Unionizing the ivory tower : Cornell workers' fifteen-year fight for justice and a living wage / Al Davidoff.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Davidoff, Al, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America. Local 2300 (Ithaca, N.Y.)--History--20th century.

International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America.

Cornell University--Employees--Labor unions--Organizing.

Cornell University.

Universities and colleges--Employees--Labor unions--Organizing--New York (State)--Ithaca.

Universities and colleges.

Collective bargaining--College employees--New York (State)--Ithaca.

Collective bargaining.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (254 pages)

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, New York : ILR Press, an imprint of Cornell University Press, [2023]

Summary:

Unionizing the Ivory Tower chronicles how 1,000 low-paid custodians, cooks and gardeners succeeded in organizing a union at Cornell University. Al Davidoff, the Cornell student leader who became a custodian and the union's first president, tells the story with passion, sensitivity and wit.This memoir is the extraordinary story of these ordinary workers and their union: how they took on the dominant power in the community, built a strong organization, and waged multiple strikes and community campaigns for livable wages and their dignity. The strategies and tactics used were creative and feisty, and founded on worker participation and ownership.The union's commitment to fairness, equity and economic justice also engaged these workers-mostly rural, white, and conservative-at the intersection of the larger social ills of racism, sexism, classism and homophobia. Davidoff's story demonstrates how a fighting union can educate and activate the working class of today to oppose anti-democratic and white supremacist forces.

Contents:

Mophead

Yes, Yes, No

Custodians-That's All You'll Ever Be

We Meet the Enemy and It Is Us

Frankie McCoy

Blackness on The Cornell Plantation

Noah's Amalgamated Ark

Figuring It Out

"Float Like A Butterfly, Sting Like A Bee"

Sustaining Struggle : Building the Union During the "Off Season"

From Grassroots Up to Grassroots Out

In the Shadow of the Tower.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-5017-6981-2

OCLC:

1365062541