new book

[Michael Yates]

My good friends, Tom Juravich and Kate Bronfenbrenner, have written a
very good book about a significant recent labor struggle:  "Ravenswood:
The Steelworkers' Victory and the Revival of American Labor," (Cornell
Univ. Press, 1999).  Ravenswood is in W. Virginia along the Ohio River
and is home to a very large aluminum refining and fabrication plant. 
Formerly owned (and built by) Kaiser Aluminum, the plant was sold to new
owners in the late 1980s.  The new owners were part of an incredibly
complicated chain of holding companies ultimately controlled by
international metals trader and fugitive from U.S. law, Marc Rich.  In
1990 the company locked out the workers after stonewalling for months
(and speeding up the work so incredibly that several workers were
killed) in negotiations.  Scabs were hired and armed thugs guarded the
plant and harassed the workers.  The workers and the union fought back,
developing a remarkable strategy of domestic and worldwide attack on the
company and Mr. Rich.  The workers' and union's attack included
picketing around the world, an unfair labor practices charge under the
National Labor Relations Act, charges under OSHA (health and safety),
multiple self-help activities by the members, etc.  Great soliarity was
shown among workers in the U.S. and in Europe, especially the
Netherlands and Switzerland and including England and Czechoslovakia
(still one nation at the time). In the end the workers and their union
prevailed, getting back their jobs and bringing Rich to his knees. 
Interestingly the struggle was led by George Becker, currrent union
president and one of the union stalwarts in Seattle recently.  

The book is written in a lively manner with numerous interviews with
rank-and-file workers.  It reads in parts almost like a mystery story. 
It is well worth reading and spreading the news about.

Tom Juravich is a long-time labor activist and scholar, current chair of
the Labor Program at UMass-Amherst, and fine labor troubadour.  Kate
Bronfenbrenner is at Cornell and does much very high quality
union-related research.  She was the primary researcher in the first
labor case brought under NAFTA. She is also an exceptional teacher and
labor educator.

Michael Yates