{"product_id":"we-always-had-a-union-the-new-york-hotel-workers-union-1912-1953-9780252088537","title":"We Always Had a Union: The New York Hotel Workers' Union, 1912-1953","description":"One of New York City's most powerful unions, the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, AFL-CIO, represents almost 40,000 workers. Shaun Richman's history places the labor organization within the context of American industrial and craft unionism and reveals how it came to influence politics and economic development in the city and beyond. \u003cp\u003e From the start, New York's organized hotel workers experimented with and adapted how they organized and governed members and related to other labor unions. Richman follows union fortunes from early IWW activity through the Communist-led affiliates of the American Federation of Labor in the 1920s and 1930s, the shaping of breakthrough negotiating strategies, and the postwar era. As Richman shows, workers adopted a radicalism and militancy seldom associated with an AFL organization while openly negotiating the Communist Party's power and influence within the union, until the Party's eclipse in the 1950s. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e An inspiring story of action and perseverance, \u003ci\u003eWe Always Had a Union\u003c\/i\u003e profiles a foundational American labor union and offers lessons for today's workers and organizers. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eShaun Richman\u003c\/b\u003e teaches labor history at SUNY Empire State University. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eTell the Bosses We're Coming: A New Action Plan for Workers in the Twenty-First Century\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of Illinois Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51199730974994,"sku":"9780252088537","price":30.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_b34c6364-a508-422d-bc60-b47f2828a974.jpg?v=1744883629","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/we-always-had-a-union-the-new-york-hotel-workers-union-1912-1953-9780252088537","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}