LBS 3001: Introduction to Labor Studies
(Section RXLA-55242)
Summer A 2013

Instructor: Professor Alí R. Bustamante Schedule: Mondays and Wednesdays / 11:00am – 1:40pm
Credits: 3 Location: PC 439

Office Hours: LC 315, one hour before class or by appointment.
E-mail: albustam@fiu.edu
Department Phone: (305) 348-1519

Course Description:
This course will introduce you to the challenges and struggles of working people in the United States. In our readings and classroom discussions, we will pay close attention to the conditions faced by low-wage workers in industrial, agricultural, and service jobs, as well as the impact of globalization on labor markets in the U.S. and abroad. We will also look at some of the hidden dimensions of working-class life through the lens of slavery, immigration, and global economic competition.

By the end of the course, you will understand and be able to analyze:
1. What class is and how it operates in American society;
2. What it is like to work at a various low-wage jobs while trying to sustain yourself;
3. The impact of race, ethnicity, and gender on conditions in the American workplace;
4. How management exerts control over industrial, agricultural, and service workers;
5. The impact of large retailers and other consumer-oriented industries in determining conditions in the modern American workplace;
6. The role of immigration and the immigrant experience in the American workplace;
7. The evolution of and relationship between small, privately held businesses and large multinational corporations;
8. The impact of Wall Street and corporate finance on the U.S. economy (especially industrial jobs);
9. Why income disparities exist between different regions in the U.S. and how government subsidies perpetuate this inequality;
10. What modern slavery looks like in the U.S. and how it is related to globalization, immigration, and other factors;
11. The role of unions and other worker-controlled organizations in the struggle for workplace justice.

Required Texts:
• Bowe, John. 2008. Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy. New York, NY: Random House.
• Ehrenreich, Barbara. 2011. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. New York, NY: Picador.

All additional reading materials will be available either at the course reserve desk in the library or on the LBS 3001 Blackboard Learning website. To access this site:
1. Go to http://online.fiu.edu/
2. Click on “Course Login”
3. Click on “Blackboard Learn Login”
4. Enter your Panther Soft username and password
5. Click on the link to LBS 3001 under “My Courses” and then click on “Assigned Readings” in the left-hand toolbar

Note: Bring all scheduled readings to class.
Grading Scale: 10% | Attendance | 40% | Written assignments (4) | 20% | Exams (2) | 30% | Final exam |
93-100 A
90-92 A-
87-89 B+
83-86 B
80-82 B-
77-79 C+
73-76 C
70-72 C-
67-69 D+
60-66 D
0-59 F This syllabus is subject to be changed by the Professor, if necessary. There is no extra credit. No assignments will be accepted beyond their due date without prior approval.

Written Assignments:
You will be responsible for completing four short written assignments, each of which will be worth 10% of your final grade (40% total). These 2 to 3 page essays will be based on a question or set of questions that I will hand out in class at least one week before they are due. ALL PAPERS must be double-spaced, typed in 12-point, Times New Roman font with one inch margins on each side, and follow American Sociological Society (ASA) citation style.

Exams:
Exams are based on lectures and assigned readings. All exams are cumulative.

Attendance and Participation:
Everyone is expected to complete the assigned readings (60-90 pages per week) prior to class and be prepared to discuss them critically. Full participation in both classroom and group discussions is required for you to be successful in this course. Class attendance and participation will constitute 20% of your final grade. Because you cannot participate if you do not attend, you will only be allowed 2 absences (excused or unexcused) without penalty. For each additional absence beyond this, I will subtract 5 percentage points from your attendance and participation grade.

Academic Misconduct Statement:
Florida International University is a community dedicated to generating and imparting knowledge through excellent teaching and research, the rigorous and respectful exchange of ideas and community service. All students should respect the right of others to have an equitable opportunity to learn and honestly to demonstrate the quality of their learning. Therefore, all students are expected to adhere to a standard of academic conduct, which demonstrates respect for themselves, their fellow students, and the educational mission of the University. All students are deemed by the University to understand that if they are found responsible for academic misconduct, they will be subject to the Academic Misconduct procedures and sanctions, as outlined in the Student Handbook.

