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Poor Workers' Unions: Rebuilding Labor from Below
“Finally, the book we’ve all been waiting for! With gripping tales of grassroots experiments in social justice unionism from the 1960s to the present, Vanessa Tait cracks wide open our concept of what a labor movement looks like, and shows how it can be part and parcel of movements for racial and gender justice. In the process, she does a stunning job of helping us imagine workers’ movements that are creative, democratic, and, above all, build power from below—pointing the way to a vibrant future for labor.”—Dana Frank, UC-Santa Cruz; author of Buy American: The Untold Story of Economic Nationalism “A critical contribution to broadening our understanding of who and what is the labor movement in the USA. . . . Tait captures the dynamism of alternative forms of working class organization that have long been ignored. In formulating a new direction for organized labor in the USA, the history Tait addresses must become a recognized part of our foundation.”—Bill Fletcher, Jr., President, TransAfrica Forum and former assistant to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney
“While the AFL-CIO and its affiliated unions desperately try to figure out how to rebuild and energize the labor movement, this exceptional book reveals that poor workers have been showing the way for the past forty years. Utilizing original documents, Tait examines . . . a wide range of movements organized by poor workers to improve their circumstances and build a more just society, including the Revolutionary Union Movement, the National Welfare Rights Organization, ACORN’s Unite Labor Unions, workfare unions, and independent workers’ centers. She demonstrates that these movements were founded and developed upon principles of rank-and-file control, democracy, community involvement, and solidarity and aimed to improve all aspects of workers’ lives. . . . Both labor activists and labor historians will learn much from this book.”—Michael Yates, author of Why Unions Matter
“While the AFL-CIO and its affiliated unions desperately try to figure out how to rebuild and energize the labor movement, this exceptional book reveals that poor workers have been showing the way for the past forty years. Utilizing original documents, Tait examines . . . a wide range of movements organized by poor workers to improve their circumstances and build a more just society, including the Revolutionary Union Movement, the National Welfare Rights Organization, ACORN’s Unite Labor Unions, workfare unions, and independent workers’ centers. She demonstrates that these movements were founded and developed upon principles of rank-and-file control, democracy, community involvement, and solidarity and aimed to improve all aspects of workers’ lives. . . . Both labor activists and labor historians will learn much from this book.”—Michael Yates, author of Why Unions Matter
- GenresLaborNonfictionPolitics
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
7 people are currently reading
265 people want to read
About the author
Vanessa Tait
1 bookJournalist and labor activist Vanessa Tait received her PhD in sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her writings have appeared in publications such as New Labor Forum, Critical Sociology, Labor Notes, the Boston Phoenix, Qualitative Sociology, and the Guardian. Her radio work appears regularly on KPFA/Pacifica.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 12, 2014
Read this book, and you'll find a wealth of fascinating hidden labor history. During the 1960s and 70s, domestic workers organized for their labor rights, as did workfare workers and fast food workers. The author shows how racial and gender justice movements were part of a national economic justice movement, which was just outside of the gates of mainstream trade unionism, sometimes in alliance with it and sometimes at odds with it. Extremely useful!
March 4, 2011
I LOVE this book! I've assigned it to several undergraduate classes and find it is accessible and enjoyable for students. It encourages discussion of how unions can better organize, as well as the history of worker actions outside of formal union structures. Great overview especially of 60s, 70s which is hard to find elsewhere.
June 13, 2010
This is a great "people's history" of US labor after 1960. Tait's many examples of community-based and rank-and-file unionism are inspiring, especially in light of the continuing decline of the largest unions in the US.
July 12, 2014
A fantastic read, a story that covers "economic justice" organizing in the 1960s social movements to current union-allied efforts to organize immigrant workers and fast food workers. This is the history missing from so many labor movement accounts. It makes visible the work of women, people of color and undocumented immigrants within the world of community and labor organizing in a way few other works have. Inspiring stuff for those of us mired in real day-to-day organizing dilemmas.
January 23, 2008
Compelling history of innovative community-based union organizing among low wage workers since the 1960s, and how this activism is closely related to movements for social justice. Connects civil rights, feminist, left politics with changes in the labor movement over the last few decades. Rare to find a work that links social movement and labor studies so well.
July 14, 2014
These stories drew me in. They are both individual and collective. Reads more like a novel than a historical study in many places. The book covers many struggles of low-wage workers, especially women and people of color, placing them in the context of organizing in the community rather than just in the workplace. Recommended.
