1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910460775303321

Autore

Quigley Fran <1962->

Titolo

If we can win here : the new front lines of the labor movement / / Fran Quigley

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Ithaca : , : ILR Press, an imprint of Cornell University Press, , 2015

ISBN

0-8014-5613-4

0-8014-5614-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (222 pages) : illustrations

Disciplina

331.88/11640977252

Soggetti

Labor movement - Indiana - Indianapolis

Labor unions - Organizing - Indiana - Indianapolis

Service industries workers - Labor unions - Organizing - Indiana - Indianapolis

Working poor - Indiana - Indianapolis

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction : why can't I do that as a housekeeper? -- A campus union -- We can win here -- Dreaming of one good job -- Alt-labor hits Indianapolis -- The Fight for 15 -- Legal problems -- UNITE HERE -- Struggling for contracts -- Wonderful field, awful pay -- Trying to secure a union -- Prayers for citizenship -- Advocacy for citizenship -- Contracts on campus -- Turned away at the hotels -- Back to the Hyatt -- Bring Lisa back! -- That is what the union does for me.

Sommario/riassunto

Do service-sector workers represent the future of the U.S. labor movement? Mid-twentieth-century union activism transformed manufacturing jobs from backbreaking, low-wage work into careers that allowed workers to buy homes and send their kids to college. Some union activists insist that there is no reason why service-sector workers cannot follow that same path. In If We Can Win Here, Fran Quigley tells the stories of janitors, fry cooks, and health care aides trying to fight their way to middle-class incomes in Indianapolis. He also chronicles the struggles of the union organizers with whom the workers have made common cause.The service-sector workers of



Indianapolis mirror the city's demographics: they are white, African American, and Latino. In contrast, the union organizers are mostly white and younger than the workers they help rally. Quigley chronicles these allies' setbacks, victories, bonds, and conflicts while placing their journey in the broader context of the global economy and labor history. As one Indiana-based organizer says of the struggle being waged in a state that has earned a reputation as antiunion: "If we can win here, we can win anywhere." The outcome of the battle of Indianapolis may foretell the fate of workers across the United States.