Impassioned, revelatory, prodigiously researched and reported, and thoroughly convincing, Solidarity for Sale shows how the American labor movement's decent ends are continually undermined by its tawdry means — a diet of daily corruption longer than the menu at a Long Island diner. By telling the untold histories, uncovering the covered-up scandals, and even recommending a way forward, Robert Fitch builds a devastating indictment and goes beyond it to show that union corruption, stagnation, and decline are not our national destiny. Labor could regain its needed place in American life. But it would require a set of reforms deeper than anything now being proposed; nothing less than a revolutionary overthrow of its culture of corruption and its replacement by a civic culture of accountability and consent.
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Book Description
American labor unions have been, it turns out, shot through with corruption from their very inception. They never really had a Golden Age. From "Big Jim" Colosimo, the patron saint of Chicago's Mafia, to Brooklyn's Sammy "The Bull" Gravano a century later, organized crime has controlled huge swaths of the mainline labor movement. It still does.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
With this passionate but meandering call for reform, union member and journalist Fitch attempts to expose the systemic corruption—the "private use of public office"—that he deems central to the history of American labor and its current ineffectuality. After two scattered and polemical introductory chapters that put the corruption of American labor unions in a global context, the book traces a century's worth of labor history, from the 1881 founding of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters to the mob-backed looting of the Mason Tenders pension fund in the 1990s. Fitch likens labor unions to fiefdoms and union leaders to warlords while comparing their level of corruption to that of the pre-Reformation Catholic Church. He implicates historical figures from early 20th-century AFL president Samuel Gompers and mid-century Teamster Jimmy Hoffa to Bill Clinton and Rudolph Giuliani, whom he censures for their coziness with unscrupulous union leaders. This sweeping condemnation, though provocative, suffers from the breadth of material and its diffuse thematic rather than chronological presentation. The book's structural flaws make for reading that often proves as frustrating as it is fascinating. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"Nobody has written of trade unionism's fatal embrace with the underworld, and its own demons, more eloquently." -- Carl F. Horowitz, National Review, February 13, 2006
AAA slew of keen insights An important read for anyone who cares about the future of organized labor in America. -- Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 2006
AAA slew of keen insights An important read for anyone who cares about the future of organized labor in America. -- Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 2006
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Toward a New Labor Movement,
By
This review is from: Solidarity for Sale: How Corruption Destroyed the Labor Movement and Undermined America's Promise (Hardcover)
Perhaps the most well-researched work on labor in recent years, SOLIDARITY FOR SALE provides compelling detail and analysis that will help us understand the basis for much of organized labor's spiralling decline. Hopefully, this book will help provide a foundation for reforming the labor movement. One may draw many conclusions from this book, but we cannot deny that Fitch has paid careful attention to facts, conducted excellent archival research and interviews with key leaders. Fitch lays bare the evidence that a highly-bureaucratic and insular union structure is damaging prospects for increasing the power of the working class in the US. Though this examination of labor leadership is disturbing to many of us, it is a necessary step to recognize and understand, so that remedial action may be taken by working people. While government and corporate opposition is crucial in understanding the decline of the labor movement, workers retain strong support for inclusive, radical, and democratic unions. Despite this support for unions from working people, many of those in leadership positions have betrayed members and non-members, intensifying the obvious institutional problems organized labor now faces.
SOLIDARITY FOR SALE should be amunition for workers and, if accepted and heeded by those that lead unions, will surely benefit the labor movement. SOLIDARITY FOR SALE represents solid investigative reporting that we should all read as part of the effort to reform labor law, restructure unions, and mobilize workers striving to improve their collective conditions. Fitch writes from the perspective of workers--compassionately seeking a solution that will lead to more accountable and strong labor unions. Do not be fooled by those that disparage this book as anti-union. Written by a man that has devoted his life to organizing workers and a labor activist, Fitch calls for a return of greater membership control and participation. In a neoliberal, corporate-dominated economy, labor must get strong. SOLIDARITY FOR SALE is not so much an attack on unions as a clarion call for cleaning them up. Ultimately, a representative union movement is the worst nightmare for the upper-class and employers that seek to keep labor at bay through consorting with some of the most corrupt and unscrupulous leaders in unions. If taken seriously, this book will be indispensable for the unorganized and weak working class inside and outside of unions. SOLIDARITY FOR SALE is a must read for all those interested in advancing working-class power.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Essential Book For Our Times,
By
This review is from: Solidarity for Sale: How Corruption Destroyed the Labor Movement and Undermined America's Promise (Hardcover)
This book, Solidarity For Sale, is right on.
Mr. Fitch has provided us with a great body of work, research and insights into the history and troubles of the labor movement. He has helped define and clarify some of the questions that have bothered me for years. From my personal experience as a reformer in a mob dominated union and as a member of the Laborers Union of North America (LIUNA) for over 30 years, the truths of this book rings forth on every page. Mr. Fitch has stepped forward with a passion and courage of thought to speak of the "Mokita" that we all know about but do not speak of. The corruption of the AFL-CIO and how it came to be. This is a book that should be read by every thinking member of organized labor, reformers and those who would like to join us. It deserves its place of prominence on the number 1 site for laborers. I endorse this book and I would like to thank Robert Fitch for spending the precious hours of his life writing it. Chris White Laborers.org
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Corruption or not???,
By
This review is from: Solidarity for Sale: How Corruption Destroyed the Labor Movement and Undermined America's Promise (Hardcover)
Though Fitch does not offer any solutions, his expose is well chronicled. The documentation and stories are entertaining as well as informative, and his analysis does not omit the real flaw of unions then and now: the failure to be incorruptible. It doesn't matter if the corruptions is based on financial gain or status gain. Who are the people in the upper ranks of the unions? Aren't they usually the darlings of the administration? I belonged to my professional union for a few years late in my career. Observing corruption and favoritism in the very beginning of my employment, I did not join. Then, years leter I joined, only to leave again in total disgust. The union did absolutely nothing for the workers. Whatever conflicts arose between workers and employer, it seemed that the union always bowed down to the employer. And did they help establish better working conditions? Better pay? Better benefits? I have serious doubts, since change and improvement had already been planned as not to lose workers to other industries.
The book can make you think, and it could potentially serve as a tool to get more workers OUT of unions.
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