SMLR faculty member Janice Fine has an article published in the latest issue
of *New Labor Forum* (Volume 20, Issue 3, Fall 2011) entitled *Worker
Centers Entering a New Stage of Growth and Development*. Below is an
introduction to the article by Prof. Fine. Please see the attachment for the
full text of the article.
*
*
*"Worker centers—community-based organizations that engage in a combination
of service, advocacy, and organizing to provide support to low-wage
workers—play an indispensable role in helping low-wage immigrant workers
navigate the world of work. They are vehicles for collective reflection,
voice, and action, and the vast majority of these centers serve
predominantly or exclusively immigrant populations. However, there are a few
centers that serve primarily African-American populations or bring
immigrants together with African-Americans. In the largely nonunion service
economy—lowend construction, meatpacking, light industry, and what’s left of
the garment trade—worker centers are calling attention to exploitative
industry practices and pioneering creative strategies, especially in the
context of widespread subcontracting. Hyper-competitive labor market
conditions—once thought to be confined to industries like agriculture—are
characteristic of many other sectors, thus the strategies worker centers are
using to target sub-contractors, joint employers, and independent
contracting arrangements have much broader application. *
* *
* In their monitoring and enforcement of federal and state labor standards
regulations, worker centers attempt to fill the void created by an
ineffectual and disengaged state. Their labor market interventions—through
direct economic action and public policy reform—are pioneering new
strategies for protecting lowwage workers. Their local advocacy builds
bridges between immigrant workers and the larger communities in which
immigrants live and work, often effectively reframing the way these workers
are perceived and transforming hostility and fear into empathy. Worker
centers have also been building organizations, developing leaders, and
launching campaigns in the “too-difficult-to-organize” sectors unions gave
up on long ago. *
* *
* Along with their considerable strengths, I have argued in previous work
that worker centers possessed certain limitations. Most had small membership
bases, or in many cases, no formal membership structures at all. Many
resisted charging dues because they feared workers could not afford to pay
and they did not view dues as an important way for workers to demonstrate
organizational commitment. Even many of those who did believe in
theimportance of formal membership had not made it a day to day
priority."
*
--
Eugene McElroy
Library Associate
School of Management and Labor Relations
SMLR Library
Rutgers University
50 Labor Center Way
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
(732) 932-9513
