The Big Rig (eBook)

Trucking and the Decline of the American Dream

Steve Viscelli (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2016
288 Seiten
University of California Press (Verlag)
978-0-520-96271-2 (ISBN)

Infos

Long-haul trucks have been described as sweatshops on wheels. The typical long-haul trucker works the equivalent of two full-time jobs, often for little more than minimum wage. But it wasn't always this way. Trucking used to be one of the best working-class jobs in the United States.The Big Rigexplains how this massive degradation in the quality of work has occurred, and how companies achieve a compliant and dedicated workforce despite it. Drawing on more than 100 in-depth interviews and years of extensive observation, including six months training and working as a long-haul trucker, Viscelli explains in detail how labor is recruited, trained, and used in the industry. He then shows how inexperienced workers are convinced to lease a truck and to work as independent contractors. He explains how deregulation and collective action by employers transformed trucking's labor markets--once dominated by the largest and most powerful union in US history--into an important example of the costs of contemporary labor markets for workers and the general public.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 12.4.2016
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Pädagogik
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Mikrosoziologie
• Themenwelt: Technik
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Volkswirtschaftslehre ► Makroökonomie
• Schlagworte: CDL • cdl truckers • contemporary labor markets and long haul trucking • deregulation of trucking industry • driving a big rig • exploitive labor of the working class • freight drivers • history of trucking industry • Labor • long haul trucking • organized trucking • over the road trucking • owner operator trucking • semi drivers • Trucking • trucking industry • trucking labor markets • union truck drivers • working class discourse • working class history
• ISBN-10: 0-520-96271-0 / 0520962710
• ISBN-13: 978-0-520-96271-2 / 9780520962712