About the Book
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How do worker centers—small, underfunded community organizations representing low-wage, largely immigrant workers—manage to win sweeping new labor protections across US cities and states? In A Baseline of Decency, César F. Rosado-Marzán draws on participant observation, interviews, and document analysis centered on Chicago's Arise Chicago to show how these "alt-labor" groups outperform politically by mobilizing social and symbolic capital: building solidarity among members; forging bridges to clergy, unions, lawyers, and lawmakers; and elevating workers' own voices. More than just study legislative strategy, Rosado-Marzán argues that worker centers are reshaping the moral economy of the labor market—building a more egalitarian, equitable, dignitarian, and democratic vision of work.