This collection of original essays offers an inside view of the current state of American unions. Most of the contributors are prominent activists in the AFL-CIO, and their writings assess the state of the movement in the late 1990s.

First Published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

With a surprisingly popular and victorious nationwide strike at the United Parcel Service in 1997, hopes have risen for a new labour movement in the U.S.A. But have unions broken sufficiently from the politics and practices of the past to reverse their long decline in membership? How is labour responding to a workforce increasingly made up of women and people of colour? What are the best tactics for organizing and mobilizing? What political alliances and international policies should labour pursue? This collection charts the possibilities for a more vibrant, inclusive and democratic labour movement. Participants include union leaders and rank-and-file activists, representing a variety of industrial, clerical and service employees; scholars, teachers and intellectuals; and both labour radicals and labour moderates.