The Effectiveness and Limits of Labor-Community Coalitions: Evidence from South Florida

This article has an extensive literature review of previous research and writings on labor-community coalitions. It utilizes Frege, Heery, and Turner's taxonomy of labor-community coalitions and Rose's concept of the "bridge builder" to elucidate and analyze the growth of coalitional efforts in south Florida in the past six years. The south Florida case is used to test Hecksher and Palmer's claim that U.S. unions are incapable of acting as equal partners in multilateral coalitions with others (i.e., "common-cause" coalitions). Eight conclusions about when and why coalitions work well or poorly are drawn. Important factors include uniting issues, staffing, "bridge-builder" characteristics, union-membership characteristics, demonstrated efficacy, and the prospects for wider social movements. Finally, Heckscher and Palmer's pessimism is called into question.