Newcomers in the Workplace

by Lamphere, Louise; Stepick, Alex; Grenier, Guillermo

• ISBN13: 9781566391245
• ISBN10: 1566391245
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1994-02-01
• Publisher: Temple Univ Pr

Summary

Newcomers in the Workplace documents and dramatizes the changing face of the American workplace, transformed in the 1980s by immigrant workers in all sectors. This collection of excellent ethnographies captures the stench of meatpacking plants, the clatter of sewing machines, the sweat of construction sites, and the strain of management-employee relations in hotels and grocery stores as immigrant workers carve out crucial roles in a struggling economy.Case studies focus on three geographical regions-Philadelphia, Miami, and Garden City, Kansas-where the active workforce includes increasing numbers of Cubans, Haitians, Koreans, Puerto Ricans, Laotians, Vietnamese, and other new immigrants. The portraits show these newcomers reaching across ethnic boundaries in their determination to retain individualism and to insure their economic survival. Author note: Louise Lamphere teaches in the Department of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico. >P>Alex Stepick is Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at Florida International University. >P>Guillermo Grenier is Director of the Center for Labor Research and Studies, and Chairman of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Florida International University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction	p. 1
Beef Stew: Cattle, Immigrants, and Established Residents in a Kansas Beefpacking Town	p. 25
Knock 'Em Dead: Work on the Killfloor of a Modern Beefpacking Plant	p. 44
Guys in White Hats: Short-Term Participant Observation among Beef-Processing Workers and Managers	p. 78
The Effects of Packinghouse Work on Southeast Asian Refugee Families	p. 99
Miami: Capital of Latin America	p. 129
Brothers in Wood	p. 145
Grounding the Saturn Plant: Failed Restructuring in a Miami Apparel Plant	p. 164
The View from the Back of the House: Restaurants and Hotels in Miami	p. 181
Polishing the Rustbelt: Immigrants Enter a Restructuring Philadelphia	p. 199
Facing Job Loss: Changing Relationships in a Multicultural Urban Factory	p. 231
Encounters Over the Counter: Bosses, Workers, and Customers on a Changing Shopping Strip	p. 251
Poverty and Politics: Practice and Ideology among Small Business Owners in an Urban Enterprise Zone	p. 281
Contributors' Notes	p. 303
Index	p. 305
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