Hard Work: Remaking the American Labor Movement (review)

Fantasia and Voss have written a book in which they take stock of the contemporary labor movement, situate it in a historical context and provide a vision for its future. They have two goals in Hard Work. First, they seek to sensitize the reader to the social logic of the U.S. labor movement. Second, they explore the possibility of reinvigorating organized labor so it looks and acts more like a social movement. Theirs is a far-ranging exposition providing a broad historical sketch of the movement, from the Knights of Labor to the Justice for Janitors campaigns. They also offer a nuanced sociological analysis of the contemporary labor movement. Building on the tradition of Pierre Bourdieu, they incorporate symbolic and cultural themes into their analysis and highlight various institutional dynamics that have made the movement, at times, militant, corrupt and static. They conclude that despite its current malaise, a revitalized labor movement remains the best hope for workers to avoid dystopian future.

Their excavation of the social logic of labor centers on twin motifs of debunking and contextualizing. They begin by unraveling the mythology surrounding the American economic model and its purported superiority to the "old" welfare state economies of Europe. The claims that the "new" U.S. economy is a boon for workers is, they argue, largely a chimera propagated by proponents of neoliberalism. They counter that in terms of pay, vacation time, health insurance and parental leave, European workers enjoy a much better standard of living than their American counterparts. The authors suggest this is due to the fact that social provisions in Europe are bestowed to broad publics and are defended by alliances between the state and labor movement. In the United States, the reverse is true. The state tends to be allied with the interests of capital and, to the extent that social provisions exist, they are granted privately to workers based on their employment in a specific workplace. This comparative analysis lends support to the authors' larger argument that a strong labor movement has the potential to improve the wellbeing of all workers.

The authors also offer a new take on the old notion of "American exceptionalism" – the idea that the unique character of American workers explains why an explicitly working class politics has not emerged in the United States. Fantasia and Voss contend that American workers are not unique, but rather the political and social environment is exceptionally hostile to the working class in general. Corporations are antagonistic toward unions, the state is indifferent to the interests of workers, and the U.S. labor movement has responded to this situation by becoming increasingly cautious and, as a result, ineffectual.

One of the most refreshing aspects of the book is its cultural analysis of the labor movement. The authors describe the "neoliberal social project" as having effectively rendered the Worker invisible on a symbolic level. Standing in its place, the Consumer has come to represent the only legitimate economic actor in the new economy. The ideas and language of labor, work and class have been thoroughly expunged from the popular vocabulary. They assert that it is increasingly difficult for these consumers – who also happen to be workers – to see themselves as a class, let alone act as one.

So how are unions supposed to overcome all of these obstacles? For Fantasia and Voss, the hard work of remaking the labor movement will require a combination of things. First, they point out that the movement needs a new "metaphysic" or vision that evokes a set of unifying ideals larger than itself that can excite the popular imagination. Another essential ingredient will be to reproduce, on a large scale, social movement unionism – those characterized by worker participation, non-traditional tactics, and a broader orientation to social justice. Finally, they contend...