Forced Choices: Class, Community, and Worker

What happens to employees when their company decides to close? Thousands of workers across America have faced this prospect in the past twenty years, but relatively few have chosen to buy the company and operate it as a worker-owned concern. Forced Choices examines the celebrated case of Weirton, West Virginia, where steelworkers and area residents fought to save a steelmill, community, and way of life. Book jacket.

Charles S. Varano is Assistant Professor of Sociology at California State University, Sacramento.

Illustrations

ix

Acknowledgments

xi

Part I. Introduction

Introduction

3

(12)

Weirton: The Place and Its People

An Ethnography of Class, Community, and Worker Ownership

Worker Ownership and Class in America

15

(24)

Worker Ownership

Employee Participation

Paternalism and Class

Class and Class Consciousness

Outline of Chapters

Part II. Historical Antecedents

Forced Choices I: Company Town

39

(40)

The Antecedents of Paternalism: 1909-1933

The Challenge: 1933-1951

Quiescence: 1951-1982

Forced Choices II: ``Buy It or Lose It''

79

(64)

One Side of Paternalism's Legacy

Divided Loyalties

``Business is Business, Morals is Morals''

The Limits of Dissent

The Final Deal

Part III. Workers by Day

Forced Choices III: Employee Participation

143

(36)

Participation by Decree

The Structure of Employee Participation

Ideology and Employee Participation

Summary

A Fragile Trust: The Normative Order of Employee Participation

179

(48)

Facilitators as Industrial Therapists

Workers and Employee Participation

Internal Communications: Public Relations at Work

Part IV. Owners by Night

Class and Worker Ownership

227

(16)

Worker Ownership and the ``Equity Solution''

Owners by Night ...

... Workers at Heart

The Moral Economy of Worker Ownership

243

(50)

The Value of Labor

Property Rights

Community, Nepotism, and Local Control

Summary

The Struggle for Control

293

(28)

A Changing of the Guard

Confrontation

Two Years Later: The Struggle Continues

Conclusion

321

(16)

The Lessons of Worker Ownership and Participation at Weirton Steel

Class, Community, and Worker Ownership

Notes

337

(1)

Bibliography

337

(50)

Index

387

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Forced Choices: Class, Community, and Worker Ownership

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials

FREE SHIPPING

Rent More, Save More! Use code: BBRENTAL

5% off 1 book, 7% off 2 books, 10% off 3+ books

Forced Choices: Class, Community, and Worker Ownership

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials

Digital License