Economic Justice, Labor and Community Practice

Facing economic upheaval and growing inequality, people in local communities are fighting for economic justice. Coalitions from labor, grassroots community organizations, the faith community, immigrant communities and other progressive forces are emerging across the U.S. and Canada and winning better jobs, benefits from local development and better working conditions. A multi-disciplinary group of scholars and activists provide background and analysis of these struggles and offer insights into successful community practice.
From the vantage points of community organizing, labor studies, political science, urban studies, social policy and active practitioners, this volume presents both background on the problem of economic and social inequality and portrays cases of how community practice is being redefined, how unions are pursuing their goals via labor-community coalitions, and the issues confronted as these new and vital alliances form. Community practitioners from social work, urban planning, active union members and leaders, labor educators, and those in the partnerships they have formed all will find useful insights from these analyses.
This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Community Practice.

Louise Simmons is Associate Professor of Social Work and Director of the Urban Semester Program at the University of Connecticut School of Social Work.
Scott Harding is Assistant Professor of Social Work at the University of Connecticut School of Social Work.

1. Introduction – Scott Harding and Louise Simmons, both at University of Connecticut School of Social Work
Economic Realities, History and Framing
2. Inequality and Its Discontents: The Threatened Middle Class – Jill Littrell, Fred Brooks, Jan Ivery, Mary Ohmer, all of Georgia State University
3. Economic Justice in a Global Context: International Comparisons of Policies that Support Economic Justice – Cynthia Rocha, University of Tennessee, College of Social Work
4. Social Workers, Unions and Low Wage Workers: A Historical Perspective – Michael Reisch, University of Maryland School of Social Work
5. Where’s the "Freedom" in Free Trade? Framing Practices and Global Economic Justice – Loretta Pyles, University of Albany, State University of New York
Labor-Community Partnerships for Economic Justice
6. The Politics and Practice of Economic Justice: Community Benefits Agreements as Tactic and Strategy of the New Accountable Development Movement – Virginia Parks, University of Chicago, and Dorian Warren, Columbia University
7. Evolving Strategies of Labor-Community Coalition Building – David Dobbie, Wayne State University
8. Organizing Community and Labor Partnerships for Community Benefits Agreements in African American Communities: Ensuring Successful Coalitions – Bonnie Young Laing, Youngstown State University
9. Critical Pedagogy as a Tool for Labor-Community Coalitions – Roland Zullo & Gregory Pratt, both at University of Michigan
On the Front Lines, In the Classrooms
10. "Social Justice Infrastructure" Organizations as New Actors from the Community: the Case of South Florida – Bruce Nissen, Center for Labor Research and Studies at Florida International University
11. Working Hard, Living Poor: Social Work and the Movement for Livable Wages – Susan Kerr Chandler, University of Nevada, Reno, School of Social Work
12. Organizing for Immigrant Rights: Policy Barriers and Community Campaigns – Jill Hanley, School of Social Work, McGill University and Eric Shragge, School of Community and Public Affairs, Concordia University
13. Outcomes of Two Construction Trades Pre-Apprenticeship Programs: A Comparison – Helena Worthen, University of Illinois School of Labor and Employment Relations and Anthony Haynes, Building Bridges Project, Arise Chicago
14. One Small Revolution: Unionization, Community Practices and Workload in Child Welfare – Tara LaRose, Ryerson University