—Hedrick Smith, Pulitzer prize-winning former New York Times reporter and editor; author, “Who Stole the American Dream”
The 2016 election and its aftermath, from Bernie Sanders' remarkable insurgency, to Donald Trump's brutal and ugly win, shocked the political world and laid bare the deep alienation and pain felt by the working people. COVID has doubled down on that alienation. Billionaire wealth has soared as working people have struggled to get by. In this New Gilded Age of profound economic inequality, brazen racism, and growing embrace of the far right and even fascism, movements for social and economic justice face a profound existential crisis.
Beyond $15: Immigrant Workers, Faith Activists, and the Revival of the Labor Movement offers a blunt recitation of how missteps and narrow thinking by labor unions contributed to our current predicament. Yet Beyond $15 also shows how the makings of a powerful justice movement are embedded within today's struggles.
With captivating narrative and insightful commentary, labor organizer Jonathan Rosenblum reveals the inside story of the first successful fight for $15 that has renewed a national labor movement through bold strategy and broad inclusiveness. Just outside Seattle, an unlikely alliance of Sea-Tac airport workers, union and community activists, and clergy staged face-to-face confrontations with corporate leaders to unite a diverse, largely immigrant workforce in a struggle over power between airport workers and business and political elites. Beyond $15 provides provides and inspirational blueprint for a powerful, all-inclusive Labor movement and a call for workers to reclaim their power in the new economy.
Reviews
A new path for unions in America
May 2017
“Beyond $15” is a memoir and a call to action
May 2017
Veteran Organizer Gives Inside Look at the First $15 Minimum Wage Campaign
June 2017
Lessons from Sea-Tac: Rebuilding the Labor Movement in the 21st Century
November 2017
How the Fight for $15 Took Off
February 2018
