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Rick Fantasia and Kim Voss Hard Work: Remaking the American Labor Movement (Berkeley: University of California Press 2004)
Francis Green, Demanding Work: The Paradox of Job Quality in the Affluent Economy (Princeton: Princeton University Press 2006)
Seymour Martin Lipset and Noah M. Meltz, The Paradox of American Unionism: Why Americans Like Unions More Than Canadians Do But Join Much Less (Ithaca: ILR Press 2004)
Nancy MacLean, Freedom Is Not Enough: The Opening of the American Workplace (Cambridge: Harvard University Press 2006)
Immanuel Ness, Immigrants, Unions, and the New U.S. Labor Market (Philadelphia: Temple University Press 2005)
THE PRECARIOUS NATURE of work in the United States and the decline of American unions have been the focus of a great deal of both academic and non-academic attention in recent years. There are compelling reasons for this as workers grapple with ever-widening wage disparities between rich and poor, longer hours for lower wages, and unions which represent a historically smaller percentage of the workforce. My reading of the books discussed here coincided with a short trip to the Florida panhandle, a sojourn which quickly reinforced the reality of working in contemporary America. Northern Florida is a geographically attractive part of North America which is also located deep within the mostly non-union South. Florida - famous for tourism, beaches and theme parks - is, like many states, dependent upon a steady supply of low-wage service industry workers. Most of them will not join unions, nor have the opportunity to do so. They will instead toil in precarious, low-paid jobs while serving the needs of wealthier people.
The challenges facing workers in states like Florida, the role of unions, and the impact of race and gender are the focus of the five volumes examined here. There are a range of methodological approaches utilized by the various authors, many of them statistically based, and a variety of insights are found within these works. The main issues involved with this discussion - how did American workers and unions get into their current state - are crucial not just to the United States but to workers around the world. Working conditions in the United States, and trends within the American labour movement, influence what occurs elsewhere. This is especially true for Canadian workers...