When unions undertake labor organizing campaigns, they often do so from strong moral positions, contrasting workers' rights to decent pay or better working conditions with the more venal financial motives of management. But how does labor confront management when management itself has moral legitimacy? In With God on Our Side, Adam D. Reich tells the story of a five-year campaign to unionize Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, a Catholic hospital in California. Based on his own work as a volunteer organizer with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Reich explores how both union leaders and hospital leaders sought to show they were upholding the Catholic "mission" of the hospital against a market represented by the other. Ultimately, workers and union leaders were able to reinterpret Catholic values in ways that supported their efforts to organize.

More generally, Reich argues that unions must weave together economic and cultural power in order to ensure their continued relevancy in the postindustrial world. In addition to advocating for workers' economic interests, unions must engage with workers' emotional investments in their work, must contend with the kind of moral authority that Santa Rosa Hospital leaders exerted to dissuade workers from organizing, and must connect labor s project to broader conceptions of the public good."

What is work? Is it simply a burden to be tolerated or something more meaningful to one's sense of identity and self-worth? And why does it matter? In a uniquely thought-provoking book, John W. Budd presents ten historical and contemporary views of work from across the social sciences and humanities. By uncovering the diverse ways in which we conceptualize work such as a way to serve or care for others, a source of freedom, a source of income, a method of psychological fulfillment, or a social relation shaped by class, gender, race, and power The Thought of Work reveals the wide-ranging nature of work and establishes its fundamental importance for the human experience. When we work, we experience our biological, psychological, economic, and social selves. Work locates us in the world, helps us and others make sense of who we are, and determines our access to material and social resources.

By integrating these distinct views, Budd replaces the usual fragmentary approaches to understanding the nature and meaning of work with a comprehensive approach that promotes a deep understanding of how work is understood, experienced, and analyzed. Concepts of work affect who and what is valued, perceptions of freedom and social integration, identity construction, evaluations of worker well-being, the legitimacy and design of human resource management practices, support for labor unions and labor standards, and relationships between religious faith and work ethics. By drawing explicit attention to diverse, implicit meanings of work, The Thought of Work allows us to better understand work, to value it, and to structure it in desirable ways that reflect its profound importance."

Being laid off can be a traumatic event. The unemployed worry about how they will pay their bills and find a new job. In the American economy's boom-and-bust business cycle since the 1980s, repeated layoffs have become part of working life. In A Company of One, Carrie M. Lane finds that the new culture of corporate employment, changes to the job search process, and dual-income marriage have reshaped how today's skilled workers view unemployment. Through interviews with seventy-five unemployed and underemployed high-tech white-collar workers in the Dallas area over the course of the 2000s, Lane shows that they have embraced a new definition of employment in which all jobs are temporary and all workers are, or should be, independent "companies of one."

Following the experiences of individual jobseekers over time, Lane explores the central role that organized networking events, working spouses, and neoliberal ideology play in forging and reinforcing a new individualist, pro-market response to the increasingly insecure nature of contemporary employment. She also explores how this new perspective is transforming traditional ideas about masculinity and the role of men as breadwinners. Sympathetic to the benefits that this "company of one" ideology can hold for its adherents, Lane also details how it hides the true costs of an insecure workforce and makes collective and political responses to job loss and downward mobility unlikely.

The Third World cities have been reinvented by the forces of globalization as the destinations of new investments, causing the migration of a teeming million to the major urban centers without any corresponding increase in the creation of new jobs and other basic amenities required for decent living. The problem of child labor has also been exacerbated to an unprecedented level in the urban areas of the Third World countries during this period. Yet the dominant discourses on this problem have come from the Western observers or have some prior Western presence in its understanding of the problem, which defers the Third Worldly understanding of the situation. The author argues that a paradigm shift is needed to incorporate various local discourses in order to effectively address the problem of child labor. Based on a decade of fieldwork among the poor and marginalized population in the city of Kolkata, Child Labor and the Urban Third World will give readers an idea of how this problem has become inextricably bound with various other local conditions, such as the security of tenure in the houses.

