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  • If We Can Win Here: The New Front Lines of the Labor Movement by Fran Quigley
  • Jason Russell
Fran Quigley, If We Can Win Here: The New Front Lines of the Labor Movement (Ithaca: Cornell University Press 2015)

The American labour movement has been in crisis perhaps longer than comparable movements in any other major industrialized country. Union density is at levels not seen since before the New Deal, the political right is again ascendant, and unions are continually trying to staunch any further losses in membership that they see coming their way. The American labour movement is, like its counterpart in countries like Canada, primarily concentrated in the public sector. More than half of union members live in just seven states, which means that the labour movement is really regionally-based while striving to exert itself as a representative for workers across the United States. This problem of regional union membership concentration is further exacerbated by the fact that 26 American states now have so-called Right-to-Work laws that prevent mandatory dues payment. Employees in the federal public service, while able to form unions, are also covered by separate Right-to-Work provisions. Recent stunning electoral successes by the political right at the state and federal levels are expected to make American labour's circumstances even more dire.

American union leaders, local activists, and sympathetic academics in the labour studies community have long debated how to change the labour movement's trajectory. Fran Quigley's new book If We Can Win Here: The New Front Lines of the Labor Movement is an interesting and timely new addition to the literature on union renewal. He examines successful union organizing strategies in Indiana. This is a state that was once was a bulwark of industrial unionism – the United Auto Workers union was founded there – but now has a Right-to-Work law and political climate that is hostile toward unions. Quigley argues that it is possible to successfully organize in states like Indiana, and devotes considerable space to discussing the personalities and tactics behind effective organizing drives. Most importantly, the organizing campaigns that he analyses occurred within the low-wage end of the service sector. This includes hotel, restaurant, retail, and health care workers. These are people making poverty-level wages who have little to lose by organizing, and much to gain if they are successful. Many of the workers described by Quigley are also people of colour and women. These are groups who are widely known to be receptive to unionization, but who also have not always received sufficient organizing attention from labour.

Quigley's analysis is hopeful, especially at a time when American unions are reeling from renewed attacks from the right, but the scale of what he hopes that labour can achieve does not always sufficiently consider the challenges that winning entails. The fact that unions have been able to organize marginalized low-wage [End Page 350] workers in a conservative Right-to-Work state like Indiana is a welcome achievement. However, organizing is just the first step in forming a union. It is clear from Quigley's discussion that keeping unions in place after organizers have left can be difficult. Unions need to devote more resources to training and encouraging activists who will build locals that endure. There is also the fact that restaurants and other low-wage service sector workplaces have high rates of staff turnover, which makes organizing difficult. Overcoming the fear of retribution by employers is also always an obstacle for organizers to overcome. The role of fulltime organizers, as shown in this book, is both hopeful but also problematic. Hope lies in the fact that unions continue to be able to attract smart, dedicated people who want to devote their lives to improving the prospects of working people. The problem is that successful organizing is ultimately dependent on rank-and-file worker activism. Whereas organizing is an all-encompassing mission for a paid union staff member, it is one of many duties fulfilled by local volunteer activists.

This book complements other recent publications that advocate for a renewed focus on local organizing. Those works include Stanley Aronowitz...

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