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My curiosity and concern about the working class in America stems from childhood memories of my father, a cabinetmaker, and of my oldest brother, an autoworker, who were passionately involved in the labor movement. Perhaps because they so wanted the working class to achieve greater social and economic justice and because they insisted it was not happening, I became curious to know the reasons why. Without even being aware of it, I began to explore a possible explanation—the internal diver­ sity of the working class. In my studies of autoworkers (the prototype proletarians) in the United States, Italy, Argentina, and India, I discovered that they seemed to be more divided economically, socially, and politically in the more eco­ nomically advanced countries—an idea that ran contrary to the evolution­ ary predictions of my Marxist friends. When I reported this in Blue-Collar Stratification (1976), I was surprised that some of them who were commit­ ted to an ideology of working-class solidarity attacked the hypothesis because it ran against their convictions.

Labor movement -- United States -- Political activity. --- Labor unions -- United States -- Political activity. --- Labor movement --- Labor unions --- Business & Economics --- Labor & Workers' Economics --- Political activity --- Political activity. --- Mouvement ouvrier --- Syndicats --- Activité politique --- Business. --- Management science. --- Political science. --- Sociology. --- Business and Management. --- Business and Management, general. --- Political Science. --- Sociology, general. --- United States --- Labor movement - United States - Political activity.

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This concise overview of the labor movement in the United States focuses on why American workers have failed to develop the powerful unions that exist in other industrialized countries. Packed with valuable analysis and information, Hard Work explores historical perspectives, examines social and political policies, and brings us inside today's unions, providing an excellent introduction to labor in America. Hard Work begins with a comparison of the very different conditions that prevail for labor in the United States and in Europe. What emerges is a picture of an American labor movement forced to operate on terrain shaped by powerful corporations, a weak state, and an inhospitable judicial system. What also emerges is a picture of an American worker that has virtually disappeared from the American social imagination. Recently, however, the authors find that a new kind of unionism-one that more closely resembles a social movement-has begun to develop from the shell of the old labor movement. Looking at the cities of Los Angeles and Las Vegas they point to new practices that are being developed by innovative unions to fight corporate domination, practices that may well signal a revival of unionism and the emergence of a new social imagination in the United States.

Labor movement --- Labor unions --- Industrial relations --- Bureaucracy --- Mouvement ouvrier --- Syndicats --- Relations industrielles --- Bureaucratie --- Social aspects --- Management --- Aspect social --- Administration --- Bureaucracy - United States. --- Industrial relations - United States. --- Labor movement - United States. --- Labor movement-- United States. --- Labor unions - Social aspects - United States. --- Labor unions - United States - Management. --- Labor & Workers' Economics --- Business & Economics --- Management. --- Industrial unions --- Labor, Organized --- Labor organizations --- Organized labor --- Trade-unions --- Unions, Labor --- Unions, Trade --- Working-men's associations --- Labor and laboring classes --- Societies --- Central labor councils --- Guilds --- Syndicalism --- Social movements --- United States