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On the line : a story of class, solidarity, and two women's epic fight to build a union

Title
On the line : a story of class, solidarity, and two women's epic fight to build a union / Daisy Pitkin.
ISBN
9781643750712
1643750712
9781643752976
Edition
First edition.
Publication
Chapel Hill, North Carolina : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2022.
Copyright Notice Date
©2022
Physical Description
272 pages ; 24 cm
Summary
"The story of two dedicated women, a labor organizer and an immigrant laundry worker, coming together to spearhead an audacious campaign to unionize one of the most dangerous industries in one of the most anti-union states--Arizona--and offering a nuanced look at the modern-day labor movement and the future of workers' rights"-- Provided by publisher.
On the Line takes readers inside a bold five-year campaign to bring a union to the dangerous industrial laundry factories of Phoenix, Arizona. Workers here wash hospital, hotel, and restaurant linens and face harsh conditions: routine exposure to bio-hazardous waste, injuries from surgical tools left in hospital sheets, and burns from overheated machinery. Broken U.S. labor law makes it nearly impossible for them to fight back. The drive to unionize is led by two women: author Daisy Pitkin, a young labor organizer, who addresses this exhilarating narrative to Alma Gomez García, a second-shift immigrant worker, who risks her livelihood to join the struggle and convinces her fellow workers to take a stand. Forged in the flames of a grueling legal battle and the company's vicious anti-union crusade, including the retaliatory firing of Alma, the relationships that grow between Daisy, Alma, and the rest of the factory workers show how a union, at its best, can reach beyond the workplace and form a solidarity so powerful that it can transcend friendship and transform communities. But when political strife divides the union, and her friendship with Alma along with it, Daisy must reflect on her own position of privilege and the complicated nature of union hierarchies and top-down organizing. Daisy Pitkin looks back to uncover the forgotten roles immigrant women have played in the U.S. labor movement and points the way forward. As we experience one of the largest labor upheavals in decades, On the Line shows how difficult it is to bring about social change, and why we can't afford to stop trying.
Format
Books
Language
English
Added to Catalog
April 05, 2023
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (page 269).
Contents
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After.
Genre/Form
Biographies.
Autobiographies.
Autobiography.
Biography.
Autobiographies.
Biographies.
Autobiographies.
Biographies.
Citation

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