So We Can Use Our Own Names, and Write the Laws by Which We Live: Educating the New U.S. Labor Force

1989 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 454-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheila Collins ◽  
Miriam Balmuth ◽  
Priscilla Jean
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Labor Market ◽  
Labor Force ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
York City ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Literacy Programs ◽  
Workplace Literacy

Sheila Collins, Miriam Balmuth, and Priscilla Jean discuss a pioneering program in workplace literacy begun in 1988 by two cooperating trade union organizations in New York City. In this initiative, the unions were responding to the changing needs of their members in today's shifting labor market, which has made traditional literacy programs irrelevant to improving the lives of most of today's workers. The authors discuss new conceptions of literacy that inform this initiative; in particular, the shift in focus from "worker literacy"to "workplace literacy." They present four case studies of specific programs various trade unions have developed based on their members' particular needs and workplace settings. These programs illustrate principles of workplace literacy aimed at providing adult workers with the kind of education they need to advance in their jobs and to take greater control over their lives at work and in their communities.

Immigration, Ethnic Stratification, and Native Working Class Discipline: Comparisons of Documented and Undocumented Dominicans

1984 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 692-713 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherri Grasmuck
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Labor Market ◽  
Labor Force ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
York City ◽  
Industrial Sector ◽  
Illegal Alien ◽  
Ethnic Stratification ◽  
International Labor

A number of notions regarding the functions served by international labor immigration, expecially the undocumented population, are examined in this article. Comparisons of the working conditions of documented and undocumented Dominicans in New York City are made. Although the two groups resemble one another in terms of organization and industrial sector of employment, the organization of their respective firms is markedly different. It is concluded that one of the most important functions served by the illegal alien population is political and resides in its controllability by employers in the secondary labor market and, consequently, operates to discipline the native labor force.

Trade Unions and Community: The German Working Class in New York City, 1870-1900.

1996 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 1102
Author(s):  
Suzanne M. Sinke ◽  
Dorothee Schneider
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Working Class ◽  
York City ◽  
Trade Unions

Case Studies

2019 ◽  
pp. 38-68
Author(s):  
Rebecca Yamin ◽  
Donna J. Seifert
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
York City ◽  
High Class ◽  
Lower Manhattan ◽  
The City

This chapter focuses on two case studies, reviewing in detail the findings of large urban projects that encountered brothel sites. The New York City project addresses the history and archaeology of a brothel in the Five Points neighborhood of Lower Manhattan. The discussion contrasts the reputation of the residents with the evidence revealed by the artifact assemblages. The discussion of Washington, D.C. parlor houses addresses the remarkable assemblage of high-class furnishings and possessions and expensive foods enjoyed in the houses in the heart of the city—houses that served the men of government and business in the nation’s capital.

Bosnian Refugee Women in (Re)settlement: Gender Relations and Social Mobility

2003 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Franz
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Labor Market ◽  
York City ◽  
Role Models ◽  
Downward Mobility ◽  
Traditional Role ◽  
Refugee Women ◽  
Bosnian Women ◽  
Almost All

Bosnian refugee women adapted more quickly than their male partners to their host environments in Vienna and New York City because of their self-understanding and their traditional roles and social positions in the former Yugoslavia. Refugee women's integration into host societies has to be understood through their specific historical experiences. Bosnian women in exile today continue to be influenced by traditional role models that were prevalent in the former Yugoslavia's 20th-century patriarchal society. Family, rather than self-fulfillment through wage labor and emancipation, is the center of life for Bosnian women. In their new environment, Bosnian refugee women are pushed into the labor market and work in low-skill and low-paying jobs. Their participation in the labor market, however, is not increasing their emancipation in part because they maintain their traditional understanding of zena (women) in the patriarchal culture. While Bosnian women's participation in low-skill labor appeared to be individual families’ decisions more in New York City than in Vienna, in the latter almost all Bosnian refugee women in my sample began to work in the black labor market because of restrictive employment policies. In contrast to men, women were relatively nonselective and willing to take any available job. Men, it seems, did not adapt as quickly as women to restrictions in the labor market and their loss of social status in both host societies. Despite their efforts, middle-class families in New York City and Vienna experienced substantial downward mobility in their new settings. Women's economic and social downward mobility in (re)settlement, however, did not significantly change the self-understanding of Bosnian women. Their families’ future and advancements socially and economically, rather than the women's own independence and emancipation remained the most important aspect of their being.

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