{"id":5276,"date":"2013-05-18T10:07:47","date_gmt":"2013-05-18T10:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/?post_type=articles&p=5276"},"modified":"2024-10-16T14:06:25","modified_gmt":"2024-10-16T13:06:25","slug":"werqin-9-to-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/2013\/05\/werqin-9-to-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Werqin\u2019 9 to 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

Article: Werqin\u2019 9 to 5: cursory notes on antiwork politics from Dolly Parton to Shangela Laquifa<\/a><\/p>\n

Commet:<\/p>\n

Coincidentally, I have been reading Stayin’ Alive: The 1970s and the last days of the working class (J. Cowie 2010) which looks at the changes in labour relations that occurred between the 1960s and 1980s (i.e. the assault on the ‘Keynesian’ social contract by the US working class, the rightward shift of sections of the white working class in the late 70s, and the struggles over ethnicity and gender).<\/p>\n

In one of his case studies, Cowie looks at the formation and rise of a ‘pink collar, class-conscious feminism’ amongst women clerical workers. This led in Boston to the formation of ‘a womens’ rights organisation on the job for women office workers’ called 9to5. Here is the section:<\/p>\n

The organization began not as a union but as a simple citizens\u2019 advocacy group, which Nussbaum found to be too \u201cephemeral.\u201d As she explained, 9to5 would \u201corganize groups to confront their bosses over maternity rights or discrimination and, inevitably, the boss would respond with, \u2018Well, that\u2019s very interesting. We\u2019ll get back to you.\u2019 And then they never got back to us. And that\u2019s when we began to understand. We said, \u2018We need something that forces them to get back to us. There should be a law about this.\u2019 And then, of course, we found out that there was a law. It\u2019s called the National Labor Relations Act, that if you organize a majority of people in the workplace, then the employer is obligated to bargain with you.\u201d When they approached a list of unions with their ideas of chartering their own local to organize women clerical workers, however, their ideas were met with indifference or hostility. \u201cWhen we started,\u201d explained Nussbaum, \u201cthe union people scorned women. They didn\u2019t care to take the time with us women, who didn\u2019t know anything about unions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nussbaum\u2019s original attitude toward unions tells much about the New Left\u2019s and the women\u2019s movement\u2019s hope for organized labor as the agent of historical transformation. \u201cIt never occurred to me that unions were a force for social change…. That was the milieu. That wasn\u2019t where the impetus for change was coming in society, and that\u2019s why it didn\u2019t occur to us that that\u2019s where it should be.\u201d Eventually, the advocacy group 9to5 became Local 925 of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), a once sleepy union that would go on to become one of the few sources of growth and dynamism beyond the 1980s. The local, recalled Nussbaum, \u201chad an organization that had the character and concerns of the working women\u2019s movement but the power of a trade union.\u201d The initial promise may have been great, but as Nussbaum lamented, \u201cWe never knew what hit us. We got smashed over and over. These businesses had not traditionally been unionized, and they were damned if they were going to be the first ones in the new wave.\u201d<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Article: Werqin\u2019 9 to 5: cursory notes on antiwork politics from Dolly Parton to Shangela Laquifa Commet: Coincidentally, I have been reading Stayin’ Alive: The 1970s and the last days of the working class (J. Cowie 2010) which looks at the changes in labour relations that occurred between the 1960s and 1980s (i.e. the assault […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[433,197],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women","category-workers-organisations-strikes"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWerqin\u2019 9 to 5 - Bristol Radical History Group<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/2013\/05\/werqin-9-to-5\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Werqin\u2019 9 to 5 - Bristol Radical History Group\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Article: Werqin\u2019 9 to 5: cursory notes on antiwork politics from Dolly Parton to Shangela Laquifa Commet: Coincidentally, I have been reading Stayin’ Alive: The 1970s and the last days of the working class (J. Cowie 2010) which looks at the changes in labour relations that occurred between the 1960s and 1980s (i.e. the assault […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/2013\/05\/werqin-9-to-5\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Bristol Radical History Group\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/126960655805\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-05-18T10:07:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-10-16T13:06:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/logo_red_background.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Randell Brantley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@BrisRadHis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@BrisRadHis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Randell Brantley\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Werqin\u2019 9 to 5 - Bristol Radical History Group","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/2013\/05\/werqin-9-to-5\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Werqin\u2019 9 to 5 - Bristol Radical History Group","og_description":"Article: Werqin\u2019 9 to 5: cursory notes on antiwork politics from Dolly Parton to Shangela Laquifa Commet: Coincidentally, I have been reading Stayin’ Alive: The 1970s and the last days of the working class (J. Cowie 2010) which looks at the changes in labour relations that occurred between the 1960s and 1980s (i.e. the assault […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/2013\/05\/werqin-9-to-5\/","og_site_name":"Bristol Radical History Group","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/126960655805\/","article_published_time":"2013-05-18T10:07:47+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-10-16T13:06:25+00:00","og_image":[{"width":500,"height":500,"url":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/logo_red_background.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Randell Brantley","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@BrisRadHis","twitter_site":"@BrisRadHis","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Randell Brantley","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/2013\/05\/werqin-9-to-5\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/2013\/05\/werqin-9-to-5\/"},"author":{"name":"Randell Brantley","@id":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/#\/schema\/person\/8a0bc3b70d9a594391e4de7a260064b1"},"headline":"Werqin\u2019 9 to 5","datePublished":"2013-05-18T10:07:47+00:00","dateModified":"2024-10-16T13:06:25+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/2013\/05\/werqin-9-to-5\/"},"wordCount":507,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Women","Workers Organisations & Strikes"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/2013\/05\/werqin-9-to-5\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/2013\/05\/werqin-9-to-5\/","url":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/2013\/05\/werqin-9-to-5\/","name":"Werqin\u2019 9 to 5 - Bristol Radical History Group","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-05-18T10:07:47+00:00","dateModified":"2024-10-16T13:06:25+00:00","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/2013\/05\/werqin-9-to-5\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/","name":"Bristol Radical History Group","description":"History From Below","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/#organization","name":"Bristol Radical History Group","url":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/full-logo-small.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/full-logo-small.png","width":594,"height":500,"caption":"Bristol Radical History Group"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/126960655805\/","https:\/\/x.com\/BrisRadHis"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/#\/schema\/person\/8a0bc3b70d9a594391e4de7a260064b1","name":"Randell Brantley","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ccc29a2077c4cc87dd583057a849c76a34c32105f3213a54eee593da856ee83f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ccc29a2077c4cc87dd583057a849c76a34c32105f3213a54eee593da856ee83f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ccc29a2077c4cc87dd583057a849c76a34c32105f3213a54eee593da856ee83f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Randell Brantley"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5276"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22865,"href":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5276\/revisions\/22865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}