Unionizing the Ivory Tower: Cornell Workers' Fifteen-Year Fight for Justice and a Living Wage

by Al Davidoff

Overview

Unionizing the Ivory Tower chronicles how a thousand low-paid custodians, cooks, and gardeners succeeded in organizing a union at Cornell University. Al Davidoff, the Cornell student leader who became a custodian and the union's first president, tells the extraordinary story of these ordinary workers with passion, sensitivity, and wit.

His memoir reveals how they took on the dominant power in the community, built a strong organization, and waged multiple strikes and campaigns for livable wages and their dignity. Their strategies and tactics were creative and feisty, founded on worker participation and ownership.

The union's commitment to fairness, equity, and economic justice also engaged these workers—mostly rural, white, and conservative—at the intersections of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia. Davidoff's story demonstrates how a fighting union can activate today's working class to oppose antidemocratic and white supremacist forces.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501771552
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	08/15/2023
Pages:	258
Sales rank:	877,262
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Al Davidoff is co-founder of the National Labor Leadership Initiative and the Director of Organizational and Leadership Development for US labor's global arm at the Solidarity Center.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Mophead
2. Yes, Yes, No
3. Custodians—That's All You'll Ever Be
4. We Meet the Enemy and It Is Us
5. Frankie McCoy
6. Blackness on the Cornell Plantation
7. Noah's Amalgamated Ark
8. Figuring It Out
9. "Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee"
10. Sustaining Struggle: Building the Union during the Off-Season
11. From Grassroots Up to Grassroots Out
12. In the Shadow of the Tower
Epilogue

What People are Saying About This

Micah Uetricht

If you're wondering whether dedicating a life to union struggle is worth it, read this hilariously entertaining and deeply instructive memoir— your answer will be a resounding 'yes.'

Rebecca S. Pringle

Al Davidoff's book should be required reading for anyone who wants to build a strong grassroots organization. It is an inspiring, compelling, and brutally honest story about Cornell University workers who stood in their personal power and used it to create a powerful union focused on bending the arc of the moral universe toward justice.

Sarita Gupta

Worker's aspirations are fueling a surge of new organizing today. Al Davidoff's timely memoir provides a road map for how a healthy union gets built from these hopes, and how the community's politics were transformed. The story is vivid and inspiring.

Jane McAlevey

This book is a joy to read and will make you laugh, cry, and cheer. Al Davidoff shows us that people are capable of uniting to challenge racism, sexism, and class oppression. He is an organizer who understands his job is to teach, and his book is filled with important lessons about how to win.

Jim Williams Jr.

If you care about building an effective, member-driven labor movement that centers racial and economic justice, Al Davidoff's book points the way. It's a real David vs. Goliath story written with conviction and passion.

Bill Fletcher Jr.

A compelling, immersive, and political memoir about the building of a labor union. This book is so incredibly timely in light of the renewed and increasing interest in and support for unions and economic justice.