Labor and Community in the Deindustrialization of Urban America

Abstract

:Community groups have become active participants in workers’ struggles against plant closings. This paper compares recent labor-community campaigns in Chicago and Worcester, Massachusetts, and emphasizes the role of local context in shaping campaign strategies. In Chicago, one company threatened to move production facilities from the area, prompting workers to organize a coalition of community groups, city officials, and union activists. The company was acquired by a British conglomerate, the Chicago plants were closed, and production was relocated to the Southwest and Mexico. Nonunion employees of the Massachusetts firm generated widespread community support to protect the company from a hostile takeover involving the same conglomerate. The workers ended their campaign when the company negotiated a friendly merger with a French conglomerate. The author shows that labor-community campaigns in cities having different employment histories and undergoing different forms and rates of restructuring are likely to adopt different approaches to local economic development.

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