Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-gvh9x Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-22T01:42:44.446Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

CONTESTING THE RACIAL DIVISION OF LABOR FROM BELOW

Representation and Union Organizing Among African American and Immigrant Workers1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2012

Virginia Parks  and
Dorian T. Warren
Virginia Parks*
Affiliation:
School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago
Dorian T. Warren
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science and School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
*
*Professor Virginia Parks, School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago, 969 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637. E-mail: vparks@uchicago.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Popular discourse and academic scholarship both accent divisions between African American and immigrant workers. These debates most often focus on the question of job competition, positioning African Americans and immigrant workers as a priori adversaries in the labor market. We take a different tack. Drawing upon a case study of hotel workers in Chicago, we identify ways in which workers themselves challenge and bridge these divisions. Specifically, we reveal how union organizing activities, such as diverse committee representation and inclusion of diversity language in contracts, counter notions of intergroup competition in an effort to build common cause that affirms rather than denies differences. We argue that these activities represent political efforts on the part of workers to contest and even reshape the racial and ethnic division of labor, thereby revealing competition as a socially contingent and politically mediated process.

Keywords

RaceImmigrationEmploymentLaborEthnic Competition
Type
Special Feature
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , Fall 2012 , pp. 395 - 417
Copyright
Copyright © W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

We would like to acknowledge the willing participation of all our interview respondents as well as the members, staff, and leaders of Unite Here Local 1 who allowed us access as participant observers over a ten-year period. The names of all interviewees have been changed in order to grant anonymity. Authors are equal co-authors; names appear in alphabetical order.

