The Anthropology of Labor Unions

249 Pages·2010·0.92 MB·English

by  E. Paul Durrenberger

T h e A n T h r o p o l o g y o f
Labor Unions

T h e A n T h r o p o l o g y o f
Labor
Unions
ediTed by e. paul durrenberger and Karaleah s. reichart
U n i v e r s i T y p r e s s o f C o l o r A d o
© 2010 by the University Press of Colorado
Published by the University Press of Colorado
5589 Arapahoe Avenue, Suite 206C
Boulder, Colorado 80303
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
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the Association of American University Presses.
The University Press of Colorado is a cooperative publishing enterprise supported, in part,
by Adams State College, Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College, Mesa State College,
Metropolitan State College of Denver, University of Colorado, University of Northern
Colorado, and Western State College of Colorado.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials. ANSI Z39.48-1992
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The anthropology of labor unions / E. Paul Durrenberger and Karaleah S. Reichart, editors.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-87081-965-0 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Labor unions—History. 2. Labor
unions—Political activity—History. 3. Labor unions—United States—History. I.
Durrenberger, E. Paul, 1943– II. Reichart, Karaleah S.
HD6451.A58 2010
331.880973—dc22
2009047987
Design by Daniel Pratt
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
1. Introduction
E. Paul Durrenberger and Karaleah Reichart
1
2. Miners, Women, and Community Coalitions
in the UMWA Pittston Strike
Karaleah Reichart
17
3. Is This What Democracy Looks Like?
E. Paul Durrenberger and Suzan Erem
33
4. With God on Everyone’s Side: Truth Telling and Toxic Words
among Methodists and Organized Farmworkers in North Carolina
Sandi Smith-Nonini
55

ConTenTs
5. Buying Out the Union: Jobs as Property and the UAW
Peter Richardson
79
6. Approaching Industrial Democracy in Nonunion Mines:
Lessons from Wyoming’s Powder River Basin
Jessica M. Smith
103
7. Small Places, Close to Home: The Importance
of Place in Organizing Workers
Lydia Savage
131
8. Economic Globalization and Changing Capital-Labor
Relations in Baja California’s Fresh-Produce Industry
Christian Zlolniski
157
9. The Tobacco Trap: Obstacles to Trade Unionism in Malawi
Marty Otañez
189
10. Concluding Thoughts
Karen Brodkin
211
11. Afterword
E. Paul Durrenberger and Karaleah Reichart
225
Contributors
233
Index
237
i
T h e A n T h r o p o l o g y o f
Labor Unions

o n E
Introduction
E. Paul Durrenberger and Karaleah Reichart
The Anthropology of Labor Unions
in a Global Political Economy
This collection is a move toward a definition of an anthropology of unions.
Questions about unions can only arise in complex social orders with class
structures that define incompatible interests between owners of capital and
workers. Unions only come into existence when those with privileged access
to resources hire others to create value the owners can appropriate for their
own use. When those without privileged access to resources organize to iden-
tify, promote, and protect their interests, labor unions are born.
Most studies of unions are developed from historical perspectives or
are based on national data sets collected by government agencies. Few use
the defining method of socio-cultural anthropology: ethnography, which has
much to teach us about the nature of unions. The studies in this book bring
ethnographic methods to bear on unions. Anthropology is also comparative.
The authors in this volume situate their individual ethnographies within a
broader comparative framework that tells us what the ethnography of unions
can contribute to a broader anthropology of contemporary states.