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This gripping insider's look at the contemporary American trade union movement shows that reports of organized labor's death are premature. In this eloquent and erudite narrative, Steven Henry Lopez demonstrates how, despite a hostile legal environment and the punitive anti-unionism of U.S. employers, a few unions have organized hundreds of thousands of low-wage service workers in the past few years. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has been at the forefront of this effort, in the process pioneering innovative strategies of grassroots mobilization and protest. In a powerful ethnography that captures the voices of those involved in SEIU nursing-home organizing in western Pennsylvania, Lopez illustrates how post-industrial, low-wage workers are providing the backbone for a reinvigorated labor movement across the country. Reorganizing the Rust Belt argues that the key to the success of social movement unionism lies in its ability to confront a series of dilemmas rooted in the history of American labor relations. Lopez shows how the union's ability to devise creative solutions-rather than the adoption of specific tactics-makes the difference between success and failure.
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Reorganizing the Rust Belt Reorganizing the Rust Belt An Inside Study of the American Labor Movement Steven Henry Lopez UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley Los Angeles London University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 2004 by the Regents of the University of California Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lopez, Steven Henry, 1968– Reorganizing the Rust Belt : an inside study of the American labor movement / Steven Henry Lopez. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0 – 520 – 23280 – 1 (cloth : alk. paper) —ISBN 0 – 520 – 23565 – 7 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Service industries workers—Labor unions— Pennsylvania—Pittsburgh—Case studies. 2. Labor movement—Pennsylvania—Pittsburgh. 3. Service Employees International Union. I. Title. HD6515.S45 L67 2004 331.88'11'000974886—dc21 2003014236 Manufactured in the United States of America 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48 – 1992 (R 1997) (Permanence of Paper). 8 In Memory of Vincent Hearn Lopez CONTENTS Preface. Postindustrial Pittsburgh: Low-Wage Work and the Challenge for American Labor xi Acknowledgments xxi 1. Introduction: From Business Unionism to Social Movement Unionism 1 Part I: Confronting Working-Class Antiunionism Introduction to Part I: Rosemont Pavilion 29 2. “See You Next Year”: The Failure of Traditional Organizing Tactics 37 viii / Contents 3. “It’s a Union”: Why Face-to-Face Organizing and Collective Action Tactics Succeed 63 Epilogue to Part I: Organizing and Organization 93 Part II: Dealing with Organizational Legacies Introduction to Part II: The New Urban Politics of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania 101 4. “Save Our Kanes”: Bypassing Organizational Structures 108 5. “We Want a Contract”: Confronting Business Union Organization 127 Epilogue to Part II: Social Movement Unionism and the Problem of Power 146 Part III: Social Movement Unionism: Challenging the Power of Capital Introduction to Part III: Megacorp and the SEIU in Pennsylvania 153 Contents / ix 6. “We Will Not Be Silenced”: Escalating Mobilization 164 7. “Whatever It Takes, as Long as It Takes”: Exploiting Antiunionism 189 Epilogue to Part III: The Ambiguity of Victories 211 Conclusion: Social Movement Unionism and Social Movement Theory 215 Appendix 223 Notes 237 Bibliography 265 Index 283 Preface Postindustrial Pittsburgh Lo