Unions and the Contingent Workforce

Abstract

"In 1985, Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, announced that it was going to contract out the work of its food-service department, effectively terminating 156 employees. This action was taken despite the department’s well-established record of profitability and quality service. A workforce of almost entirely African-American women, the food-service workers averaged only $3.80 per hour and they were rarely offered a full work week. Fully aware of the limited number of opportunities in East Texas for women and minorities, the workers were prepared to go to great lengths to prevent their jobs from being eliminated. Most likely they would have lost that battle if they had not been part of an extremely creative and aggressive union organizing campaign."