September 28, 2023
Really good and inspirational for the future of workers movements
May 16, 2022
Absolutely tremendous book. An overview of labor history I was totally unfamiliar with (did you know that organized community members, separate from unions, staged massive actions over the last 75 years and achieved gains without any legal standing? That welfare workers organized and won?). Also has a very clear and compelling argument about how to achieve change in the future as our legal rights become progressively weaker. I also want to mention how well-structured the book is, and divided into small digestible units.
My only warning is that it’s fundamentally a history and organizing book, so there’s a lot of that happened, then that happened, then this happened, and only a few people or characters.
My only warning is that it’s fundamentally a history and organizing book, so there’s a lot of that happened, then that happened, then this happened, and only a few people or characters.
April 7, 2024
Excellent book that bridges community and union organizing with real stories, powerful experiences, and with a willingness to be brave in pointing out weaknesses of these various efforts while addressing the fundamental weaknesses of the labor movement including racist and sexist foundations that hurt both the movement and fighting for workers. Even as a long-time labor leader and community organizer, I learned so much. It was also fun to see so many names I’ve worked with including Larry Cohen (my former national president), Kim Moody, Stewart Acuff, and Joann Wypijewski.
While pointing out that labor membership feel from representing over a third of the workforce to under 13% between 1955 and 2003, the book addresses possible solutions that worked rather than come up with excuses like so many labor books. The author briefly contrasts the Hospital Workers Union Local 1199, lifting up wages of low-wage African Americans, Puerto Rican, and Filipina/Filipinos to the International Ladies Garment Workers Union that had a large Asian and Latino membership but a white leadership. She highlights that she focuses mostly on “urban workers’ activism that grew out of antipoverty” organizing. Most of the book speaks about the power of various worker centers, Day laborer organizing, and groups like Jobs with Justice, 9 to 5, Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association, and ACORN. She points out that “Poor workers’ organizing efforts have much to teach the labor movement.”
The author also speaks about how AFSCME organized around the civil rights movement while most unions only organized from their base, if at all during the 1960s and 1970s. She addresses how the UAW had the DRUM caucus founded in 1967 by rank and file pushing for change. She stated that while 30% of the UAW membership were African Americans, the UAW executive board only had two of 26 members who were people of color. When Walter Reuther pulled out of the national AFL-CIO in 1968, they joined with the Teamsters and later some other smaller unions to create the Alliance for Labor Action. This almost exclusively male staffed organization, about half African American but evidently no Asian or Latino, went after top-down organizing. According to the author, the UAW didn’t use this as an opportunity to pull their own members into the process. In 1974, women unionist formed the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) also saying that their major goal was organizing. It would had been helpful had the author conducted the research to learn who really created CLUW and how much funding was allotted to make a dent on organizing the vast unorganized women workforce.
It was interesting to read about the 1976 creation of the Rhode Island Workers Union, first starting up with foundation support and building some internal support through union dues of those low wage workers who were organized. The group had 55 campaigns between 1976 and 1982 with low income assembly-line workers with mostly Portuguese immigrants. They won about 25 of those campaigns, adding to their strength in nursing homes in the state. National unions like the SEIU took notice and started to affiliate some of these independent unions, adding to SEIU’s organizing ability and mission to grow the labor movement.
One of the most fascinating stories was how the Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association organized restaurant workers in New York City. The Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union had not been interested in organizing any of the 450 restaurants in Chinatown. When the waiters joined Local 69 of HERE, they soon became disillusioned since the union would not hire Asian staff nor organizers who were Chinese-speaking. Community pressure brought success, including a 40-hour work week, minimum wage, overtime, and paid holidays.
Other local fights are highlighted – Chinese workers in the Garment industry in New York City, ‘street corner solidarity’ on Long Island with Central American migrants, ‘Black Workers for Justice’ in South Carolina, ACORN’s fights for welfare workers, SEIU’s Justice for Janitors, Los Angeles manufacturing organizing, HERE organizing drives in various parts of the country, and she briefly addressed some initiatives of John Sweeney when he took the helm of the national AFL-CIO and tried to set the stage for a renewal of the labor movement with issues like Union Summer and the Immigration Ride. Unfortunately, she didn’t drill down on why these efforts failed.
Perhaps because the author did not provide enough critical analysis and look at the bigger picture of labor’s inability to focus on low wage workers with the exception of a few unions or a few cities, this book is more positive and gives the impression we made more progress than we did. Yet, her expression of community organizing giving workers a voice through labor centers, community-based organizations, and organizers who look like the community they work gives all of us a hopeful view of what could be and how we could make more progress building a more diverse, proactive movement.
