Message from the Chair I S S U E H I G H L IGH T S 1 Message from the Chair 2 New Newsletter Editor 3 Student paper Competition 3 Recent and Forthcoming Scholarship 5 SSSP Annual Meeting 2012 6 Membership Reminders 6 EFCA Resolution SSSP Labor Studies November 2011 Volume 5 Issue 2 On the Line By Ted M. Brimeyer, Division Chair I hope everyone is enjoying their return to work after the summer. I have a few information items and my own harangue about current events but would first like to thank Kendra Jason, former chair, and Dan Tope, former newsletter editor, for their hard work for the division. The information items that I want to remind or inform members of are: . SSSP is moving from 3 free division memberships to 1 free division membership for faculty/professionals and 2 free divisions for students. Additional division memberships will cost $10. Please make sure to click on labor studies when renewing your membership. . A resolution (see below) was passed in support of public sector unions. Note the final statement: “That a copy of this resolution with a cover letter be forwarded to the governors, legislative leaders, and organizations, including public-sector unions, in states where legislation threatening the collective-bargaining rights of workers is pending or is being challenged, and any other individual or body that the Executive Officer of the SSSP and the Division determine.” As a division we have the opportunity to provide input on who receives the resolution. While we discussed who should receive a copy of the resolution at the meeting we did not reach a consensus on the matter. . My current thoughts are to send it to the governor of each state that has limited public sector unionization or has alluded to this action, the Democrat and Republican state party leaders of those states, and federations and national unions who represent public workers (AFL-CIO, Change to Win, AFSCME, International Association of Firefighters, National Association of Police Organizations, American Federation of Teachers, United Federation of Teachers, National Education Association). Please send me your suggestions so that the resolution reaches the appropriate people, I do not want to inadvertently miss anyone. These are the states that allow collective bargaining for at least some of their public employees: Alaska, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Wyoming. I know that the states in bold have proposed, passed, or have pending legislation to curb these rights, what states am I missing? Please send me the names of states I have missed. . See the Labor Studies division’s sponsored sessions below. Please submit your own work and also encourage your students to submit as well. Finally, while the Madison Protests and Occupy Wall Street have attracted a great deal of national attention and are extremely important events, we should not forget about other labor issues at the local, state, national, and international levels. I am sure that employers are still actively working to prevent employees from organizing, or denying workers’ rights in other ways. It is vital that we continue to document and, when possible, become involved in these actions. At the state level, Ohioans will vote on November 8 whether to repeal a state law restricting collective bargaining by public workers. Nationally, we may want to keep an eye on attempts at deregulation, in the name of “job creation”, that are potentially harmful to workers, the public, and the environment. Last but not least, we should not abandon attempts to understand and prevent the exploitation our fellow workers throughout the world. New On the Line Editor The new editor for On the Line is Liz Cullen, a first year graduate student at Georgia Southern University. Liz completed her B.A. in Sociology and a B.S. in Cinema & Photography from the Park School of Communications at Ithaca College in New York. She spent the last 6 years in Los Angeles working for Twentieth Century Fox and Sony Pictures. Her interests include Media Studies and Criminal Justice Studies. SSSP Elected Officers Are you interested in serving in an elected position with SSSP? If so please visit the Nomination Form for SSSP Elected Officers located at: http://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/pageid/1082/) You can either self-nominate or contact Stephani Williams (stephani.williams@gmail.com) if you have ideas for nominees. Nominees will be contacted to determine their