Mobilizing Against Inequality: Unions, Immigrant Workers, and the Crisis of Capitalism(Frank W. Pierce Memorial Lectureship and Conference Series)

Among the many challenges that global liberalization has posed for trade unions, the growth of precarious immigrant workforces lacking any collective representation stands out as both a major threat to solidarity and an organizing opportunity. Believing that collective action is critical in the struggle to lift the low wages and working conditions of immigrant workers, the contributors to Mobilizing against Inequality set out to study union strategies toward immigrant workers in four countries: Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and United States. Their research revealed both formidable challenges and inspiring examples of immigrant mobilization that often took shape as innovative social countermovements. Using case studies from a carwash organizing campaign in the United States, a sans papiers movement in France, Justice for Cleaners in the United Kingdom, andintegration approaches by the Metalworkers Union in Germany, among others, the authors look at the strategies of unions toward immigrants from a comparative perspective. Although organizers face a different set of obstacles in each country, this book points to common strategies that offer promise for a more dynamic model of unionism is the global North. The editors have also created a companion website for the book, which features literature reviews, full case studies, updates, and links to related publications. Visit it at www.mobilizing-against-inequality.info. Contributors: Lee H. Adler, Cornell University; Gabriella Alberti, Leeds University; Daniel B. Cornfield, Vanderbilt University; Michael Fichter, Global Labour University, Berlin; Janice Fine, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; Jane Holgate, Leeds University; Denisse Roca-Servat, Pontifical Bolivarian University, Colombia; Maite Tapia, Michigan State University; Lowell Turner, Cornell University.

Table of Contents:
Foreword by Ana Avendano Acknowledgments List of Acronyms and Abbreviations Part I UNIONS AND THE MOBILIZATION OF IMMIGRANT WORKERS 1. Organizing Immigrant Workers Lowell Turner 2. Union Campaigns as Countermovements: "Best Practice" Cases from the United Kingdom, France, and the United States Maite Tapia, Lowell Turner, and Denisse Roca-Servat Part II CASES AND NATIONAL CONTEXTS 3. The United States: Tackling Inequality in Precarious Times Lee H. Adler and Daniel B. Cornfield 4. The United Kingdom: Dialectic Approaches to Organizing Immigrant Workers, Postwar to 2012 Maite Tapia 5. France: Battles for Inclusion, 1968-2010 Lowell Turner 6. Germany: Success at the Core, Unresolved Challenges at the Periphery Lee H. Adler and Michael Fichter Part III COMPARISONS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS 7. Opportunity and Choice for Unions Organizing Immigrant Workers: A Comparison across Countries and Industries Gabriella Alberti, Jane Holgate, and Lowell Turner 8. The Countermovement Needs a Movement (and a Counterstrategy) Janice Fine and Jane Holgate 9. Integrative Organizing in Polarized Times: Toward Dynamic Trade Unionism in the Global North Daniel B. Cornfield

About the Author :
Lee H. Adler teaches public sector collective bargaining and public education law at the ILR School at Cornell University and represents public sector unions throughout New York State. Maite Tapia is Assistant Professor at the School of Human Resources and Labor Relations at Michigan State University. Lowell Turner is Professor of International and Comparative Labor at the ILR School and Director of the Worker Institute at Cornell University. He is coeditor most recently of Mobilizing against Inequality, Labor in the New Urban Battlegrounds, and Rekindling the Movement, all from Cornell.

Review :
"The immigrant workforce is both victimized as the most precarious element of the low-wage workforce and scapegoated by nativist and anti-immigrant elements as the cause of low wages and terrible working conditions. Through several case studies examining immigrant worker organizing in the United States and Europe, Mobilizing against Inequality provides vital insights into the importance of organizing the immigrant workforce and fully integrating immigrants into the general society as the best way to protect and improve wages and working conditions across the board. These insights can inform the debate in the United States at a time when immigration policy is under close examination and change is on the horizon."-Robert P. Deasy, immigration law and policy specialist