Community Solidarity and Labor Movement Revitalization: A Review Essay
By CHARLES J. WHALEN

Reviewed in this Article:
Labor in the New Urban Battlegrounds: Local Solidarity in a Global Economy . Edited by Lowell Turner and Daniel B. Cornfield. Ithaca , New York : ILR Press. 2007. Pp. 280. $22.50 (paperback), ISBN 978-0-8014-7360-9.

After two decades of neglect, cities are once again a hot topic among labor scholars. Labor in the New Urban Battlegrounds ( LNUB ) is a major contribution to community-centered studies of labor and industrial relations. The book helps account for the current focus on metropolitan areas, examines the recent emergence of urban-based social unionism (which involves labor and community coalitions and generally reaches beyond the aims associated with America's traditional, business unionism), and presents a framework of analysis that offers guidance to both scholars and practitioners. LNUB deserves the attention of all who are interested in the prospects of labor movement revitalization. 1

Labor's Third Moment

Why should labor researchers study cities? Co-editor Lowell Turner's introduction to LNUB describes how organized labor in Seattle and numerous other U.S. metropolitan areas have recently demonstrated that union revitalization is possible “even in a broader context of global liberalization and union decline” (p. 2).

Co-editor Daniel B. Cornfield's concluding chapter makes an even stronger case for city-oriented studies. Cornfield argues that the U.S. labor movement is in its third historical moment , a time when craft and industrial unionism are being overshadowed by large multi-jurisdictional unions (such as UNITE HERE) that are “transforming themselves into movement organizations by practicing social unionism” (p. 236). Since these unions focus on low-wage, service workers, who most often live and work in urban areas, cities have become the main battleground for many of labor's current struggles.

Social Unionism

Most urban-based social unionism has emerged in the United States since the early 1990s. LNUB offers a baker's dozen of essays divided into four sections. Part I examines labor in relation to four specific issues and institutions: the living-wage movement (by Stephanie Luce), local politics (Jeffrey Sellers), community-based development organizations (Ron Applegate), and central labor councils (David Reynolds). The latter is especially noteworthy because it identifies six vital components of regional power building (including the development of coalitions that transcend individual issues and the creation of a cross-movement capacity for research and policy development).

Parts II and III focus on “ Union Towns ” and “ Frontier Towns ,” in that order. Measured in terms of their ability to invigorate the area labor movement, the frontier town of Los Angeles (essay by Turner and Marco Hauptmeier) is the most successful of the cases discussed, but positive results and/or significant opportunities are mentioned in cities including Buffalo (Ian Greer and others), Miami (Bruce Nissen and Monica Russo), Nashville (Cornfield and William Canak), and San Jose (Nari Rhee and Julie Sadler). Perhaps most hobbled by the past are the union towns of New York and Boston (Hauptmeier/Turner and Heiwon Kwon and Benjamin Day, respectively).

Of course, social unionism is not an approach unique to the United States , and Part IV offers international comparisons involving Hamburg (essay by Greer), London (Jane Holgate and Jane Wills) and Frankfurt (Otto Jacobi). In many ways, the comparisons from “across the pond” suggest that the institutions and social context of the United States are generally more amenable to city-level social unionism. Still, as Turner stresses in his introduction, even when barriers are great, “significant advances for social unionism cannot be ruled out” (p. 11).

Lessons for Research and Practice

The suggestion that social unionism “cannot be ruled out” even when the constraints are significant points to the key concepts that emerge from LNUB . They are: 1) Social unionism depends on the opportunities provided (or blocked) by a community's social and institutional structure—everything from the absence/presence of “right-to-work” laws to the level of political legitimacy associated with existing sources of metropolitan power; and 2) Most important of all are the strategic choices of unionists, activists and other community members.

The core concepts of opportunity and choice can help guide future research, but they also contain a strong message to practitioners seeking to grapple with the many challenges facing U.S. unions, workers and communities. As Turner writes, “The essential point is that unions have real choices to make as they face the opportunities provided in urban areas by institutional openings and social context” (p. 5). Indeed, one choice is whether union leaders will seek to frame issues in a way that brings opportunities into focus (p. 11).

LNUB offers no easy answers. As Cornfield states in his conclusion, “No single strategy for labor revitalization fits all urban contexts” (p. 251). Still, there is plenty that can be done. This book should be required reading for those associated with the U.S. labor movement, especially those in a position to make the strategic choices that will shape labor's future.

Note

1. Other recent labor research focused on communities includes David B. Reynolds (editor), Partnering for Change: Unions and Community Groups Build Coalitions for Economic Justice (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2004); David B. Reynolds, Taking the High Road: Communities Organize for Economic Change (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2002); the “Labor and Regional Development” cover feature in Perspectives on Work (Summer 2004), pp. 4-15 and the Local Solidarity special issue of Ephemera: Theory and Politics in Organization (August 2007). For an example of community-oriented scholarship from the mid-1980s, see Warner Woodworth, Christopher Meek, and William Foote Whyte, Industrial Democracy: Strategies for Community Revitalization (Beverly Hills, California: Sage Publications, 1985).

Charles J. Whalen edits Perspectives on Work , published by the Labor and Employment Relations Association. He has served on the Cornell University faculty and the BusinessWeek editorial staff. He can be reached via e-mail at perspectives@ad.uiuc.edu .

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