Low Pay, High Profile

by Ross, Andrew

• ISBN13: 9781565848931
• ISBN10: 1565848934
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-05-01
• Publisher: New Pr

Summary

B> Anti-sweatshop activist and commentator Andrew Ross reports on the Inventiveness of low-pay campaigners around the world. While critics have decried anti-globalization as an aimlessand endlessassortment of causes, the fight for fair labor is arguably the movement's greatest success. The industrial sweatshop has become a byword for corporate-led globalization; the world's lowest-paying jobs have been the subject of high-profile media coverage; and exposes of sweatshop conditions have become a staple of investigative reporting and public attention. As a result, fair labor standards are now on the negotiating table of world trade agreements. Although the fight is far from over, in Low Pay, High Profile, Andrew Ross presents case studies from around the worldfrom the health hazards faced by Asian microchip workers and recyclers of electronic waste to the controversy over Nike's contract with Manchester United, the world's leading soccer clubto show how and why the movement found the strength and energy to shake the confidence of corporate and financial elites. Here is an unabashedly partisan inquiry into the cruelty and indignity of the modern workplace that shows how critique combined with action can bring world-changing results.

Author Biography

Andrew Ross is Professor of American Studies at New York University.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(14)
CHAPTER ONE The Making of the Second Anti-Sweatshop Movement	15	(42)
CHAPTER TWO Made in Italy: The Trouble with Craft Capitalism	57	(26)
CHAPTER THREE Friedrich Engels Visits the Old Trafford Megastore	83	(36)
CHAPTER FOUR Are the Chinese Losing China?	119	(38)
CHAPTER FIVE The Flight of the Silicon Wafers	157	(18)
CHAPTER SIX Strike a Pose for Justice: The Barneys Union Campaign of 1996	175	(16)
CHAPTER SEVEN The Mental Labor Problem	191	(42)
Notes	233	(22)
Acknowledgments	255	(2)
Index	257