Unionizing the Ivory Tower chronicles how a thousand low-paid custodians, cooks, and gardeners succeeded in organizing a union at Cornell University. Al Davidoff, the Cornell student leader who became a custodian and the union's first president, tells the extraordinary story of these ordinary workers with passion, sensitivity, and wit.
His memoir reveals how they took on the dominant power in the community, built a strong organization, and waged multiple strikes and campaigns for livable wages and their dignity. Their strategies and tactics were creative and feisty, founded on worker participation and ownership.
The union's commitment to fairness, equity, and economic justice also engaged these workers-mostly rural, white, and conservative-at the intersections of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia. Davidoff's story demonstrates how a fighting union can activate today's working class to oppose antidemocratic and white supremacist forces.
By:
Al Davidoff
Imprint: ILR Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Weight: 907g
ISBN: 9781501769801
ISBN 10: 1501769804
Pages: 258
Publication Date: 15 August 2023
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
"Introduction 1. Mophead 2. Yes, Yes, No 3. Custodians—That's All You'll Ever Be 4. We Meet the Enemy and It Is Us 5. Frankie McCoy 6. Blackness on the Cornell Plantation 7. Noah's Amalgamated Ark 8. Figuring It Out 9. ""Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee"" 10. Sustaining Struggle: Building the Union during the Off-Season 11. From Grassroots Up to Grassroots Out 12. In the Shadow of the Tower Epilogue"
Al Davidoff is co-founder of the National Labor Leadership Initiative and the Director of Organizational and Leadership Development for US labor's global arm at the Solidarity Center.
