Life and Labor in the New New South (Working in the Americas)

“Zieger has done it again! In this volume, he has put his finger on the pulse of the most exciting current work in the field. Anyone who doubts that the South is still a distinctive region, or who thinks that ‘southern labor’ has become an oxymoron, will be chastened by the scholarship in this compelling collection.”—Alex Lichtenstein, Florida International University “Essential reading for any scholar or student who seeks better to understand not just the working class history of the South but also the way that power and politics has shifted in the nation as a whole since the 1940s.”—Heather Ann Thompson, Temple University “The American South remains the nation’s most distinctive region, but during the last several decades the world of work there has been subject to virtually all of the same tribulations that bedevil those who labor in the rest of the country. This exceptionally fine set of essays captures much of this historical complexity with compelling narratives of globalization and community resistance, racism and interracial unity, union power and impotence. It’s a new New South all right, but the Southern accent can’t be missed.”—Nelson Lichtenstein, MacArthur Foundation Chair in History, University of California, Santa Barbara This collection of essays explores the dynamic new face of Southern labor. Weaving together the best work of established scholars with emerging research on ethnicity, gender, prison labor, deindustrialization, rapidly changing demographic and employment patterns, and popular response to globalization, the volume as a whole creates a distinguished profile of a southern workforce that has been dramatically transformed since 1950, with the pace of change accelerating over the past two decades. Cover 1 Contents 6 List of Illustrations 8 Foreword 10 Acknowledgments 12 Introduction: Southern Workers in a Changing Economy 14 1. “How Can Greenville Get New Industry to Come Here If We Get the Label of a C.I.O. Town?”: Capital Migration and the Limits of Unionism in the Postwar South 29 2. John McClellan, the Teamsters, and Biracial Labor Politics in Arkansas, 1947–1959 58 3. “A Lot Closer to What It Ought to Be”: Black Women and Public-Sector Employment in Baltimore, 1950–1975 89 4. Worker-Citizens at the Community Bargaining Table: The St. Louis Teamsters’ Community Stewards Program in the 1950s 114 5. Chicano Labor and Multiracial Politics in Post–World War II Texas: Two Case Studies 146 6. “Slaves of the State” Revolt: Southern Prison Labor and a Prison-Made Civil Rights Movement, 1945–1980 190 7. Obreros in the Peach State: The Growth of Georgia’s Working-Class Mexican Immigrant Communities from a Transnational Perspective 227 8. Race and Labor in Memphis since the King Assassination 249 9. Shutdowns in the Sun Belt: The Decline of the Textile and Apparel Industry and Deindustrialization in the South 271 10. A Different Kind of Union: SEIU Healthcare Florida from the Mid-1990s through 2009 302 11. The Movement for Economic Democracy in the South: The Virginia Organizing Project, 1995–2004 327 List of Contributors 360 Index 362 A 362 B 363 C 363 D 365 E 366 F 366 G 366 H 367 I 368 J 368 K 368 L 368 M 369 N 371 O 371 P 371 R 372 S 373 T 374 U 374 V 375 W 376 X 376 Y 376 Z 376 This collection of essays explores the dynamic new face of Southern labor since 1950. Life and Labor in the New New South weaves together the best work of established scholars with emerging cutting-edge research on ethnicity, gender, prison labor, de-industrialization, rapidly changing demographic and employment patterns, and popular response to globalization. Explores the dynamic new face of US Southern labour since 1950. It weaves together the best work of established scholars with emerging cutting-edge research on ethnicity, gender, prison labour, deindustrialisation, rapidly changing demographic and employment patterns, and popular response to globalisation. This collection of essays explores the dynamic new face of Southern labour since 1950, examining such topics as southern deindustrialisation, union activism in the healthcare industry, labour-community coalitions, the politics of southern anti-unionism, and immigrant labour in southern agriculture