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Welfare, the Working Poor, and Labor
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Comments/Reviews
Description: Since the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, it has become clear that the issues associated with welfare are now inextricably woven into the problems of low-wage work. In this volume leading commentators on the labor scene analyze poverty and welfare reform within a context of low-wage work and the contours of the labor market that welfare recipients are entering. Given the new welfare reform regime of time limits and work requirements, problems of welfare cannot be separated from problems of work, politics, organizing, and other questions of social and economic policy. Although there have been many volumes on welfare reform, the unique contribution of this work is that it brings labor into the discussion and creates a bridge between the domains of labor and welfare.
Selected Contents:
List of Tables and Figures
Sources and Credits
Acknowledgements
Introduction, Louise Simmons
I. Working Poor and the Contours of Welfare Reform
1. Discipline and Seduction: The Campaign to Regulate American Workers, Frances Fox Piven
2. The Mirage of Welfare Reform, Max B. Sawicky
3. The Long Economic Downturn of the New Century, Heather Boushey and Robert Cherry
II. Workers and Workforce Issues
4. A Report from the Front Lines of Welfare Reform, Fran Bernstein and Cecilia Perry
5. Privatization, Labor-Management Relations, and Working Conditions for Lower-Skilled Employees, Emmanuel Ness and Roland Zullo
6. The Workforce Investment Act and the Labor Movement, Helena Worthen
7. Revolving Doors: Temp Agencies as Accelerators of Churning in Low-Wage Labor Markets, Chirag Mehta and Nik Theodore
III. Labor and the Struggles Over Social Welfare and Work
8. Evaluating the Living Wage Strategy: Prospects, Problems, and Possibilities, David J. Olson and Erich Steinman
9. Labor-Welfare Linkages and the Imperative of Organizing Low-Wage Women Workers, Louise Simmons
10. Urban Poverty, Social Welfare, and Human Rights, James Jennings
About the Editor and Contributors
Index
Review(s): ... a refreshing read for those who should be reminded that U.S. society has an organised labour movement. Social Policy
Simmons has brought together some of the most insightful scholars of poverty and the low-wage labour market, and has crafted a book that combines solid data, smart analysis and a coherent political framework for analysing what is happening to low-wage workers in the USA. ... The individual chapters are strong enough to make this a useful book for a survey class on poverty or employment policy. The Journal of Industrial Relations
... this collection succeeds in its goals of setting a proper tone, identifying issues, and fostering communication. Labor History
... ten well-written, well-researched, interesting, and compelling articles which provide a range of insigtful viewpoints and offer strategies for dealing with the problems of poverty, low-wage workers, and welfare reform. ... Simmons' book is worth a read for those interested in the problems of welfare and poverty being neglected by welfare reform proponents. In addition, the book makes a compelling case for the common intersections between welfare issues and the goals of organized labor. Labor Studies Journal
    
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