interest. C:\Users\elizabeth-cullen\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\CHM2UIOG\MC900289974[1].wmf LABOR STUDIES Deadline 5/1/12 One of the most important activities of the Labor Studies Division is to recognize the work of graduate students. As in the past, the division is soliciting graduate student papers that build on the legacy of the late Harry Braverman. The Award consists of a $200 cash prize and a ticket to the annual SSSP awards banquet. The Braverman tradition includes work in a variety of areas, including (but not limited to): labor process studies, critical organization studies, research on the intersections of gender, race, and class at work, technical and organizational change and its impact on work culture, labor movements and resistance in the workplace, critical perspectives on labor markets and occupational transformation. Papers co-authored with faculty members will not be accepted. Single authored papers by graduate students and papers co-authored by graduate students are welcome. All papers will be evaluated by a committee composed of at least three Labor Studies Division faculty scholars. E-mail your paper and a short letter of submission identifying your graduate program to: Ted Brimeyer, tbrimeyer@georgiasouthern.edu. Recent and Forthcoming Scholarship from the Membership Carolyn C. Perrucci and Dina Banerjee, “Factors Impacting Job-RelatedSelf-Esteem, International Journal of Contemporary Sociology47,2,(October 2010): 347-363. Carolyn Cummings Perrucci and Robert Perrucci, “Economic Crisis and Its Effect on Hope, Trust, and Caring,” in Claire M. Renzetti and Raquel K. Bergen (Eds.) Understanding Diversity: Celebrating Difference, Challenging Inequality. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, forthcoming. Robert Perrucci, “Corporate Restructuring,” in Vicki Smith (Ed.) Sociology of Work Encyclopedia, Sage, forthcoming. Carolyn Perrucci, “Displaced Workers,” in Vicki Smith (Ed.) Sociology of Work Encyclopedia, Sage, forthcoming. Description: Casino Women Chris Rhomberg, Signal Juncture: The Detroit Newspaper Strike and Post-Accord Labor Relations in the United States," American Journal of Sociology. Vol. 115, No. 6 (May 2010): 1853-94, received the 2011 Distinguished Scholarly Article award from the ASA Labor and Labor Movements section, and was co-winner of the 2011 Distinguished Scholarly Contribution (Article) award from the ASA Political Sociology section. His book, The Broken Table: The Detroit Newspaper Strike and the State of American Labor, is forthcoming from Russell Sage Foundation. CASINO WOMEN: Courage in Unexpected Places by Susan Chandler and Jill B. Jones 2011 ILR Press CASINO WOMEN is a pioneering look at the female face of corporate gaming. Based on extended interviews with maids, cocktail waitresses, cooks, laundry workers, dealers, pit bosses, and vice presidents, the book describes in compelling detail a world whose enormous profitability is dependent on the labor of women assigned stereotypically female occupations— making beds and serving food on the one hand and providing sexual allure on the other. But behind the neon lies another world, peopled by thousands of remarkable women who assert their humanity in the face of gaming empires’ relentless quest for profits. The casino women profiled here generally fall into two groups. Geoconda Arguello Kline, typical of the first, arrived in the United States in the 1980s fleeing the war in Nicaragua. Finding work as a Las Vegas hotel maid, she overcame her initial fear of organizing and joined with others to build the preeminent grassroots union in the nation—the 60,000-member Culinary Union—becoming in time its president. In Las Vegas, “the hottest union city in America,” the collective actions of union activists have won economic and political power for tens of thousands of working Nevadans and their families. The story of these women’s transformation and their success in creating a union able to face off against global gaming giants form the centerpiece of this book. Another group of women, dealers and middle managers among them, did not act. Fearful of losing their jobs, they remained silent, declining to speak out when others were abused, and in the case of middle managers, taking on the corporations’ goals as their own. Susan Chandler and Jill B. Jones appraise the cost of their silence and examine the factors that pushed some women into activism and led others to accept the status quo. Casino Women will appeal to all readers interested in women, gambling, and working-class