References

REFERENCES

Allen, Robert L. and Allen, Pamela P. (1974). Reluctant Reformers: Racism and Social Reform Movements in the United States. Washington, DC: Howard University Press.Google Scholar
Barenberg, Mark (2008). Toward a Democratic Model of Transnational Labour Monitoring? In Bercusson, Brian and Estlund, Cynthia (Eds.), Regulating Labour in the Wake of Globalisation: New Challenges, New Institutions, pp. 37–66. Oxford, UK: Hart Publications.Google Scholar
Becker, Gary S. (1957). The Economics of Discrimination. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Bernhardt, Annette and Dresser, Laura (2002). Why Privatizing Government Services Would Hurt Women Workers. Washington, DC: Institute for Women's Policy Research.Google Scholar
Bernhardt, Annette, Morris, Martina, Handcock, Mark S., and Scott, Marc A. (2001). Divergent Paths: Economic Mobility in the New American Labor Market. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Bobo, Lawrence (1983). Whites' Opposition to Busing: Symbolic Racism or Realistic Group Conflict? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45(6): 1196–1210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boeri, Tito and van Ours, Jan (2008). The Economics of Imperfect Labor Markets. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Borjas, George J. (2003). The Labor Demand Curve is Downward Sloping: Reexamining the Impact of Immigration on the Labor Market. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118(4): 1135–1374.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boston Globe (2006). African-Americans Need Apply. December 11, A12.Google Scholar
Brown, Michael K., Carnoy, Martin, Currie, Elliott, Duster, Troy, Oppenheimer, David B., Shultz, Marjorie M., and Wellman, David (2003). White-Washing Race: The Myth of a Color-Blind Society. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Card, David (1997). Immigrant Inflows, Native Outflows, and the Local Labor Market Impacts of Higher Immigration. Working Paper 5927, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Card, David (2005). Is the New Immigration So Bad? The Economic Journal, 115(506): 300–323.Google Scholar
Card, David (2009). Immigration and Inequality. American Economic Review, 99(2): 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Cathy J. (1999). The Boundaries of Blackness: Aids and the Breakdown of Black Politics. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dobbin, Frank (2009). Inventing Equal Opportunity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Drake, St. Clair and Cayton, Horace R. ([1945] 1993). Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Eisinger, Peter K. (1982). Black Employment in Municipal Jobs: The Impact of Black Political Power. American Political Science Review, 76(2): 380–392.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, Mark, Wright, Richard, and Parks, Virginia (2004). Work Together, Live Apart? Geographies of Racial and Ethnic Segregation at Home and at Work. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 94(3): 620–637.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elmore, Richard F. (1979–1980). Backward Mapping: Implementation Research and Policy Decisions. Political Science Quarterly, 94(4): 601–616.Google Scholar
Fine, Janice and Gordon, Jennifer (2010). Strengthening Labor Standards Enforcement through Partnerships with Workers' Organizations. Politics & Society, 38(4): 552–585.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freeman, Richard B. and Medoff, James L. (1984). What Do Unions Do? New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Frymer, Paul (2008). Black and Blue: African Americans, the Labor Movement, and the Decline of the Democratic Party. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Ganz, Marshall (2000). Resources and Resourcefulness: Strategic Capacity in the Unionization of California Agriculture, 1959–1966. American Journal of Sociology 105: 1003–1062.Google Scholar
Gould, William B. (1977). Black Workers in White Unions: Job Discrimination in the United States. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Granovetter, Mark (1974). Getting a Job. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Harris, William H. (1982). The Harder We Run: Black Workers Since the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hill, Herbert (1985). Black Labor and the American Legal System: Race, Work and the Law. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Holzer, Harry J. and Neumark, David (2006). Assessing Affirmative Action: What Do We Know? Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 25(2): 463–490.Google Scholar
Iton, Richard (2000). Solidarity Blues: Race, Culture, and the American Left. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Katz, Michael B., Stern, Mark J., and Fader, Jamie J. (2005). The New African American Inequality. The Journal of American History, 92(1): 75–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirschenman, Joleen and Neckerman, Kathryn M. (1991). Hiring Strategies, Racial Bias, and Inner-City Workers. Social Problems, 38(4): 433–447.Google Scholar
Kurtz, Sharon (2002). Workplace Justice: Organizing Multi-Identity Movements. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Lim, Nelson (2004). The Significance of Race in the Urban Labor Market. In Gabaccia, Donna R. and Leach, Colin W. (Eds.), Immigrant Life in the US: Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives, pp. 152–172. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Massey, Douglas S. (2007). Categorically Unequal: The American Stratification System. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Massey, Douglas S. and Denton, Nancy C. (1993). American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
McPherson, J. Miller and Smith-Lovin, Lynn (1987). Homophily in Voluntary Organizations: Status Distance and the Composition of Face-to-Face Groups. American Journal of Sociology, 52(3): 370–379.Google Scholar
Milkman, Ruth (2005). Divided We Stand. New Labor Forum, 15(1): 38–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Model, Suzanne (1993). The Ethnic Niche and the Structure of Opportunity: Immigrants and Minorities in New York City. In Katz, Michael (Ed.), The “Underclass” Debate: Views from History, pp. 161–193. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morin, Richard (2008). Do Blacks and Hispanics Get Along? Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.Google Scholar
Morris, Aldon and Staggenborg, Suzanne (2002). Leadership in Social Movements. Unpublished Manuscript, Department of Sociology, Northwestern University.Google Scholar
Murray, Julie, Batalova, Jeanne, and Fix, Michael (2006). The Impact of Immigration on Native Workers: A Fresh Look at the Evidence. Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute.Google Scholar
