Turner, Lowell, and Daniel B. Cornfield. 2007. Labor in the New Urban Battlegrounds: Local Solidarity in a Global Economy. Ithaca: ILR Press/Cornell University Press.
Introduction: Turner
- urban labor movements, why some work and some don’t
- agency
- political opportunity structure
- institutional openings, and
- social institutions
- AFL-CIO and member unions provided half of protesters in Battle for Seattle
- unprecedented alliance between environmental groups and labor
- local labor movements spearheaded the drive to get other unions to Seattle
- Focus on labor-inclusive urban social movements
- circumstances under which they emerge and are/not sustained
- relative success
- Institutional openings:
- duh
- Societal context
- urban environment and social networks
- identity politics
- support beyond the workplace
- opportunity structure in this text is at local/regional level, includes societal shifts (demographics, etc.)
- ‘frontier towns’ have open opportunity structure, but don’t have same results
- LA versus Houston
- ME: probably a few confounding things there, maybe not giving enough credence to right to work?
- union towns
- some entrenched unions block societal coalitions
- NY and Boston
- others innovate
- Buffalo and Seattle
Conclusion: Cornfield
- this third moment in institutional history of the labor movement as a time to institutionalize the “new strategy for organizing and representing workers that resonates in a structure of opportunity characterized by new work identities and emerging organizational forms of economic production.” (237)
- first two moments were craft and industrial unionism
- third is ‘social’, signaled by creation of Change to Win (oops!)
- focus is on nonunion ‘have-nots’ in the service sector
- focus here on economic needs
- AND on identity needs (immigration, sexual orientation, etc.)
- Urban areas as decisive flashpoints of new union movement/organizing/etc.
- chief area of services, so where all the service sector workers are!
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