Class Numbers 31140 and 31141; 3 cr.  These classes meet October 23 –
December 9, 2006.  While the President has declared the economy is
strong, all is not rosy for American workers or the labor
movement.   Hundred of thousands of factory jobs – and now white-
collar jobs – are exported abroad every year.   The gap between rich
and poor in the U.S. is wider than ever before.  The labor movement
has declined to under 13% of the workforce, and employers forcefully
combat workers’ right to form a union through legal and illegal
means.  The course will discuss and debate some of these major
contemporary economic and political problems confronting workers,
organized labor, and society as a whole.  Topics we will discuss
include: globalization and the global justice movement;  plant
closings; sweatshops; lean production;  evolving labor-management
cooperation programs; union democracy; issues of race and gender;
electoral politics; and responses to the decline of organized labor.
Instructor: Beverly Takahashi.