The nexus of restructuring, immigration and labor movement renewal in Los Angeles

In L.A. Story, Milkman once again skillfully combines history & sociology to tackle an important yet little studied topic. Milkman examines how the immigrant experience & union strategy come together to make unionization possible in an extremely hostile political economy. Her data include key informant interviews, archival materials & published statistics & her method is both historical & comparative. By comparing building service janitors, residential drywallers, garment workers & truckers, Milkman uncovers factors of success that may well shape the future of organizing in the contemporary service-based economy. In this paper, I show how Milkman's findings contribute to a number of debates in immigration & labor studies & conclude by suggesting avenues for future research. Adapted from the source document.