Living Wage Campaigns From a "Social Movement" Perspective: The Miami Case

Abstract

This article uses the Miami living wage campaign to examine the potential and limitations of living wage campaigns to build enduring social movements which unite organized labor with community partners. Using the tripartite framework derived from the social movement litera ture of "political opportunities," "mobilizing structures," and "framing processes," the article analyzes this particular campaign to determine if a genuine social movement emerged. Hecksher and Palmer's thesis that organized labor as presently constituted is incapable of forming egalitar ian multilateral alliances with non-labor partners is tested, and sugges tions for "best practice" are developed.

Living Wage Policies at the San Francisco Airport: Impacts on Workers and Businesses

“…Using an early sample of cities with such ordinances, Martin (2001) examined the political and economic characteristics of cities that have adopted living wage ordinances. He finds that political mobilization variables provide an important independent determinant of adoption (see also Nissen 2000). Levi, Olson and Steinman (2003), while differing in some respects with Martin, also examine the characteristics of living wage campaigns that result in policy adoption.…”

“…In both cases the decline was not statistically significant, but was somewhat more pronounced for non-citizens than for citizens. 37 This analysis refers only to screeners, the occupational grouping that received the largest wage increases as a result of the QSP. We expect displacement effects to be smaller for other occupations.…”

Powerful Community Relationships and Union Renewal in Australia

“…With regard to external participation, Nissen argues that union buy-in to coalitions is a central determinant of their success (Nissen, 2000(Nissen, , 2004a. He argues 'buy-in' is evidenced by a union's willingness to mobilize in support of a campaign, the seniority and number of members or officials it gets involved in the coalition's decision making structure and its willingness to provide financial resources.…”

“…He argues 'buy-in' is evidenced by a union's willingness to mobilize in support of a campaign, the seniority and number of members or officials it gets involved in the coalition's decision making structure and its willingness to provide financial resources. The greater the buy-in, the greater the effectiveness of the union-community coalition (Nissen, 2000(Nissen, , 2004a.…”

Living Wage Ordinances in California

“…Martin (2001) examined the political and economic characteristics of a sample of cities that were among the first to adopt living wage ordinances. He found that political mobilization variables provided an important independent determinant of adoption (see also Nissen 2000). Levi, Olson, and Steinman (2003) collected and summarized a large number of descriptions of the characteristics of living wage campaigns that resulted in policy adoption.…”