Organizing Workers in the Space between Unions: Union-Centric Labor Revitalization and the Role of Community-Based Organizations

Abstract

Labor scholars tend to treat unions as the movement’s constitutive organizational form. This practice excludes the movement-building efforts of community-based labor groups operating outside of the collective bargaining framework. This article examines the ‘union-centric’ character of sociological work on the contemporary US labor movement and explores the impact it has on analyses of its revitalization. Drawing on a case-study of the Garment Worker Center in Los Angeles, I show that community-based labor organizations mobilizing workers in the space between unions can play an important role in labor’s renewal. I argue that broadening the way we conceptualize the labor movement, reconsidering who its members are, and including a wider range of organizational forms will strengthen analyses of labor’s revitalization.