Unions For Beginners

by David Cogswell, C.M. Butzer (Illustrator)

It is a time when unions have returned to the front pages of newspapers and blogs and demonstrators are in the streets of America every day. It is a time when the right wing has tried to strike the final blow against what remains of the right to collective bargaining. It is a time when millions of members of the middle class are falling through the cracks in a downward economic trend that parallels the decline of unions. It is this time when people are turning again to the history of unions. Unions For Beginners provides an introduction to that essential history.

Written and profusely illustrated in the user-friendly, accessible style of the For Beginners series, Unions For Beginners lays down a simple presentation of the colorful epic story of the struggle of working people to rise from lives dominated by toil and underpaid work to becoming full-fledged participants in the American dream they helped to build. Unions For Beginners presents the history of unions and the labor movement, the principles underlying union organizing, the decline of unions in the shadow of the rising corporate state, and the resurgence in the 21st century of union activism.

Genres: History

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Katherine Swanson-Palmer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was helpful. However, there are almost no women quoted at all as scholarly sources when there are about 3 men per chapter. That was incredibly disappointing.

[Lakshman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Only 2 stars as it wasn’t written very well, and in general felt like a collection of different mini biographies vs an actual history of unions. Certain parts of the book felt heavily biased, which made it harder to know what to believe in the parts I was less familiar with.

On the bright side, it gave me a good list of important people / events that I can read up on independently.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very clear and simply written history of the labor movement in the U.S. from the founding of the country up till 2011. It lists the major events and players. This book gave me a better understanding of the troubled, back and forth nature of relations between corporate interests and labor. It also did a good job of explaining how capitalism truly works in this country, the constant push of corporations to generate ever greater profits at the expense of almost everything else, including the welfare of its workforce.
Unions have been demonized through most of our history, but they are an absolute necessity both to balance the excesses and abuses of corporate power, but also in ensuring a healthy economy. Corporations, when unregulated and unrestrained in their greed inevitably cause cycles of boom and then crippling bust. the great depression, the economic downturn of 2008, were both caused by unregulated corporate excess. Most of the favorable work conditions we benefit from; the eight hour workday, weekends, a living wage, the banning of child labor, compensation for injury, overtime pay, the legal right to organize and strike were results of hard, sometimes deadly battles fought and won by labor unions. I was shocked at how corporations brutally exploited workers and violently suppressed any efforts to organize, redress grievances or receive fair compensation for their labor. Corporations frequently hired their own private armies of detectives and thugs to break strikes, often working with local police and government to harass, beat, intimidate, arrest and flat-out murder workers abd strikers. This history is especially relevant now, as we have many individuals in both government and the private sector, who ignore this history and are working to eliminate or severely restrict the ability of workers to negotiate the conditions of their work. The direct links between concentrated wealth and the rise of fascism is also made abundantly clear. They very much go hand in hand. This book should be required reading for all American citizens, especially those stupid enough to believe that giving corporations even more power is going to be good for democracy or anyone other than the rich.

[Lee Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important and quick guide to the history of unions that is written in "layman's terms," and makes it palatable for everyone to read, whether they know something about unions or not going into it. I learned a lot, but I do wish there was more info regarding women and people of color involved in the labor movement. Most of the profiled people were white men.

4/5 stars.

[Breanna S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unions for Beginners is full of great information about the history of unions, the rise of corporate power and the use of propaganda. However, it could be written better and it is misleading to call it a comic book. It has illustrations, but not enough to consider it a comic. It’s still worth a read though!

[Stephanie G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good primer, albeit COMICALLY poorly copyedited and lacking in diversity of historical figures profiled.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely for beginners. Real basic, but not bad. Good for those who really know nothing.

[are we there yet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of good information about working people in general and made NAFTA make sense for me. Two stars off because the author write as if race didn't exist and all working class people were created equal ( no, really, there were a few mentions of slavery where it was implied that Black people existed, and exactly two sentences that acknowledged the existence of non-white people).

This book also brought up that Eugene V. Debs won some election or other in 1874 as a Democrat, which seemed innocent enough until you realize this was around the time when the Democrats were still the pro-slavery party. WTF does this all mean??

[K Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very educational
Kind of bland
A little repetitive

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

The forty-hour work week, pensions and safe working conditions became part of the American employment landscape because employers felt that it was the proper thing to do, right? No, those things came into existence because of strikes and agitation by labor unions.

Why are unions supposedly at the root of America's financial problems, despite the huge drop in numbers of unionized workers over the past half century? The American corporate class (the 1 percent) wants nothing to stand in the way of their pursuit of profit. Employee wages are seen as an expense, which must be reduced as much as possible, in order to push up the stock price. A person might think that societies like Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia are the world leaders (for lack of a better term) in using propaganda on their own citizens. By far, the world leader is the United States. People are taught to equate free market capitalism with everything that is good in America. Any opposition to corporate power, like unions, is supposed to equal tyranny, oppression and communism.

Unions came into existence because of a fundamental bit of human nature. If people get together in a group, they can accomplish things that a single person can not accomplish. People have gone on strike for better working conditions since the early days of America. This book looks at some of the famous events in union history. In 1835, children in Patterson, New Jersey's silk mills went on strike for an 11-hour day and a six-day work week. There's Chicago Haymarket Incident (or Riot, or Massacre) in 1886. There's the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, and the Homestead Strike of 1892. In the 20th century, there is 1913's Ludlow Massacre. More recently, the book explores the Conservative Resurgence of the 1980s, and the attacks against unions by people from Ronald Reagan to Scott Walker. Union leaders are only human, so, throughout American history, they can be just as evil and corrupt as the rest of society.

This is a partisan book; it is probably not possible to write a totally non-partisan book about unions. This book is still recommended for everyone. It's recommended for those interested in the less well known parts of American history, it's recommended for union members who are unfamiliar with their history, and it's recommended for part of the explanation as to how America got into its present financial mess.

[Bastia Marlowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't let this thin, simply written book fool you. It serves as a condensed introduction to Labor Unions while giving brief history lessons. The author points out there is a 10-volume History of Labor Movement that still does not include everything, though on my Amazon Wish List, I appreciate Cogswell's brief bird's eye view. This book was read as a textbook for class, however, I would recommend it to people who are just starting out in their Labor career or as an interesting political journey into the history of the movement in America. The language used in the book is simple enough for anyone to follow with well-sectioned chapters and information.