Organizing the Landscape: Geographical Perspectives on Labor Unionism

393 Pages·1998·22.636 MB·English

by  Andrew Herod, Richard A. Walker

Organizing the Landscape
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Organizing the Landscape
Geographical Perspectives on Labor Unionism
Andrew Herod, editor
Foreword by Richard A. Walker
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis
London
Photograph on title page and on cover of paperback edition courtesy of Southern Labor
Archives, Special Collections Department, Pullen Library, Georgia State University.
Lyrics in chapter 6 from the Local 34 Songbook (1984) are reprinted by permission of
Local 34, Federation of University Employees, Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees
International Union.
Copyright 1998 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
III Third Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Organizing the landscape : geographical perspectives on labor unionism /
Andrew Herod, editor ; foreword by Richard A. Walker.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-8166-2970-6 (hbk.: alk. paper) — ISBN 0-8I66-297I-4
(pbk.: alk. paper)
I. Trade-unions. 2. Trade-unions — Organizing. 3. International
labor activities. I. Herod, Andrew, 1964 —
HD6483.075 1998
331.88 —dc2I 98-10856
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer.
10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I
For David Henry "Dai" Davies, who, through his life's work,
first interested me in the labor movement and its possibilities.
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Contents
XI
Foreword
Richard A. Walker
xix
Acknowledgments
1
The Spatiality of Labor Unionism
A Review Essay
Andrew Herod
Part I
39
Increasing the Scale of Things
Labor's Transnational Spatial Strategies and the Geography of Capitalism
Andrew Herod
Chapter 1 - 45
The Geostrategics of Labor in Post-Cold War Eastern Europe
An Examination of the Activities of the International Metalworkers' Federation
Andrew Herod
Chapter 2-75
Cowboys and Dinosaurs
Mexican Labor Unionism and the State
Altha J. Cravey
Chapter 3-99
Japanese Labor and the Production of the Space-Economy
in an Era of Globalization
Robert Q. Hanham and Shawn Banasick
Part II
123
Geographic Mobility, Place, and Cultures of Labor Unionism
Andrew Herod
Chapter 4- 129
Space, Place, and Tradition in Working-Class Organization
Jane Wills
Chapter 5 - 159
The Scales of Justice
Localist Ideology, Large-Scale Production, and
Agricultural Labor's Geography of Resistance in 1930s California
Don Mitchell
Part III
197
Political Geographies of Labor Union Organizing
Andrew Herod
Chapter 6 - 203
In Your Face, in Your Space
Spatial Strategies in Organizing Clerical Workers at Yale
Lee Lucas Berman
Chapter 7 - 225
Geographies of Organizing
Justice for Janitors in Los Angeles
Lydia A. Savage
Part IV
255
Labor Unions and the Making of Economic Geographies
Andrew Herod
Chapter 8 - 263
Rival Unionism and the Geography of the Meatpacking Industry
Brian Page
Chapter 9 - 297
"Working Steady'
Gender, Ethnicity, and Change in Households, Communities, and
Labor Markets in Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1930-1940
Meghan Cope
Chapter 10 - 325
Investigating the Local-Global Paradox
Corporate Strategy, Union Local Autonomy, and Community Action in Chicago
Andrew E. G. Jonas
351
Contributors
355
Index