Assignment: Chapter 6 Posting Deadline: Thursday, February 20
Reading:
Chapter 6: "Forget about Your Inalienable Right to Work": Responses to Industrial Decline and Discrimination
Questions:
Source
for Questions: Charles Brown, “[Marxism-Thaxis] Study
Guide: Origins of the Urban Crisis.” Retrieved Jan 11, 2009. http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/marxism-thaxis/2009-January/023574.html
Assignment - Deadline: Thursday,
February 20
A. Post two paragraphs inspired by the
study guide questions/thoughts for the week
In the preceding chapters, Sugrue makes a convincing case supporting the contention that the dramatic decline of jobs and income in Detroit can be best understood via a structural view of their causes. According to the author, automation and the decentralization of the industrial sector are the major factors behind the city’s economic decline. Automation led to thousands of layoffs, which disproportionately affected African American workers who tended to have less seniority than their white counterparts. Corporate plans for industrial decentralization led to new plants being located outside of the city and state.
ReplyDeleteBy focusing on solutions to address perceived individual deficiencies, resources were spent on programs that failed to address the actual reasons why employment opportunities were in decline. That is, it was not that most of those in the unemployment pool were unprepared for work. Entry-level jobs were declining rapidly due to industrial decentralization. In addition, while there were some exceptions, racial discrimination restricted many qualified African Americans to the service industry or clerical jobs.
In Chapter 6, I thought the author did a good job of depicting the struggling Detroit economy and declining automotive industry. There was obvious panic by employees and Union reps wanted a shorter work week (30 hours) in order to slow/stop the hemorrhaging of jobs. Some of these first times in Detroit history you see a reference to "Right to Work" is as far back as the 1950s.
ReplyDeleteWhat seemed even more amazing during this period was, rather than focusing efforts on how to adapt to the changing industrial climate, businesses still seemed focused on the continuation of discriminating against Africian-American's in the workforce. From a business standpoint, the struggling industrial industry should have been more concerned about hiring the best employees for the job (whether it be black or white) rather than placing people in positions they were under/over qualified for.
I, too was struck by the demand of union workers for a shorter work week in order to save the jobs of some of those slated to be laid-off. It is too bad union leadership did not get behind Local 600 and lend credence to the fact that automation would continue to quickly erode jobs. Thus, they needed to take bold changes to save jobs.
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