Success While Others Fail: Social Movement Unionism and the Public Workplace

Success While Others Fail presents four case studies, two in local government and two in the private sector, all set in California in the 1970s and 1980s. Each work force studied engaged in some form of what Johnston terms "social movement unionism," including the first strikes for comporable worth and an early "Justice for Janitors" campaign. He shows that, in each case, success depended on factors related to the sectoral context and also on the appropriateness of the particular models of unionism employed by workers and their unions.