San Antonio College Library

Working conditions impact our health, the amount of time we can spend with family, our options during momentous life events, and whether we keep or lose a job when the unexpected occurs. The global community has accepted the argument that any country that guarantees decent working conditions will suffer higher unemployment and be less competitive. This book shatters this view by presenting the first ever global analysis of the relationship between...

"During the 1990s, governments, employers, and international agencies pressed for greater flexibility in labor regulations throughout much of Latin America. In this comparative study of six Latin American countries, Maria Lorena Cook shows why these common pressures for flexibility led to varied labor reform outcomes. Her examination of the role of organized labor in shaping reform highlights the conditions under which labor can still wield power...

Corporate downsizing, technological change, mergers, and acquisitions have cut the workforce by half in some industries; in others, the best-paid employees have lost their jobs and have been replaced by part-time, temporary workers who often lack benefits. Meanwhile, government protections are slowly fading from the lives of ordinary Americans as health benefits, pensions, and safety and health standards deteriorate. Stanley Aronowitz, a teacher,...

Illusions of Opportunity presents the first comprehensive measure of ideal against reality, calculating exactly how much opportunity is available relative to the number of American households reliant on it. Even thirty years ago, this measure reveals, opportunity in America was already drying up - to the point that, today, we have a deficit of sixteen million adequate jobs, and nearly a quarter of American families can't find the work they need to...

Examines the economic, political, and social causes and consequences of declining wages in the United States. Hansen challenges the conventional wisdom that globalization is to blame for the decline in workers' earnings and presents a comprehensive analysis of the many factors affecting labor costs, concluding that many of them result from choices made by the states themselves through the laws and policies they enact. In addition, free-market ideologies...

Takes stock of the world of workforce intermediaries: entrepreneurial partnerships that include businesses, unions, community colleges, and community organizations. Scholars and policy makers examine the development and effectiveness of these intermediaries. [publisher web site].