Inside The World of 'Unskilled' Labor
And he rallies at the conclusion. Reading his discussion of steps that he feels should be taken to ensure better conditions for workers, I felt encouraged. So often such statements don’t seem to have enough oomph behind them to make change, but Thompson has earned the right to say them with straightforward conviction and authority, and he gets specific, noting, for instance:
The real work is not identifying the goals but doing the exhausting work of turning these goals into reality. To organize the increasingly diverse workforces in the American South, unions will have to better engage immigrant workers and serve to build links between American and immigrant employees—not as an afterthought but as a central component of the organizing drives.
My hope is that this book will function like an enhanced version of the Tar Heel exit sign, providing a reminder of the people and systems that intimately link everyone in America. The connections Thompson draws between individuals’ experience of these occupations and the social context we all inhabit could instigate the desire to improve conditions for the country’s poorest workers.
Working in the Shadows: A Year of Doing the Jobs (Most) Americans Won’t Do, by Gabriel Thompson. Nation Books, 2010. $24.95.
