Success While Others Fail: Social Movement Unionism and the Public WorkplacePaul Johnston tells the stories of four groups of workers, two in local government and two in the private sector. He examines complex patterns of difference related to gender, race, occupation, and public or private employment. Each group of workers engaged in some form of what Johnston calls "social movement unionism", including an early "Justice for Janitors" campaign. These movements reflect the efforts of individual organizers, such as Maxine Jenkins, key organizer for the first comparable worth strikes in both public and private sectors. They are also shaped, Johnston argues, by their different historical and structural contexts. Success depends in each case, he concludes, on the fit between these conditions and the model of unionism employed. Johnston examines in detail the interaction of public and private labor movements, gender relations, and urban life and politics. His book will interest not only industrial relations scholars but also political scientists, social movement scholars, organization theorists, students of public administration, urban sociologists, and those who study comparable worth. |
Contents
The Richness of Its Possibilities | 3 |
Inside the Public Workers Movement | 33 |
The Women of the City | 55 |
Gender and the City in Silicon Valley | 88 |
The Nurses of the Valley | 113 |
The Custodians of the Valley | 146 |
The Nurses of the City | 175 |
Conclusions and Implications | 208 |
Salary Standardization and Comparable Worth | 226 |
| 235 | |
| 253 | |
About the Author 264 | |
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activists administration AFL-CIO AFSCME agencies agency shop agenda alliances associated budget bureaucratic California Callahan campaign chapter city officials city workers city workforce city's civil service claim to comparable collective bargaining comparable worth adjustments conflict context contract custodians demands Dianne Feinstein economic election emerged Feinstein feminist fiscal crisis gender growth hospital human service increase industrial relations interests internal interview issues Jose's Justice for Janitors labor market labor movement leaders leadership Maxine Jenkins mayor ment militancy mobilization negotiations neighborhood organizational participants percent personnel political position private sector private sector nurses Proposition 13 public organization public sector labor public sector unions public service unionism public workers public workforce public workplace regime role salary standardization San Francisco San Jose Santa Clara County Santa Clara Valley scholars SEIU Silicon Valley social movement unionism social movements strategy tion unionists urban valley's wages women
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