Promise Unfulfilled: Unions, Immigration, and the Farm Workers
In 1975, after vigorous campaigning by the United Farm Workers union, the state of California passed the Agricultural Labor Relations Act (ALRA), a pioneering self-help strategy granting farm workers the right to organize into unions. A quarter century later, only a tiny percentage of farm workers in the state belong to unions, and wages remain less than half of those of nonfarm employees. Why did the ALRA fail? One of the nation's foremost authorities on farm workers here explores the...
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AcknowledgmentsPrologue: What Went Wrong?1Pt. IFarm Labor and Unions71California Farm Labor92History of Farm Labor323Farm Worker Unions57Pt. IIUnions and Collective Bargaining914The ALRA, ALRB, and Elections935Employer and Union Unfair Labor Practices1156Strikes and Remedies144Pt. IIIUnions and Immigration1617Nontraditional Farm Worker Unions1638Immigration and Agriculture180Notes197Bibliography219Index225
\ From the Publisher"In Promise Unfulfilled, Philip L. Martin explains why most attempts to improve the lot of farm workers have failed and how current policy debates will shape the future. His book is the best available analysis of the Agricultural Labor Relations Act and the Agricultural Labor Relations Board."-Bert Mason, California State University, Fresno, and former member of the Agricultural Labor Relations Board\ "This book is a very useful overview of farm labor market issues. Philip Martin presents a balanced and well-considered discussion of the issues that arose when California farm workers were granted rights previously available to non-farm workers throughout the nation."-Don Villarejo, founder and director emeritus, California Institute for Rural Studies\ "Philip L. Martin writes eloquently about Mexican workers . . . illegal immigrants who pick the lettuce, grapes, and strawberries that make their way to dining room tables from Salinas to Santa Rosa and Seattle. . . . Martin does not conceal his sense of disappointment about the current plight of immigrants who toil in the fields."-Jonah Raskin, Santa Rosa, CA Press Democrat, December 7, 2003\ "Promise Unfulfilled covers how the burden of proof shifts from employer to employee as ULP cases develop, the changes in policy for punishing, hiring, or rehiring illegal residents, and the reason farm workers traditionally have relied on boycotts and pickets rather than strikes. And Martin has not forgotten direct action, including 'dirty picking' (harvesting the worst of a crop or just stems, leaves, and roots to jam the works), scab confrontations, and wildcats."-Andrew Linke, Industrial Worker, October 2004\ "This book examines why the efforts of Californian reformers in the 1970s and beyond have failed to improve farm worker wages and alleviate poverty in this industry. It examines the history and operation of the California Agricultural Labour Relations Act (ALRA), the key unions, the employers and the changes in immigration policy over the past quarter-century and arrives at a clear and definite analysis of the important factors. . . . Martin writes in a clear, concise, and engaging manner. . . . Promise Unfulfilled is recommended to anybody interested in the role of immigrant workers in a Western capitalist economy, industrial relations and its history in the United States and the economics of immigration and industrial relations."-Santina Bertone, Victoria University, Journal of Industrial Relations September 2004\ \ \