life, and in how ordinary people stand up to corporate actors who appear to hold all the cards. SSSP Annual Meeting 2012 Labor Studies Division Solo and Co-Sponsored Sessions: 1. Worker and Union Activism in Precarious Times (Solo, Thematic) Organizer: Baker, Chris W.; Chris.Baker@ws.edu 2. The Art of Workplace Survival (Solo, Thematic) Organizer: Ted M. Brimeyer; tbrimeyer@georgiasouthern.edu 3. Egypt, Wisconsin, and the UK: Class “Acts” in a Digital Age (Poverty, Class and Inequality; Global; Labor Studies) Organizer: Shawn Cassiman; shawncassiman@gmail.com 4. Work Across the Life-Course (Youth, Aging, and the Life-course; Labor Studies) Organizer: Organizer: Mary Byrnes mbyrnes4404@marygrove.edu 5. Care workers: Public Policy, Collective Action, and Training (Youth, Aging, and the Life-course; Labor Studies) Organizer: Organizer: Mary Byrnes mbyrnes4404@marygrove.edu 6. Immigrant Workers and the State (Labor Studies; Race and Ethnic Minorities; Global) Organizer: Dan Tope; dtope@fsu.edu 7. Employment, the Environment, and Social Welfare (Labor Studies, Environment and Technology; Sociology and Social Welfare) Organizer: Ted Brimeyer; tbrimeyer@georgiasouthern.edu 8. Jobs, Families, and Communities (Family; Sociology and Social Welfare; Labor Studies) Organizer: Ted Brimeyer; tbrimeyer@georgiasouthern.edu 9. Labor and Public Social Welfare: Activism on both Sides of the Ideological Divide (Roundtable) (Sociology and Social Welfare, Labor Studies) Organizer: Ted Brimeyer; tbrimeyer@georgiasouthern.edu REMINDERS: Time to RENEW! If you have not renewed your 2012 SSSP membership, please do so as soon as possible. Don’t forget to choose THE LABOR STUDIES DIVISION as one of your special problems divisions. We have less than 200 members and want our division to thrive. We also ask that you do at least one of the following to ensure our division’s success: . sponsor a membership for a student; . sponsor a membership for a colleague or friend; . ask for SSSP brochures and make them available at your department and/or workplace; . encourage fellow SSSP members to join the Labor Studies Division; . promote SSSP to your students, colleagues, and peers; . become (or continue to be) active at annual meetings; . contribute to our newsletter with a book review, announcement, op ed, essay or special writing. RESOLUTION 2: Labor Rights in the Public Sector WHEREAS: Public employees in many contexts have already made financial sacrifices to work in the public sector and have already been negatively affected by cuts or threatened cuts in public funding. WHEREAS: Several state legislatures, in the name of closing these deficits, have moved to disenfranchise public employees by removing workers’ rights and restricting unionization; reduce and negate tenure for public teachers and college employees and professors; and overturn their collective bargaining rights; AND WHEREAS: polls indicate a majority of Americans oppose the weakening of public sector employees bargaining rights; AND BE IT RESOLVED: that the SSSP opposes restrictions on the rights of public employees at the local, state and federal level to collective bargaining and freedom of association and opposes legislation curbing collective bargaining for elementary, secondary and higher education institutions; AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: That the SSSP stands in solidarity with public workers, including university and public education employees in their right to collective bargaining and to a fair and reasonable bargaining process. AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: That a copy of this resolution with a cover letter be forwarded to the governors, legislative leaders, and organizations, including public-sector unions, in states where legislation threatening the collective-bargaining rights of workers is pending or is being challenged, and any other individual or body that the Executive Officer of the SSSP and the Division determine. Resources: Cooper, Michael and Megan Thee-Brenan. 2011. “Majority in Poll Back Public Sector Unions” New York Times February 28. Cauchon, Dennis. 2011. “Poll Americans favor union bargaining rights.” USA TODAY February 23. Greenhouse, Steve. 2011. “Strained States Turning to Laws to Curb Law Unions.” New York Times January 3. Brown, Kevin 2010. “Public Sector Unions.” Monthly Review May 20 American Rights at Work. 2011. “Partnerships in Education: How labor-management Collaboration is Transforming Public Schools.” (Education Fund Publication)