Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Introduction by Lynn R. Williams
- 1 A Future for the American Labor Movement?
- 2 Industrial Relations in a Time of Change
- 3 A Survey of American Union Strategies
- 4 The Old Reformist Unionism: The Noble Order of the Knights of Labor
- 5 The New Reformist Unionism: CAFE
- 6 A New Version of an Old Reformist Strategy: Employee Ownership
- 7 Social Democratic Unionism in Action: Strategies of European Trade Unions
- 8 A New Twist and TURN on Social Democratic Unionism: Unions and Regional Economic Development
- 9 A Labor Movement for the Twenty-First Century
- Appendix: Interview with John J. Sweeney, President, AFL-CIO
- References
- Index
1 - A Future for the American Labor Movement?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Introduction by Lynn R. Williams
- 1 A Future for the American Labor Movement?
- 2 Industrial Relations in a Time of Change
- 3 A Survey of American Union Strategies
- 4 The Old Reformist Unionism: The Noble Order of the Knights of Labor
- 5 The New Reformist Unionism: CAFE
- 6 A New Version of an Old Reformist Strategy: Employee Ownership
- 7 Social Democratic Unionism in Action: Strategies of European Trade Unions
- 8 A New Twist and TURN on Social Democratic Unionism: Unions and Regional Economic Development
- 9 A Labor Movement for the Twenty-First Century
- Appendix: Interview with John J. Sweeney, President, AFL-CIO
- References
- Index
Summary
That so long as man shall live and have his being, so long as there shall dwell in the human heart a desire for something better and nobler, so long as there is in the human mind the germ of the belief in human justice and human liberty, so long as there is in the whole makeup of man a desire to be a brother to his fellow-man, so long will there be a labor movement.
Samuel Gompers, President, American Federation of Labor, 1904As we begin the twenty-first century, many of the institutions of Western society are undergoing dramatic change. The labor movement in the United States has been especially affected by powerful economic and social forces. The threshold question in thinking about this is whether there is a future for the labor movement in advanced postindustrial societies. Is the very idea of a labor movement a viable one for the twenty-first century? This is an important question, given the contributions of trade unions and their allies to the development and maintenance of democracy, both in America's workplace and in its political system.
Even in this time of great change, the labor movement remains, in essence, what it has always been – a set of organizations and individuals that function to serve the rights and interests of workers.
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- Information
- The Future of the American Labor Movement , pp. 1 - 24Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002