Overview
This volume chronicles the massive, protracted strikes waged against three large corporations in Decatur, Illinois in the 1990s. Veteran journalist Stephen Franklin shows how labour disputes at Bridgestone/Firestone, Caterpillar, and A.E. Staley left lasting scars on this town and its citizens - and marked a turning point in American labour history. When workers went on strike to retain such basic rights as job security and the eight-hour day, the corporations hit back with unprecedented hard-line tactics. Through the moving stories of individual workers and union activists, Franklin illuminates the hardships and disillusionment left in the wake of the strikes and the powerful forces that caught an unprepared labour leadership off guard. He vividly portrays how the balance of labour-management power was shifted by corporate globalization, cut-throat labour practices, the outdated responses of national unions and government regulators and an apathetic public. Reflecting on the hard-won lessons of Decatur, the book describes how the quality of work and life are now threatened - not just for blue-collar workers, but for all Americans - and what it will take to safeguard them.
Full Product Details
Author: Stephen Franklin
Publisher: Guilford Publications
Imprint: Guilford Publications
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 2.10cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.442kg
ISBN: 9781572307971
ISBN 10: 1572307978
Pages: 300
Publication Date: 21 November 2002
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Out of Print
Availability: In Print
Limited stock is available. It will be ordered for you and shipped pending supplier's limited stock.
Reviews
Chicago Tribune labor journalist Stephen Franklin tells the story of these three labor conflicts (contrary to the title, actually two strikes and a lock-out) and how they encompass pressing issues facing organized labor and the country as a whole. Franklin puts a human face on the toll that globalization is taking on American workers and turns a critical eye to national labor leaders, few of whom have a strategy to respond to organized labor's steadily declining numbers and its inability to win protracted strikes....novelistic writing style succeeds in making the work more accessible to a broader audience....He paints a powerful portrait of blue collar life in Decatur, a way of life that has steadily eroded over the last two decades of plant closings and corporate union-busting that has devastated scores of industrial towns across the American Midwest.... Three Strikes should be widely read by U.S. and labor historians, by unionists and activists, and by those seeking to understand the devastating toll corporate America has unleashed on manufacturing workers and their unions and towns. -- Labor History <br> The strength of this book is in compassion for the victims of the corporate juggernaut in its portrayal of the stress and the rage and the tremendous strength and growth of many of the workers in the struggle....for anyone serious about understanding what happened to the American Dream in the late-twentieth century, it's an important book to read. -- American Studies <br> The book captures an important moment in U.S. labor history, a moment when the labor bureaucracy was forced to confront its degeneration and workers faced the brutal end of a social contract which had enabledmany to attain a 'middle class' standard of living. -- Anarcho-Syndicalist Review <br> A veteran labor journalist, Franklin uses insightful and compassionate portrayals of local union members' struggles, both on and off the job, to convey the impact of strikes against Caterpillar, Staley, and Bridgestone/Firestone, three of Decatur's largest employers. The result is a book with lessons for anyone who cares about the future of blue-collar America. -- Journal of Illinois History <br> [A] vivid account of the overlapping industrial conflicts that gripped Decatur, Illinois, in the mid-1990s. Franklin's book describes all the key players--in labor, management, and the community--who helped create or were caught up in the resulting maelstrom. The author is particularly adept at recounting the human cost of worker resistance to corporate greed--the anger and disillusionment, lost jobs, homes, and savings, the broken marriages, divided families, and tragic deaths from suicide. Amid all this, Three Strikes also offers inspiring stories of personal transformation and selfless devotion to labor's cause. -- WorkingUSA <br> Three Strikes' is probably best read, then, as a cautionary tale, for both labor and management, about the very real human costs of globalization. -- The Flint Journal <br> Highly recommended for undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and management practitioners. -- Choice <br> Three Strikes is a good place to start learning about the War Zone struggles. -- Socialist Worker <br> Franklin richly grasps the texture of a ragged, prairie town, whose hope was pinned to smokestacks that soured the dream. The everyday workers whose lives were on the line shine throughas they wrestle with global imperatives far beyond Decatur's grasp, seeking to retain the dignity and self-respect their unions once helped them win. -- Union News <br> Losers are hard to take. That is especially true if they are middle-age white guys with big bellies and bad teeth, the kind who rant, rave and fail to realize when their cause is hopeless. But sometimes their tragedy explodes in our face, which is one reason that 'Three Strikes, ' Stephen Franklin's immensely well-textured chronicle of their lives, is so riveting. -- Washington Post.Com <br>.,. highly readable, well-researched narratives of dramatic action....Stephen Franklin documents the twists and turns of three overlapping strikes in Decatur, IL., in the 1990s--at Caterpillar, A.E. Staley and Bridgestone/Firestone....For Franklin, the loss of union power and with it the decline of once-sturdy blue-collar livelihoods constitutes an 'American tragedy.' Despite positive recent changes in labor's national leadership, the labor movement has a long way to go to make an 'impact on today's global corporation, ' he writes. -- Chicago Tribune Internet Edition <br>.,. this heartbreaking account of blue-collar life in the new economy should be mandatory reading for all those who blithely dismiss the social costs of free trade and unregulated corporate power. Recommended for academic libraries and current events collections in public libraries. -- Library Journal <br> This volume will interest general readers, as well as scholars and students of U.S. history, labor history, political science, sociology, and labor jounralism. -- The Carolina Times <br>
Author Information
Stephen Franklin has been a labor writer for the Chicago Tribune for nearly a decade. Before joining the Tribune, he worked for newspapers in Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Miami.
