"The thesis is simple: Inequality is America's biggest problem. Unions are the single strongest tool that working people have to fix this problem. But the labor movement of today has failed to enable enough individuals to join unions. Thus, organized labor's powerful potential is being wielded incompetently. And what is happening inside of organized labor will-far more than most people realize--determine the economic and social course of American...

"Forming and defending unions in the United States has always been a Herculean task. Employers have a long history of fighting vigorously to bust strikes and prevent workers from organizing- and, ultimately to dis-organize unions. The government, including politicians, local officials, and the courts, has provided unions only sporadic support--and sometimes it directly opposed them. This challenging terrain for unions characterizes labor relations...

"A dynamic historian revisits the workers' internationals, whose scope and significance are commonly overlooked. In current debates about globalization, open and borderless elites are often set in opposition to the immobile and protectionist working classes. This view obscures a major historical fact: for around a century-from the 1860s to the 1970s-worker movements were at the cutting edge of internationalism. The creation in London of the International...

“His aim is to make the history of labor in the U.S. more accessible to students and the general reader. He succeeds” (Booklist).
 
In a blend of economic, social, and political history, Paul Le Blanc shows how important labor issues have been, and continue to be, in the forging of our nation.
 
Within a broad analytical framework, he highlights issues of class, gender, race, and ethnicity,...

Do you appreciate your forty-hour, five-day workweek? Appreciate having a safe working environment? Unions made this all possible in one way or another. Unions bring value to all sectors of a society. As the champion of people power versus corporate power, unions help to spread the benefits of production throughout a society. Regardless of the state of the economy, there is the timeless struggle of workers trying to gain or retain their rights. However,...

"The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844" is the influential study of the hazards of the Industrial Revolution by the German philosopher Frederick Engels. This important contribution to the development of modern Socialism was written while Engels spent two years living in Manchester, England, the city traditionally viewed as where the Industrial Revolution began. Engels viewed England's productivity and efficiency in manufacturing to...

This vintage book contains a fascinating and insightful analysis of socio-economic conditions written more than a hundred years ago. In it, Tolstoy explores the flaws of the division of labour, progress, greed, economic theories, wage slavery, and more in astonishing detail. This volume is highly recommended for those with an interest in socialism, capitalism, and economic history. Contents include: "Goods-Porters who Work Thirty-Seven Hours", "Society's...

News about labor unions is usually pessimistic, focusing on declining membership and failed campaigns. But there are encouraging signs that the labor movement is evolving its strategies to benefit workers in rapidly changing global economic conditions. Global Unions, Local Power tells the story of the most successful and aggressive campaign ever waged by workers across national borders. It begins in the United States in 2007 as SEIU struggled to organize...

Alaska, 1935: Slippery Wilson is on his way out of town when he runs into a woman, her neice, and a crashed car. His life is about to get a lot more complicated.
 
It's 1935 and jobs are scarce, but Slippery Wilson walks off his job at a logging camp after a gruesome accident kills a coworker. He's headed for Seattle with all his savings; he plans to buy a piece of farmland and be his own boss.
 
When he stops to help...

"A historical fiction novel in verse detailing the life of Clara Lemlich and her struggle for women's labor rights in the early 20th century in New York."--