The erosion of Canadian industrial strength in the early 1970s prompted Canada to rethink its postwar industrial adjustment strategy. From the early 1970s to the early 1980s, Ottawa tried trade diversification, foreign investment regulation, and an interventionist industrial policy. This path of policy development, however, produced limited positive results. In response to new opportunities and constraints in the mid-1980s, the Canadian government switched to a new policy path that sought to deregulate the domestic market and establish a continental institutional framework-with rules that would guarantee market access and facilitate the settlement of trade disputes. Since then, industrial adjustment has been shaped by liberal continentalism. This book develops a theoretical framework to account for the sequence of industrial adjustment policy actions between the early seventies and first decade of the twenty-first century, explaining why liberal continentalism has emerged as the dominant policy framework.

The Laboring of Communication examines the transformation of work and of worker organizations in today's Information Society. The book focuses on how traditional trade unions and new worker associations growing out of social movements are coming together to address the crisis of organized labor. It concentrates on the creative responses of the technical and cultural workers in the mass media, telecommunications, and information technology industries. Concentrating on political economy, labor process, and feminist theory, it proceeds to offer several ways of thinking about communication workers and the nature of the society in which they work. Drawing on interviews and the documentary record, the book offers case studies of successful and unsuccessful efforts among both traditional and alternative worker organizations in the United States and Canada. It concludes by addressing the thorny issue of outsourcing, describing how global labor federations and nascent worker organizations in the developing world are coming together to develop creative solutions.

Because warehouses typically contain no dangerous machines or high-risk operations, employers and employees often develop a false sense of safety and security. With this book, you will learn how to proactively develop formal safety programs and reduce the number of safety incidents and losses that occur in your warehouse environment. Warehouse Safety discusses such topics as the nature of warehouse operations and safety statistics and examines the components of an effective safety program, including meetings, job safety observation, and safety incentives. It focuses on the high hazard work areas and situation present in warehouses and the equipment and training that managers should invest in to prevent injury and loss. Author George Swartz addresses a number of preventative measures, including fixed fire systems and fire safety, materials storage, handrailing and ladders, employee training, forklifts, methods for lockout/tagout procedures, dock hazards and safeguards, and more.

Having written safety and health policies isn't enough. These plans and procedures have to be effectively communicated to the employees expected to follow them or you may be violating OSHA standards. This manual prevents written plans, policies, and procedures you can use, modify, and reproduce for distribution to your employees or keep them in binders where employees can easily refer to them. You can also use the manual as a training tool or as the basis for establishing new safety and health programs or updating existing ones.

Life As We Have Known It is a unique view of lives Virginia Woolf described as 'still half hidden in profound obscurity.' the women write about growing up in poverty, going into domestic service, being a hat factory worker, or a miner's wife concerned about the colliery baths, and how they become politically active through the Women's Co-operative Guild movement.

The labor movement in the United States is a bulwark of democracy and a driving force for social and economic equality. Yet its stories remain largely unknown to Americans. Robert Forrant and Mary Anne Trasciatti edit a collection of essays focused on nationwide efforts to propel the history of labor and working people into mainstream narratives of US history. In Part One, the contributors concentrate on ways to collect and interpret worker-oriented history for public consumption. Part Two moves from National Park sites to murals to examine the writing and visual representation of labor history. Together, the essayists explore how place-based labor history initiatives promote understanding of past struggles, create awareness of present challenges, and support efforts to build power, expand democracy, and achieve justice for working people. A wide-ranging blueprint for change, Where Are the Workers? shows how working-class perspectives can expand our historical memory and inform and inspire contemporary activism. Contributors: Jim Beauchesne, Rebekah Bryer, Rebecca Bush, Conor Casey, Rachel Donaldson, Kathleen Flynn, Elijah Gaddis, Susan Grabski, Amanda Kay Gustin, Karen Lane, Rob Linne, Erik Loomis, Tom MacMillan, Lou Martin, Scott McLaughlin, Kristin O'Brassill-Kulfan, Karen Sieber, and Katrina Windon

During the 1950s and 1960s, labor leaders Harold Gibbons and Ernest Calloway championed a new kind of labor movement that regarded workers as "total persons" interested in both workplace affairs and the exercise of effective citizenship in their communities. Working through Teamsters Local 688 and viewing the city of St. Louis as their laboratory, this remarkable interracial duo forged a dynamic political alliance that placed their "citizen members" on the front lines of epic battles for urban revitalization, improved public services, and the advancement of racial and economic justice. Parallel to their political partnership, Gibbons functioned as a top Teamsters Union leader and Calloway as an influential figure in St. Louis's civil rights movement. Their pioneering efforts not only altered St. Louis's social and political landscape but also raised fundamental questions about the fate of the post-industrial city, the meaning of citizenship, and the role of unions in shaping American democracy.

