Low Pay, High Profile: The GLobal Push for Fair Labor

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Anti-sweatshop activist and commentator Andrew Ross surveys the conditions of the modern workplace. He discusses the rise of the second anti-sweatshop movement, analyses the Nike-Man United sponsorship contract in the context of football capitalism, offers a critique of the "Made in Italy" campaign (which has preserved Italy's lead in value-adding industries by promoting a culture of craft and workmanship), reviews the conditions under which China's export zones have become the factory of the world, and conducts a case-study of the successful 1996 union campaign at Barneys. Arguing that the fight for fair labor is not solely a geographically distant matter, played out only in the poorest corners of the world, Andrew Ross also shows how it applies to the degradation of white-collar professions as the "casualisation" of work in the domestic economy gathers ever more steam. This partisan inquiry into the cruelty and indignity of the modern workplace is informed by evidence that critique and action can bring results.

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A courageous opponent of the increasingly indecent and unjust social order of our time.

Author Bio

Scholar and activist, Andrew Ross is Professor of American Studies at New York University. He is a 2001-2002 John Simon Guggenheim Fellow. A writer for a wide range of publications, he is the author of many books, including No Sweat, The Celebration Chronicles and No Collar.