On the Job: The Untold Story of America's Work Centers and the New Fight for Wages, Dignity, and Health

by Celeste Monforton, Jane M. Von Bergen

Overview

The inspiring story of worker centers that are cropping up across the country and leading the fight for today's workers

For over 60 million people, work in America has been a story of declining wages, insecurity, and unsafe conditions, especially amid the coronavirus epidemic. This new and troubling reality has galvanized media and policymakers, but all the while a different and little-known story of rebirth and struggle has percolated just below the surface.

On the Job is the first account of a new kind of labor movement, one that is happening locally, quietly, and among our country's most vulnerable—but essential—workers. Noted public health expert Celeste Monforton and award-winning journalist Jane M. Von Bergen crisscrossed the country, speaking with workers of all backgrounds and uncovering the stories of hundreds of new, worker-led organizations (often simply called worker centers) that have successfully achieved higher wages, safer working conditions and on-the-job dignity for their members.

On the Job describes ordinary people finding their voice and challenging power: from housekeepers in Chicago and Houston; to poultry workers in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and Springdale, Arkansas; and construction workers across the state of Texas. An inspiring book for dark times, On the Job reveals that labor activism is actually alive and growing—and holds the key to a different future for all working people.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781620975015
Publisher:	New Press, The
Publication date:	05/04/2021
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	1,079,213
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Celeste Monforton is director of the Beyond OSHA Project and lecturer at Texas State University. A sought-after national media commentator, she lives in San Marcos, Texas.
Jane M. Von Bergen is an award-winning reporter who covered labor for more than half of her thirty-five years at the Philadelphia Inquirer. She lives in Philadelphia.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Awakening the Power 3

Part I Broken Bodies, Broken Hearts

1 Danger and Disrespect 15

2 Out of Tragedy, Triumph 27

3 Body, Mind, Health 41

4 Safe Space, Open Hearts 53

5 He Couldn't Make Himself Beg 59

Part II Challenges, Tensions

6 In the Service of Power 71

7 Uneasy Tension 83

8 A Latte and a Union 90

9 "They Wanted a Revolution" 96

Part III Friends and Allies

10 Pulpits and Professors 115

11 A Time to Pray 130

12 "You Are Not Alone" 138

Part IV Workers and Washington

13 A Frustrating Friend 151

14 "They Kind of Have Us Like the Cows" 159

15 Diaper Power 176

16 Butterflies and Barbed Wire 185

Part V The Fruits of Their Labors

17 Beyond the Broom, Breaking Barriers 199

18 Temporary Job, Permanent Struggle 208

19 All Work, No Pay 219

20 The Fight Doesn't Stop Here 225

The Power Awakened 237

Acknowledgments 245

Notes 251

Index 263

Editorial Reviews

02/01/2021

Monforton, a lecturer in public health at Texas State University, and journalist Von Bergen take an informative look at the efforts of “marginalized workers” in the U.S. to organize and fight for safer working conditions and better pay. The driving force behind this activism, according to the authors, are the 225 “worker centers” that have emerged across the country over the past two decades to assist those whose jobs aren’t covered under collective bargaining agreements. These “community labor organizations” help members “access food or rent assistance, resolve unsafe workplace situations, and, importantly, organize for broader protections such as paid leave.” Monforton and Von Bergen document campaigns to push employers to enforce social distancing and other safety measures during the Covid-19 pandemic, and note that the Filipino Workers Center in L.A. is providing housing to caregivers forced to self-isolate after exposure to the virus. In St. Cloud, Minn., the Greater Minnesota Worker Center and a coalition of local clergy members and student activists help Somali-American poultry workers fight for religious accommodations and safety improvements at nearby processing plants. The authors lucidly explain the issues facing low-wage workers, and vividly sketch the activists behind these campaigns. This timely and well-documented account offers hope for the future of the American labor movement. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for On the Job:
“The authors lucidly explain the issues facing low-wage workers, and vividly sketch the activists behind these campaigns. This timely and well-documented account offers hope for the future of the American labor movement.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Readers interested in labor politics, labor relations, and related activism, as well as the impact of COVID-19 on labor, will glean much inspiration and insight into how workers have mobilized and advocated for higher wages, safer working conditions, and respect and dignity, even during the midst of a global pandemic.”
—Booklist

“These are not your parents’ labor unions—an excellent introduction to a burgeoning and necessary movement.”
—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2021-02-19
Monforton, director of the Beyond OSHA Project, and journalist Von Bergen tell the neglected story of the “nationwide worker center movement” that champions the rights of immigrants and others.

In 2018, when a Texas poultry plant gave its workers too few bathroom breaks, diaper-wearing protesters showed up carrying a sign that said, “Let My People Pee.” Organized by the Centro de Derechos Laborales in Bryan, the demonstration led to an immediate improvement in conditions at the plant, and it’s among the surprisingly effective tactics described in this well-reported survey of many of the 225 community labor organizations known as “worker centers,” which fight “exploitation and oppression” on the job. Unlike labor unions that serve members in related trades, worker centers educate and advocate for workers “marginalized because of language, because of immigration status, because their jobs as domestic workers isolate them, or because their employment status is murky as gig or temp agency workers.” With less government regulation than unions, worker centers have won political victories or performed services that have often flown under the radar. In Chicago, Arise Chicago and other groups successfully lobbied the city to create the Office of Labor Standards to enforce minimum wage and other laws, and in Los Angeles, the Pilipino Workers Center rented houses for workers who had to quarantine during the pandemic. In New York, the Gig Workers Collective, a virtual center for Instacart and other shoppers, teamed up with Amazon warehouse workers for a protest in which activists posed next to body bags outside Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office, urging him to do more to protect Amazon workers. A work of journalism rather than history, the book offers little about the precursors of the centers, such as mutual aid societies, but it more than makes its case that “labor activism is not a quaint notion from days gone by.”

These are not your parents’ labor unions—an excellent introduction to a burgeoning and necessary movement.

Kirkus Reviews