While pointing out that labor membership feel from representing over a third of the workforce to under 13% between 1955 and 2003, the book addresses possible solutions that worked rather than come up with excuses like so many labor books. The author briefly contrasts the Hospital Workers Union Local 1199, lifting up wages of low-wage African Americans, Puerto Rican, and Filipina/Filipinos to the International Ladies Garment Workers Union that had a large Asian and Latino membership but a white leadership. She highlights that she focuses mostly on “urban workers’ activism that grew out of antipoverty” organizing. Most of the book speaks about the power of various worker centers, Day laborer organizing, and groups like Jobs with Justice, 9 to 5, Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association, and ACORN. She points out that “Poor workers’ organizing efforts have much to teach the labor movement.”
The author also speaks about how AFSCME organized around the civil rights movement while most unions only organized from their base, if at all during the 1960s and 1970s. She addresses how the UAW had the DRUM caucus founded in 1967 by rank and file pushing for change. She stated that while 30% of the UAW membership were African Americans, the UAW executive board only had two of 26 members who were people of color. When Walter Reuther pulled out of the national AFL-CIO in 1968, they joined with the Teamsters and later some other smaller unions to create the Alliance for Labor Action. This almost exclusively male staffed organization, about half African American but evidently no Asian or Latino, went after top-down organizing. According to the author, the UAW didn’t use this as an opportunity to pull their own members into the process. In 1974, women unionist formed the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) also saying that their major goal was organizing. It would had been helpful had the author conducted the research to learn who really created CLUW and how much funding was allotted to make a dent on organizing the vast unorganized women workforce.
It was interesting to read about the 1976 creation of the Rhode Island Workers Union, first starting up with foundation support and building some internal support through union dues of those low wage workers who were organized. The group had 55 campaigns between 1976 and 1982 with low income assembly-line workers with mostly Portuguese immigrants. They won about 25 of those campaigns, adding to their strength in nursing homes in the state. National unions like the SEIU took notice and started to affiliate some of these independent unions, adding to SEIU’s organizing ability and mission to grow the labor movement.
One of the most fascinating stories was how the Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association organized restaurant workers in New York City. The Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union had not been interested in organizing any of the 450 restaurants in Chinatown. When the waiters joined Local 69 of HERE, they soon became disillusioned since the union would not hire Asian staff nor organizers who were Chinese-speaking. Community pressure brought success, including a 40-hour work week, minimum wage, overtime, and paid holidays.
Other local fights are highlighted – Chinese workers in the Garment industry in New York City, ‘street corner solidarity’ on Long Island with Central American migrants, ‘Black Workers for Justice’ in South Carolina, ACORN’s fights for welfare workers, SEIU’s Justice for Janitors, Los Angeles manufacturing organizing, HERE organizing drives in various parts of the country, and she briefly addressed some initiatives of John Sweeney when he took the helm of the national AFL-CIO and tried to set the stage for a renewal of the labor movement with issues like Union Summer and the Immigration Ride. Unfortunately, she didn’t drill down on why these efforts failed.
Perhaps because the author did not provide enough critical analysis and look at the bigger picture of labor’s inability to focus on low wage workers with the exception of a few unions or a few cities, this book is more positive and gives the impression we made more progress than we did. Yet, her expression of community organizing giving workers a voice through labor centers, community-based organizations, and organizers who look like the community they work gives all of us a hopeful view of what could be and how we could make more progress building a more diverse, proactive movement.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 17, 2025
Engrossing history that helps us imagine the future of labor. Ever wonder about the origins of home care or fast food worker organizing? The immigrant workers centers that have sprung up the hundreds around the US? How the civil rights and women's movement conceptualized labor and changed the path of the organized labor movement? This covers a great deal of complex labor history since the 1960s, up to the present day controversies in the AFL-CIO and how labor is changing and adapting. Fascinating!
October 11, 2010
Tait covers very important history here. But because her scope is so wide, her analysis is rather shallow. It is almost painful to read about heroic campaigns, and see all the work and planning and patience and strategy that goes into it summed up with, "And they were victorious."
While it's important to know some of the achievements of these groups, I'd be more interested in an analysis of how they brought about their successes.
While it's important to know some of the achievements of these groups, I'd be more interested in an analysis of how they brought about their successes.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews