TY - JOUR T1 - Unions Facing and Suffering Neo-liberalism in the United States JF - The International Handbook Of Labour Unions: Responses to Neo-Liberalism Y1 - 2012 A1 - Bruno, Bob ED - Gregor Gall ED - Adrian Wilkinson ED - Richard Hurd KW - air traffic controllers KW - anti-unionism KW - labor movement KW - neo-liberalism KW - Ronald Reagan KW - workers’ rights AB -

[Excerpt] In the 1980s, neo-liberalism washed over the American political landscape and nearly drowned the labour movement. The first sign of high water is debatable. Maybe, it was the firing of striking unionised air traffic controllers by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 that signalled the advance of an unfettered ‘free market’ in America. Symbolically, the strong-armed action of the nation’s chief executive to punish federal employees waging an illegal strike was a watershed moment for the deteriorating relationship between capital and labour. Corporate leaders and right-wing conservative political forces interpreted Reagan’s executive order as an unconditional withdrawal of state protections for worker rights. McCarten (2006: 215, 216) called the strike of Professional Air Traffic Controllers (PATCO) ‘one of the most significant events in 20th century US labor history’ (2006, 215) symbolising ‘the declining power of the labor movement’. But as dramatic as it was in turning labour’s fortunes the air traffic control firings were more a confirmation of a neo-liberal turn than the first rip in the postwar social-contract fabric. In the late 1970s, administrative deregulation had already been imposed on the trucking industry reducing incomes and eliminating union drivers. Foreign cars had driven unimpeded into American show rooms while American auto manufactures and government officials ignored the realities of the emerging global markets for durable goods. Trade policy shaped principally by cold war foreign policy concerns had invited steel imports into industrial centers of the Midwest and Northeast.

PB - Edward Elgar Publishing CY - Northampton, MA L2 - eng ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Neutrality Agreements: Innovative, Controversial, and Labor’s Hope for the Future JF - New Labor Forum Y1 - 2008 A1 - Richard Hurd KW - labor movement KW - labor rights KW - neutrality agreements KW - organization KW - unions KW - UNITE-HERE AB -

[Excerpt] In spite of the criticisms, there can be little doubt that labor’s campaigns to achieve and enforce neutrality agreements offer hope that the long-term decline in union density actually can be reversed. A high-profile example of a strategic blend of bargaining and organizing demonstrates the potential of this approach.

VL - 17 L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/302/ CP - 1 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Dueling Federations: U.S. Labor in 2006 JF - Fokus Amerika Y1 - 2006 A1 - Richard Hurd KW - AFL-CIO KW - Change to Win KW - Congress of Industrial Organizations KW - labor movement KW - organization KW - unions AB -

[Excerpt] Labor unity in the U.S. lasted exactly half a century. At the convention to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the 1955 merger of the American Federation of Labor with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, bitterness and rebellion swept away plans of celebration. On the eve of the August 2005 event in Chicago, seven major unions announced that they would break away from the AFL-CIO. Six weeks later they formally established the Change to Win federation, spawning both proclamations of labor’s rebirth and simultaneous warnings of the movement’s destruction.

VL - 6 L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/306/ ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Is Organizing Enough? Race, Gender, and Union Culture JF - New Labor Forum Y1 - 2000 A1 - Fletcher, B. A1 - Richard Hurd KW - AFL-CIO KW - gender KW - labor movement KW - labor rights KW - organization KW - race KW - revitalization KW - unions AB -

[Excerpt] We argue that the quantitative interpretation of Changing to Organize is self-limiting, if not self-defeating. If unions hope to attract a mass influx of new members, they must first address seriously the internal transformation required to build a labor movement of all working people. The highest priority should be on creating a culture of inclusion. We envision a movement that embraces, attracts, and promotes women, people of color, immigrants, and lesbians and gays. We reach this conclusion in large part based on work with local unions that have endorsed the change to organizing. Although national unions play a central role in establishing the organizing priority and coordinating the organizing efforts, the changes that affect the day-to-day life of unionism occur at the local level. And the reality is that locals engaged in organizing face a host of substantial internal challenges. To the extent that these challenges relate to the organizing itself, they are well understood and are receiving attention at the national level (for example, the shortage of trained organizers and experienced lead organizers is widely recognized).

VL - 6 SN - 1095-7960 L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/316/ N1 - ID: 4897155989 ER - TY - CHAP T1 - Construction Organizing: A Case Study of Success T2 - Organizing to Win: New Research on Union Strategies Y1 - 1998 A1 - Condit, B. A1 - Davis, T. A1 - J. M. Grabelsky A1 - Kotler, F. ED - K. Bronfenbrenner ED - Friedman, S. ED - Richard Hurd ED - Oswald, R. A. ED - Seeber, R. L. KW - construction KW - IBEW KW - International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers KW - labor movement KW - organizing KW - trade unions AB -

[Excerpt] This chapter examines how IBEW Local 611, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, reversed its decline and between 1988 and 1994 reemerged as a dominant force in its jurisdiction. What the local did, how it did it, and what other building trade unions can learn from 611's success are the central points of the discussion.

JA - Organizing to Win: New Research on Union Strategies PB - ILR Press CY - Ithaca, NY L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/294/ ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Organizing to Win: New Research on Union Strategies Y1 - 1998 A1 - K. Bronfenbrenner A1 - Friedman, S. A1 - Richard Hurd A1 - Oswald, R. A. A1 - Seeber, R. L. KW - clergy KW - labor movement KW - local labor councils KW - membership KW - union organizing KW - volunteer organizers AB -

[Excerpt] The American labor movement is at a watershed. For the first time since the early years of industrial unionism sixty years ago, there is near-universal agreement among union leaders that the future of the movement depends on massive new organizing. In October 1995, John Sweeney, Richard Trumka, and Linda Chavez-Thompson were swept into the top offices of the AFL-CIO, following a campaign that promised organizing "at an unprecedented pace and scale." Since taking office, the new AFL-CIO leadership team has created a separate organizing department and has committed $20 million to support coordinated large-scale industry-based organizing drives. In addition, in the summer of 1996, the AFL-CIO launched the "Union Summer" program, which placed more than a thousand college students and young workers in organizing campaigns across the country.

PB - Cornell University Press CY - Ithaca, NY L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/188/ ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Review of the Book ‘We Can’t Eat Prestige: The Women Who Organized Harvard’ JF - Industrial and Labor Relations Review Y1 - 1998 A1 - Richard Hurd KW - clerical workers KW - Harvard KW - labor movement KW - office workers KW - organizing KW - union AB -

[Excerpt] In 1988 the fifteen-year campaign to organize office and laboratory workers at Harvard University ended with an NLRB election win. We Can't Eat Prestige is the most comprehensive examination to date of this compelling story, offering new detail and sufficiently bold assertions to re-ignite a smoldering debate about what this victory means for the future of unions. The author is a highly regarded journalist with thirty years of experience reporting on labor issues. Predictably, the book is extraordinarily well written, weaving a fascinating story of the union's evolution.

VL - 51 L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/323/ CP - 4 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Restoring the Promise of American Labor Law Y1 - 1994 A1 - Friedman, S. A1 - Richard Hurd A1 - Oswald, R. A. A1 - Seeber, R. L. KW - employment law KW - labor law KW - labor rights KW - workers’ rights AB -

The product of an October 1993 conference on labor law reform jointly sponsored by the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell U. and the Department of Economic Research at the AFL-CIO, this volume both argues the need for fundamental reform of the legal and institutional underpinnings of the US system of workplace representation and offers proposals for the content of that reform.

PB - Cornell University Press CY - Ithaca, NY L2 - eng ER -