Out of Sight: The Long and Disturbing Story of Corporations Outsourcing CatastropheA provocative analysis of labor, globalization, and environmental harm by the award-winning historian and author of A History of America in Ten Strikes. In the current state of our globalized economy, corporations have no incentive to protect their workers or the environment. Jobs moves seamlessly across national borders while the laws that protect us from rapacious behavior remain bound by them. As a result, labor exploitation and toxic pollution remain standard practice. In Out of Sight, Erik Loomis—a historian of both the labor and environmental movements—follows a narrative that runs from the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City to the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory outside of Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2013. He demonstrates that our modern systems of industrial production are just as dirty and abusive as they were during the Industrial Revolution and the Gilded Age. The only difference is that the ugly side of manufacturing is now hidden in faraway places where workers are most vulnerable. In this Choice Outstanding Academic Title, Loomis shows that the great environmental victories of twentieth-century America—the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the EPA—were actually union victories. Using this history as a call to action, Out of Sight proposes a path toward regulations that follow corporations wherever they do business, putting the power back in workers' hands. "The story told here is tragic and important." —Bill McKibben "Erik Loomis prescribes how activists can take back our country—for workers and those who care about the health of our planet." —Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) |
Contents
Workplace Catastrophes | |
Outsourcing Pollution | |
Concealed Food Broken Workers | |
The Climate Is for Sale | |
The Way Forward | |
Notes | |
Index | |
Other editions - View all
Out of Sight: The Long and Disturbing Story of Corporations Outsourcing ... Erik Loomis No preview available - 2015 |
Common terms and phrases
activists African American American companies American corporations American workers apparel Bangladesh became blog Cambridge capital mobility century chemicals China citizens climate change clothing coal communities consumers contracts costs created decades demand dumping e-waste economic ecosystems emissions employers environment environmental justice environmentalists exploitation export ExxonMobil factories farms federal fight force Foxconn fracking free trade Gilded Age global Green Revolution Health Huffington Post Human Rights Human Rights Watch Illinois Press immigrants impact industry killed labor labor rights lead lives maquiladoras McDonald’s meat meatpacking Mexican Mexico million minimum wage move NAFTA nations North Carolina oil spill organizing OSHA outsourced overseas percent pesticides plants poisoning political politicians pollution poor President problems profit protect Rana Plaza recycling reformers regulations responsibility standards strike Struggle Sweatshops textile unions United University Press violations Walmart women Worker Rights Consortium York