.
Henson, Kevin. 1996. Just a Temp. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Lee, Ching Kwan. 1998. Gender and the South China Miracle. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Milkman, Ruth and Kim Voss. 2004. Rebuilding Labor: Organizers and Organizing in the New Labor Movement. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press.
Perrucci, Robert and Earl Wysong. 2002. The New Class Society: Goodbye American Dream? New York, NY: Rowman and Littlefield.
Rogers, Jackie Krasas. 2000. Temps: The Many Faces of the Changing Workplace. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press
Smith, Vicki. 2002. Crossing the Great Divide: Worker Risk and Opportunity in the New Economy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
*Chair, Labor Studies, 2005-2007. Thanks to Labor Studies members who provided ideas for this statement by responding to the solicitation posted in the Labor Studies Division’s Fall 2006 newsletter.