Guest Workers and Resistance to U.S. Corporate Despotism

233 Pages·2011·1.542 MB·English

by  Immanuel Ness

G U E S T WO R K E R S

AND RESISTANCE TO
U. S. C O R P O R AT E
D E S P O T I S M
Immanuel Ness
W A
C H
THE WORKING CLASS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
Guest Workers and Resistance
to U.S. Corporate Despotism
the working class
in american history
Editorial Advisors
James R. Barrett
Alice Kessler-Harris
Nelson Lichtenstein
David Montgomery
A list of books in the series
appears at the end of this book.
Guest Workers and
Resistance to U.S.
Corporate Despotism
Immanuel ness
UniveRSity of illinoiS PReSS
Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield
© 2011 by the Board of Trustees
of the University of Illinois
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
1 2 3 4 5 c p 5 4 3 2 1
∞ This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ness, Immanuel.
Guest workers and resistance to U.S. corporate despotism /
Immanuel Ness.
p. cm. — (The working class in American history)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-252-03627-9 (cloth) — ISBN 978-0-252–07817-0 (pbk.)
1. Foreign workers—United States. 2. Labor market—United
States. 3. United States—Emigration and immigration—
Economic aspects. 4. United States—Emigration and
immigration—Government policy. I. Title.
HD8081.A5N47 2011
331.6'20973—dc22 2011004563
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: Guest Workers of the World 1
1. Migration and Class Struggle 13
2. Political Economy of Migrant Labor in U.S. History:
Fabricating a Migration Policy for Business 32
3. India’s Global and Internal Labor Migration and Resistance:
A Case Study of Hyderabad 61
4. Temporary Labor Migration and U.S. and Foreign-Born
Worker Resistance 86
5. The Migration of Low-Wage Jamaican Guest Workers 111
6. Who Can Organize? Trade Unions, Worker Insurgency,
Labor Power 150
Notes 179
Bibliography 191
Index 211

Preface and
Acknowledgments
This book is the end result of five years of research on guest workers
and transnational labor rooted fundamentally in my endeavor to understand
the transformation of labor markets and worker representation from 2005
to 2010. In this historical era of neoliberal capitalism, individualism, and
egoism, I was the beneficiary of the time and energy of so many people on
four continents who always reserved precious time to guide my research in
the field and writing and synthesizing the work. The assistance and advice
renewed my awareness that this book is an endeavor that originates in people
sharing narratives and knowledge.
The focus of this research has been to advance understanding the centrality
of migrant labor in comprehending the nature and scope of the working-
class transformation in the early twenty-first century. My strong interest
to explore guest work and the restructuring of the U.S. labor market has
inexorably directed my research, through which I came to recognize the
inherent influence of the political economy of labor markets in countries of
the Global South that are sources of temporary labor. Thus, this book ex-
amines how contemporary neoliberalism and guest worker policies reshape
labor markets in two sending countries—India and Jamaica—and the United
States, the dominant receiving country in the world for migrant labor. This
research could not have been achieved without the support of workers, labor
organizations, and academic institutions.
I was fortunate to have access to important archival documents, and learned
a great deal from research conducted at the International Institute for Social
History (IISG) in Amsterdam. Marcel van der Linden, research director of the
viii . preface and acknowledgments
IISG, provided critical historical direction and guidance through explaining
intricate history of U.S. and European trade unions and labor migration in
the last two centuries. In New York, I also benefited from the use of the labor
archives at the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives, headed by
Michael Nash. I also am thankful for the use of research and archival materials
at the University of the West Indies, in Mona, Jamaica; research at the Centre
for Economic and Social Studies in Hyderabad, India; and the Institute for
Social Development, Kolkata, at the University of Calcutta.
This book benefited immensely from the advice and critical comments of
authorities on labor migration throughout the world. Numerous specialists
have shared their time to explain the intricacies and trajectories of local,
transnational, and global labor migration. I am most grateful to workers in
India, Jamaica, and the United States who spoke with me and allowed me to
write down their experiences. I would like to thank each worker individu-
ally for their time, but most have asked that I keep their names anonymous
to protect their identities to ensure they are not discriminated against by
government migration agencies and labor contractors. In addition, I would
like to thank workers in the United States of all nationalities who also shared
their experiences, from displaced employees to guest workers themselves.
Thus, to ensure migrant guest workers’ identities remain confidential, I have
used pseudonyms to identify all the guest workers interviewed.
In India, I would like to especially thank Dr. Arun Kumar of the Centre
for Economic and Social Studies in Hyderabad, who spent days interview-
ing low-wage workers in Telugu and translating the narratives into English. I
also thank Kunal Chattopadhyay, professor of history at Jadavpur University
in Kolkata, who carefully read and commented on the manuscript. I also
thank Debdas Banerjee and Amiya Kumar Bagchi of the Institute for Social
Development in Kolkata for sharing their exhaustive and detailed knowledge
of labor and the Indian political economy.
My research on Jamaica notably was advanced by my conversations with
Obika Gray of the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire. In Kingston and
New York City, I thank Kevin Gusscott for arranging incisive interviews
with workers and students who traveled and were planning to embark on
their journey in the United States. I particularly express gratitude to Olivia
McDermott and Wynsome Eminike, present and past graduate students at
City University of New York, who imparted indispensable knowledge of
Jamaica’s contemporary abusive system of labor recruitment and contract-
ing for hospitality workers. Maderie Pam Miller, an astute observer of the
preface and acknowledgments · ix
Jamaican political economy, labor market, and popular culture provided
perceptive advice that advanced this project from beginning to end.
In other regions, I am grateful to Edson Urano of the University of Tsu-
kuba, Japan, and Hirohiko Takasu, project director of the Research and Edu-
cation Center for Fair Labor at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, who pro-
vided important comments on my research, advice, and guidance on labor
migration policies in Japan and throughout the world.
I received important institutional support to conduct research from Brook-
lyn College and the City University of New York. A Tow Faculty Travel Grant
that I received covered my travel expenses in India. In addition, I am grateful
for travel funding from the PSC-CUNY Research Foundation for my research
trips to Jamaica. I thank the University of Massachusetts Labor Center for
a grant to commission my research among guest workers in the Cape Cod
region, a major destination for guest workers from Jamaica, who are vital to
servicing the region’s tourist economy.
I especially thank Beverly Tomek, a historian of nineteenth-century U.S.
migration, for relentlessly encouraging me to finish this manuscript, taking
the time to read and have a second look at this book, and urging me to finish
this work. I thank all others who have advised me on this project, especially
Steve Bronner, Michael Goldfield, and Joseph Ness.
I am indebted to the two reviewers for the University of Illinois Press who
helped focus this research and provided sage advice on my assessment of
labor migration, which was indispensable in helping to transform the man-
uscript into a book. Also at the University of Illinois Press, I thank Laurie
Matheson for her interest in this work and her dedication in shepherding this
manuscript to publication, and I appreciate the guidance of senior editor Tad
Ringo. Additionally, I would like to thank the copyeditor, Walt Evans. Last, I
am most thankful to my family and friends, who tolerate frequent absences
and detachment from customary activities of life to devote my attention on
research and writing.