Three Strikes: Labor's Heartland Losses and What They Mean for Working Americans [Hardcover]

Stephen Franklin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 18, 2001

This eloquently written book chronicles the massive, protracted strikes waged against three large corporations in Decatur, Illinois, in the 1990s. Veteran journalist Stephen Franklin shows how labor disputes at Bridgestone/ Firestone, Caterpillar, and A. E. Staley left lasting scars on this town and its citizens--and marked a turning point in American labor history. When workers went on strike to retain such basic rights as job security and the 8-hour day, the corporations hit back with unprecedented hard-line tactics. Through the moving stories of individual workers and union activists, Franklin illuminates the hardships and disillusionment left in the wake of the strikes, and the powerful forces that caught an unprepared labor leadership off guard. He vividly portrays how the balance of labor-management power was shifted by corporate globalization, cutthroat labor practices, the outdated responses of national unions and government regulators, and an apathetic public. Reflecting on the hard-won lessons of Decatur, the book describes how the quality of work and life are now threatened - not just for blue-collar workers, but for all Americans - and what it will take to safeguard them.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Chicago Tribune labor writer Franklin vividly describes the impact of three strikes on union workers in Decatur, IL. Union members who had worked their entire lives for Caterpillar, Staley, or Bridgestone/Firestone were forced out on strike, threatened with permanent replacement, and, if lucky, called back to work under a company-imposed contract full of concessions. Franklin tells the story from the viewpoint of production workers caught between aggressive corporations and an aging union bureaucracy. The drumbeat of negative news captures all too well the ongoing pain experienced by the workers in Decatur. Franklin is harsh in his judgments of organized labor and makes too little of the straightjacket of antilabor laws imposed by the federal government and the economic ruthlessness of transnational companies. However, this heartbreaking account of blue-collar life in the new economy should be mandatory reading for all those who blithely dismiss the social costs of free trade and unregulated corporate power. Recommended for academic libraries and current events collections in public libraries. Duncan Stewart, State Historical Soc. of Iowa Lib., Iowa City
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

While many Americans watched the heady rise of the 1990s stock market with astonishment and glee, a smaller number studied the nature and consequences of "the new economy" on the shop floor or across the collective bargaining table. The story Chicago Tribune labor writer Franklin tells is as important a "piece" of the history of the '90s as the corporate celebrations of technology and efficiency. In Decatur, Illinois, three gigantic corporations--Caterpillar, A. E. Staley, and Bridgestone/Firestone--drew lines in the midwestern soil, demanding that unionized workers give up hard-won rights and guarantees so their multinational employers could operate more agilely in a global economy. The unions fought back, but neither the Decatur locals nor their national headquarters were prepared for their opponents' implacability. Franklin got to know the people involved in these three benchmark labor-management battles; he skillfully captures both the day-to-day dramas of workers and their families on picket lines and the critical shift in workplace power these three corporations sought. Mary Carroll
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 308 pages
• Publisher: Guilford Press; 1 edition (June 18, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572304774
• ISBN-13: 978-1572304772
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,776,429 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Homestead of the 1990s, August 23, 2001

By 

robert d. sampson (Decatur, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Three Strikes: Labor's Heartland Losses and What They Mean for Working Americans (Hardcover)

It is necessary to begin with a disclaimer. I am mentioned in a couple of places in Stephen Franklin's excellent work on the labor disputes that rocked Decatur, Illinois in the 1990s. His title, Three Strikes, is slightly in error as one of the disputes--at A.E. Staley Mfg. Co.--was actually a lockout. I also talked with Steve several times as he prepared the book. I found it to be a powerful work that clearly demonstrates the "dark side" of the globalization and "new economy" that is often presented as the inavoidable wave of the future. What happens when honest, hard-working people who have played by the rules all of their lives suddenly find themselves as so much cannon fodder for multi-national corporations? Franklin shows us. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in social justice. He paints strong, vivid portraits of leading characters like the two Dave Watts (one at A.E. Staley, the other at Firestone), Father Martin Mangan, a Catholic priest who became a leading advocate of workers, Annie Floyd, a Firestone wife who was the Mother Jones of the time, and many, many others. The effects launched by those days still impact Decatur and the United States and Franklin's book is essential in understanding those effects.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I survived this mess., May 20, 2002

By 

Robert A. Hughes (Earlville, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Three Strikes: Labor's Heartland Losses and What They Mean for Working Americans (Hardcover)

In 1991 I had 24 years in at Caterpillar. If I would have had any way to forsee the future when I was young, I never would have applied for a job with Caterpillar. Franklin did a lot of research for his book, and for the most part I believe it is accurate. But neither Franklin nor anyone else could possibly document the pain, the frustration, the hopelessness, the fear, and the uncertainty that thousands of us suffered at he hands of these greedy bastards. I hope I live to see labors' return to power.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid Reporting & Research, January 3, 2002

By 

Douglas Wolfe (Decatur, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Three Strikes: Labor's Heartland Losses and What They Mean for Working Americans (Hardcover)

This is a well researched and documented book. I know, or have met, a lot of the players in this book and it provided me with a lot of information I was not aware of. Shows the human side of many lives.