Contains 18 contributions which discuss the revival of activism in the AFL-CIO following the election of a new president in 1995.

This book examines the concept of 'community unionism', which argues that the future of the labour movement and industrial relations lies with the community and local labour markets. Providing a conceptual overview of the term, the book uses international case studies and draws on faith-based organizations to explore the issue.

From gloomy times in the 1980s, the American labor movement has returned to apparent prominence through the efforts of a new generation of energetic and progressive leaders. A distinguished group of authors examines this resurgence and the potential of American unions with sympathetic yet critical eyes. Experts from a wide variety of disciplines—industrial relations, political science, economics, and sociology—identify the central developments, analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the new initiatives, and assess the progress made and the prospects for the future. Though all agree on the importance of unions, their opinions of the success of current renewal efforts diverge greatly. The interdisciplinary and comparative approach of Rekindling the Movement is both challenging and enlightening. Rather than merely trumpeting pet opinions, contributors provide hard evidence and causal analysis, grounded in realistic perspectives, to back up suggestions for the improvement of the new labor movement. Their straightforward observations about what is and is not possible, what does and does not work, will be of great practical value for policymakers and union leaders.

The Revival of Labor Liberalism is a careful analysis of the twentieth-century decline of the labor-liberal coalition and the important efforts to revive their political fortunes. Andrew Battista chronicles the efforts of several new political organizations that arose in the 1970s and 1980s with the goal of reuniting unions and liberals. Drawing from extensive documentary research and in-depth interviews with union leaders and political activists, Battista shows that the new organizations such as the Progressive Alliance, Citizen Labor Energy Coalition, and National Labor Committee made limited but real progress in reconstructing and strengthening the labor-liberal coalition. Although the labor-liberal alliance remained far weaker than the rival business-conservative alliance, Battista illuminates that it held a crucial role in labor and political history after 1968. Focuses on a fraught but evolving partnership, Battista provides a broad analysis of factional divisions among both unions and liberals and considers the future of unionism and the labor-liberal coalition in America.

Richard D. Kahlenberg offers a narrative on the man who would become one of the most important voices in public education and American politics in the last quarter century - Albert Shanker.

This is the final book in a series of volumes on the history of the Transport & General Workers’ Union (T&G). After the neo-liberal assault on the unions and working people more generally carried through by Margaret Thatcher and John Major in the 1980s and 1990s, the unions, including the T&G, were faced with making some tough decisions about their future. The T&G initially turned to restructuring and engaged US management consultants to make recommendations about how the union should be moulded to fit the fast approaching new millennium. In other parts of the world at this time, particularly in the US and Australia, forward thinking unions were realising that the way out of the crisis was to switch from what was called the servicing model, where the union did things for its members, to an organising model, where the union did things with its members, and early in the millennium, the political and industrial logic of forming a large general workers’ union became more and more apparent. This fascinating volume looks at this history of the T&G, and considers how a three way union merger eventually became a reality with the merger of the T&G and Amicus to form Unite.

Based on extended interviews with maids, cocktail waitresses, cooks, laundry workers, dealers, pit bosses, and vice presidents, Casino Women is a pioneering look at the female face of corporate gaming.