Monumental and revelatory, Free Labor explores labor activism throughout the country during a period of incredible diversity and fluidity: the American Civil War. Mark A. Lause describes how the working class radicalized during the war as a response to economic crisis, the political opportunity created by the election of Abraham Lincoln, and the ideology of free labor and abolition. His account moves from battlefield and picket line to the negotiating table, as he discusses how leaders and the rank-and-file alike adapted tactics and modes of operation to specific circumstances. His close attention to women and African Americans, meanwhile, dismantles notions of the working class as synonymous with whiteness and maleness. In addition, Lause offers a nuanced consideration of race's role in the politics of national labor organizations, in segregated industries in the border North and South, and in black resistance in the secessionist South, creatively reading self-emancipation as the largest general strike in U.S. history.

The first comprehensive biography of progressive labor organizer, peace worker, and economist Clinton Jencks (1918-2005), this book explores the life of one of the most important political and social activists to appear in the Southwestern United States in the twentieth century. A key figure in the radical International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers (IUMMSW) Local 890 in Grant County, New Mexico, Jencks was involved in organizing not only the mine workers but also their wives in the 1951 strike against the Empire Zinc Company. He was active in the production of the 1954 landmark labor film dramatizing the Empire Zinc strike, Salt of the Earth, which was heavily suppressed during the McCarthy era and led to Jencks's persecution by the federal government. Labor historian James J. Lorence examines the interaction between Jencks's personal experience and the broader forces that marked the world and society in which he worked and lived. Following the work of Jencks and his equally progressive wife, Virginia Derr Jencks, Lorence illuminates the roots and character of Southwestern unionism, the role of radicalism in the Mexican-American civil rights movement, the rise of working-class feminism within Local 890 and the Grant County Mexican American community, and the development of Mexican-American identity in the Southwest. Chronicling Jencks's five-year-long legal battle against charges of perjury, this biography also illustrates how civil liberties and American labor were constrained by the specter of anticommunism during the Cold War. Drawing from extensive research as well as interviews and correspondence, this volume highlights Clinton Jencks's dramatic influence on the history of labor culture in the Southwest through a lifetime devoted to progress and change for the social good.

Being laid off can be a traumatic event. The unemployed worry about how they will pay their bills and find a new job. In the American economy's boom-and-bust business cycle since the 1980s, repeated layoffs have become part of working life. In A Company of One, Carrie M. Lane finds that the new culture of corporate employment, changes to the job search process, and dual-income marriage have reshaped how today's skilled workers view unemployment. Through interviews with seventy-five unemployed and underemployed high-tech white-collar workers in the Dallas area over the course of the 2000s, Lane shows that they have embraced a new definition of employment in which all jobs are temporary and all workers are, or should be, independent "companies of one."

Following the experiences of individual jobseekers over time, Lane explores the central role that organized networking events, working spouses, and neoliberal ideology play in forging and reinforcing a new individualist, pro-market response to the increasingly insecure nature of contemporary employment. She also explores how this new perspective is transforming traditional ideas about masculinity and the role of men as breadwinners. Sympathetic to the benefits that this "company of one" ideology can hold for its adherents, Lane also details how it hides the true costs of an insecure workforce and makes collective and political responses to job loss and downward mobility unlikely.

The fast-food industry is one of the few industries that can be described as truly global, not least in terms of employment, which is estimated at around ten million people worldwide. This edited volume is the first of its kind, providing an analysis of labour relations in this significant industry focusing on multinational corporations and large national companies in ten countries: the USA, Canada, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Russia.
The extent to which multinational enterprises impose or adapt their employment practices in differing national industrial relations systems is analysed, Results reveal that the global fast-food industry is typified by trade union exclusion, high labour turnover, unskilled work, paternalistic management regimes and work organization that allows little scope for developing workers' participation in decision-making, let alone advocating widely accepted concepts of social justice and workers' rights.

