If We Can Win Here

In If We Can Win Here, Fran Quigley tells the stories of janitors, fry cooks, and health care aides trying to fight their way to middle-class incomes in Indianapolis. He also chronicles the struggles of the union organizers with whom the workers have made common cause.

Do service-sector workers represent the future of the U.S. labor movement? Mid-twentieth-century union activism transformed manufacturing jobs from backbreaking, low-wage work into careers that allowed workers to buy homes and send their kids to college. Some union activists insist that there is no reason why service-sector workers cannot follow that same path. In If We Can Win Here, Fran Quigley tells the stories of janitors, fry cooks, and health care aides trying to fight their way to middle-class incomes in Indianapolis. He also chronicles the struggles of the union organizers with whom the workers have made common cause.

The service-sector workers of Indianapolis mirror the city’s demographics: they are white, African American, and Latino. In contrast, the union organizers are mostly white and younger than the workers they help rally. Quigley chronicles these allies’ setbacks, victories, bonds, and conflicts while placing their journey in the broader context of the global economy and labor history. As one Indiana-based organizer says of the struggle being waged in a state that has earned a reputation as antiunion: "If we can win here, we can win anywhere." The outcome of the battle of Indianapolis may foretell the fate of workers across the United States.

Introduction: "Why Can't I Do That as a Housekeeper?"1. A Campus Union2. "We Can Win Here"3. Dreaming of One Good Job4. Alt-Labor Hits Indianapolis5. The Fight for 156. Legal Problems7. UNITE HERE8. Struggling for Contracts9. Wonderful Field, Awful Pay10. Trying to Secure a Union11. Prayers for Citizenship12. Advocacy for Citizenship13. Contracts on Campus14. Turned Away at the Hotels15. Back to the Hyatt16. "Bring Lisa Back!"17. "That Is What the Union Does for Me"Notes
Index