The Status of Identities: Racial Inclusion and Exclusion at West Coast Ports

Author: Johnson, Victoria

Source: Social Movement Studies, Volume 8, Number 2, April 2009 , pp. 167-183(17)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

Buy & download fulltext article:

Price: $50.43 plus tax (Refund Policy)

Abstract:

Left leadership, organizers, and industrial organization have been associated with union strategies of racial inclusion, yet unions exhibiting these characteristics have not always been inclusive in practice. Why did some industrial unions with left leadership and organizers implement racial inclusion while others resisted? I answer this question through an incorporated comparative analysis of racial inclusion among longshore unions at two West Coast ports. Building upon Castells' typology of identities, I argue that racial inclusion in these cases can best be explained by moving beyond economic interests to focus on (1) struggles among labor factions within the same union, (2) how status interests are exhibited through the 'identity practices' of labor factions, specifically how class, religious, and age identity practices increased the probability that labor factions would adopt inclusive strategies, and (3) the impact of extra-institutional networks and organizations, including the institutional context through which worker identities are formed.

Keywords: Identity practices; labor; race; class; status; syndicalism

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14742830902770308

Affiliations: 1: Department of Sociology, University of Missouri, Columbia, USA

Publication date: 2009-04-01

More about this publication?