Misconduct includes: Cheating – The unauthorized use of books, notes, aids, electronic sources; or assistance from another person with respect to examination, course assignments, field service reports, class recitations; or the unauthorized possession of examination papers or course materials, whether originally authorized or not. Plagiarism – The use and appropriation of another’s work without any indication of the source and the representation of such work as the student’s own. Any student who fails to give credit for ideas, expressions or materials taken from another source, including internet sources, is responsible for plagiarism.
Course Outline:

Week 1
(5/13): Introduction to the Course
Syllabus
Sweet, Stephen and Peter Meiksins. 2012. Changing Contours of Work: Jobs and Opportunities in the New Economy. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Press. Pp. 1-22. (online)

(5/15): Exploring American Working Life: The “Old Economy” and Industrialism.
Babson, Steve. 1999. The Unfinished Struggle: Turning Points in American Labor. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. Pp. 1-18. (online and on reserve)
Fraser, Steve. 1989. “The Labor Question.” Pp. 55-84 in The Rise and Fall of the New Deal Order: 1930-1980, edited by Steve Fraser and Gary Gerstle. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. (online)

Week 2
(5/20): Class Politics in the United States
Scott, Janny and David Leonhardt. 2005. “Class in America: Shadowy Lines That Still Divide.” New York Times, May 15. (online)
Zweig, Michael. 2012. The Working Class Majority: America’s Best Kept Secret. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press. Pp. 7-39. (online and on reserve)

(5/22): Income and Social Mobility
Ehrenreich, Barbara. 2011. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. New York, NY: Picador. Pp. 1-49.
Boushey, Heather and Shawn Fremstad. 2008. “The Wages of Exclusion: Low-wage Work and Inequality.” New Labor Forum 17(2): 9-19. (online)
Zweig, Michael. 2012. The Working Class Majority: America’s Best Kept Secret. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press. Pp. 77-95. (online and on reserve)
WRITING ASSIGNMENT 1 DUE

Week 3
(5/27): Memorial Day, No Class

(5/29): The Role and Function of Unions
Yates, Michael. 2009. Why Unions Matter. New York, NY: Monthly Review Press. Pp. 31-67. (online)
Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2012. Union Members 2012. Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of Labor. (online)
Strom, Andrew. 2003. “U.S. Labor Law.” Dollars and Sense 249: 46-48. (online)
Exam 1
WRITING ASSIGNMENT 2 DUE

Week 4:
(6/3): Work, Race, Ethnicity and Equality
LeDuff, Charles. 2000. “At a Slaughterhouse, Some Things Never Die.” New York Times, June 16. (online)
Striffler, Steve. 2002. “Inside a Poultry Processing Plant: An Ethnographic Portrait.” Labor History 43(3): 305-314. (online)
Waldinger, Roger et al. 1998. “Helots No More: A Case Study of the Justice for Janitors Campaign in Los Angeles.” Pp. 102-119 in Organizing to Win, edited by Kate Bronfenbrenner, et al. Ithaca, NY: Cornell U Press. (online)

(6/5): Work, Gender and Family
Corbett, Christianne and Catherine Hill. 2012. Graduating to a Pay Gap: The Earnings of Women and Men One Year after College Graduation (2012). Washington D.C.: American Association of University Women. Pp. 5-21. (online)
Firestein, Netsy and Nicola Dones. 2007. “Unions Fight for Work and Family Policies—Not For Women Only.” Pp. 140-154 in The Sex of Class: Women Transforming American Labor, edited by Dorothy Sue Cobble, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. (online)
Slaughter, Anne-Marie. 2012. “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All.” The Atlantic, July/August 2002. (online)
WRITING ASSIGNMENT 3 DUE

Week 5:
(6/10): Working in a Global Labor Market
Bowe, John. 2008. Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy. New York, NY: Random House. Pp. 3-85.
Schmitt, John and Kris Warner. 2010. “The Changing Face of U.S. Labor, 1983-2008.” Working USA: The Journal of Labor and Society 13(2): 263-279. (online)
Exam 2

(6/12): What Makes a Job “Good” or “Bad”?
Ehrenreich, Barbara. 2011. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. New York, NY: Picador. Pp. 51-119.
Fraser, Jill. 2002. White-Collar Sweatshop: The Deterioration of Work and Its Rewards in Corporate America. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company. Pp. 3-11. (online and on reserve)
Simon, Bryant. 2008. “Consuming Lattes and Labor, or Working at Starbucks.” International Labor and Working Class History 74: 193-211. (online)
WRITING ASSIGNMENT 4 DUE

Week 6
(6/17): Meeting Labor Needs
Freeman, Richard B. and Joel Rogers. 2006. What Workers Want. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Pp. 67-117. (online)
Freeman, Richard B. and Joel Rogers. 2002. “A Proposal to American Labor.” The Nation, June 6. (online)

(6/19): Final Exam