Until recently, the study of industrial relations centred around trade unions, collective bargaining and strikes - often in the manufacturing industry. Union decline and de-industrialization in the advanced capitalist world have raised major issues about the relevance of this focus. As a result, there is growing interest in alternative forms of worker representation, often in conjunction with HRM. But union decline is by no means universal, even in Europe, and there are regions of the world (South East Asia, some African countries and parts of Latin America) where unions are powerful and growing organizations. This set is designed to capture both the complexity of the field of industrial relations globally, as well as bring out the continuing relevance of competing theoretical approaches to the subject. The selection will cover neglected topics such as feminism, debates about post-modernism and the links between labour movements and politics.

Environmental health and safety (EHS) audit programs have become an established and essential component of corporate governance in most every major organization whose activities could affect public health and the environment. While many of the audit programs in existence are quite mature there continues to be an evolution of audit practices designed to better identify and control EHS risks. This new updated second edition takes a look at many of those practices and potential advances in the profession. Among the critical topics addressed are: *What is the current EHS regulatory outlook in the U.S. and how might this affect a company's and the regulator's attitudes towards compliance and auditing? Are the potential consequences of "taking your eye off the ball" still significant? *How does one know whether an audit program is actually working and meeting its established objectives? What are the best performance criteria to use? *How can risk management be factored into audit programs and how individual audits are conducted to assure efficient and relevant outcomes? How can we get at the true risks and avoid the tendency to focus on "administrivia"? *How can auditors become more proficient and how can we train people to help assure we maximize an individual auditor's potential? Can the individual auditor be "all things to all people"? *Can innovative approaches such as "virtual" audits achieve the same or even better results more cost-effectively? How can limited resources be applied optimally? The second edition addresses the key components of an EHS audit program and provides advice on: *How to improve the management and execution of an audit program *How to address the true compliance risks in implementing an audit program *How to make auditors more effective and versatile *How to help auditors understand the special demands of auditing internationally *How to utilize innovative techniques, such as virtual auditing, to maximize a program's effectiveness and efficiency.

Written for the more than 1.5 million powered industrial truck operators and supervisors in general industry, as well as those in the construction and marine industries, this Second Edition provides an updated guide to training operators in safety and complying with OSHA's 1999 forklift standard. This edition of Forklift Safety includes a new chapter devoted to the new OSHA 1910.178 standard and new information regarding dock safety, narrow aisle trucks, off-dock incidents, tip-over safety, pallet safety, and carbon monoxide.

This book takes an unflinching look at one of the most contentious labour conflicts in North American history, and a brave indictment of the destructive collusion between business interests and Mexico's government.

About 27.5 million Americans nearly 24 percent of the labor force earn less than $8.70 an hour, not enough to keep a family of four out of poverty, even working full-time year-round. Job ladders for these workers have been dismantled, limiting their ability to get ahead in today s labor market. Low-Wage America is the most extensive study to date of how the choices employers make in response to economic globalization, industry deregulation, and advances in information technology affect the lives of tens of millions of workers at the bottom of the wage distribution. Based on data from hundreds of establishments in twenty-five industries including manufacturing, telecommunications, hospitality, and health care the case studies document how firms responses to economic restructuring often results in harsh working conditions, reduced benefits, and fewer opportunities for advancement. For instance, increased pressure for profits in newly consolidated hotel chains has led to cost-cutting strategies such as requiring maids to increase the number of rooms they clean by 50 percent. Technological changes in the organization of call centers the ultimate disposable workplace have led to monitoring of operators work performance, and eroded job ladders. Other chapters show how the temporary staffing industry has provided paths to better work for some, but to dead end jobs for many others; how new technology has reorganized work in the back offices of banks, raising skill requirements for workers; and how increased competition from abroad has forced U.S. manufacturers to cut costs by reducing wages and speeding production. Although employers responses to economic pressures have had a generally negative effect on frontline workers, some employers manage to resist this trend and still compete successfully. The benefits to workers of multi-employer training consortia and the continuing relevance of unions offer important clues about what public policy can do to support the job prospects of this vast, but largely overlooked segment of the American workforce. Low-Wage America challenges us to a national self-examination about the nature of low-wage work in this country and asks whether we are willing to tolerate the profound social and economic consequences entailed by these jobs."