Backroom Bargaining
Regular price
€28.50
A01=Jane LaTour
advocacy groups
asbestos
Association for labor rights
Author_Jane LaTour
autocracy
autonomous local
Black Lung Association
Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners
Brotherhood of Painters
Burton H. Hall
Carpenters for a Stronger Union
Category=KCF
Category=KNXU
Category=NHK
civil rights
Communist Party
Consolidated Edison
construction industry
corruption
craft of painting
democratic principles
democratic reforms
democratic rights
dissidents
District Council 9
election
eq_bestseller
eq_business-finance-law
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_new_release
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eyewitness
Fear of Reprisal Ends
federal law
federal law enforcement
financial mismanagement
FORE
free speech
Gambino crime family
globalization
government intervention
Health Act
health protections
IOMM&P
Labor Day Parade
labor direct election
Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act
labor movement
Landrum-Griffin
legal battles
legislation
Local 282
Mafia
Masters
Mates and Pilots
Merchant Marine
mob control
mob influence
National Labor Relations Board
National Maritime Union
New York City
nine-week strike
NLRB
occupational safety
on the ground
oral history
organized crime
OSHA
Painters union
Paperhangers Local 490
PCBs
pension funds
pensions
racketeering
racketeers
radiation
Rank and File Club
reform
reformers
regulatory agencies
safety
Schonfeld administration
Seafarers International Union
secretary-treasurer
Teamsters
trusteeship
union activism
union activist
union democracy
union members
utility workers
workers' rights
workplace hazards
workplace safety
World War II
Product details
- ISBN 9780252089169
- Weight: 513g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 17 Mar 2026
- Publisher: University of Illinois Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
Organized crime figures and their minions honeycombed unions while leadership instituted nepotism, salary padding, and other practices that undermined the well-being of the rank and file. But in New York City, groups of union members and their legal allies waged a years-long struggle against corruption and for better working conditions. Jane LaTour combines rich oral histories with research to take readers into the construction sites, power plants, and Merchant Marine ships where the dramas played out. Dissidents risked their livelihoods for a variety of reasons, from practical concerns like job security and safety to larger ideas like union democracy. LaTour examines the factors that allowed unchecked corruption and kept unions from living up to their potential. But she also tells the eyewitness stories of solidarity and worker spirit that fueled the fight to retake labor power. A rare history of union corruption, Backroom Bargaining shines a light on worker campaigns to uphold fairness and equity in the workplace.
Jane LaTour (1946–2023) was a labor activist and writer. She is the author of Sisters in the Brotherhoods: Working Women Organizing for Equality in New York City.