Needleman, Ruth (2003). Black Freedom Fighters in Steel: The Struggle for Democratic Unionism. Ithaca, NY: ILR/Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Nelson, Bruce (2000). Divided We Stand: American Workers and the Struggle for Black Equality. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Newman, Katherine (1999). No Shame for My Game: The Working Poor in the Inner City. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
O'Leary, Christopher J., Straits, Robert A., and Wandner, Stephen A., eds. (2004). Job Training Policy in the United States. Kalamazoo, MI: W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pager, Devah (2007). Marked: Race, Crime, and Finding Work in an Era of Mass Incarceration. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pager, Devah, Western, Bruce, and Bonikowski, Bart (2009). Discrimination in a Low Wage Labor Market: A Field Experiment. American Sociological Review, 74(October): 777–799.Google Scholar
Parkin, Frank (1979). Marxism: A Bourgeois Critique. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Parks, Virginia (2004). Immigrant Enclaves and Ethnic Niches: The Gendered Connection between Residential and Labor-Market Segregation in Los Angeles. Urban Geography, 25(7): 589–630.Google Scholar
Parks, Virginia (2006). Race, Immigration, and the Global City: Lessons from Chicago's Hotel Housekeepers. In Greene, R. P., Bouman, M. J., and Grammenos, D. (Eds.), Chicago's Geographies: Metropolis for the 21st Century, pp. 129–142. Washington, DC: Association of American Geographers.Google Scholar
Parks, Virginia (2010). Gendering Job Competition: Immigration and African American Employment in Chicago, 1990–2000. Urban Geography, 31(1): 59–89.Google Scholar
Parks, Virginia and Warren, Dorian (2009). The Politics and Practice of Economic Justice: Community Benefits Agreements as Tactic of the New Accountable Development Movement. Journal of Community Practice, 17(1-2): 88–106.Google Scholar
Pew Hispanic Center (2006). The State of American Public Opinion on Immigration in Spring 2006: A Review of Major Surveys. Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center.Google Scholar
Pinderhughes, Dianne M. (1987). Race and Ethnicity in Chicago Politics: A Reexamination of Pluralist Theory. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Piven, Frances Fox and Cloward, Richard (1979). Poor Peoples' Movements: Why They Succeed and How They Fail. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Rawls, John (1971). A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Royster, Deirdre A. (2003). Race and the Invisible Hand: How White Networks Exclude Black Men from Blue-Collar Jobs. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Ruggles, Steven, Alexander, J. Trent, Genadek, Katie, Goeken, Ronald, Schroeder, Matthew B., and Sobek, Matthew (2010). Integrated Public Use Microdata Series: Version 5.0 [Machine-readable database]. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota.Google Scholar
Schattschneider, Elmer E. (1960). The Semisovereign People: A Realist's View of Democracy in America. New York: Holt, Rinerhart and Winston.Google Scholar
Sen, Rinku (2003). Stir it Up: Lessons in Community Organizing and Advocacy. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass (The Chardon Press Series).Google Scholar
Smock, Kristina (2003). Democracy in Action: Community Organizing and Urban Change. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Stoll, Michael and Raphael, Steven (2000). Racial Differences in Spatial Job Search Patterns: Exploring the Causes and Consequences. Economic Geography, 76(3): 201–223.Google Scholar
Stone, Katherine V. W. (2004). From Widgets to Digits: Employment Regulation for a Changing Workplace. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strolovitch, Dara Z. (2007). Affirmative Advocacy: Race, Class, and Gender in Interest Group Politics. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tilly, Charles (1999). Durable Inequality. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Thomas, William I. and Znaniecki, Florian (1918–1920). The Polish Peasant in Europe and America: Monograph of an Immigrant Group. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Unite Here (2009). “UNITE HERE'S 2009 Convention” ⟨http://www.unitehere.org/convention_2009/⟩ (accessed October 1, 2011).Google Scholar
Voss, Kim and Sherman, Rachel (2000). Breaking the Iron Law of Oligarchy: Union Revitalization in the American Labor Movement. American Journal of Sociology, 106(2): 303–349.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waldinger, Roger (1992). Taking Care of the Guests: The impact of Immigrants on Services. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 16(1): 97–113.Google Scholar
Waldinger, Roger (1996). Still the Promised City? African-Americans and New Immigrants in Postindustrial New York. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Waldinger, Roger (1997). Black/Immigrant Competition Re-Assessed: New Evidence from Los Angeles. Sociological Perspectives, 40(3): 365–386.Google Scholar
Waldinger, Roger and Lichter, Michael I. (2003). How the Other Half Works: Immigration and the Social Organization of Labor. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Warren, Dorian T. (2001–2011). UNITE HERE Local 1 Field Notes. Unpublished. On file with the authors.Google Scholar
Warren, Dorian T. (2002). UNITE HERE Local 1 Field Notes. Unpublished. On file with the authors.Google Scholar
Warren, Dorian T. (2005). A New Labor Movement for a New Century? The Incorporation of Marginalized Workers in U.S. Unions. PhD Dissertation, Department of Political Science, Yale University.Google Scholar
Warren, Dorian T. (2010). The American Labor Movement in the Age of Obama: The Challenges and Opportunities of a Racialized Political Economy. Perspectives on Politics, 8(3): 847–860.Google Scholar
Waters, Mary C. (1999). Immigrant Dreams and American Realities—The Causes and Consequences of the Ethnic Labor Market in American Cities. Work and Occupations, 26(3): 352–364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Western, Bruce and Beckett, Katherine (1999). How Unregulated is the U.S. Labor Market? The Penal System as a Labor Market Institution. American Journal of Sociology, 104(4): 1030–1060.Google Scholar
Wilkerson, Isabel (2010). The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Wilson, William Julius (1996). When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Zipperer, Ben (2009). Jump in Public Sector Unionization Raises Overall Rate Again in 2008. Washington, DC: Center for Economic and Policy Research. ⟨http://www.cepr.net/index.php/data-bytes/union-membership-byte/jump-in-public-sector-unionization-raises-overall-rate-again-in-2008/⟩ (accessed October 5, 2011).Google Scholar
Zukin, Sharon, and DiMaggio, Paul, Eds. (1990). Structures of Capital: The Social Organization of the Economy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar