Labor Research Review, Volume 1, Number 19 (1992)
Permanent URI for this collection
Labor Research Review, Volume 1, Number 19 (1992)
Saving Manufacturing: Charting a New Course for our Unions and Communities
Browse
Recent Submissions
Item WARN and EDWAA: Use 'em or Lose 'em: An Interview with Greg LeRoy, Research Director, MCLR(1992-09-01)[Editor's Note] The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act is the federal law that requires companies with 100 or more workers to provide 60 days notice of a plant closing or mass layoff. It took effect in February 1989. The Economic Dislocation and Worker Adjustment Assistance (EDWAA) Act is basically what used to be Title III of the Jobs Training Partnership Act (JTPA); it is the federal funding source for direct assistance to dislocated workers. EDWAA, which took effect in July 1989, is not just a funding pool; it includes significant but virtually unknown regulations that unions can use for job retention. WARN and EDWAA overlap. When a company gives a WARN notice, EDWAA requires the states to respond rapidly to start the delivery of "adjustment" services to affected workers. For the inside skivvy on the two laws, LRR Contributing Editor Greg LeRoy interviewed MCLR Research Director Greg LeRoy, who has been hawking the two laws (and their predecessors) for eight years.Item LRR Focus: "We Need to Get Together More"Ansley, Fran (1992-09-01)[Excerpt] Luvernel Clark is shop steward of ACTWU Local 1742 in Knoxville, Tennessee and chairperson of the Tennessee Industrial Renewal Network's Maquiladora Committee which participated in a worker exchange to Mexico in the summer of 1991. She works at Allied Signal, in a plant that had 3000 employees in 1971, but today has less than 400, The jobs were sent by Allied first to a non-union "greenfield" location in Greenville, Alabama in 1982, and from there to Agua Prieta, Mexico. Fran Ansley, associate professor at the University of Tennessee College of Law and member of the TIRN delegation, interviewed Clark for Labor Research Review.Item LRR Focus: Oregon's Workforce Development Plan(1992-09-01)[Excerpt] Oregon experienced the longest and deepest recession in the nation during the 1980s. More than 100,000 jobs were lost; it took fully five years to regain the 1979 level of employment. High-wage manufacturing jobs, particularly in the forest products industry were replaced by low-wage service sector jobs. By 1989 income had declined to 92% of the national average.Item High Stakes: Oregon Labor Sets Union Agenda for High Skill, High Wage StrategyHallock, Margaret; Baugh, Bob (1992-09-01)[Excerpt] The labor movement of Oregon is responding to the current economic crisis by adopting an agenda to help workers gain control over work and technology. The union agenda emphasizes worker-centered education and urges unions to become advocates for workers to develop their skills.Item The Search for Counterparts: A Labor-Community Agenda Must Cross Borders As WellBrooks, David (1992-09-01)[Excerpt] Mexico has been discovered by individuals and organizations in the U.S. and Canada for the first time as a result of the proposed North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). NAFTA is presented by the Bush, Salinas and Mulroney administrations as an initiative to formalize the economic integration process between the three countries. They see the deal as only the first step in constructing Bush's proposed "Enterprise for the Americas" initiative which intends to create a "new order" for capital from Anchorage to Tierra del Fuego.Item Fashioning an Industrial Strategy for Garment WorkersParrott, James (1992-09-01)[Excerpt] Since 1984, the [ILGWU] has initiated a series of efforts to better secure the jobs, working conditions, and earnings opportunities of garment workers and to chart new directions for small union manufacturers and contractors. In the process, the union has evolved a multi-pronged industry strategy for the women's apparel industry that holds important lessons for the labor movement and for communities that depend on industrial jobs.Item LRR Focus: Economic Development Initiatives(1992-09-01)[Excerpt] The Garment Industry Development Corporation (GIDC) was set up in New York City in 1984, and is governed by a tripartite board of the ILGWU, industry, and the City of New York. Initially GIDC s efforts were geared to protecting garment shops and the jobs of union members from rent-gouging landlords in New York s over-heated real estate market. Subsequently, GIDC developed skills upgrading programs for sewing machine operators pattern graders and small contractors. Its popular "Super Sewers" program provides eight weeks of intensive training on every sewing operation involved in making garments and includes Enghsh-as-a-Second language instruction. The program prepares operators for better-paying jobs in shops producing higher-value garments.Item LRR Focus: The Fight to End the ESOP Rip-Off at Cone Mills(1992-09-01)[Excerpt] If you own a pair of Levi's jeans, chances are you are wearing denim made by members of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union. ACTWU represents 2,400 employees of Cone Mills, the world's largest producer of denim. For 90 years, Cone was a typical conservative Southern textile manufacturer, but all of that changed when the company became the target of a hostile takeover.Item LRR Focus: "I Never Lost Hope that We Would Come Out Ahead"(1992-09-01)[Excerpt] The following reflections are by three ACTWU members who worked at Fairwood Wells and were involved with the Committee. The interviews were conducted by Monica Russo and Isaac Betancourt of ACTWU's Florida District office in Miami.Item A Capital IdeaSilvers, Damon (1992-09-01)[Excerpt] The victory at Work Wear plants is a striking example of how unions' financial power can make worker's lives better. Unions can intervene and show power in bankruptcy courts, in corporate board rooms, and at the deal-making tables. Unions never have to be shut out of the forums where the futures of our companies are decided. We just have to know how to use the tools we already possess.