Immigration and American Unionism / / Vernon M. Briggs.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Cornell University Press Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Briggs, Vernon M.,
• Place / Publishing House: Ithaca, NY : : Cornell University Press, , [2018]; ©2001
• Year of Publication: 2018
• Language: English
• Series: Cornell Studies in Industrial and Labor Relations
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (240 p.) :; 24 tables; 1 chart
• Other title: Frontmatter --; Contents --; Acknowledgments --; Introduction --; CHAPTER ONE. The Base Line (1788-1800) --; CHAPTER TWO. Mass Immigration Begins; Unionism Sparks but Sputters (I 8 oo-I 8 6o) --; CHAPTER THREE. The "Second Wave" of Mass Immigration: Unionism Struggles but Takes Root (I86I-I89o) --; CHAPTER FOUR. The 'Third Wave" of Mass Immigration: Unionism Strives to Survive (1891-1920) --; CHAPTER FIVE. Mass Immigration Ceases; Unionism Takes Off (1921-1965) --; CHAPTER SIX. Mass Immigration Returns; Unionism Declines (1965-2000) --; CHAPTER SEVEN. Conclusions --; Notes --; Index
• Format: Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
• ISBN: 9781501722318; 9783110536157
• DOI: 10.7591/9781501722318
• Access: restricted access
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: Vernon M. Briggs.

In the year 2000 the AFL-CIO announced a historic change in its position on immigration. Reversing a decades-old stance by labor, the federation declared that it would no longer press to reduce high immigration levels or call for rigorous enforcement of immigration laws. Instead, it now supports the repeal of sanctions imposed against employers who hire illegal immigrants as well as a general amnesty for most such workers. In this timely book, Vernon M. Briggs, Jr., challenges labor's recent about-face, charting the disastrous effects that immigration has had on union membership over the course of U.S. history.Briggs explores the close relationship between immigration and employment trends beginning in the 1780s. Combining the history of labor and of immigration in a new and innovative way, he establishes that over time unionism has thrived when the numbers of newcomers have decreased, and faltered when those figures have risen.Briggs argues convincingly that the labor movement cannot be revived unless the following steps are taken: immigration levels are reduced, admission categories changed, labor law reformed, and the enforcement of labor protection standards at the worksite enhanced. The survival of American unionism, he asserts, does not rest with the movement's becoming a partner of the pro-immigration lobby. For to do so, organized labor would have to abandon its legacy as the champion of the American worker.