Why Unions Matter / Edition 2

by Michael D. Yates

Overview

In this new edition of Why Unions Matter, Michael D. Yates shows why unions still matter. Unions mean better pay, benefits, and working conditions for their members; they force employers to treat employees with dignity and respect; and at their best, they provide a way for workers to make society both more democratic and egalitarian. Yates uses simple language, clear data, and engaging examples to show why workers need unions, how unions are formed, how they operate, how collective bargaining works, the role of unions in politics, and what unions have done to bring workers together across the divides of race, gender, religion, and sexual orientation. The new edition not onlyupdates the first, but also examines the record of the New Voice slate that took control of the AFL-CIO in 1995, the continuing decline in union membership and density, the Change to Win split in 2005, the growing importance of immigrant workers, the rise of worker centers, the impacts of and labor responses to globalization, and the need for labor to have an independent political voice. This is simply the best introduction to unions on the market.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781583671900
Publisher:	Monthly Review Press
Publication date:	05/01/2009
Series:	New Edition
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Michael D. Yates is Editorial Director of Monthly Review Press. For many years, he taught working people in labor education programs throughout the United States, seeking to teach, speak, and write for and with the working class and not just about it. He has helped organize labor unions and has written extensively about them. His most recent book is Can the Working Class Change the World-yet (Monthly Review Press).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 9

Preface to the Second Edition 11

Introduction 23

1 Why Unions? 31

Strength in Numbers 32

The First U.S. Unions 35

Do Unions Work? 37

Unions and Dignity 41

2 How Unions Form 47

A Little History 49

How Unions Form 52

Successful Union Organizing 58

With the California Nurses' Association in Texas 59

3 Union Structures and Democracy 69

Locals and Internationals 71

Union Structure and the Law 75

An Example of Union Democracy 77

A Local Union Meeting 81

4 Collective Bargaining 83

The IWW's Case against Collective Bargaining 85

Strategies of the Contract Campaign 86

Bargaining in Wartime 94

At the Table 96

The Agreement 101

Politics and Collective Bargaining 108

5 Unions and Politics 111

Why U.S. Labor Politics Are Different 113

Labor Politics in the 1930s 116

Labor Politics Today 118

The Missouri Victory against Right-to-Work 125

Workers of the World Suppressed 126

The American Institute for Free Labor Development 129

The Time Is Ripe 131

The Employee Free Choice Act 134

6 Race, Gender, Ethnicity, and Sexual Orientation 141

Unions and Race 145

The United Packinghouse Workers 148

The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters 150

Unions and Women 151

Women in Struggle 155

The Intersection of Race and Gender 159

Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender/Transsexual Workers 162

What Collective Bargaining Has Won 163

Politics of Liberation 166

7 Immigrant Workers 169

A Nation of Immigrants 169

The United Farm Workers Union 172

The Immokalee Farm Workers Take on the Fast Food Companies 176

8 The Tasks Ahead 185

The Difficulties Labor Faces 187

Labor's Decline: External Forces191

Labor's Decline: Internal Forces 196

The "New Voice" 199

An International Labor Movement? 203

Still to Come 205

Useful Resources 210

Notes 213

Index 235

What People are Saying About This

Kim Moody

A comprehensive, readable introduction to the history, structure, functioning, and yes, the problems of U.S. unions. For labor and political activists just coming on the scene or veterans looking for that missing overview, this is the best place to start.
—Kim Moody, author of Workers in a Lean World

From the Publisher

"A comprehensive, readable introduction to the history, structure, functioning, and yes, the problems of United States unions. For labor and political activists just coming on the scene or veterans looking for that missing overview, this is the best place to start."
-—Kim Moody,founder of Labor Notes, author of Workers in a Lean World and U.S. Labor in Trouble and Transition

Editorial Reviews

"A comprehensive, readable introduction to the history, structure, functioning, and yes, the problems of United States unions. For labor and political activists just coming on the scene or veterans looking for that missing overview, this is the best place to start."
-—Kim Moody,founder of Labor Notes, author of Workers in a Lean World and U.S. Labor in Trouble and Transition

From the Publisher

Yates, an economics professor and labor educator whose earlier books focused on workers legal rights (Power on the Job, South End, 1994), here seeks to cover a much broader canvas: how labor unions work, the victories they have won on the battlefields of sexism and racism, and an argument for unions as the sole means by which working people can obtain dignity, equity, and power. Written in a personal, anecdotal style, yet well documented, this book is particularly successful in the chapters that focus on the nuts and bolts of union activities (collective bargaining, structures, organizing), an area largely ignored by current business and political literature. For this reason alone it is a valuable addition to large public and academic libraries.Donna L. Schulman, Cornell Univ. Libs., Ithaca, NY

Library Journal

Uses statistics and analysis to prove that unionized workers in every part of the economy get more pay and better benefits than employees who do comparable work but do not belong to a union. Argues that unions' power to inspire dignity and solidarity in workers is just as significant as their material gains, and calls for a more independent and politically progressive labor movement. Provides advice on what makes a collective bargaining campaign effective and what approach unions should take in electoral politics. Includes b&w photos. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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